her highness ↠ jhs ✔️

E I G H T

"Suzy, I am calling to let you know that there has been a shift in the time frame for my arrival in Seoul. I will be arriving next weekend instead, there are some details I need to go over for the gala. I will call you once I have arrived and will inform you of when and where I expect you to meet me. As I recall we have things to discuss."

Suzy groaned at the message from her father. She had only been out of bed five minutes and that was not the way she had wanted to start the day. Shuffling her way around the kitchen to make herself the much needed first cup of tea of the day, Suzy sighed at the thought of how quickly her father's visit appeared to be creeping up on her.

Her life had been so consumed over the last couple of weeks with Hoseok and the new group of friends she found herself a part of, that it had been easy to push all thoughts of her father to the back of her mind, in some kind of vain hope that it would just go away. She had managed to avoid seeing him for the last four years, but it seemed as though this time she was going to have to bite the bullet and endure meeting with him.

As she poured boiling water into the pot, the doorbell rang. Pushing her glasses up slightly, Suzy slowly made her way to answer, wondering just who felt the need to be disturbing her day so early.

"Good morning gorgeous," Hoseok greeted from the doorstep, his grin falling a little at the unenthusiastic look on Suzy's face.

"You're early," she mumbled, heading back towards the kitchen as he stepped inside. "So you either need to learn to tell the time or check if your watch is working."

Hoseok placed the bag of muffins he had brought down on the counter so he could study Suzy, wondering just what the hell he had done. He stepped closer to her, tucking a lock of brown hair behind her ear that had escaped from the messy bun she had it up in.

"I know we said noon, but truth is, I haven't seen you since Monday, and I've kind of missed you," he murmured. "But if you'd rather leave it today, I can always go," he added quietly.

Suzy laid her head on Hoseok's chest and sighed.

"No, I don't want you to go," she assured him quietly. "I've just had a bad start to the day, that's all. I didn't mean to take it out on you."

Hoseok wrapped his arms around her, placing several soft kisses in her hair. "That's okay then. Anything you want to talk about?" Suzy shook her head adamantly. "Okay, but if you change your mind, I'm here. Nice slippers by the way," Hoseok teased.

Suzy giggled, looking down at the fluffy pig slippers she wore.

"Rosé got them for me, they're comfy and I don't care," she murmured, enjoying the feeling of Hoseok gently rubbing her back. "Anyway, seeing as I am here early, how about you go get yourself ready, then we can get to the store earlier, then the rest of the day is ours," Hoseok suggested.

"Okay. Any ideas what you might want to do?" Suzy asked.

"Well Ms.Bae, if you don't get dressed in something a little more appropriate real soon, we won't be leaving the house," Hoseok told her suggestively.

"I'll go get dressed." Suzy stated with a smile, walking away from him and heading upstairs.

Hoseok grinned to himself as he watched her walk away. He couldn't remember the last time he'd ever wanted to take things so slowly with a woman before. But something was telling him that Suzy was around to stay, and he wanted to make sure he did everything right, because scaring her off by rushing into things was the last thing he wanted.

-

Suzy stood in the hardware store looking at the vast selection of paint. She held the color chart in front of her, but couldn't spot the one Rosé had earmarked for the feature wall in their lounge for the life of her. The sea of varying shades of red was beginning to all merge into one, and Suzy was almost at the point of picking just the first one that grabbed her attention.