Byul almost gets a heart attack as the first thing she sees as she opens her eyes is Yunho's face hovering near hers.

The latter gets shocked too as he quickly straightens up and blurts, "Please- please don't misunderstand. I wasn't trying to do anything to you."

"What- what do you- you mean-" she gets herself out from under the blankets and from Hwayoung's embrace then scoots further from him, nearing the edge of the bed. Hwayoung is still sleeping soundly on one side, her face serene.

"I wasn't trying to do anything to you," he repeats. "I was trying to wake Hwayoung up to get ready for kindergarten but she had her arms around you. I didn't want to disturb you so I was trying to lift up her arms without waking you up." He sighs, "Now that I hear myself talking, it sounds like a bad excuse now, doesn't it?"

"It doesn't," she says, but it's full of uncertainty even when she says it, and her actions come with her tone as she distances herself further from him. "I mean sure I trust-" she doesn't get to finish her sentence as she yelps and tumbles backwards and onto the floor, pulling the blanket together with her. "Ouch," is all she can say as she disappears from view.

Yunho rushes to the other side of the bed, quickly kneeling beside her as he untangles the blanket from her and asks, "Are you okay?"

"Obviously I'm not," she squeaks. "I think I hit my head against the wall and some memories escaped me." She frowns and stays silent for a while. "Okay I remember my name at least, that's good."

Yunho chuckles but when he sees the scars on her arms peeking out from under her sleeves he clears his throat. She has taken off the bandages she had to go around with since the first day, as the wounds are closing up and healing. He looks to the side and catches Hwayoung already woken up, propping up her elbows and resting her chin on her palms, a dreamy smile on her face as she watches on the two adults.

He realizes what his daughter is thinking of so before the little kid gets to say anything, he quickly instructs, "Hwayoung, you need to shower and get ready for kindergarten. I already ironed your uniform, so wear the one I hung up in your wardrobe, okay?"

She gives a cheeky smile to the two of them before nodding. "Okay, dad. Good morning, Byul-ie!" She jumps off the bed, runs to the bathroom with Yunho reminding her to be careful.

He shakes his head when he sees that Hwayoung remains with the cheeky smile as she slowly closes the door, looking back and forth between the two adults. He gets up while holding the blanket so that he's able to fold it neatly, his eyes following Byul as she stands up after him.

Byul trips over her left foot and ends up stumbling backwards onto the bed, but not before she finds purchase to stop the impact - pulling the blanket held by Yunho until both of them are sprawled on the furniture in a position that would bring a misunderstanding to anyone.

And it does.

"Really guys? Right here in Hwayoung's bedroom with the door open? You could've you know, control your hormones and not rub it in the faces of single people like me. Get your own room!" Yeosang appears at the door, in the process of wearing an apron. "Yunho, I was looking for you because Seonghwa wanted to know what Hwayoung would want for her lunchbox, and I come to this rated scene."

"Shut up, it's not what you think it is," Byul whimpers as she pushes Yunho off her, causing him to roll to the floor with a sea of blanket around him. "We fell."

"You tripped, Yunho fell on top of you and you ended up tangled in bed. Sure Byul, whatever you say. I can trust a friend," he smirks, "or not."

"It's true!" Yunho says a bit too loudly from the floor, trying to get off from being tangled with the blanket. The tips of his ears are red as he rolls the blanket into a ball and rears back his hand to throw it towards Yeosang. It sails above Byul's head and lands on the target's face who didn't have time to duck.

"Jeong Yunho-"

A scream from the top floor cuts off Yeosang's rebuke and his instant reaction is a low laugh and he says evilly, "Looks like Mingi has gotten his present."

"WHO DID THIS TO MY HAIR?" the hacker's voice booms through the whole house accompanied by thunderous footsteps on the stairs and followed by the sound of something being whacked. "Jung Wooyoung and Choi San, both of you!"

Drawn by the chaos outside, Byul gets off the bed and Yunho makes a beeline for the door to join Yeosang who has finished tying up the knot on his apron.

