He spun around, careful not to break her hands’ grip in the process. Her grip on him remained, and he ended up finding her smiling up at him sweetly. He smiled down at her, and wrapped his arms around her as well. “Alright, so you got me. I’m jealous.”

She giggled and pinched his cheeks. “You so are.”

“I’m sorry for getting angry,” he added meekly.

She flicked him in the forehead. “No apologies! And you weren’t angry; you were jealous. And, you were so cute.”

“What?”

“You getting jealous of my cheerleading coach has got to be the cutest thing ever. Did you see how your face reddened at the sight of me getting out from his car? And how you spluttered and couldn’t even interrogate me?”

“I…” He swore that he was blushing because he could almost feel the crimson rushing up his cheeks.

Jessica sighed, her smile still there. “It was such a nice sight to see you getting jealous. That’s why I said I liked you so much.”

Donghae pouted. “You’re mocking me, aren’t you? Being jealous isn’t cool. It makes me feel like a creep.”

She laughed. “I think jealousy is pretty cool, if taken in small amounts. At least I know that you’re afraid of me slipping through your grasp.”

“That is kind of true.” He was afraid of losing her.

“So are we going to stand here in this corner of your living room for the whole evening?”

“Oh, no, of course not! Come with me.”

=

In Donghae’s room, he had laid out a pink blanket his sister used to own when she was a baby. It was big enough to let the two sit on the ground of his room, and he pulled out a makeshift picnic basket from nowhere, setting up an impromptu picnic scene for her.

“This was the best I could do,” he admitted, almost guilty for the way things turned out.

She ruffled his hair up, much like Krystal did before she left, and leaned in to give him a peck on the cheek. “I think this is the best anyone could have on a Friday night.”

He smiled. She stretched her legs out, settling into the soft base of the blanket, and continued speaking. “At least, I know this is everything I could’ve ever asked for, after my cheerleading finals and all.” She flung her arms into the air and cheered. “The sweet smell of freedom!”

As he basked in the quiescent joy of spending time with his beloved, a thought hit him. A troubling thought, to say the least, of the issue on their relationship. Where were they? What were they? Why is it all a blurry spot in his mind now? He had to seek the answers, and he had to seek them now.

So when they were done with Donghae’s handmade sandwiches, he handed her a serviette and proceeded to start on the topic. “Jessica…”

“Yes?”

Unlike his jealous side which came out almost a little too easily, he was completely tongue-tied over this topic. He was left stammering and fidgeting around in his spot, and he stared dumbly into space as Jessica packed up everything into the picnic basket to make space for her to snuggle with him.

When Jessica was done, he still hadn’t been done with his hesitation. She tilted her head. “Yes, Donghae?”

“Uh…” he continued stammering, still unable to form decipherable words.

She puffed her cheeks up. “Is this like a cue to get me to kiss you? Because, apparently, when I kiss you, you say things very easily.”

He shook his head. “No, no, I—I just…”

She put a hand on his hand, the one that gripped onto the pink blanket a little too hard because of his jitters. Her expression darkened, and Donghae could see that she was starting to be perturbed. “What’s going on, Hae? You can tell me anything.”

He saw the look in her eyes and his insides melted into mush. Putting his other hand on her hand, now sandwiching her tiny hand between his, he turned to face her. “I need to ask you about something.”

She adjusted herself, shifting herself closer to Donghae. He was only an inch away from her now. “Go ahead.”

He felt his heartbeat getting erratic and a little too quick for his liking, and he found himself tongue-tied again. “I… I need to ask you where we are right now.”

Her expression changed.

She looked around, and then back at him.

“We’re… in your bedroom, aren’t we?”

=

“No, I—I mean, with our relationship. What are we?”

“We’re… in love,” she answered.

“But… Am I your boyfriend?”

“Of course you are!”

“But… You’ve never said anything about that, so…”

Jessica frowned. “Did Krystal say something?”

Donghae was caught off-guard. “How did you know?”

“I knew it!”

“No, no, she just… She just told me that I’m seeing things a little too officially… She just reminded me that you haven’t called me your boyfriend yet… So we’re kind of… In the middle of nowhere and stuff…”

She couldn’t help but to giggle once more. She leveled herself with him and raised her hands to cradle his face. “So,” she whispered, with the gentlest tone ever, “you think that we’re not official or anything?”

“No… I know we’re something… I just want to know what we are.”

“There’s a reason why I don’t call you my boyfriend.”

His face paled in horror for a while, and she grinned back at him. “It’s a good reason!”

“What is it?”

“Because with you… It feels more than that. It feels like you’re not just a boyfriend. Do you know what I mean?”

Of course he knew what she meant. He was the boy who had a whole wall of Jessica, and now he was getting to be with the love of his life. Of course he knew.

