Things don't go exactly as planned. (Or in their case, hoped).

Chaeyoung quickly spreads the word about Nayeon and Junhwe's date, resulting in the whole high school - first years, second years, third years, hell even some alumni too, as such is the power of Chaeyoung - assuming the two of them are dating. Junhwe receives fistbumps and highfives when he walks down the hallway - some guys' notion as congratulations, he supposes - and whenever he stumbles upon Nayeon and her group of friends in the hallways (they don't share the same classes as she's a couple of years above him, another one of the reasons why his friends are so adamant about congratulating him as Junhwe's now the poster boy of 'scoring a senior'), the two of them receive hollers and wolf whistles even when they don't make any contact. It's embarrassing enough for the both of them to be known as the 'best friends turned lovers' (and that results in Nayeon's first knowledge of this thing called romcom clichés), but despite their countless protests of not actually dating, nobody seems to believe them.

"Look guys, Junhwe and I are just friends," Nayeon is pretty sure she's said the same thing almost a dozen times by the point she sits down and tells her group of friends that no, Junhwe and her were not dating and no, she doesn't know whether he's a good kisser or not. 

(His temple kisses are really good though, and his lips felt soft and warm and tender against her skin and oh my god why does she keep thinking about that kiss).

Jungyeon, her closest friend in the whole school and quite possible the world (as that spot's also Junhwe's, resulting in that one statement being debatable) rolls her eyes and arches a brow at Nayeon, making the girl in question raising her hands defensively. "You don't have to be ashamed Nayeon, we all support you," Jungyeon says as she snatches one of Nayeon's french fries, resulting in a small hit to the arm. "I mean, Junhwe's not your usual type, but I can't see why the both of you wouldn't like each other. It was a matter of time anyway."

"What? Matter of time?" Nayeon's voice is alarmingly high now, and she doesn't care if by the end of her sentence, her voice comes out as a squeak.

"Well, yeah," Jungyeon looks confused as she answers, as if the reason why it's natural for Nayeon and Junhwe to end up together is common knowledge amongst them. Idly, Nayeon wonders how many conversations her friends have had about this without her knowledge. "The two of you are best friends, have been since the two of you were kids, actually. You're the only girl Junhwe can stand for hours, even his exes have told me they thought something was going on between the two of you."

"No."

"You better believe it." The other seven girls are quiet when they hear the exchange between Jungyeon and Nayeon, the person who spread the rumour herself - Chaeyoung - simply stares between the both of them with quiet interest. "Look, you may not believe me, but ask anyone and they'd agree. Everyone's shipped you and Junhwe at least once."

"People shipped us?" Nayeon almost screeches out, but it's not the super ugly kind of screech, it's more of the unbelievable kind of screech. Still unpleasant to the ears though, Nayeon notes as her table winces upon hearing it.

The youngest, Tzuyu, adds in her two cents in the conversation after taking a long sip from her chocolate smoothie. "Technically, they still ship you. It's not past tense. In fact, I think more people have started shipping the two of you after word got out the two of you are dating."

Nayeon feels heat rise up to her cheeks at the statement and cups her face in her hands, trying to hide her blushing face and doing her best to restrain the smile that threatens to appear on her face after Tzuyu mentions how people seem to ship her and Junhwe. Why is she so happy about people approving of her and Junhwe 'being together'? 'The heart is so confusing,' Nayeon grumbles to herself inwardly, though outside, all she mutters is a simple, "I'm screwed."

/ / /

"How about this then," Nayeon suggests as she sits cross-legged on Junhwe's living room floor, her uniform discarded for a plain shirt and comfortable pink shorts. Junhwe sits across her, fumbling with the hood of his jacket (it's red and there's 'Michael Jackson' written on the back, and Nayeon feels a swell of pride knowing it's his favourite jacket and she's the one who gave it to him a few years back on his birthday). It's a Monday, and on Mondays the two of them always hang out at Junhwe's place after school. "What if we actually dated?" She suggests, and tenses when she sees Junhwe's bulging eyes. Correcting herself hastily, she lets out a nervous chuckle. "Not like that! I mean, we 'date' and we break up in front of the whole school after the whole thing with your family's over with." She bites her lip, and stares at Junhwe expectantly. "Well?"

Junhwe seems mull over the idea in his head, the gears turning as he tries to come up with ways that Nayeon's plan could go horribly, horribly wrong. He comes up with nothing. "I guess we could make it work," he admits, and restrains a smile when he sees Nayeon's eyes light up like stars in the night sky, the corners of her lips curling happily.

"Great!" She exclaims, clapping her hands together. "What kind of dates are you into?" Nayeon asks curiously, peering at him through her lashes. She doesn't understand why Junhwe seems to blush for a moment before answering her question.

"I like stay-at-home dates I guess," Junhwe states, because he doesn't like something too extravagant and for him, dates where you could just stay in and watch movies gave enough chance for him to warm up to someone. "Nothing too fancy works with me, I guess."

A small frown tugs on Nayeon's lips, her brows knitting curiously. "Isn't that too simple?" Nayeon questions, but Junhwe just shrugs. With a sigh, Nayeon whips out her phone and starts typing, the idle keyboard noises of the phone playing through its speakers.

"What are you doing?"

