Part Two
Table For One
A/N AhhHHKKK!! I'm so sorry for the super late update. But here it is! In return for making you all wait so long, this chapter is... pretty damn long. LOL. I'm sorry for the grammar and spelling mistakes. I reread it a few times to check but with its length, I'm certain I missed a few. Ah, there's a bit of swearing around the end, so I guess I should warn you about that. But other than that, I hope you enjoy it! The next chapter will be the last. Thank you so much for your patience!! See you at the last chapter!! ^^
-
She admits that the store's advertisement had given her some suspicions.
And those suspicions grew further when they were asked for ID at the store front, although the man at the door seemed to know Daehyun, so they were let in without it. But she honestly didn't think it would turn out anything like a store filled with toys amongst other merchandise. Of course, she was hit with the harsh reality the moment they had walked into the dim lit store, surrounded by shelves on shelves of... very strange things.
It took her less than a minute to realize the horrible misunderstanding she had made with this so-called "game shop". And everything fell apart from there.
She turned to look at Daehyun with her jaw on the ground, unable to fully comprehend how stupid she had been to bring him here and he smirked, with a look on his face that told her he knew what kind of store this was from the start. She could only watch, dumbfounded as he picked up a candy-strung bra, and dangled it in front of her face. "Buy this for me?" He chuckled. "It looks like it's your size."
She smacked it out of his hand with a yelp and he finally burst out in laughter, almost falling to the ground as he struggled to pick up the bra through all his laughing. "Yah, be careful! You break it, you buy it!" He said, still laughing, and adding an unecessary "Though I wouldn't mind that..." at the end. She had forgotten how erted her best-friend-made-boy-friend could be. At least she ironically did end up bringing him to a store he'd enjoy, like she had wanted.
"D-DAEHYUN! I .. Wh- WHAT?" She stuttered through her confusion, still unable to make proper sentences. He was still obnoxiously laughing at her, his hands clutching his stomach, tears b in his eyes. Her face went a deep shade of red, having no words to explain how thoroughly embarassed and confused and completely stupid she was feeling, so she smacked him on the shoulder instead.
"H-HEY! Don't take it out on me! You were the one who insisted on coming here!"
"YEAH BUT IF YOU KNEW IT WAS THIS KIND OF SHOP, WHY DID YOU LET ME TAKE YOU?" The store keeper was watching them now, so she lowered her voice around the end.
"I thought it'd be fun!!" Daehyun chuckled, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"You think this is fun?!" She shrieked, pointing at a set of different sized whips on the wall. He only laughed harder. She ran her fingers through her hair, frustrated to an unbearable point. After a few more moments of hearing nothing but Daehyun trying not to die from the lack of oxygen, she grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the store.
He took a few deep breaths and put his hands on his knees, finally siezing his laughter and looking up at his best friend. She glared at him and crossed her arms. He sighed and straightened himself up, smiling at her.
"Aw, come on, it wasn't that bad! It was really funny, to be honest." He chuckled.
"Yeah, I could tell by your endless laughter." She hissed, rolling her eyes, still annoyed and completely shocked.
"Awww, don't be like that!" He brought his hands up to her cheeks and pulled. "Your expression was all worth it." He laughed, stopping abruptly when he realized she wasn't in a joking mood as of yet.
"Well you forget I can't see my own hilarious expression, so I'm glad you had fun laughing at me, and sorry for this complete fail of a date." She shoved his hands off and stared at him, not knowing what else to do but walk away, face still red from embarassment. Daehyun watched with wide eyes before catching up with her and grabbing her arm.
"Wait, where are you going?!" He questioned, pulling her towards him. "Is this how dates are supposed to end?" He cocked his head and she could only scoff at him.
"You can't even call that a date! We just walked here, stepped in and ran out!" She kissed her teeth, looking thoroughly upset. "What a great first date."
Daehyun stared at her and sighed. She looked up to see him shake his head and proceed to slowly pat her hair. "I don't know anything about dates, but I'm pretty sure anything can be a date as long as you make memories and have fun, right?" He gave her that reassuring smile she always loved and shrugged. "I'm never going to forget this date. And it was more than fun! ... Well, at least for me! But I think it was a great start to a great first date."
For a short second she could understand why so many people fall for him so easily. But just for a second. Letting out a sigh, she slowly gave in and smiled back at him, laughing a bit.
"You're so cheesy." She swatted his hand away, and he laughed as well.
"As long as it makes my bes-... girl friend happy," He winked, wrapping an arm around her waist. She made an obnoxious gagging noise but didn't object.
"Oh and by the way, don't think too much on it." He said, gesturing back to the store they were in a few minutes ago. "Youngjae's older brother works there sometimes. Even Yongguk-hyung does. That's why I know about it. It's not like I come here regularly." He scratched his head awkwardly. "What would I do with those kind of things anyways?"
She chuckled, unfortunately only half believing his excuse, but still nodded her head. As they began to walk down the street, she broke the silence. "I've decided on a nickname for you."
He tilted his head and looked at her. "Nickname? We're going as far as couple nicknames?"
"Of course! If we're going to be dating, we're going to have to do it right! Which means we should have nicknames." She smiled when he sighed at her explanation, but nodded, awaiting the nickname he'd have to put up with for the entire week. "Your nickname is the erted Prince Charming."
