Vernon wanted to have a date that very night they first made up, but Jin insisted that they not have any dates until she finished writing her extended paper on Jewish mysticism. It was a very important paper that composed of 50% of her final grade in that class, and so she needed to stay focused on it.

The paper took much longer than she expected it to take, and so whenever Vernon texted her to ask if she were done with that paper, she would apologize and disappoint him when she postponed the date again.

I’LL WRITE IT FOR YOU IF YOU CAN’T BUT PLEASE LET’S GO OUT ON A DATE ASAP, he texted her. I’M SO AFRAID IM GONNA MESS UP AND DO SOMETHING AND YOU’LL BREAK UP AGAIN :(

J: Sorry. I have to finish it…

V: Booooo.

She found his impatience funny, charming almost. But she was insistent on not having her relationship with him impact her studies. Her studies were definitely her priority.

It would be a lie, however, to say that although she made studying her priority, Vernon occupied her thoughts so much more. She wished she could finish her stupid paper quickly so that she could finally go out on that date with him. Ever since their meeting in the lecture hall a few weeks ago, they haven’t had the opportunity to be together for extended periods of time. They would take walks in between classes and occasionally have lunch together, but they never had a specific outing together as a couple because of that paper.

Jin felt that it was stupid how she was avoiding a date with him, because the time she spent texting him would probably equal more than the time she would have spent on a date with him. She wasted so much time messaging him, but it was irresistible not to. She liked talking to him over text about random things, ranging from philosophical debates about the meaning of life to their preferred toilet paper orientation.

Jin had always preferred texting to confronting people directly. She found that she could organize her thoughts better when she texted him, and was able to express herself better than if she faced him. He seemed to just inherently know that. He never called her, and he never asked her personal questions in person. He seemed to just know that she would prefer typing out the answers than saying them out loud. It was these little things that he did for her that showed her how well he knew her.

Vernon always seemed to reduce her to this blushing mess though, even when he just texted her. The puns, the lame jokes, the cringe-worthy pick-up lines that he randomly threw at her, and even just his blunt statements like “you’re pretty” or “i adore you btw” or “your smile is the cutest;” they always managed to make her blush.

Jin had learned the hard way never be in front of Seokmin or Sena when she was texting him, because those two always when they saw pink in her cheeks and that wide smile on her face.

She couldn’t find it in herself to return Vernon's compliments. She was much too embarrassed, though she did indeed think things about him that she did not have the courage to say to him out loud. She did write them in her diary though. Things like: “how could someone be so attractive?” or “I feel like I love him more and more every day.” She also wrote other things about him that made it so much more important that no one ever read her diary ever again.

-

Vernon suggested a study date when Jin told him for the fifth time that she was not done with her paper. He said that he also had a big exam to study for, and suggested that the two of them spend the night in the library to study together.

That was a date that she was willing to go on. She figured that it was actually a good idea, because having him there with her would mean she would not text him. And texting was the ultimate waste of time for her anyways.

They met in the same study room in which she had tutored him once upon a time. He greeted her with his typical “hey Frostbite” and a kiss on the cheek.

She warned him from the very beginning that she did not want to be distracted, and this study date would consist of purely studying, and he nodded along to that.

Less than ten minutes later, he was nudging her feet with his from underneath the table, peering at her as he raised his head from the economics books he had been studying.

“What,” she asked him, looking up from the book she was reading as research for her paper.

“I’m bored,” he stated cautiously, as if he were afraid she would get angry, “wanna do something else?”

“You have a big exam in a few days. You have to study,” she frowned.

“Yeah but how can I sit here concentrating on this dull crap when I have the brightest star on campus sitting here right in front of me,” he said with a surprisingly straight face. Jin wanted to cringe, but of course, she blushed instead, making him smirk in triumph.

“Fine then,” she told him, “this bright star will go sit somewhere else so that you can concentrate.” She stood up to leave, but he grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

“Fine, fine, I’ll study,” he promised her, “but please stay.”

She did stay, but he did not study. She could feel his gaze on her every minute, only glancing at his book every once in a while. She looked up at him a few times, and almost always caught him averting his eyes from her to his books.

She did not understand why he was looking at her so much. Where was the pleasure in just looking at her, and why did he spend so much time doing it?

She found that she could not even concentrate on her own work with him just looking at her, and so she closed her books and confronted him. She couldn’t carry through with this “study date” anymore/

“Why are you staring at me?”

“Because you’re pretty,” he said a matter-of-factly, and she did everything she could in order not to blush.

“Well, I can’t concentrate like this. So I’m leaving…” She stood up to leave.

“Wait, wait,” Vernon told her, stopping her from leaving once again. “Look, here’s a solution.” He turned his chair around so that his back was to her, and so he could not see her in front of him. She sat back down, and told herself that this was his last chance.

And he did not blow that chance. He did not turn around once, and stayed glued to his books for a good three hours after that, hours that Jin used quite effectively in making progress with her paper.

