𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐆𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄

29; 𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙚

jinha caused a few more casualties.

after that seungcheol turning into a doll incident, jinha turned some few people into a doll while chan and seungcheol were lining up in a crowded mcdonalds. chan turned them back, but the excuse seungcheol gave them was really unreasonable. the supernatural society might get revealed soon. wow, thanks seungcheol!

then, they went to get ice cream for jinha. they bumped into the scandalous lady, and seungcheol kept on whipping up his most expensive possessions to scare the woman away. in the end, a guard had to break up the two. jinha decides to scare them off a little by turning the lady into a doll, before turning her back again and then leaving.

the ice cream they bought melted in chan's hands. chan's hands were all sticky and he held jinha, resulting to shopping for new clothes for jinha. plus, weird looks at the three while trying to get jinha changed in the men's bathroom.

"seungcheol-hyung... are you thinking what i'm thinking?" chan says, huffing as he looked at the playground in front of them. thank god this mall has a playground. "i'll pay for it. is four hours enough for us to rest?"

seungcheol fixed his messy hair. jinha had gripped on them when he put her on his shoulders earlier. "yeah, go on."

chan pays for the playground fee, and gives jinha words of advice before they leave her all alone. "jinha, we'll be back in four hours so you could enjoy yourself in the playground, okay? as much as possible, don't turn anyone into dolls. be nice and have fun, okay?"

jinha didn't let go of chan. "m-mama, you and papa will come back for me, right?"

seungcheol's face turns sour. he remembers jinha's story; she probably was so afraid and lonely when she realized that her parents will never come back for her. luckily, chan knew how to deal with it best.

"of course, jinha! mama and papa will be back after four hours. we just want you to have fun without mama or papa trying to stop you from what you want to do," chan ruffles the hair of an enlightened jinha. "so, don't think about it too much, okay? you're here to have fun!" jinha nods and disappears into the playground, screaming.

"jesus, thank god we found the playground." seungcheol sighs for the umpteenth time, while slouching on one of the chairs in the waiting area of the playground. "i'm hungry."

"yeah, me too, seungcheol-hyung." chan says. his distressed expression gets exchanged for an excited one when he gets an idea. "hey, how about we grab something to eat and go to the theatre upstairs?! then let's buy some interesting stuff! i want to spend my first salary for myself now!"

seungcheol, despite the tiredness from the babysitting fiasco, smirks. "so we're going on a date?"

"yes, so let's go seungcheol-hyung!" chan says, standing up. chan, of course, noticed it too late. "huh-wait-it's not a date—"

chan gets cut off when seungcheol stood up and grabbed his hand. chan can't help but to smile, for this? this feels refreshing, and somehow, the one who pulled chan being seungcheol sends butterflies in chan's stomach.

"i want to eat this!" seungcheol says, pointing at the crepe stand. chan was amazed at the sample crepes, making seungcheol giggle at the latter's cute reaction. "i'll pay, come on!"

once chan recieved his crepe, he looked at it and took pictures with it. he even asked seungcheol, who was trying to eat in peace, to take a picture of chan with a pretty crepe in his hands. seungcheol's half eaten crepe that he left on a bench was stolen by a kid.

"i'm sorry!" chan apologized, while laughing. seungcheol didn't accept it, of course, because chan wasn't sincere. "i'll buy you popcorn and soda when we watch a movie!"

"then let's go now!" seungcheol grabbed chan's hand again and they went to the theatre in the mall. the hand holding became a normal thing after a while, but the butterflies in chan's stomach never left everytime they hold hands.

they watched a pretty boring movie, so the two decided to go to the arcade and bet on the gun games. seungcheol owed chan 20,000 won for losing the bet. (or, another crepe if seungcheol preferred.) seungcheol was annoyed when he lost the bet, so he grew bored with the arcade. before leaving, though, they went to a photobooth. the pictures they got were now on the back of their phones.

shopping with chan was a bad idea. "chan, you said you wanted some stuff for yourself." seungcheol says, shifting his weight from one leg to another. "if these are yours, then carry it."

"okay, but when jinha comes back, you carry these again because you can't carry her when she's asleep!" chan stuck out his tongue at seungcheol. seungcheol pretended to be offended, this being the first time that chan showed mockery towards the older.

"i'm going to put these straight into my room." seungcheol said, reffering to the bags that he carried for chan. the logos in the bags that seungcheol carried ensured that chan's wallet was empty. who would buy stuff from givenchy, balenciaga, chanel and gucci in one day? probably minghao or seokmin, who're reckless in shopping. chan adds to the list.

"hey, i bought these!" chan protests. he fishes out the sunglasses that he bought and placed it on seungcheol. "now you look like a bodyguard."

seungcheol and chan laughed. seungcheol was embarrassed though, so he lifts up the sunglasses to his head that served as a makeshift headband.

"hey, hold my hand." seungcheol suddenly says and grabs chan's hand without waiting for confirmation. "the cotton candy queue is getting long, i want to be first!"

"seungcheol-hyung, there are only four—ah!" chan exclaimed, almost tripping. "—four people lined up!"

"whatever, i don't like waiting while looking at the cotton candy!"

"SEUNGCHEOL AND CHAN!" a familiar voice shouts. seungcheol and chan stop running, dead in their tracks—today is definitely going to be the topic inside seventeen's base for a few weeks.

"j-jeonghan-hyung?" chan stutters. he gulps, scared of that damn fishy smirk that jeonghan had on. minghao emerges from somewhere. "minghao-hyung?! what are you doing here?"

"we're shopping, we have the same taste in clothes." minghao placed his hands on his waists, squinting at the hands of chan and seungcheol. the two let go of each other's hand as soon as they realized that minghao's eyes were on it. "what about you?"

"having a date?" jeonghan's smirk made chan realize that he was in big trouble.

"if we are, would you bless our relationship? we're already married and we have one kid named jinha, mind you." seungcheol replied.

chan facepalmed.