Little White Dress_______________________

He doesn’t remember how long he’s been in this store. It could’ve been 30 minutes, it could’ve been an hour, but it feels much closer to 10 hours.

His fingers are tapping furiously on the screen of his phone as he plays a game while waiting for Soojung to finish shopping. He’s laid back, and relaxed on the bench near the changing rooms. His elbows are resting on his leg, he’s crouched over, his back is sore, but he pauses the game every so often to stretch out his back.

The boy? He’s handsome, alright. He's tall, he's got sun-kissed skin, and a pair of large, chocolatey-brown eyes - he's exactly what the girls at school call "hot." His hair is ruffled, but not messy, he’s slim, he’s fit, but he’s not scrawny either.

“20% battery remaining” his phone flashes the oh-so familiar warning. The boy sighs and exits the game. That’s strange, he left the house with full battery, and now, he’s down to 20% - his phone doesn’t usually lose battery this quickly. He must’ve been here for a while, he thinks.

But what’s even stranger is his willingness to be here. How has he been able to stay in this store for so long, and not begin to complain? If he was here with anyone else, he’ll start to complain, and then he’ll get angry – that’s just how he is, impatient sometimes, but he knows that.

Shuffling sounds can be heard from the changing room. It’s Soojung, his girlfriend, the love of his life. He realizes that he left the house with her at 1 pm, it’s almost 6 by now. He slips his phone into his pocket and crosses his arms in front of his chest.

His two eyes close for a moment and he sighs, “Are you almost done?”

“Yeah, one second!” she calls out from behind the locked door. Her voice is still as bright as ever, without a sign of weariness in it, he notices. That’s just the way she is, and maybe that’s exactly why he fell for her.

She steps out of the room, and boy, was she breathtaking. A faint aura outlined her figure and the boy stares at her, unblinking and silent. He finds himself scanning her up and down from head to toe – from the top, where her long, wavy locks of hair began to her feet, concealed by the socks she was wearing.

“So, what do you think?”

“It’s okay, I guess.”

“Oh really? I’m pleased with it though.”

The boy clears his throat and stands up from his chair. “Can we go now?”

“Yeah, hold on, let me just change out of this.” The girl ran back into the changing room.

Jongin sits back down on the bench and puts his head between his hands. He curses himself silently for being such an and not being able to tell her how beautiful she looked in that white dress.

The door opens again and out came Soojung dressed in her usual jeans, a white t-shirt, with a pair of Chuck Taylors on her two feet. Her hair was ruffled and messy from changing so quickly, and in her left hand, held the white dress she had on moments ago.

“So, what are you gonna do with that?” he asks, eyeing the white dress

“Oh, I’ll probably just put it back on the rack. It probably doesn’t look as good as I imagined on me. You know, just like you said.” She chuckled awkwardly.

The boy looked at her smiling face and took the dress out of her hands. He turned and walked out of the changing room area.

“Where are you going?” the girl called out, a few feet behind the taller boy.

“I’m buying this dress. I lied earlier, it looked good on you.” He turned around and flashed a cheeky smile before reaching the cashier up ahead.

The girl smiles, “You know I love you, right?” she told him, resting her head on his shoulder.

Jongin nods. “I’m well aware.” He pats her on her head lovingly.

_____________________