“I hate you, Bu Seunggwan,”

Jinki kicked a pebble on the sidewalk as she made her way home. It was a Friday afternoon and many people were crowded along the streets and weaving through the various street vendors. Seunggwan walked next to her with his thumbs slipped underneath his backpack straps. Chan and Hansol had stayed behind to attend the Kyung Rim Competition Information Session to make since they were amongst the top 32 on the list. Jinki decided not to go for the sake of not blowing her cover again.

“What do you hate me for?” Seunggwan flipped his bangs like the inner diva he was, “If anything, you should be thanking me because now you and Chan are friends,”

“Yeah, that's the point. Friends,” she stressed the last word. Seunggwan didn't get it. Jinki wasn't a big fan of the word 'friends' since she didn't consider many people her friends; mostly they were just acquaintances. Rolling her eyes, she sighed and crossed her arms, “I don't want to be friends only because he'll probably friend-zone me or something,”

“Okay well I was able to score you a date with him, didn't I?” he nudged her shoulder teasingly, “That's got to be something, right?”

Jinki had to admit, Seunggwan had a point. The three boys had originally planned to go to the arcade tomorrow but Chan suggested, with the constant nagging and pushing of Seunggwan of course, that Jinki should come along with them. Honestly, she was going to refuse because she didn't want to intrude but Seunggwan kicked her under the table making her say 'yes'. Maybe it wasn't exactly her ideal date with Chan, but it did mean she got to spend time with the boy.

They crossed the street and stopped at the bus waiting area with a few other students, not from the same school. Seunggwan scratched his head trying to think of an excuse to tell Jinki to cheer her up. He did really want to help Jinki especially since Chan would be too slow to catch on for himself. Besides, it was fun matchmaking his friends. Even though he couldn't score a girl for himself, it still meant something that he could set other people up. Clapping his hands, Seunggwan grabbed Jinki by the shoulders lightly shaking her, “I know exactly what you need to do!”

Shoving him off, she took a step back with an annoyed look on her face, “Well then just tell me! You don't have to touch me!”

“Sorry, sorry,” he apologized, bowing at least three times before Jinki smacked him on the back of the head to stop. Geez, he had such a weird guilt trigger of saying sorry too many times. Seunggwan continued to tell her about his plan as they boarded the bus. He pulled out the money for his bus fare in his pocket before Jinki put a hand on his, “No it's alright. I paid for you already,”

“Oh, thank you, Jinki!” he grinned, following her into a seat towards the middle. Jinki merely shrugged and slipped into the window seat and set her bag on the floor. It was the least she could do after all. It's not like she could help Seunggwan in his love life or anything so she figured that doing the little things would be good enough. When Seunggwan got settled, he started undoing his tie, “Anyway what I was thinking was that tomorrow morning, I'll pick you up from your house and come back to my place so I can help you get ready,”

Jinki tugged at the sleeves of her uniform jacket, taking it off and putting it on her lap. The sunshine beating down on her was making her hot, “Get ready for what? It's just the arcade,”

“Look, I don't trust you in picking out a date outfit so I have decided that I'll get you ready for the afternoon,” Seunggwan placed his uniform jacket no his lap and started to undo the cuff buttons of his long-sleeved dress shirt; he hated them. Jinki stuffed her jacket and tie into her backpack and tied her hair up, leaving her fringe out. Rolling up his sleeves, Seunggwan looked at his watch, “Alright so it's three right now. If you hurry and change out of your uniform when you get home, then we can get to the mall by three thirty,”

“Wait, why are we going to the mall?” Jinki asked, “Why can't you just pick form the clothes I already have?”

“Because honey, I don't have faith in your clothes,”

Wrinkling her nose, Jinki crossed her arms and pouted. Her style couldn't be that bad, could it? The look on her face said it all, making Seunggwan laugh. He didn't mean to offend her or anything but if she wanted to impress Chan, wearing brand name clothes that look like they're supposed to be worn at an office building weren't going to cut it. Seunggwan waved his hands and shifted in the bus seat to get comfortable, “When you're done, wait for me at the bus stop at the corner and we'll go together,”

“How does he know where the bus stop is?” she wondered out loud, not meaning for Seunggwan to hear that, “Is he stalking me?”