He stopped in his tracks and glared down at her. "Yah! How's that a nickname?! Nickname's are supposed to be short and sweet. That's 4 syllables more than just saying 'Daehyun'!"
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding, gosh!" She laughed, poking him in the side. "What about... like... dearest? My dear?"
He gagged this time but smiled. "Gross but better than the first one. You can be... my darling?"
"Ew, and you say my nickname was gross." She scoffed, smiling up at him.
"Whatever darling, since your plan on having fun at the game shop didn't work out, let's just go get some ice cream, kay?" He smiled and she nodded in agreement as pulled her along the street, one hand in his pocket, and the other around her waist, protectively holding her against him.
It actually did feel like he was her boyfriend. For once, she was seeing him just as Daehyun, not the brother and best friend she'd known her entire life. There was this new light shining down on him, and she would never admit how much she didn't mind seeing him like that. She didn't even realize the new, strange feeling she was slowly starting to feel as they walked down the street with his arm around her waist.
And the feeling only became more obvious as the days went by.
If Sunday was a "fail of a date" in her books - despite all of Daehyun's arguments, she didn't know what she could call Monday.
In her strange version of a schedule, Monday was titled with "Water", which lead them to their date near the lake. It could've been a cute, sweet walk by the water just like she had hoped, if only she hadn't tripped on one of the rocks. And helplessly fell into the depths of the lake.
Not only was she scarily clumsy, she didn't really know how to swim.
But luckily for her, her one-week-boyfriend was a quick one with well rounded skills -swimming being one of them- and they were both in and out of the water not long after she had tripped.
She hadn't swallowed water, or fainted, or anything of the sort, but her eyes were shut tight as Daehyun dragged her out, soaking wet.
"Hey! HEY! Are you alright?" She heard him shout once she was laid back on the dirty ground. "Open your eyes! Please, please..." He continued to beg, his voice more worried than she had ever heard it. His voice was shaking, as well as his hands, as they touched her face and shook her shoulders. She squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, half because she was still completely afraid, but mostly because she just wanted to die right there. You'd think she couldn't do anything more embarassing than bringing him to a shop on the first date, but that was proven horribly wrong when she had to go and fall into a lake on their second. She was ready to desintigrate into the atmosphere.
When she felt his hands position themselves near her chest, she finally sat up with a shock, coughing, and knocking her forehead into his. He stumbled back a bit, and she held her hand to her own head after being knocked into his. "I'm okay. I'm okay." She stuttered, shivering as she looked at Daehyun, whose expression was more than concerned. She gave him a small smile, and he could feel his heart physically drop in relief. Despite the small, shaky laugh he let out afterwards, the terrible fear of the worst was still there in his eyes. She would never be able to fully understand how scared he was.
Ignoring the crowd of people that had gathered around them, asking if any of them were hurt or if they should call an ambulance, he pulled her into a hug, wet clothes against wet clothes, and his wet hair dripping onto the back of her shirt.
"You're so ing stupid." He whispered, his voice still shaky. She bit her lip and nuzzled her face into his wet shoulder as she felt his arms tighten around her, and his hands cling to her back
"I'm really sorry."
It was the most horrible, and unproductive date she could ever imagine. Which was true in a way, since she had just humiliated herself in the one of the most stupid ways ever. But she was also wrong in many senses. Since little Cupid on the other hand was doing quite a productive job with his love arrows.
As they sat on a park bench to dry off (some nice elderly people had lent their towels to them), she turned to look at Daehyun, gulping when her heart began to quicken at the sight of her "boy friend", glistening as he shook off the water and rubbed his neck. He really was good looking. She knew that already, but she had never really taken it in. His perfect profile, his dainty eyes, that adorable nose, those high cheek bones, his soft lips. Even with the flaws on his skin, which you could take notice of if you were close enough, he was still extremely attractive. She'd never seen him as attractive as he was now, turning towards her and ruffling her hair with a towel.
"Aish, I really should've done a better job at objecting at this one date." Daehyun murmured, wiping the water off her face. "We both know you can't swim, and we both know how freakishly clumsy you can be.. it was an accident waiting to happen." He kissed his teeth the way he always did. He saved her many times in the past, but usually from boys, or gossip, and other such things. Never something like this. She'd never seen him so scared. And thinking about it make her heart pound in the strangest way. Not knowing what to say, or how to act, or whether she should take the towel and do it herself, she continued to sit there, letting him scold her and wipe her off.
She squinted at how bright the sun was as it beat down on him, her little imaginary spotlight on Daehyun shining even brighter along with it. Was she really falling for her best friend? No, she couldn't be. It was impossible. But it was hard to tell herself that as he so sweetly ran the towel across her head, and that killer smile he flashed her when he noticed she was staring.
With a mental slap to her face for so openly staring at him, she looked down into her lap, avoiding all eye contact as he continued wiping her hair and shoulders.
Falling into the lake was embarassing enough. She didn't want him to see her blushing as well.
Tuesday was even worse.
Well, to her it was. But to anyone else, it would be the sweetest date ever, literally.
Daehyun had showed up at their restaraunt at the exact same time as he usually did, dressed exceptionally nicely, waiting for his "girl friend" at the door. After a few minutes of small talk with her mother, she had popped up at his side and linked arms with him, telling her mother they would be upstairs.
