"We really are alone here, aren't we?" Ga Eul's voice was filled with wonder as she looked around them, her hand automatically tightening around his.
He chuckled. "Well, mostly," Woo Bin said, leading her towards the center of the restaurant - where a single table was set up for two, illuminated by the light of candlesticks and the lone bright chandelier above it. "I'm pretty sure I paid for someone to still take our order and cook our meal, but if you'd rather we do it ourselves-"
She smacked him on the arm. "You know what I mean." Ga Eul gestured around them. "It's just... this place didn't seem so big the last time we were here."
"The last time we were here, we weren't on a date." Woo Bin paused. "At least not a proper one, I'd say."
She scrunched her nose and said, "And yet you had been a little extra when showing me how thankful you were that day."
"I wanted to impress you," he replied honestly, thinking back on the events a bit.
"Me?"
"Yes, you." He reached forward to pinch her nose. "You don't have to sound so surprised about it."
"Why? Did you-" Color abruptly rose to her cheeks then. "I mean, did you already...?"
"What?"
"Like me," she supplied, looking elsewhere, suddenly seeming shy. "Back then."
Did he? Woo Bin wondered about it, himself.
"Maybe I did," he answered, smiling. Woo Bin raised her hand, kissed the inside of her wrist, felt her pulse skip against his lip. "But not as much as I do now, that's for sure."
Ga Eul sighed, even as her eyes never left his. "You're being a little extra again," she accused him.
"Is it working?" he asked, grinning cheekily. "Do you like me yet?"
"You're not going to get an answer from me that easily," she said, mock glaring at him and pulling her hand away.
"It's all right," Woo Bin said, spreading his arms wide. "I have all the time in the world to make you."
She stuck her tongue out at him.
He separated from her if only to take her coat off, his fingers slowly gliding down her shoulders and arms as he removed the garment before moving away. He thought he saw her shiver, and wondered if it was because of the cold - or because of his nearness, his touch.
Woo Bin sincerely hoped it was the latter.
With a smile, he pulled her chair away from the table - as any gentleman would do. After she had sat down, Woo Bin opened the menu in front of her, went behind her seat, and bent to whisper to her ear, "You can order anything you want, though personally I'd recommend the steak. It's their house specialty." He pointed at the picture before her.
This time he did see her shiver, much to his delight. Ga Eul cleared her throat, tucked her hair behind her ear, and said, "Um. R-Right. The steak sounds n-nice."
Progress.
Pleased beyond words, Woo Bin then went to his seat in front of her and opened his own menu. "Let's see. We should get some wine, too. Would you like to get some salad and lobster as well?"
She blinked. "Oh," Ga Eul said, brightening. "I would love some, thank you."
He nodded. "How about sea urchins?"
"Do they have any?" she asked, browsing through the menu. "I didn't see it."
"If you want, I'll make them produce it for us," he said decisively, turning the page and looking for others to order.
For some reason, however, he sensed that that was the wrong thing to say. "Ya," Ga Eul said, catching his attention as she leaned forward and frowned at him. "Do you know how annoying it is when customers make unreasonable demands?"
"Unreasonable?" he repeated, raising his brows.
She tapped on the menu and said, "If it's in here then of course it's available and you can order it. If it's not, then don't demand that they make them for you." Ga Eul sniffed. "The customer isn't always right, but of course as servers we can't tell them that, so we just... resort to other unsavory ways of, I don't know, making them pay."
Her meaning couldn't have been clearer. "Ga Eul," he said, brows furrowed, "are you... are you telling me you intentionally mess with people's food?"
"Not often!" she replied, looking positively scandalized. "I mean... not as often as Geum Jan Di!" After a bit of a pregnant pause she added, "And- and only if they really deserve it!"
A very heavy silence then followed that declaration.
"Ya," he said, crossing his arms and looking at her critically. "And here I thought you were trustworthy."
"I never touched yours!" Ga Eul cried, eyes wide. "You were never- I mean, you've always been- I would never-"
After a few moments of her sputtering, Woo Bin laughed. "The pristine Chu Ga Eul isn't really as immaculate as people think she is, then." He leaned forward and winked at her. "Who would have thought."
She shrunk back on her chair as if trying to make herself look as small as possible. "I never should have told you," she said, clearly looking miserable. "You must think so badly of me now."
"On the contrary," he said easily, "I think I like you even more now."
Ga Eul glanced at him. "What?"
He shrugged. "You'd have to do a lot worse than that to turn me off of you. Don't even bother trying."
She went quiet for a while, just studying him.
He fought the urge to squirm under her scrutiny. "What?"
"You're really an odd one, aren't you?" she noted, almost sounding incredulous.
"Why?" he asked. "Because I like you even if you mess with people's food sometimes? I've done worse than that, believe me. A whole lot of worse, unfortunately, on my own and as a member of the F4."
And as the son of a Mafia Lord too, he added, but didn't bother saying out loud.
Of course he knew that one of these days, he should. Song Woo Bin owed it to Chu Ga Eul to be honest, didn't he, if he wanted this thing between them to work?
