“Tonight?! Why so soon?”

“Because it’s best on a Saturday night, that’s why.”

“Okay… What time?”

“I’ll come and pick you up at nine.”

He gave another light squeeze, placing his chin on her shoulder where his eyes fell over her fingers playing with the keyboard. Letting go of her, he trailed his hands down her arms until they were placed right on the back of her hand, trying to get a hold of her fingers; a faint smile appeared at the corner of her lips, away from his sight. Staring at their joined hands, their fingers playing together, they stayed close like this, without speaking any more, this time with a comfortable silence seeping through.

Instead of freaking out about the closeness between them, she felt relaxed and at ease; happy and was even slightly enjoying the little game – whatever that was – they were doing at the moment. Again, her heart was pounding against her chest while butterflies were flying in the pit of her stomach, giving her this sense of rush and an overwhelming emotion by his presence.

She lightly turned her head to the side, having his lips right in her view.

Sensing her move, he turned, slightly lifting his head from her shoulder and leaned closer, their lips merely touching until he softly pecked them. He slowly pulled away, hesitating on whether to kiss her again or break away. He grabbed tighter onto her hands, crossing their fingers together, wanting to kiss her again.

Right into her eyes, he didn’t see anything that made him think she wanted out, leaving him relieved, obviously. From his eyes, down to his lips, she bit the bottom of her own, ready to give in when her phone rang abruptly shattering the little bubble.

Picking it out of her pocket, the ID showed her step mother calling. With a sigh, she answered it only to pull the device back from her ear, away from the yelling that was happening on the other side of the line.

The line quickly got cut without even giving the chance for Jieun to speak up, leaving her to stare at the phone before hissing out in frustration as she placed it back in her pocket.

“I have to go. The stepmother doesn’t like the fact that we’re still not back yet.”

“So I heard… Are you going to be okay?”

“Hmm? Oh, y-yea, don’t worry.” She smiled reassuringly, easing his mind. They both walked out of his bedroom and made their way downstairs with Jieun calling out to Hyojin. Hearing her response from the kitchen, they joined in the two younger siblings who were at the table, feeding themselves with snacks covering the wooden surface. “You’re mom just called… She wants you home.”

“But we haven’t finished yet!”

“I can bring you back tomorrow if you’d like.”

“Mhmm, okay then.”

Back to the main entrance of the house, Hyojin was already making her way to the car with Junhong by her side, leaving Jieun with Yongguk by the door. “We’re still on for tonight, right?”

“If you still want to show me whatever it is you want me to see.”

“Of course.”

“Then nine o’clock it is.”

“See you then.”

“Where the hell are you taking me? Are you going to kill me? Is that it?”

“Yah~ don’t worry so much, okay? Trust me on this.”

“Should I? We are back where that accident happened with the mugger, what makes you think we won’t be meeting him again-”

“Shush. Jieun, stop stressing, please. And even if we see him again, I won’t let him go anywhere near you, okay?” She chuckled at the serious expression on his face before nodding her head with a sigh of defeat coming out of . She held onto his arm as he led the way to the familiar alley.

Since it was dark, she was starting to get scared about the surroundings, making her grip tighter onto the boy.

“Where here.”

“Wh-what?!”

She jumped at the sound of a door being knocked; Yongguk was hitting his hand against the door loud enough since he knew that with the music playing, the sounds coming from outside were totally mute.

Finally hearing the click, he grinned widely at the sight of the same brown-eyed woman happily greeting him. This made Jieun push herself aside as she was analyzing the older woman, feeling a slight pinch in her heart at how comfortable and close her and Yongguk seemed to be.

“And this must be the famous Jieun you were talking about, right?” She stared eyes wide at Yongguk, her cheeks blushing from the thought that the boy has been talking about her; she suddenly became shy, not knowing what to do or how to react. The woman quickly introduced herself, stretching out her hand for a handshake. “I’m Natasha, an old friend of Yongguk’s.”

“I-I’m Jieun.”

“So I’ve heard~” She turned back to face Yongguk, letting him know that the show was about to start.

The next thing she knew, Jieun was being held by the hand as she was led down some stairs until she found herself in a crowded place, loud music playing while people were either dancing or talking – or trying to talk, anyways.

She held tighter onto his hand, feeling like she was out of place; noticing her discomfort, he placed his arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer to his body as a way to shield her even though he knew that there was no way she could get harmed with the people that were present.

It was an exclusive place after all, hence why only particular people knew about this place.

With his arm strongly pushing her against him, she could feel that sense of safety he was trying to provide making her relax a little bit more. With curiosity, she kept turning her head, her eyes scanning the area until she was by the bar, taking her place on a stool with Natasha on the other side, serving drinks – non alcoholic for both of them, of course.

“Guk? Where did you bring me?”

“It’s an underground club.”

“Underground? You mean like… illegal?”

He chuckled at the faint innocence coming out of her words. He shook his head as an answer and leaned closer to make her hear better what he wanted to say. “Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous or anything. It’s just a place where a lot of people like me like to hang out.”

“People like you? You mean cocky quarterbacks? Because from the looks of it, not even half of them are in high school!”

“Yah~ You’ll see what I mean. I’ll leave you with Natasha, okay? I have something to do.”

“W-wait!”

He quickly disappeared into the crowd, making Jieun curse at herself while she tried to look for him.

“Don’t worry, he’s coming back. He’s just going to perform.”

Turning her head back to the older lady, Jieun was confused with the content of her words. “Perform?”

“Yea, you didn’t know? Yongguk is part of Soul Connection.”

“What’s that?”

