Shinhye had woken up - fortunately - with Jiah by her side. Jiah had informed Hoseok that she would be absent that day, and he was fine with it. But upon knowing Jiah was at the hospital with her injured friend, he decided to take the day off too.
He ordered two bowls of bibimbap from Aunt Soojung as takeaways - one for Jiah and the other for her friend. While waiting, he remembered Seokjin hadn't clocked in for work. At this point, he wouldn't be surprised if he met Seokjin at the hospital by chance.
**********
After gaining some information from the counter, he walked leisurely to the ward. His feet stopped in front of the sliding door, peeking through the rectangular glass and spotting Jiah's and Seokjin's back view before knocking on the door.
An unfamiliar female voice cried out, "come in!"
Hoseok entered, and the occupants turned their heads to look. He heard Seokjin whisper to Shinhye (who had a bandage around her head), "You should've said 'go away.'" The comment earned a soft smack on Seokjin's arm from Jiah and an awkward chuckle from Shinhye.
Just as he got closer to the bed, Shinhye displayed a smile and bowed. He bowed back. He was still not used to meeting strangers, but he forced himself to say something. "How are you?"
Shinhye slowly nodded as she said, "feeling better. Thank you."
He made a glance at Jiah, who was giggling and smiling at him before returning his view to Shinhye. "Yeah," he said.
Jiah introduced them. "Oh right. Shinhye-yah, this is my boss, Hoseok. Hoseok-ie, this is my best friend, Han Shinhye."
Shinhye then warmly said, "Ah... thank you for coming, Mister Hoseok!"
He rubbed his nape as he said, "Uhm. You're welcome."
Leaning closer to Shinhye, Jiah whispered, "he's shy with new people." Shinhye only nodded her head with her mouth expressing a silent 'ah...'
Quietness circulated briefly until Seokjin noticed something in his hand. "What's that?" he asked.
Hoseok looked down at the plastic in his hand. "Oh right!" he spoke. Raising the plastic bag, he looked at Jiah as he said, "I bought you and your friend bibimbap from Aunt Soojung."
"Wah!" Jiah expressed, her lips stretched to a grin. She fetched the food and placed it on the table. Then, she asked her best friend, "do you want it now?" to which Shinhye nodded her head.
The rustling noise from the plastic broke into the space. In the midst of the noise, Seokjin asked him, "do you only buy two?"
"Yeah. I didn't know you were here; otherwise, I would buy three," he lied. Seokjin being there or not, he would never bother to buy him one.
"Yeah. No thanks," the older man drawled, looking elsewhere as he crossed his arms against his chest.
Then, Hoseok realized Jiah was looking for something in the plastic. That day, she clipped her hair half up and half down. Immediately, he remembered her style during the event at the In-Kang. He loved it when she had that hairstyle. His memories vanished when Jiah muttered, "Hoseok, there's no spoon."
"Let me get it." "I'll get it!" Hoseok and Seokjin spoke in unison. Realizing it, both men looked at each other. That got Jiah raising her eyebrows while Shinhye looked at them blankly.
They had an eye battle for a few seconds. With no cue, both of them turned around and dashed to the door. Just as they were almost at the door, Seokjin pushed the door to the side, pushing Hoseok to the back. But Hoseok managed to catch the older man's waist, so he pulled and forced Seokjin to drop to the ground.
With his strength, Seokjin almost rolled onto his back on the ground.
In the background, Jiah muttered, "what in the world are they doing?"
As he was the first to get out, he ran and found an elevator. He almost reached for the elevator button when Seokjin pulled him by his hoodie. "You rascal, how dare you!"
Hoseok managed to press the button again before spinning around, grabbing the older man's hand, and biting it. "Argh!! He's biting me!" Not wanting to cause more ruckus, he pushed Seokjin again and sent him falling to the ground. The elevator door opened, and he quickly entered, furiously pressing the 'close door' button.
When Seokjin got up, the door was already on its way to connect both sides. He showed a mischievous smile, waved his hand, and beamed sarcastically, "bye, hyungnim."
And finally, the door closed. He pressed another desired button to go down to the cafeteria before slouching his back against the cold metal wall, releasing a relief sigh.
After a few seconds, the elevator 'ding'ed, and the door slid open. To his surprise, there was the sight of Seokjin running past the door. He darted out of the elevator and confirmed that his eyes were not deceiving him. He ran near Seokjin as fast as he could. Once he reached beside him, his voice wavered as he whispered, "what are we doing?"
Suddenly, Seokjin slowed down, and Hoseok joined him. Both of them breathlessly stared at each other. "Right." Seokjin's rose and fell with heavy heave. "What are we doing?"
The sound of feet patting against the marble floor and chit-chattering of the visitors and doctors became the only thing that chimed through their area. Their heavy breaths were the only thing that left their noses.
As their breath returned to the normal rate, Seokjin asked in a serious tone, "you too? You like Jiah?"
"What?" Hoseok exclaimed with a contort on his face. "No!"
"In that case, you should have let me get their spoons. Why are we racing?"
Seokjin was right. Hoseok swept his glance to the ground, internally asking himself what he was doing. "I... I'm going to the cafeteria with you. To get them some fruit juices."
