8:37 PM

we’ve driven from dasher, the small town we live in in georgia, and i just saw the sign for an exit into cordele where i used to live.

i point to it and say, “get off here.”

“i thought we were going wherever i wanted,” he says whilst getting over into the right lane.

“we still can, i just want to see if much has changed here. turn left at the light,” i direct, “also, do you have any cds in here? it’s so quiet and cds are better than the radio for road trips since the stations start cutting out after a while.”

“i have a case for some cds in the back but there are only, like, 3 in it. do you want me to turn at that light?”

“yeah, go right. we’re gonna get some cds. left at the next stop sign.”

“how do you know this place so well?”

“turn into this shopping center on the right up here. i lived here ‘til i started my freshman year. my parents figured it was gonna be hard to get used to high school anyway, so right before freshman year was the right time to move. park in front of that walmart, they have a ton of music. well, they used to.”

he parks the car really badly. like, i’m pretty sure we’re taking up two spots with that tiny car. not even kidding. well, it’s not like we’ll be long anyway.

while we’re walking inside, wonwoo says, “lead the way, small one. ouch! okay, lead the way… person. anyway, i don’t know why but i thought i remembered seeing you over there before freshman year.”

“maybe you did. i have family in dasher, so we would visit pretty often since it’s not that long of a drive. what kind of music do you like?”

“makes sense. and i like rap, hip-hop, and a little rock.”

“what do you think of country music?” i ask as we walk into the music section of the electronics department.

it had definitely gotten smaller. damn people illegally downloading music. and itunes. damn itunes, too. cds are where it’s at.

“not too bad if you like the right artists.”

“luke bryan?”

“oh, he’s good.”

i grab two luke bryan cds and continue walking down the aisle.

“taylor swift?”

“decent.”

i let him grab one of her cds and we keep on strolling.

“florida georgia line?”

“would it be too much to ask to get all of their cds?”

we lock eyes for a second and the corners of our mouths inch up into smiles, “of course not.”

we grab them all and head over to checkout and, while the cashier is ringing them up i’m mentally apologizing to my mother for spending $70 solely on music. we are definitely getting snacks at the dollar store.

while i pay, he grabs the bag and then we head out to the car. as soon as both of our doors are closed, he plops the bag into my lap, reaches to buckle his seatbelt, stops, reaches into the bag on my lap, pulls two cds out and hands one to me.

“let’s get the wrappers off now and i’ll run them over to the garbage before we get back on the road. it’ll save us a struggle when we want to change cds,” he says kind of loudly so i can hear him through the ripping of the plastic packaging.

i nod and open my fair share of cds. that’s probably a good idea. this whole trip suddenly feels like more of a good idea than it originally was. i’m glad i asked wonwoo to take me instead of getting joshua or seungcheol, one of my actually close friends, to drive me around. it’s kind of nice being around someone that doesn’t know my whole life story. it’s also nice that he seems slightly interested, too, but nicer that he doesn’t really know me.

“do you prefer iced coffee or energy drinks?” i ask as i unwrap the last cd and hand him the wrapper.

“energy drinks. why?”

“well, we’re gonna need some caffeine. i was thinking to make our last pit-stop quicker, one of us gets the drinks, the other gets the snacks, and we meet at the register. sound good?”

“alright, i’ll get the drinks since i’m kind of picky with flavors. what do you like?”

“just get two of each flavor rip-off starbucks thing for me.”

he chuckles, nods, and goes to throw all of the wrappers out. he drops a couple on the way to the garbage can and i can’t help but laugh at how he chases after them, leaning over to grab them but he doesn’t quite make it close enough to the ground to reach them and ends up almost falling face-first into the pavement. not gonna lie, if he actually were to fall face-first i’d probably laugh before i went to go ask if he were okay. okay, maybe i’m starting to see why people call me mean...

a/n: i didn't re-read this one so there might be a couple of mistakes and if there are i'm sorry!!