“What do you like?” Jinyoung asked Lila while they were walking on the streets. Jinyoung figured that they would go to the outdoor market instead of the grocery store so they would be able to spend some more time outside and perhaps eat some snacks together. Jinyoung wanted to be like all of the couples that he saw in the dramas or while he was on his schedule. He wanted to be those people that others were jealous of.

            “I like anything,” Lila simply said. “I mean, well…it hasn’t really been that long since I’ve come back and some Korean food I think I lost taste for.”

            “That’s alright,” Jinyoung said interlocking their fingers and swinging their arms back and forth. “I can make anything you want.”

            “What’s your specialty?”

            “Pasta? Stew? Anything really. I learned how to cook since I was young. I’m the youngest so I always followed my mom around.”

            “Really? That’s more experience than I can say. “I never learned how to cook.”

            “That’s why I’m here, to help you,” he said laughing. “First, let’s get some kimchi.”

            Jinyoung went ahead of Lila and began pulling her behind him while he started to get the ingredients. “You know,” Lila said laughing while they came out of another store. “It’s actually the first time that I’ve been in here for a while.”

            “That’s a good thing, right?” Jinyoung uneasily asked. He wasn’t sure if she would rather be in a grocery store than out on the street, but he liked the feeling of being near her. Jinyoung always wanted to be near Lila and when he didn’t see her because of his schedule, he wanted to call her, but they didn’t have each other’s phone number. The way that he told her about the date was when the members were going to visit Eunji again. He hadn’t had the courage to ask for her number.

            “It is definitely a good thing,” Lila said with a smile. “Even when I lived here I only came here once or twice. Most of the time I was out with Sandeul-oppa.”

            “Can I ask you about him?” Jinyoung asked. He was curious about Lila and Sandeul’s past, but he didn’t want to bring it up if it were awkward to her.

            “What do you want to know?” Lila asked. She understood that he was probably curious about what happened between them before and since Jinyoung already said that he was okay since it was the past, she felt fine in giving him answers to questions that he asked.

            “Since you and Sandeul weren’t born in the same year, did you two start dating when you were a freshman and Sandeul was a sophomore since you said that you finished two years of high school in America.”

            “Wow, you’re observant,” Lila said impressed with him. She didn’t know anyone that would pay attention to details like that, except for Sandeul.

            “Hey, what can I say?” he asked. “I was just curious about that.”

            “But the answer to your question is yes. I was a freshman and Sandeul-oppa was a sophomore. He was a grade ahead of me, but somehow that didn’t matter when we were dating. But then he randomly broke up with me. I still can’t get out of the habit of still calling him oppa, you see.”

            “I’ve noticed, don’t worry,” Jinyoung said laughing. “But I don’t care; you just have to call me oppa, too, alright?” Jinyoung leaned down and pinched Lila’s cheeks.

            Lila couldn’t explain why she still called Sandeul oppa. It was just something that slipped out of whenever she said his name, out of habit. She hadn’t said his name for the past two years and suddenly when she said it again it was followed by the word oppa. If she wanted to stop it, Lila would have to physically think about not saying the word, but most of the time she just spoke without really thinking about anything.

            They spent the rest of the time together gathering the ingredients before they continued walking to Lila’s apartment. “Is it alright if we do it in your apartment? I’m sure that the other kids will start asking questions if we suddenly show up,” Jinyoung explained.

            “It’s perfectly fine,” Lila said as they reached the building and took the elevator up. Honestly, she didn’t want the other members asking questions about her agreed date with Jinyoung, too. Lila didn’t even know why she agreed to go on the date. A part of her actually wanted to see what it would be late to go on a date with Jinyoung. Lila was also impressed that no fans had said anything during their time together. “Oppa, can I ask you something?”

            “What?” Jinyoung asked turning to look at her in the elevator.

            “Why didn’t your fans stop you or say something about us being out together?” Lila wondered.

            “They probably didn’t want to invade our space,” Jinyoung said with a chuckle. “I swear I could hear a couple of them say that we’re a cute couple.” The elevator dinged letting them know that they were at their stop. “Oh look, we’re here.”

            Just as soon as the doors opened, though, there stood Sandeul and Eunji. “Hyung, what are you doing here?” Sandeul asked at the appearance of his hyung as Lila and Jinyoung stepped into the hallway. Sandeul immediately took notice of their interlocked fingers, but he attempted to divert his gaze back to Jinyoung since he didn’t want to look at Lila.

            “I’m just spending some time to get to know Lila better,” Jinyoung said. He didn’t want to tell Sandeul that he was on a date with her, not after knowing their past and seeing how Sandeul would suddenly tense with Lila being around. Jinyoung was sure that Sandeul had some lingering feelings, even if he didn’t want to admit it. “What are you doing here?”