In response to her question, Seunggwan looked at her and lightly flicked her forehead, “Hey, don't think that I was stalking you. I was walking home yesterday after I left,”

“Alright, I'll take your word for it,” Jinki rubbed her forehead before sticking her tongue out at him. Crossing her arms, she turned her head to look out the window. She couldn't believe that Seunggwan was actually helping her out. Shouldn't most boys usually stick together and obey the Boy Code rule of telling their bros about who likes them? Or was that just a false story that girls made up so they didn't tell boys about their crushes?

“Are you serious?”

With an unsatisfied look on his face, Seunggwan forcibly shook his head rejecting her clothing choice. Biting her lip, Jinki looked down at the high-neck collared blouse she was holding and held it out to examine the piece. There were ruffles that went halfway down with a black ribbon trim; what was so sinful about it? Walking up to her while shaking his head, Seunggwan snatched the hanger from her hands and quickly hid it behind a clothing rack, “We're looking for youthful, and cute. Not boring and outdated,”

“So something like this?” Jinki hesitantly lifted up a hanger that had some sort of neon pink tube thing. It was almost like a square, except that the sides curved out a little. Scoffing, Seunggwan took it from her and walked backwards to show her how it looked from far away. He had that same dissatisfied look he had earlier when she showed him the blouse, “Do you even know what this is?”

Honestly, Jinki had no idea what it was. Tilting her head to the right, she thought that maybe it was a skirt. But if she looked at it from the left, it kind of looked like a tube top. Then again, the material was stretchy so maybe it was both? There was no way it could be stretched into a whole body dress though; it was too short. Seunggwan held back his laughter as she squinted at the neon pink square on the hanger; the look on her face was too priceless. Clapping her hands, Jinki finally came up with a decision. Pointing to her hair, she exclaimed “Ah, I got it! It's a headband! But why is it on a hanger?”

“No idiot, it's a mini-skirt,” Seunggwan threw the hanger at her, chuckling when she fumbled and dropped it. He returned to scanning the clothing racks again while Jinki put the skirt back.

Mumbling to herself, Jinki sifted through a shirt rack, “How is that even a skirt though? There's barely any material hanging on the hanger. If anything, I really thought that was a bra or something,”

“Oh it's a skirt alright,” he started walking to the other side of the women's floor. Jinki left the rack she was looking at and decided to follow Seunggwan before she picked out another weird looking article of clothing. Passing right through athletic wear, he slipped inside another store for teen girls, “Thing is, you're literally spilling out all of your below-the-waist contents while you're at it,”

They spent another half hour in the new store before heading out into another one. Seunggwan often heard a lot of their girl classmates talking about how cute the clothes were and figured, why not check them out for himself? Peering over his shoulder, he saw Jinki outside the store window looking at the jewelry that was on display. He rolled his eyes before calling out to her, “Jinki, hurry up!”

“Sorry!” she yelled as she rushed inside to stand next to him. He simply waved it off and took her wrist, dragging her further into the store. What he had in mind for her was to wear something that was cute and flattering, but at the same time, okay for her to run around him. Jinki was an energetic girl, so he wanted to bring that part of her out in her outfit.

Grabbing light blue jumper shorts from the wall, he held it up to her body to see how it would fit her, “I think this will work. If you match this up with a plain white shirt, then you're good,”

He tried to envision the rest of the outfit as he stared at her, still holding the jumper to her, “Maybe if you curl your hair a little or tie it up into a bun or something, you'll still look fresh but now you also look a bit flirty – and that's what we want, right?”

“Right!”