"Someone looks excited." She teased, as she lead him towards the stairs around the back of the restaraunt that brought them into their house.
He laughed as they reached the top of the stairs, swinging the door open to their cozy living room which they had spent years and years in, growing up together. It was his house as much as it was hers. "Well duh, Tuesday's marked 'Food' right?"
As expected of her little fat boy friend. She chuckled a bit as they kicked off their shoes. "I bet you dashed to the restaraunt today, huh?" She smirked, making her way towards the kitchen. He stuck his tongue out as he followed and took a seat on the counter. After slipping on an apron, she picked up a spatula and pointed it a few centimeters away from his face. "Alrighty! Tuesday's marked 'Food' because I'll be making something for you!"
Daehyun's face brightened up in a second, and he hooted while lifting his arms up and dancing cutely on the counter. "Oh, I'm definitely going to enjoy this date." He laughed, pushing the spatula away from his face.
"Well it hopefully won't fail like our past two," She shrugged, "Considering I'm good at cooking." That pout replaced Daehyun's smile immediately, and she opened a cupboard that seperated his face from hers, reaching for a bowl so that she didn't need to see him. He really had a talent at being cute without trying.
"Stop referring to our dates as fails, because I actually enjoyed them okay!" He exclaimed, still pouting. "Well... maybe not yesterday's." He scratched the back of his neck a bit. "Or at least the first half. You... really scared me, you know?"
She closed the cupboard and looked at him. That same worried expression from yesterday was there again. The same expression on that same face that seemed to make her heart pound despite her objections. She gulped and quickly looked away, clumsily dropping the plastic bowl into the sink. "S-Sorry..." She replied, secretly pinching herself for getting so flustered so easily as Daehyun's light laugh came from beside her.
"I hope whatever you're making doesn't need a knife."
Lucky for her, making cheesecake was a specialty. Well, she wouldn't necessarily call it special, but the ecstatic look on Daehyun's face when he was being served a slice told her it was special enough for the cute glutton in front of her.
His face brightened even more with every bite he took, and every forkfull of cheescake being shoved into his mouth. She was the daughter of a very popular chef, and a beloved restaraunt owner. Of course she'd be a good cook. She couldn't help but laugh as he gobbled the cheesecake down before she could even take a second piece.
"Did you like it?" She smiled, leaning forward to wipe his mouth with a napkin. It was an unnecessary action, and even he seemed a bit taken back by the gesture, but she was supposed to be his girl friend. It was a good excuse to do those kind of things. He looked up at her, cheeks filled with cheesecake, and eyes filled with pure happiness. She smiled, and let out a sigh. "Oh dear, maybe it's my turn to make you promise not to fall for me."
He rolled his eyes and swallowed. "But darling..." He cooed, so overexaggeratingly that she couldn't help but laugh at how dumb sounded. "I think it'll be a bit hard keeping that promise if you're this perfect."
She rolled her eyes and pulled her hand back, letting him laugh and pick the fork up again. Though she could hear the sarcasm in his voice, she still felt a bit flattered at the comment. And so did her heart. Ah, what a dumb heart it was.
"No but seriously, you're amazing." He shook his head in disbelief and ate the last piece of cheesecake from his plate. After swallowing he looked up at her, and gave a satisfied thumb up. "Best date ever."
Her face heated up in a flash. She wanted to say, "Thank you", or something like the sort, but she could feel her voice get stuck in again, so she took a piece of the cheesecake on her place and shoved it into his mouth instead. He made weird mumbly noises at how fast she shoved the piece into his mouth and she could only laugh as he finally swallowed hard.
"What was that for?!" He coughed, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "I could've choked on that! I could've died!!"
"Oh," She sighed, dripping with mock pity. "And what a beautiful way to die by something you love so much, right?" She teased, and he glared at her in return, not forgetting to open his mouth wide when she brought another forkfull of cheesecake to his mouth.
Once the cheesecake was all eaten and gone -by yours truly-, Daehyun was once again on his usual spot on the counter, watching as she washed the dishes. It usually didn't bother her when he stared. He always stares. She had grown up as a waitress being stared at by Daehyun almost every second he was in their restaraunt, apart from the time he was focused on eating of course. But she couldn't help but feel flustered by it this time. She found herself taking small glances at him every few seconds, and the more he stared, the faster her heart pounded. She mentally scolded her heart, telling it to shut the hell up and stop beating so fast, considering how stupid it was to be so flustered by something she should be used to by now. But it didn't listen.
"Be a good boyfriend and help me with these." She said, breaking the tense silence, and furiously scrubbing at a plate.
"But this is what you specialize in!" He joked, jumping off the counter, still watching, with an elbow propped up on where he was just sitting.
"I don't get why you always watch me, Daehyun." She sighed, knowing it was no use to try making him help. "Like, I know I'm gorgeous but..." She laughed as he rolled her eyes at her.
"I told you already, there's just nothing else to look at." He shrugged, moving to stand behind her. She was about to open to tell him that real men don't run away from dish washing, but all ability to say anything -or breathe in that matter- was knocked out of her system, when a pair of arms casually wrapped themselves around her stomach from behind her. She gasped and turned her head to look at him, which proved to be a bad idea since his beautiful face was only a few centimetres away from her own. She quickly looked away, her face a deep shade of red by now.