She even finished it, but she did not want to tell Vernon that. He was diligently studying, and she did not want to interrupt him. She proof-read the paper three times, and emailed it to the professor. She had nothing else to do after that but stare at him. Well, stare at his back at least.

He was studying, and quite seriously too. She could tell from the way he was marking his books and writing notes and memorizing things. She liked seeing that side of him, because he did not actually often show it to her: the side of him that took things seriously.

Jin knew that his exam was in only three days, and she did not want to distract him from studying in these three days. She decided against telling him she finished her paper until after his exam so that he could actually study for it and not distract himself with her.

Jin told him that she was tired and wanted to go back to her room, and he turned around to face her.

“Did you finish?” he asked.

“Not quite,” she replied, not wanting to get his hopes up, “but almost.”

“I hate that stupid paper,” Vernon replied with a pout before he started to close his books and pack.

“No, you keep studying…”

“I need to walk you back.”

“No… you really don’t,” Jin said, feeling guilty for interrupting his studying.

“I’ll study in my room. I'm only here for you anyways,” he told her with a bemused grin.

They took their time walking back. Jin had many books in her hand, which made holding hands out of the question, which was something that Vernon complained about as they walked. He also threw insults at that paper that had been preventing any dates together.

“How much do you have left to do?” he asked her.

“Not much. But don’t think about my paper. Focus on your own exam.”

“I will.”

As they were walking, they ran into Jin’s professor, to whom Jin bowed and greeted.

“I got your paper by the way,” the professor told Jin. “I look forward to reading it! You’ve worked hard.”

It was only after the professor walked away and when she saw Vernon’s raised eyebrows that she realized what was happening.

“You lied to me,” Vernon said to her, crossing his arms as he stared her down with this accusing look in his eye.

She had never thought of it in that way, and when he put it that way, it sounded terrible. She hesitated to find something to say to defend herself, and the more she hesitated the more Vernon glared at her. “I… I just… I want you to study for your exam and…”

“Well, you still didn’t have to lie to me,” he said, repeating that word that made her feel so guilty inside. “You could have just told me that you finished it but refused to go out until after the exam. I would have listened.”

“Look, I’m sorry,” she said to him guiltily. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I promise I won't do it again.”

He scoffed, smirking at her and shaking his head, “I’m kind of disappointed to be honest.”

She looked down at the floor, ashamed and hating herself for disappointing him. “I’m sorry,” she apologized again. Although he didn’t seem angry with her, he did indeed seem surprised that she lied, and not in a good way.

“Make it up to me,” he told her, “and then I’ll forgive you.”

She knew what he was going to ask for, and so she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek like she always did when he asked her to make things up to him.

He smiled at that, content, but not actually satisfied. “Now that we’re dating, the price of my forgiveness is a little higher than that.”

She looked at him, waiting expectantly for him to tell her his “price.” He didn’t though. He had a suggestive smirk on his face, as if thinking she knew what it was.

She honestly did not know though. Was his price two kisses on the cheek? A kiss on the lips? Something more? Judging by that smirk on his face, it could have been.

Her mind went back to the time when he threw her the little surprise party, when Seungcheol and Nayoung were together. She remembered how touchy they were with one another, and how they obviously had done ual things. Was Vernon expecting something like that?

Jin was suddenly afraid. He didn’t expect that from her, did he?

“Come to my room, and I’ll tell you how to make it up to me,” he told her, confirming her initial suspicions and making her want to run away from him there and then.

“Why?” she asked him nervously, feeling herself step back.

“Because I want to do something that I can’t do in public,” he told her. Jin was so tempted to drop her books and run away from what was to come, but she was frozen.

“W…what?” she managed, unable to suppress the fearful stutter in her voice.

Vernon narrowed his eyes, realizing how uneasy she had become. He then seemed to understand what she was thinking and smiled at her before shaking his head and chuckling, “listen, Frostbite. It’s nothing like that. Don’t worry, okay?”

His words eased her, but only a little bit. She was still nervous as she walked with him to his dorm. She only agreed to go because she wanted to make it up to him, but now that she remembered, the image of Seungcheol and Nayoung touching each other resurfaced in her head and she was suddenly so afraid of being alone with him.

She had been alone with him many times before. She even slept in the same room as him. But somehow, things now seemed so different. They were together, in a relationship, which meant he had expectations, expectations for which she was not quite prepared.

She hoped that Chan would be there, but much to her anxiety, he wasn’t, and Vernon seemed to know that he wouldn't be too.

It was only later, when they were both sitting on his bed, that Vernon realized that Jin was still uneasy.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her, concerned.

She really did not know how to explain to him what was wrong with her.

“You’re not still thinking that I’m going to do something that you’re not comfortable with, are you?”

“It’s not that…”

“Then what is it?” he asked.