“Right, so that's done. Shoes, what about shoes?” Seunggwan started to walk over to the counter to pay, “I suppose any kind of sneakers or low-cut Vans are fine. Or if you really want, you can wear those new things. Um...Toms, was it? I don't remember but it was something like that,”

Jinki stopped Seunggwan once again from paying, and held out her junior credit card, “It's okay, I'll pay for it,”

“You're making me feel really cheap, you know that?” Seunggwan teased as he took the plastic bag from her hands. Sure it was cool not to be spending anything, but at the same time, he didn't want to be the one not paying for her things. It was the boy's job to pay for things when he was out with a girl anyway. It's just a gentleman-like thing to do.

Jinki grinned up at him as they walked out of the store, “I'm just glad you're even helping me,”

“Seunggwan's sure taking his sweet time getting here,” Hansol blew his bangs up as he placed his hands on his hips.

Chan and him had arrived half an hour early from the planned time and not they regretted doing so. Of course, since they didn't want to be at fault, they blamed Seunggwan for being the one on time. Shrugging his shoulders, Chan just placed his earbuds back in his ears and replayed Iamsu's Mobbin'. He had overheard Hansol listening to it and now it was stuck in his head, “I'm just curious whether or not Jinki's going to stand us up,”

“She probably will,” the older boy stuffed his hands in his pockets, “She didn't seem too interested in our conversation during lunch. Anyway, if they don't come in the next few minutes, then I'm heading in. I might as well get ahead of Seunggwan in tickets,”

In a few promising minutes, Hansol spotted Seunggwan's curly head of brown hair in the distance. He was about to call out to the boy but retreated when he saw someone walking next to him. Pulling out one of Chan's earbuds, which by the way earned him an annoyed shove, Hansol pointed to the two teens, “Who's that girl? That can't possibly be Jinki! And even if it was, why is she with Seunggwan?”

“I don't know. I kind of thought that Seunggwan had a thing for her,” Chan returned the earbud in it's rightful place, “He kept looking at her during lunch yesterday,”

“Whoa, it is Jinki! Damn, she's cute,” Hansol said in complete shock when the two were finally in seeing distance. Seunggwan waved at them and Jinki mirrored his moves. Placing a hand on his heart, Hansol nervously grumbled under his breath, “I can't possibly be...no! Hansol Vernon Chwe, get a hold of yourself!”

Chan looked up from his music player and when his eyes met Jinki's, he literally dropped it. He scrambled to grab it by the headphones, but Jinki was faster. Snatching the phone itself, she returned it to Chan. Seunggwan mentally kicked himself; girls didn't have fast reflexes and Chan knew this. Raising his eyebrows in astonishment, Chan pulled his earbuds out and stuffed the gadgets in his back pocket, “Wow, you have a really fast reaction time for a girl!”

“Uh, I...” Jinki quickly glanced at Seunggwan before looking back at Chan, “Well I've had practice from Sunday sales. I have to know how to respond quickly if the cute shoes that I want are the last pair in stock!”

It took Seunggwan all his mental and physical strength to stop himself from facepalming. If anything, the next thing he needed to brush up on was her conversation skills. Her skills, or lack of, would one day lead her into accidentally revealing herself if she wasn't careful. Luckily for her, Chan just laughed it off. The four of them headed into the arcade with hyper Hansol in the front, a casual Chan in the middle, and a somewhat suspicious Seunggwan and Jinki lagging in the back.

“Hey Chan, why don't you show us your arcade shooting skills?” Seunggwan suggested when they passed by a Jurassic Park dinosaur shooting game.

Chan hesitated and looked to the other two for backup. Unfortunately for him, Hansol wholeheartedly agreed along with Jinki who cheered him on. She really wanted to play since she hadn't played in such a long time, but of course, she couldn't blow her cover. It was so frustrating to pretend that she couldn't play. With her skills, she could have easily wiped the floor with him. Chan rubbed the back of his neck, “Well are any of you guys going to play with me?”