"W-What are you doing?" She murmured, looking down further, as if trying to burn a hole in the sink with her eyes.
"Being a good boyfriend!" He smiled, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Isn't this what you'd expect a boyfriend to do?" She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, and clenched her fists in the sink at the amount of feelings she was feeling. He wouldn't see it, since her hands were covered in soapy dish water anyways. She took a quiet breath and tried to calm herself down. She was scared her heart beat was loud enough for him to hear.
"N-no, this is what a newly wed couple would do, Daehyun." Her face impossibly heated up even more at the thought of being married to him, but she shook all thoughts of that out of her head before she could make herself explode. "We're supposed to be dating, not married..." She laughed awkwardly, trying to sound as normal as possible as she continued to stare intently into the bubbly sink. Daehyun laughed against her neck and it took all of her willpower not to fall apart right there and then.
"Whatever, just keep washing them, darling."
That was the end of her heart. She nodded, since she was temporarily mute with her voice being caught somewhere in . She tried to force all focus onto washing the dishes as fast and as efficiently as she could so she could get out of this position already. It was quite hard though, with his arms so snugly fit around her waist and him breathing on her neck like that. And she definitely couldn't say she didn't like it. She could stay in that position forever if she could choose. But she just didn't want to believe that. As she continued to wash the dishes, she reminded herself of the promise she had made him, surprisingly only a few days ago, when he agreed to go on her little date week.
"Don't fall for me, babe."
She replayed his words over and over again in her head as she scrubbed a bowl, and a spatula, and the next. She was doing such a good job at driving those words in to her head that she was close to screaming "HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO THAT WHEN YOU'RE DOING THESE THINGS TO MY HEART?!" out loud. But she was fast enough to bite her lip and stop herself from doing so. Washing dishes had never been so hard. But it never felt so nice either.
"I bet you'll fall for me first." Daehyun teased, out of no where.
Despite how accurate he was, she managed to let out a scoff. "I bet it'll be the other way around."
The saying "All good things come to an end" had to be the one saying that came crashing into her mind as their little walk in the forest at twilight (thus the "Twilight!" title beside Wednesday) took a turn for the worse when she turned around to see Daehyun wasn't by her side anymore. And as the night went on and the sky went darker, the more lost she became.
"Daehyun-ah..." She continued to call his name out repeatedly, growing quieter with every passing minute, until she just stopped calling out completely. She took out her phone and caught sight of the time one second before the tiny blinking "low battery" sign blinked its last blink, and her phone died. 11 PM. What great luck she had. They had started this walk around 9, and everything went fine until they had lost eachother. Daehyun predicted something like this would happen, and she was thoroughly upset that he was right. But she was more upset that it was 11 PM at night, and she was all alone, surrounded by darkness and trees amongst whatever else you can find in a forest like this.
She was never really afraid of the dark or anything, but being lost and alone in a forest, and not knowing where the hell you were going as the night progressed was indeed, making her slightly afraid. Her fear grew even more when the night came to life around her. Owls began to hoo, and she could hear the snapping of twigs, and holy something just moved over there, and oh dear god was that a wolf howling in the distance? She held her hands tight to her chest, trying to calm herself down, but unfortunately did a bad job at doing so.
The only thing lighting her path was the moon, gloomily peeking through the tall trees. She had given the flashlight to Daehyun, along with the rest of her things considering she had forced him to hold her backpack since "that's what good boy friends do". The pang of regret stung through her entire body as she stumbled along in the darkness, getting more and more scared by the second. How did they even get seperated anyways? But then again they rarely talked while they were together in the forest, so they wouldn't have noticed if the other had headed off in a diferent direction. That was probably what had happened. In the dim light, the forest was a beautiful, enchanting, and definitely romantic place. But at midnight, it was not a fun place to be. Especially by yourself.
Her heart beat was now at a tremendous rate, and it wasn't that pretty, happy beat it was when she spent time with Daehyun. It was that of a girl starring in a horror movie, as she ran away from her murderer.
Her mind proceeded to remind her of every single horror movie she had ever watched in her entire life, since the brain is good at being a total sometimes. And as she remembered that one movie with that one scene when that one girl had been grabbed from behind and pulled into a dark alley, she heard a loud snap from behind her. Literally right behind her. She could hear someone breathing only a step away. And before she could remember that "Hey, Daehyun's somewhere in this forest too", she let out a cry, turned around, and snapped her leg up to kick. Hard.
The next few seconds was filled with chants of ", I AM SO SORRY, OH DEAR GOD" and Daehyun curled up on the ground, hands on his.. special parts, and actual tears pouring from his eyes.
In what felt like forever, they had walked their way out of the forest (or limped in poor Daehyun's case) and immediately called her parents for a ride, despite Daehyun's begging for an ambulance.
The car ride home was even worse, as both her parents laughed like hyenas in the front seats after being told what had happened.
"MOM. DAD. This isn't funny at all!" She hissed, slapping her dad's shoulder as he drove. The slight whimper of agreement from the poor thing beside her was enough to make her want to cry. She had said "Sorry" over and over during their entire walk out of the forest, but she felt like it still wasn't enough. It wouldn't be enough ever. She didn't even want to think about how bad a kick to the crotch would hurt a guy.
"Just stay alive a bit longer, Daehyun." Her father comforted, still laughing a bit. "The pain will be there for a while, but there's nothing we can do about it."