They get greeted by the sight of Mingi with his hair sticking in all directions, held up by what seems like dried up red dye. He is trying with all his might to chase the two troublemakers around the living room, with Hongjoong sitting on the sofa, reading the newspaper and pretending that they are a normal bunch of people, feigning ignorance towards his team members. Seonghwa is at the kitchen, his earphones stuck to his ears - either he's wearing them because he doesn't want to deal with the chaos, or he can't hear the noise due to the music blasting into his ears.

It's most likely the first choice.

"See? I told you Mingi has some red dye lying around somewhere. Our house can turn into a unique zoo," he stretches out his arms, imitating as if he's opening a banner in front of their eyes, "The first in the world, a giraffe with red fur," he adds with a smaller voice, "and a bunch of other animals."

"Including you," Byul states.

"Of course. What makes you think that I would stand being left out?"

"Seonghwa, look at this! They put dye on my hair while I was asleep," Mingi shouts in hopes of getting help, but apparently Seonghwa doesn't hear him as he starts to sing loudly in the kitchen, banging the pots and pans as to appear busy. He turns to Hongjoong next, but the leader folds up the newspaper before shrugging and lying against the sofa to close his eyes. "Really, Kim Hongjoong? Sleeping at this hour?"

Mingi gives up chasing them around as he sighs loudly and plops on the sofa, but Hongjoong snaps his eyes open and pushes his head away so that he won't be able to rest his head against the textile. "Rinse the dye off your hair first, or you'll dirty the sofa. The fabric's expensive and it's going to be hard to take it off."

With a pout on his mouth and the feeling of being wronged trailing him, he stomps up the stairs and slams his bedroom door shut.

"Is Hwayoung really the youngest in this house?" Byul inquires as she moves towards her room.

"Considering how everyone is in this house, I would say no," Yunho says under his breath as he subconsciously follows her and Yeosang goes the other way to help Seonghwa at the kitchen.

"Excuse me, but why are you being a creep and following me until my bedroom door? Do I need to slap you back to your right mind?" she reprimands him, her hands to her hips.

He snaps back into reality, realizing that his two feet have brought him in front of her bedroom, with her looking cute as she frowns and sticks out her lower lip. Even with her threatening him, he finds it cute that she's shorter than him, and he knows that it's not right, but he's reminded of the person he fell deeply in love with 11 years ago.

Because I was only a stupid kid who thought that love was simple.

"Sorry," he manages. "Are you still mad at me for shocking you just now? It really wasn't intentional."

"No," she decides. "Why would I be mad over something you didn't mean to do? I was only joking, lighten up," she playfully punches a fist to his shoulder, but immediately regrets it because things between them have been awkward after she asked him about why his codename was as such. Of course it would be awkward, considering he just confessed his undying love towards a dead person to another girl.

Before she has to think of something to break the tension between them, much to her relief the beep coming from the device indicating a message has been sent in breaks the silence, and Wooyoung is the first to press his thumb on the screen. Everyone waits in silence as he reads the message, and as he reaches the end of the message, he whistles.

"Looks like we're going to a lavish party," Wooyoung announces, running a hand through his hair as he tries to digest the compact information on the device. "The event is set to start at tomorrow evening, 7pm on a Saturday."

"The mission?" Hongjoong approaches him, taking in the information one by one and already having a layout of their mission spread out in his mind.

"Intercepting a meeting between two groups of people who have never met, stealing a deal before it gets to the other," the sniper helps to summarize. "We're about to take on disguises."

"So taking on someone else's identity, pretending to be them to carry out a deal with both parties," the leader decides.

"Essentially for a while," San joins in. "Only for that night during the party, but there's one problem. One of the parties," he pauses, "is a married couple. The wife has to be there because apparently she's the boss of this exchange of deal. She's the main player, the youngest daughter of a materials company. They're about to make a deal for the newest substance from a secret source. Our requester is looking to get their hands on the substance first."

All eyes, including Seonghwa and Yeosang's, trail the path to land on two people idling in front of the bedroom door, who are looking awkward as they notice that all attention are on them. Yeosang waves around the fork in his hand, already thinking on how he's going to dress up the fake couple for disguise. A lavish dinner party... for one thing they have to look expensive.

