Chapter Text
The car ride itself wasn't as awkward as Young Woo had expected. Sae Hyun still didn't talk much unless he was talking with Hae Mi or talking about her. She was reminded of the case of where she had met another person on the autism spectrum who was very much different from her, but at the same time held some similarities. It was the same with Sae Hyun where she could see the differences and similar traits that he and her both possess.
"Oh we're here!" Su Yeon looked out the window and started to bring out money to pay for the taxi ride. However, Sae Hyun beat her to it and handed the money for the taxi fare to the taxi driver before getting out of the car. Su Yeon got out of the caar quickly to follow him and stuck out her hand holding with 20,000 wons of cash towards Sae Hyun,
"You should take it. I was planning on paying anyway."
Sae Hyun looks around his surroundings, not making any eye contact with Su Yeon and says " The oldest should pay."
Young Woo and Su Yeon stared at Sae Hyun questionably making a face. They both didn't think that Sae Hyun was older than the rest of them.
The taxi drove off and Hae Mi interrupted their confused pondering. "Believe it or not he is older. Although he may not look like it he's older than us by a year. Rubs it in my face like all the time." Hae Mi trailed off at the last part and made a face before staring at the shock of the two people in front of her.
Su Yeon and Young Woo stared at Sae Hyun in shock and had their mouths slightly opened in surprise. Both of them had assumed that Sae Hyun was probably in his early twenties. Young Woo and Su Yeon were both 27 years old making Sae Hyun 28. However Sae Hyun had the look of a teenager or someone who had just reached their twenties.
"What's your skin care routine?" Su Yeon stared at Sae Hyun still with shock.
With the mention of skin care routine Young Woo briefly touched her face before she brought her two hands together looking at the sky. Hae Mi noticed that every time Young Woo started to do that it was the signalling for her to begin to talk about whales. Perhaps Su Yeon also noticed this fact and attempted to stop her from uttering a word. But as they all knew, no one could ever stop Young Woo from talking about whales.
"Some whales are born with hair on them. The humpback whale, bowhead whale, and the right whale while most whales end up losing most of their hair. Their hair makes them have bumpy skins. Some have scars on their skin and suffer from sunburns as the-"
"Where's the restaurant again?" Su Yeon interrupted Young Woo's rant about the skin care of whales.
Young Woo pointed to the restaurant in front of them and as they were all about to walk in they saw a pair walking out changing the sign from open to close.
"Dong to the Geu to the Rami."
"Woo to the Young to the Woo."
Both of them at the same time bowed their heads forward before dabbing.
"Are you closing the restaurant now?" Young Woo asked with her eyes widening realizing that her plan may not work out after all.
"Aww. We need to go get more ingredients," Rami stated. “Although I’m not sure why. It’s not like anyone comes to this restaurant anyways.”
“We need fresh ingredients!” Hairy defended as he carried several reusable bags in his hands.
The two stared at the three figures standing before them and they bowed down slightly as a greeting.
“What are you guys doing here?” Rami asked.
“Ahh well…I wanted to try different types of food other than gimbap where someone who was a chef would explain all the flavours for me.”
“Why didn’t you ask me?” Hairy said.
Young Woo thought for a moment before realizing that they could have spared Hae Mi and Sae Hyun the trouble of wasting their evening in helping her develop a new taste in the culinary world.
“I didn’t think of you.” Young Woo replied.
Rami clapped her hands together and everyone else present jumped a bit by the sudden loud noise. “This is perfect timing. Why don’t we go eat out at an expensive restaurant while helping Young Woo eat something else other than gimbap. Speaking of eating something else… why didn’t you tell me of such an important plan!” Rami started to ruffle Young Woo’s hair and Young Woo squirmed from the rough contact.
Hairy hit Rami’s shoulder “What about the ingredients?”
“Who cares! Let’s go eat something nice! Oooo lets go to that fancy restaurant just a block away from here. Finally I’ve been wanting to go there for a while.” Rami pumped her fist into the air trying to show her enthusiasm.
“I didn’t bring a lot of money though. I don’t think we can go eat somewhere expensive.” Young Woo interrupted Rami”s happy groove.
Rami made a confused face and asked “Why didn’t you bring that much?”
“Because I didn’t think I had to pay if I went to your place.” Young Woo stated without hesitation and this caused everyone to stand there awkwardly. Hae Mi and Su Yeon both looked at each other with a concerned face before Hae Mi broke the silence and said “I brought enough money I think.”
Su Yeon quickly joined in and said “Me too.” Followed by Sae Hyun who confidently said “I’ll pay for us all.”
Rami smiled and pointed at Sae Hyun. “My Guy!”
Hae Mi, Su Yeon, and Young Woo both turned their heads to Sae Hyun looking at him in surprise. Especially Hae Mi who gave Sae Hyun a confused look.
“How much money do you have.”
“A lot.”
“Why haven’t you been paying stuff for me if you’re so rich?”
“You never asked.”
This made Hae Mi scoff. “Will you pay for stuff for me now?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I want some for myself?”
“How much money do you have?”
Sae Hyun didn’t say anything and looked at the expectant gazes from everyone else. He whispered in Hae Mi’s ear and Hae Mi made a shocked face. “Yah! How long have you’ve been saving up all that money! Give me some spending money at least!” Hae Mi stuck out her hand towards Sae Hyun where Sae Hyun looked at it before walking towards the direction of the new restaurant chosen.
Everyone else started to follow the two with smiles on their faces as they went to enter the restaurant.
