Morning came way too soon. 

Chorong sighed, rolling over onto her side and trying to ignore the blinding light shining through her window. But even if she could avoid it, the headache she had was still going to keep her from getting any more sleep. So, instead of riding it out, she pushed herself up and out of bed.  

It didn't take long before she was sitting back on the bed, holding her head and groaning. It wasn't as bad of a hangover as she thought it was going to be, but it definitely wasn't that great either. She knew she probably should have stopped at only two or three drinks, but after everything she was dealing with, she definitely needed more. 

It also didn't help that one of her main problems was the person she was drinking with; Kim Joonmyun. Or, how she would have usually called him, her mortal enemy. Except, that part was kind of voided now that they were finally moving past their differences so they could be friends of some sort. 

Of some sort, Chorong sighed, leaning her back against the mattress and staring up at the ceiling. The truth was, she didn't know what she and Joonmyun actually were. Were they friends? Were they nothing? Or were they more? 

"Definitely not something more," she mumbled under her breath as she closed her eyes. She was with Jongsuk now and that was the end of it. She chose to be with him. She wanted to be with him. 

Except that wasn't the end of it. 

She could hide and deny and avoid anything that had to do with any type of feelings she felt for Joonmyun, but deep down she knew that there was a flutter. It was a small flutter, but a flutter nonetheless. When he kissed her the night before, it was like everything stopped for just those few seconds and the only two people in the world were him and her. 

And then the flutter passed and the moment was over. 

She thought it was to her relief, but the more she thought about it, the more she couldn't understand why the feeling was there in the first place. Joonmyun had done nothing but disappoint her and make her angry and, to be honest, been a complete since day one ... and yet there was a damn flutter when his lips met hers. 

"What does this even mean?" Chorong groaned, pressing her hands to her face and completely stressing out. 

"What does what mean?" 

Chorong almost died from a heart attack right there as she was spooked. She quickly turned her attention to Nayoung walking into the room, holding a glass of water and some pills in her hand. 

"Nothing," Chorong quickly responded. There was one thing she hadn't thought about until that very moment. Joonmyun was Nayoung's boyfriend and he had kissed her last night. She knew it was wrong, keeping it from her, but she had already butted into their relationship so much since they started dating that she really didn't want to start any more fights. 

It was just a one-time thing. Spur of the moment, really. They were both caught up in the moment of sincerity and it didn't mean anything. Not all kisses have to mean something, she was sure of it. It was never going to happen again. 

Right? 

"I brought you something to cure that hangover of yours, even though you didn't even bother staying at the fabulous party I threw you last night." 

There was another thing she had to face: the aftermath of what happened at her birthday party. Sure, she didn't stick around that long, but she sure as hell made things a bit more complicated in the time she was there. 

And the main complication was her new boyfriend; Jongsuk. 

She was happy about being with him, of course, she was. But there was still that hint of doubt in her that she wasn't ready for this. She knew that it was probably her own feelings of her horrible past relationship, but it was still there. And it was still stressing her out more than she thought she could handle. 

She wanted to be with Jongsuk. She just didn't know if she would ever be one hundred percent ready to be with him. 

"Sorry, I bailed." Chorong took the pills Nayoung had given her and chased them down with the water. After cringing a bit, not liking taking medicine at all, she turned her attention back to her sister. "You know me. I'm not really a party person." She decided to skip the part where she spent the night actually enjoying hanging out with her sister's boyfriend. "I really did appreciate it, though, honestly." 

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just going to skip next time and not throw you one since you'll probably ditch that one too." Nayoung smiled and sat down next to Chorong on the bed, nudging her with her elbow. "So?"

"So?"

"So don't leave me hanging! I heard that Luhan guy talking to Jongsuk about how you two are together now!" Nayoung's giddiness was definitely going to take getting used to again. It wasn't the first time she freaked out over Chorong dating someone, and it especially wouldn't be the first time she was going to get teased about it either. She was just waiting for the teasing to begin, really. 

She blushed slightly, rubbing the back of her neck as the nerves started to take over. She always felt these nerves when she thought about Jongsuk, especially now that the two of them had decided to be more than just friends. 

"Oh, that." Nayoung slapped her shoulder as if to say, "Of course that!" Chorong just chuckled slightly, shaking her head. "Yeah, we decided to ... and then we kissed ... and then that's it." It sounded more amazing in her head, but once the words came out of she couldn't tell if the moment had really been as great as she thought. 

But as she thought about it, the moment was that great. Her eyes trailed down to her wrist as she looked at the charm Jongsuk had gotten her for her birthday before everything went down. She smiled a little, fiddling with it with her fingers. 

"I'm really happy for you, dongsengie. Jongsuk seems like a really great guy." 

"He really is and I really, really like him, but-" 

"No buts," Nayoung warned, making a face. "You do this every time there's a guy that you like. You go through all these great qualities about this fantastic person, and then there's always a catch with you. There is always a 'but', and there shouldn't be this time." 

