After much convincing on Fei’s part, Jia finally agreed to go on a date with her boyfriend, Kyungha and leave her best friend alone at home. He was an architect, who was also the principal of his own firm with four other employees working under him. The firm was small in size but they had been handling large scale projects for a couple of past projects. Recently, Kyungha had been traveling back and forth between Japan and South Korea, with majority of his time spent there. It had been exactly two months since they last met. Kyungha arrived at his homeland early this morning and immediately asked Jia out.

Jia put on a rather simple yet chic black dress with long, slim sleeves and wide oval neckline. The mini dress stretched until her mid-thigh and wrapped snugly to her body, showing her slender built. Fei helped with Jia’s hair as Jia nervously put on her best makeup. After she was done, she turned her back on the mirror and asked for Fei’s final opinion.

“How do I look?” Jia took a deep breath. Fei took a couple of steps backwards. She rested her chin on her fist as she eyed Jia up and down.

“Perfect. He’ll definitely fall in love with you all over again.”

Jia gave Fei a hug. “Thank you so much, Fei. The fact that he finally asked me on a date after so long makes me a little nervous.” Jia laughed. Kyungha had always been busy. As an artist, she could relate to the inconsistent, demanding working hours or working through the weekend. They mostly met up at either home and spent some time together. It was rare to actually go out together for dinner, like a ‘real’ date. Jia was totally excited about this which was why Fei urged her to go to the date. Of course she’d rather have Jia to keep her company most of the time but staying alone in this house was nothing that she couldn’t handle.

Ding, dong.

“That must be him.” Jia exclaimed, smoothing out her dress and fluffed out her hair before she ran to the door. Her features brightened as soon as the man she had been waiting for appeared behind the door with a bouquet of fresh pink roses, lilies and white daisies. Jia was so happy to see him that she didn’t saw the flower at first. She jumped onto him immediately, wrapping her arms tight around his neck, slightly crushing the flowers.

“Oh, no, the flowers!” She laughed and quickly backed away. Kyungha laughed as well.

“It still looks fine.” He handed the bouquet to his girlfriend. Jia accepted gladly, inhaling its soft scent before she looked into his eyes with appreciation. Once again, Jia opened her arms and hugged him.

“I missed you so much,” Jia murmured into his ears, closing her eyes and drawing his scent into her senses.

“I missed you too.” Kyungha replied in the same manner. When they let go of each other, Kyungha slipped his long fingers under her ear, his fingertips carefully caressing along her jawline and fiddled with her locks. He stared dreamily into her eyes and she did the same.

“You look prettier than I last saw you.” Kyungha commented. Jia grinned. Faint shade of pink tinted her cheeks.

“I’ve been working out and gained a couple of kilos. Didn’t you always said you wished to see me gain some weight?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“You look thinner though.” Jia touched his cheek; her eyes frowned into concern. His cheekbones looked more protruded and there were fine incline in his cheeks. “You skipped meals, didn’t you?”

“I was too busy.” Kyungha sighed. He looked up and smiled at something he saw behind Jia.

“Hey, Fei. How are you doing?”

Jia looked back at her friend, smiling when Fei waved and smiled back.

“I’ve been good. Thanks to both of you.”

“That’s good to hear. Hey, I’m going to borrow Jia for a few hours, if that’s okay with you.”

Fei laughed softly. “Yeah, you guys go and have fun, alright?”

Jia waved at Fei as Kyungha led her out with his hand on her waist.

-

Kyungha pulled out the chair for Jia, which came off as a surprise to her. Their dating style was mostly casual and straight forward; it was rare for Kyungha to act with much classic chivalry. Even the restaurant that he brought her to had a very refined air to it, much different than ones they usually frequent.

“Is today a special day?” Jia laughed.

“Of course it is. It’s our first date in two months.”

“I didn’t know you can be so romantic.” Jia teased.

“Hey, don’t look down on me.” Kyungha laughed.