“I'll play!” Jinki volunteered a bit too excitedly. Hansol looked at her funnily, and she cleared , “I mean, I've never played the game before so I think it would be fun,”

Seunggwan bore his eyes into her soul, sending shivers down her spine “Are you sure about that? Chan's a pretty good player,”

“Oh don't worry, I'll take it easy on you,” Chan winked at her, sending more shivers down her spine. Honestly, if Chan was going to be like this all day, she might as well die now instead of die because of his cuteness. The feels were slapping her right in the face – hard. Hansol snickered knowing that by 'easy', Chan didn't really mean easy. Chan would never take it easy on anyone. His game was always at his best no matter what skill level the opposing gamer was.

The two entered the seating area and inserted the tokens they had bought into the machine; 8 tokens per player. Honestly, it was highway robbery for a three minute game that only gave you one ticket per kill. Of course for Jinki, purchasing more tokens wasn't a problem but for the others, it wasn't so easy. They only had twenty dollars each. Hansol and Seunggwan stood on either side of the covered game, and watched the two pick up their guns.

“You haven't played the game before, right?” Seunggwan emphasized 'right' as he stared at how Jinki was holding the gun.

Of course, since this really wasn't her first time playing an imitation shooter game, Jinki had her hands in the proper place even before the tutorial started. Realizing what he was talking about, she quickly misplaced her hands and took it down from her shoulder and onto her lap, “Uh, yeah. This is my first time,”

“Obviously, your hand placement is really bad,” Chan chuckled, setting his controller back on the metal holders and guided her hands to the proper place and arranging her fingers onto the right buttons, “So really, on this controller you only have one button to press and that's the trigger. Press it to make your selections and to shoot the dinosaur. I enabled red dot sight and aim assist on your side since I figured you would need it. To be fair, you know?”

Jinki forced the cutest smile she could on her face, trying her best not to look like she was cringing. She really didn't need those assists but it's not like she could tell Chan that she didn't need it. When Chan finally finished picking the location and level they would play on, the game started. She was seriously about to scream because he picked 'Level: Easy'.

“Three, Two, One. Start hunting,” the automated woman voice spoke through the side speakers cuing them to start shooting.

Their characters started off side by side but they could veer off in whatever direction they liked. There were two rotating discs on the bottom of the simulator that turned your sights when you turned it. Jinki caught sight of her first dinosaur behind a bush. It wasn't completely in viewing range nor did her aim assist pick it up. She raised the marker up slightly but from the corner of her eye, she saw Seunggwan shaking his head 'no'.

Sighing, she moved the marker harshly to the right and shot, completely missing. Chan had already downed his fifth dinosaur and his side was getting faster and the dinosaurs were starting to appear quickly. On the other hand, there she was with zero downed dinosaurs. Jinki thought, shooting the dinosaur she had missed before, “ it up, Jinki. Be good, just not too good,”

By the the end of the game, she had finished with 14 kills while Chan had 20. When they collected their tickets, it was Seunggwan and Hansol's turn. They waited outside instead of watching the two since Seunggwan could get a little loud when he was in the heat of the moment. Jinki folded up her tickets and stuck it her jumper pocket. Looking up at Chan, she smiled, “Well that was fun!”

Chan leaned against the simulator, grinning back, “Yeah, it was. You got really good towards the end, though! I'm really impressed at how you adjust so quickly. How'd you do it?”

“Oh um, I uh...pretended that it was the last five minutes of a department store shoe sale,” Jinki continued on with her shoe sale parallel, “Gotta get those cute shoes, am I right?”

“You're interesting, you know that?” Chan laughed and placed both his hands on Jinki's shoulders. Jinki stared at her right shoulder, amazed that her long time crush was atually touching her. This was literally the very first time, or at least documented time anyway, that Chan had every made contact with her. Lifting her chin up for so she was looking at him, Chan flashed a rather charming smile like the one he had years ago except this time with a complete set of teeth, “And I like that,”