Jihyo sat in the corner of the 24-hour chicken and beer restaurant she found in Hongdae, fiddling with her phone, as a box of chicken remained untouched in front of her. It had been less than an hour since Jihyo agreed to have dinner with Jongkook. It wasn’t the first time she had dinner with just him, but the way he asked her out this time made her feel like this was different. 

“Would you like to get dinner with me?” It was too formal, something a guy would say to a girl if he asked her out on a real date. It was also the first time he’d phrased it that way. Usually, he would say, “Let’s go eat!” or “Do you want to eat?” Either way, there was just an assumption of him tagging along if she did choose to eat. But there was a bit of emphasis he gave to the fact that this was dinner - a meal usually reserved for special occasions - and that she would be eating with him.

“Ah jinjja,” she said to no one. She didn’t like the fact that she had begun to overthink her interactions and conversations with Jongkook. But she subconsciously started to do it, ever since that stupid agreement they had on his birthday. She thought she was already safe after Haha moved on from the topic, and, yet, here she is, about to share a meal with a man she agreed to try dating. 

She heard the restaurant door open, and in came Kim Jongkook. He looked around the empty place, and immediately spotted her at the corner. “Have you been waiting long?” he asked her, as he sat down in front of her.

“Ani Oppa,” she said. Truthfully, she took quite some time scouring the area for an acceptable place that was still open at this time. Jongkook looked at him in disbelief. “Jinjja, oppa. I had to pick a good place for us,” she insisted.

“And you decided on a restaurant that sells fried chicken?”

“Wae? Shihro? Do you want to move somewhere else?”

“It’s just an interesting choice, that’s all,” he said, grabbing the box of chicken that remained unopen. The box looked familiar; he just can’t pin down where he has seen it before. 

“Well, I never know your mood nowadays. But at least, you can eat the chicken meat, and then you can let me finish everything else.” She pulled the box closer to her side of the table, opened it, and peeled off some chicken skin, before taking a bite.

Jongkook just smirked at her, picked off a piece of the meat from the area Jihyo had peeled off the skin, and put it in his mouth. They ate for a while in silence, grabbing bites from the pieces of chicken he took, until he suddenly stood up.

Jihyo was visibly taken aback, but he simply smiled at her and asked, “What do you want to drink?” Only Jongkook would ask such a question at a chicken and beer restaurant of all places, and it would have been easier for Jihyo if she told him she obviously wanted a bottle of beer, so she can take off the edge of meeting him at this hour and numb down some of her faculties.

“Just a soda would be good, Oppa,” she said. He came back soon after with two cans. He diligently wiped the top of both cans before pouring the fizzy drink into the glasses he’d brought back, put one in front of Jihyo, and set his own glass by his side. Jihyo just stared at him the whole time; she still felt like she was tiptoeing around her thoughts. Maybe she really should’ve just gone for beer.

“Go ahead and ask what you want to ask, Sooyeon-ah,” he said. Jihyo flinched at his use of her real name. That was always an indicator that Jongkook was about to talk to her seriously about private matters. As a staunch advocate for privacy despite the public nature of their jobs, he would always tell her that having a screen name was like her shield; as Jihyo, she can continue to be the ace of Runningman and the brilliant actress she was, but, as Sooyeon, she can keep her truest self. As a consequence, she found herself being protective of her legal name, and together she and Jongkook tried to stop the rest of the members from using Sooyeon, even if the two knew that they simply did it to .

“Why are we out for dinner at this time of the night?” she phrased her question. 

Jongkook sighed. The truth was they were out for dinner because Haha and his mother’s words had weighed down on him and he impulsively decided to see how a date with her would turn out. But he settled with, “Because we both haven’t eaten, and we’re seeing each other anyway later. It made sense to just meet up a bit earlier.”

“Ah oppa,” she was obviously exasperated.

Jongkook laughed, and Jihyo was appalled at his audacity to see the humor in the situation. “Geurae,” Jongkook said, after taking a sip of his soda. “I believe we made an agreement to try dating, and since we’re meeting for our weekly bike ride anyway, I thought now’s a good time to have dinner together.”

Then, he proceeded to take more bites out of the chicken that they shared. She simply stared at him, as the thought slowly sank in. He had just admitted that this was a date. Despite her efforts in the last week to try to bury that discussion away, it had come back in full force. Now she had no choice but to go with it.

“Sooyeon-ah,” he tried to coax her out of her daze. When she sharply turned her attention to him, he said with a smirk, “Wae? This date shouldn’t be a problem. Just months ago, you said you were going to have a boyfriend soon and that I was your dream guy.”

That made her giggle, and her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “Ah oppa, you know that was just for the show,” her voice still cracking upon remembering the stunt she pulled that day.

“So are you saying I’m not your dream guy anymore?” he feigned disappointment by visibly sulking. 

Ah so he wants to play this game, she thought. She put up her elbow on the table, rested her chin on her hand, and stared a bit more closely into his face. She knew he’d budge at close contact, and he did. He tried to create more space between them by leaning back into his chair and crossing his arms. Jihyo gave up the chase, and only stretched forward as far as her body would allow. 

Jongkook simply stared back at her, his eyebrows slowly furrowing together as he tried to figure out what Jihyo was thinking. She eventually leaned back, crossed her arms, and decided to answer him truthfully, “I’m not sure.”

“Well that’s a development, Sooyeon-ah. You were sure it would be impossible for us to date because we’re family. What made you unsure this time?” Jongkook leaned a bit closer. This was starting to get interesting for him.

“Geunyang,” she said, still leaning back with a slight smirk on her face. “Why do you want to know?”

“Geunyang,” he used her words back at her, tilting his head a bit, as if he were taunting her. And then she laughed, the infectious kind that led him to also see the humor in the conversation. Despite the lack of any clear answers to the questions that have been asked, they’ve basically ventured