[Hellion Brothers : Book#3] Gaia's Aegis

nine

*
The disastrous Sunday has passed and D.O still couldn't tell his parents that the meeting turned into chaos in a matter of minutes. He's afraid his mom would be sad and his dad would think that he didn't try hard enough to win Seolhyun's heart. Though if he had to admit, he never had any intention of winning her heart in the first place.

Fortunately, they didn't have the time to chat yet since last night his parents weren't home when he got back, and this morning, his mom was in a hurry for a meeting with a friend so they didn't have time to chat at breakfast. D.O is relieved that he doesn't have to deal with the conversation. For now.

But for what it's worth, D.O doesn't particularly feel disturbed by the fact that his own anima had declared that she hated him. It sort of confirmed that he hasn't developed any feelings towards Seolhyun yet, and D.O doesn't know if he ever even wants to.

Not when a certain someone has preoccupied 90% of his idle mind.

That certain someone who's now sitting and laughing with his friends at their usual spot in their usual coffee shop near his campus. Kai, Sehun, Chen along with Chanyeol and Haru, the other Hellions who go to the same university as him, were all there. D.O froze by the shop's entrance and blink a few times just to confirm that the girl with the cute hair bun sitting next to Haru, is indeed his Raspberry girl.

She's not yours Kyungsoo, stop being delusional.

Inha turns her head to his direction as if she can feel him staring. She smiles brightly once she saw him and he automatically mirrors it. She waves at him, making the others finally aware of his presence. D.O walks slowly to their table to give time for his heart to stop beating so aggressively. They were sitting on a long table for six with Chanyeol, Haru and Inha on one side and Chen, Kai and Sehun on the other side.

"Hi, fancy meeting you here." Inha greets him as he reaches their table. She looks fine; no trace of the awkward goodbye from last Saturday.

"Hi there yourself..... you know, that's supposed to be my line, seeing that that seat is supposed to be mine." D.O speaks and immediately regrets it as he sees Haru's disapproving look. Curse his lack of socializing skills.

But before Haru can even speak her mind about it, Inha already has replied sassily.

"Well, I'm a lady and if you're a true gentleman, you should willingly give up your seat for me."

"Oooh, nice one." Sehun encourages her. "You should hang out with us more Inha, I like you already."

With that, D.O started to wonder how long has Inha been sitting there, seeing that they already dropped the honorific and that he doesn't feel any awkward tension in the air around them at all like they've been buddies for the longest period of time.

"Yeah, I have that kind of effect on people." If only they were listening to Inha without looking at her face, they would have thought she was a little smug. But the obvious rose color appearing on her cheeks betrayed her words even though she's trying to hide it by sipping her coffee.

"Your level of shameless confidence is almost at my level," Chen said with a chuckle.

"Was that supposed to be a compliment?" she asks with one raised eyebrow to Chen who's sitting at the opposite side of the table.

"Coming from him, that's a huge compliment unnie," Haru giggles and lightly pats her shoulder.

"Hyung, don't just stand there, go grab yourself a chair or something." Kai calls out to D.O that has been drowning in his own little trance for a while.

"No it's okay, you'll fit in here." Haru cuts in and pats Chanyeol's thigh lightly. "Just scoot over a little, oppa."

Chanyeol immediately complies and wraps his arm around Haru's shoulder so she's pressed up against his side—almost as if Haru is sitting on Chanyeol's lap—giving enough space for D.O to sit beside Inha.