First Date
My Perfect Stranger 
"Come on, Key! You're going to be late!" Nicole nagged me for about the 10th time.
I groaned. "I don't see why I have to go on this blind date anyway! I'd much rather be with my boys."
"Key, they're at your mom's house so you have nothing to worry about," she said as she finished up my eyeliner. "Besides, it's been awhile since you've had any action."
"That's because I don't need any. My kids are all the action I need."
"Kids, kids, kids! That's all you ever talk about. Now don't get me wrong. I love those boys just as much as you do, but it's time for you to finally have a break. Now I'm not asking for you to find a husband, but at least get out there and meet some new people."
I sighed because I knew she was right. For the past 10 years, Taemin and Jongin have been my whole life. My life had been in a pretty tough place, and honestly, announcing that I was pregnant didn't make it any better. My parents were ashamed of me, my reputation was ruined, my boyfriend at the time, named Jonghyun, went MIA for awhile, and did I mention I was only 16?!
Now I'm 26 and work as a makeup artist. It wasn't easy finishing school and finding a job, but with the help of my parents, I prevailed. Jonghyun, the father of my children, still keeps in touch, but from a distance. But that's a story for another day.
As we pulled up to the restaurant, Nicole gave me some last encouraging words.
"Key, I'm proud of you. This is the furthest you've gone to move on from your past."
I smiled and hugged her. "Thanks a lot for pushing me. I just hope this night won't be a mistake."
"Oh trust me, it won't. This guy I set you up with is everything I know you need right now. If not as a boyfriend, at least as a friend. My advice to you is to just be open-minded."
I nodded. "Ok. I'll text you when it's over."
I walked into the restaurant and was amazed at how beautiful it was. It looked very classy and well decorated. Nicole did a great job on picking the venue.
I wandered the area slowly as I saw couples casually conversing and families enjoying their time together. Just looking at those smiling faces reminded me of my two little boys. I was honestly ready to get this night over with so I could snuggle with them.
I noticed a man who looked just as confused as me standing at a table. He was tall, had broad shoulders, dark brown hair, and a handsome face. Nicole definitely knew my type.
I walked up to him slowly before shyly saying, "H-hi."
He smiled gently and said, "Are you Kim Kibum?" I nodded. "I'm Choi Minho. Nice to meet you." He bowed slightly.
"Nice to meet you too. You can call me Key, by the way."
He smiled and nodded as we sat down. Boy, was I nervous. This had been my first date in years and I didn't want to scare this guy away.
"So," he said. "How old are you?"
"I'm 26."
His eyebrows lifted. "Really? You look a lot younger. I'm 25. I thought I'd be older than you."
I blushed as he flattered me. "Well, it's only a year. Plus, you look very mature for your age."
He grinned. "Thanks. So what do you do for a living?"
"I'm a makeup artist."
"Oh, for like celebrities?"
"Yeah, but I do regular people too. Still pays the bills. What about you?"
"I'm a professional soccer player."
"Really? I knew you looked familiar. My s-....... I mean, someone I know loves soccer and forces me to watch it at times. I think I saw you play." Damn, I almost let the cat out the bag.
"Maybe. I'm not trying to brag, but I'm pretty damn good."
I scoffed playfully. "It sounds like bragging to me."
He grinned. "It comes naturally. So, what made you interested in dating all of a sudden?"
I sighed. "Well, I've been out of the dating scene for awhile. Really, it's pressure from my friends that made me come out here tonight. I guess I finally seen that they were right."
"What made you be gone for so long?"
"I had this crazy ex." I can't believe I was talking about this on my first date. But for some reason, I was starting to feel comfortable the more I talked to him.
"Do you feel comfortable with explaining?"
I looked at him with appreciation at the fact that he considered my feelings. "I can give you a little snippet. Well, me and this guy had been dating for about 5 years." His eyes widened. "I know! That's awhile. He basically dictated my life even after we broke up because of our........something." No matter how comfortable I got, I couldn't tell him about my kids on the first date.