The waiter came with a couple of menus for them. As Jia browsed the selection they offered, she casually glanced towards Kyungha for a brief moment. He was usually the one to recommend the dishes to her, but it seemed like he was occupied with his phone. He was probably answering to his e-mails. Jia shrugged it off and made her order first. Realizing that she did, Kyungha quickly placed his order as well.

“The place is really nice. I’ve never been here before. Have you?” Jia started the conversation.

“Yeah. I actually had dinner with my client here before. You know, the one from Japan? He said this is his favorite restaurant in Korea.”

Jia nodded. “The food must be great too.”

“Oh, the food is marvelous,” Kyungha paused when he heard the text message notification of his smart phone. Kyungha quickly looked at it. Meanwhile, Jia looked around and slightly swaying her head to the nonchalant classical music playing in the background. Honestly, she wasn’t fond of Kyungha being distracted with his job whenever they were together. She tried to be understanding though, knowing that his company was going through a boom right now; which meant heavy workload.

“I’m sorry. There’s a little problem at the office.” Kyungha shook his head and set his phone aside.

“Is everything alright?” Jia asked, trying to be more involved in his passion.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s just that, the design is already finalized last month since the construction is beginning this month. However there was a sudden shortage in material supplies. We have to propose an alternative design for the hotel.”

“The supplier should be responsible for that, don’t they? They agreed to prepare the materials as the design required in the first place.”

“There isn’t enough time to argue or to wait until the supplier got over the shortage. It’s frustrating, but it’s normal. The client doesn’t want the construction period to be extended because of this.”

Jia nodded. They continued to chat while waiting for their order to be served. Jia could tell that Kyungha was trying not to look into his phone every other second as they enjoyed the appetizer, though he still replied to some incoming text messages. However, as the main course was served, Kyungha received a phone call.

“I’ll just deal with this quickly, okay?” He told Jia quickly before he answered the phone call. From his hardened tone in the phone conversation, Jia could tell that things weren’t looking too good. She was disappointed that he couldn’t really spend the time just for her, but felt bad afterwards thinking that he tried so hard to make time for her even when he was having difficulties in his work.

The phone call ended a few minutes later. Kyungha had a sorry look on his face which gave a bad omen of what about to come.

“Jia, look... I’m really sorry but... They need me right now, so...”

“Are you leaving right now?” Jia’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Baby, this is really important; so please understand.”

“Of course I do, but you can have dinner at least, right?” Jia suggested, subtly begging in her voice.

Kyungha shook his head. “I have to leave now. I’ll get the taxi for you, okay?”

His question, which was more like a forced solution was left dissolved in the air. Jia put down her eateries and tried to handle this like an adult she thought she was; and that was to it up and not make a big fuss out of it.

The taxi arrived in front of the restaurant only a couple of minutes after Kyungha made a phone call to the taxi agency. It was such a shame, that the date had to end so quickly. The place was really gorgeous, with tall shady trees around and Christmas lights dressed upon its foliage. The scenery surrounding the restaurant was so beautiful; it looked like it came straight off a beautiful movie. Too bad Jia didn't have the chance to appreciate its beauty.

Before bidding goodbye, Kyungha held Jia’s hand and cupped her face that was turning bitter as the clock ticked.

“Come on. Don’t give me such long face. Smile for me?” Kyungha .

Jia was too disheartened to even fake a smile. This wasn't the first time that something like this happened. He had seemed even busier ever since he won the project for the hotel at Japan. Her expression softened anyways as she looked into his eyes.

“Make sure you get something to eat on the way, okay?” Jia told him.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll make it up to you some other day, okay?” Kyungha dropped a peck on her forehead and told her to get inside the taxi. He gave the direction to the driver and then waved her goodbye. When the taxi had gone far enough, Jia leaned against the backrest with a sigh.  She finally wore the frown that she had held back since earlier and stared at the passing scenery outside. Her mind was so hazy that the beautiful landscape all seemed like a pool of lights mixed with the blackness of the night. 

She wished he had held her hand longer. She wished they could at least have dinner together. She wished he would have kissed her on the lips. Was he taking her willingness to compromise for granted or was she being selfish? Were those too much to ask for?