            “I’m just coming here to pick up Eunji,” Sandeul said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

            Meanwhile, Lila took a look at Eunji. She couldn’t believe that she had dated Jinyoung before and that Jinyoung had described her as clingy. Somehow, that word didn’t seem to go with Eunji, but then again, she didn’t know Eunji very well and for all she knew, Eunji could be hiding something from her. However, Lila didn’t want to think about that, she just wanted to go into her apartment with Jinyoung and hide from Sandeul and Eunji.

            “Well, we should be going our separate ways,” Eunji said letting Lila smile at her comment. At least someone else was staring to get impatient, too. “It was nice seeing you two.”

            “Yup, you two,” Jinyoung said waving to them. “You two have fun on your date.” Sandeul and Eunji disappeared into the elevator while Lila pressed in the key for her apartment. “What number is that?” Jinyoung curiously asked as he peered over her shoulder.

            “None you need to know,” she said sticking her tongue out as she opened the door. “Well, shall we get to work?”

            The two decided to get to work on creating the kimchi stew that Jinyoung said he would specially create for Lila. “Okay, now cut this and fry this,” he said as he showed her what to do. “And I’ll be over here, alright? Just call me if you need anything.”

            “Okay,” Lila said as she got to work. She found it fun that she was finally learning how to cook something. The only way she would cook would be by searching for it on the internet and then following the directions. She didn’t know how to cook something from memory and was amazed that Jinyoung knew how to.

            Diligently, Lila did her work while Jinyoung would take side glances at her every so often. He would take those glances to see how she was doing, but also to look at her. Jinyoung always liked looking at a woman that could cook, and even though Lila couldn’t cook, she was doing her job and was doing it better than ever. Jinyoung laughed to himself, he couldn’t believe what he was becoming like just because of meeting Lila.

            “Ouch, ouch,” Lila said as she set down the knife and began on her finger.

            “Did you cut yourself?” Jinyoung asked immediately coming over and looking at Lila’s finger. Thankfully the cut wasn’t that deep and it looked like the blood was already beginning to slow down. “Here, where are your band-aids?”

            “The bathroom,” Lila said. “Ouch, you’re hurting it.”

            “Sorry,” Jinyoung said as he lightened the pressure he was putting on it. “Just keep pressure there and I’ll be back.” Within a flash, Jinyoung was back with a band-aid and wrapped it securely around Lila’s finger. “Here, you just sit here and watch, I’ll be done shortly. It won’t take that much longer.”

            “But oppa,” Lila protested.

            “No buts, just sit there,” he said as he personally placed her down on the seat.

            Like he said, it didn’t take that much longer and the two of them finally ate. “Hmm, it’s really good,” she said giving him a thumbs up.

            “I’m glad you like it,” he said with a satisfied smile. He really liked that Lila liked the food.

            “Now I can see why people like cooking with each other, if only they weren’t hurt.”

            “Yeah,” Jinyoung said looking at Lila’s injured finger. “Is it alright?”

            “Of course, oppa, you’re making a big deal out of nothing. See it?” Lila asked sticking her finger in Jinyoung’s face. “It’s perfectly fine.”

            After eating and cleaning up, Jinyoung and Lila ventured over to Lila’s couch to watch some television. “Sorry about having a boring afternoon, but I don’t have anything planned until tonight.”

            “What do you have planned tonight?” Lila asked. She was curious as to what Jinyoung would plan despite being a busy idol.

            “You’ll see when tonight falls,” he said with a light laugh.

            “Oppa, you’re probably tired, right? I mean, you did all of the cooking and I only got myself injured. Why don’t you take a nap?”

            “Okay,” Jinyoung said without a second thought as he lay down and rested his head on Lila’s lap.

            “I didn’t mean there,” Lila muttered.

            “Well, you said to take a nap and I’m going to take a nap here whether you want me to or not,” he said as he stuck his tongue out.

            Somehow, without another fight, Lila let Jinyoung sleep with his head in her lap. The whole time he was sleeping, she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping and he seemed like a real person, not that Lila didn’t consider Jinyoung a real person, it was just that he was an idol and they were always thought of differently while right here was Jung Jinyoung, the leader of B1A4 who seemed like every other person in the world. If Lila didn’t think about it, she would’ve completely forgotten that Jinyoung was even an idol and leader of an idol group. Staring at Jinyoung while he was sleeping made Lila remember the one time when she and Sandeul began dating. She was so awkward with it back then, but now, after knowing Jinyoung for a shorter period of time, she allowed it. What was going on with her?

