Ahri’s POV:

After drowsily getting out of bed, I remembered I had to be ready by 12. It was still pretty early so I made my way into my bathroom. I walked back into my room, my washed hair now wrapped tightly in a towel. I sat on my bed, thinking of what to wear. “Jeez.. I don’t even know where we’re going. How am I supposed to pick out my clothes.” I said out loud to myself, walking towards my closet. I threw jeans all over the room, decorating my bed with denim.

“Aish..” I said fixing my towel, struggling to look through my clothes. “I guess I’ll wear this, they said it would start to get cold anyways.” I said holding up a thin beige sweater. I grabbed a pair of black leather pants and picked out a pair of random heels. With my outfit picked out, I looked at the clock “11:17am” it said. “At least I have a good amount of time.” I mumbled as I dried my hair a bit more with the towel before tying it back into a ponytail and clipping away the loose hairs. I applied my makeup, making sure not to put too much. I kept it light, winging out my eyeliner and making my lashes look nice and long. I finished it with a rosy red-ish lip stain. I undid my hair and dried the bits that haven’t already air dried. I grabbed a curling iron and made big waves in my wave, brushing them out and giving me more volume.

I took a breath into the mirror being satisfied with my appearance. I looked over to the clothes laid out on the bed and looked back at the clock. “11:43am”. I ran my fingers through my hair one more time before slipping on the sweater, along with the rest of my outfit.

I looked into the mirror and adjusted my pants. I felt confident, and I felt good about today. I was more excited than nervous to say the least. Remembering that I had finished Taehyung’s portrait, I flipped to that page in my sketchbook and looked it over before leaving my signature in the bottom right-hand corner. I tucked it into my bag, it fitting snug into my bag. I heard my phone ding from the bedside table and made my way over to it. Picking it up, Taehyung’s name lit the screen.

“I’m on the way (:”

“I wonder if we’re gonna go eat now, I’m starving and I don’t have time to eat anything.” I said to myself looking over to the kitchen. I decided to take my chances and just wait for him to pick me up rather than have to rush to eat something. It’s not worth getting a stomach ache over.

I slipped on my heels and took one last look at my reflection. I flipped my hair a few times, pulled my sweater over my shoulder, then fixed it, then did it again. I kept tweaking it until I heard my phone make another ding noise. “I’m outside, I’ll wait here.” it read.

Taking a deep breath, I made my way to the elevator, pressing the “lobby” button once inside. Finally making it to the first floor, I fixed my bag and walked to the main exit, already seeing him outside. It was cool outside, the air already feeling nicer.

There he was, leaning against his car just playing on his phone. He was wearing a dark v-neck that showed his collarbones with the jersey style sweater on top, accompanied by black vans and black denim pants. Hearing the sounds of my shoes, he looked up, our eyes meeting. His eyes traveling up and down, before finally speaking. “You look great..” He said, a smile painted on both of our faces. “Did I make you wait long?” I questioned and he leaned off his car and reached for the passenger door handle. “Not at all ma lady.” he said gesturing towards the open door.

I gently sat down, taking off my bag and putting my seatbelt on Taehyung took his own seat. After getting comfortable we were on our way. “So I take it you know where we’re going right?” I said looking over to him, noticing how the sunlight carved out his chiseled face. He just stayed silent, the car itself becoming quiet. “You want to listen to something?” He asked me, passing his phone over to me. ‘Ohh, sure.” “Grab the AUX cord and look for a song called ‘No More Dream’.” he said pointing over to the phone multiple times. I scrolled down the long list of songs before finally getting to it and pressing the play button and raising the car’s volume.

I song started up, heavy bass filling the empty car. Taehyung began drumming on the steering wheel. Halfway into the song, he lowered the volume. “Do you like it?” he asked, looking over to me. “I actually really like it. I like how it’s not the basic love song, but actually talks about the pressure that life brings sometime. It’s a good message to people.” I said nodding along to the lowered music. “That’s nice to hear.” he said, his lips curling into a smile. “Hm?” I turned my head towards him. “What do you mean?” I asked perplexed.

“That’s our debut song. No one besides us and the producers have heard it. I thought I’d let you have a listen to it, but don’t tell anyone, I’ll get yelled at.” He chuckled while stopping at a red light. He laid back into his seat. “By the way, are you hungry, or did you already eat?” he asked putting his full attention on you. “I haven’t eaten but I’m not super hungry either.” “Hmm, alright. So lunch is it!” he said as the light turned green.

“I found this place that I thought you might like.” he said turning into the left lane. After driving for another 10 minutes, he parked in a large parking lot. “We’re here.” he said smiling as he unbuckled his seatbelt. I grabbed my bag but before I could even unbuckle myself, Taehyung had already opened my door for me. I fixed my sweater as we started walking down a long road.

