"So what's your favorite beverage?"

"Coffee definitely."

"Why?"

"It gives me the energy to go through the day. The bittersweet flavor and the variations are also very good too! Every cup of coffee could be exciting."

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My motherly senses kicked after realizing that we were actually idols.

"Let's wear a mask first. People might find us."

We both wore our masks, causing her eyes to be highlighted.

She looks so cool but my heart is melting. Not to say that she just put on extensions again. It feels like I'm back to the SIXTEEN days where she had long hair. The Chaeyoung I fell in love to.

I hate it.

We were strolling past people in the streets. Magically, no one notices us. Is this real or just a fantasy? I don't know. Me, Chaeyoung, people in the streets but it was still peaceful, so much that it actually feels off.

Before heading to farther destinations, we decided to eat first in the local cafe. We ordered Italian-style pasta and iced coffee.

She might look alluring in her fansite pictures, you would think, "Ah. Our maknae is maturing!"

But no.

This kid still eats her pastas messily. There's red sauce all over her lips. I can't help but...

"You seem to be eating well." as I swiped all the sauce on her lips.

"Hey! That was unneccessary. I could do that myself..." she was embarrassed. An actually embarrassed Chaeyoung, this is new.

I couldn't help but laugh at her. Our so-called cool, no-fun Chaeyoung is still a kid after all.

"You should've just told me!" Her frustration was showing.

I took sips on my iced coffee and Chaeyoung hit me up with this question.

"What's with you and coffee?" she asked.

"Why'd you ask? I like it."

"I guess you like it so much that you just took two in the span of 2 hours." she said.

"It's my addiction. Tell me a drink that could give you that bittersweet taste."

"Beer." she replied.

"Hey! How do you know the taste of beer?" I reprimanded her.

"But honestly, isn't it too much? It might give you a heart attack!" she said in a worried voice.

"The food is getting cold. Go finish it first."

The kid went back to eating her pasta. She seemed to be enjoying it a lot, and I, am unable to hide my appreciation of this sight. Her aura is so enchanting. y and cute at the same time? It's not Sana, I'm telling you; it's Chaeyoung.

"Unnie. I've been waiting for the chance to ask..." she suddenly spoke.

"Do you still like me?" the child asked.

Uh. What?

I can't lie.

She knows I can't lie. I'm not the type of person to lie.

How do I respond to this?

"Yes. Why?"

Breathe in. 

Breathe out.

Maintain composure. Don't break down. Handle this smoothly. Don't let the cracks show.

Myoui Mina, you can do it.

"...That's fortunate. I've been falling for you for quite sometime." she spoke those words.

"Really?" I found myself blank. Lips on straw. Eyes straight ahead.

She was bowing her head as she took a sip from her coffee. She appears to be very embarrassed. 

It felt like the whole cafe just went silent. I can't hear anything but my breathing. My heartbeat. And that heartbeat went faster as we locked eyes.

In what felt like a couple of minutes, she said.

"Ya! Why are you frozen like that? Are still in there?"

Stupid. Don't you know how crazy I am for you?

"You mean as a friend, right?" I asked for confirmation.

From a shy face, she tried to contain her laughter but the explosion was nigh.

"Hahahahaha! Oh my God, unnie! No!" and her laughter continued.

I've never enjoyed looking so dumbfounded before. Her laughter is really the best thing in the world. The situation was so surreal that I started to notice my lack of blinking ever since she confessed.

And I've been sipping uncontrollably from my now empty cup of iced coffee since.

The caffeine is kicking in.

"Let's go."

"Omo. What's with the sudden rush?" she asked.

We then headed outside. Walking by the sidewalk again. It was quite the busy street. The crowd is noisy but I only feel my heartbeat racing. We actually passed by a market.

"Look at this, unnie!" she pointed at a shirt with a penguin motif. "It's so cute!"

"Oh, it looks nice."

"Ahjumma! I'll buy two!" she said to the vendor.

"One for me and one for you. Hehehe~" she said in the most adorable voice.

"Y-Your allowance! I'm okay if you don't buy one for me..."

"This is what couples do isn't it?" she said.

She locked her arm onto my arm.