"Oh dear," Her mother sighed, fanning herself. "You know, I started dating your dad because of a kick to that area."
She widened her eyes and looked to her father, who nodded in the front seat. It was the first time she had heard about it. "We were playing soccer in a uni match at our high school. I was the best defence man out there. And she had the best kick." He and Daehyun seemed to shudder in unison.
"I had felt so bad that I decided to date him in return." She laughed. "It had to be the worst mistake I ever made."
Her father kissed his teeth, and earned a kiss to the cheek by his wife as she stated that she was just kidding. "Whatever. You had to take responsibility for your actions." He put his foot on the break when they reached a stop light and turned his head slightly to look at his daughter in the back seat. "You're gonna have to take responsibility for Daehyun this time."
She wanted to say that ironically they were practically dating already, but nothing could come out of since the sudden statement had shocked all speaking ability out of her for the hundredth time in the past few days. Daehyun let out a cough and turned to lock eyes with her for half a second. Her mother turned to look at them as Daehyun and her daughter snapped their heads to look out of their opposite windows at the exact same time. How cute.
Despite Daehyun's injury from just last night, their date week continued, more or less bitterly since Thursday's "Up!" had ended up standing for "going to an amusement park with roller coasters and ".
"I really. Really. Don't understand how I let you drag me here." Daehyun shook his head as he stared at one of the many roller coasters in his sight. He turned to look at her and sighed. "Darling, I know you said I'm supposed to tolerate and 'make your girl friend happy' and but have you forgotten about my deathly fear of roller coasters? I'm sorry but if you think I'll tolerate pissing myself to make you happy, you're very wrong."
She chuckled and nodded her head from side to side. "I was actually going to force you on a few, but after last night..." She pursed her lips in guilt and Daehyun sighed, not needing another apology after the countless ones he'd heard yesterday. "I think I should make it up to you. But we have to stay in the amusement park since I've already bought the tickets. You can do anything you want though, I won't object!"
Daehyun contemplated and agreed, half because he felt bad about letting the tickets go to waste, but mostly because he felt that if he had disagreed, his best-friend-made-girl-friend would be heart broken. As much as he had already told her that he's forgiven her and that it's understandable to kick in defense when you're alone in a forest, she still didn't seem to accept his forgiveness. Hopefully if they had fun today, she would feel better. Last night's incident hurt to an excrutiating point he couldn't even imagine before, but it would hurt even more knowing his one-week-girl-friend and eternal best friend was feeling bad because of him. He cared for her too much.
So the entire day they had made their way around the busy amusement park, without even touching a ride let alone a merry-go-round and go karts and that tea cup ride that makes you super dizzy. They had went booth to booth, winning prizes and wasting money and eating anything that came in sight. They speeded through a haunted house, laughed loud as they walked through another filled with mirrors that distorted their bodies, had their futures told by a sketchy psychic, took stupid and expensive pictures in a photobooth, and wore balloon hats made by a tall clown on stilts. She loved roller coasters, and she was a bit disappointed that they didn't ride any, but she had to admit that in the end, this had to be the best date out of the five they've had, though their cheesecake date came close as well. She had plenty of fun, and Daehyun seemed to enjoy himself as well. Their cheeks hurt from laughing and smiling so much, and pockets empty from all the spending.
They sat on a bench by the low gate looking out on the water as the sun began to make its way to down. The lights of the amusement park had once the sky had turned a pretty orange, and the different mixes of music pounded in the background.
"My feet are killing," She groaned, reaching down to touch her ankles. Daehyun laughed and patted her back.
"It was a tiring day," He agreed, beaming down on her. "But it was extremely fun."
She looked up and melted at the way his hair fell around his eyes, and how his eyes crinkled at the ends, and those dimples that showed under them that made him look like he had whiskers when he smiled so hard, and that bright smile that beat the lights surrounding them. It didn't take her long to remind herself not to stare before she looked down at her feet once more, and nodded her head, blushing again.
"Are you upset you didn't get to ride anything?" He asked as she sat up again. She smiled a little and shook her head.
"No, it's fine. I know how much you hate roller coasters, and it was still really fun without them." She replied, shrugging a little and looking out onto the water. The sun wasn't fully down yet.
"Well, before we leave, I think I want to ride something." Daehyun stated after taking an audible breath from beside her. She turned to look at him in disbelief, and he laughed at her silly expression.
"If you're saying that because you feel bad, you really don't need to! I said it was fine..."
"No, but there's this particular ride I always see couples go on in dramas and stuff... I think it'd be an approppriate way to mark the end of our date." He scratched the back of his neck and smiled at her. She blinked a few times in confusion, but nodded in return.
And that's how they found themselves being lead into one of the fancy carts of a pretty ferris wheel. It wobbled as they stepped in, and Daehyun froze in his spot, gulping before making his way to a seat and sitting down immediately. She chuckled as she followed, sitting beside him since the cart only had a two-seater anyways.
"You seriously want to ride this?" She asked, a bit worried. It was the fanciest ferris wheel in the amusement park, and it would be beautiful, but it would also go pretty high.
Nonetheless, Daehyun nodded, and gave her a hesitant smile. "It's fine. It's just going to be a bit high. I'd be more scared if it went fast, but that's not a ferris wheel's job right?"