“An underground hip-hop crew. He’s known here as Jepp Blackman~”

Just then the noise from the crowd seemed to have calmed down with the appearance of a young man up on a stage, holding a microphone in his hands, ready to speak up to the audience. Once that was done, the MC introduced the first performer and just from the stage name of Yongguk, Jieun felt her heart beat slowly rising to , anticipating what she was about to witness.

The man got off the stage and the music started, leaving Yongguk to take his place with the crowd loudly cheering for him.

“I try to hide my feelings for you but I can’t seem to hide it.

All the things I said while smiling are all right,

My heart is still beating for you.”

Immediately the lyrics had caught her attention. She didn’t want to seem conceited but she felt as if he was talking about her; she looked at him moving from one side of the stage to the other and once he was looking back at the crowd, his eyes went straight to her, making it seem as if he was carrying on a conversation through his lyrics.

“My heart is growing deeper but it doesn’t change anything.

The sweet feelings spread throughout me like poison in dividing me

I need you for my changed feelings.”

He was still looking right at her, the sincerity in his words pouring out as they came.

“My love is burning like the ashes of a cigarette and its spreads throughout my entire body like poison in hurting my heart.

I try to smile and hold back my nervousness in front of you as I talk to you like nothing’s wrong.

Do I have to wait? This is something I brought up with difficulty so think about it and I’ll wait for you.”

The pace of her beating heart kept increasing, her breath gone as it escaped her lungs and found herself completely awestruck at her sight.

“Seeing you call my sincerity a joke hurts my heart even more.

Yeah, I want you girl

I want you to be my girl

A girl like you can’t be kept beside me forever.”

He wasn’t the boy she knew from high school, far from that.

In fact, seeing him up on stage like this sent some kind of spark coursing through her body, a rush heating her up. She wasn’t just enjoying her view, but there was something else about that moment that left her to shyly smile; something that drew her to him even more.

With the happenings of yesterday, she knew she had hurt his feelings; the present performance proved so. Knowing that he wasn’t going to give up, it lightened up a small glint of hope in her, making her fear dissipate.

She wasn’t denying the way she was feeling about him whenever she thought about him or even when he was around; the night of the party was always on her mind, sending a constant tingle up and down her spine.

Unconsciously, she hugged herself, softly rubbing her arms as she turned away from the stage, her gaze falling down on her drink.

Losing focus, the noise was becoming just a background of her little bubble.

With the time passing by all around her, she was lost in her own little world, her thoughts completely submerging her from the reality she was in at the moment.

Over and over again, Yongguk was the main focus of those contemplations. The way he acts, the way he talks, his subtle caring gestures and the sincerity he wanted her to see; everything that ever came from him towards her, she tried to look for some kind of loophole, something that would tell her to back off and forget about him.

It lead her to nowhere.

Nothing negative came up; she could only want him more, physically – of course – but also emotionally.

She had crushes before – she was eighteen years old after all, so it wasn’t uncommon for teenagers like her – but something like this was a first. Plus, she didn’t think it would be lasting this long.

It didn’t mean that she didn’t want to give it a try, because she did.

She was just afraid that she would’ve wasted her time if it didn’t work out.

But that’s just everybody’s fear, right?

She was brought out of her daze when she felt something around her back. Looking from left to right, she noticed that she was covered with Yongguk’s jacket. Lifting her head up, she smiled at him as he took a seat next to her.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“I thought showing you was better.”

“Am I the first one?”

“The only.”

She got off the stool and started backing away from him, making her way into the crowd. Her sudden departure left him intrigued as he watched her go. She was about to disappear when he jumped off his seat and rushed towards her. Once he caught her hand, he pulled her right against his chest, his head down to look at her as she reciprocated the gesture by gazing upwards.

With the people dancing around them as the music was loudly playing, he couldn’t look away from her. All the emotions that he would feel with her presence were overwhelming him; his grip tightening by her waist and leaned his forehead against hers, aiming to kiss her lips.

His heart stopped beating for a second the moment she tip toed to meet his lips, surprising him with her bold move.

She was going to break the innocent kiss when he stopped her, cupping her cheeks and pressing his lips harder against hers, giving all his might into that one caress; he gently parted her lips, letting the touch grow deeper and much stronger, halting everything around them.

He felt her holding tightly onto him by his shirt, pushing herself closer to him. From his hands on her waist, he fully embraced her in his arms and crushed her against his chest as her arms went up until she wrapped them around his neck. This went on for a few more seconds until the need of air became necessary. Parting away, one glance at each other and a set of chuckles came out.

“Guk… I-I wanna make this work… I want to be your… girl.”

The gummy smile was back on his face. He softly her cheek as he tugged some strands of her hair out of her face before kissing her again.

“How about we get out of here, hmm?”

“Where would you take me?”

“Our spot. I’m getting hungry~”

He led her out of the club and back to his car where he drove towards the diner. Once inside, they ordered their meal and spent a couple of hours afterwards, not having the energy nor the will to leave and end their night, but like every good thing, their date had to come to an end.

He drove her back to her place and at her request, parked a few feet away so she wouldn’t get caught. He turned off the engine of his car, leaving a complete silence roaming in between them. Before she stepped out, she turned to him, thanking him for her night and leaned in for a kiss on his cheek that turned into a proper caress on his lips as he had turned his head to look back at her.

He gently deepened the kiss, parting as their heads tilted for a better approach, their tongues touching.

Hearts pounding, lungs suffocating, body heating, they weren’t capable of letting go until it got too overwhelming. Breaking apart, they were heavily breathing and let out a light chuckle as they stared back at each other, giddy and shy.

“Ssongjji…”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you.”