"You're just making a phone call. Quit being a drama mama."

Alex took a deep breath and pressed the "call" button on his phone. He put the phone to his ear and held his breath as he listened to the dial tone ring.

"Hello?" Eunri's voice came from the other end of the line.

He was tongue-tied.

"Say something! You're going to sound like one of those creepy stalkers breathing heavily on the other end of the line if you keep this up."

"Hello? Eunri? This is Al— Daehyun," Alex squeaked, managing to correct himself just in time.

"Daehyun? Oh, hi! Did your meeting go well?"

There was no meeting. All he had been doing for the past few days was help Daehyun reply work emails and hunt the streets of Prague for good food. He would have called Eunri the day after they arrived, but Daehyun reminded him (shouted at him, actually) that being too eager was unbecoming.

"Yes! Everything went smoothly," he fibbed. "Have you been enjoying yourself around Prague? Umm you know I said I wanted to treat you to dinner sometime? To thank you for helping me out on the flight?" He had his fingers crossed behind his back, hoping that she meant what she said the other day and wouldn't come up with an excuse to reject him.

"Yes, but I was actually planning to leave Prague tomorrow so..."

"Already?"

It was too soon! He knew he had forgotten to ask her something when they parted ways the other day, and her departure date was it. He had assumed she would stay in Prague for at least a week, if not longer.

"You know what, how about we do dinner tonight? Would that be okay?" Eunri added.

When he heard what she had just said, Alex jumped onto his bed in the hotel room and did a fist pump and victory shimmy. "Yeah, dinner tonight sounds great! Where should I meet you?" he replied, trying to withhold the excitement in his voice. It wasn't quite working. He could hardly contain the butterflies that were flying around his stomach.

"Under the astronomical clock at the old town hall? 7pm?"

"Sure! I'll see you then."

He ended the call with a gentle tap on the button. Then he exploded.

"Yeah!" Alex shouted in excitement as he continued bouncing up and down on the bed and doing his crazy dance moves.

"Can you not dance around like that? I don't dance like that. If the chambermaid walked in right now and saw me doing that then my reputation would be ruined for good," Daehyun said in his usual deadpan tone. "For someone who's supposed to be musically trained, your dance moves are severely lacking."

"What should I wear, what should I wear? There's no time!" Alex jumped off the bed and ran towards the wardrobe, flipping through all of Daehyun's clothes.

"Hey be careful with that, that's made of imported silk," Daehyun snapped as he saw Alex manhandle one of his most expensive shirts.

Alex took out almost every shirt in the cupboard and threw them on the bed, putting one shirt after another in front of his chest as he looked in the mirror trying to decide which shirt to choose. Daehyun's clothes were totally not his style. They were all too stiff and formal. They were uptight banker clothes, not carefree musician clothes.

"Which one do you think you look best in?" he asked. Since he would be going as Lee Daehyun, then Daehyun would probably be the one who knew best.

Daehyun sighed. "White one with the navy blue collar. Matched with the khaki coloured trousers."

Alex obediently picked out the shirt and trousers and headed to the bathroom to get changed. When he came out, he gave himself the once over in the mirror. He had to admit that Daehyun had good taste in clothes—he looked pretty damn good. Would have looked even better if those same clothes were hanging on Alex Yang's handsome frame.

"Pfft. You honestly think you're more handsome than me?"

Alex had shown Daehyun a photo of what he actually looked like using his SNS account. Daehyun was of the opinion that he was definitely the more handsome of the two. Alex naturally insisted otherwise.

"It's only eleven in the morning. Why are you getting dressed now?"

"No harm being prepared!" Alex grinned at his own reflection in the mirror, then stuffed his wallet in his back pocket and headed out of the door. "So, what shall we do today? Visit that basili-something place?"

"St. George's Basilica..."

#

Alex stood under the astronomical clock wringing his hands in anticipation as the clock counted down towards seven. He felt as though he was going on his first date again.