That was actually the truth, even if she didn't want to admit it. She always picked people apart, trying to find something to keep her from pursuing them. But now with Jongsuk? That wasn't the case at all. 

"The but isn't with Jongsuk," she sighed. "It's with me. I'm the but this time." 

If the universe wasn't against her already, it was at that point when her phone started to ring. She picked it up quickly, seeing that it was Jongsuk. Her heart sped up, almost to the point where she was sure it was beating way too fast to actually function properly. She was panicked as she paced back and forth. 

She hadn't talked to Jongsuk since last night, and even then she kind of ditched him. And now he was calling her and probably wanting an explanation. And Chorogn really didn't have a great reason to give him. 

Taking a deep breath, she answered it. "Jongsuk," she paused for a moment, "hey, how are you?" Out of all the things she could have said to him, she asks the most generic thing. 

"I'm great. I'm really glad you answered because I kind of really wanted to talk to you about last night. We didn't really get to finish our conversation before you left." 

Straight and to the point. 

"I'm sorry about that, really." 

"It's okay, Luhan said you had to go deal with something so I decided I'd just call you later to finish our conversation." She waited, wondering what he had to say. She was a little relieved to know he wasn't mad at her for flaking, but she still felt bad about the whole thing. "I was wondering if you maybe want to go out with me tonight? On a real date." 

Those insecure feelings she had been struggling were coming back with vengeance. Her stomach twisted in knots as she began pacing again, just as badly as she was before. 

Jongsuk wanted to go on a date with her; a real, non-grocery store, ice cream eating, being completely goofy, date. Yeah, that was definitely causing her to panic slightly. She had never been good at the dating part and she wasn't sure she was ready to completely embarrass herself, especially not in front of Jongsuk. 

But she knew that this was Jongsuk she was talking about. The guy was a complete gentleman. No matter how badly she messed up or embarrassed herself, he would be there to make everything feel better. 

He was a good guy, almost too good of a guy for her. She knew that she wanted to go, all she had to do was say yes. 

"Please tell me your silence isn't a no." 

"What?" She realised she had been silent for so long and quickly stumbled over her words. "Oh, no. Sorry, I was kind of in my own world here." She took a deep breath before answering him. "Actually, I would really like to see you tonight." 

She couldn't help but smile at the change in his voice. "Really? That's great because I kind of jumped the gun and made us reservations for dinner. Sorry, I was kind of excited." He coughed slightly, the nerves obviously showing in his voice. "So, I'll pick you up tonight?" 

"Okay." She bit her lip, trying to hide the smile. "I'll see you tonight." 

Once she was off the phone, she jumped towards her bed, flopping down onto it and groaning. She didn't even know where to start. Dating was hard and she wasn't exactly the best at it. She was excited, of course, but she was not looking forward to making a complete fool out of herself in front of Jongsuk. 

"Don't worry, Rongie. I'm going to make up look like a million dollars for your big date." Nayoung grabbed her sister's hand, pulling her up. "First, we need to do something about that hair of yours." 

Chorong made a face, knowing this afternoon was going to be a nightmare. She only hoped that tonight would make up for all the craziness she would have to go through with her sister. 

♡♡♡

To say she was surprised by her reflection in the mirror, that would be an understatement. She couldn't believe that after only an afternoon of letting her sister practically use her as a toy, she could actually look good. After years of being in Nayoung's shadow, she wondered if for once she'd be the one people would notice. 

But, then again, the only person she really wanted to notice her was Jongsuk. 

The only problem with actually looking okay was that Chorong was not used to it at all, and she definitely wasn't used to wearing a dress. 

"I look like I'm about to go to prom, not to eat some food." She tugged down on the bottom of it, trying to make it go lower than it was. She felt completely ridiculous, despite the obvious anxious eyes from Nayoung. "He's going to think I'm trying way too hard!" 

"Shut up and stop messing it up!" Nayoung slapped Chorong's hands away, fixing the dress herself. "You look beautiful and Jongsuk is going to drop dead when he sees how good you look. He'll be begging you to go to bed with him." 

Chorong turned quickly, glaring. "First, you don't even know Jongsuk. He wouldn't beg me to do something he knows I'm not ready to do. And second, I'm not ready to have yet. How many times do I have to tell you and everyone else that?" 

"Probably a billion," Nayoung chuckled, patting the spot on the bed next to her. Chorong reluctantly sat with a sigh, turning her head slightly as her sister put her arm around her. "Rongie, Omma and Appa would kill me if they knew I was talking to you about this stuff, but you're old enough and I think it's time you just get out there and do it!" 

An internal forehead slap happened at that moment, a really, really hard one, at that. Chorong shook her head, not exactly sure how to take this 'advice' she had just been given. "Just get out there and do it!" That was probably the worst advice anyone has ever given her. Not only was she not going to take it, but she was going to completely ignore everything that was just said. 

She pushed Nayoung's arm off of her and got up, grabbing her bag and heading to the door, remaining silent due to the fact that if she were to open and say something sarcastic she would be even later than she already was. Chorong did one last look at herself in the mirror in the living room, making a face and wondering if she really looked okay. Well, even if she didn't there was no time to back out or change now. 

