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Do Kyungsoo was stood, irate, in the middle of Im Juhyun's impeccable lounge, holding a microphone that had belonged to Kyungri's karaoke set she recieved as a Christmas gift from him last year. Why a three year old needed one? He didn't know. It was a spontaneous gift.

Kim Junmyeon was equally bothered at Kyungsoo's lack of cooperation. The former had arrived from his difficult work that consisted of him preparing to take over his father's booming pharmaceutical company and just wanted to sleep. "I know you don't want to do this, but we have to! I want to surprise Juhyun with the most beautiful rendition we could ever do!"

"Why couldn't we do this anytime but after work?" Kyungsoo whined. "I'm tired and have a daughter to take care of. Unlike you and your huge mansion to yourself."

Junmyeon's face hardened immediately. He didn't want to swear — not with the disinterested and impressionable child clambering on their pristine sofa — he wanted to set the record straight. "Unlike you and your regular nine to five job, I have to work endlessly. So let's stop blaming each other and do what we're here for."

"Whatever."

Kyungsoo felt bad for slamming Junmyeon like that knowing how much his old friend worked in university to secure his degree in business management while the others partied their way to a first class honor. So he sung (quite dull) until his throat was croaky, just to please the wife–to–be when the wedding happened.

He left after a couple more hours when the sun was down, the moon glistening brightly in the sky, sending some light to the drained Kyungsoo. He held his daughter's dainty hand to the car, where she swiftly fell into a deep slumber once her head touched the comfy leather seats at the back. He had to lug her to his work place again after Min quit on him — but her behavior was pretty good for an infant.

Before driving, Kyungsoo checked his messages.

Soo! Come over when you're free! We're watching the film you like. Lord of the Rings, your favorite.

He seriously considered it as he was an avid fan of the series.

Oh, that doesn't sound bad, actually. Who else is there?

Yuna? But she's really willing to have you over also! C'mon.

After that message, Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and dashed his phone to the passenger seat behind him without even a response. What was even more awkward was that the message was left on read. Jongdae saw this, fuming at his short friend and turning his attention back to his newly reconciled girlfriend.

Across the expanse of the lively metropolitan city, Ara sat cross–legged on a gray sofa inside one of the most expensive dress making companies in Korea. The glass based building just oozed expense and riches, from the diamante chandeliers perched on the white ceilings to the epicurean marble flooring. The saddest fact that she was still clad in sweats due to a late morning as her alarm failed on her. Beside her was Taeyeon — her six inch heels and form fitting dress could not spell grand enough. And of course the bride herself standing expectantly in front of a huge mirror, scanning critically at the dress she was wearing.

She twirled around before her eyes widened at the pair. "What do you guys think?"

The dress was tacky with a capital T. It was tight at its bodice, the skirt snaking down to hug Juhyun's legs and hips, leaving little to the imagination. It was fairly unflattering.

"As your friend, I'm not letting you go outside dressed like that," Taeyeon cringed, her face openly weirded out. "The dress isn't you."

"I'm not sure who I am anymore," she grumbled. The dress was the fifth she'd tried on and Taeyeon opposed, so she became impatient.

"I have an idea! Oh, find a pretty dress."

Taeyeon's sarcasm seemed to hurt Juhyun more than Ara expected as she stormed out of the room with a click of her high heels. Taeyeon turned to Ara, rolling her eyes.

"Don't worry, Juhyun's the worst person to pick a dress for weddings. We'll be lucky if we get home before tomorrow. You should've seen her when we were finding a dress for her first wedding!"

Ara laughed uneasily hearing that, feeling quite bad for Juhyun and being surprised at Taeyeon's sharpness. She'd never expected the calm and collected girl to be so frank. "I see your friendship dynamics."

"Juhyun and I are literally bad cop and bad cop," Taeyeon chuckled. "There's no good between us."

"Who's this Taeyeon and where is the kind one I thought I befriended?" Ara joked before being pushed lightly to the side by a laughing Taeyeon. "But seriously, I'm shocked that you could control Juhyun like that."

The older tilted her head, thinking, a smile forming on her relaxed face. "She's not as malicious as she seems. It's just a chronic case of 'Resting Bitch Face', but she's harmless."

Juhyun returned yet again with an actual beautiful dress. Instead of the skin tight number she paraded in previously, this one clung onto the top half of her demurely, the skirt flowing down in white clouds, the material silky and soft looking. It truly made Im Juhyun look like a princess rather than the wicked witch that Ara always regarded her as.

Taeyeon clapped her hands and stood up, pointing at the dress. "That! That is you."

