Chapter 13

It was late night when Zen arrived back at his apartment. Everyone had left first, Zen stayed behind. As expected of Jumin, it was an elite serviced penthouse, very much unlike Zen's current apartment. At least he felt safer leaving Ha Eun there, security guards at the lobby, passcode-accessed doors, and CCTV that Seven should be able to access.

The apartment felt colder, quieter, and gloomier from the moment he stepped into the room. Just because a person is gone, it felt like everything has changed.

The phone in his pocket vibrates, 'My Love' He smiled before answering the phone, it seems that the world can read his mind.

"You're home already?", asks Ha Eun.

"Yes. I'm back safe."

Zen smiled at the word 'home', this was not just an apartment, a house or anything. This is their home.

"Good, I missed you already.", said Ha Eun.

"I missed you even more, I want to cry!"

Tracing his steps into the apartment, Zen threw his body to the bed. Inhaling the scent Ha Eun left behind.

"It's very lonely here without you.", said Zen again.

Ha Eun felt lonely as well, even though she was sitting near the balcony, watching the city lights. Here in this apartment, she felt lonely and she felt her tears slowly rushing down. Zen can hear the suppressed sniffle from the other end.

"Ha Eun? Are you crying?", asked Zen worried.

"....No...", Ha Eun said between her sniffles.

"Hey, don't cry! Or else I'm going to cry too!"

First response that Zen could come after was panic. He panicked. He just usually loops his arm around her and let her cry at him. But now, she got no one there.

"Okay, okay, let's talk about something else! Uhmm.... Something that annoys you.... Oh! I think I bought the wrong capsule for our coffee machine again."

Ha Eun's coffee was a latte-kind, but Zen kept mistaking the capsule refill package with another one and bought back a black coffee capsule, all the time.

She gave a small laugh and tried to stop her tears.

"Again? How can you buy the wrong thing again?"

"The box's colour was similar!"

"No they're not."

"Okay, I'll take a picture of it next time. But now, you feel better right?", asked Zen.

"A bit. Because you're not here."

"Aww..... Please don't talk like that. I'll really cry!"

Ha Eun took a few deep breath to normalise her breathing. It was her decision to move out for the time being, she shouldn't cry over it.

"But you know what, from the day we met until today. We have never been apart. Well, we go to work but we still come home to each other."

"Actually yes. That's why it's very hard to part now, right."

The penthouse was quiet, she had never been in such a quiet apartment. With Zen, there is always talking or anything going on. Ha Eun stood up and walk towards her bedroom. It's a bit late, she should go to sleep soon.

"Is everything you need there already?", asked Zen again.

"Yeah, I guess so. Oh right, come to think of it!"

Zen's mind seemed to get a heads up from Ha Eun's rise of tone.

"How in the world did Yoosung find your jute rope? Why would you put your rope in plain sight?", asked Ha Eun.

"I.... I haven't rolled them back up again, so I didn't put them back in the box."

Ha Eun palmed her face. Zen can almost feel her doing that, rolling her eyes at him. It was a shocking sight for both Zen and Ha Eun as well when Yoosung was holding the rope, not knowing what it was used for. Zen's reflex was to grab it and make things even weirder.

"Uhhh.... This is a different kind of rope. It's an emergency rope. Let's just put them here. Okay, let me help you find something else."

Zen pushes the dumbfounded Yoosung out of room while Ha Eun quickly places the rope back at the box placed at the top shelf of the wardrobe.

"And you sure no one saw the box?", asked Ha Eun.

"No ma'am."

"Not even Jaehee?"

"It's at the top, Jaehee wouldn't think of it as anything important if we put it on top.", said Zen.

Zen can hear Ha Eun sigh at the end of the line. Well, today's been a very memorable day. Their adventurous sex life was just about to be discovered, and it had to be Yoosung.

"Thank God it's just a rope we can reason with. I can't picture if Yoosung were to find the rest of the contents.", mumbled Zen.

"No, no, Yoosung is too pure for that."

Zen could not picture Yoosung holding the mysterious looking rod that is clearly shaped-like-a-man's-member, with a red face and not knowing the places it went into...

Ha Eun can hear the sound of Zen hitting something.

"What happened?"

"Can we not talk about this now? I... I couldn't control myself if this goes on."

"Oh. Naughty! Okay, so.... Goodbye then?"

"I really don't want to hang up, but it's really late. You have to sleep."

"Wait, the line from Changing Seasons. Can you read it to me?", asked Ha Eun.

"Changing Seasons? Uh.. Wait..."

You think love at first sight is just a joke? Deeply falling in love with the one person who can immediately touch my heart is a joke? I honestly don't know. All that I know is that everyone wants to be in that kind of love at least once in their life, no matter what other people say. And now, the woman I want to love stands right in front of me. Here, take my hand, my one and only true love.

Zen can feel his hand reaching out to the air, to that person somewhere far away. Ha Eun's heart was filled with warmth. It was one of the lines that she liked best. And it was thanks to Jaehee that she had a quick catch-up with Zen's work. She thank the heavens for such a man like Zen.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Zen places his phone away and hugged the covers of the bed tightly. He's going to miss the little things about sleeping with Ha Eun. He knows when she is tired, she'll move around in her sleep. The first time he discovered it, he woke up several times at night because Ha Eun pushes him away or she accidently smacks him in the face. Other times when she is sleeping really soundly, she'll stay the whole night in his arms or even snuggle even closer to him.

God, he wishes the tough times just end faster.

