Honestly, the long train ride to meet his so called date didn't bother him. The further away from high society Seoul he was, the better. The last thing he needed was someone recognizing him and ruining everything.

Maybe it was a dumb idea, creating a fake identity to date someone, but at the time it totally made sense to Soohyun to do so. After alll, being apart of the high society of Seoul, he still had pressure to marry a pretty elite girl. But he wasn't into that. Or just generally into girls.

It seemed like one of those LGBTQ+ movies that he remembers watching in America,  a misunderstood rich boy pretending not to be rich and dating someone not rich. Usually he'd just laugh and roll his eyes, but there was some merit in those plots.

The reason he wanted no one to know who he was seemed simple: He didn't want some using him for his money and status like his last relationship. Soohyun sighed, looking over his fake identity that he used for his profile: Park Myunsik. In retrospect, the only things different between him and Park Myunsik were the name and being rich.

So he should totally be able to do this, right? The train's intercom mentioned the station they were at, and it occured to Soohyun to message his match. It was some guy named Sun, and his profile picture was... interesting, to say the least. He shrugged, maybe having a photo of yourself dabbing in a princess crown what normal people did with their profile picture. 

'Hey, letting you know that I'm on my way. See you soon?' He wrote out, taking notice that it didn't go to read or he didn't reply as quickly as Soohyun probably would've liked, even if only to calm his twitching news. 

Soohyun attempted to calm himself down by thinking of anything but his date -- only to think of his embarrassment when the head matchmaker caught him in a lie. Heaven looked at him with a perfectly sculpted eyebrow (which he did compliment, makeup is hard!) as he walked in. Of course she knew who he was, she was sometimes at those high class dinners that he attended with his family. Usually helping another family matching their child. 

Fortunately, she seemed more than amused and promised to use full discretion when matching him, as well as mentioning that she'd be out of town for a trip. If something went wrong, she had said, let her secretary know and she'll get on it ASAP from where she was.

He ended up thinking about the sucessful CEO and just how available she was despite her busy schedule. She must be exhausted all the time or she must have no social life other than fancy events that she'd attend for work purposes. Even then, she was working... Did she ever have fun? 

"Last call for --" The intercom made him jump, realizing that he would've missed his stop if he hadn't picked up on the speaker. He practically leaped out of the subway's car and sped up the steps to get out of the station and begin his walking part of the journey to his destination.

When his phone buzzed, he felt like he was going to throw up. Was it his date calling him? He checked the caller ID, almost throwing it when he saw it was his roommate. "Dear god, please don't be arrested..." Soohyun groaned, answering the phone despite his gut telling him not to.

"Suuuuuup? Is he cute?" Hanhyun was a good roommate, but sometimes, he was just downright irritating and annoying. By sometimes, he meant probably 90% of the time he exists.

"Hanhyun, shut up. I haven't even made it to the cafe yet." Soohyun hissed into the speaker as he checked the directions again before crossing the street.

Hanhyun snorting only made Soohyun want to throw his phone even more. He could always get a new one, right?

"Serves you right. You gotta work for your man with all the other hoops you're trying to jump through without letting him see." 

Was he trying to make him throw up and bail on this date? Soohyun moaned as he to the street of the cafe, "I'm already nervous enough. Don't do this to me right now."

"Fine, fine," Hanhyun seemed to have gotten his laugh, "I'll save the embarrassing for the second you step into the dorm building!" 

"Oh my god." Soohyun stopped in his tracks, "I swear to god if you pull out a bullhorn again to announce that I actually went on the date you shouted about before you will not see any food for a month. You can satisify your high munchies elsewhere."

Hanhyun's reply was nonchalant, "Whatever." A short pause followed, and Soohyun almost thought that he had hung up until he spoke again, "What kind of pint do you want for when you get back?"

"If it's not that brownie and cookie dough mix I will cry." Soohyun said quickly, almost tasting the ice cream already. Sometimes his roommate wasn't an .

"Hey you might cry anyways because it was such a bad date!" Hanhyun laughed, and that was it for Soohyun. He wasn't going to put up with this -- well, not until he got back to the dorm.

"I'm hanging up now, bye !" He all but yelled into the speaker, hanging up before Hanhyun could embarrass him even more or respond with a 'bye you gay '.

Soohyun approached the cafe a few minutes later, his heart thumping in his chest and his palms clammy. Well, it was now or never, right? It'd be rude to back out now, he reasoned with himself as he walked into the cafe, looking around. He didn't see anyone that looked like Sun (and from his profile picture, really, it seems like he'd be hard to miss) so he settled for grabbing a tea from the cashier, getting a cosy table way in the back (you could never be too careful!) and pulled out his journal to do some free writing until his date arrived. 



