I couldn't bring myself to ask any of my friends for Lelani's number. I didn't want them asking questions especially when I wouldn't have any answers. Luckily I remebered where she would be working today. I had been sitting in this food court for hours and had yet to see her. I was about to leave when I saw her finally come from the back of the store pushing a mop bucket. I wanted to catch her attention before she disappeared.

"Lelani!" I guess I yelled louder than I had intended becaue she jumped and knocked over the bucket as the tried to figure out who called her name. I made my way towards the counter and she noticed me. "Are you okay?"

She quickly stood from the ground. "Yeah I'm fine. A little funky smelling but I'll survive." She tried to wring out her pants of mop water. "What are you doing here?"

"We were supposed ot hang out but if you forgot that's okay..."

"I didn't forget. I waited for you to call me but you never did so I figured you changed your mind."

"I didn't forget I just didn't have your number."

"I've known you since freshman year how is that possible?" She reached for my hand and pulled a sharpie from her shirt pocket. "Mind?" I nodded my head no as she proceeded to scribble on my wrist "Well there you go."

"Cory! I'm paying you to work not get tutored lets go!" Both Lelani and I looked over her shoulder to see some co-worker eyeing us.

"Troy please. You don't pay me at all." She turned back towards me and said. " He's right I gotta get back to work but I'm off in 15 minutes if you feel like waiting."

"Okay." She turned and started to head to the back but not without shoving her co-worker out of her way playfully. As I waited for Lelani to come back I added her number to my phone as I felt a pair of eyes staring a hole into the side of my face. I started to feel awkward so I decided I would test out Lelani's number.

Me: Is this Lelani?

Lelani: No!! This is patrick!!

Me: Sorry, wrong number

Lelani: Ki-Hyun?

Me: Yeah?

Lelani: That was a joke

Lelani: I take it you missed that episode of spongebob then

Me: :) I get it

I waited for her to respnded but I kept getting the speech bubble thing. I was going to send another message when I felt a tap on my shoulder and was greeted by Lelani out of her uniform.

"So did you have any specific place in mind to hangout?" She spoke as she pulled on her leather jacket.

"I was thinking we could go see a movie and get something to eat, if that's okay with you." 

"That sounds cool. What movie are we seeing?"

"I'm not telling. All I can say is that I hope you like action movies."

"I do."

"Good." Ki-Hyun felt around in his pockets for something. "Wait here and I'll be back."

"OK"

As Lelani waited for Ki-Hyun to return she was greeted by the presence of her co-worker, Troy. 

"Cory." He said as he walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey Troy"

"You got any plans tonight?"

"Yeah I'm hanging out with a friend."

"Well there's a party in Booker tonight and you should bring yourself and your friend."

"I'll see but don't count on it."

"Karia's DJ-ing and she asked me to invite you to come and to also tell you to wear something other than all black."

Lelani eyed her outfit. What's wrong with all black? Black goes with everything. "Like I said before. I'm busy so I can't guarantee that'll come or that I won't come..."

"Can you promise me you'll try?" Troy began to flash his notorious smile. The notorious smile that had been known to make girls crumble before him. It had gotten him extra money for tuition, discounts on purchases, and all the girls he could imagine. Needless to say it had been a blessing for Troy but a curse to the girls he had used and discarded so easily in the past. Which is why Troy didn't expect Lelani's to respond the way she did.

"Bye Troy." She stated as she returned her attention back to her phone. 

Wanna play hard to get huh? Troy thought to himself. "See ya around..." He shouted as he slowly walked away.

Lelani continued to go through her instagram unitl she heard someone shout her name. She was surprised to be greeted by the image of Ki-Hyun behind the wheel of a black Cadillac Escalade.

"What are you doing in there?"

"I went to get my car. Hurry and get in before we're late." Lelani made her way to the passenger door and slowly got inside gawking at the interior.

"I thought you forgot something in your dorm room." Ki-Hyun chuckled at he watched Lelani push every button on the dahsboard. 

"If I didn't know any better I'd guess you never been in a car before." 

"I have it's just that it smells brand new and I've always like Cadillac's" Lelani ran her fingers acorss the dashboard again.

"Well you'll see it later so put your seatbelt on in the mean time."