“So what’s over here? I’ve never been on this side of Seoul.” I asked confused. “You’ll see, you’ll like it.” he said tucking his hands into his pockets. “Ahh! Right here.” he grabbed a door handle and swung it open, waiting for me to enter before him. “Annyeong!” We were greeted by a young woman as we took our seats. She passed out menus and left us to decide. “Ohh, they have American breakfast here. I said surprised. “I haven’t had pancakes in forever!”I stressed. “Order whatever you’d like, it’s my treat.” he said looking up at me. I looked over at the rest of the menu, gazing at their other items but decided on the pancakes.

The waitress came back and took out order. “I’ll have the french toast.” Taehyung said as he passed his folded menu towards her. She jotted down my pancake order as she tucked the menus underneath her arm.

Looking around the room, there were different license plates from a variety of places in America. Some from Maine, some from California, some from Florida too. “So how’s your day so far?” Taehyung asked from across the table, folding his arms over the wooden surface. “It’s going pretty well. The weather outside is really beautiful and I’m about to have pancakes, it can;t get any better as of right now.” I said looking down to my hands, “plus, I’m out with you. It’s nice.” I said as I looked over to the waitress, now bringing over our plates, placing them respectfully in front of us. After thanking her, we both reached for the maple syrup. His hand stopped. “You can get it first.” he said gesturing with his hand. “No, no it all right. You can get it.” I said placing it next to his plate. “I want you to get it first, your food is gonna get cold!” “Then hurry and use it so I can get it!”

We just sat there and stared at each other until he just grabbed the syrup and quickly poured it over his french toast before passing it over to me. “I guess I was wrong.” I said drizzling the maple goodness over my pancakes. “What do you mean?” he said, his face stuffed with food. “I said that it couldn’t get any better, but I was wrong.” I smiled over to him before taking a bite of my food.

After paying, we left, heading out to the long street yet again. I turned towards the direction of the parking lot before noticing Taehyung wasn’t next to me. “Where you going?!” he yelled over to me, still in front of the cafe. “We’re heading over there unless you have other plans!” He said pointing in the opposite direction. “Ohh.. I thought.. Ahh nevermind.” I said scratching the back of my head nervously. I walked back over to him, at his side yet again.

“So you do have today planned out then?” I said, bringing my hand up to my chin. “I guess you could say that.” he said, the large building now coming into full view. “Here? Is it a mall?” I asked, kind of confused as to why he’d take me to a mall. “Ahh, so simple right? But it’s what’s inside.” He said grabbing my hand before rushing through the large crowds of people and going inside, then stepping onto an escalator. “I haven’t come here in forever! The guys and I used to come here all the time.” “To the mall?” “No, no. Here.”

As we reached the top of the escalators, laser lights flashed throughout a long hallway, coming from a couple of dark doors tinted to make the inside barely visible at all. Neither of us noticed, but he was still holding my hand at this point, fully away from the harsh crowds. It wasn’t until I adjusted by bag around my shoulder that he was still holding onto me.

We walked towards the doors, already hearing the faint sound of music from inside. He grabbed  the handle, letting go of my hand in the process. “Ahh sorry, I just didn’t wanna get lost in the crowd.” he said scratching the back of his neck as I walked inside. There were no lights at all, the room was lit through dozens of arcade style machines, air hockey tables, go-kart games etc. A smile painted itself onto my face as I looked at my surroundings. We walked over to the counter to get a game card. A bright light above Taehyung turning the white accents of his sweater bright purple. I looked up, only to see Taehyung smile at me. The attendant over the counter looking over to him, “Tae!” he yelled out, “It’s been forever! You don’t come by anymore.” “Pfft, I came here last month with the boys, we’ve just been busy.” he said patting the guy on his shoulder. “And you brought a lady this time!” the guy said, looking over to me. “Haha, yeah.” he chucked.

“Well, don’t worry about it, today’s on me.” he said patting Taehyung’s back and handing him a black game card. “Have fun okay guys! And Tae, im watching you.” he said waving his hands around. “That was one time.” “It was three and you know that!” the man yelled over as we made our way over to some machines. “So we have unlimited game time, so what do you wanna play first.” he asked fiddling with the card in his hands. I pointed over to the air hockey table, seeing as how no one was using it. “Perfect.” he said swiping the card over the slot, air escaping through the holes on the table, leaving the puck to gently glide over it. He grabbed the two  handles and passing one towards me.

“Don’t go easy on me.” I said tying my hair up in a pony tail. “Don’t worry, I won’t.” He said before quickly hitting it the puck towards my goal. I blocked it and immediately sent it back at him. “So that’s how it’s gonna be? All right, come on.” Our smiles disappeared as the game got more and more serious, the small plastic disk flying all over the table, entering goals here and there.