---

It was the last shoot for the cat-thingy. Zen can almost feel his heart jumping in joy. The last shoot was done for a charity project C&R's cat line in collaboration with cat shelters. Being in the photo surrounded by a ton of cats, Zen pulled everything he got to still look normal at the photos. Still even though he signed a contract as the sole rep for C&R's cat-line products, at least there won't be a project until few months.

When they decided for Ha Eun to move out, Zen then accepted as many offers as he can. Making himself as busy as possible. The fans should be lurking around the corner, searching for signs that Zen has a personal life. Too late, he had moved Ha Eun away. He is doing drama, modelling and musical, all at the same time.

It was one of the most enjoyable times for Jaehee, Jumin is away so she doesn't have to be bothered with his works, Elizabeth 3rd is 'working' and she got to spend time with Zen.

"Thanks for your help yesterday Jaehee. You are really helpful.", said Zen.

"Oh it's my pleasure. It's the only thing I can do. Is she doing fine?"

"I didn't call her, but I'm sure she'll be fine."

"That's unusual for you to not call.", said Jaehee.

"It's a rule we kind of made. Calls are limited, because or else I'll be calling her all the time. She needs to focus she said. So, I text her sometimes but she replied late."

"I hope she's doing fine."

Jumin just came back from a business trip that's why he wasn't there when everyone was moving yesterday, but he dropped by today. Zen took the lint roller from the staff as soon as the shoot finished and begin rolling the cat fur off his shirt.

"Thank God, today is the last day. I can finally breathe freely.", said Zen.

"Don't be happy yet, you're bound by contract with this project."

"Oh Mr Han, you're here.", said Jaehee.

"Yes, I had enough rest, so I came here."

"Thank you for the place again, Jumin. You sure you don't want to be paid?"

"No, it's helping out a friend. It's socially unacceptable to profit from it."

"Socially unacceptable...", Jaehee gave an awkward tone at Jumin's word.

"I already said no to Ha Eun earlier too.", replied Jumin.

"You talked to her?", asked Zen.

"I called her this morning to check up on my tenant. I'm a good landlord."

"Oh."

Jaehee was a bit surprised to see Zen's plain reply. Shouldn't he be jealous that his girlfriend got a call from another man and he didn't know about it? Zen is the possessive type after all.

"Zen, aren't you jealous?", asked Jaehee.

"Eh? At Jumin calling Ha Eun? Why would I, with this guy especially. I would have a problem if it's other people. But it's Jumin. I know she meet up and talk with Seven occasionally and I'm fine with it."

"Oh, that's a different side of you.", commented Jumin.

"You know, Seven changed too. You know he has something he hide from us and it's his burden. Ha Eun kind of connect to him you know. That's Ha Eun, she heals people. I would be selfish to keep her to myself. But deep down I know she's mine."

Jaehee looked at Zen's backside as he walked away from her. He went to talk with the project manager together with Jumin. In that moment, her respect for his ideal increased even more. He's not just a simple in-love man, his way of doing his relationships and his trust, it just makes Jaehee idolizes him even more. She couldn't be more jealous of Ha Eun.

---

707, Jaehee Kang, Jumin Han

Jaehee Kang: Hello, Seven.

707: Yohoo~

707: Knight Seven, reporting for duty!

Jumin Han: What are you reporting?

Jaehee Kang: Do you have any more info about Zen's problem?

707: Bingo!

707: But too bad the person isn't here, Ha Eun too.

Jaehee Kang: Ha Eun would be studying. Zen had a musical rehearsal, I think.

Jaehee Kang: He's been keeping himself busy.

Jumin Han: Oh Assistant Kang, are you assisting Zen now?

707: lol

707: lolol

Jaehee Kang: What? He told me earlier.

Jumin Han: Back to topic. Seven?

Jaehee Kang: You're the one that changed the topic the first place, Mr. Han.

707: So I can confirm that the culprit is not Echo Girl!

Jaehee Kang: Really?

Jumin Han: That contradicts to what everyone is thinking about.

707: The username was made and accessed from an internet café.

707: On those dates Echo Girl has an appearance somewhere else. Unless she duplicates herself, it's not her.

Jumin Han: She wouldn't do this herself. Last time she had help from the manager.

707: If she did pay to cause Zen trouble, she had paid the wrong guy. This job is poorly done and most likely a normal person.

Jaehee Kang: But still, we don't know who did it.

Jumin Han: At least we eliminated some possibilities.

707: I'll see if I can hack into the café's CCTV and identify the culprit's face.

Jumin Han: Good, continue. I have somewhere to go.

Jumin Han has left the chatroom.

707: Sir, yes Sir!

Jaehee Kang: Thank you for your help, Seven. You are a saviour.

707: I am God Seven after all.

707: That's it of my report. I'll go back to work.

Jaehee Kang: Goodbye.

---

Zen took out the water bottle from the fridge and drink big gulps from it. He went straight to work out after finishing his musical rehearsal. He has an outdoor drama shooting as well tomorrow. If he continues to work, then he won't realise the days passing by.

His phone vibrates at the table. Han Jumin.

Han Jumin? Calling him? And it's late 10PM.

"Jumin?", asked Zen.

"Oh. Can you go to the penthouse right now?"

"Ha Eun's? Why? Did something happened?"

"I unintentionally made your girlfriend drunk and it's socially unacceptable for me to be here. But there's no one to take care of her."

Jumin sounds a bit apologetic and it's unlike the usual Jumin. Zen rubbed his forehead in sudden confusion.

"Drunk... What... Well, okay, I'll go there now."

"You need a driver to pick you up?"

"No. The motorcycle would be faster."

"She let you ride motorcycle now?", asked Jumin.

"Yes, we even take night rides, you know. It's not about it. I'll get there soon."