“Noona…” Your brother looked at you as you walked out of your front door.
“Do you really need to wear that?” He sat at the front porch of your home, tanning his fair skin under the morning sun, with a swanky pair of sunglasses.
You were clad in a pair of short beach shorts and a racer back singlet, with a cap that made you look like you were ready for some sports.
“And you… do you really need to look like a shadow?” Pointing to his clothes that were overly decent in black for an outing with sun, sea, and the beach, you looked disapprovingly at him.
He stood up and walked a circle around you, then went back into the house without a word.

“Hey we gotta go!” You called out after him, doing a time check.
He walked out quickly in large strides, and shoved a pink cardigan into your hands.
“Could you please, cover up.”
Your jaw dropped as you received the cardigan wordlessly, checking your reflection from the glass of the window. “You’re kidding me! Its such a hot day and you want me to wear another layer of a jacket??? Nope. I’m not doing it.”
Yugyeom quickly reached out and shut the front door to stop you from chucking the cardigan back inside.
“Noona…. Mark’s gonna be there! and this… this… THING!….” he was motioning to the plunge of the racer back singlet at the back which was generously cut out to reveal quite a lot of your shoulder blade and nearly half your back. “I don’t know what you call it but its just……. TOO much, Noona…. no, its just NOT…. ….. acceptable.” He shook his head and frowned.
You couldn’t believe your baby brother was controlling your wardrobe and finding your clothes too revealing. Even Mark wouldn’t have minded it, and you were pretty sure, since his own clothes were far more revealing anyway.
But you didn’t want to make a fuss since you knew Yugyeom was just being overprotective about you. Afterall, it was a company trip today and everyone including Bambam, Jackson, Mark, and the rest of the staff from other departments would be there. You knew your brother was going to be on highest alert if he sensed any guy coming too close especially if you were going to be in something he disapproved of.
“Gyeomie,” you called for him as you both walked out to the main road to catch a bus. “Are you still seeing Bambam’s sister?”
He stopped and turned in a slight surprise. “Uh? Hmmm.. yeah I am..” he shyly replied while looking around the floor with a small smile curling at his lips.
“How come I don’t hear you talk about her?” You asked, concerned that you might have been neglecting your brother.
“Well, she’s always travelling for one, and when she’s back I try to meet her at the airport. But its usually in the wee hours so… we just text a lot.” He said bashfully.
“Ahh I see. Is she coming today? I mean afterall, she’s no stranger to the company I’m sure.” You asked with curiosity on whether she would enter with a high position since you recently found out that she could well be the young heiress of this company.
He furrowed his bushy brows, “She said she was arriving today, but didn’t mention anything when I told her about the outing, so I guess not?”
Today was an outing to the beach where there was a company resort, good enough to house 200 people overnight. Seeing that it was a long weekend, it was a declared no-work period for a good 2 nights and all employees were requested to come. You knew there would be the standard team bonding stuff since you were already given a task to get closer with your team - a feedback you did not wish to act on despite it being a direct order from the HR department. Thankfully the beach wasn’t far and all it too was a bus ride from your place.
“Noona.” Yugyeom nudged you as you both sat at backseats of the bus.

“What?” you replied, following his gaze out of the window.

You saw a hoard of girls gathering around a guy, as he desperately tried to move away without hurting anyone. As Yugyeom slid the window open, screams from the girls filled the bus and it was clear that a celebrity had been spotted on the street.
“Isn’t that…………….the guy that came by?” Yugyeom said, squinting hard in the near distance trying to make out his face.

You did the same, getting a better view from the bus since it was raised above the heads of the crowd. You realised it was Jaebum. Looking up, you recognised that to be his house.

“Oh goodness, he looks like he’s alone. Where’s his manager?” Yugyeom commented at the scene. At that moment, the bus stopped at the traffic light and you could see clearly now that it was a distressing moment for the celebrity to be surrounded by more and more people, yet unable to clear his own way to break out from the crowd.

“Gyeom, I think I have to help him.” You hurriedly put on your shades and stood up, chucking your bag on your brother’s lap. He took the queue from you as if you had done it a hundred times, and followed you to the door of the bus, telling the driver you dropped something out of the window and needed him to open the door and hang on for abit.
In an instant, you shot out, ran straight into the crowd and pushed your way through with the most strength you had. It wasn’t the least but easy but that was the only way to get through to Jaebum. Once you saw yourself getting nearer, you made a jump and waved to him with a scream “IM JAEBUM!”
Thankfully he looked up at you, while still dazed, not really grasping the situation yet.
“YAHHH!!! IM JAEBUM GET OUT OF THERE!!!” you knew you were gonna turn heads with such a anti-fan scream but you didn’t care.