"Your something?"
"Yeah. It's complicated. To make a long story short, I ended up having to get a restraining order against him. Sadly, there's something beautiful that binds us together. He legally has to see it because I'm not obligated to take away his passion." I was trying my best to jump around the subject.
"So what did this have to do about you dating?"
"When I say he was crazy, I mean CRAZY. I mean, he's never put his hands on me, but he did some things that were mentally scarring. He still claimed that I was his. He broke into my house plenty of times, trashed my place, showed up and embarrassed me at work, threatened me and my family, and sadly, there's more. He just broke me down for awhile. After the restraining order, I started focusing more on my career and my beautiful results from a horrible relationship."
He looked at me as if focusing on my every word. It's been awhile since a guy's given me all of his attention. I could tell he was genuinely interested and not just listening to get in my pants...well at least I hoped.
He smiled at me. "You've been through a lot and you're a really strong person, Key. I can see that already. I'm can't believe you had to go through so much, but you made it! Now you're here."
That really touched me. "Thanks, Minho. What about your past relationships?"
"Well, my dating life is really nonexistent."
I chuckled. "No way! You're so handsome. I'm sure you've had to have offers."
"You're right, but my mind wasn't focused on dating. I was only concerned about soccer. I didn't want any distractions, especially throughout college. When I finally made it professionally, I didn't want to let my team down and get distracted. I was just a rookie and had to prove myself."
"So, what made you finally want to start dating?"
"Well, I'm not getting any younger. I would eventually like to get married and start a family. You have no idea how many times my parents have nagged me about grandchildren. Ultimately, I just want to be happy. I feel like that eternal happiness would come with love and a family."
I nodded. "You make a lot of since." Too bad I've already started my own family.
"Let's change the subject. Where are you from?"
"I was born and raised in Daegu, but my family moved to Seoul when I was in high school. So I stay here now."
"I stay here too! Too bad I've never seen you. Seoul is too big. I was born and raised in Incheon. I came to Seoul when I got a scholarship for one of the universities."
"Incheon? I visit there from time to time."
"You see. It means we're destined to be together," he joked.
I chuckled. "Maybe. You never know with the way life's set up."
We talked the rest of the night and honestly, I had a really good time. Minho's a really good guy, well at least for today. I mean, I thought Jonghyun was a good guy once. That went horrible, but hopefully Minho could be the change in my life. Even if we don't get romantically involved, I think he'd make a good friend.
As our date ended, Minho walked me outside of the restaurant.
"Do you have a ride home?"
"My friend dropped me off, but she's not answering her texts to pick me up."
"You mean Nicole?" I nodded. "She's quite the wildcard.
"How do you two know each other anyway?"
"She used to be my neighbor's girlfriend. A lot of times when I went over there, she was there. So we just talked and kept in contact. Last week she told me about you and said we'd be perfect together. I wasn't sure, but I decided to go ahead and set up a date."
I shook my head. "That girl is something serious. Anyway, I guess you can take me home. Knowing her, she probably did this on purpose."
He laughed. "That's true. Well, let's go."
We walked to his car and got in. I told him my address and he began driving.
"So, how's your home life?" He asked as we rode through traffic.
"Um... It's decent I guess. There's not much that's exciting about me."
He scoffed. "Are you serious? You've done makeup for celebrities before. That's got to be sweet right?"
I grinned. "Yeah. It is pretty sweet."
"How did you get into makeup anyway?"
I sighed. "Well, I got into a bit of....trouble when I was younger. I'm a really good drawer and always wanted to go to school for the arts. However, I wasn't able to get the scholarship because of my situation. No one wanted to hire me because of my problem, except for this nice lady I came across. She offered me a job at her makeup shop because she saw how much I was struggling. Ever since then, I've enjoyed doing makeup. It's still a form of art in my opinion. It's just a face is my canvas."
"If you don't mind me asking, what problem happened in your past?"