But not today, he decided, lifting his hand to call the attention of their server.
Not yet today.
The food was as scrumptious as ever, and again Woo Bin found great delight in watching Ga Eul finish everything on her plate - and then some.
She gestured at his side dish of twice-baked potatoes with her fork and asked, "Aren't you going to eat that?"
"Do you want it?" he queried, setting his wine glass down and already moving to cut the potato in half.
"I mean... if you're not gonna finish it," she said.
He hadn't even touched the dish, to be honest. Then again he wasn't really fond of potatoes, so instead of keeping half he ended up transferring the whole thing to her plate.
"I'm sorry," Ga Eul said, looking down at her food with undisguised glee. "Everything just tastes so good I can't help myself." She cut a portion of the potato, placed it in her mouth, and chewed with a relish.
"What are you sorry for?" he asked, perplexed. "I wanted you to enjoy this dinner, and that's why I ordered all of this food. Why else would I have brought you here, if the end goal isn't making you full?"
"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "I mean, you're probably used to your dates just eating salad, or something." Ga Eul then stabbed the potato all the way through almost petulantly.
"Jealous?" he teased her.
She rolled her eyes at him. "Ha, no."
"For the record, I like it when my date actually eats the food I bought her," he said. "It makes me feel like she appreciates my selection as well as my efforts to woo her."
Ga Eul squared her shoulders. "Good," she said. "I mean that's... good to hear."
"Do you?"
"Do I what?" she asked, reaching for her water.
"Appreciate my efforts to woo you."
She made the mistake of glancing at him. Getting a bit flustered, Ga Eul's hand slipped, causing her to knock the glass off the table.
"Oh!" she cried, grabbing her napkin and bending down, seemingly to take care of the mess.
"Ga Eul," he called, reaching for her to stop her efforts. "Don't worry about-"
A sharp clang shot through the window behind Ga Eul's seat straight to the wall on the other side. For a dazed second Woo Bin actually wondered if someone threw a rock through it, but when another clang rang out, completely shattering the glass pane window this time, the terrible truth suddenly became clear:
Someone was shooting at them.
From the outside.
Ga Eul seemed to have come into the same realization the moment he did, and he could see how her expression had crumpled into one of abject fear. Without another word Woo Bin sank to the floor and bodily pulled her towards him, making sure that his back faced the window and that he was covering all of her.
"W-What...?" she asked, staring to shake. "What's going on? Why are we-"
Fuck it, but he couldn't see anything from where he was. Woo Bin pushed Ga Eul's head further down. "Can you reach your phone? Call the police."
And yet he was also reaching for his own phone. Dialing a private number, he waited until a gruff voice answered him before cutting him off and ordering, "Track my location. I'm being attacked. Send help, now."
His heart thundered inside his chest; his own instinct, however, screamed at him to protect Ga Eul at all cost - and so he wrapped his arms around her, fully absorbing her shivers and trying his damnedest to calm her down.
"You're safe," he assured her, rubbing her back, her shoulders, anything he could reach. "I won't let them touch you. You're-"
A third shot struck just inches above them, hitting the plates on their table and making her scream.
As it was still possible, Woo Bin hugged her tighter to his chest as they sank deeper into the floor.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
This wasn't getting them anywhere, he thought grimly.
The only way for them to get out of this mess was for him to-
As if sensing his thoughts, Ga Eul gripped his shirt, shook her head. "No, no, no, please don't leave, please-"
"Ga Eul," he said softly, "please, I have to-"
"No!" she cried sharply, and her tears started falling, right then, as she met his eyes. "Please, Woo Bin. Please, I can't-"
Cradling her face in his hands, Woo Bin gave into the sudden impulse to kiss her hard on the mouth.
And then, just as quick, he drew away from her. "Call the police," he ordered. "Crawl towards the fire exit and keep calling the police. You need to get out of here. Now."
Soon as he'd said that, Woo Bin started pushing her forward, making her move, before darting closer to the window - where the shots were coming from.
He hadn't any weapon on his person, Woo Bin realized with a curse on his mouth. Not that he'd ever developed the habit of bringing anything with him as his fists were just as lethal, but that was only applicable to one-on-one fights, not fucking shootouts.
Woo Bin glanced at Ga Eul, found her on the floor, almost at the exit, her phone almost fused to her ear as she gave their location. Good, he thought. Good girl.
She needed to get out of here. She needed to come out of this unhurt. Because if she got shot at, or worse-
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Vaguely he wondered about the rest of the people in the restaurant - if they had gotten out alive, if they, too, were calling the authorities-
A fourth shot sounded so close to his ear it started ringing. Then Woo Bin realized that the ringing wasn't happening in his ear, but on his skin, just below his shoulder.
He then realized that some sort of commotion was breaking out from behind him - men shouting, cursing, crying out - but for some reason they sounded- almost distant. Hazy.
And then he realized that Ga Eul was looking at him.
That she was screaming.
And then-
Notes: I'M SORRYYY (NO I'M NOT)