Minji wiped the whipped cream off of Kai’s bottom lip. He bit her thumb playfully and lightly and then dipped his finger into the mound of whipped topping and dabbed a bit on Minji’s nose.

“I was trying to help,” Minji complained.

“You insulted my sculpture,” Kai rebutted.

They went to a pottery class for their first “actual” date. Minji sculpted a nice, robust one with flowers she had drawn with a toothpick on the edge of the vase. Kai made some unholy creature that he called “abstract” and was jealous of the attention Minji received for hers from the instructor. Now they sat in the park eating ice cream they’d bought from a street vendor.

“It looked like you’d made it with your feet.”

“Just because you cannot understand my artistic expression doesn’t me you have the right disrespect it.”

Their first date wasn’t as awkward as most were. There were no frivolous questions about what their favorite food was or what color they fancied most. Instead, it felt like two friends who got together to have fun with each other except it was laced with that they tried to ignore. They joked around and talked about how 15Dolls were doing. Apparently their album sales were through the roof considering they were new, and some magazine quoted them as “Rookie Group of the Year” even though it was only March.

“And they’ve brought in this new choreographer,” Kai began, holding Minji’s tiny hand in between his large ones. “She’s from Japan and she can do headspins for thirty-five minutes and is dumbfounded that no one else can do it too.”

“Is she better than me?” Minji asked.

“Of course not. She’s not as pretty as you either.”

Minji grinned.

They left the restaurant and began walking to Minji’s apartment in the cool spring night. Minji shivered and Kai pulled her close to his body and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. They discussed Minji’s new job as a dance instructor to a bunch of preschoolers. They were exhausting little girls who spent most of their time twirling in their tutus, pulling each others hair, and crying. Minji was basically a babysitter.

“You have to come to their recital. They’re gonna be dancing baby flowers and I will be their mother flower. You should be excited about seeing me in a green body suit with a large flower on my head.”

Kai smiled. “You’ll look cute.”

They finally got to Minji’s apartment and they stopped at her front door. Kai looked at Minji as she ruffled in her purse for her keys. He loved the way she wrinkled her nose whenever she was in fierce determination, or how she was constantly moving wisps of her short hair from her face. He loved how wide her eyes became whenever something confused or shocked her and that same face she made in all of her selfies. For two months he had been sneaking glances at her, trying not to make his attraction to her obvious, but now everything just felt so perfect and in place, like all his dreams of her had been fulfilled.

Minji finally found her keys and grabbed them out, “So I guess this is goodbye.”

“I guess so,” Kai agreed.

She took a deep breath. Be brave little Minji.

She stood on her toes and met her lips to Kai’s. He cupped her face with his hands and kissed her back, moving his lips slowly with hers. She was relieved that he wanted to kiss her too and commended herself for being courageous.  His lips were warm and soft and tasted like the chocolate ice cream he’d eaten that night. He moved his hands from her face to her waist and brought her closer to feel her warmth. Minji’s calves began to hurt from standing on her toes for so long, but Kai lifted her off the ground a bit. He broke the kiss and looked into her eyes.

“You’re so short,” he whispered admiringly.