She then tried to articulate to him how she was feeling. Pressured. Uncertain. Treading territory with which she was unfamiliar. Dating was new to her. Kissing someone with passion was new to her. Having someone touch her in a more-than-friends kind of way was new to her. She was afraid of the expectations, afraid of not being able to fulfill them, afraid of what he would think of her if she couldn’t.

And in a very un-Vernon-like kind of way, he responded to her worries with zero sarcasm: “I expect nothing from you, Frostbite. I know it seems like this dating thing is some social role you have to take on, but it’s not. I’m with you because I like you, not because I want specific things from you. I know you’re new to the whole relationships thing, but please don’t think of it as a job or a responsibility, because it’s not. Dating is supposed to be fun and exciting and adventurous, not some arduous task with a checklist of things you have to do for me. You don’t owe me anything because we’re in a relationship. And if anything I ever do makes you uncomfortable, you just say so, and we’ll stop it.”

He said all the right words exactly when she needed to hear them. With that short speech, he was able to lift a heavy burden from her heart and cure the overwhelming anxiety in seconds. She found in that one moment that her fondness for him grew by tenfold. He knew exactly what to say and exactly how to put it.

“Thank you,” she said to him softly, shyly, afraid to make direct eye contact with him or she knew she would blush, “really, thank you for saying that.”

“Alright, enough of that,” Vernon said before the mood got too sentimental, “let’s get back to what we’re here for. I still haven’t forgiven you for lying to me, by the way…”

She looked down, feeling guilty about that again.

He suddenly stood up and stepped in front of her, facing her. He looked nervous about what he was about to do, which was so unlike him actually. She waited curiously for him to do what he was planning, and before she knew it, and much to her surprise, he started to rap.

A cold little quiet girl that loves God and her friends,
She writes in her diary on the weekends.
Prefers to be alone, prefers not to speak,
That girl who I wanted to kiss my cheek.
Cold little quiet girl, I’m crazy for you.
Cold little quiet girl, I want more from you.
Cold little quiet girl, she took my breath away.
Cold little quiet girl, please feel the same way.
So would you fill my heart with so much delight,
And say you’d be my girlfriend, Frostbite?

Jin was surprised, touched and flattered at the same time. Surprised that he rapped, and the he was actually so good at it. Touched that he wrote a rap for her. Flattered by everything he was saying. She was dumbstruck for a moment, her eyes not leaving his, conveying to him just how much she appreciated it.

“So… what’s you answer? I’ll only forgive you for lying if you say yes,” he told her with a smirk, sitting back down at her side and waiting for her to say something.

She leaned in to kiss his cheek, pulling back to nod and give him her answer.

-

“You’re late,” Sena said with a grin on her face when Jin entered their dorm at 1AM.

Sena knew that Jin had gone on this “study date” with Vernon, and she had totally called that they would do so much more than just study. And, well, Sena was not wrong.

“Is he a good kisser?” Sena asked Jin curiously, making Jin blush madly.

“Sena…”

“Oh please, you’re going to tell me that you guys haven’t kissed at all in the past six hours you were together…”

“I actually finished my paper and he studied for…”

“Blo blo blo, stop changing the subject! You kissed, right?” Sena asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms.

Jin nodded timidly, and Sena clapped her hands happily, asking for all the details like any good best friend would.

And Jin told her the details. She told her about everything: the studying, the lie, going to his dorm, being nervous, being relieved, and then about that rap that made her feel like the most special person in the world. She told Sena about how Vernon asked her to be his girlfriend, and how Jin of course said yes. Then she talked about the kisses that followed, the ones Sena was so eager to hear about.

“So… is he or is he not a good kisser?” Sena asked again, waiting for Jin to answer that question.

It was such an embarrassing question, and if it were not for Sena’ constant nagging, she would have completely avoided answering it.

“Oh my God, Sena. Yes, he is a good kisser. Are you happy now?” Jin finally answered, her cheeks turning pink as she looked away bashfully.

“Very,” Sena replied with a proud grin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Diary,

Where do I even start? I don’t know where to start. I’m a mess, but a good kind of mess.

So I have a “boyfriend.” I’m calling him that now. It’s a weird word, to be honest. I have a boyfriend, and not just any boyfriend. It’s Vernon, the sweetest, most attractive, most understanding person ever. To think that I hated him before… I really cannot imagine hating him anymore. Today, more than ever before, I feel like I fell so, so, so hard for this person.

He wrote a rap for me and he recited it in front of me. He told me he doesn’t like rapping in public, but he’s actually so good. I’m still in awe by how good he was. And he can write amazing lyrics too. He showed me a notebook of his lyrics, and I was blown away by it. You really wouldn’t imagine a playboy economics major like him to be a good writer, but he’s full of surprises.

He asked me to be his girlfriend with his rap, and it was the easiest decision I ever had to make.

A/N: I feel like im not that great with drama-free chapters so sorry if this isn't up to par ; anyways, I think there’s like one more chapter left. And I promise you it won’t take as long as this one took because I actually have a big portion of it already written!

Thank you for being patient, and sorry to those who were waiting for more meanie :P