“Come on, you lost,” Minho smirked, bumping into Jinki playfully, gesturing at the girl standing at the bus stop.

“ you, I’m not gonna go ask for a random girl’s phone number just because I lost a silly bet to you.” Jinki huffed, turning back to walk back to his car. But Minho caught his arm, “You promised, buddy.”

Jinki sighed. He was a man of his words. He turned back, glancing at the girl, the breeze playing with her mid length chestnut locks, her eyes leaving the book she was reading and trailing to the street every now and then, to check for the bus.

, he was going to regret this. He didn’t like getting friendly with girls. It was already awkward with quite a few of them always giving him obvious glances as well as snickering and murmuring behind his back. There were a couple of them that were quite open about their crush on him and kept trying to trick him into asking them out or something. He had quite a fan following and he blamed it on Minho. To be precise, their band. He should have objected when Minho signed him up for the music club in high school which eventually led their little group to become a band. But to be honest, he can’t entirely blame Minho. He did, after all, enjoy it a lot more than he liked to admit. Their band still being a thing even in college and them playing every now and then at the club near campus, was enough proof of that.

With a little push from Minho, he started to take reluctant steps towards the bus stop, frowning and swearing under his breath, hands in his pocket. He would get the phone number, but what followed was what he was worried about. He didn’t feel an ounce of guilt in avoiding those bunch of girls that fawned over him, but he was already feeling guilty about avoiding this girl because it was him who would take the initiative. He could be cold but he was no jerk. , he was going to make Minho suffer for making him into one.

He finally reached the bus stop and stood beside the girl, contemplating how to ask the question. He had to be smooth to be successful and make Minho eat his own words. In his thoughts, he didn’t realize that he had been swinging on his feet. He only realized it when he collided with the girl, who just gave him a hostile look before stepping away.

Great.

After a few moments of hauling his thoughts, he gave up. What in the world was he thinking so much for anyway? He was a popular guy. He just needed to be cool and straightforward. So he stepped to the side, towards the girl, his shoulder accidently bumping with her’s due to his miscalculated step and asked, “Hey, can have your phone-”

A loud thunderous clap suddenly resonated in Jinki’s ears and he blinked, unprepared for the burning pain spreading on his cheek. He raised his palm to his cheek, still out of it. His gaze finally focussed and he could see the girl, seething, her little nose slightly inflated, her cheeks puffed up. Her brows were constricted cutely and she was gnawing at her lower lip, and damn, Jinki couldn’t get his eyes off, because her lips were so plump and he could make out they were coated in sweet lip balm. Somehow, he could even smell it. Strawberries.

The bus arrived right then and all Jinki did was watch her leave, his palm glued to his slapped cheek.

Minho laughed for days.

Days.

Maybe because Minho had to literally come and peel Jinki’s palm off his cheek to reveal the angry handprint.

Maybe also because Jinki’s face got pink and his calm was no more when Minho mentioned that girl- Junghee was her name- and kept reciting the entire scoop to their band members.

It sounded like something straight out of a stupid romcom thing from tv but Jinki couldn’t help it. He couldn’t get her adorably angered face out of his mind.

He found out about her classes and stuff and occasionally strolled to the library during lunch after having found a pattern in the places she went to. She usually ate her lunch in the library, sitting between shelves cross-legged, her face buried in her novel.

Jinki wondered often where in the world had Junghee been all this time because she was everything that just brought down all his defenses and made him sigh in fondness like a love sick boy.

She wasn’t really the angry type, she was actually well-mannered and kind, helping people find a book if they came her way, lost. She was rather timid as well, her voice was so soft and gentle. But Jinki saw her react to the novels she read, and she had a wide range of expressions. Soon enough, Jinki realized that what seemed like timidness was her modesty and humbleness, and she could actually raise a storm if she wished.

But he loved the moments when her book would make her smile or giggle because her smile was so precious, it just made him want to smile as well; and her laugh it was so melodious, it made him wonder how she would sound if she sang. She was slightly short and always wore clothes a size larger, making her look so dainty and precious and invoking this feeling in Jinki that this girl- he had to protect at all costs.

As days passed, he realized he might have fallen too hard because one day (after some playful encouragement from Minho), he was approaching the bus stop again, this time to sincerely start something with Junghee.

He was fretting because it was not just a question he had to ask this time, moreover, this being his very first experience in actually acting on a crush, made him too panicky and too easy to beguile. Minho had been giving him ideas about how he could ask Junghee out all day and Jinki was fretting so much that he couldn’t even judge which way was better.

He was holding onto the little chit he had prepared with Minho’s guidance, suddenly struck by the change in him. A few weeks back, he had been this slightly arrogant guy with no fear and now his heart was trembling, all arrogance forgotten as he waited for Junghee.

She walked to the bus stop, gave him a glance and ignored him after that, making sure there was a good distance between them before she started reading again.

Jinki opened up the crumpled chit in his hands and looked at it secretly, hoping that reading his prepared dialogue would give him enough courage. After a long haul, he finally took a deep breath and focussed his senses away from his pounding heart and decided to read out what he had prepared because he was sure he will mess up if he did it by himself.

He realized just then that whatever he felt right now was something of a big deal because not even his stage fear could make him mess up lyrics, but just Junghee’s presence could make him mess up a single sentence.

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