The older man displayed nothing but doubts. Nonetheless, he said, "fine."
Together, they walked to the cafeteria, with awkwardness lingering around them.
**********
Shinhye had found out her father would be arrested. Unlike Jinyoung, she had nothing to say. That gave Jiah an assurance that she had done the right thing. But she was concerned about how the law was going to consider the sentence for Shinhye's father.
The talk about Shinhye's father lasted no longer than ten minutes. It brought Shinhye to mention the two visitors she had. "Do you ever find them weird?" she asked.
Jiah shook her head, her lips lightly jutted out. "At first, I did find them weird. The whole staff. But, I've worked with them long enough to know that these behaviors are normal."
Shinhye nodded her head. Jiah wasn't going to lie that Shinhye's calmness reminded her of Wendy. But Wendy's calmness was more gracious, while Shinhye's calmness had hidden toughness. If she was going to resemble Shinhye with Wheein, the toughness part would resemble them the most.
"So, them rushing to get us spoons is normal too?" Shinhye asked again.
Then it struck Jiah. She looked up at the ceiling, scratching her head. "Well... I've never seen them that childish, but... They are like Tom and Jerry. Seokjin is the Tom, Hoseok is the Jerry. So, I guess, that's normal too."
"I see," Shinhye whispered, nodding her head again. "I've seen the news of you with your boss at the In-Kang's company. I was so curious about how your boss looked like, and now I'm meeting him upfront. I must admit that he's handsome. He's cute too! Does he tend to be shy?"
Jiah giggled with lips pursed, her eyes formed two cresent moons. She nodded her head. "I know, right! He's cute. That's why I love to tease him. You gotta see how he looks like when I get near him. His ears get red, face all blushing."
Shinhye squinted her eyes. "He blushes when you get near him?" Propping a thumb and index finger under her chin, she commented, "that doesn't sound normal."
Jiah knew Shinhye was up to something. She raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?" she asked.
Still squinting her eyes, Shinhye asked, "do you wear a sexy outfit to work?"
Jiah gasped. "No, I don't. I wear outfits like what I'm wearing now," she said, showing her shirt. White fleeced, knitted cardigan covered the gray shirt underneath. A short coffee brown skirt and underneath was a pair of leggings. Heeled boots as her footwear. "You know; I don't like wearing tops that show my belly button."
"You have a cute belly fat. I'm not surprised," Shinhye teased, which earned her a loud "ah, you're... seriously!" from Jiah. Both of them laughed together after that. Shinhye resumed, "Jiah-yah, did something happen after both of you held hands?"
Jiah buzzed and said, "no. As far as I remember, we just worked as usual. Except." She paused to think.
Shinhye raised her eyebrows. "Except?"
"Hoseok has become more open now. You know, the signs of people forcing themselves out of their comfort zones? He's showing those signs," she said. "I could be wrong, though."
"And does he always behave like just now?"
Jiah buzzed again. "No," she said, her tone almost coming out like a question. "He used to be quieter. He used to obey Seokjin a lot too, even a spatula threat could tame him."
"Spatula threat?" Shinhye asked, her eyebrows scrunched up.
"Uh-hm! Seokjin used to have a spatula around with him. Everyone said, his spatula mark stays on your butt for a week if he finds you misbehaving," Jiah explained. "Speaking of his spatula, I don't see him bring it around often nowadays. Unless he's cooking."
"Oh, Seokjin cooks?"
Jiah nodded her head.
"That's sexy!" Shinhye said, squinting her eyes with a smile. Later, her knowing face vanished. "But it's unsexy of him to go around hitting people with a spatula."
Chuckling, Jiah said, "the younger staff has always been getting on his nerves. You know what it feels like to be the eldest."
"Ah... so that is why. But, Jiah-yah, if I can be honest, they are behaving a bit too much for you, don't you think?"
Jiah commented nothing for a while. She had a blank look and asked, "Like how?"
"First, Seokjin accompanied you yesterday, even helped you to pay our hospital bills. He didn't have to do that. We can pay the bills little by little as debts. When I woke up, the first thing I found out from the nurse was that -" she mimicked a different voice "- 'your friend and her boyfriend were here. They paid your bills.'" Then, she stared at Jiah with tight lips. "I'm even assuming he's been following you around, or else, why is he here?"
Shinhye added, raising a hand with index and middle fingers up, "Next is your boss. He doesn't have to come and visit me. I'm not your biological family member. He even bought us bibimbap!" She pointed at the plastic bowls. "It feels like he's using me as an excuse to see you," she concluded, a smile slowly making its appearance on her face.
Jiah shot daggers at her best friend in silence. Squinting her eyes, she muttered, "I think the concussion makes you talk too much."
Shinhye leaned closer to her and said, "What do you think if two men like you?"
"Ugh!" Jiah grunted. "You've been reading too much BL."
"Two men, Lee Jiah," Shinhye sing-songed, ignoring her comment. "You're incredible!"
"Shut your mouth, you butt, or I'll get you a sedation!" Her face grew hot. If somebody from Bejiwoo heard her, they might point out that she sounded like Seokjin with his spatula.
Her reaction had her best friend laughing out loud.