Right on timing the ferris wheel jolted to a start, and Daehyun had jumped in his seat, his hand finding hers. They both looked to their hands and then at each other. Their eyes stayed locked for a slow, meaningful moment, but with an awkward cough, Daehyun drew his hand back into his lap and looked out the window, regretting it when he noticed how high they were going. They weren't even near the top yet.
The silence gave space for a lot of awkward air. And suddenly the two were feeling nervous. Especially Daehyun. He felt sweat build up on his neck, but he thought it was just because his tie was tied a bit too tight. He began to feel a bit anxious, but he thought it was just because of his fear of heights. But when he had looked up to see her lips moving, and was only able to hear his heart beating out of his chest, he knew that something was wrong.
When their eyes met again, he noticed the slight flush of her cheeks. He had noticed that she couldn't keep eye contact with him recently. He didn't really take anything from it before, but now as the sun dipped into the water, and the sky became a purplish colour, dotting with stars by the second, and his beautiful one-week-girl-friend looked out the window, he couldn't help but wonder. Did she like him? He scrunched his eyebrows together at the thought. He didn't think it was possible. But when he asked himself whether he liked her too, he was surprised at how he couldn't seem to say no.
She had began rambling on about something, since talking and laughing seemed to be her defence mechanism when she felt pressured or awkward or anxious or nervous - which Daehyun had tooken note of over the years. But he wondered whether "being in love" was in that list as well.
She turned to find him with a smile on his face that he didn't even realize was there. He blinked when he took in that he was staring, and scratched the back of his neck.
"Why are you smiling?" She wondered out loud, and slid a bit closer. Both heart beats increased. "Are you still scared?"
He shook his head and brought his hand down, his pinky brushing hers on the seat in the process. Both hands twitched at the contact, and before she could pull hers away with a nervous chuckle, he found his body moving on it's own accord, reaching out to hold her hand in his. They both shared the same shocked expression, as he intertwined their fingers. He didn't even have time to think about what he just did when he saw the small smile appear on her face and the pretty pink colour it had become, and suddenly he couldn't think about anything else but how warm her hands were.
"Y-Yeah." He replied, looking away from her flushed face, since he could feel his beginning to heat up as well. "I'm still a bit scared." He could hear her chuckle from beside him, and he prayed to the heavens that his hands not start getting sweaty, because they probably would, considering how flushed he felt right now.
They held hands for the rest of the ride, as they made their way to the top, and swung slowly towards the bottom. As the sun finally disappeared under the ocean, and as the moon took it's role in the sky, and as the royal blue sky became scattered in stars, and as the lights below them seemed to mock the sky's, their relationship became a bit more complicated. And a little more beautiful.
The next date would've been just as great as Thursday's. But just as she had dreaded, her luck couldn't hold up for too long.
They had been watching an action movie in a drive in theatre (which is what "Action!" had stood for in Friday's schedule), sitting on the grass since none of the two had cars yet, brushing off the frequent staff members that came to offer them drinks and popcorn, and they even held hands for a while, since "you know, couples are supposed to hold hands, I guess this is a good opportunity for you to get used to it". Despite the growing feelings, the somewhat ignored main point of this date week was still kind of there. Kind of.
Things went downhill when their cute little movie date had been rudely interrupted by a tall figure blocking their view of the screen.
"Excuse y-" She began, looking up before dropped at the boy in front of them. It was the boy from that one day in the restaraunt. The one Daehyun had scared off after spilling tea on his hand. Here he was, looming over the two, and bending over to grab Daehyun's collar and pull him to his feet.
"HEY!" Daehyun shouted, shoving the boy away once he was standing up.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" The boy growled, leaning to grab his collar again, but she had stood up and blocked Daehyun before he could even lift his hand.
"I should be asking you that!" She bit back, glaring at the boy. She wasn't good at fighting or anything, but she wasn't scared. The boy obviously had a thing for her, so she had nothing to fear. Sadly, she was wrong, as the boy pushed her away with a strong arm. She hadn't noticed how muscular those arms were. She stumbled to the ground and looked up, pissed off.
"That was far from necessary," Daehyun spoke, looking from the boy to his best friend.
The boy looked down as well, with slight guilt in his eyes, but all hint of guilt was gone as he snapped his eyes back to Daehyun. She was about to stand up and kick the boy right in the nuts since she knew how good her kick was, but thoughts of that was cut off as Daehyun began to talk.
"Alright, what?" Daehyun sighed, before wearing that obnoxious smirk on his face. "What do you want, Jongup?"
"Don't act like you don't deserve to be kicked in the , Dae." Jongup spat back, snarling.
"Just because you like her doesn't mean I can't hang out with her." Daehyun shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I've been best friends with her since forever. But of course, you wouldn't know. You don't know anything about her." Daehyun sighed. "Tell me why do you like her, again?" She would've told him to stop provoking him, because , this Jongup guy was built and Daehyun was going a bit too far. But this was how Daehyun fought. He liked pissing people off with his words. So he continued. "You know, jealousy isn't really attractive."
That was enough to make the short tempered Jongup snap, and it would've earned the busan boy a punch in the face if someone hadn't suddenly held Jongup back. The three of them turned to look at the saviour, taller than any of them, holding Jongup's arms away.
