"Alright! Make sure you guys don't wear yourselves out, okay?"

"Yes, coach!"

"Okay, you're al dismissed!" The coach paused briefly and looked at Byunghun. "Byunghun, you need to stay. I got a word or two for you."

Byunghun pointed at himself, confused. He glanced at the others, who only patted his shoulders and wished him luck. He glanced at Jongdae, who gave him a quick smile.

"He's probably going to talk to you about your girlfriend and how he doesn't want you to let romance get ahead of the game. He gave me that little pep talk a while ago. It's long, but it's some good advice, I think," Jongdae explained.

"Oh. Thanks," Byunghun mumbled. Jongdae only nodded and jogged off to the shower room.

The boy walked over to the coach, who also brought over Sohyun. The two students glanced at each other, blushed, then looked at the coach.

"I heard from the captain that you two are dating," the coach said.

Damn it, Jongdae, Byunghun cursed. "Yes, but I don't think it's a problem."

"Oh, it's not," the coach said. "It's just that I don't want you guys to break down if you guys ever end up breaking up. I've seen it happen before."

Is he implying that we're going to break up? Byunghun wondered, glancing at Sohyun.

I don't know, her eyes seemed to say, but let's just go with it.

"We understand," Byunghun said.

"I don't think there's going to be any huge problems between us. I mean, our relationship is just like it was before, only we're just dating," Sohyun added.

"Well, that's true. I haven't seen anything different arise," the coach mumbled. "Anyway, just think wisely, okay? I don't want the game to be all messed up because you two broke up or something. I gave the same talk to the basketball captain, so don't think I'm picking on you, okay?"

"We understand," the two stated in unison.

"Good. Now, Sohyun, go and clean the floor. Byunghun, you head to the shower room and clean up." The coach scratched his head and searched around. "Damn it… Where did that other manager go flirting off to?"

The coach walked away, leaving Byunghun and Sohyun alone. The two glanced at each other, turned slightly red, then looked away.

"Well, I guess that's that," Byunghun started awkwardly. "Um, see you later, I guess?"

Sohyun looked at him with a dejected look. "Yeah. Um, later."

Just as Byunghun was about to leave, Sohyun stopped him by grabbing onto his hand. When he turned to look at her, he couldn't help himself but to blush at the way she looked at him. She looked so shy and adorable that he swore his heart clenched at the moment their eyes met.

"U-Um, I was just thinking about what the coach said," Sohyun said softly.

"About what?" Byunghun asked her. There was a lot of things that the coach was saying. He couldn't remember anything particular that stood out.

"Well, I was thinking more about my response to the coach. Remember how I said that everything is still the same? I mean, we're dating, but then nothing's really changed," Sohyun pointed.

"What do you propose?" Byunghun asked her, not getting the hint.

Her face turn bright red. "I-I was thinking… A-Are you free later today? Not right now, but maybe at eight?"

"I've got nothing planned as of now," Byunghun answered.

"T-Then can we, um, go on a date…?"

Dasom grinned at Byunghun, who had a troubled expression on his face. He stared ahead at the scenery in front of him as he walked in between Dasom and Taemin. His hands were tucked in his pocket as he stared hard at the view. 

Finally, he let out a frustrated groan and began to mess his hair. Dasom giggled while Taemin only forced a weary smile.

"What do I do?" Byunghun cried out. "This is my first date. I didn't expect it to be so soon!"

"Of course it's this soon, dumb dumb," Dasom told him. "Once you start dating, you go on dates."

"But what do I do? I only imagined what to do on dates."

"Why are you worried? You got two dating experts right here!"

Taemin's eyes widened. "No, I went on, like, three dates with Soojung. Besides, we broke up."

"So? I broke up with a million of other guys. There's no harm in this," Dasom said nonchalantly. She clasped her hands together. "Alright, talk to me Byunghun. What does Sohyun like?"

"She likes…" Byunghun paused and looked up at the sky. "She likes basketball."

"Okay, nice start, but what else?"

"She… Um…" He looked at Dasom and shrugged her shoulders. "She likes basketball and that's all I know."

Dasom dropped her hands to her side and gave him an "are you kidding me" look.

"Seriously?" she asked. "You asked her out without knowing that she even likes?"

"She was really cute, okay? It just kind of came out. I wasn't even expecting her to answer," he mumbled.

"Well, now you're going to go on a date and disappoint her," Dasom said in a matter-of-fact tone. 

Byunghun only cringed in shame. As much as he wanted to deny Dasom's statement, he had a feeling that this wasn't going to turn well, either. He turned to Taemin.

"Hey, can I get any tips from you?" Byunghun asked him.

"From me?" Taemin asked, pointing at himself.

"Yeah. You were dating a girl for a whole semester. That tells me something," Byunghun said.

"I didn't really do anything in particular," the smarter one muttered. I definitely can't say, 'We struck a deal and started dating for our own benefits.'

"Well, give me a word or two or something. Don't just leave me hanging like this," the basketball boy said.

Taemin looked up at the sky. "Um, I don't know. Make her happy, I guess. Don't make things too awkward?"

Byunghun heaved a sigh. "Man, you both are pretty useless when it comes to dating advice."

"It's not that we're useless," Dasom said, "it's just that you don't have the information we need to help you."

"At this rate, I should be asking Jieun how she does it with Hyunwoo."

"But they're not even dating. It's basically Jieun clinging onto him," Taemin pointed out.

"I know. I just feel like I want to cling onto Sohyun right now."

When the clock struck a little past eight, Byunghun found himself waiting at the same park he had been when Sohyun was playing with the kids. The park was empty and only filled with black from the night and light from the lamp posts. He paced back and forth in the light, getting all anxious. His palms were sweating and he couldn't help but frantically look around at the dark.

