𝗗𝗘𝗝𝗔-𝗩𝗨 | ᴀᴛᴇᴇᴢ [On Hold]

𝗦𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗘𝗡 ─ 𝗜𝗧'𝗦 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗦

The French window that led to the balcony cracked behind Somi's shoulders and she looked at the newcomer from above her shoulder, feeling a wave of relief when she noticed it was Mingi. The male greeted her with a tight-lipped smile and buried his hands in the pockets of his black jeans as he approached the girl who had her arms crossed on the balustrade.

"Hey." He murmured, halting his steps a few centimetres away from her.

"Hey." She copied him, pulling a strand of hair behind his ear, "Did you discover something new?" She asked.

"Hongjoong and Yeosang are about to start now. It will take them a while, unfortunately." And Somi nodded, positioning her eyes back in front of her, admiring how the darkness of the night was quickly getting space and the street lamps would've switched on at any minute. "You did a great job." The male claimed all of a sudden.

Somi furrowed her eyebrows, though her reply didn't delay, "I didn't do anything." An unexpected sensation of disheartening clouded her chest. She wished to turn out way more useful than it transpired, and she couldn't forgive herself for how she had made Mingi (and herself too) believe that she was able to resolve the situation with a snap of her fingers. In the end, she didn't do much, the group completed the business.

Mingi sighed, somehow foreseeing her frustration, "You did, instead. You were the one who recommended we scour the district a second time, and you were also the one that implied to comb through the car park and, thanks to you, we found Jongho's phone. I believe you have enough reasons to be satisfied with your actions."

"I didn't help you the way I yearned." And she bit her lower lip. She was grateful for the words and the compliments Mingi had showered her with, however, no appreciation could beat being pleased with herself. "I hoped to do more than that," Somi admitted faintly.

Mingi gave up, there was no way to convince her to look at the just-spent afternoon from his point of view, all he had to do was to indulge her, "I'm sure you'll have plenty of occasions to demonstrate to us your talent." He concluded his assertion with a smirk whilst placing his folded arms on the balustrade next to Somi.

The latter began wriggling her fingers pensively, "Don you still need me? I thought my support ended today." And she glanced at the male with furrowed eyebrows, taken aback by his words.

From Mingi's throat threatened a scream of panic that he nonchalantly masked with a cough. She wasn't wrong and Hongjoong had previously declared to the group his intentions to work as little as possible with the blonde-haired girl, yet, Mingi was telling her right the opposite. The leader wouldn't have been happy to have her around again without a plausible reason and would've whooped his ass for sure.

Though, Mingi was aware of a possible reason to persuade Hongjoong to make her stay.

"I wouldn't mind having you around longer. I finally found someone that listens to me and complies with my goofiness." He confided, realising at the end how much that sounded like a subtle love confession. His cheeks started burning when he mistakenly met Somi's doe eyes, the light coming from the living room behind them made her stare glow like a summer night sky.

Her amazement disappeared from her lips only to create room for a malicious, pointy grin, which screamed revenge, "If you wanted to kiss me, you could've just asked." She taunted him, fully aware that the topic they were talking about a few seconds before her reply, had no connection with the words she had spoken but the temptation to make him flustered the way he did was too giant to simply ignore it.

However, his reaction turned out to be the exact opposite of what she hoped: since she expected a spicy retortion from him, something that could make the butterflies in her stomach go nuts, it was inevitable for a wrinkle to appear right in the middle of her eyebrows when she spotted a clear glimmer of frustration, enhanced by his parted lips in pure disbelief and his widened eyes as if she had pronounced some sort of blasphemy or insulted one of his relatives and, although it was a particularly dark evening, she could sense how his cheeks were burning.