“Seunghyun.”

Hmm..this feels like a dream.

“Seunghyun!”

It sounds like a dream. There’s even music. It’s definitely a dream.

“Seunghyun!”

But what is this voice disturbing my peaceful and blissful-

Seunghyun felt something ruthlessly hit the back of his head; a pillow. He snapped out of his nap, feeling annoyed and confused, but reacted with his eyes still closed. “I’m awake! I’m awake!”

“Your phone is ringing.”

“Huh? What?” Seunghyun, clearly still drifting in and out of his slumber, turned to the source of the voice.

“Your phone!” Zen pointed to the device on the nightstand next to Seunghyun’s bed.

“Huh? Oh.” He grabbed the phone and cleared his throat before swiping the screen. “Hello?” His attempt at trying to sound sober failed miserably as he noted the croaky sound of his still sleeping voice.

But the soft chuckle on the other end succeeded at whipping his brain to function properly.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Seunghyun’s eyes widened; tongue caught behind his teeth. He pulled the phone away to check the caller ID and gasped.

“Hello?”

“Hey! Yeah, hello. Yup. NO. No, no, you’re not interrupting something. Anything. Wait, give me a sec.” Seunghyun jostled up from his bed, throwing the pillow back to his roommate. He mouthed ‘Jiyong’ and pointed a finger to his phone while scrambling off the bed and out the door.

He sprinted along the hallway to the patio at the end of it and leaned against the railing. He took a few deep breaths before pulling up the phone back to his ear. Thank god no one was there.

“Hello? Jiyong? Sorry about that. You still there?” He was still panting through his words.

Soft chuckles. “Hi..”

“Yeah, hey..” Seunghyun ran a nervous hand through his hair, propping one elbow onto the top of the railing.

“Are we gonna keep saying hi, or..” Jiyong chuckled even more.

“No! Of course not.” Seunghyun let out a nervous laugh. “So..how was- How was Bali? Wait, are you even back yet?” Seunghyun face-palmed himself as soon as he asked the question. Of course he’s home, he’s calling from a local number.

“Yeah, I am.” Jiyong sounded so chirpy Seunghyun’s heart jumped a beat. “Bali was great, the wedding was beautiful and we had fun. So, yeah..”

“Cool..” Seunghyun scrunched up his face at how lame he sounded.

And then they both fell into an awkward silence; Seunghyun didn’t know what to say to begin about the date and Jiyong didn’t know how to remind Seunghyun about the date without seeming like a , shamelessly offering himself. But they can’t stay quiet like this, now can they? In an awkward effort to break the silence, they both stuttered out intangible words, more like intangible sounds, causing both to fall into a fit of giggles.

Seunghyun let Jiyong proceed. “No, nothing. Just umm…remember I promised to let you know when I’m back? So…here I am. This is me keeping my promise.” That was Jiyong subtle attempt to remind Seunghyun of the date. He hoped he didn’t sound shameless.

“OH! Speaking of which,” Seunghyun mentally gave a pat on his back at successfully faking his reaction. “You owe me a date.”

Seunghyun could hear soft huff of a shy laugh from the other end. “Yeah..”

“So..” Seunghyun swallowed hard. “Are you..- When can we- Well, I don’t know if you are fine with it. But I’d like to, you know, talk to you, spend some time with you. Sorta like…take you out? Only if you want to, because I don’t want to if..you..don’t..want..to..” Seunghyun trailed off awkwardly. One of his hands was on his own hair after he muttered the last part. Idiot. What was I even saying?

“Well..” Seunghyun swore he could hear Jiyong’s smile through the phone. “Why not?”

“Really?” Seunghyun perked up.

“Yeah, really.”

“Is- Is tomorrow too soon?” Seunghyun pursed his lips and shut his eyes, anticipating the answer. A part of him was even ready to get rejected.

“No, tomorrow sounds great.”

“Wait, really?” Seunghyun is still holding his breath. He wanted to confirm if he heard correctly before jumping up and down.

“Yeah, really.” And Jiyong’s giggles did it. Seunghyun exhaled heavily, hurting his cheeks with the brightest smile.

“Alright then, I’ll um..I’ll- I’ll call you. Or text you.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” Seunghyun is parroting the word because his mind was already working on the list of potential places for the date it couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Okay,” Jiyong chuckled. “Are we going to keep saying okay,or..” He trailed off into more bubbles of chuckles.

“Oh, right. Sorry. I’ll call you.”

“Or text me." Jiyong added, mirroring Seunghyun's initial promise. "I’ll be waiting. Bye, Seunghyun.” Jiyong must’ve shaken his head at Seunghyun silliness.

“Bye, Jiyong.” And then he watched the screen of his phone, tapping on the red icon rapidly to make sure that the call has ended before he exclaimed a loud ‘YES!!’, startling the passersby. He waved a nervous apologetic hand and stormed back to his room.

“Where should I take him?” Seunghyun asked, hours later, while standing in front of his closet, picking out an outfit for the date tomorrow.

Zen, lounging on his bed with his hands behind his head, turned to Seunghyun. “Depends on what you want to put off; if you want to flash all your dollars and blings, there’s a fine dining restaurant next to the coffee shop that we went to last week.”

Seunghyun gave it a think before shaking his head. “Nah, I have a feeling he wouldn’t like places that. I want something casual and relax. Plus, a clumsy goof like me shouldn’t be allowed to go to places like that on a first date. I don’t want to humiliate myself.” He pulled out a white v-neck tshirt and a navy blue cardigan from his closet and laid them out on his bed.

“And I’m not rich. My parents are.” Seunghyun added, now laying out a red-white checkered shirt and a red jumper with navy blue sleeves.

“That’s what rich people always say.” Zen sat up, folding his legs against his chest and wrapped his arms around his knees. “Then take him to MacLarens. It’s our usual spot anyway, nothing would go wrong. Hopefully.”

Seunghyun sighed. “Yeah, I thought of going to MacLarens too. At lease I have less to worry about as I’m already familiar with the place.” He took both outfits and held them in front of him.

“So it’s settled then; MacLarens it is.”

“Which one?” Seunghyun twirled the garments in his hands, looking at his roommate expectantly.

“Do you really need to announce to the world that you’re a nerd?”

“Don’t hate me ‘cause you ain’t me. Come on, which one?”

"Who would've thought that you would be this excited picking out outfit for a date after all the 'no, I'm not ready for this, I just broke up' ." Zen mocked, waving his hands in the air.

Seunghyun dropped his hands to his sides. "Don't be a jackass." Then he pulled the outfits up again and raised his eyebrows.

Zen rolled his eyes. “You look good in red, so the red one.”

Seunghyun smiled teasingly. “If I don’t know better, I’d think you have a crush on me.” He laughed when Zen’s expression changed to annoyed. “I’m gonna let Jiyong know the place.” He grabbed his phone and sent out a text to Jiyong, informing the latter of the decided place to meet.

Seunghyun: Hey. I’ll see you tomorrow at MacLarens at 7:00pm.

Jiyong: Can’t wait. :)

PS: The outfit that Zen picked for Seunghyun: ^^