FOUR YEARS AGO

“Let me sleep here,” Sandeul protested as he looked up at Lila.

            “I’m not so sure,” Lila said as she attempted to move Sandeul from her lap. She found it slightly awkward that he would want to rest there. They were barely dating for more than two weeks and already he wanted to do something like that. It wasn’t that she hadn’t done it with other people before, it was the time that was awkward.

            “Please, please?” Sandeul begged sticking his bottom lip out to pout. “I mean, you’re so comfy, how can I not get a good sleep by sleeping on you? I promise that the next time I’ll let you sleep on me, alright?”

            “I guess,” Lila said sighing. She didn’t really have a choice since she knew that Sandeul was going to do it no matter what she said. In the end, he ended up falling asleep on her like he wished.

“What’s wrong with me?” Lila asked herself as she looked at Jinyoung who began moving and slowly opened his eyes to look at her. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

            “No,” Jinyoung said shaking his head. “How long was I out for?”

            “Three hours?” she asked looking at the clock.

            “Three hours? You sat like that for three hours? I’m sorry, I should make it up to you,” Jinyoung immediately said as he sat up. “I didn’t mean to sleep for that long.”

            “I watched television; it wasn’t like I was entirely bored,” Lila said giving off her best smile. “And you’re an idol, I understand.”

            There it was again, the word that Jinyoung knew he was, but he didn’t particularly like to be called by it, especially by the girl that he was interested in. Of course, there was nothing wrong with the word; it was just that he thought that that’s all he would be in her eyes, an idol and nothing more. He was an idol, she was a regular person. There would always be that barrier.

            “Let’s get going,” Jinyoung said. “I have something planned for you.”

            “What?” Lila asked as she was dragged out of her house and down to catch a taxi before she could register what was going on around her. “Where are we going?”

            “Somewhere special, don’t worry.”

            It was already five as the taxi led Jinyoung and Lila someplace. The whole time, Lila looked out the window, but she didn’t know where they were going. She hadn’t traveled anywhere besides the college, back to her apartment, and around various neighborhood places during her time in Korea. She didn’t recognize the roads or the scenery.

            “Where are we?” Lila asked as the taxi came to a stop.

            “Somewhere very special,” Jinyoung said as he paid the driver and grabbed Lila’s hand. “Let’s go, but first, put this on.”

            “It’s a blindfold.”

            “Just put it on,” Jinyoung insisted as he put it around her ears and made sure she couldn’t see before proceeding. The walking didn’t take that long and when they got to the place, Jinyoung saw that it was set up just like he wanted it to. “Okay, now on the count of three,” he called from behind her, “you can open it. Ready?” Lila nodded her head. “One… two… three.”

            Lila immediately took her blindfold off at hearing three and stared at what was in front of her. They were in a courtyard that was beautifully lit with a dinner table sitting right near the small pond that was there. “Jinyoung-oppa, when did you have time to do this?” Lila asked looking at everything and then finally turning around to see Jinyoung standing there holding a necklace.

            “I had some of the trainees in the company help me out,” he admitted as he slowly approached her. “But this, this is your necklace,” he said showing it to her.

            “Why?” Lila asked.

            “I’ll be honest and clear with you,” he began as he moved around her to put the necklace around her neck. “I like you. After spending the day with you today on our date, I found out that I really like you.” Jinyoung moved so that he was in front of Lila again. “But I know that you may not give the feelings back right at this moment, but I’ll wait for you. I’ll wait for you no matter how long it takes you to realize your feelings towards me. That necklace right there, it’s a heart and I know it’s going to sound cheesy, but it’s my heart. You have my heart right now that won’t change, okay, Lila?”

            Lila held the necklace in her hand and looked at it. It was indeed a heart and it was pink in color and beautiful. “Jinyoung-oppa,” she said going over to him and hugging him. “Thank you.” Lila didn’t know what to feel, she didn’t know if she liked Jinyoung more than a friend at that exact moment and she didn’t know how long it would take her to get to that point, but she did appreciate everything that he had done for her so far. And when she hugged him, she felt a fuzzy feeling inside.

            “No problem,” Jinyoung said with a smile across his face. He began to think that it might be going well in the future, that maybe he and Lila would have a future with each other. He enjoyed the thought. “Now, let’s go eat.”

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Will Lila ever return Jinyoung's feelings? What will Sandeul and Eunji say about seeing Lila and Jinyoung together? Will Sandeul tell the other members about how Jinyoung spent the day with Lila? Will Sandeul ever say anything to the other members about his past relationship with Lila?

Here is Chapter 7. Hope you enjoyed :D