From the street, he saw a small figure running up to him. He smiled when he noticed that it was Sohyun, but his heart skipped a beat when he realized that Sohyun wasn't wearing her school uniform or just any kind of clothes. She was in her pajamas, which consisted of an over-sized t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants.

Gosh, I'm going insane, he thought, turning a bit red. Why is she so freaking cute?

"I'm sorry that I'm late!" Sohyun apologized quickly. "I was taking a shower and lost track of time."

"That's fine," Byunghun said, smiling. He looked at her clothes once again. "So, what do you have planned for our date?"

"Want to go eat somewhere?" Sohyun suggested. She gasped. "Oh wait! Did you eat dinner already? If you did, then—"

"I can still eat," he said, but he pointed at her clothes, "but can you go and eat?"

Sohyun looked down her clothes, then gasped. "Oh my gosh. I forgot to change."

Byunghun laughed while Sohyun turned bright red. He quickly took off his sleeveless jacket and placed it over her shoulders.

"Maybe this will help," he said. He stepped back a bit to exam her, then nodded his head. "Yeah. It just looks like you're in comfortable clothing now. Oh!" He took off his beanie and placed it on top of her head. "That's better. You look like a gangster."

"Ha, ha. Very funny," Sohyun said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and gave Byunghun a quick nudge. "So should we go and eat?"

"Sure. Where to?" he asked her.

"What do you want to eat?"

"Anything is good with me."

"Do you mind if it's cheap?"

"It'd be great if it wasn't some kind of fancy restaurant," he said in a half-serious tone. 

Sohyun giggled. "How about we got to a fast food place? Are you okay with hamburgers?"

"I love hamburgers!" Byunghun exclaimed. "How far is it?"

"It's—" Sohyun paused, then blinked her eyes. "Actually, it's pretty far. We'll be walking for quite some time, and I have a curfew."

"Wait, you have a curfew?" Byunghun asked, blinking his eyes. "Until when?"

"Nine," she answered. "If we start going now, we wouldn't be able to make it back."

"We have…" He glanced down at his watch, then widened his eyes. "Oh shoot! My watch stopped working!" He checked his phone, then groaned. "My battery died. Shoot!"

"It's okay, I got my phone," Sohyun said, waving her phone in the air. She checked it, then slightly frowned. "We have half an hour left. What should we do?"

In this case, he thought, we could probably take a walk or something.

But a walk on their first date? No matter how much he thought over it, he could almost hear Dasom nagging him about that. He was sure that even Taemin wouldn't approve of such a date.

Byunghun forced a weak smile at Sohyun, who seemed to understand his plan just by a glance.

"Let's just end the day early and go home," he said. "It's best if we meet up another time and have a proper date."

Sohyun opened to say something, but only let out a soft chuckle.

"You're right," she said quietly. "It was pretty stupid of me to suggest a date all of the sudden, wasn't it?"

As much as he wanted to deny it, he couldn't help but think that she was right. They were both unprepared, and things were getting a lot more awkward as time passed.

The two walked back to Sohyun's house in silence. They were glad that they were getting at least a few more minutes together, but it was more disappointing to know that their first date ended up a complete failure.

Sohyun stopped walking, then looked up. Byunghun glanced at her house, realizing how fast the two had arrived.

"Well, we're already here," Sohyun mumbled.

"Yep, we are," Byunghun said, nodding his head. He turned to Sohyun. "Um, see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, see you," she said, waving her hand.

Byunghun waited for to step inside, but she didn't even budge. She looked down at the ground, then scratched the back of her head. 

"Um, Byunghun?" Sohyun called him.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Do you think we match?" she suddenly asked him.

Byunghun blinked his eyes. "What?"

"I mean, when I agreed to be your girlfriend, everything was just the same. We didn't really do anything new, and when we tried something new today, it just didn't work out to well." She glanced up at him with worried eyes. "Does this mean that we should break up?"

He was rendered speechless. He wasn't expecting her to talk about breaking up this quickly. Everything was coming at him so fast. He was beginning to understand that dating wasn't something that he was supposed to romanticize. It was tricky, and he started to see why Dasom kept breaking up with different guys.

But I'm not Dasom, he told himself, and Sohyun is definitely not Dasom.

"I think," he started slowly, "that it's okay how we're awkward. I think starting awkward is perfectly fine."

"But aren't we supposed to immediately get along with each other or something when we start dating?" Sohyun asked. "Isn't there supposed to be that click?" She turned bright red. "I don't know. I just didn't think dating was so awkward like this."

Byunghun stared, then he grinned. He patted her head and gave her a quick hug.

"It's going to work out," he said in a confident voice.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yep. We can do it. Besides, I'm not going to lose to some awkward first date. We'll have better ones and laugh at this one in the near future," he assured her.

Sohyun broke into a soft giggle as she pictured their future. Byunghun felt butterflies fluttering in his stomach.

Damn, she's too cute, he thought, giving her another tight squeeze. He finally let go and waved at her. "I should go. It's getting late."

"Okay. Text me when you get to your house, okay?" she said. He nodded and turned.

Before he left, he felt something grab onto his arm. He turned around and widened his eyes when Sohyun pulled him down and pecked his cheeks. The two stared at each other for a brief moment, speechless. Suddenly, Sohyun turned into a beautiful shade of crimson red and scurried into her house.

Byunghun stared at her house a bit longer. An embarrassed blush slowly appeared on his cheeks, but he couldn't help but show off his delighted smile as he walked away and made his way back home.