Snippets of Us (Itaewon Class)

Cute, pretty, sexy

NOTES: It's wasn't in my plans to post a chapter today, but Kim Dami and Choi Woo Shik made me super happy with their new photoshoot together and the words just wrote themselves, so here you go :)

Saeroyi thought he could handle it the first time it happened. He honestly did. It was no big deal; only a momentary meaningless thought. The intrusive kind that came without warning and for no reason at all.

Yes. No reason at all.

Also, it meant nothing.

Nothing at all.

He took a deep breath and diverted his eyes from the girl in front of him, realizing he had been staring too hard. Only to bring them back to her because she was still expecting his answer.

What did she say again?

He remembered finding her sitting in his chair when he opened the office door a few moments ago. Her facing lighting up when she saw him and her getting up in a jump, smiling and excited.

"Daepyonim, I've had an idea and I want to run it by you. And just know that I'm ready to die with it even if you don't agree," that's what she said, he remembered now.

Yeah, he was supposed to ask now what her idea was.

So he did, and he marched inside properly to sit on the chair Jo Yi Seo had been occupying until his arrival.

She sat opposite him and explained everything in detail.

As he listened, the intrusive thought that made him so distracted and taken aback at first didn't go away. If anything, it was becoming a realization, and he shouldn't have realizations of this kind about her.

He blamed the restless night he had and the exhaustion he felt. Yet, he couldn't deny: she looked cute.

-----

Still, cute was ok. Hyun Yi and Soo Ah could be cute as well, he guessed. He was never one to pay much attention.

But cute became pretty before Saeroyi could acknowledge it.

"We should tell them to suck it" Yi Seo said, nonchalant, after careful consideration on what they had been discussing. She might as well have been commenting on the weather. The vocabulary not at all in synch with the fancy party they were drinking at.

Saeroyi blinked a couple times, processing the words.

"What?"

Yi Seo faced him, serious. He heard her.

Saeroyi was about to tell her why the idea of telling them to 'suck it' was absurd, which she should know, but he was caught off guard by the sudden smile on her face. She tried to put it off by biting her bottom lip, but it only grew bigger until she was outright laughing. The sound and the whole picture captivated him and he was lost in them for a second or two.

Until, it snapped.

She was kidding and he fell for it.

He snorted in disbelief. Not only for the joke, but for astonishment at himself.

It's one thing to objectively know someone looks good. Of course he knew Yi Seo looked good — objectively — from the first time he saw her.

It's another to take gradual notice on the details that made her pretty.

And attractive.

Scratch that.

Definitely not attractive.

Yi Seo sipped the glass of champagne in her hands, amused and unaware of his trail of thought.

"You should stop drinking if you are joking about telling our biggest investors to suck it."

"Please. I haven't had that many. Plus, I can hold my liquor way better than you."

------

Now, the first time Saeroyi came to the verdict Yi Seo was sexy he was a bit drunk.

They were playing cards at the rooftop in one of their team dinners. First, it was each man for themselves, but Toni had to leave early and Seung Kwon suggested they should play in pairs — probably thinking he would get beaten less that way.

"Ok. Let's switch places," Saeroyi informed. He was sitting beside Yi Seo and if he was going to pair up with her, he needed to switch with Seung Kwon.

Nobody seemed to care about his entitlement.

Yi Seo was getting them another round of drinks then and didn't say anything either when she came back and found the new arrangement. She handed him a bottle of soju, he handed her a set of cards.

Natural as that. As if being partners was the only viable option for them.

Saeroyi really should have thought it better, though. He wasn't ready for sneaky Yi Seo and the subtles ways she found to let him know exactly what moves would help her game during his turns. The long stares that led him to get too lost in her gaze. The inaudible mouthing of hints that made him pay too much attention to her lips. And — his personal tormenter — the slow toss of hair to one side to conceal her fingers forming numbers or pointing strategic sides.

Normally he would find all of these cheating, but if he was that bothered, he could just stop looking at her so intensely. Which he didn't seem capable to do. He blamed the alcohol.

Eventually they won the game. Hyun Yi and Seung Kwon proved not to be as good as them getting silent points across. Yi Seo smiled at him, biting her lip like a wicked kid who just got away with a mischief.

Before that day, she had been cute, pretty, charismatic (if she wanted to).

But after... sexy. Definitely sexy.

And Saeroyi didn't know what to do with this new information.