A few days later, Angela and Josy just got out of one of their classes and started heading back towards their dorm.

“Hey, I’m hungry. Let’s go eat before we go back to the dorm,” Josy suggested, guiding Angela in the direction of the student union where there were a ton of places to eat.

Angela agreed, adjusting her backpack. Her cell phone text tone went off, and as she looked at her message her eyes grew wide. She stopped in her tracks and reread the message again.

“Hey, what’s up?” Josy asked.

Angela turned her phone around so Josy could see it. There was a single message from Xiumin saying, Hey, can we meet somewhere? I need to talk to you.

“What should I do?” Angela asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she read the message again.

“Just ing go,” Josy suggested.

“But why should I?”

“Because you have nothing to lose, and maybe you’ll get some answers. Maybe he’ll explain why he kissed you. It’s better to know than to be left in the dark.”

Angela sighed, knowing” that Josy was right. As much as she didn’t want to be alone with Xiumin, she had to admit that she wanted to know what was going on. She quickly sent a text back to Xiumin agreeing to meet up with him. When he finally texted her back a location, she turned to say goodbye to Josy before heading off.

“Let me know how it goes,” Josy said encouragingly. “I’ll be in our dorm.”

Angela walked to a small coffee shop that wasn’t too far from campus. She walked in the door and saw a guy sitting in the corner with a hat pulled down low and sunglasses obscuring the upper half of his face. The bottom half was covered by a face mask. As soon as he saw Angela he waved her over.

Angela walked slowly to Xiumin. Her heart was beating too quickly, and she couldn’t help but still feel sad when she looked at him. “Hi,” she greeted before sitting down across from him. She kept her arms pulled close to her body and her seat far from Xiumin.

“Hi,” he replied.

“So . . . what did you want to talk about?” Angela nervously drummed her fingers on the table as she waited for his reply. Xiumin was never one to beat around the bush. He was direct and straight to the point.

“Remember the day when I told you I didn’t like you?” Xiumin asked. “I lied. I thought I was never going to see you again, and I lied because I didn’t want to hurt Tao’s feelings.”

“But it’s okay to hurt my feelings?” Angela automatically replied without thinking. She quickly grew quiet again though and mumbled, “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because . . . because I want to try dating you.” Xiumin reached his hand across the table and lightly touched Angela’s hand. She flinched and quickly drew away. Her eyes darted to his behind his sunglasses before she sat back in her seat, thinking.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I don’t know about this.” She sighed, thinking about a few days earlier with Tao. “I can’t anyways. I already told Tao that I would try dating him.”

“I know. I talked to him about it, and he said that he was okay with this.”

“What?” Angela’s snapped her eyes up to Xiumin’s. “Why would he agree to that?”

“Because we both like you and we thought that you should have the opportunity to choose. I’m sorry that I hurt you. I didn’t mean for it to happen like that, and I really do like you.” Xiumin’s voice pleaded with Angela, but she just didn’t know how she should feel. Of course she was glad to hear that Xiumin liked her, but she wasn’t happy with how he lied to her and made her feel so sad.

“I don’t know what I should say right now,” Angela admitted honestly.

“Just say ‘yes’. Just say that you’ll at least try it.”

“And why should I?” Of course Angela wanted to give Xiumin a chance, but she felt as if this could quickly become a bad situation. She also knew that somehow Tao would get his feelings hurt. But the main thing stopping her was how Xiumin treated her after their kiss. Despite his claims of liking her, after the day of their kiss he didn’t even talk to her until the night when he said he didn’t like her.

Xiumin sighed and took off his sunglasses to look Angela in the eyes. “Because I’m here. I’m risking being caught in public to tell you that I like you. This proves that I’m serious about this.”

“It really didn’t seem that way after our kiss,” Angela remarked. “You didn’t even try to talk to me or anything after that day, and the next time we talked you told me you didn’t like me.”

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