Jaebum straightens the hem of his undershirt, and then his hand goes up to smooth the side of his hair. He can hear the impatient coos of Jackson and Youngjae behind him, so he walks forward until their voices fade in the background.

 

He marches forward to his—their—target. His stride is purposeful, like he’s walking into a business meeting looking for a merger, which quite literally is what he’s about to do, but not like business-business or merger-merger. This business merger is a scam one, not large scale so don’t worry about it. It’s his usual business; bad game but good money.

 

“Hey. Is this seat taken?”

 

The girl, their target, looks up from her book that she has been reading since the past hour. They scanned through the café, the ins and outs; today, targets are unusually boring—there’s a girl who was talking so mothering loudly on the phone (loud girl is in their top blacklist actually). Another girl has her face shoved in front of her laptop, typing furiously (still typing furiously) and the way she works, she’s most likely going to say no the moment he says hey. And then there’s the waiter—and then there’s this girl with her book.

 

She’s alone and she looks approachable. Alone and approachable are the kind of client that they are looking for. They couldn’t see her face from the way her brown wavy hair curtains her face as she looks down to her book but Jaebum never minds about looks, as long as he can play his game and he’ll get his money, then everything’s good.

 

But as soon as she meets his stare, for some reason, the first thing his subsconcious says is, .

 

as a noun has a lot of meaning, has a lot of expression, and is applicable to a lot of situation. It’s usually definite. But this time, Jaebum couldn’t translate what was that even for.

 

“Yes.” She says. The way she says it, she looks kind of fierce, but it’s kind of . . . adorable with that face.

 

She’s pretty. She’s not his kind of pretty (his kind of pretty is SNSD Yoona—doe-eyes, smiles a lot with innocent charms), but she’s pretty in general.

 

But Jaebum starts to see the idea of the . First, there’s this thing called first impression. She’s pretty—but that was his second impression of her. His first was most probably the unwelcoming vibe from her face. Get it? She’s pretty but smiling-pretty is different than what-do-you-want-from-me-pretty. The vibe got to him first before the pretty. Hence the . So, don’t conclude it as , Jaebum falls in the first sight kind of , okay?

 

About the game.

 

He smirks. Being unwelcomed, he can deal with that. He just has to smile every seconds of a minute, and he’ll win this game.

 

“You’ve been alone for a while though? I’ve been sitting at that side of the corner—“ He smiles as he points—but she’s not looking, she just stares at his face so he smiles wider, “and I’ve been gathering my courage to talk to you because,” he pauses—but still smiling—because, what? Because she’s pretty? They didn’t even know how she looked like when they set the bet. As he ponders, his eyes glaze to her book. “Because I like girls who read.”

 

She blinks, twice. Jaebum notices her eyes. She kind of looks like a cat. A cat who would scratch people’s face for no reason. He still smiles through this thought, though. How long has it been? Fifty seconds? Not smiling long enough for it to be painful. Not smiling long enough to secure his place in this game.

 

“Really?” She says, or asks. She has this tone of questioning without it sounding like a question.

 

Then she closes her book. Jaebum thinks she’s going to leave. He can already hear the boos from Jackson and Youngjae and the sound of his ego tearing apart.

 

But then she smiles, in a way that not really smiling.

 

“Have a seat.” She offers, also doesn’t sound offering enough. He’s not exaggerating, but she really has this way of doing things without actually doing it.

 

He smiles, as he takes his seat. This seat is like his secure for now. It means he’s in this. However intimidating this target is being. He can works with intimidation.

 

“You read?” She asks.

 

Jaebum smiles as he leans forward to the table, stalling because he needs a precious five seconds to think. It’s crazy how he has to think. Usually, everything works like a reflex, like he’s made for this. Heck, he is made for this. But this girl . . . Okay, usually he sets everything. He talks and does everything first and the girls would just fall through the flow, because they let him leading. This girl is commanding even to a stranger. , this is supposed to be his game.

 

“Yep. But won’t call myself as a keen reader. I only read the mainstream books.”

 

“Meaning Harry Potter.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Because everyone reads Harry Potter.”

 

“Because everyone would read Harry Potter.”

 

Her lips twitch into a smile. “What else? If you mean mainstream, did you read Shakespeare or J.D Salinger or something?”

 

He can feel his face falls. Abort the mission, is what his subconscious tells him. Just pay the two jackass back and abort the mission. She’s turning this game into hers.

 

She can probably hear it, because she starts to smirk and lean forward until their eyes level. “What else?”

 

He keeps his slowly melting façade on his face, and mimics her posture. He meets her eyes, and his monologues keep chanting, . “People.” He blurts out.