"What are you guys planning?" Byul asks, her hand already pressing down on the doorknob to her room. "I don't like this look you're all giving us," she gestures towards her and Yunho.

"We usually decline missions like these because we simply can't carry it out," Wooyoung comments, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "But don't you think," he looks around to the other boys, when the idea starts to dawn on them, "that Byul and Yunho would look perfect as a married couple?"

"No we don't," Byul pronounces at the same time Yunho says, "I guess we can."

"Aw, did you hear that?" Seonghwa gushes, pushing Yeosang and San out of the way so that he's standing next to Hongjoong. "Wooyoung did you hear that? Yunho thinks that they can look good as one."

"I mean-" Yunho turns red before pressing his lips into thin lines. "I'll do whatever for a mission. No personal feelings involved," his eyes dart to the left, catching sight of Byul looking at him with an are you being serious look.

"Sounds like an excuse to work with her," San says flatly. He tries to tone down the jealousy in his voice, but reminds himself that it takes two to tango; nothing will happen as long as one of the parties remains passive.

"Byul, are you up for it?" Yeosang unties his apron. "Because it's time to whip out our secret wardrobes and maybe... buy new ones."

"Not so fast," Hongjoong interrupts, and heads turn to him. Byul crosses her arms in defence, as if she has already known that whatever the leader's about to say is going to offend her. He puts up a finger, "Not until you prove that you can be a part of us."

"Damn, this is progress!" Wooyoung exclaims. "Before this Hongjoong won't even let you in the team but now he's asking you to prove it. What do you say, Byul?"

Byul narrows her eyes towards Hongjoong, whose face is impassive. She can't tell what he's planning to do with inviting her to actually take part in the mission, when he's so adamant in pushing her away before. He has a hidden intention, but she can't guess when her mind's a mess with other problems.

She sneers, "You want me to prove that I'm worthy to be among you 8 grown men?"

"Why? Scared of what's going to come?" Hongjoong challenges her with a smirk. "Scared that you're going to cry during the training?"

Yunho looks at Byul, who looks relaxed, not the least bit intimidated by his invitation. "Fine, I'll see what all 8 of you have in store for me," she decides. "What happens if I beat up all your sorry asses? Do I get a prize?"

"Not before you actually do," the leader replies, consulting his watch. "After Hwayoung leaves for kindergarten, we'll start your impromptu training and we'll see if you have what we need. You only have one chance to prove it to us, and if you pass," there's a change in tone as he turns serious, "we'll have you on board."

She takes a moment to think about it, scanning the faces of each men in the crowd. They are holding various reactions; Seonghwa looks proud, Yeosang, San and Wooyoung look excited, while Hongjoong remains passive. Yunho looks to be deep in thinking, before he wordlessly walks to his daughter's bedroom when Hwayoung calls him over, saying she needs help with tying up her hair.

Her eyes flit to the direction of Hwayoung's bedroom door before nodding once. "Deal."

"Breakfast!" Hwayoung shouts through the whole house as she runs out of the room with Yunho behind her, holding on to her bag and smiling proudly looking at his daughter. She jumps onto the chair, swinging her legs as she waits for Seonghwa to serve breakfast for her; spicy meat broth with some bean sprout rice.

"Eat a lot, our little princess," Seonghwa bows once to her and Hwayoung giggles, doing a little bow from her seat with her hands folded on her waist. "I prepared a lunchbox for you, I hope it's to our little princess' liking."

"Uncle Seonghwa's cooking is always delicious, not like dad's," Hwayoung says through a mouthful of rice. "Sometimes it's delicious but sometimes it tastes like paper."

The whole house erupts with laughter, including Jongho who has just finished showering and has joined Hwayoung for breakfast. Yunho tries to look unaffected, even when his pride feels like it's being torn into small pieces by his own daughter. His own blood.

"Hwayoung, how could you?" Yunho lets go of her bag onto the sofa, as if her words have just costed him the ability to function.

"How do you know how paper tastes like?" Yeosang asks worriedly as he scrutinizes the child's face. "Did your dad allow you to eat that?"

