"Do you want me to walk you home?" Kai asked as class ended.

"No, thank you," I shot out, suddenly panicking. 

I was supposed to be making friends. That was what my parents had told me to do. Not be getting a boyfriend. Even by accident. I was sure my parents wouldn't approve of my skipping the friendship part to wind up in a relationship that was supposed to be more complicated, and I understood why. I wasn't exactly the best friend to Ga In in that I often forgot to call or text or hang out with her. In my defense, she forgot a lot, too. Although my parents always argued against me that she had an actual excuse, being so busy outside of school with friends, while I just read. To be honest, I saw their point.

So the idea of Kai getting anywhere near my house was something I was definitely not keen on. The likelihood of running into anyone in my family was slim to none, considering we were a pretty routine life-style family, but there was always that off chance. Especially Jin Ri, she was the wild card. Her classes usually got out before mine, the only reason she comes home later is because she stays at school to study and do homework.

"Are you sure?" he asked, pulling his bag onto his shoulders, looking down at me with unsurprised and amused eyes and an amused quirk on his lips.

"Yeah," I breathed, calming myself, swinging my own bag on my shoulders, glad that he didn't appear offended by my instant rejection. "Don't you usually hang out with your friends anyway?"

"I do, but I don't have to always," he said, one hand on his backpack strap and the other shoved into his pocket, still giving me the same look, as we walked out of class.

I glanced up at him, not sure if I should keep refusing or cave. I really didn't want him to, still dwelling in this insane feeling that if he got too close to my house my parents would just know that I had a boyfriend without even meeting him. At the same time, though, I didn't want to be rude. Was it rude in general to refuse without giving a reason (I was not about to tell him the real reason), probably, and it was probably even worse for a someone to do that to their boyfriend. Still.

"But maybe some other day," he said, giving me a reassuring smile.

"Kai," someone called out to him as we walked down the hallway. We turned to see Chanyeol and Baekhyun rushing to catch up to us. "You still coming to karaoke tonight?" Baekhyun asked.

Kai replied the he would, and that was when Chanyeol noticed I was there.

"Are you coming too?" he asked

"Karaoke?" I asked, surprised. I had never been.

"Did, Kai not tell you?" he asked, giving Kai a disapproving look. "Bad boyfriend."

"Well, all of us are going," he said, looking from Chanyeol to me, looking slightly apologetic. "I didn't figure you'd want to go, since there's a lot of us and we'd all be in a small room and some of the guys can get pretty crazy."

"Excuses!" Baekhyun said, looking at Kai with mock contempt.

Kai gave a nervous laugh, looking between the two guys and me, and I figured I should cut in and save him.

"It's okay, I can't go anyway," I said, wanting to help Kai but embarrassed to admit just how right he was. The prospect of spending an extended period of time with a large group of people I don't know in an enclosed space seemed daunting to me. "I have homework to do."

"But it's Friday..." Baekhyun trailed off, and now all three of them were looking at me aghast.

"And I have a lot to do this weekend so I need to get it done early," I explained, not really bothered by it.

I periodically did my homework on Friday nights to get it done with early because my family liked to spend Sunday nights together, so putting it off until the last minute wasn't really an option for me. The fact that I did this, though, was shocking to pretty much everyone I met. 

"Well, I got to go," I said, backing away from the group, ready for this day to be over even if it wasn't all bad.

"Wait," Kai said, walking up to me and pulling out his phone. "Can I get your number so we can talk about tomorrow?" he asked in hushed tone. I wondered why at first, then I noticed Chanyeol and Baekhyun behind him trying to lean in and hear what were talking about and I understood.

I gave him my number and said goodbye again, and this time I walked away without having to be called back. I rushed out of the school, ready to be alone again and not have to worry about socializing for the walk home; since I wasn't used to doing it, it took a lot out of me. Getting home and seeing my family wouldn't be bad, I was used to them and didn't have to think too much about it, and I was comfortable with them. Most of the people I talked to today, though, I had only met today, with the exception of Kai, whom I had only met a few days before.

~~~

"So how's it going with that classmate?" my mom asked at dinner that night. "The one you met with yesterday?"

My heart beat wildly for a second, as I had an insane idea that she had somehow figured out who I had met with and what resulted from it, but I was able to bring myself back to reality that my parents were just curious about me making friends.

"It's going good. I'm hanging out with them tomorrow," I answered, taking a big bite of food.

"Them?" she asked, perking up. "So there's a whole group?"

"No, just one," I corrected, wanting to be as honest as I could without giving away the whole truth. "But maybe later I'll hang out with a group. They have a lot of friends," I continued, thinking about the invitation to karaoke earlier today.

"Really?" she asked, hands clasped together with a big smile on her face as she looked at me so happily. It made me feel bad that I had made my mom worry about my social life so much that she got this excited over the prospect of me making friends.

I wondered how she actually would react to me getting a boyfriend. Would she get upset like I had originally assumed, or would she just be happy that I was socializing?

"I'm proud of you for trying," my dad said, "But you don't have to force yourself to spend time with a bunch of kids at once. I know how you are about big groups of people."

I was actually a little surprised at this. It's absolutely true that crowds are something that I hate, but I didn't know my parents had realized this. I don't usually have to deal with them, though, so I never thought it was important enough to mention it to them.

"No, it's a good thing," my mom said, still smiling. "You should keep trying things outside of your comfort zone. It's good for you!"

I smiled and nodded as dinner continued on, feeling like being Kai's girlfriend wouldn't give me much of an option on any of those things. When dinner was over, I told Jin Ri that I needed to talk to her, which of course got her all excited since it was something I obviously didn't want to talk about in front of our parents. She wasn't rebellious, but she liked it when people confided in her, and I didn't ever have much I would want to confide in anyone, so this was a rare treat for her.

"So what is it?" she asked, plopping on my bed as I shut the door.

"I have a favor to ask, and I'd like it if you didn't tell mom and dad about it," I said, feeling suddenly nervous.

"What is it?" she asked, concerned. I was never one to keep things from our parents.

"I may possibly have a date tomorrow," I said, the words sounding weird coming out of my mouth together. It was still hard to believe that it was happening, but saying it out loud made it feel more real. I looked up at her face to check her reaction, and wasn't surprised by it.

"What?" she whispered excitedly, a big smile on her face.

"Let's not make this any bigger than it is," I said, suddenly feeling awkward. "I just need your help picking out something to wear. I have no idea how I'm supposed to dress for something like this."

"Is he the person you were with yesterday? Did Ga In set you up with someone?" she blurted out.

"Yes, he was who I was with yesterday, and no, she didn't. He really is from my class," I said, slightly offended that she thought I needed Jin Ri to get a guy for me, even if I had believed the same thing this morning.

"Well tell me more! What's he like? What's he look like?" she asked, more excited than I thought she would be.

"I don't really know what he's like all too well, I only started talking to him this week." No need to specify that it was yesterday or that he's already my boyfriend. "But he is good looking."

"This is so exciting!" Jin Ri squealed.

I didn't say anything, but I did smile.