“Yes,” he whispered back, almost uncontrollably.

She decided to place her forehead on Donghae’s shoulder then, leaning on him, and engulfing him in a small, loose hug. His arms rose then, also moving to wrap her up, as though they were two hamsters who had to warm each other up in the middle of winter.

“You are so cute, Donghae,” she mumbled. “I like how adorably insecure you are. Because no guy I dated in the past was like this.”

“Like… Like what?”

“Like you. No one I dated in the past was this afraid of letting me slip from their grasps.” She leaned out a bit to get a good look at his face. “And, well, I’ve never been this afraid of letting you slip away as well.”

Donghae would admit that he was touched, but he couldn’t, because she had already pressed her lips to his. It was a very chaste kiss, and they just stayed in that position for a very long moment or two, letting a week of separation flee through the atmosphere.

When she moved away, he found himself wanting to kiss her instead. She tipped his lips with her finger, smiling sweetly. “I think I’ve really fallen for you.”

He swore his heart almost lurched out of his chest.

=

Donghae was the kind of person who suffers from momentary blackouts at times of distress, or nerves.

Jessica got her first taste of it when he stood up, pulled her up, and dragged her to the other side of the room, right after she told him that she had fallen for him, for real.

She let herself get dragged by him willingly, watching carefully as he made his way to one of the four walls of his room. He tugged on a little rope, and what appeared to be a curtain rose, revealing the hidden surface of the wall.

A whole collage of photographs had filled spot after spot on the wall, forming an almost picturesque scene of unrelated photos coming together in a bond formed by art. She looked at several photographs and could already deduce what this was. So she decided to look at him after five photos.

“Donghae.”

He took a deep breath and looked at her. “Hey,” he responded.

“Care to explain?” She gestured at the wall and gave him a small smile, in his eyes the biggest comfort he could ever receive because it meant that she wasn’t crept out. Or, well, at least he hoped so.

He picked up her hands in his, trying his best not to shiver anymore. “The truth is… I’ve liked you for a very long time already.”

“You have,” she responded, her words sounding more like a statement than a question.

“And this wall… Well, it pretty much proves everything.”

“It does,” she responded, again.

“And this is why I want to promise you that I will be a good boyfriend, and that I can be a good boyfriend—“

“I know you will,” she cut him off, taking him by surprise. It calmed him down as well, and he lifted her hands up to plant a small kiss on each of them.

“Thank you for having this faith in me, then.”

“You ought to know that you needn’t be grateful for this, though. You deserve everything that I’m giving you. And I feel like this is a dream come true. To meet a guy like you; it’s all I’ve been wishing for since I was a little girl and I watched my first Cinderella movie.”

He tugged on her hands, pulling her into his arms. “You know what else is a dream come true?”

“What?”

“You. You are my dream, the one that came true.”

=

Krystal cursed as her mother made her way out of the restrooms, clinging to wall after wall for support.

“Mom, are you—“

“Krystal, baby, I think we’re going to have call it a day…”

Mrs Jung clutched onto her abdomen after finishing the statement and ran back to the restrooms. Papa Jung came scurrying over. “What did your mom say?”

“She said we should go home…”

Papa Jung went off to get the car.

Krystal cursed again. This wasn't how the night was supposed to turn out. The lovebirds were supposed to share an evening’s worth of time.

All she had to blame were the escargots her mother insisted on having for dinner a moment ago.

=

As they snuggled on their makeshift picnic blanket, they could hear the first sounds of a car revving up into the driveway next door.

Both got alarmed, and they leapt to Donghae’s window to catch a glance of the din outside. They saw Papa Jung speeding into the driveway, stopping, and opening the doors in less than a second. Mrs Jung limped out, into the house, and both adults were gone within in less than another second.

Krystal stood akimbo at the door, looking at her parents as they disappeared into the kitchen, one probably rushing for the toilet and the other rushing to prepare anti-diarrhea medicine. She sighed, and then glanced up to Donghae’s window, where the two were leaning out of.

“Show’s over, guys,” she whispered, before going into the house to stall some time for Jessica to get home.

Jessica looked at Donghae and sighed, pouting sadly. “This ended way too soon.”

Donghae did the same. “I know.”

Then she ruffled his hair up and planted a kiss on his cheek. “But not to worry, because we’ll have a lot more time in future, won’t we?”

He pressed up against her nose with his own, a cheeky grin overwhelming his face. “Yes, we will. Definitely.”

“And since tomorrow’s a Saturday…”

“…I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She giggled. “Pizza?”

He nodded. “Anything for you, milady.”

As they gave each other one last farewell hug, and as she ran down the stairs to get home, he thought that, perhaps, he didn’t have to lose any fats for this princess at all. They were perfect the way they were.

He liked it.