If you told Kim Sunhee that he was late, he would tell you that everyone else was early and he's only fashionably late, so off. Plus, there were plenty of reasons to why he was running late in the first place.

One: He needed the perfect outfit for this date and no, it totally wasn't because he was Freaking Out. That kind of nervousness is reserved only for the Queens of Korea aka SNSD, so of course he was not Freaking Out, obviously. 

Two: He needed to explain to his parents in a way that wouldn't make them freak out but also totally understand what he was going out for -- to which they didn't really care, just be careful and use protection as usual, they said. He didn't correct them because, well, you never know right? Right!

Three: His outfit needed at least three different people -- yes, he meant strangers on his way to the train. His friends would just lie and say of course he looked great -- he wanted pure honesty about how great he looked.

It was common for people to be stunned by his beauty, even though his oversized sunglasses (the blanc and eclaire's newest edition because OT9 forever Jessica will always be in his heart!!) and his purple crushed velvet mask covered most of his face, so he allowed them time to recover from gazing upon perfection before restating his question.
 
"Y-yes?" The old woman stuttered out, blinking up at Sunhee in a very confused way. That was the third and last yes he needed. He lifted up his sunglasses, gave the woman a quick wink.

"I know, thank you~" He sang, walking off towards the metro station. He had looked up how to work the system eariler, so he got his card and -- 

.... Where was he supposed to go? 

"Need help?" He jumped, turning to see two women, one n in a pretty blue blouse and the other with a fabulous necklace and shoe combination. 

"Y-yeah, I don't use the train often --" Or ever, for that matter. But he wanted to appear normal and totally not a spoiled brat. After all, that was the deal. 

The necklace girl laughed, "We get it, where are you off to?" Sunhee immediately pulled out his phone to check the location of where the cafe was. 

Blue blouse raised her eyebrows, "That's pretty far off, but if you take --" And the two girls proceeded to map out a route that'd only take him 35 minutes at most if he hurried to each stop and made it on time. 

"Oh my god, thank you guys so much --" He paused, "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your names!"

"I'm Aejin," Necklace girl introduced herself, "And this is my roommate and best friend, Gaeul!" 

"Well thank you sooo much Aejin and Gaeul, I really appreciate it! Also, that blouse," He pointed to Gaeul, "And thsoe shoes with that necklace," then to Aejin, "Absolutely fabulous fashion choices. Have a good weekend!" 

And with that, he was off. Because of his sheer dumb luck that he was born with, he actually did make it in about a half hour. He sighed in relief as he stepped off the train, looking down at the directions to the cafe. 

"Oh! He messaged me, is he there--" Sunhee's eyes widened at the time stamp. "Oh my goood he's been there for an hour! I got to hurry!" He bolted down the street, checking his phone every so often to check the street and number names. 

Sunhee didn't waste time bursting through the door, causing everyone to jump, especially the boy who was at the register. 

"I'm here!!" He announced, "Where is the man called --" He checked his phone again, "Park Myunsik?"

The boy at the register immediately blushed bright red and timidly raised his hand. "T-that'd be me... Hello."

Off came the sunglasses and mask, revealing Sunhee's grin, "Hi! I'm Lee Sunheeeey it's nice to meet you and so sorry for being late." He inwardly sighed in relief at the recovery. He couldn't blow it on the first date!

Unless he asked nicely. Sunhee snickered to himself but shook it off. Bad Sunhee, now's not the time to think those kinds of things.

"So, uhm," Myunsik shuffled, "Do you want anything?" He gestured to the board, and Sunhee looked over at his choices. "An iced americano with.... 2 pumps of vanilla flavoring. Please." He added as an after thought, going for his wallet that was in one of his coat pockets. 

"Thank you, it'll be out soon!" The cashier said as Myunsik stuck his wallet back in his pocket.

"Did you just... pay for me?" Sunhee asked, at a loss of what to do.

Myunsik raised an eyebrow, "Well... yeah? This is a date, isn't it?"

Sunhee refused to admit whether his cheeks burning stemmed from his embarrassment or from the realization that this was a date and Myunsik admitted it openly and casually. 

"R-right, right. Fine. But I pay for the next date." He said the words before even realizing their meaning, making Myunsik blush.

"Okay, if you say so. Remember that you promised a next date though." Myunsik mumbled, shoving his americano into Sunhee's hands and he led them back to the table he had been sitting at. 

As they began talking, both of them had very similiar thoughts. 

'He's... eccentric, for sure. But kinda cute.'

'He's cute and a gentleman? I can totally do this for a month.' 

Author's Note