We were tied 7:7, both of our hands already starting to ache from the action. “Hey what that!” he yelled out pointing behind my shoulder. “Huh? My gullible self turned around before hearing a small horn and lights flashing. “HEY, NOT COOL.” I yelled, crossing my arms. “What?” he said, avoiding my eyes. While he looked away, I grabbed the puck and threw it into his goal with my hand. “Now we’re even.” I walked back to my side of the table, looking up at the scoreboard. “8:8” It read.

“First one to eleven points wins.” he said taking the puck and placing it back onto the table. His long arms trampling over mine and shooting it towards my goal, I blocked and smacked it towards his handle. He hit it back with so much force, it flew off the table. “THAT’S A FOURTH TIME KIM TAEHYUNG!” the guy screamed over to us. “YAH I’M BUSY.” Taehyung shouted, flailing his arms around. The game got even more intense with every point that was scored until we were both at 10:10. “Tied again..” I said rubbing my arm. “Getting tired?” he said with a smug look on his face. “Not at all, just warming up for my victory dance.” I said getting back into position. I placed the puck on the table once again. I hit it, Taehyung avoided it and let it hit all around table, waiting for it to slow down before trying to hit it. Waiting for the right time, Taehyung shot it towards me, just barely missing the goal. I lunged forward, trying my best to get close enough to it. Taehyung copying my motions. I flung my handle towards the puck, my hand disconnecting from it, leaving it to push against the puck and shooting it into Taehyung’s goal.

Lights flashed from the machine as Taehyung fell to his knees over exaggeratedly. “Noo, I’m defeated!” He shouted from the floor. “Oh get up, I won’t tell anyone I beat you.” He immediately got up and got in my face. “You promise?” he asked, extending his pinky out to me. “I promise” I said intertwining his pinky with mine. “Ah, okay I feel better. “I’m gonna to the restroom, I’ll be right out.” I said making my over to the door with the ‘female’ sign on it. After fixing my makeup and hair, I was back out in the arcade, except, I didn’t see Taehyung out there. “Um, excuse me. Did you see where Taehyung went?” I asked the guy behind the counter who we spoke to earlier. “No I didn’t see him leave.” he said shrugging his shoulders.

I walked around the arcade twice, three times and still didn’t see him. I started to get worried. “Why would he leave me here if he knows that I have no idea where we are?” I questioned myself, panicking more than anything. I decided to walk outside and see if he was hiding somewhere in the mall on purpose. ‘Tae..? I quietly spoke out loud, anxiety coming over me. I took out my phone and searched for his contact name and just as I pressed on it, a hand covered my eyes, completely obstructing my view.

“Tae?” I questioned softly. My mind returned to ease as I heard him chuckle from behind me. I turned around and gently smacked his chest. “Where were you?! I was freaking ou- What’s that?” I asked, pointing to something he was hiding behind his back.

He brought his arm forward, revealing a large brown teddy bear. half the size of me. “Tada!” he said, gesturing the stuffed animal to me. I grabbed it, feeling its soft fur.

“Where’d you get this? I asked, perplexed as to where it came from. “I won it from a machine up there, I wanted to surprise you. Sorry about leaving you like that.” he said laughing to himself as I wrapped my arms around its fuzzy stomach. “Well, thank you .” I said softly, smiling towards the floor.

We walked around the mall, popping in and out of stores, trying on random outfits at clothing shops, playing around the drums at a music store, even playing with back massagers at a tech place. Pretty soon, it got late, so Taehyung suggested we’d leave. As we walked back to his car, the bear was still tangled in my arms. “I take it you’re hungry too right? I’m starving.” Yeah, dinner sounds pretty good right now.” I said, buckling my seatbelt. As we drove off, a thought popped into my head, more than just a few times already. I couldn’t help myself from asking, and my mouth just blurted out the question.

“Is this a.. date?” I asked, immediately regretting it. He stayed quiet for a minute, I took my eyes off him, and decided to look the other way out the window. We came to a red light and I could see from the corner of my eye that he was looking at me. “Hmm, well not really. We’re just hanging out as friends.” he said, a bit nervous himself. “Oh, yeah true.” I chuckled awkwardly. “But, if you want it to be a date, then it can be.” He added, stopping my thought process. “Uhh, I don’t know, it’s already pretty late.” I managed to say before my mind totally went blank. “How about this, we’ll just hangout for the rest of today, and next time will be a date. That ok?” he asked, my mind leaving somewhere far away. “That sounds nice.” I replied, still hugging the ball of fluff seated on my lap.

The rest of the drive was silent, the car radio just barely audible. He parked the car and proceeded with opening my door again. A few steps later, we were inside a beautifully lit restaurant, equip with dark red carpeting and small light fixtures above each table. We were then directed to our seats, right next to the window, and handed our menus. “I’m gonna get pasta this time, it’s been awhile since I’ve had some now that I think about it.” I said looking down at the pasta dishes. “I’ll get steak.” Taehyung said putting his menu down. The waiter returned and took our orders before taking the menus back as well.