She shakes her head, and after munching on a piece of meat and swallowing, she tells them, "Uncle Mingi told me not to tell anyone that I ate paper when he was looking after me. It was at that night when dad and uncles are all busy with work." She continues eating innocently, when she doesn't realize that she has made the uncle who now has red hair, still in his bedroom trying to tidy up the dried dye, become a target of the rest.

"He what?" Byul and Yunho simultaneously shout and looks of disbelief get plastered on their faces.

"I knew we can't trust her with Mingi," San tuts. "That man can't even take care of himself."

"Honey was it at that night when you had a stomachache but Uncle Mingi wouldn't tell us what's wrong?" Yunho asks, already taking off the right pair of his house slipper, intending to use it as a weapon as they hear the only person upstairs coming down.

"Okay, I managed to get the red dye off-" Instead of a good morning from the rest, he gets a good whack on his face, courtesy of Yunho's house slipper and he cries out another why is everyone being mean to me so early in the morning!

Bits of red dye has stuck to his hair, making it look as if San transferred his hair colour to him. He picks up the pair of house slipper, and aims it at Yunho, but he's not the best at targeting as the slipper sails and heads for Byul instead. He realizes it a bit too late that his aiming skills are nonexistent as the slipper soars to hit her; gasps of horror arise from Jongho and Yeosang as the object is already inches away from her face.

In reflex Yunho reaches out to block the slipper from hitting her face, but it's not before she catches the slipper without even looking, pinching it in between her two fingers.

"Damn she's cool," is all Wooyoung can say as Byul calmly drops the slipper near Yunho's bare foot.

"There you go, your slipper," she nonchalantly says before retreating into her bedroom. "I'm going to get a shower, so please ignore if an apparition passes by when all of you are having breakfast."

Everyone remains stunned in their spots, including Hwayoung who has stopped eating her rice. "Dad," she whines. "She's awesome. Why won't you let her be my mother?"

"Hwayoung, it's not that simple," San chastises, taking a seat at the table as he gets over his shock. "Look at your dad, he's as red as Mingi's hair."

The little kid pouts but soon after continues to shove spoonful after spoonful of rice. They gradually join in one by one, and Seonghwa is the last as he takes off his apron and lays it down on the counter.

"Who's working at the cafe today?" Hongjoong asks. They never really have a set schedule on who's going to man the cafe on which days, as at least one would be available. However, everyone looks unwilling today, as all of them secretly want to stay back at the headquarters. "No one?"

"We want to see Byul training," Wooyoung admits, followed by a nod from Jongho, even though he wasn't there when Hongjoong challenged her. "It's not everyday that we see another one coming in to join us."

"Can we not open the cafe for today, at least? Please?" Yeosang bats his eyelashes, earning snorts from others.

"If you see Yeosang acting cute, that's when you know it's serious," Jongho gravely says, gripping his utensil.

"Alright, alright. Just for today, only because of Han Byul," the team captain gives his permission. "Are you sending Hwayoung to the kindergarten, Yunho?"

"I'll send her!" Wooyoung quickly interposes himself in the conversation, gobbling up his food with inhuman speed before helping Hwayoung to get out of her seat and put on her backpack.

"Uh, thanks?" Yunho leans back against the chair. "Why is he so excited in sending my child to kindergarten? Did I do anything wrong to him and will he keep Hwayoung hostage and demand something from me?"

"Hwayoung, be careful on your way there," Yeosang tells her. "If Uncle Wooyoung is being creepy, don't hesitate to kick him where it hurts like I taught you and run, okay?"

"Hello police? These crackheads are being mean to me!" Wooyoung does a motion like he's calling someone before leaving the house while carrying Hwayoung and her backpack.

Wooyoung, with Hwayoung in his embrace, walks all the way to the kindergarten with a subtle smile on his face, but as soon as he gets to the establishment his face falls. He catches sight of Ms. Lee with another man, who seemed to have sent her to work. She laughs before giving a quick hug to the man and the man drives off in an expensive red sports car.

Everything that he can never be.

"Uncle Wooyoung, are those tears in your eyes?" Hwayoung pokes the corner of his eyes and he lets out a small whimper.

"No," he sniffs. "I'm not crying, I'm strong."

"But your cheeks are already wet from your tears."

"I'm just sweating from my eyes, Hwayoung."