I stared out the window before solemnly answering, "It's personal."
It went awkwardly silent after that. I didn't mean to change the mood of our conversation, but I've always tried to avoid the topic of my past. It's not the prettiest. Being a single parent is hard, but I'd rather go all my life lonely with my boys than relive my past.
He pulled up outside of my apartment and parked the car. He got out and before I could open my door, he came around and opened it for me.
I shyly stepped out as I said, "Thank you."
"You're welcome. I really enjoyed our date tonight."
I smiled. "I enjoyed it too." I really did. He's so nice and friendly. He's a perfect gentleman.
"How about we exchange contacts so we can meet in the future.....that's if you like to see me again."
I chuckled. "You've proven yourself so far. So of course I'd like to see you again."
We whipped out our phones and exchanged numbers. Before I put my phone in my bag, Minho said something that caught my attention.
"I couldn't help but notice those two boys on your lock screen. Who are they? They're so adorable."
"Uh.....um...those are my family members. We're super close." Well, it's not really lying.
"Oh...well they're beautiful. Just like you." He paused and caught what he said. "Ah, that sounded extremely cheesy didn't it?"
I giggled. "Yeah, just a bit. But I liked it. And thanks."
"No problem."
I looked up at the floor of my apartment room and thought about my boys. I turned to Minho and said, "Well, I better get going. It was nice meeting you Minho. I'll text you soon."
"Ok. Have a good night, Kibum."
He got in the card and I waved goodbye to him as he drove off. I headed up to my apartment and was met with two excited little boys as I opened the door.
"UMMA!" They both shouted at they ran into my arms. The babysitter smiled at me before leaving.
The biggest smiled spread across my face as I hugged the two most important little guys in my life.
"We missed you umma!" Taemin said.
"Awww, I missed you guys too!" I stood up and headed to the kitchen, the boys right on my tail. "How was you two's day?"
Jongin piped it. "It was great! We went to Nana and Papa's house!"
I gasped dramatically. "Really? And what happened?"
"It was so awesome, Mommy," Taemin joined. "Nana taught us how to bake cookies!"
"Then Papa took us to the park!"
"Then Nana gave us a bath!"
"Then Papa read us a horror story-"
"Horror?! I thought I told you two not to read those. You're too young for those kind of images."
Taemin whined, "But Papa read it to us. We didn't want to be rude, Umma."
"Well, I'll be having a word with your Papa."
Jongin giggled. "We got Papa in trouble."
"Umma, what did you do today?" Taemin asked.
I smiled as I got some juice out of the fridge. "I met someone tonight."
"Someone?" Taemin asked curiously. "Who's someone?"
"He's someone I just started to get to know."
Jongin gasped. "Umma! You talked to a stranger?!"
I chuckled. "He wasn't really a stranger......then again that was my first time meeting him."
"Umma, I thought you said no talking to strangers. That's not fair."
"Oh, you're too young to understand," I said as I bent down to kiss both of their cheeks.
"Umma? When are we going to see Appa?"
Taemin's question caught me off guard. It's been about 3 weeks since the boys have last seen their father. Of course, I'm not that much of a heartless person to kick him out of their lives for good. In the restraining order, I included that he could visit them up to two times a month. Sadly, I have to see him when he comes to pick them up. That's the only time we can visually see each other.
It breaks my heart to see my boys hurting in this process. They're the innocent ones in this whole equation. Things aren't clear and even now they're still confused on certain things. The only thing I'm really appreciative for is the fact that Jonghyun is a good father to them.
"Taemin, it's complicated. Whenever your father feels like he wants to get you two, he will text me. For now, don't worry about it. Just-"
The doorbell rang. I walked to the front door and opened it. Before I could register what was going on, the figure in front of me spoke.
"Hey, gorgeous. Long time no see."
"Jonghyun?"
And there you have it! The first chapter of many more! Please leave comments of your opinions of the first chapter and please subscribe. ^.~
Comments