“Does it really take 4 hours to get a cake?” Baekhyun asked in frustration.

“Let them have some fun together. Who knows Kyungsoo’s taking the time to confess to her,” Junmyeon said.

“Yeah. It’s finally time for Kyungsoo to get a girl after that last one. Minhee was terrible,” Jongdae added.

“I know right! I still can’t believe she did that to him. Out of all of us, that had to happen to him. That shouldn’t happen to such a sincere guy like Kyungsoo,” Yixing exclaimed.

“Heyy guys. What are you talking about?” Chanyeol asked as he got out the shower.

“Kyungsoo hyung’s love life,” Sehun answered.

“Oh. I thought I heard cake,” Chanyeol replied.

Everyone started feeling anxious for a bit but he was relieved when Chanyeol shook it off.

“Where is Kyungsoo by the way?” he questioned.

“He’s on a date with Jaein. They should be back by now,” Jongdae answered.

“Date? Wow, he sure moves fast. I was gonna ask her out. And I thought he said he gave up on dating after Minhee,” Chanyeol said.  

“Jaein is pretty irresistible. Gotta be honest with you guys. I kind of had a small crush on her when we first met,” Jongin confessed.

The others agreed.

“Me too. But Kyungsoo was definitely into her and I didn’t want to ruin his chances with her,” Baekhyun added.

“Oh please hyung. You only backed off because Jaein obviously was only interested in Kyungsoo hyung,” Sehun replied.

Baekhyun nervously laughed at the maknae’s remarks and sent him a death glare.

♦♦♦

Meanwhile, both Kyungsoo and Jaein were stuck in horrible traffic due to the snow. Jaein suddenly woke up from the really loud car honks from the other cars.

“Are we close?” she asked sleepily, feeling kind of dry.

“Um, I think we’re still an hour away. Here,” he replied, handing her a bottle of water.

Jaein mumbled a ‘thanks’ before taking a sip.  

“We’re not moving at all. At this rate, we won’t be arriving in an hour and I’m really bored. My phone died and I didn’t bring my portable charger,” Jaein whined.

“Sleep again then,” Kyungsoo suggested.

“I’m not sleepy anymore. Can I borrow your phone?” she asked.

“Can I ask why?” he replied.

“So I can open your Instagram, Photos, and messages,” she said bluntly.

“What do you hope to find?” he asked curiously.

“I don’t know. A secret crush maybe? Or an existing secret girlfriend? Maybe some weird es,” she answered teasingly.

Kyungsoo let out an embarrassed scoff.

“I would let you try but my phone’s about to die. The boys are going to go crazy if none of our phones can’t be reached,” he explained.

“Fine. Talk to me then. We’re probably going to be stuck here for a billion more hours so let’s make the most of it by getting to know each other more. I think you kind of know me but I don’t know anything about you,” she said.

Kyungsoo looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

“That’s not really true. I also don’t know a lot of things about you. Anyways, what do you want to know?” he asked.

“Your family? Relationship status? Exes?” Jaein excitedly replied, making Kyungsoo roll his eyes.

“I have an older brother names Seungsoo. He’s happily married with two kids and they live in Busan. My parents own a farm and a small stew restaurant in Ilsan,” he said.

Jaein’s face lightened up when he said ‘stew restaurant.’

“Do you guys sell doenjang jiggae or yukgaejang?” she asked.

“Yup. Our doenjang is pretty famous. I made it for you when we went on that little trip and you got sick,” Kyungsoo replied proudly.

“That was delicious. I should hire you as my personal chef,” she said.

“It’s 50,000 won per meal and I only take checks,” Kyungsoo joked, making Jaein shake her head.

“Next, relationship status. Go ahead and include exes as well please,” she told him curiously.

“Um, I’m single and I’ve only had one ex. Her name’s Jeon Minhee,” he said slowly as he felt a bit bitter.

“How badly did it end?” she asked, noticing the change of expression on his face.

“She straight out cheated on me with this guy from the engineering department. I caught them making out at her place when I was bringing some food over,” he explained.

“Ouch. That must’ve hurt. How did you guys meet?” she replied.

“Yeah, it hurt like hell. She interviewed me for her journalism paper,” he answered, “The fact that I was practically in love with her made it worse. She was my first love,” his mouth tasted so bitter while he said that. He hated Minhee for what happened.

Jaein placed her hand on top of his to comfort him.

“If I see this Minhee girl on campus, I will punch her for breaking your heart. I promise,” she said, making him smile.

“I’ve already moved on from her anyways. Now that I realized it, I regret even asking her out. The guys knew that there was something odd about her. I should’ve listened to them,” he replied.

“Don’t beat yourself up for it. I bet you’ll get a girl 100 times prettier and kinder that respects you and loves you in the future,” Jaein gave him a big encouraging smile.

Can that be you? He thought to himself, but shook it off because how he doesn’t think Jaein would like someone weak hearted like him.

♦♦♦

“So, how about you? Tell me about your family and love life,” he asked, putting the spotlight on her now. The traffic was pretty much gone now.

“I have 2 older brothers. One of them is engaged and the other is taken. My parents own a wine importing company,” she explained.

“Next, are you single or secretly taken?” he asked playfully.