He remembered his first date with Eunri as if it were only yesterday. They had gone to the movies to watch an anniversary re-run of "Notting Hill". Eunri had loved the movie to bits and he had pretended like it was a dull affair. Romcoms were not really in line with the image he was trying to portray. He even dissed Hugh Grant for being not as handsome as him. Secretly, he loved the movie so much that he had gone and bought the DVD and re-watched it another ten times on his own. It was one of those things that he hoped Eunri would never find out because she would be making fun of him for the next five years at least.

That day, just like today, they had agreed to meet at seven for dinner before the film, and he had stood there in front of the restaurant wringing his hands nervously wondering if she would actually show up.

She did show up. And the rest was history.

Today he felt the same kind of anxiety that he had on their first date. It was like déjà vu.

"What if she doesn't show up?"

"She'll show up..."

"What makes you so sure!"

"No one has ever rejected Lee Daehyun before."

"How is it that your ego is so big?"

"Speak for yourself"

"Daehyun?" Someone tapped on his shoulder from behind.

Alex spun around, a broad smile creeping across his face when he realised that it was Eunri.

"I told you so. I'm too hot to resist."

"Eunri! Right on time. Where are we going for dinner?"

"There's this restaurant near here that's been given five-stars in the guidebook..." Eunri fished out her tourist guide and flipped to the page, showing it to Alex. "Shall we go there?"

He grinned and nodded. He would go anywhere with Eunri, even if it were a roadside stall that sold oil-soaked kimchi pancakes that he hated.

The place that Eunri chose was a traditional Czech restaurant that specialised in schitnzel. The duo managed to keep up a rather animated conversation throughout the entire dinner. Again, it was mostly Daehyun talking and Alex repeating what he was told to say, and the conversation ended up ranging from history and politics to travel and books. Alex was frankly amazed by the encyclopedia that Daehyun had stored in his brain, and evidently so was Eunri. They even found out that they shared the same favourite author, Haruki Murakami, and spent a good hour or so discussing his latest book. Eunri had tried to make Alex read the book before, but he only lasted halfway before he lost the plot.

They were in the middle of discussing yet another Murakami book when a voice interrupted them.

"Daehyun?"

Alex was too mesmerised with watching Eunri talk that he didn't even notice. That, and the fact that he still hadn't gotten used to responding to the name "Daehyun".

"Lee Daehyun!"

Eunri looked past his shoulder and pointed at the person who was calling out to him. "Uh Daehyun, someone's calling you," she said.

Alex turned around in surprise. Why would anyone recognise him in Prague?

A man and a woman were walking towards them. The man was dressed in a smart-looking black shirt with maroon trousers. The girl who was attached to his right arm looked like she was decked out in expensive brands but with bad taste. He didn't recognise either of them.

"Shit. Not them..." Daehyun muttered.

"You know them?" Alex raised a napkin to his lips and whispered. This was a situation that they hadn't been expecting—bumping into Daehyun's acquaintances when they were so far away from Seoul.

"David Kim and Bae Jieun. My arch enemy and my ex-girlfriend."

"You had a girlfriend?"

Who in their right mind would date someone like Lee Daehyun?

The couple had already walked up to their table.

"Lee Daehyun, it's really you! Fancy seeing you here," the man named David said, giving him a friendly slap on the back that felt a little too forceful. The girl beside him, Bae Jieun, also exchanged greetings with him and Eunri.

"Hi David, Jieun," Alex said hesitantly. He didn't know anything about Daehyun's history with David, which posed a problem since he didn't know how he was supposed to react. Since Daehyun said they were arch enemies, he figured he should probably act slightly distant and cold, yet this David Kim dude was behaving all chummy and pally with him.

Alex was confused.

"I didn't think you had time to come all the way to Prague and have such a leisurely dinner? Aren't you the 24/7 workaholic?" David teased. Jieun laughed along, and it immediately left a bitter taste in Alex's mouth. This girl was plastic inside and out—unlike his Eunri.

He disliked them immediately.

Even though it was true and Daehyun was a workaholic, he didn't think it was very nice for them to be laughing at him like that when he obviously had a guest with him. Besides, he was the only one who had the right to make snide remarks about Daehyun. Who did David Kim think he was?

