"Were you stalking me because you have a crush on me?" 

Luhan who had been looking at everywhere besides the owner of the voice, gazes up at her in horror. The three of them, him, Dara, and the little boy named Mino, are eating their ice creams at the bench where he first saw the 2ne1 member earlier.

"Or, did you just happen to be in the neighborhood at this time of the night and saw a pathetic-looking girl staring at the river and got scared that she'd do something wrong?" she smiles at him teasingly.

"Dara-sunbaenim! What were you planning to do?" Luhan asks with worry.

Dara laughs and shakes her head, "Nothing. I was just passing time here. I like how silent this place becomes during this hour of the night."

She smiles and Luhan remembers the images that has been racking up his mind for the past days. 

"What about you, is it the first reason or the second one?" She is looking at him so intently that Luhan feels like melting which irritates him because that would be the corniest description for the foreign feeling enveloping his consciousness.

I just admire her. That is all. 

"I visited a friend who lives near here, but as I was heading for my car I saw the food carts and felt like I just had to buy something, then I saw you sunbaenim." he explains focusing his gaze on the river instead.

"Hmmmm." Dara copies him.

Silence.

"Hyung, are you famous?" Little Mino breaks the stillness.

Dara laughs at Luhan's stricken expression.
"Why'd you think he is famous?" Dara asks Mino who is sitting between her and Luhan.

"Well, he has the hair of an idol and looks just like one of those guys in that picture" he points at a poster of EXO for an advertisement.

Luhan is at a loss for words. Dara keeps on laughing at him. The boy looks at them in confusion. 

"Yes, he is famous and that's him on the picture but it's a secret just between the three of us. Promise?" the boy nods.

Dara links her pinky finger with Mino's then looks at Luhan. "You too." she instructs him. Luhan obliges.

When their fingers brushed together, Dara felt her chest tightens. When she looks at Luhan, he was just as flushed as she is. 

Little Mino breaks the tense atmosphere by suddenly standing up and running towards the EXO poster.

"Hyung!" he shouts back at Luhan "Where are you in this picture? You all look the same." Dara chortles. 

"You are all pretty!" Little Mino shouts in a very loud voice. Dara guffaws. Luhan hides his face behind his hands in embarrassment. 
Little Mino is transfixed by the poster. "So pretty." Dara has her hands on her stomach now from too much laughing. Luhan joins her in laughter.

A little while later, when they've all finished their ice creams, little Mino bids them good-bye as he has to go back to his parents' food cart. Dara asks that the three of them take a picture first to serve as a souvenir for the birth of their unlikely trio.

Luhan takes out his phone and holds it high above them so they can all fit the frame. 

Click. Dara was smiling. Luhan was smiling. Little Mino had a smirk on his face, his hands around his new hyung and noona.

"You look so pretty noona." Mino said when they checked the photo. He gives Dara a wink which made her laugh. She kisses him on the cheeks in response which flusters the little boy. Luhan looks on with a pout. 

"I'm in the company of playboys." Dara cheers.

Little Mino waves good-bye at them and runs towards the huddled food carts.

"Sunbaenim, we should probably get going too. I'll accompany you to your dorm."

"Hmm. You sure you're not a stalker?" After seeing Luhan blush at her question, she pinches his cheeks real hard and runs away.

"Sunbaenim! Don't run! I won't chase after you. This is not a movie you know!" Luhan shouts after her. His natural playfulness coming out.

Dara puts her hands on her waist "Oh really?" Then she runs in full blast towards Luhan which made the younger one back away in fear that they collide with each other. "I'll be the one to chase you then!" 

They are still goofing around when they reach Dara's dorm lobby. Before entering the elevator, Dara faces Luhan.

"Stop addressing me as sunbaenim. Just call me Dara. I lived in the Philippines most of my life and back there, as long as respect is present, we were not very particular with the use of honorifics when it comes to friends. We are friends right?" Dara looks at Luhan expectantly.

"At least let me call you noona." Luhan yields "Dara-noona, my new friend." 

They stare at each other for a long time in silence. Dara reaches for her phone and gives it to Luhan.

"Friends should know each other's phone numbers. Give me your phone." He does as asked. Dara inputs her number on Luhan's phone under the name 다라! 

"Tsk. I sounded like I was trying to flirt with you by getting your number." Dara returns Luhan's phone.

"Maybe you were." 

Dara hits Luhan in the head and gets her phone back. She enters the elevator.

"My new friend is a sadist!" He yells at her before the elevator door closes. The middle-aged man at the concierge glares agh him. He bows apologetically at him.

Ding. Luhan checks the new message on his phone.

From: 다라!
"Goodmornight." 

He smiles and pockets his phone.

It had been almost an hour since she texted Luhan and Dara is yet to receive a reply. She stares at her phone some more willing it to indicate that a new message has been received.

Ding.

Yes!

From: Lu
"Goodmornight. I was just about to sleep when I remembered how you're probably still awake and waiting for my reply. ;)"

Dara is itching to send a reply to Luhan but she knows that if she does so she'll just confirm that she's been waiting for his message.

That flirt!

Dara closes her eyes. A smile on her lips.
Luhan stares at his phone wishing that he has not crossed the line.

From: 다라!
"Hmp!😤 FLIRT!"

Luhan laughs. 

But maybe I love her.*

(*"Tonight I Can Write" by Pablo Neruda)