JB looked at you again and realised you weren’t his fangirl, and quickly made his move towards you while apologizing to his hoards of fans around him. As he moved, so did the throng of girls that were building up, Yugyeom from the bus, saw that you were soon going to get surrounded if you couldn’t get out fast.
Thanks to his tall height, he could move through the crowd easily passing the fangirls and reaching you - his tiny sister. catching you by the waist, he cleared the way for you and reached his hand out to pull Jaebum along with him.
In a flash 3 of you were making a break for the bus that was waiting not too far away and got into the door just when the light turned green.
“OKAY SIR PLEASE CLOSE THE DOOR NOW NOW NOW!!” You panted into the driver’s face as he nodded in quick panic and drove off seeing the girls running at the tail of his bus.

It was a good thing the bus was pretty empty in the morning and there wasn’t any commotion that would come out of it.
“Hey guys, how did you get here?” JB asked as he slumped into the seat to catch his breath.

“We saw your fangirls from the window but didn’t think they would be here for you.” Yugyeom said, as he landed a heavy hand on JB’s back to give him a pat.

You took a sip of water and offered it to your brother, “Here. Anyway, we’re heading to the beach, I don’t think you’ll have trouble getting back home from there?”
JB sighed, and took off the cap covering his dishevelled hair, it’s gonna be hard now that people know where I stay. Looks like I’ll have to look for Jinyoung. Anyway, thanks a lot guys… I would have been in big trouble if you both weren’t here.” He sighed again and ran his fingers through his hair, slightly looking out of the window.

Just then, Yugyeom, who had kept his eyes on JB all the while, nudged you and gestured with his two fingers, and rapid movement of his chin. You didn’t get what he was trying to motion you and shot him an annoyed frown.
He stealthily moved himself backward away from JB’s line of sight, so that your head was blocking JB’s view of you if he turned around. Whispering close beside your ear, you heard it in clear words “he’s avoiding you”.
You gave your nosey brother a good whack on the back of his head as he winced in pain silently, and JB turned to look at what happened.
You smiled back at him and noticed he turned away rather quickly, returning to look out of the window.
“Hey Jaebum….about Jinyoungie…. “ you began rather awkwardly as you inched closer towards him, since 3 of you were taking the back row of the bus, sparsely seated with you in the middle, it was hard to talk without the other person hearing.

He turned to look at you, meeting your eye instantly and you blinked quickly feeling a little conscious all of a sudden. “Yeah, I heard.” he replied, with a slight smile as he looked down at his hands. “I’m glad you’re happy, don’t worry about us, we’re cool.” JB said confidently as he sat up and adjusted himself in an upright position to face you again.
He was referring to your concern over JR and him, ever since you had to break the news gently that you were now with Mark, and had to put a stop to their advances.
“I’m… sorry Jaebum-ah.” You said sheepishly and bit your lip, not sure what to do.

He let out a chuckle, “What’s there to be sorry for? I mean, it’s not like you did anything wrong. Besides, it’s probably better this way as well.”
Yugyeom, smartly sensing some awkwardness, jumped in at the chance to talk to JB.
“Hey JB Hyung!” he stood up from your side and went to the seat infront of JB, forming a sort of triangular seating arrangement as he faced both of you. “So you dance and B-boy right?”

Catching JB’s attention fully now, Yugyeom continued to engage in conversation with him, letting you free to do your own thing while still somewhat participating by being there.
You took out your phone and read a text from Mark.
Mark: Babe, I just managed to get the rooming sorted with the HR department and gave you a room to yourself, beside mine. *winks* See you soon, miss you already.
You smiled to yourself reading the text. It had been so long since you were in a relationship, to feel the flutters of excitement, and think about the tingles on your skin when it brushed against his.
You replied him immediately.
You: Me too. See you.
——————————-
(Mark at the Beach Resort)

Peeking out from his sunglasses, at the porch of the resort room he requested, he looked satisfied with himself. Clad in loose clothing and ruffled hair from the sea breeze, he stood up and went back into the room.
Looking at the double bed, scattered with rose petals in the shape of a heart, and a little trinket box in the middle, he couldn’t wait till you arrived. Picking up the bouquet of flowers that required his both hands to hold, he sniffed at them and smiled to himself with closed eyes.
“Please, babe. Please, say yes…”

Notes