"Take it. It's from my heart~" she playfully said.

I couldn't refuse.

"...O-Okay. Where do you wanna go then?"

"Let's go to the arcade!" she joyfully said.

"It's gonna be my treat!"

We headed to the arcades and there were so many machines! Fighting games, shooting games, rhythm games, those puck games, and the claw machines were all of different kinds. Even I was suprised by the variety.

"Is that a King Of Fighters machine? Let's play!" she sat on the chair, excited.

"I-I haven't played fighting games for awhile... Let's see how rusty I am."

I see she's running a Duo Lon/Takuma/Shen team, huh. She might be actually good! I'm gonna try my King/Takuma/Kim team.

"Round 1. Ready. GO!"

I gotta zone her out with some projectiles, keeping the pressure. Oh damn, I got hit by the poke. Omo, she actually knows how to combo! She drops it but I can't punish optimally! I got chipped. Aigoo.

"Round 2. Ready. GO!"

It seems like she's good at her punish game. I gotta play footsies until I land a hit. Oh nice I landed one! And another one. And another one. Time to convert it to a combo. Flying kick, flying kick, dive kick. Ah! I dropped the combo! It's okay she's in the corner. I just need a cross-up... Yes! I won!

This continued until it was down to the last round.

It was an intense game of footsies and we both had our HD meters up. A combo-starting hit would end the match. I landed that hit and another. Mix up. HD Cancel. And a NeoMax Super Move to end the match.

"Whoo!" I found myself fistpumping and surrounded by people staring at us, awed.

"Whoa! That was so cool!" Chaeyoung was awed as well.

"Let's go to the other machines quickly..." I said, worried about getting caught by these bystanders.

We were searching for other machines to play and we found this Technika 3 machine.

"KARA sunbae-nim is the spotlight in this. How cool!" she said.

"It's such a shame that they disbanded... Do you think we'll be featured in something like this someday?"

"Someday... Let's not disband and go until the end, okay?" She was looking at me almost teary-eyed. She's holding it in. But I know deep inside, she really meant those words.

"Pinky promise?"

We locked our pinkies and sealed the promise. I'll watch over you and stay with you. I know that with my whole heart.

We tried the claw machine with a Pikachu in it and we got it in about two tries.

"We are so lucky today!" She was so happy getting that plush.

"Let's go home. It's getting late. You still have class tomorrow."

We walked home. She looked so beautiful with the night sky in the background. I felt the need to go home in a rush but I couldn't let this moment pass by without me savoring each second. Chaeyoung was walking in a hurry among the crowd and I was just tailing behind her. She's really a young lady now.

A melancholic feeling came. Weird, I'm supposed to be happy right now, but I can't help but feel worried. These things will come to an end someday, and we'll never know how near those things would be. The feeling was just too surreal but this joy I cannot feel without the certain sad counterpart creeping in.

I know that I am faithful to one person. I can keep my word. But Chaeyoung? Her purity goes unmatched but she's still young. She's still able to make mistakes. 

The past two days have been unreal and I'm not sure whether I'm still in a dream and actually going to wake up soon. If it's a dream, I'm going to treasure these.

We came home to the rest of the group eating dinner.

"Where did you guys go?" asked Jihyo.

"Uhm-"

"I see it now. You guys went on a date!" Sana guessed with conviction, only to be distracted with Momo eating beside her, too busy to hear the conversation.

"I guess you could call it that way... We were alone in the dorm and we were bored!" Chaeyoung saved herself and I from the accusations.

I sat beside Nayeon and was greeted with the question "You guys really went on a date, didn't you?"

I bowed down my head to hide away the blushing. Nayeon giggled and kept poking me with her shoulder.

We spent the rest of the night together as a group. Watched television until everyone felt sleepy. We headed to our beds but I couldn't sleep from all the coffee and I prayed.

"Lord, thank you for giving me this chance today. It feels wrong that I'm thanking you but I'm actually gay. But isn't loving a person bad in any way? I'm still confused if this is real or just a dream. I'll take these blessings even though I don't deserve them and make the most out of them. Please help me and the rest of the group in our journey. Thank you, Lord."