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“I called out to you,” he claims, and I realize I didn’t hear him over my music.

I narrow my eyes at him. “Are you following me?”

“What? No. I live here.”

“Why?”

He frowns and I realize it’s a silly question.

“What areyoudoing here?” He’s eyeing my luggage.

“This is my apartment.” I gesture at the gray door.

His brows go up. “I thought you lived in the trainee dorms.”

“I wanted my own place.” I didn’t realize the WDB dorm was in this building. Probably because I make a great effort not to know anything about Minseok if I can help it.

“Guess we’re going to be neighbors,” he says, leaning against my luggage. I resist the urge to wheel it away.

“Temporarily,” I say. I’m already wondering if I can ask Hongjoo to find me another place.

Minseok’s face falls at my curt answer. “Well, welcome to the building,” he says, turning to the door across the hall.

“Wait,that’syour apartment?” I gape. Not just the same building but literally across the hall from each other. This has to be a joke. Or maybe Minseok is just messing with me—I wouldn’t put it past him.

“Yup, let me know if you need to borrow a cup of sugar.”

“Not likely,” I mutter under my breath.

He starts punching his code into the keypad, but stops midway and turns back to me. “Are you mad at me?”

This is unexpected. Minseok almost never brings up a past fight. His strategy is always to ignore and move on. “Why would I be mad?” I say.

He lifts a brow. “You really want me to answer that?” When I refuse to reply, he makes good on the bluff. “Maybe it was you shouting at me in front of your mother at the last shoot.”

Disbelief at his gall makes me lose my cool. “Are you seriously sayingIwas wrong? You had no right to butt into my family business.”

Minseok lifts his hand as if in immediate surrender. “I don’t know why you take everyone’s bullshit all the time. You should push back sometimes.”

I want to roll my eyes. “Yeah, ’cause that would go over so well. I definitely wouldn’t get dragged by the netizens for acting out like that.”

Minseok cuts me off with a derisive laugh. “You know, maybe the fans would like it if you’d let go of trying to keep a perfect image.”

“No, you’re not allowed to criticize that when you’re the one who first taught me that lesson.”

“What are you talking about?” Minseok looks confused now.

“You’re the one who told me I had to be careful,” I remind him. “You said we had reputations to protect now.”

When he just stares at me blankly, I’m annoyed. Does he really not remember? It’s such a core memory for me. The first time I ever got my heart broken. And he doesn’t even remember?

Then his eyes widen with realization and he lets out a heavy sigh. “Shit. That was so long ago, Hyeri.”

So he does remember. “Yeah, well, it’s kind of hard to forget your first big crush telling you that you’re acting like a child.”

“Hyeri, I was just a kid myself too. I was an idiot.”

“It’s fine, whatever.”