With that, Juhyun bought the dress and the trio left the shop luckily before dusk came. They found themselves hunched in a nearby café's, steaming lattes, mochas and hot chocolates pooled in front of them. The autumn air wooshed outside, rain pouring down.

"I love lattes," Juhyun began, sipping the warm drink and grinning afterwards. "It just represents me. Bitter, but warm and lovely."

"That's totally you," Taeyeon responded with her. She had a mocha.

"Mochas are you too! It's the best of both worlds."

Then the pair turned to Ara clutching onto her hot chocolate, Taeyeon winking. "Ara's a hot chocolate, for sure. She's refreshing, sweet — sometimes too sweet—" she turned to the three satchets of extra sugar Ara added onto her drink — "but we all love her."

Taeyeon was hoping Juhyun would hold her tongue and not say anything remotely spiteful, but the girl was actually polite and beamed at the innocent Ara. "I agree with Taeyeon here; you're the hot chocolate, and I hope you continue staying warm and sweet for the rest of your life."

Although her words sickly sweet at the least, Ara appreciated it. Juhyun was warming up to her. Possibly not as warm as her scorching hot drink, but there was progress.

—

"He went back with her?"

The most unflattering facial expression was painted on Byun Baekhyun's usually cute face. It was the moment of truth — Kyungsoo, the loyal trusted friend of Kim Jongdae, had told Baekhyun about his rekindled relationship. All of the guys that were close to Jongdae were adamant on being against their relationships; the frequent fiery fights the couple had left Yuna cheating with other men and Jongdae in pieces on the floor, sobbing whilst Kyungsoo forlonly patted his shoulder and told him he was better than her.

Kyungsoo thought it was best to explain to the others so they'd watch out for him. So he nodded his head. "Yep. Claims that she's the one for him."

"Bullshit, he's broken up with the girl so many times," Baekhyun spat, placing his can of beer on the table with a splash. "Their relationship lies on anything but love. Jongdae clearly loves her but it's not requited."

"Then why'd you think he stays with her even though he knows she won't put her everything in the relationship?"

Baekhyun let out a brisk sigh. "When you love someone, it clouds your thoughts. No matter how messed up they are, all you want is them, so you'll take them any way shape or form."

"Yes, I'm very aware on how love works, thank you very much. I was married, Byun Baekhyun," Kyungsoo replied sarcastically, taking a swig of his very pure glass of water. "After five whole years, why don't you want to marry Taeyeon?"

That was a toughie. Baekhyun had always been plagued with this question: by Taeyeon herself (very discreetly), his friends, and his family who wanted a grandchild so badly. "I honestly, hand to heart, do not know. It's just...I'm not ready to be a husband, a father. I don't think I can be the husband Taeyeon deserves right now."

Kyungsoo nodded silently. He wished someone could've said that to him before he chose to marry at the young age of twenty two. He regretted ever making that decision to get on his knees and propose — even being straight out of university and having his graduate job. A year later, the small and innocent boy had become a father. All too quickly.

Outside the apartment in the hall were the three girls, giggling from conversation and laden with shopping bags after an accidental spree at the local mall. They were going to hang out in Ara's apartment for the rest of the night but heard from Baekhyun that he was in Kyungsoo's apartment just chilling. So they decided to crash the duo's 'party' — consisting of deep conversation and beer (or water) drinking. A knock on the door got Kyungsoo standing up weakly from his comfortable seat on the sofa and opening the door to see the trio grinning at the two, pushing and greeting their way into the apartment.

Juhyun casually threw the shopping bags onto the end of the sofa, sitting down and tucking her stray hairs behind her ear flawlessly. She eyed up the guys and their miserable facial expressions. "What's with the sad looks? Did we come at a bad time?"

Baekhyun shook his head, a signature smile growing on his face. "No, no. We had a weirdly deep conversation that gave us a lot of food for thought."

"Want to fill us in on it?"

Both of the involved turned their heads to each other, sending warning looks at her suggestion, then turned back to the bride. Kyungsoo, who was sitting beside Juhyun, shrugged.

"It wasn't that serious, really. Just philosophical questions," he lied effortlessly. "Where'd you guys go off to?"

Taeyeon was sprawled lazily on one of the sofas, her blonde hair falling prettily over her face. "Eh, just dress picking. Nothing special."

"Was it as bad as last time?"

The group (except the confused Ara) began laughing, reminscising memories that occured way before Ara even met her neighbor. Juhyun advanced forward to shove Kyungsoo playfully.

"Shut up! And no, we didn't get kicked out of the shop this time."