"We don't have sweat glands in our eyes, Byul-ie told me."

"Everyone has a different anatomy," he replies, putting her down. Hwayoung puts up her hand and pulls Wooyoung together with her. Although her uncle is bigger and heavier than her, the little kid exerts force while he lets himself get pulled towards the gate of her kindergarten.

Ms. Lee who's about to enter the compound stops when she sees the pair, feeling conflicted on whether she should be going inside or stay there to greet Hwayoung, but then making it obvious that she wanted to stay a little longer because Wooyoung is there.

"Ms. Lee!" Hwayoung shouts, pulling a red as a beet Wooyoung behind her, with him quickly wiping the tears off with his sleeve.

"Hwayoung, no-"

"Good morning Hwayoung," the teacher greets her, making a point to not look at Wooyoung and reaching out to take a hold of the little girl's hand.

"Good morning!" With a cheeky grin the little girl brings forwards Wooyoung's hand and links it with her teacher's hand instead before dashing off, waving to her friends who just came. She turns to look back once and waves to her uncle, joining in the crowd of kindergartners at the compound.

"Ah shit I'm sorry-" the teacher blurts out, quickly releasing her hand from Wooyoung's grasp, and adds, "shit- I mean, I don't mean to curse. I'm sorry for cursing, I'm just-" she stumbles over her words as she turns to head in the kindergarten, embarrassment creeping up on her face when she looks at Wooyoung's face.

He looks pissed off that she starts to get scared, when in reality he's just trying his hardest to not have his feelings take over his words. He stands still in place, his mind debating on whether it's worth the risk to start a conversation. He's scared that once he starts, he won't want to turn back.

What if he brings danger to her, because he's getting her involved with someone like him? Not to mention that he isn't even supposed to be getting into any relationships, but how would he be able to stop his feelings towards her?

For once, he wants to break the rule.

"You have a boyfriend," he states dumbly.

Wow, congrats Jung Wooyoung. What a way to start a conversation with a girl you like. That's it, I'm staying single forever.

"Oh, um, no?" she replies, subconsciously tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. She catches him looking to the driveway and realizes what he actually means. "That was my older brother," she explains. She tries to pretend that she's calm, when she's definitely not after hearing his voice, with words that are actually directed to her.

"Right, of course." He feels stupid, hoping that he could actually bury himself in hot sand right there and then. He plays around with the cuff of his shirt. "I'll get going," but his words betray him when he remains in place, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"I'm Lee Mikyung," she utters suddenly. "I mean, sorry, you probably didn't want to know. I just-"

"Jung Wooyoung." He places a palm on the back of his neck, thinking that he really did it; there's no turning back. "My name. Would you, um, like to get coffee some time?"

"At the cafe you run with Hwayoung's dad?" she asks, all ready to say out the answer.

"Not there. The coffee there sucks," he chuckles, and she feels something blooming inside her chest as he does that. "Maybe somewhere else fancier."

"Sure, I'd love to," she replies almost immediately, then sinks back when she realizes how eager she sounded.

He resists the urge to jump up in excitement as he clears his throat. "That's nice, then. I'll get going now." He turns around, but faces her again as he realizes that he forgot one thing. "Is it okay if I ask for your number? So I can actually, uh, contact you."

He takes out his phone and hands it to her, and so she types out her number, he saves it under her name, going against the idea to put a heart at the end of her name. Not yet, not too fast. He leaves a missed call to her phone and says, "That's my number. You can contact me if someone disturbs you or if you need someone to talk to."

She nods, trying to subdue her excitement. "Thanks."

"Right, see you." He turns around and pumps out a low fist after successfully getting her number. As soon as he walks further though, unease starts settling in him. He's not making the right choice now, is he?

Oh gosh, what have I done?

---

[A/N: Whoops this chapter was longer than expected. Also, Lee Mikyung is the main character's name from Cupcakes by moonglowz. If you haven't, go check it out! It's a cute and fluffy book you wouldn't want to miss uwu

Also please interact with me so that I know of all of you are still on board after the previous chapter 😂 sorry for the sad (?) chapter ngl I cried when I was writing that chapter because I was too invested in the story.]