Lelani put her seatbelt on quickly because she absolutely hated being late ot movies, especially missing the previews. As they rode to the theatre they talked about school, classes they liked and disliked, speculated on which professors were the most difficult to learn from. Once they arrived at the theatre they skipped the popcorn and snacks to save room for the food they'd eat after. After the movie Lelani suggested a chinese restaurant to which Ki-Hyun agreed.

"Ki-Hyun what does that say?" Lelani gestured towards the wrting on the walls.

Ki-Hyun cleared his throat "I don't know."

"Your parents didn't teach you chinese?"

Ki-Hyun was becoming irritated. "Why would they?"

"I don't I just assumed that your parents would teach you your native tongue." Lelani shrugged her shoulders. 

"Do you know yours?" Ki-Hyun asked as he stared at his food on is plate.

"What?"

"Do you know your native tongue?"

"No"

"Why not." Ki- Hyun leaned back and tighltly gripped his fork.

"Because..."

"Because what?"

"I don't know where I'm from."

"Aren't you black? So why can't you speak african?" Lelani wasn't sure where all this attitude and hostility was suddenly coming from but she was okay with it, and decided that Ki-Hyun needed to be checked like so many other people.

"Firstly! There is no such thing as speaking african. Does all of Europe speak European? Does all of South America speak South American? No! A continient does not speak only one language. Let me guess you're one of those people who probably thinks Africa is a country right? well it's not. Second, I don't know what country I'm from because my family didn't come here, we were stolen and brought here. We don't even know our original family names. My last name is the last name of the slave owner who owned my forefathers years ago. If I knew where I was from do you think I would only speak english. I envy my brothers and sisters who willingly came here and carry on their rightful family names and native tongue. So if you want to know why I can't speak African it's because the langues of Africa consist of over 50 languages." 

Lelani stared at Ki-Hyun as Ki-Hyun stared back at her. Eventually Lelani won the starring contest and Ki-Hyun went back to eating. Lelani had lost her appetite and began to put her jacket on.

"I'm sorry." Ki-Hyun quietly stated. "I didn't mean it that way. I was just angry because you assumed I was chinese and I'm not. I'm 100 percent Korean. On top of that you brought me to a chinese restaurant because I'm asian."

"Ki-Hyun I didn't bring you here because you're asian. I have a coupon for free fried-rice and they have killer orange chicken. Also, I didn't assume you were Chinese, you told us that you were Chinese."

"Us who?"

"Remember when you had just transferred here and Jordan asked you where you were from?"

"Yeah"

"You said, quote-'Chinatown'"

"Yeah I lived in Chinatown when I first moved here. The area I lived had like 80% chinese people and businesses within that district."

"We thought that was your way of saying China."

Ki-Hyun began to smile which eventualy turned into a chuckle and then a full on laugh. Lelani looked around nervously, as patrons starred confused and distrubed by Ki-Hyun's loud laughing. 

"Ki-Hyun stop people are starring." Lelani's statement only made him laugh even more. Eventually he calmed down enough to speak but by then his face was red and wet, due to the fact that apparently he had shed some tears while laughing as well. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah...Yeah I'm fine. That's just really funny." Ki-Hyun still struggled to catch his breath. "Are you done? Or did you want dessert?"

"No I'm fine." Lelani suddenly remebered the party Troy mentioned earlier. "Hey do you have plans after this?"

"No."

"My friend invtied me to a party she's DJ-in and said I could bring a friend. Would you like to come with me?"

"Sure. Where is it?"

"In Booker Hall."

"Okay then. Let's go"

*a/n Play video to get the vibe of the party.

When we arrived at the party there were a lot more people than I had expected. I wanted to hold Lelani's hand so I didn't loose her -or more importantly for her to lose me, also I just really wanted to hold her hand but I'm not sure if she'd be into that. I didn't see anyone I knew except for a few faces that looked barely similar. The music was great and had people really hyped.

"Do you feel like dancing?" She grabbed us both sodas as she rocked to the beat of some song that I couldn't name.

"I'm not a good dancer."

"That's okay we can just chill then."

"I can tell you really want to dance so you can go ahead if you like. I don't want to ruin your mood."

She placed her hand on my shoulder. "Ki-Hyun are you trying to get rid of me?"

"Me? Get rid of you? Of course not!"

"But seriously I don't want to leave you alone. I mean we are supposed to be hanging out together."

"I know but I'll sit this out."