“I’m single and lonely,” she answered jokingly, pouting along the way. “In terms of exes, I have two. The first one was a nice fella and we broke up because we were better of as close friends. I still talk to him now and he was also my first love. The second one on the other hand wasn’t as great as the first. I broke up with him when he hit me,” she said the last part slowly and looked away.

Kyungsoo stepped on the breaks as his eyes widened.

“Hit you? He laid his hands on you?!” he exclaimed furiously.

Kyungsoo was incredibly angry because he believes that no man should ever hit a woman. The fact that he just heard someone he cared dearly about tell him that her ex had hit her made him even more furious.

“Yah, we shouldn’t stop in the middle of the road. And don’t get too worked up about it,” she said as he ushered him to continue driving.

“You immediately broke it off right? He didn’t do anything else to you right?” Kyungsoo questioned worriedly.

“I did… but it didn’t really end there. He was so pissed that I broke up with him because he claimed that he didn’t mean to hit me. He said he acted too rashly when he thought I was cheating on him. I, of course, told him to off but he didn’t listen. So I issued a restraining order and moved here,” she explained.

To say the least, Kyungsoo was surprised.

“Does he know where you are now?” he asked.

“Maybe, but he moved to Singapore as soon as I moved due to his dad’s business. I never heard from him ever since,” she replied, “But I have to admit that I do have nightmares of him. He was a psychopath.”

Kyungsoo squeezed her hand with his free hand.

“If I ever meet him, I’ll stab him for doing what he did to you,” Kyungsoo said, making Jaein chuckle.

♦♦♦

When they finally arrived in campus, Kyungsoo walked Jaein to her dorm building first. With the threats from his crazy fangirls and her psychopathic ex, he is 105% sure that he will not let her walk alone at night, or maybe even during the day.    

“I had such an amazing time tonight,” she said when they arrived in front of the building.

“I really enjoyed our long chat and I honestly feel like I learned a lot about you tonight,” he replied.

“Me too,” she smiled.

There was an awkward silence between the two as none of them didn’t know what to do next.

“So?” he said hesitantly. He was fidgeting with his hands due to his nervousness.

She chuckled at his adorableness.

“Thanks for the date Kyungsoo. Goodnight,” she replied as she tiptoed and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before running inside the building.

Kyungsoo’s face immediately turned red when he finally realized what happened. He raised his hand to touch his cheek and smiled. She kissed me. She. Kissed. Me. He kept repeating that in his head.

Suddenly, his phone rang. He opened the message and smiled shyly at the text.

Stop daydreaming and go home idiot. You’ll freeze to death if keep standing there. See you tomorrow! – Jaein.

♦♦♦

After classes ended the next day, Yixing had to distract Chanyeol while everybody else set everything up in the dorm. They had to kidnap Jaein first before executing their big plan.

“Cake, check. Décor, check. Gifts, check. And more food, check.” Baekhyun said to himself while looking around the room.

“Okay, Yixing told me that they’re in the elevator. Turn off the lights and hide guys!” Jongdae exclaimed as he himself hid behind the couch.

Jaein didn’t know where to hide but was then pulled by someone towards behind the table.

“Can’t you move faster?” Kyungsoo whispered jokingly.

Jaein lightly hit his arm and chuckled.

“Why is the dorm still dark–

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHANNIE!” Everyone shouted.

Chanyeol’s surprised face turned into pure happiness when he realized that this was a surprise party for him.  

They all brought the cake near him as they sang. Then he blew the candles while everyone clapped.

“I-I thought you guys didn’t remember since none of you said anything this morning except Jaein,” Chanyeol said almost tearing up.

“You said happy birthday to him?” Junmyeon asked her.

“And she gave me a big fat hug too,” Chanyeol added.

Everyone looked at her.

“The poor boy was going to cry. I couldn’t let him be sad on his big day,” Jaein explained.

“At least he didn’t suspect anything. Let’s eat and open up presents!” Jongin said as he led them to the couch.

♦♦♦

“What the hell Baek?” Chanyeol said when he opened his gift.

Everyone laughed because the gift was a black shirt saying ‘Byun Baekhyun Gave Me This Awesome Shirt.’  

“Hey! I made it myself,” Baekhyun replied, earning a slap on the arm by Chanyeol.

“Well, that’s the last of it right? No more presents,” Junmyeon said as he looked around the table.

Everyone shook their head.

“By the way, how did you get this cake? It’s almost always sold out whenever I want to order it,” Chanyeol asked.

“Kyungsoo and Jaein got it yesterday while they were on their date,” Jongdae replied.

“Oh right. How was the date guys?” Yixing teased.

“Did he conf- OUCH!” Baekhyun yelped from Kyungsoo’s kick.

“Did he what?” Jaein asked.

“Did he drive safely,” Junmyeon said, saving Kyungsoo from the embarrassment.

“Oh, yeah. We also ate at this really good mandu place that you guys should visit,” she said as she showed some pictures on her phone.

“Aww, this picture is so cute. You guys really look like a couple,” Sehun said, pointing at the picture of the two.

Both of them turned completely red while everyone chuckled.

For the rest of the night, they talked and talked until the clock struck midnight.