“So has today been good?” I asked him. “Huh?” he asked, appearing to just be in a daze. “Well, you asked me earlier, but I haven’t asked you yet.” I explained. He looked up at the lights, taking in the beauty of the establishment. “Probably one of the best days I’ve had in a while.” He said. “How come?” I questioned. “Well, because we’re preparing for our debut, we’ve been so busying practicing and cleaning up or choreography and recording songs and everything, we haven’t had time for ourselves in quite some time.” he explained, one elbow on the table. “So it’s good to just go and hangout sometimes.” he added.

The smell of steak filling the air as our food made its way over to us. “Do you guys eat out a lot? Ever since I got here, I’m alway treated to meals.” “There’s so many places to eat, and, depending on the place, it’s usually a lot cheaper than making anything at home. Plus, there’s so much variety, we like to try new things pretty often.” he said as he cut his steak. “How’s your pasta?” “It’s really good, I used to have this back home too, my mom would make this every once in a while.” “Ahh, I see.” he said looking over to my plate.

“You mind if I try some?” “Yeah sure.” I said grabbing the unused fork but before I could take it out of its wrapping, Taehyung had already grabbed mine out of my hands and twirled it around in the noodles. “Yah, this is really good.” he said, his cheeks full of sauce.

“You want some of mine?” he asked stabbing a piece of steak onto his fork and holding it out in front of my face. I nodded my head before taking the bite. “Its really tender! Really good, remind me to order that next time.” I said taking a sip of water. After we finished eating, we decided to stay at the restaurant and talk for a bit. “Oh I almost forgot!” I grabbed my sketchbook and flipped to the page his portrait was on. “I finished it the other day so I wanted to give it to you since I was seeing you today.” I said handing it over to him.

“Wow.. It came out amazing! How long did you spend on this!? It must’ve taken you forever.” He expressed while looking closer at the smaller details and the strands of hair. “You even got the little mole on my nose right!” he chanted. “I love it, I’m gonna frame it and put it in my room at the dorm.” “I’m glad you like it. Plus, you’ve been treating me to meals and such, I thought I could at least get that to you.” I said putting my arms on the table. Resting my head on my hand, I looked outside. “Seoul is so pretty, especially at night.” “Then let’s go. I think you’ll have a better view from outside don’t you think?” he said pushing his chair in. I grabbed my things and we headed towards the car.

At this point, he was driving back to my hotel. “Wow.. it is getting colder.” I rubbed my arm, trying to get rid of the goosebumps. “You’re cold?” he asked, stopping in traffic. “A little bit.” “Here.” he said, taking off his sweater and handing it over to me. “You sure?” “Yeah don’t worry, it’ll take around half an hour to get to your hotel, so I don’t want you to be cold the whole way.”

I smiled at him before running my arms through the warm sleeves. It smelled like him. I felt really comfortable around him, more than I thought I’d be. I rested my head on the frame of the car. Feeling tired, I closed my eyes. I drifted off, slowly.

The car stopped and I felt a hand brush my shoulder. “Ahri..? Did you fall asleep?” “Hmm..?” I mumbled. “Ahh.. I’ll take that as a yes.” he said unbuckling my seatbelt for me. “We’re at your hotel. Come on sleepy head.” he said grabbing my nose. I opened my eyes to see him only a few inches away from my face. “Where are we?” I asked, my eyes still adjusting to the light. “Your hotel.” he said, leaving a blank expression on his face. ‘Oh, sorry. I got really comfortable there.” I said slowly getting out of the car grabbing the stuffed bear.

After entering, we made it into the elevator. “What floor?’ “Fourth.” He pressed the button and the number on it lit up. I rested my head on the cold metal wall, my eyes already starting to feel heavy again, my arms loosening their grip on the plushie. We heard the elevator ding and walked down the hallway. We were in front of my door when I realized that I was still wearing his sweater. I removed my arms from it and handed it to him. “Ehh, keep it for a while.” he said crossing his arms. “It’s cold outside, I don’t want you getting sick.” I said uncrossing his arms and running the sleeves through them, fixing the collar. “I had a lot of fun today, I’m glad we hung out.” “I’m glad you had a good time. Sorry about scaring you earlier too.” we both chuckled. It grew quiet and noticed something in his hair. “You have something there, bend down a little bit.” I gestured my hand. Being around the same height now with a slouched Taehyung, I pecked his cheeks. He immediately stood up, flecks of red pigmenting his cheeks. “Thanks again for tonight and get home safe. Tell the guys I said Hi.” I said opening my door, and closing it with the imagine of Taehyung with his hand on his cheek still in my head. Pabo.