I struggled to open my eyes as the afternoon sun blinded me. I looked over to the clock that read two in the afternoon. How long was I asleep for? I began rubbing my eyes as I made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth and freshen up. 

As I walked down the stairs, the smell of food filled my nose and a familiar voice rang in my ears. The last I saw him was when we were graduating from high school. He still lived next door? 

As I reached the bottom of the creaky stairs, a head turned to look at me. 

"It's about time you woke up! I've been here for two hours!" Taecyeon said rubbing the top of my head. 

"It's nice to see you too, Taecyeon." I said laughing. 

He smiled back and gave me that dreaded side hug. I looked up at him. He definately hadn't gotten bad looking over the years. 

"You look good." I blurted out. 

Great.

"I know. Completely irrisistable." He rubbed his jaw and began makingg kissy face. 

Completely ignoring him, I walked over to halmeoni in the kitchen. 

"It smells good. What are you making?"

"You're favorite! Samgyeopsal with kimchi." 

"I haven't had that in who knows when!" 

"Exactly." She said continuing to grill the pork. 

Taecyeon walked into the room. 

"Toni, get dressed. The food won't be ready until later. Let's go catch up." 

He pulled my arm. I was no match for his excessive strength, so I followed behind even though I wanted to stay in the cozy home. 

"What about Amanda?" I asked. 

"She's came by already to get some of her stuff. She's staying with her parents for a few days." He said pulling me upstairs. 

Way to leave me hanging Amanda. Best friends for life!

I changed into a pair of dark jeans and lavender v-neck. I grabbed my purse and rushed downstairs and slid on the black flats I came in.

"Ready?"

-------------------------------------------

"So, how long are you supposed to be here?" Taecyeon asked as the waiter set our drinks on the table.

"Actually... I'm here to stay." I said sipping my frozen treat.

"Really? That's great! It'll be like old times." He went on. I began tuning him out when I felt someone staring at me. 

I was used to staring, I mean, I'm black. But this felt like a 'I want to burn you with my eyes' type of stare. 

I darted my eyes around the tiny establishment and noticed three guys sitting at the counter, bodies facing our direction.

"Toni, it's called listening. You should know that since you do it for a living." Taecyeon said catching my attention. 

"Sorry, Tae. It's just, those guys over there. It feels like they're staring." 

Taecyeon looked over his shoulder at the two guys standing at the counter. He got up after studying who they were and went over to them. They seemed to be friends with the way they were communicating. 

Soon after they exchanged a couple of words, the three of them came back to where I sat. 

"Toni, this is Taeyang, Seunghyun, and Jiyong." 

They all smiled and greeted me one by one in somewhat understandable English.

"Nice to meet you all. I'm Toni." I said bowing from my seat. 

"You speak Korean pretty well!" Jiyong exclaimed. 

 "I get that a lot." I said sarcastically.

"So, you two are dating? Taecyeon never mentioned anything about having a girlfriend." Taeyang said looking over at Taecyeon. 

"No offense, but you look out of his league." Jiyong laughed. 

I chuckled along, seeing the expression on Tae's face. We all ended up chatting for a while. Turns out, Tae met them after I moved. They were pretty close friends. They seemed pretty nice and they loved making jokes about each other. It reminded me of Taecyeon, Amanda, and I when we were younger. I'm glad he actually found some guy friends. 

"So, do you have a boyfriend, Toni?" Taeyang asked, interupting my thoughts. 

I shook my head no, not even considering Fredrick back in the states. "Actually, I never really had the time to find one." I shrugged, taking Tae's drink and sipping it.

"Really? Maybe I should take you out sometime. You know? Show you around." 

Red flag! Red flag! Did he seriously just ask me on a date? We just met. Looking at this guy, he seemed pretty confident, arrogant, and any other synonym  that screamed playboy. He was cute, but not my type. Seunghyun, the one that spoke the least, was the one who attracted my attention most. 

"Taeyang, she just got here. You're seriously going to hit on her already?" Jiyong said. 

Saved by the bell! 

"Hey, no use in not trying." He said shrugging. 

"Well, why not? I mean, I won't have anything to do for a while." I said hesitantly. I knew i had nothing to do, and going around Seoul alone would get boring. Plus, Taecyeon was busy with his own life. 

"Cool! We can meet here tomorrow around 6!" 

"It's a date!" Tae interrupted.