"Ssh."

"No, seriously, what are you doing?" He deadpans, tone dry and slightly sarcastic.

Silence meets his question, but a few moments later, Nayeon has a grin on her face that she always has when she has an idea, and suddenly, Junhwe feels afraid of whatever's to come. "What?" Junhwe asks warily, and Nayeon holds her phone out to Junhwe, showing him a webpage through the monitor.

"They're playing the new movie Kim Yoojung's in!" Nayeon gushes, and Junhwe blinks at the harsh glow of the phone's screen showing him a poster of a girl and a guy, looking like the both of them are way into a deep argument.

"Okay. So?"

"Let's watch it together!" Nayeon suggests, her tone excited and with the way she's smiling at him, Junhwe doesn't know how he can say no to her. "Couples go on dates, right?"

"Well, yeah," Junhwe answers, his tone still cautious but less wary than before. "But we're not actually dating." 'I want to, though.'

Nayeon seems to falter at Junhwe's words, but a few moments later she's waved off his worries easily. "So what? We need to act like a real couple. Real couples go on dates," she stresses the last few words and Junhwe quirks an unimpresed brow. Nayeon furrows her brows in frustration before she gives him her best pleading look that makes her look like a puppy. "Please?"

Rejecting Nayeon feels like rejecting a kicked puppy, and with a heavy heart, Junhwe barely nods - a move so quick to those who blinked or missed it or even some who'd seen it, it could come off as impercebtible. Nayeon beams, and junhwe feels his cheeks burn from embarrassment.

"Awesome! Next show's playing in an hour, let's go, let's go, let's go!" Nayeon gets up and Junhwe follows after, dusting some dust off the back of his pants. He follows after her, wanting to protest at the sudden activity but also not, mostly because once Nayeon puts her mind to something, it takes a lot more than a whiny and sulking Junhwe to drag her out of it.

/ / /

The theatre is packed with disgustingly sweet young couples, and the two of them manage to get seats in the back, nearing the far right corner of the dimly lit theatre. Nayeon keeps complaining because of the horrible view - "you can't see here, this seat why did we even come?" - but Junhwe's more concerned about the couple each other's faces sitting next to them.

"How am I supposed to pay attention when I can't even see the screen properly?" Nayeon grumbles, her feet downturned in distaste for what it feels like fifth time ever since seeing their seat as she shoves more popcorn into . Junhwe rolls his eyes because this is all her idea, and he doesn't even mind that much about the seats. He's had worse whenever he watches a movie with his friends without prior planning, mostly because Bobby likes to go for the mainstream movies and they buy their tickets like ten minutes before the show (ergo, crappy seats). 

"You're the one who wanted to watch this," says Junhwe, his tone as sour as his expression. Nayeon glances at him and snorts when she sees his expression, but shrugs.

"If I knew we would've gotten these seats, I wouldn't have done it."

"Sure," Junhwe mumbles sarcastically, but Nayeon doesn't seem to pick up on it. 

She does, however, continue talking. "Besides, I really like the idea of the movie, but still. I'm probably going to end up asleep if I can't really see with a clear view of the screen, you know?"

"Err. Yeah," Junhwe weakly agrees, trying not to snap at the couple with too much PDA going on next to them. He tries to not look because it's impolite to stare at couples (then again, it's impolite to make out where people could see you or something, but then again the people he hangs out with are more than fine with voyeurism so maybe he shouldn't be that bothered). As if sensing his discomfort, Nayeon peers at what's going on over his shoulder, and she scoffs after seeing what's going on. Thankfully, the couple doesn't seem to notice.

"PDA is fine, but too much of it is disgusting." Nayeon wrinkles her nose in distaste, and Junhwe's about to apologize for Nayeon to the couple but then again, they don't seem to notice so both of them keep quiet. Junhwe can tell Nayeon's trying to look intimidating with her scowl, but Junhwe thinks it just looks adorable. Like most of the things she does, not that he'd ever admit it out loud.

The movie soon starts, and Nayeon's attention is stolen by the movie, despite the couple not stopping their PDA (Junhwe briefly wonders if they have oxygen pre-built into their system or something, by the way they don't seem to need to gasp for air). The movie itself isn't as ty as he thought it would be, as around ten minutes into the movie, he grudginly admits it's kind of interesting. Plus, Kim Yoojung's face alone is more than enough of a reason for him to pay attention to the screen, and the story, depsite being a huge bowl of all the clichés of every romance-comedy movie (poor guy and rich girl, one of them super smart and the other dumb, both hate each other - how could you get more cliché?) and kind of just looks like a rehash of every other teen movie, it's entertaining and kind of interesting, mostly because the gets a lot more serious than the other romance movies he's seen, despite having more or less similar plots to the movie he's watching. 

Junhwe's throat soon feels dry from the popcorn he kept shoving and eating in his mouth, and its salty aftertaste lingers in his mouth. He recalls Nayeon offering if he wanted a coke or mineral water earlier, and a pang of regret hits him when he remembers shaking his head. Damn.

"Nayeon," he whispers, planning to ask for a bit of her drink. Junhwe tilts his head to talk to the girl properly, expecting an annoyed Im Nayeon from the sudden interruption of the movie, but what he gets is far from his expectations.

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