𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐎𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐎𝐖𝐍, 𝐊𝐈𝐃 // Love Next Door //

TWO.

━ -ˋˏ*.·:·.✧.·:·.*ˎˊ- ━

Shiny black dress-shoes. Sharp tailored suit and pants in all-black. Choi Seunghyo, standing less than a couple of feet away from her like that, is pretty reminiscent of the Grim Reaper. He's a tasteless joke that the universe has sent her way.

Seokhui isn't laughing. Neither is Seunghyo for that matter.

"What are you doing here?" His face turns sour once the initial shock dissipates as he says, "You're supposed to be in the U.S."

She scoffs, "I'm a free woman. I'm supposed to be wherever I want to be." Taking a moment to adjust the party hat from slipping off the back of her head, she pulls the comically large pair of daisy sunglasses away to stick them in her jacket's side pocket.

He lifts an eyebrow at her in disbelief. "So you want to be here?"

"Well," she meets Seunghyo's eyes with a sardonic smile, "I'm certainly not here because I missed your smart-ass self."

Seunghyo studies her standing still for a second. And it's not like she's expecting him to ask why she's really back here but...why isn't he asking her why she's back?

"Well then," he simply nods, "get lost, Bae Seokhui. You're stepping on my land."

"Your land—" she mocks his words with another scoff, turning to look at the building more closely, "what are you talking about? Seunghyo-yah, don't tell me you own the Women's Bathhouse!"

"It's not a bathhouse anymore." He fights back her ridicule with the gentle but still persistent ushering of his foot at her shin, shooing her away while he explains, "The old building was deconstructed and, just so you know, it's now my architecture firm's office headquarters."

Seokhui tries to stand her ground against his attempts to push her off the sidewalk, letting out an exasperated breath when she eventually loses to his annoyingly strong leg muscles. "Hey, hey–okay!" she all but barks at him in English. "I see how it is. I'm leaving, alright? Not like I wanted to hang around you anyway."

Seunghyo gives her a smile, "Bye!" The brat even sends her off with a small shake of his hand in goodbye, watching as she grabs onto her suitcase at last.

Walking away, she grumbles and utters a curse under her breath when the bulk of balloon strings untie themselves from the handle of her luggage. She quickly rounds the corner and jumps several times to reach for them but it's all in vain. Her confetti-filled balloons fly too high up and escape into the clouded blue sky above her. Her cute daisy sunglasses have fallen out of her jacket's pocket, crushed by complete under the heel of her Chelsea boots.

Without anything but the party cone hat on her head, she looks like a sad chump in the middle of the street. A childish need to burst into tears builds in her chest and creates a small knot in her throat. She's jet lagged, exhausted from all the stress, and without anyone to show her support since Moeum had to go. This isn't at all how she planned things to turn out, but Seokhui doesn't get much time to dwell in her self-pity.

From the next block ahead, incoming is her mother with Seunghyo's mother, slow jogging along with some of her other neighborhood friends. Seokhui whirls around in the other direction only to see her oblivious father walking her way with a produce box of vegetables in his hands.

Seokhui looks up to the sky again in desperate pleas, "God, if you're up there and have ever cared about me: please let the earth split open and please let the ground swallow me whole." But to her luck, she is met with silence and the passing of a flying pigeon that aims to shit on her face. She yelps, quickly turning her head down from the sky as she shields herself from the bird poop which splatters on the concrete asphalt just inches shy from her right foot.

"Seriously, man," she huffs. 

Faced with the inevitable outcomes of either risk getting shitted on by another pigeon or facing the wrath of her mother and disappointment from her father, she's left with no other choice but to run back to the Women's Bathhouse—no, sorry—the building that has apparently become her own version of the Grim Reaper's office headquarters, now.

━ -ˋˏ*.·:·.✧.·:·.*ˎˊ- ━

Seokhui ignores Seunghyo's bewildered expression as she abandons her suitcase with him and zooms over to the building's side wall, hiding herself among the piled trash.

"What's gotten into you?" He lifts up one side of the emptied cardboard shipping-box big enough to hold her inside. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Yah," she's gathered her knees up to her chest, scurrying into the darkest spot inside the box like a shelled turtle, "I can't talk right now—just leave me alone." It's a serious situation for her and he realizes then that she's not kidding, letting go of the box without much of a fight.

Engulfed in sole darkness, another concern suddenly comes to light as she worries that either of her parents might get the same idea of picking up the box like Seunghyo's so easily done. Sensing him still by her side right outside, she raises her voice just loud enough for him to hear her through the rather thick cardboard walls, "Wait, Seunghyo-yah—don't leave! Hold on a minute, actually, I need you to help me with something."

He breathes out a heavy sigh. His curiosity still gets the best of him, though. "What can you possibly need me for?"

"When you see our parents get here, just stay and pretend I'm trash inside this box. Okay? Don't let them figure out I'm here—don't even let them know you've seen me. Forget that I even exist as a human being, I'm nothing but another piece of discarded garbage, alright?" There's a bit of a sting that accompanies the thought that comes to her mind just then, as she quiets down and admits aloud to him, "It shouldn't be so difficult for you to do that, come on, I know you can do it."

"You're insane." He taps the box with a kick of his foot, "Just get out from there and tell your parents you're back already. I'm not getting dragged into your family drama, okay, I'm leaving."

"No, no, no," she immediately protests. Her hand stuck out from one end of the box, vehemently searching for any trace of him. "Listen to me, please!" She grabs onto one of his ankles and hangs onto him for dear life while he tries to pry himself free from her grip.

"Aish, take your hand off—"

"I will—I will, but you need to help me just this once. Don't be a dick and help me, please. Seungseung-ie, I swear not to ask you for anything ever again but just help me out here."

At his long and standing silence, she's afraid to have pushed too far with the mention of his childhood nickname she used to both lovingly and teasingly call him by. Still, her grip around his ankles holds firmly in place. But now that she's seen him again after all these years, there's no denying how much he's grown.

For better or for worse—and in this case, it surely is worse—Choi Seunghyo is even taller and stronger than he's ever been.

Seokhui knows she won't stand a chance if he decides to pick her up from inside this box and drag her, even with all her best kicking and screaming, to finally have her face her parents who are slowly approaching them around the street corner.

On the other side of the box, he looks down at her reached out hand and answers with a smug grin, "Fine. If you're that desperate for my help, I'll do it." He bends down at the waist to pry her fingers off his left ankle at once, standing back up straight as he scoffs. Amused by the sight of her arm snaking back inside the box like the rest of her.

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A/N: Hello my lovely readers! Please let me know if you enjoyed this chapter! I had way too much fun writing the interactions between Seokhui and Seunghyo so I really hope the actual scene from the kdrama justice ❤️❤️

Thank you for reading, voting, and commenting!

As always, I wish you all lovelies a good rest of your day/night, hope to see you soon! ❤️