"Zelo?" She asked, shocked when she noticed that indeed, it was Zelo, a close friend of her's and Daehyun's. He shot her a quick smile before Jongup ripped himself out of his hold and turned to look at him, allowing Daehyun to create a few steps of distance behind the fuming boy.
"The , Zelo, stay out of what's not your business!" Jongup shouted, shoving Zelo back a few steps.
Zelo regained his balance and scoffed. "Then you should too, you ing block."
"There's no ing to block with this over here." Jongup growled, pointing at Daehyun, who now looked thoroughly offended. Daehyun was going to make some sort of comment like "Hey, you, I do have a , okay" but realized it was unnecessary and really humiliating, so he glared at him instead. Daehyun's glare was pretty scary anyways.
"Bro, seriously. She obviously doesn't like you, give up already." Zelo rolled his eyes and put a hand on the boy's muscular shoulder, only to be swatted away again.
"Why should I? Just because this pretty boy's got all her time?"
"No, because you're stepping in on their date, and that's not really nice etiquette to be honest."
Jongup turned to look at her and Daehyun, and then back to Zelo.
" that!" Jongup spat.
" you!" Zelo snarled, and somewhere between the insults and confusing slang that niether she or Daehyun understood, the fight began.
Jongup had punched him first, right in the face. And despite Zelo's obviously purple lip, he was able to smirk and give a kick to Jongup's stomach. By now other people in the drive-in theatre were surrounding the two, and Daehyun was holding her back, worried that she might get hurt. Where the hell was the staff when you needed them?
She, being a kind hearted person, did not want to watch this fight happen. Especially if it was because of her. Though she didn't even understand why this had to lead up to fighting, she felt bad for Zelo, since he wasn't even part of the problem, yet he was the one recieving the punches. Daehyun felt bad too, but there was nothing he could about it, and his main priority right now was to make sure she stayed behind him.
Unfortunately for Daehyun, he hadn't even noticed that she had moved away from him until she was standing across from him, trying to find a way to grab Zelo and pull him away, to break the fight up.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Daehyun screamed, quickly moving to try getting her out of the way, but it was too late.
She had finally found an opportunity to jump in and grab Zelo, when Zelo had suddenly bent over to grab his skate board that happened to be in the area, picked it up and swung it back, hitting her right in the side of the head. He had dropped the skate board a second after realizing he had hit her by accident, and she had dropped along with it, blacking out immediately. At least the fight stopped like she had wanted. And hey, the staff were here now too.
She opened her eyes to find herself looking up at a cieling, the lights dimmed. She rubbed her fingers on what turned out to be bed sheets, and quickly shot up, dropping back down on to the bed when she felt the excruciating pain in the side of her head.
"Let's bring her to the hospital!" She heard a familiar voice call, somewhere nearby, but clearly not in the same room, since it was a bit muffled.
"Mom, she's terrified of hospitals. The best thing we could do is call a doctor here, or something." This time it was Daehyun's voice. She brought her hand to the side of her head, discovering a rather large bump. She clenched her eyes shut at the pain. It hurt, but she didn't think it required a hospital. It was true, she never really liked hospitals. They were scary.
"I want ice, not a doctor!" She called out, and in a split second she was greeted with the door slamming open, and the sound of feet running towards her.
"Oh, thank lord!" Daehyun's mother exclaimed in relief, grabbing her hand and squeezing it. "She's awake!"
She opened her eyes enough to see his mother's reassuring smile above her, and tilted her head a bit to see Daehyun fall to his knees, with his head down. She shifted a little to sit up slightly, and Daehyun looked up at her, with those eyes again.
As the two looked into eacother's eyes, his mother left the room, quietly stating that she would go get an ice pack.
She gulped and looked down in her lap. "What happened?"
"You were a ing idiot, that's what happened." He sighed, pulling himself up to sit on the edge of the bed and examine the bump on her head. "After you out, people were pulling their phones out to call an ambulance I guess. But I know how afraid you are of hospitals, so I picked you up and ran home before anyone could. We're lucky the crowd wasn't too big today."
She her lip in thought and nodded her head slightly, stopping when she realized it hurt to even do that. She kind of regret being passed out while he carried her home. She wondered what it felt to be carried. Was she on his back? Was she held bridal style? She cleared and looked at him. "What about Zelo and Jongup? Did they stop fighting?"
Daehyun scoffed. "Zelo had dropped to his knees crying right after you fell. And Jongup fell to the ground speechless as well. They looked beat up by each other but not too badly hurt. I don't think they'll be fighting again any time soon."
"I'm sorry." She murmured, looking up at him. Daehyun pursed his lips and slowly took her hand again.
"It's okay. It all happened because of me, anyways. I always knew he liked you, and I guess I shouldn't have provoked him like that. But Jongup didn't need to go that far." Daehyun dropped his head in his palm. "And Zelo. , I really shouldn't have just let them fight. It wasn't Zelo's fight! He didn't need to get involved."
She lifted her hand and pat his shoulder in comfort. "It's okay. Zelo's a good friend. He'd do anything for you, remember?"
Daehyun sighed and ruffled his hair in frustration. "I'm just so pissed at how this all turned out. We were having such a nice date, too."
She blushed a bit, and nodded in agreement. "Y-yeah.. We didn't even get to finish that movie."
They locked eyes for a few moments, until a slight cough was heard by the door. They let go of eachother's hands and looked up to see his mother with an ice pack.