That caused Ara to raise a brow. "You got kicked out of a shop?"

"And banned with a warning from the police," Kyungsoo added, laughing himself. "Let's just say that event was unforgettable. I wasn't even there and I can imagine the whole thing."

The ordeal sounded astonishing to Ara; today was for sure the day she had her first impressions of everyone completely changed. Taeyeon was never a sharp person, nor was Juhyun someone that Ara considered to be capable of public disorderly conduct. Wow. Apart from the others, she was seated on the fluffy living room carpet, clutching her knees and drinking a bottle of water.

It wasn't until ten thirty when everyone decided to return back to their homes — something easy for Ara as she resided across the hall. She needed to sleep as soon as possible, university was early tomorrow. Juhyun, however, decided to stick around. As Kyungsoo threw all of the rubbish in the kitchen as wary as possible because of his sleeping daughter in the room beside it, Juhyun followed swiftly. She was holding onto a half full glass of wine, the third refill that evening.

She leaned onto the kitchen counter, oddly putting images of Ara in his head as he was so used to her being her instead of Juhyun, lightly moving the wine in circular motions. Her hair was tucked behind her ear, exposing inches of pale neck that she'd never really shown.

"I heard about your Busan trip," she started, voice cool and raspy instead of its usual prowess. That got Kyungsoo turning around from the sink with widened eyes. He knew Juhyun was aware of it, but wanted to know how his friend Baekhyun managed to tell her.

"Who told you?"

Juhyun was smiling softly, eyes wandering around the room to everything but her ex. "Doesn't matter who...did you have fun?" She said in a weirdly calm state. The shouting hadn't erupted yet.

The clock latched on the kitchen wall pinged incessantly as the time slid by, slow and painful. Why wouldn't it speed up?

"Yeah," Kyungsoo answered as the memories switched through his mind like a photobook. They were all so fresh. The beach, the food. "It was nice."

Chuckles spilled out of her mouth. "It's funny. You didn't meet my parents until we were a year into our relationship."

Those were words enough to cause him to freeze where he was. The thought of Juhyun regarding Ara and his friendship as a relationship was surprising. Do Kyungsoo had made it abundantly clear that he wasn't ready to date. Not with work, his daughter and the fact that the divorce was two months ago. Nope.

"It wasn't planned," he found himself clarifying, even though Im Juhyun deserved anything but a clear up. "She needed someone to drive her there. It's the least I could do for someone who helped out with Kyungri out of her spare time."

"Least you could do? Kyungsoo, I don't know if you're aware of this but Busan isn't 'least I can do', it's across the country."

"Why are you stressing?" He asked Juhyun as composed as he could in this tense moment, but the words came out sharp. She flinched before exhaling loudly.

"I just don't want you to get hurt."

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes rudely, grasping onto his empty glass of water. "A bit too late for that, don't you think?"

"I—I," she whimpered before biting her lip and staring at Kyungsoo's aggravated self. "I treat you as if you're a child, don't I?"

A shrill laugh left his mouth as he lightened up a little. "Sometimes I don't feel older than Kyungri when I'm with you."

Juhyun bravely leaned over, nudging Kyungsoo's shoulder whilst grinning and looking up at the time. It had flew past while they were talking and was almost eleven thirty at night. About an hour after the others left. Why couldn't Juhyun just go home? He thought, knowing if her fiancé knew she was hanging out with her ex late at night, he would freak out.

After a small pause for silence, both standing either side one another in the compact kitchen just reminiscing, she decided it was time for her to leave. Both had a long day of work ahead of them the next day and needed sleep to prevent them from dying of exhaustion halfway through.

As Im Juhyun picked up her bags and was standing near the front door whilst Kyungsoo held it open, she gently wrapped her thin arms around his neck, basking herself in his musky fragrance that had once been second nature to her; comparing how different Junmyeon's sweet smell was to Kyungsoo's slightly spiced scent was. She smiled. As awkward as it was, Do Kyungsoo found himself hugging her back, chin carefully situated on the silky smooth hair Juhyun spent hours perfecting. It was all too close to home.

Standing on her tip toes, Juhyun moved close to his ear. "Thank you, Kyungsoo. Thank you for everything."

—»

Wow, what do you think the cryptic 'thank you for everything' means? Do you think Juhyun wants Kyungsoo back? Because I don't blame her; excuse me, he's Kyungsoo! I'm sorry if this chapter may come off as a filler >:, but I do hope you enjoyed it nonetheless, and please anticipate my next update! And a huge huge thank you for getting this book up to another milestone: 3,000 reads!