[ I still can’t believe you did this to me! ] I angrily texted my best friend, Jackson.

He replied in an instant, [ Relaaax it will be fun! Plus yugyeom is too shy to speak his mind…. A blind date was the only way to get him to see you ]

Just then, an incredibly smiley yet nervous Yugyeom was spotted walking towards me from a few meters away.

I instantly put my phone away so that I wouldn’t seem rude, plus I couldn’t have him knowing that Jackson had told me he’d be with us but bailed last minute. It was his plan from the beginning and I only wish I caught on sooner.

Jackson always tries to set me up with someone…. It’s almost like he takes out all his desire to date by putting me on blind dates without my permission. I usually never agree to them since he has terrible taste in men but he was begging me to go along with this one. Jackson had previously brought up the fact that Yugyeom, the maknae of the group, seems to eye me a lot whenever I come to visit the guys.
Being the idiot I am, I never noticed this attention from him nor have I ever thought of Yugyeom as potential bae material. Even though he was older than me by a few months, I always felt like the more mature one between us two. His immaturity is at its peak when him and Bambam argue… those two are on some next planet when they get started with each other.
If this blind date was set up with anyone else, I would have bolted immediately. But I couldn’t…. I didn’t want to hurt Yegyeom’s feelings, and besides, this could count as just hanging out with a friend as well.

“hey there” I smiled at him the second he made it across the street to meet me.

“hey” he shyly smiled, rubbing his hands together to hide away his nerves.

“sooo…. I guess we’re blind date partners uh?” I laughed.

“I guess so” he blushed.

His reactions always made me smile because of how innocent they were. Even though he was taller than me and much more fit than I was, I always just wanted to squish his cheeks and give him a big hug for being so cute…. He had that whole innocent, flower boy charm working for him.

“should we go eat? I picked a restaurant right across the street from here so we don’t have to go too far” he proudly stated as he pointed towards the direction we’d need to walk.

“ya let’s go! I’m starving!” I whined as I took his arm and began to walk with him.

But the second we made contact, Yugyeom innocently flinched. I could tell he was new to all this ‘dating’ stuff and it made me laugh to see his face turn a light shade of pink.

“i-I’m sorry…. It’s pretty obvious I’m new to this uh?” he admitted.

“yeaaa….” I teased, “but don’t worry, it’s cute” I reassured him as we made our way to the restaurant.

Once we made it down the street, I began to look around to see what restaurant Yugyeom was referring to. To my surprise none of the restaurants in the area seemed to be vegetarian, so I was curious to know what Yugyeom had in mind.

“ah! There it is! Jackson hyung told me you like Korean beef right? I thought we could eat some kbbq” he smiled widely while pointing at the restaurant.

I instantly felt incredibly awkward as I looked at him and then at the restaurant. I was confused as to why Jackson would state such a thing, since he knew I’d been a vegetarian for almost 2 years now. What made it worse was the fact Yugyeom looked so proud at his ability to find the restaurant and it almost broke my heart to tell him the truth.

“is something wrong?” he asked worryingly once he noticed my sudden change in expression.

“n-no… it’s just…. I don’t eat meat….” I began to explain.

“what!? No…. i-I’m sorry… Jackson hyung said in the text message that…..” his thought trailed off the second he pointed out the message and reread it, “…..that you…. don’t… eat meat……. I cant believe I read that wrong” he facepalmed.

I wasn’t really expecting much from this date anyway, Yugyeom didn’t have to worry about making a good impression since we were already friends and this kind of stuff happens to the best of us. In fact, his mistake was sort of funny and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“don’t worry! If you want something from there then go for it! I’ll just get something from another store” I tried to reassure him but his disappointment only grew.

“no… I cant…. This was my fault…. How about we go somewhere else?” he asked, hoping I wouldn’t say no.

A tiny part inside of me started to find this ‘date’ somewhat awkward. I couldn’t help but see Yugyeom as a kid instead of a man. His mistakes were clearly not his fault but for some reason I kept thinking back to them and pretending like those were the reasons why ‘we’ would never be a thing. But as much as I wanted to say no, I couldn’t.
He was making his signature puppy-dog face and I’m 100% sure he didn’t even know he was making it.

I nodded my head in agreement, which caused him to jump in joy. He then pointed towards a nice ice cream store he knew that sold ‘soy-milk’ products that he wanted me to try.

________

There was a crowd of people hovering around the area, much more than expected. Yugyeom pointed out the corner store beside the ice cream shop that was attracted the larger sum. A few of the customers at the corner store looked more intimidating than others and seemed to be going around messing with people that were waiting in line for their foo