“Do you want to go to this one party with me tonight?” Jongin asked as he slipped into the seat next to Soojung. It was one of those days where both of their classes ended just before lunch time, thus, their afternoon were spent together until Jongin had to leave for his weekly soccer training.

It was a week after his confrontation at Sehun’s house. He had made a plan to officially introduce his best friend and Soojung. They were bound to meet at some point but he didn’t know how and when would be the right time, thus this party was his excuse to let the two to meet.

Soojung looked up from the novel that she was reading at the sound of Jongin’s voice, looking a little daze. The girl instantly closed the book and put it away. Jongin got a glimpse of the novel and recognized it to be The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. He didn’t say anything regarding the book though; afraid that the girl might think that he was being annoying. “Huh?” she responded.

Jongin found himself smiling widely at the sight of a dazed Soojung. He thought that she looked cute. Honestly speaking, everything about the girl, for Jongin, was cute. “There’ll be party tonight at one of my friend’s. You want to come?” he repeated his question again.

“I don’t know,” Soojung simply replied with a shrug of her shoulder, her lips forming a thin line that went unnoticed by Jongin.

The bottom of Jongin’s lips puckered up then, pouting in what could be considered as adorable without him knowing. “Just come with me. Please~” he pleaded with all his might. Jongin knew that Soojung was never fond of crowds, especially parties, but Jongin wanted the girl to socialise, to be more open to other people, and he wanted for the girl to meet his best friend. More than that, Jongin had actually bought a simple yet beautiful white dress for her to wear at the party. It would be a pity to not witness the beautiful owner in her beautiful dress.

A hesitant nod from the girl had Jongin smiling ear to ear. He then turned to where he had put his backpack and took something out from his bag. It was a rectangular white box and the guy held it out to Soojung. “Here,” he offered with a small nervous smile.

Soojung’s eyes grew wide then, taking the box from Jongin, hands brushed slightly against each other that made Jongin retracted his hand a little too quickly because his hand felt as if it was electrocuted. “What’s this?” the girl asked, looking at Jongin questioningly.

“Open it,” Jongin urged, still feeling nervous as he pointed the box with his jaw while his eyes still locked with Soojung’s.

So Soojung did as what Jongin told her, opening the box, but in contrary to what Jongin had expected, Soojung did not gasp like how most girls would do. She raised her eyebrow instead that made Jongin gulped. Why would you expect such thing from such girl anyway?

Seeing that Soojung wasn’t saying anything, Jongin cleared his throat before he spoke. “It’s a… a dress for you, you know, for the… party tonight.” Jongin mentally smacked himself for letting himself stutter in front of the girl. It was as if all of his confidence had gone down the drain.

“You bought this before asking me?” Soojung asked, but thankfully there was no hint of anger in her voice and Jongin silently let out a sigh of relief for that.

“Y-yeah,” he stammered out that had the guy want to strangle himself for being a stuttering mess.

Jongin didn’t actually have a plan to buy a dress for the girl but when he was at the mall his eyes had unintentionally landed on a beautiful dress that was displayed just behind the see-through glass of a boutique. His initial plan to buy a new pair of sneakers was forgotten in an instant when a certain someone came to mind.

“You didn’t have to waste your money on this,” the girl said in a serious tone, or perhaps she was just concerned.

“No, no. Its fine,” Jongin assured with a dismissive wave and a smile that he was certain to be assuring. Besides, I want to look at you in that dress so badly! He exclaimed in his head.

The expression on the girl’s face didn’t falter though and it made Jongin felt queasy inside but then it disappeared. “Okay,” Soojung gave him a small smile after a moment of silence and that made Jongin’s lips curled up slightly. “Thank you, Jongin.”

***

“So beautiful,” was the first two words that came out of Jongin’s mouth upon seeing Soojung that just came out of the door to her house. He didn’t even realize that he had his eyes on the girl a little too long for his own good and that his mouth was parted in awe all the time he was staring. He must’ve looked like an idiot!

“Jongin,” the girl called. That made Jongin snapped out of his trance and he instantly closed his mouth, cheeks turning red out of embarrassment of having to stare for far too long.

“Well, you always look beautiful in my eyes but today you’re exceptionally beautiful –” he rambled on but his words were interrupted in mid-sentence as Soojung let out a chuckle.

“Okay,” the girl said. There was a glint of amusement in her eyes as their eyes met in the briefest moment before she blinked her eyes away.

Jongin walked two steps ahead of Soojung as they both walked to his car. He opened the passenger door and gestured the girl to get in with “lady first” which Soojung gratefully thanked him with a little bow and a quiet “thank you”.

The two words alone made Jongin’s heart flutter. The guy couldn’t even understand himself at this point. One moment Jongin would feel like a complete fool for forcing himself to the girl when obviously she had her heart reserved for someone else then the next moment he was a happy person, a hopeless romantic that could practically fly up on the sky, floating in the midst of cloud nine. He was never like this before he met the girl. Never did he not understand himself before. Never did he experience being in rollercoaster-like emotions before he met her. But ofcourse the girl never knew all of that. She never knew his feeling.  Soojung will never notice Jongin. She will never notice that the guy wants to offer every piece of his heart to her.

Jongin had made a lot of effort in his chase and run game. Well, at least that was what Jongin thought there was to be – a useless game. It was just a game where he did the chasing and Soojung did the running away. He had accomplished the first half of it, being accepted to her life but being so close to her physically wasn’t enough for him. Jongin didn’t want it to be just that. He wanted to get closer to her heart. He wanted to know her, more than anything else, more than anyone else. He wanted to know everything about her. He wanted to know her for a lifetime.

In the car Jongin purposely put in the Compact Disc that he had burned in his laptop earlier. It consisted of Soojung’s favourite songs, or so he hoped. He had secretly taken Soojung’s phone one time when the girl had excused herself to the washroom during one of their usual hangout days and scrolled through the list of songs on her playlist and he took a mental note on every song that he came across. The girl however didn’t say a word when The Scientist by Coldplay sounded on the speaker. Jongin’s heart crumbled slowly then.

Jongin had also asked the girl once of what colour would look good on him, at which Soojung had answered him with black or grey and so he wore an ash grey coloured shirt tonight in hope that he would receive a little compliment from the girl but there was nothing. It was a futile effort.

Jongin didn’t even realise he was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white until they arrived at their destination. He didn’t even realize that his heart hurt so much for being unnoticed. He wanted to stop himself. Stop himself from being in love, from hurting himself but he just couldn’t do what he wanted to do. He just couldn’t stop himself from falling because Jongin knew, for a fact, that he had fallen too deep. Jongin had no other choice but to just brace himself for what his future will hold in the girl’s world that has yet to come.

A/N: I feel like an right now :'D