Chapter Five

❤

            “Ji-Jiyeon?” Chanyeol looked at Jiyeon with huge eyes.

            Jiyeon thought he looked so adorable, so she giggled at how cute he looked when he was caught off guard.

            “Please tell me you’re my blind date,” Jiyeon blurted out. Her happiness and relief that her blind date was Chanyeol made her speak without thinking. Shocked that she stated such a thing, she blushed.

            “Please tell me you know Ryeowook,” Chanyeol turned red and rubbed the back of his neck.

            Jiyeon chuckled, “In fact, I do. I work here, actually.”

            “What? How come I’ve never seen you?” Chanyeol asked.

            Another voice interrupted the two. “Because Yeollie, you’ve never came on a day when she was working. You two know each other?” Ryeowook looked genuinely surprised as he pointed at them.

            “Yeah, we do.” Jiyeon spoke first and smiled. “Should we all sit down?” She pointed towards the chairs.

            “Sure,” Chanyeol nodded. As Jiyeon was sitting down, he quickly whispered into Ryeowook’s ear. “Dude! This is the girl I was talking about! She’s my crush!”

            Ryeowook stared in disbelief. “What??”

            They all sat down; Chanyeol took the seat in front of Jiyeon and Ryeowook sat on Jiyeon’s side.

            “So, Yeollie, this is Yeonnie.” Ryeowook grinned.

            “Yeollie, that’s a cute nickname. Can I call you that?” Jiyeon asked.

            Ryeowook coughed and whispered to Jiyeon, “Look at my little sister, acting all bold.” Ryeowook turned to look at Chanyeol’s reaction and he laughed out loud once he saw how red Chanyeol’s face was.

            Annoyed with Ryeowook’s teasing, Jiyeon lightly pinched Ryeowook’s arm under the table.

            “Ow-what?” Ryeowook looked at Jiyeon.

            Jiyeon secretly covered the side of so that Chanyeol couldn’t see the words, “LEAVE” to Ryeowook.

            “Well, I think I have to serve some customers. Enjoy your date, little lovers!” Ryeowook winked at the both of them and smiled.

            “Oh man, I thought he would never leave,” Jiyeon blurted out.

            “You can call me Yeollie if you want to,” Chanyeol looked at Jiyeon and stared into her eyes.

            Jiyeon stared back and the two looked into each other’s eyes, without saying anything.

            “Cool.” Jiyeon became shy and felt warm under Chanyeol’s stare. “You can call me by a nickname too… if you want.” She looked down and tucked her long her behind her ear.

            “Pretty.” Chanyeol mumbled.

            “Pretty? I don’t think that nickname suits me,” Jiyeon gave out a soft laugh.

            “N-no, I mean. Wait. You’re pretty, but that’s not the nickname I wanted to give you. I mean, I was just calling you pretty because I thought you were pretty, but-“ Chanyeol kept stuttering until Ryeowook came over and playfully slapped the back of his head.

            “Dude, you’re embarrassing yourself.” Ryeowook shook his head. “Here are your drinks. Since I know the both of you pretty well, I got both of your favorite drinks and snacks ready already. As for the nickname, just call her Yeonnie. It suits her well.” Ryeowook grinned and quickly left the two.

            “Yeonnie,” Chanyeol called Jiyeon.

            Jiyeon unconsciously put a hand over her stomach due to the butterflies she felt.

            “I like that,” Jiyeon smiled. “So how do you know Ryeowook?”

            “I met him at school actually. He was my senior mentor for a bit, but we became good friends after that.” He grinned.

            “Oh, so are you majoring in Biology?” Jiyeon questioned.

            “No, I’m majoring in Music Composition.” Chanyeol said with a proud smile.

            “Wow, that’s so awesome. I’m a bit jealous that you get to work with music! It seems so cool and interesting!” Jiyeon smiled as she took a sip of drink.

            “Maybe one day I’ll write a song for you.” Chanyeol stated.

            Surprised, Jiyeon almost choked and almost spit out the liquid that was in . After swallowing, she quickly wiped .

            “Sorry, that was cheesy…” Chanyeol covered his face.

            “Haha, don’t worry about it.” Jiyeon started fanning her face because she felt it warm up.

            Chanyeol continued on the conversation, “How about you? What field do you see yourself working in?”

