Let's Not Fall In Love

Chapter 27

The smell of coffee woke Dara up from the dead the following day. She squinted against the bright light shining through the hospital windows. She crinkled her nose and sniffed like a little rabbit searching for a juicy piece of carrot. She spied a tall waxed paper cup on the other side of the table. Her figurative rabbit ears perked up and her thin arms automatically reached out for the bitter brew. But a piece of wet facial wipes rudely but gently blocked her vision and proceeded to wipe the morning glory off her eyes. She just as rudely slapped the hand that was obstructing her from her goal.

"Not so fast, coffee addict." The owner of the golden tan arm told her off. She rolled her eyes at him and moved to scramble across the coffee table. Because he had relatively longer limbs he reached out and moved the tempting cup further away. She could only growl at him in annoyance. He smirked. He knew she was more or less incoherent without her first sip of coffee.

"You can have this cup after you read and sign this contract." He nonchalantly told her while pushing a piece of paper in front of her along with a professional looking fountain pen.

She scrunched her face at the piece of paper, took a languishing look at the cup of coffee he placed beside him, sighed in defeat and proceeded to read the official looking document in front of her. She scowled at the words. The words seem to be sensible. It was another contract between the two of them. She remember vaguely adding a clause requiring that should one of them fail to do his or her part of the deal the offending party will have to grant the other party three sets of wishes.

She scanned through the words swiftly and it seemed to say that since she had failed to grant Jiyong his 24 hours then she is making a sworn statement that she is going to fulfill her end of the bargain and grant Jiyong another three wishes in recompense. It sort of made sense to her but she had the niggling feeling that something wasn't right but then he opened the damn cup and a stronger waft of the tantalizing blend reached her senses.

He took a long sniff and said, "Lucky you. You can still drink coffee. They told me not to drink any dark fluids the other day but let me take a heavenly sniff while you sign the paper." He dramatically inhaled the steam from the opened cup. She unconsciously reached out for it. He mercilessly moved it away from her and said heartlessly, "No signature, no coffee."

She made an annoyed face at him, grabbed the fountain pen and hurriedly scrawled her signature down the line at the bottom of the page. She slammed the pen on the table and demanded for her reward. Jiyong smirked in victory at the sight of her signature. He calmly handed her the coffee, took the contract off the table and stood up to tuck it securely inside the file case that Top had earlier brought with him.

After a few sips of life-inducing caffeine Dara was finally awake enough to notice that Jiyong was no longer wearing the hospital gown and his bag looked to be packed and was set at the foot of the hospital bed. She looked at herself and grimaced at her wrinkled Tshirt and linen pants.

"How come you're already dressed when I haven't arranged for your discharge yet?" She asked Jiyong.

"If I waited for you to wake up from your coma we'd probably be here until evening." He scoffed at her. "Hyung arrived early and did it. He's at the business office settling the bill."

"You're such a drama queen." Dara said. "Hyung? Tabi is here?"

"Yes. He's been here since last night. Seungri should have been here with him as they said they would divide their driving duties. The plan was Hyung will drive on the way here and Seungri will drive us back but the rat bailed out last night. When they got to the hotel across the hospital he ran out and told Hyung there was an emergency at his club and he had to go." Jiyong swiftly explained and also at the same time hoping to distract her thoughts from the newly signed contract.

"Another emergency? He's always so busy with his businesses these past months we barely get to see him." Dara commented and took another sip of her coffee.

"That boy actually worries me sometimes but you know him he never listens. We tried crowding him before with questions about how he's been going about everywhere with all sorts of people but he got pissed and blocked our calls for a month so we stopped asking. Better that we get to check on him still from time to time rather than have him stop talking to us altogether." Jiyong voiced his concerns.

His phone rang interrupting their conversation. He took the call. Dara heard him say a few ok's then he stopped and looked at her. "Hyung's done with the discharge. He's asking if you needed him to buy anything before he comes back up." He looked at her questioningly.

"Another cup of coffee and blueberry or chocolate chip muffins would be lovely." She swiftly answered.

"Two blueberry muffins, one coffee and two bottles of water, Hyung. Thank you." He ended the call and turned to Dara to say, "We're leaving in an hour. I think you should go and freshen up."

Dara drained the cup down to the last drop and scrambled to get her toiletries and a fresh set of clothes. She frowned at the contents of her bag. She was the one who packed her undies but it was Jiyong who packed the rest of her clothes. She looked at the shirt and pants he was wearing and at the clothes neatly folded in her packing cube. "Aren't we going to look like Twiddledum and Twiddledee today? Why did you have to pack these shirts?"

She grumbled referring to the ridiculous his and hers shirt they once won from the coffee shop across their place. She was eyeing the free coffee coupons they were giving out as consolation prizes for couples on Valentine's Day the previous year. She had managed to recruit a reluctant Jiyong to participate with her scheme but to her disappointment they had won the first prize which were his and hers shirts from Catana Comics on Instagram. She had to endure the murderous gaze of one crazy girlfriend as she walked dejectedly out of the coffee shop with the couple shirts in her hand. She took one longing look back at the string of coupons on the lady's manicured hands and was tempted to do an exchange but Jiyong was in a hurry to get back home and dragged her out of the café.

He shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal even though his heart was beating widely in his chest. "You could always wear that again." Gesturing to the crumple shirt she was currently wearing. "No one knows you here. They wouldn't mind seeing coffee stains and melted cheese on your wrinkled shirt. It's not like you're going to work here. It won't ruin your professional image a bit. It's your image, your choice." He commented in a seemingly neutral tone but still managed to insert a mocking reference to the conversation she had with Jaejoong the night before.

She sent a sideways glare at him before stomping to the ensuite bathroom with the offending outfit in her hands. Half an hour later she went out of the bathroom looking squeaky clean and feeling fresh. Just about the same time Top slid the hospital door open with their breakfast hanging down from one hand. He took a glance at the both of them and sniggered, "Isn't it too early for Valentine's?"

A/N: So sorry for taking so long to update. Love y'all. Comments are welcome. Won't mind your votes either. 😉