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"Do you think that's a good idea?"
No, nothing is.
"Minseok-shi?"
A snap of a finger brought Minseok back to the restaurant. "Of course, Minsoo-shi. Right? Right."
Suho intervened stopping both Luhan and Minsoo from questioning him.
I just got here.
Jayoung left without a word; Minseok felt offended at some point. Was he not fast enough? It should be a universal agreement that bad traffic could be a reasonable excuse. Not until the older brother got his hands did Minseok discovered his whole body had been shaking from adrenaline this whole time.
"Why did she leave?" asked Minseok breathlessly.
"Why don't you go after her?" Suho interjected with a calming smile. "Oh, brother. No wonder why you had one girlfriend your whole life..."
What made this worse was he wasn't the one who confessed first either.
"Live a little. Chase after her." they excused the pair to their food ordering chat. Whispering encouragement in his younger brother's ears, Suho let a quiet chuckle. "Survey says 99% of women like it if you chase after her."
"First of all, it's creepy. Secondly, it's their right to run off. And finally," Minseok turned to his giggling brother. This man really needed a reality check. Dumped him alone, going off with Jayoung, and still had the nerve to push his buttons. "Korean Dramas are not considered as reliable information, so stop slapping that survey in my face."
"Oh... okay.. " Minseok stared blankly at the back of Suho's hands as they held his shoulders, drawing his attention towards his gentle face instead. "It's okay to get what you want – you know that right?"
There wasn't much he needed to know that the girl wanted some time alone, so instead of going straight to Yixing's; he decided to chill out with Chenchen at the dog park for a chunk of time, thinking about nothing but her. It must be the trip. He still remembered the way her expression fell when he made his decision. It almost hurt him in a way seeing her becoming drained of life in just seconds.
"Hey, there you are." Yixing greeted him with a warm hug as usual, but he couldn't keep his eyes on him for long before searching for the girl.
"Oh, Jayoung-ah –" A wave for her, but she just walked past once more waving at Chef and the others except him.
The whole kitchen fell silent and once she left the building, he could see Kyungsoo pushing the others to keep working while glaring at them. As he let the old chef dragged him up the roof, Minseok racked his brains trying to think what he did so wrong.
"Man, what happened? She's so out of it." They both leaned on the railing watching the traffic below. "I thought yesterday she wasn't herself, but I take that back."
"It's the Japan thing." Sighed Minseok. He tried all he could to be the best and help her out – the only thing he refused was Japan, and she still got mad.
"What?"
"A business trip to Japan. I told her to stay."
"Oh, why would you? That could be the perfect time for the two of you to hang out." He stated it as-a-matter-of-factly. The thought gave Minseok a small room to breathe.
"It could be dangerous.."
"Just say that you're afraid to be with her, will you?" Looking away from the eyes' of the judging Chef, he shook his head. He wanted to say something else. This wasn't the problem. He wanted to refuse and come up with an excuse. However, his brain was blank. "How many times do we have to have this conversation? Right when you're about to be comfortable, you just have to revert to being the old you. Come on, you're better than this."
"I promised her sister I'd look after her and protect her. I can't just let her go to further places like that!" Pulling on his blond hair, he stuttered through his sentence trying to justify his decisions. It was the truth. All he wanted was to protect and keep her safe.
"And putting her in the kitchen is safe? Look, if you break everything down to the basics, everything is dangerous. What you just said was a flawed argument."
Unspeakable things could happen, and Minseok stood by his statement. He didn't trust himself enough to guarantee her safety in the foreign place.
"Minseok-ah... to protect someone means keeping them close and making sure harm doesn't get to the both of you – not push them away. What's important is you deal with the problems together and walk out the battle zone scarred, hurt, and limping while supporting each other. Every one of us is prone to danger. We just have to learn to endure it."
Silence followed his words. Minseok had already made his mind. Yixing had to understand that. Jayoung had to understand that. Everyone had to.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." Yixing and he both knew it was hard to change his mind. Although he did take the old chef's words into consideration, Minseok just couldn't really see what was wrong with keeping her here.
The orange glow cast upon his eyes making him squint. Sunset was coming soon as the air slowed down around him. Hopefully, Jayoung would be home by now.
"Where is she going to stay when you're gone anyway?"
"Her parents'."
"What?! Didn't she used to say that her parents don't like her cooking? How could she come over and practice?" Of course, Minseok, too, had already thought of that. No parents could stay mad at their child forever. Jayoung was a lot better now at cooking. Maybe they would give her a chance.
"Well, I think they should work it out. My parents kept in touch with us more than hers and I didn't want them to drift apart."
A slow nod from Yixing. Minseok still remembered his look. The old man then shook his head and frowned at him just like when he decided to date Rion. "Right... But I still don't think this is a good idea. I mean... at least not so soon."
"It's been months, Lay-er."
A ring on his phone caught them both off guard. It was a message from Jimin.
Old man, why? Let her go with you.
By the way, I don't think she would be home tonight.
"Why does everyone want her to go?" even his brother seemed to think so. "It's just.. a few days.. it's –"
"You have to look at the bigger picture here. There's a reason why hindsight is viewed as bad."
He watched the old chef retreat to the door before he descended the steps going back to his work.
"I don't have anything more to say. You should know it by now."