"Keep this on for the entire night, okay? If it doesn't swell down by morning, we really will need a doctor." His mother explained, placing the ice pack on the side of her head. She took hold of it and pressed it against the bump. It hurt, but it felt better at the same time. She nodded and thanked her. "Well then, Daehyun, I'll leave her to you. I'm going back to bed, alright? Good night, you two."
Daehyun nodded, and they both thanked her one more time until they were left alone in the room again. For the next few minutes Daehyun was pulling pillows out of the closet and arranging them around her head, turning on the T.V. before considering it might hurt her head even more, turning it back off, turning on the radio, turning it back off, trying to set up a humidifier for some reason, and scuttering here and there. She'd never seen him so antsy. It was cute. She couldn't help but chuckle a little.
"Daehyun stop moving around so much, it's hurting my head." She laughed when that got him to stop moving completely, sitting back on the edge of the bed. "I don't really need all the pillows either, they're just kind of making me hot."
"Oh, sorry." He mumbled, pushing off the few extra pillows onto the ground. "Do you want me to open the window? Should I change you?" He paused before realizing his mistake in words and stuttered to correct himself. "I mean! I meant, do you want me to change your clothes? N-No! Wait, like, do you want to take your clothes off? , that's not what I mean, I CAN STEP OUT IF YOU WANT TO THOUGH, YOU CAN JUST BORROW A SHIRT OR.."
She was laughing really hard now. He looked at her with a flustered expression and brought his hand to the back of his neck. He couldn't help but notice that she laughed really cute too.
", stop making me laugh," She giggled through a pout. "It hurts!"
Daehyun shut his lips tight, and took a deep breath, calming himself down. He felt stupid. "I-Is there anything you want? Or that I can do for you? Like, I can go make tea or something..."
She nodded slightly at his offer. "Yeah, sure. Tea sounds good."
With a slight smile, he left the room and made his way to the kitchen, murmuring "Whatever makes my girl friend happy", when he was out of ear shot.
He made his way back into the room, a tray with two cups of tea and a tea pot in his hands, before sitting back on the bed quietly when he realized she had already fallen asleep. Her hair was everywhere, closed tight, and her eyes peacefully shut. He smiled and placed the tea tray on the bed side table, scooting a bit closer to her sleeping figure in order to lift the blanket over her shoulder.
As creepy as he knew it was, he found himself caught in that trance of staring at her. He never really knew why he stared at her all the time. He just did. It was just so easy to completely forget everything and just look at her. So whenever she brought his habit up, he never really knew how to explain. He believed it was because "there's just nothing else to look at", which he always used as an excuse. But as he watched her chest rise and fall with every quiet breath that escaped those pretty lips of hers, and as he remembered everything that had happened for the past week, he knew that it had to be something more. He couldn't just run away from it anymore. He sighed, and brought a hand to his chest, feeling his heart beat quicken.
He liked her.
He understood that now. After all the dumb dates and the cute moments they've shared for the past few days, everything just sort of came to that conclusion. He knew that this wasn't what the entire date week was supposed to lead to. It was the exact opposite of what they had planned. But there was no helping it. Here, lying next to her, his face hovering a few centimetres above hers, he didn't see her like that little sister he had always made himself believe he saw her as. She was his best friend. She was that stupid clutz that needed a helmet wherever she went. She was his one week, dorky girl friend. She was the reason he hadn't had a real girl friend up until now. He understood it now. All those feelings that had built up. He liked her.
He brushed a strand of hair away from her sweaty forehead, and leaned in, until their noses touched, carefully watching her unmoving features.
"I knew there had to be a reason why I stared at you so much." Daehyun whispered quietly, so he wouldn't wake her up.
Hesitantly, and very slowly, he took a slow breath, and when he was sure she was sound asleep, he brought his lips to hers. As they kissed, he closed his eyes and melted into the moment, her lips fitting perfectly against his. Just like he expected. It was perfect. She was perfect. Everything felt right.
He decided that he wouldn't mind staying like that forever, until he was brought out of his thoughts when he felt her lips move from under his. He opened his eyes in shock and pulled away, only to see her yawn and turn over. She was still fast asleep. He chuckled at himself and stayed still, his mind blank for a long time. After he fully took in what he just did, he dropped his head onto the pillow beside her, covering his face with his hands and groaned. Ugh, he felt so stupid. After a while of calming himself down, he peeked through his fingers to look at the clock and then hesitantly looked at her sleeping face one last time, bringing his hand up to caress her cheek. He sighed as he listened to her breathing and looked at her face. She wasn't a goddess, but he was perfect to him.
"I'm afraid I wasn't joking when I said it would be hard to keep that promise, darling." He whispered to no one in particular, and let out another soft sigh. He had fallen for her. He broke the promise. He lost the bet.
12:29 AM. The tea started to get cold, but went ignored anyways. He made a side note to make sure that no one would ever find out about this night. No one would know. She wouldn't know either. He smiled and chuckled slightly at how dumb he felt before falling asleep too, his hand still left on her cheek, the other hand scratching the back of his neck.
12:32 AM. She opened her eyes and smiled at Daehyun's sleeping face.
"It's okay."
UWAAAAH~~ it's over !! Maybe. Unless I take up that sidestory idea hehe. I hope you enjoyed!~
Comments