"Aren't you going to introduce us to this lovely lady over here?" David winked at Alex as he gestured towards Eunri.

"Uh, this is Park Eunri," Alex mumbled.

"Eunri, lovely to meet you." David stretched out his hand to shake Eunri's, acting like the perfect gentleman. "My name is David Kim and this is my girlfriend, Bae Jieun. We're both old classmates of Daehyun's from high school." He put his arm around Jieun, and Alex could tell that he was only doing it to annoy Daehyun.

Alex coughed into his napkin. "This guy is a jerk. Do you want me to beat him up for you?" he hissed.

"Forget it. David Kim is not worth dirtying your hands over. I wonder what he's doing here. How could I be so unlucky..."

"Daehyun, I'm glad you've got a pretty companion with you! I was beginning to worry that after Jieun left you'd be wallowing alone in misery. Now I don't need to feel so guilty," David said with a sarcastic grin.

"Bullshit. As if he ever felt guilty in the first place."

"Hey, are you going for our class gathering in Monaco next week? Didn't receive your RSVP. I just bought a new villa and yacht over there so we're all going to go out to sea. Should be fun. You should come if you aren't too busy slogging your guts out in front of a laptop. Bring Eunri along too! The more the merrier!"

"Bollocks. You just want to show off your spanking new yacht and villa. Alex, say no. I'm not going to his fucking show-off party."

Alex thought about it silently for a while.

"Sure! I'll be there!" he suddenly replied.

"What the hell are you doing? You're supposed to say no!" Daehyun shouted angrily in his head.

"Really?"

Both David and Jieun seemed slightly taken aback by the positive response. They had obviously been expecting him to turn them down, and were just taking the opportunity to flaunt the fact that they could lead such luxurious lives while Daehyun had to work so hard for his success.

Alex nodded vigorously. "Sure, why not? I was thinking about getting a new villa in Monaco as well, so I'll just scout around while I'm there." He was lying through his teeth now, but he just needed to wipe that annoying self-absorbed grin off David Kim's face.

David and Jieun exchanged quizzical glances with each other. "Sure... That's great... I guess we'll see you there then!" David plastered the fake smile back on his face, but the cracks were clearly showing. "Eunri too?"

"Umm I don't think so," Eunri said quietly.

"Oh? You mean the two of you aren't..." David raised his eyebrows. "Forever alone huh, Lee Daehyun? It's alright, you can still come even if it's just you. We won't turn you away. See you in Monaco!" He smirked one more time, then he led Jieun away to another table in the restaurant.

"Asshole..."

"Was that a friend of yours? He didn't seem very nice," Eunri asked hesitantly.

"We're not exactly friends," Alex replied on Daehyun's behalf. He still had the urge to throw a punch in David's face, so it was just as well they had moved to the opposite end of the restaurant and were out of sight.

"So, are you really going to Monaco?"

"I don't know," Alex mumbled. He had agreed out of impulse because he couldn't stand the way David was talking down to Daehyun as if the latter were an ant he could easily crush with his foot. The Lee Daehyun he knew was definitely way more than that, even if he could be an annoying nag most of the time.

After Daehyun recounted his entire experience with David and Jieun to Alex, Alex honestly repeated everything to Eunri. Now they both knew how Jieun had left Daehyun for David, and how David would blatantly use that as a means to trample all over Daehyun's ego at every single opportunity.

If Daehyun were to show up alone in Monaco, then David would surely rip it out of him and start all the "forever alone" jokes again. On hindsight, Alex realised that he might have made a wrong move by agreeing to go. He had just set Daehyun up for more ridicule and humiliation.

"Sorry, I didn't know about all that. We won't go for the Monaco thing," he apologised to Daehyun when Eunri wasn't looking.

Daehyun sighed. "It's alright. You didn't know. You were just trying to stand up for me."

To their surprise, it was Eunri who spoke up next, and she said something that left the both of them mind-goggled.

"Daehyun, you know what? Let's go to Monaco."

#