When everyone had entered the restaurant they all stared at the interior of the restaurant with awe. There was fancy modern design with nice lighting and decor. Rami nudged Min Sik and whispered “Why didn’t you decorate the restaurant like this.”
“How much money do you think I have.”
“Ask him to invest in you.” Rami pointed at Sae Hyun who was once again looking at his surroundings intensely.
Suddenly Sae Hyun brought out a notebook from his backpack and brought out a pen. He started scribbling something in it and Young Woo noticed at a quick glance that his notebook was filled with food recipes. She also happened to see the notebook that Sae Hyun had contained one page with figures of whales. She stared at the notebook behind Sae Hyun’s back where Sae Hyun turned around to see who was staring at him intensely. Immediately Young Woo looked away and pretended she wasn’t looking at him. Sae Hyun continued to look back at his notebook while once again Young Woo looked behind him once again. While this was happening everyone else had been taken to a table leaving the two standing there alone. Young Woo and Sae Hyun both were focusing intensely both for two entirely different reasons before they were interrupted by Su Yeon who was calling them over. “Hey guys over here!”
Young Woo and Sae Hyun both looked up at the same time and looked at each other. Sae Hyun pulled his notebook closer to him before walking away from Young Woo staring at her suspiciously. Young Woo started to follow after him saying “There’s a sperm whale! You know the whale from M-”
“Attorney Woo. Did you refuse to meet me to go on a date with another man.” A voice interrupted her rhythm. Young Woo recognized the voice behind her and saw an annoyed Lee Jun Ho’s face staring back at her.
Young Woo was startled by his sudden appearance and her eyes started to blink more rapidly.
“Awwww! Why are you here?”
After she said this she saw Kwon Min Woo appear behind Lee Jun Ho.
“Awww. You too?”
Young Woo felt a surge of panic arise within her for some reason. Perhaps because she realized that her plan was about to be exposed.
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Lee Jun Ho was getting annoyed and filled with disbelief the longer he sat watching the taxi that Young Woo and the mystery man had gotten in. He was going to have to have a serious talk with Young Woo. It wasn’t like Young Woo had never made him mad or disappointed before. He was still a little hurt that Young Woo hadn’t considered to be official. However, he could never stay mad at Young Woo too long. He knew that Young Woo was new to everything and maybe lacked some social cues. But that was what made her so lovable at times.
As Jun Ho was seething with wrath for the mystery guy in the same car with Young Woo, Kwon Min Woo was left to sit uncomfortably in his seat with Lee Jun Ho. He hadn’t exactly figured out why he had followed Lee Jun Ho when there were better ways to spend the rest of his precious evenings. He saw the way Jun Ho was looking at the pair that he felt a need to be there just for intervention in case things got out of hand. Min Woo had highly doubted that Young Woo was foxy enough to go meet another man while seeing Jun Ho. He had his prejudices against her but this was not something he would expect from Young Woo. Although, if she was seeing someone else other than Jun Ho this would ease his guilt about plotting to get her fired. Ever since the case where he had sent documents to the opposing attorney thinking that this would get Woo Young Woo fired he hadn’t tried again. He didn’t know if it was because he was feeling guilty or he was too scared to try again.
The taxi that Min Woo and Jun Ho were in at one point had lost the taxi in front of them before they found it again leaving the area. Jun Ho quickly climbed out of the car pursuing Young Woo where Min Woo had called out to him, but was ignored. In a rush Min Woo handed a 50,000 won bill to thee taxi driver before running off to Jun Ho.
Lee Jun Ho wasn’t sure where Young Woo had disappeared to and was looking at all the stores to see if she was in any of them. He then spotted Young Woo in a restaurant in close proximity to the mystery guy. Not having any patience he stormed into the restaurant where Young Woo and the mystery guy were both heading in. Not long after Min Woo entered and saw the scene before him.
“Dear God.” He whispered.
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Young Woo was having a hard time staring at Jun Ho as she felt immense pressure. Lee Jun Ho had started to go on a rant and started to drill her with questions.
“Who is he?”
“He’s-”
“What are you guys doing here?”
“It’s becaus-”
“Did I do something wrong? Was that you seemed to not want to go-”
“I came here with them as well.”Young Woo interrupted him and pointed at the direction of where everyone else was sitting.
Lee Jun Ho turned his attention towards the way Young Woo’s hand was pointing. He saw Su Yeon and Hae Mi sitting at a table with Young Woo’s friends at a table.
He looked back and forth between the table and Young Woo and the mystery man standing before him.
Everyone at the table was staring awkwardly at the scene unfolding before them. When Lee Jun Ho stared at everyone who was watching him everyone immediately looked away.
Hae Mi started to panickly grab the menu in front of her and became extremely interested in what was on it, hiding her face in the process. Su Yeon brushed her hair behind her hair awkwardly and said something to the waiter that the decor was really pretty. Rami was staring at the scene with her mouth open, never breaking eye contact from the scene before her where Min Shik desperately tried to turn her attention away from hit. He made eye contact with Lee Jun Ho and started laughing awkwardly while at the same time trying to turn Rami’s attention to something else. The only person who seemed fine about the whole situation was Sae Hyun. He had continued to look in his notebook and, feeling things were awkward, Min Woo walked in and pulled Sae Hyun to where everyone else was sitting. He dragged him to the table by pulling his backpack and Sae Hyun followed him blindly.
This left Jun Ho and Young Woo alone.
“What should we do?” Hae Mi whispered behind the menu.
“I don’t know, just pretend you didn’t see anything.” Su Yeon said and began to also become interested in the menu before her.
An interesting evening indeed.