"You don't need to be a good dancer." Lelani put her arm over my shouler and directed my attention towards someone on the dance floor. "See that girl doing the robot?" I nodded. "She has no rhythm and is really off beat, but look at her face. She's having fun and that's all parties are about. This isn't So You Think You Can Dance." She directed my attention back towards her. "Will you please dance with me?" I really wanted to say yes but I couldn't willingly emabarass myself in a room full of people I didn't know. 

"I'm sorry but..."

"It's okay but if you change your mind come join me." I nodded in agreement as she made her way to the dance floor. She began to dance to a Nicki Minaj song at first alone, then a friend came to dance with her, then when that friend left, a guy decided to dance with her. He looked familiar but I couldn't place where from. At first they were dancing casually but then he started dancing closer, and I guess Lelani didn't like that because she kept trying to leave room for Jesus. However each time he continued to make advances and eventually she got frustrated and made her way back towards me.

"The dance floor became not-so fun. Would you like to meet a friend of mine?"

"Sure" To my surprise she held my wrist and led me towards the DJ. "Hey Cory what's going on? Finally decided to come to one of my parites huh?" Cory? That's the second time I've heard that. Said the DJ.  She wore Headphone and sunglasses. "Who's he?" She eyed me up and down.

"This is Ki-Hyun, Ki-Hyun this is Karia my friend and also the DJ for this party."

"Hi." I said.

"..." She didn't really say anything but she sort of grunted and gave me this head nod so I guess that counted for something. She then turned her attention back at Lelani. "So Cory, are you going to be at my next party?"

"I don't know. Troy just happened to mention this one as I got off work."

"No seriously I need you to come and bring your black panther party too. I want to do an event meshing Black History and music and I need you and your squad to come through. Show the influence Black people have brought to the music scene."

"Give me more details and I'll see, what I can do."

"Cool." She nodded again. "I gotta start up my next set so I'll check you later. Nice meeting you cajun."

"Karia!" Lelani shouted but Karia, simply put her headphones back on and continued to work the turntable. "On behalf of Karia I apologize."

"Don't worry about it."

"Well would you like to dance. This song is really good and  it's not too fast so you can keep up." She elbowed me in the side jokingly. Since I didn't answer immediately she took that as a sign of surrender and began to pull me onto the floor. I wasn't really sure what to do so I just stood there.  "Oh boo." She placed her hands on my shoulders and instructed me to follow her lead.  She began sway back and forth  as Ed Sheeran began to to fill the air. I looked around and noticed that everyone including us were slow dancing. She got close enough so that I could smell her scent. I was so busy taking in her scent that I almost missed the pair of eyes starring directly at me. I figured out where I'd seen him before. He was Lelani's co-worker. His eyes began to focus on Lelani which I didn't appreciate and I subtly pulled her closer. I decided to think about something else. 

"Lelani?"

"Yes."

"Why do people call you Cory?"

"You know how I'm vice president of Black Student United?"

"Yeah"

"Well the President's name is Martin Jordan."

"Okay."

"Whenever there is a campus meeting for all the student organizations the president and vice president have to be present. So since the president name is martin like Martin Luther King, people call me Cory, which is short for Coretta."

"That's interesting." That made sense, but did  that mean they had dated. "So are you and Martin dating?"

"If I was would I be slow-dancing with you, so closely. Nope."

"Have you two every dated?"

"Nope."

"Would you ever..."

"Nope. Martin always finds something to be angry about, and that's not a good attitude to have all the time. There's a way to be passionate without being angry." The song began to end and couples began to disperse from the floor. "Well I have a meeting tommorrow so I have to go." She pulled away from my embrace. "It was nice hanging out with you  Ki-Hyun."

I followed her to the door. "Wait, Lelani..." She turned back towards me. "I don't want to hangout anymore." She looked saddened. "I want to go to...go on...go with...I want to date you." I was becoming noticeably nervous and I hated it. I hated showing my emotions in general.

"Sure Ki-Hyun, I'll be your girlfriend."

"Really?" She didn't answer directly but she made her way towards me and gave me a kiss on the cheek that felt so sensual for a reason I couldn't describe. "Today was really fun so I can only imagine what it would be like to date you." She waved goodbye and left. I started to follow after her but then I felt someone behind me and was greeted by the presence of Lelani's co-worker.

"I don't know who the hell you think you are but we need to talk."