I am officially nervous.

No, I’m not nervous because I’m going on a dinner date with a one fine man.

I’m nervous because I’m going to break that man’s heart tonight and I’ve been racking my brain to think of a nice way to reject him (for the nth time, really) but then again, there’s no way to bring a rejection nicely. I admit that getting a rejection is one of my biggest fears. Looking back when Byulyi and I still stuck being the best of friends, we were both terrified to take that risk and when it comes to feelings, either you have a happy ending or a bad ending where there will be at least one of the two getting hurt in the end.

And I think right now Eric Nam is going to be one.

I sigh deeply, applying one last touch to my lips before checking myself out from head to toe. The very least thing I can do is giving this dinner an actual effort unlike those times I agreed to his dinner request out of politeness.

He texted me on the restaurant where we’re going to meet up and from the name of it, I can be sure that this is some classy restaurant. See? There’s a good thing I put effort into dressing up nicely tonight.

The original plan. Like, the really actual plan was for Eric to take me back home and then pick me up later to go to the restaurant. But because I know how Byulyi will react and she wouldn’t like it if I share a car with Eric alone, knowing he likes me still, I told Eric that I will take my car and meet him at the restaurant. It was a good plan, until Byulyi had to ask for Wheein’s help to keep me in check—guarding me.

So, now here we are.

Wheein is driving my car and she’ll drop me at the restaurant’s entrance.

“So, you have a date with someone.” Wheein threw me a short side glance.

“I wouldn’t call it a date.”

“But you are having dinner with someone and mind you,” She looks at me from head to toe and back to the road. “You obviously put quite an effort in dressing. And Byulyi-unnie was being very specific to watch over you and by that, I mean she sounded so jealous and worried.”

Hearing that makes me frown. It’s a little disappointing that Byulyi seemed as if she doesn’t really trust me enough to handle this alone. I know she’s worried, but I told her a million times already that I don’t like him and Eric isn’t really a bad guy here.

“She’s overthinking it. The guy I’m having dinner with is one of my coworkers in the office. He’s been liking me for god-knows how long at this point. But I always tell him that I’m not interested and I don’t see him romantically, ever.” Sighing, I look out the window. “But he was persistent in pursuing me… I let it be though, he’s a harmless man anyway.”

“So, what? This date is one of his ways to pursue you and you agreed to it? No wonder unnie was worried then.”

“I told you, it’s not a date.” I shake my head, shrugging. “Ever since I got together with Byulyi, I’ve been thinking of making him stop and now that I’m engaged, I think it’s really a good time to tell him. I’m just hoping he would understand… I’m going to tell him tonight at the dinner.”

“Oh… Does that mean Byulyi-unnie knows about him?”

“Of course, she knows. Why would I keep it away from her anyway?” It was rhetorical question so I start talking again. “And she asked for your help because she’s afraid of things he might do if he couldn’t accept the news.”

“More make sense now.” Wheein pursed her lips, glancing at me and caught my still frowning face. “What? Why are you making that face? I expected you to smile at unnie’s concern, you know, doing things this far even though she’s so far away.”

I let out another sigh. “It’s not that… It feels like she doesn’t trust me enough, Wheein-ah.”

“You know she was just worried because she couldn’t be there with you.”

“Yeah, but I also told her many times that everything is gonna be just fine.” I let out a long sigh. Wheein stopped giving me more reasoning to defend Byulyi’s whole intention. It wasn’t something up for an argument in the first place. “Sorry, Wheein… I guess I was just nervous about this dinner.”

“I thought you don’t like him?”

“No, I don’t and this is not the first time I’ve rejected someone but he’s been pursuing me for a long time and he’s probably be at the restaurant with his big expectation of finally able to make progress with me when in truth… I’m here to stop him entirely.”

“Well, if you put it like that…” I look back to the road. Wheein was already driving into the restaurant’s parking lot. “I guess you have the right to be nervous. You’re so gonna break his sweet heart, probably crushing it too with your engagement news.”

Honestly, Wheein’s words doesn’t help at all.

I entered the restaurant, heading to the receptionist to tell her about a reservation under Eric’s name when I saw him standing there. He offered me a charming smile, widening his right arm for me and I accepted it out of politeness. Once we’re at the reserved table, he pulled the chair out for me like a gentleman he is and then took a seat across from me.

The first thing he does was to drop a sweet compliment.

“You look stunning tonight.”

Smooth.

At least he appreciates the effort I put into dressing up. I give him an appreciative smile, letting him know that I’m glad it pleased him. “Thank you. You’re not bad yourself, Eric-ssi.” I caught the way he tries to suppress his smile, he couldn’t really hide away those blushes though.

I’m not just saying it to return his generous compliment though. I said it because he really dressed up well too. He’s wearing a cream-colored button up shirt paired with a brown one-button suit and the same colored fitted trousers. His hair was styled in a messy look but it doesn’t make him look cheap at all. In fact, he looks like a young CEO right now. I admit it though, he is one fine man.

Not long after our short exchange, the food is served. Eric actually knows my favorite so well, I never told him but I guess he paid quite that much attention to me. Rumor has it that he also asked around, even bribed them, to spill one or two things about me to him. It was nothing creepy or suspicious, just the normal stuff like what foods do I like, what drinks do I prefer, stuff like that.

We had a little bit of chat, told him that recently I’m learning how to brew coffee but didn’t quite spill the whole reason behind that specific interest. I also told him that I’m learning how to cook homemade food. That one perked his interest almost immediately.

“Really? That’s great then. I’d love to be a tester.” He said, grinning with his eye-smile.

Yeah, well, my fiancé would hate that very much.

I let out a small laugh, “I’m still nowhere good at it. I don’t think it’ll be a good idea to let you have a taste of my horrible cooking.” I’m not even joking about it. I could end up sending him to the hospital by accident.

Eric laughs, he sounded a little nervous. “It can’t be that bad…right?”

“It is that bad.”

Do I need to remind you guys that Byulyi once had a stomachache after eating my kimbap? Maybe I need to just tell him about that, huh? Maybe this is a good chance to start the main topic of tonight’s dinner.

Well, here goes nothing.

“Last time someone tried my cooking, they suffered a stomachache right after.” I said in a joking manner, though yes it was actually the truth. Rather than go straightforward by saying ‘my fiancé’, I instead used the word ‘someone’. I figured I’ll take it slowly as we keep talking. I expected Eric to notice how I hinted that someone else already tasted my cooking before and I trusted them enough to do so.

And with how he looks up, the look on his face looking slightly surprised, I bet he got the small subtle hint.

“Oh, really? That’s too bad. Are they okay?” Fun fact, he looks genuinely worried.

I waved my hand in front of my face, chuckling softly. “It’s okay, she’s okay now. I mean, she kinda knew what she’