She hurried out the door and into the hallway, tripping slightly on her way out and falling into the wall. She cursed her stupid heels, something Nayoung wouldn't let her get out of, before pushing her hand into her bag and pulling out the secret flats she hid when her sister wasn't looking. Chorong quickly changed them out, putting the death trap shoes into her bag and sighing in relief when her feet felt a million times better. 

When she turned back away from the wall to continue back down the hall, she didn't expect to bump into the one person she honestly didn't want to see. 

Joonmyun. 

"Chorong?" He took a step back, looking her up and down as his face completely flushed red. "You look ..." 

"Stupid? I knew it." 

"I was going to say beautiful, actually. You look beautiful." 

That was Chorong's cue to go red and red she went. She bit her lip as she felt her stomach tie into massive knots as she tried to avoid contact with Joonmyun. Meeting her eyes would only bring back those same weird feelings she was having earlier, and that was something she definitely didn't want to have when she was about to go out with Jongsuk. 

"Well, thank you. I would talk longer, but I have somewhere I need to be right now." She tried to hurry around him, but, of course, him being Joonmyun he had to grab her hand. His fingers locked with hers as he tugged her back, stopping her from advancing and forcing her to actually make eye contact with him. 

Bring on the butterflies. 

"I would really like to talk to you about last night-" 

"It was nothing, Joonmyun. You got caught up in the moment and kissed me and it's really okay. There's no reason to talk about it more. I really have to go and meet Jongsuk for our date." 

That was the keyword for Joonmyun to let go of her hand and stare at her with sad eyes as if he wasn't happy with her response; to any of it. She didn't expect any less from him if she was being honest. Joonmyun wasn't Jongsuk's biggest fan, after all, and he definitely wasn't happy about the idea of the two of them going out. 

"I didn't know you were serious about that last night," he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Sorry for making you late. Just ... um, have fun?" 

She wasn't sure if any of that was sincere, especially by the irritated and upset look on his face, but she wasn't in the mood to argue with him. They had finally found solid ground and were done with the fighting. At least, they were done with it for the moment. She was sure, especially with Joonmyun in the picture, there would be many angry words to be shared in the future. 

"I'll see you later?" She tried to make him feel a little better by sounding hopeful, but she was sure her words wouldn't affect him all too much. He just leaned against the wall and nodded, turning away from her. "Bye Joonmyun." It came out a lot sadder than she expected. 

She didn't look back at him as she made it to the elevators, catching the doors closing and hurrying inside. Disappointment crossed her, and a little regret, when she realised that it was Jongdae standing next to her. He eyed her a little, though definitely longer than Joonmyun had, as she took a step away to get a better look. Chorong tried not to pay attention to him, getting the creeps just by him checking her out. 

Of course, the elevator didn't go straight down. No, it had to stop every now and again, letting another person on. That didn't stop Jongdae from keeping his focus solely on Chorong, never looking away once. 

"You look good, Chorong," he mumbled towards her. "Hot date?" 

She ignored him again. 

"I bet Joonmyun's super jealous, huh? I don't blame him, especially with you looking as good as you do right now." 

She tried to remember all the times Joonmyun had warned her about not being alone with the guy, and she was finally starting to realise that. She wouldn't have minded the compliments if they had come from anyone else, but Jongdae? For some reason, she just didn't like it at all. 

When the elevator reached the lobby, she hurried out as quick as she could and made her way towards the front doors. 

"Don't forget to use protection!" 

That made her stop dead in her tracks. She almost turned right around to confront him, and probably give him a nice slap or even a punch, but she knew she was already running later than she would have liked. And she didn't want Jongsuk to get the idea that she didn't want to go out with him tonight. 

So, instead of doing what she wanted and punching the idiot, she pushed open the doors and walked out into the nice, and surprising, cool breeze. 

And it didn't take longer before her eyes found what she hoped for. 

Towards the curb, Jongsuk was leaning against his motorcycle, his fingers tapping anxiously against the bike. He looked like a nervous wreck, but an absolutely gorgeous one. She was frozen a little, just taking in how good he actually looked in all black. 

As if he had a way of knowing when she was always looking at him, he turned his head a little, locking eyes with her. He seemed to be taken back just as much as she was because his jaw kind of fell open a little and his eyes went wide. Just like Joonmyun, his cheeks turned red when she started walking towards him, their eyes never parting. She couldn't help but notice how adorable he looked when he blushed; something she wouldn't mind seeing all the time. 

She probably would have thrown up at how nervous she was about now, but she didn't want to risk the embarrassment in front of him. She took a deep breath as she finished the walk towards him, smiling in unison with him as they stood in silence.

Usually, the silence would have killed her. But at the moment? She was just fine with it. 

After what seemed like an eternity, Jongsuk realised what they had been doing and went even redder, dropping his eyes and coughing. "Wow, um, Chorong, you look amazing. I ... wow. Um, I'm sorry; I'm kind of lo