New Beginnings

“So how are your group activities going?” Ahyoung grinned at me.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know!” I gasped in mock horror, eyeing her with what I hoped would be shock in my eyes. “2AM is so popular, how can you not know? It’s definitely more well-known than Vanilla.” I teased.

This time, it was her turn to slap her hand to theatrically. “What blasphemy are you talking about, Changmin?” She kicked me lightly in the shin and giggled.

We were seated around a table in a normal café, with people around us chatting and sipping their small cups of coffee. Every now and then, they glance around at us with curious expressions. Waiters took orders with a small writing pad nonchalantly. It seemed like a typical classy café, with one small difference: a camera crew had taken up a large area of the café, and their lenses were all trained on Ahyoung and I.

Our coffees arrived right at that moment, and I stared at the small cup in disbelief.

“We paid… so much for so little?” I asked Ahyoung, who had already taken a sip from her cup.

“That’s inflation for you.” She sighed, gulping down the rest of her coffee.

I swallowed everything in one gulp and stood up from the table. “The taste isn’t even that outstanding. Come on, let me show you some real coffee.” I took her hand and led her out of the shop, striding purposefully down the road while the camera crew struggled to keep up. We headed down the street until I stopped right in front of a small quaint café.

“Very vintage.” Ahyoung commented, her finger tapping her teeth as she took in the exterior of the café. “I like it.”

It was even more cramped inside the café because of the small interior area. The camera crew could hardly fit themselves in. When the waiter came by to give us our cups of iced coffee, he slipped a card on the table before leaving. “What’s this?” Ahyoung picked it up and glanced at it. She did a double take and began to read it, taking on a serious expression as her eyes scanned the card. Wordlessly, she handed the card over to me before looking down at her iced coffee. I took it from her and read it out loud. “Congratulations for hitting it off so well, Ahyoung and Changmin! Your mission now, is to have your very last date on this program!”

“You’re not serious.” I blurted out, staring into the camera lens with a shocked expression.

Ahyoung looked to the director for instructions, but he merely shrugged, which didn’t help much. She sighed in infuriation and propped her chin onto her palm and stared out of the window in quiet frustration.

“Well… We might as well make the most out of it, yeah?” I told her, taking her hand and our fingers intertwined tightly.

“Where shall we go, than?” She asked, still looking troubled.

I smirked. “Let’s re-create our very first date. First, we’ll head to the zoo, and then to the arcade.”

Her eyes instantly lit up. “Then we’ll hit the ice cream shop down the road, right?” She finished up enthusiastically. “Come on, what’re we waiting for?” She stood up quickly and clambered out of her chair before rushing towards the door, bouncing up and down on the spot like a hyperactive child.

I chuckled to myself and followed her out into the cold wintry air.

--

The moment we reached our first destination, Ahyoung dashed over to the petting zoo. “These cute little bunnies haven’t changed at all since the last time we saw them!” She squealed, ruffling the fur on each of their tiny heads. Their long ears twitched in greeting and they sniffed her hands for hidden treats. I headed over to the food stand and bought two small carrots before handing one over to her. The bunnies eagerly latched their long teeth onto the orange morsel and began nibbling at top-speed.

“I have no idea how they chew so fast.” Ahyoung said, staring at them in amazement. “Do they do this?” She scrunched up her face and tucked in her bottom lip in an attempt to imitate them.

“No!” I laughed. “They do this.” I pulled an even more outrageous face than hers, causing her to double over in laughter. Her hand shook as she laughed, and accidentally bashed the nose of the rabbit nibbling on the carrot.

“Whoops.” She stuck out her tongue in apology just as the rabbit batted her palm with its front paw in indignation.

“We have to see the owls next.” She said, standing up and brushing off the dust from her jacket. She widened her eyes and stared at me, hooting softly. I immediately raised up my hand and wiped it on the pillar next to me.

“Rabbit slobber.” I explained, when I noticed the confused look on her face.

Her jaw dropped and she slapped me playfully on my arm. “Ew! That’s disgusting!”

“Says the person who just wiped rabbit slobber all over my nice clean jacket!” I retorted. Ahyoung clutched her stomach and bent over in laughter when she realized what she had done.

“All right, all right. I owe you an ice cream.” She said in between bursts of laughter.

“Make mine carrot flavoured.” I sniffed in mock contempt before leading the way to the owl enclosure, leaving her giggling uncontrollably.

It took quite a while for us to finish our tour of the zoo, and for us to reach the arcade near the ice cream shop. We took turns picking games to play, each time betting that on ourselves to win the games. Ahyoung had won at air hockey three times already, the same number of times that I had. Now was the final match that would determine the winner.

