off limits ✧ zb1 applyfic

✧ one

Haewon had had a bad feeling the whole car ride to the party. She'd had an even worse feeling when she climbed the few steps leading to the mansion. She felt as if she was supposed to be remembering something, but it all kept coming up blank. That feeling hadn't gotten any better when she'd entered the hall, greeted with familiar red velvet curtains. And to top it off, she had the worst feeling, and yet the very best, when she spotted him.

He was standing in the center of the room, wearing a tailored suit and a deep burgundy bowtie. As he talked to other guests, his hands kept moving in every direction, emphasizing his sheer passion for whatever he was talking about - she could make a guess or two.

Attempting to swallow the lump in her throat, she leaned towards Gyuvin. "...Whose mansion is this?" she whispered, feeling that if she tried to be any louder, her voice would crack.

Gyuvin turned back with an insouciant smile, not even noticing the tightness in his sister's expression. "Zhang Hao hyung's! Well, his parents', I guess."

Well. There it was. She hadn't imagined him after all. If only she'd remembered just a minute before walking in, she could have turned around and run away. Still, maybe it wasn't too late to run, he hadn't-

Ah. Now it was too late. In the small second she allowed herself to look at him, he'd turned towards the entrance, and had caught her eyes immediately. Haewon cursed under her breath as Hao's eyes widened, and he seemed to zone out of the conversation he was in. He blinked once, twice, before furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. And she stood there, frozen, unable to look away from him.

It was only when the man he was talking to put a hand on his shoulder to nudge him back into their conversation, that the eye contact broke, and Haewon could finally breathe again. Fate had a weird way of messing with her. Of course, the very first party she would attend since coming back to Korea just had to be Zhang Hao's. If there was a God, he was having so much fun watching her flounder.

Still, she needed to talk to him. She had so much to tell Zhang Hao. About all she'd seen and done in California, about the reasons they separated, about her feelings. Surely no one would mind if she just borrowed the guest of honor for a second...

A hand wrapped around her shoulder. "Haewon, I have a friend to introduce you to," her dad said with a smile. "He's a doctor, so I think you'll enjoy talking to him!"

Haewon nodded. She'd have to talk to Hao later.

Gyuvin leaned towards her, a pout on his face. "I'm getting bored already."

She would have laughed, if not for the fact that she was still so rattled. Trying to clear her mind of Hao and anything relating to him, she followed her father, keeping her head down. She didn't realize Zhang Hao's eyes had found their way back to her as she slipped through the crowd.

He let out a long sigh, tugging on his sleeve. He'd thought this party would be just like any of the ones before. He would just have to make conversation for an hour or two, then people would lose interest in him and gain interest in the food buffet, and he would have time to hang out with his friends. Life had decided things would go just a bit differently, though.

The voice of his closest friend snapped him out of his thoughts. "Zhang Hao hyung, congratulations."

He turned to look at Hanbin, who was accompanied by his little sister. She was hanging onto his arm, a gentle smile on her face. He'd only seen her a couple of times, when he was picking up her brother, but he could only imagine she was a sweet girl. All of the Sung family was incredibly kind. Quite the contrast to the Zhang family, always at war.

Hao tilted his head and mustered a smile, though he was unsure how convincing it looked. "Hanbin, you've congratulated me enough. So, will you introduce your sister to me?"