WARNING: Light mature content in this chapter

***

„You look amazing“, Tao said seeing Emma. She wore a nice blue dress, her hair was slightly curled and she had just a touch of make up on her face.
„Thank you“, she blushed a little.

It was Friday night and Emma had been nervously thinking about it. She was not sure what she felt for Tao and was determined to find out that night.

The place they went was a bar/restaurant. It was crowded with people mostly their age or somewhat older. It seemed perfect and Emma was thankful that he didn't take her somewhere quiet where the pressure of an all-around-conversation would sit on them.

It was her first real date in ages. Even though they agreed that it is just „friendly“, she knew that it just is not true.

“I think I’ll take a coke tonight”, Emma said, still feeling sick from last week’s tequila. Also, she was not a drinker. Why even start?
“Okay, you really want to drink a coke? Or you just think you do?”, Tao looked at her, narrowing his eyebrows and trying to hide a smile.

She bit her lip. Okay, she was in the mood for a drink. Or few.

“See? That’s your problem. You always think too much. Do what you think you should do, not what you want. You don’t have to be the perfect daughter/student/lady all the time.”
“Oh, whatever, I’ll take a beer”, she laughed. “You have already seen me in a not so much ladylike state”, she gave him a significant look.
“I don’t complain”, he grinned.

Soon after, the two of them were in a lively conversation about…everything. They talked about music, places they want to visit, argued on stupid topics like, which chocolate is tastier, which movie is cheesier and which people at school are weirder.

“You had to sneak out tonight?”, Tao surprisingly asked her, sipping on his fifth or sixth beer.
“Well, not actually sneak out, but let’s say I went around the truth”, she made a grimace.

Sangjung, her father, had very clear opinions about how his daughter should behave: school is the priority, including a good college and workplace, no boy was worth her attention and she could not go out with everyone.

“Since we got here, he got used to me hanging around in my room on weekends. Studying or practicing the language. When I said I was going out tonight, he asked about a million questions until I finally fake-convinced him I was meeting Yoona and a few other girls from school”, she laughed.
“He really wants you to be a loner”, Tao shook his head.
“I mean, he means all the best, but the only people he seems to be agreeing on are Yoona and, well, Jongin.”

She took a sip, hoping she was not showing any kind of emotion. It was the first time Jongin was mentioned that night. Luckily, Tao didn’t seem to be bothered.

“So what happened with him now that he is back? Have you guys talked about…you know”, he casually asked.
“Only if by talking you mean him pretending nothing ever happened”, she rolled her eyes.

She did not talk to Jongin since two days ago when he visited. At school they said a polite “hi” to each other, but people who did not know them, would say they were strangers. She pretended not to be bothered by his childish behaviour and he was too stubborn to talk to her first. And that was it.

“Are you going to do something about that?”, Tao asked, but this time with a slight stiffness in his seemingly relaxing tone. Emma knew he wanted to concretely know where they are at.
“I don’t see the point”, she raised her shoulders and sipped.

And there the conversation ended.

After a few more beers and a hour of laughter and enjoyment, Emma had to get home before her Dad got suspicious. Tao drove her to her house, but parked a bit further away, so her parents wouldn't see them.

They got out.

Emma embraced herself with her arms, suddenly feeling the chill air. Before she could react, Tao’s hands were sliding down her shoulders all the way to her wrists and he lightly turned her around.

They were staring at each other.

Then, they burst out laughing.

“My gosh, I feel like we’re in one of the cheesy rom-coms we talked about”, she commented.
“I agree. So how about I kiss you right away?”, he smiled.
“I’d like that.”

He pulled her closer, bent down and his lips almost touched hers…

“Get away from her!”, they heard someone yell, as the person angrily pushed Tao away from Emma. He stumbled, almost falling onto the grass, but finding his balance in the last moment.

Emma put her hands over and went to help Tao.

“Are you okay?”, she weakly asked, but his eyes were glued to the person who pushed him.
 

“What the is wrong with you, you douchebag?!”, he screamed, his breath becoming irregular and his eyes filling with rage.
 

Emma turned around and saw no one else but Jongin staring back, his teeth clenched and his hand bent into fists.

“I said get away from her”, he repeated slowly. “Or should I write it down? Maybe you are too stupid to understand the civilized tongue”, he provoked him.
 

Emma’s face was darkened by a shade of anger and against her will, she felt tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She could not believe what was happening.

“Jongin”, she whispered. “What are you doing?”
“Making a fool of himself. Or maybe it’s already too late for that”, Tao’ smirked, not removing his glare from Jongin’s eyes.
“Tao, please”, Emma said without looking at him. “Jongin, answer my question. Why are you here?”

She could not look at him properly.

“Why am I here? Why am I here, Emma?!”, his voice raised. “Why the hell is he here?” He spat out the word “he”.

Emma looked up.
“His name is Zitao. And he is here because I want him to be. Because I wanted him to kiss me. He was about to kiss me”, she wickedly smiled. Against her will, she enjoyed rubbing it in Jongin’s face.
“You try to touch her again”, Jongin moved closer, “And I will rip your head off.”

Emma was now the only thing standing between the two guys. The only think preventing them from getting at each other’s throats.

“Oh, you don’t know”, Tao laughed out loud.
Jongin gulped. “And what do I don’t know?”
“This wouldn’t have been the first time I touched her. We already touched”, he smiled. “We touched a lot.”

And before Emma knew what was happening, she was out of the way and Jongin was on top of Tao, hitting his in the face. But Tao was a street kid who handled worse situations than that one, so without much effort he caught advantage and hit Jongin in the ribs and the head.

“Stop!”, Emma screamed. “Both of you, stop! Please stop!”, she yelled, now the tears pouring down in waterfalls. She saw blood coming from Jongin's nose and Tao’s lip was cut.

“Stop!”, she screamed one more time, and that’s when the lights in her house went on. “No…”, she whispered to herself.

In a split second, her father ran out, a raged look on his faced. He was stunned by what he saw. Two boys, including Jongin, were hitting each other as his daughter stood there, frozen, with smeared mascara and messy hair.

“Enough!”

Sangjung’s voice pierced through the night and seemed to have kicked all the three of them in their faces. The two boys got off one another and stood up, cleaning their clothes from dust. Fear went through Emma’s body. What was about to come, wpuld not be pleasent.

He looked from Emma to Jongin. “You two, what is happening here?” His eyes met Tao. “And who are you now? And where are your friends Emma? Yoona? And whose car is that over there?”

Nobody said anything.

“Answer me”, his voice got low and dangerous.

Emma came forward, pushing herself through Jongin and Tao. Standing in front of her father, she felt smal