            “I want to become a writer.” Jiyeon lit up and continued speaking about her passion. “I want to have my work published one day.”

            Chanyeol smiled and commented about how he thought her passion for writing was great. He took a sip of his drink as she continued to speak.

            “Thank’s Yeollie. Maybe one day I’ll write a story about you.”

            This time, it was Chanyeol’s turn to choke and cough.

            “Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Jiyeon asked worriedly as she handed him a napkin. They quickly brushed hands together as he took the napkin from her hand.

            “I’m so sorry, I’m a bit of a dork, and I’m really awkward when it comes to flirting or having conversations with boys that I think are cute. I just end up saying stuff without thinking” Jiyeon blurted out. Jiyeon realized what she had said once she saw Chanyeol blushing. “And now I’m spilling out my own thoughts without thinking twice.” Jiyeon covered her face.

            “Sorry Yeollie, I get dorky and awkward sometimes.” Jiyeon mumbled underneath her hands.

            Chanyeol let out a hearty, soft laugh. “It’s fine. My friends call me a dork and they call me awkward all the time. I think its charming, actually!”

            Jiyeon put down her hands and looked at Chanyeol.

            “I guess we’re similar in that sense,” Jiyeon grinned.

            “Yeah, I think we are.” Chanyeol smiled back.

            The couple continued speaking to each other for the whole night until Mouse Rabbit closed for the night.

            The two were in their own world and didn’t notice how time passed until Ryeowook went to the both of them.

            “I’m guessing everything went well?” Ryeowook snapped the two out of their own world.            “We’re officially closed for the night, but I guess I can leave it open for another hour.”

            “Really? It’s that late?” Jiyeon grabbed her phone from her purse to check the time. She looked at the current time and also noticed that she had missed a few calls from Namjoon.

            “Thank you for the offer, but that means you would be here until 11 pm. Don’t you work early in the morning too?” Chanyeol asked worriedly.

            “Yeah, Wookie. Thank you but I think that would only trouble you.” Jiyeon pouted.

            “Well, think it over and let me know! I’ll be over at the counter.” Ryeowook smiled and walked back towards the cashier counter.

            “I’d really love to stay and talk, Yeon. I really enjoyed tonight. But I don’t want to trouble Ryeowook…” Chanyeol bit his lip as he was contemplating what to do.

            “Same… I really enjoyed talking to you, Yeollie. We should do this again. Maybe on our own terms?” Jiyeon said that last question in a quick manner as she was super shy.

            “I’d love to take you out again, Shin Jiyeon.” Chanyeol stated.

            “Maybe we should leave now, so Ryeowook can close.” Jiyeon giggled.

            “Yeah, you’re right.” Chanyeol laughed.

            The two got up from the table and said their goodbyes to Ryeowook.

            The two awkwardly stood outside of the café as a silence developed around them.

            Chanyeol was the first one to break the silence. “How did you get here, if you don’t mind me asking?”

            “I don’t live too far from here, so I walked here.” Jiyeon smiled.

            “Can I you home?” Chanyeol looked at Jiyeon’s small figure.

            Jiyeon lifted her head in order to look back at Chanyeol.

            “Sure.”

            “My car is parked around the corner, I can go get it-“

            “Are you okay with walking?” Jiyeon spoke softly. She rubbed the back of her neck in a nervous manner. “It’s just that I’d like to spend more time with you, if you don’t mind.”

            Chanyeol’s eyes lit up in surprise and his face felt warm, even though the outside air was freezing.

            “Here you go.” Chanyeol took his coat off and put it over Jiyeon. “You’ll freeze out here.”

            Jiyeon put the coat on and it immediately drowned her. “Thanks Chanyeol. You’re really tall, you know,” Jiyeon chuckled.

            Chanyeol laughed and asked Jiyeon to wait for a bit. He ran back inside the café and dragged Ryeowook out.

            “What’s up, Yeollie?” Ryeowook had a confused look on his face.

            “Can you take a picture of us? I want to keep a memory of our first date.” Chanyeol grinned.

            “Sure!” Ryeowook grabbed Chanyeol’s phone as the couple posed.

            Jiyeon smiled as Chanyeol held out a peace sign.

            “I’m going to take one more. Get closer!” Ryeowook demanded.

            The two awkwardly stepped closer together.

            “Closer… aww, you g