𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐒 || 𝐉𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐇𝐀𝐍 ||🥀

14

Mina

Hani: Don't forget! We shop for bridesmaid dresses Wednesday. I'm thinking all the fs. Fall, fun, and flattering!

Seoyeon: Mina, I think this means she's going to dress us up like pumpkins.

Me: Pumpkin is not my color...or shape.

ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ

I didn't enjoy wasting my entire morning fruitlessly checking potential properties off my list. Not when it felt like there was a ticking clock hanging over my head. I needed progress. I needed a break. I needed to stop thinking about Yoon Jeonghan.

That meant banishing all thoughts of his offer, his confessions.

I was mechanically chewing my way through a Cobb salad at a diner forty minutes outside Riperia when six feet four inches of sin in a suit slid into the booth opposite me.

Xu Minghao wore danger like it was custom tailored for him.

"Minghao."

"Mina." That low timbre, those piercing eyes. Everything about the man was vaguely threatening...and therefore a reasonable distraction from my obsessing over all things Jeonghan.

"What brings you to my booth?"

He stretched one arm across the back of the vinyl cushion, taking up even more space. "You do."

The perky twentysomething server who'd brought me my food and chatted about my leather biker jacket for five straight minutes hustled up to the table holding a coffeepot at a precarious angle. Her eyes and mouth were wide. "C-coffee?"

"Yes. Thank you," he said, looping a finger through the handle of the upside-down mug in front of him and flipping it over.

Her eyes got even wider and I wondered if they were about to pop out of her head. Just in case, I moved my salad out of the pop and splatter zone.

"Could I get some extra dressing, please?" I asked when she finally managed to pour the coffee.

"Extra creamer. Got it," she whispered dreamily and wandered away.

"Great. Now I'm never going to get my extra dressing."

Minghao's smile had the bite of frost to it. "I'd hoped this conversation wasn't going to be necessary."

"I love it when men track me down and open with that line."

"Yoon Jeonghan," he said.

I raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"He's going through a difficult time. I'd hate to see anyone take advantage of that."

I pointed to myself. "Me?"

"Anyone," Minghao repeated.

"Good to know." Not about to make this chat easier on him, I speared another bite of salad with my fork. I chewed thoroughly, not breaking eye contact with him, who didn't move a muscle.

We stared each other down, willing the other to break first.

These were the kinds of social situations I excelled in. Making small talk about normal girly things? Nope. But going head-to-head with a cagey man when there was important information on the line? This was my Olympics and I was a goddamn gold medalist.

I took a theatrical sip of iced tea. "Ahhhh."

His lips quirked.

"Are there any other vague statements you'd like to make or are you just going table to table issuing warnings?" I asked.