It was messy, uncalculated, and slightly reckless on his part. He’d taken the wrong bus to the wrong soccer field, realizing something was wrong when the playing field was obstructed by a big, storied building. His lips pulled at each other until they were ripe with pink ash, nearly stepping inside when the door swung open and a blonde figure staggered to meet his frame. She was carrying books. He’d managed to grab them before they tumbled to the wet pavement, eyes wide and arms crumpled between both of their chests. 

     Carefully, he maneuvered them to fit into her arms again, even brushing the stray hairs that formed a yellow glade behind her shoulders - ensuring that everything was near perfect. He flashed an apologetic smile, but didn’t move out of her way, motioning his head toward the building.

       Joonmyeon was used to being insulted. It was common, for some reason, among most of the humans he interacted with lately; nearly all of whom were considerably younger than him. But he was tired of playing the Dad. Most of her argument wove through one ear and out the other, his lips pushing into an improvised smile, mostly directed toward the other people who stared at him as if he’d struck her. When he realized she wasn’t going to stop, he grabbed her wrist - softly enough, and tugged until they stood in the emptiness of the hallway. Joonmyeon had to sigh in relief. Then he tried to calm her again.

       His expression went rigid at her accusation. It shouldn’t have bothered him; she had a very good reason for tossing those words. Yet he felt as though the flowers in his hands weren’t even worth the time he’d spent arranging them. He filtered his breath in silence, glancing down at the assorted bunch, then back up to her with a small smile, pressing the plastic wrapped stems against her chest and closing her arms around them.

       “These aren’t a bribe. Jasmine is supposed to bring grace and eloquence to artists-- and seeing how you act outside of work, you’ll need it.” He sighed and brought a hand up to ruffle her hair.