“Any last words, Lee Changmin?” Ahyoung said calmly, raising an eyebrow at me while leaning back with her arms crossed over her chest.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes in an exaggerated manner at her. “Yeah I do. They’re say your last prayers, Park Ahyoung.”

She shrugged nonchalantly, and leaned down over the board in an athletic stance. I did the same, and she curled up her upper lip as she took aim. The moment the hockey paddle came in contact with the puck, we both began playing like maniacs. The puck zoomed towards me and I whacked it back into her playing area. She narrowed her eyes at me when the puck shot into the goal, and I raised my arms in victory.

“Beginner’s luck.” She muttered. “It’s this last goal that matters now.”

My goal had pulled us up to a draw, and now we both stood at eleven goals. Fuelled by my sudden of luck, I took aim once again and hit the puck, hard. The puck ricocheted off the sides of the playing board and headed straight for my own goal. My eyes widened in horror, and I moved to defend my goal, but I was too late. The puck had already entered my goal.

“Yes!” Ahyoung shrieked, jumping up and down in ecstasy while I sunk to my knees on the floor in an overdramatic manner.

“For my prize… I want you to pay for my ice cream!” Ahyoung grinned. “And I’ll make sure to choose the largest, most expensive item on the menu. Don’t worry; I’ll still be buying you your single scoop, carrot flavoured ice cream cup.” She gloated.

I pouted at her, and got up from my kneeling position.

“Come on, let’s head for the ice cream shop. I need something cooling from all that gaming we did.” She fanned her face with one hand and hooked the other through mine.

I smiled at the gesture and let her pull me out into the street.

“Let’s eat outside.” I said, staring at the tourists sitting at the tables outside the sundae restaurant. The moonlight streamed down on the many tables, illuminating the frozen delights set down in front of them.

“But it’s gonna be so cold.” She complained.

“It’s ice cream in winter.” I reasoned. “It’ll be fun to see how long it takes for the ice cream to melt in this kind of weather.”

She gave me a weird look, before smiling. “Lee Changmin, you’re the weirdest man I’ve ever met. I like it.” She said quickly, sprinting forward to the shop.

I looked at her, surprised. She had pulled open the door of the shop and was gesturing wildly at me to hurry up. I smiled to myself and ran to join her.

“Alright guys, great job tonight!” The camera crew said.

We turned to them in surprise. We hadn’t even finished with our date yet and they had already stopped filming? That’s a first!

“We’ve got enough footage to satisfy the viewers, don’t worry.” The director said. “About that being the last mission, well, that part’s true, too. Thanks for cooperating with us for the past few months; it has been a pleasure working with the both of you. Enjoy the rest of your night.”

The both of us shook hands with him and the rest of the crew before they bid us goodbye.

“And so, it all comes to an end.” Ahyoung said dejectedly, stabbing her ice cream with the spoon absentmindedly. “I had so much fun today. So much that I actually forgot about the entire last mission hoo-ha. I can’t believe that this will be our last date.” She stabbed the ice cream harder and faster, but it stayed frozen. “Ugh, this ice cream is so hard!” She slammed her spoon down on the table and glared at the unyielding mint-green ice cream scoop through angry tears.

I took her hand softly and began to speak. “Look at me.” I said softly. She continued to keep her head down. “Look at me, Ahyoung.” I reached out and lifted her chin to face me. “This. This is the face of a man in love. A man so smitten by you. Just because the show has ended, that doesn’t mean that we’re over. It just shows that the curtain has gone down on one chapter of our relationship and has opened a new fresh start for us.”

She glanced at me in uncertainty. “Really?”

I nodded gently, and smiled. “Imagine: a real relationship based on what we want it to be, not what others want it to be. Doesn’t that sound a million times better than what we have right now?”

A small smile began to spread across her face. “I guess you’re right.” She grabbed her sundae glass and tipped it towards me in a toast. We clinked our sundae cups together as if they were wine glasses.

“To new beginnings.” She sighed happily.

“To new beginnings.”

As we tipped our sundae glasses back to our lips, a scoop fell off mine and down my shirt, leaving a streak of brown chocolate down my shirt. We both stared at the stain for a few seconds, before breaking into loud bouts of laughter.

We both laughed into the night. A merry ending to a wonderful chapter, and a beautiful beginning of another.

Writer: minminXP

For: dannyskye

Erm... Although I was given a character 'analysis' of Changmin, I think I made him a bit too dorky. :/ And the ending was weird. Sorry.