 

Her eyebrows snap up. “People?” Then they knit together. If she isn’t intimidating, Jaebum would squeal because she looks so adorable like that. “You mean People Magazine?”

 

“No, Miss. People. Like you and me. I like to read people.”

 

He knows how stupid that sounds but that’s kind of the point because he’s way behind in this game and he just wants to pull through with it. So why don’t just humor it?

 

But she doesn’t smile. “So you were reading me?”

 

“I am reading you.”

 

If he’s right about it, he could see her stare wavers a bit.

 

“What do you see?”

 

“You.” He stares, he stares so deep he could see himself in her eyes. “And me.”

 

She bursts out laughing. And he follows with an embarrassing chuckle. At least when she laughs, it feels comfortable a little, and actually gives a good display to Jackson and Youngjae.

 

That reminds him.

 

“What’s your name?” He asks. Because that’s the first detail the two will ask him later.

 

“What’s your game?” She replies, still giggling. And he’s still smiling for a full five seconds until the question fully-processed in his head.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Don’t act dumb. How much is the bet?”

 

.

 

“What?”

 

She tilts her head, and smiles. “You and your friends. I know you guys are betting. Should have told your friends to be easy with their obvious reactions though.”

 

. He sighs. Funny how they thought she looks easy and approachable. She’s totally the opposite.

 

“Of course they would act that way, so that they’ll win my money.” He gives up and he waits. This is probably the part where he’ll get his first splash of drink on his face.

 

But then she remains aloof. Like his confession doesn’t bite her pride a bit. “What’s your game? My phone number?”

 

“And name and a text message.”

 

She nods. “That’s easy money. How much?”

 

Jaebum sighs again. “About twenty bucks.”

 

She grins. She’s adorable. He can certify that now because her intimidating vibe somehow slips off. “Let’s split.”

 

He freezes for a second because he never saw that coming. Not that he mind splitting, but—“Really?”

 

“At least you can keep your ego and you still have ten bucks. I’ll text you.”

 

“What?”

 

“But that would make me look easy.” She mumbles to herself, completely ignoring his question. “How about 60-40?”

 

“What?”

 

She smiles. “I’m acting so chummy here for you. Act with me.”

 

He smiles, too fake he feels pain in his cheeks. “50-50, and I’ll get you a muffin.”

 

She thinks for a while. “Okay.”

 

He grins. “So, what’s your name?”

 

“Bear.”

 

“Bae?”

 

She snorts. “Your game is over, too late for a pickup line.”

 

“I’m not doing a pick up line. Seriously, Bae?”

 

“Bae with obvious R. Bae-r.”

 

“Your name is bear?”

 

She shrugs. “That’s all you can get since I only get a muffin and a half.”

 

“You’ve got games . . .”

 

“I’m winning this. And it’s for both of us.”

 

He smirks. “Okay. Your phone number?”

 

“You text me.”

 

Still get a phone number. He shrugs. “What do I text?”

 

“What do I supposed to text?”

 

“Hi. It’s me. Call me?” Her face scrunches in disgust and it just occurs to him how lame that is. “I know. I’ll text you that?”

 

She nods quickly. “With pleading emoji.”

 

“You serious?” She shrugs. Jaebum sighs again. “So Bae with an R, what’s your number?”

 

She smiles as she takes his phone and punches in his number.

 

“You’re not putting in some lonely housewives phone numbers right?”

 

“I would if I know one.”

 

And after he presses send, her phone chimes. He smirks at her. “So how do I give you? Get the money and come back here?”

 

She shakes her head, with disappointment tracing her features. “You surprisingly got no game.”

 

Jaebum rolls his eyes. Yeah, tell me about it.

 

“I’ll be here tomorrow. Same time.”

 

“You trust me?”

 

“Don’t be so shameless. I won that for both of us so be a gentleman, for once.” She gathers her book and things and stands up. “And I got your phone number. And if you don’t want me to do things with it,” She trails off, leaving uncertain dots behind it.

 

For some reason, he thinks it’s safer if he doesn’t take her uncertain thread lightly.

 

“Fine.” He says defeatedly as he walks her to the door.

 

“And I want blueberry muffin. I’ll text you the time. See you, uh . . .”

 

Jaebum smiles as he holds the door open for her. “JB not Bieber.”

 

She laughs, not so much of any words to say, before she walks away.

 

And Jaebum finds himself staring at her figure until she disappears in the crowd.

 

And Jaebum finds himself staring at his phone all night for a text.

 

It’s not his game anymore. But he doesn’t mind losing.

 

---

thanks for reading. :)