I was the first to arrive.

The restaurant was mostly empty. A couple was sitting in a corner, and a boy, no, a man was rapidly texting in the opposite one. The smell of grilled meat, spices and what I presumed must have been kimchi made me smile.

Since I came to Seoul, which was just a few days ago, I wanted to eat in a aplce like this.

I parked my body on a chair, the table big enough to hold several people, and waited for my friends to come. When the owner-lady came over I asked only for tea, axplaining I´ll eat with the rest of the party.

It took me a few minutes to notice the side glances the couple was giving me. When I caught them in act I smiled politelly. They turned away, korean words spilling in a rushed torrent, ears red.

Attention on my phone, I jumped when someone tapped my shoulder. The couple was standing beside me, their expressions were polite yet curious and excited. The male asked if they could take a photo with me. I was surprised, surelly I´m not the first foreigner they see. The girl  started babbling in that over-exaggerated cutesy style. My left eyebrow shot up. From what I understood, which wans´t much, they like the colour of my eyes. I didn´t wear glasses today, so the lace-like structure of my blue irises shone like spider-web.

I don´t know if they thought it´s okay because I´m a foreigner, but they probably had a slight misconception that we all like to  be touched. The male draped his left arm around my shoulder, the female hugged my free side.

My muscles tensed. I tried to smile naturally into the camera. Between the third and fourth picture I noticed the man in the corner wasn´t texting anymore. When our eyes met, his became slightly bigger.

Apparently he wans´t exprecting I´ll look his way. His cheeks became red and he hurriedly turned away.

The couple ,finally satisfied with their photos, thanked me and left the restaurant. I quickly checked the time. I´m sitting here twenty minutes and the slowpokes that are my friends are nowhere to be seen.

I took a peek fro the corner of my eye, now event he ears and the neck of the man became red. I giggled, the man´s head snapped my way at the sound. I just sent him a toothy smile, my good mood coming back.

 He actually smiled back. And sweet innocent tears of baby Jezus, that was one disarmingly charming and cute smile.

I opened my mouth, words halfway out of it when a hurricane of people crashed into the restaurant. Yelled greetings, hugs, and orders screamed over one another toward the owner-lady, the chaos of screeching chairs and garments being put away made me slightly dizzy.

It took good fifteen minutes before I could turn my attention away from my friends. He was still there, but not alone.

In front of him sat two young men, one with cute face and wide , energetic gestures, the other one... I had to to blink a few times, his features from a certain angle looked almost european.

The breath was punched out of me. The previously shy man was laughing wholeheartedly. His eyes crinkling, creating halfmoon, mouth stretched into wide smile, the gums of his teeth showing. The deep sound of his laughter shook my bones and made my heart flutter. Huh, this never happened before.

This time it was him who caught me staring. His smile became gentler, one corner of lips slightly higher in a mischievious curl. My turn to imitate a certain boiled crustacean.

Something in his gaze shifted. His features slightly tensed for a second. He torn his eyes from me. I felt an unexpected pinch near my heart.

He mumbled something to his friends and with the accompaniment of hoots and catcalls from them, stood from his chair.

I froze, panick creeping up my spine. Is he going away? Is he coming here?! I don´t know which scared me more in that moment.

He came to a stop next to me.

„Is it perhaps okay if we sit with you?“ I swallowed, looking up at him. The gentle smile was back even i fit became a little embarassed and uncertain.

Next to me gasps and surprised exclamations buzzed somewhere in the background of my mind.

He wants to si here? With us? With me? It was a little unbelievable that a quite ordinary, even if slightly crazy, girl like me would catch attention of someone like him. But his sincere eyes and tense stance told me that today fate prepared a little miracle for me.

„Yes, sure, okay?!“ I gushed out, grinning like a mad man. He just laughed, grabbed the closest chair and drew it next to me.

When his friends too succesfully changed seats and the elated murmur died down a little, he turned his body towards me. Suddenly shy I wringed my hands, looking at him from below my lashes. He chuckled, amused, his cheks once again gaining pink colour.

I looked at the hand he held up for me. It was bigger than mine, obviously, the bones visibly shifting when he moved his long fingers. I found his wrist to be cute, to this I scolded myself in my head, now is not the time to think about his cutely shaped wrist bones , or the prominent muscles that could be seen coiling underneath his tanned skin.

I blinked a few times to get out of the haze. His palm was warm. The feeling somewhere deep in my stomach made me smile. Who knew the freaking butterflies were real!?

„Hi, my name is Kim Minjun.“ My heart swelled, now I knew his name. I felt again like a teenager. But I could tell he wasn´t much different, given the teasing his two friends gave him.

Heh, I knew I would love this restaurant.