Does He Really--?

"Hmm, what did I say?" Seyong absentmindedly asks, as he scoops up some ice cream.

"Daehyun," I sharply say. "What did you say to him, huh?"

Seyong shakes his head, but the mischievous twinkle in his eyes tells me something more. "Nothing," he answers. "I didn't say anything."

I exhale with a roll of my eyes, knowing that when he speaks in this 'pleasant' tone, then I wasn't going to get anything more. This makes Seyong chuckle at me, as he's aware that I'm not going to bother. He then brings our attention back to the dessert melting away, and so we go back to eating it. My mind would have been worried about Daehyun, and kept itself on him, if Seyong didn't end up scooping up the parts that I wanted to eat.

I know that he's purposely doing this though, and as he keeps it up, my grumpiness becomes more obvious.

He then offers out his spoon to me, "Here, let me feed you."

I wrinkle my nose at it; "Ew, feed yourself."

Seyong pouts at this. "Aw, Hyeri-yah, come on," he whines. "Let me feed you."

Shaking my head, I then back away a little. "No!" I snap back.

A huff comes out of him, as he slowly puts down the spoon. "What did I do wrong?" he mumbles, in a sudden quivering voice.

My eyes are wide, as I am taken aback by his change in mood; "What—?"

"I just wanted to make you happy," says Seyong, with the volume of his voice raising. "Hyeri-yah, no matter what happens, I won't allow you to break up with me!"

Huh—?!

His outburst is enough to have the whole place pause, and then direct their attention towards us. I freeze from the amount of eyes on me that range from shocked to curious. Seyong then dramatically begins to blab out some more nonsense, and once he's done, he pretends to get all teary and quietly mope to himself a little more. This all happens so fast, I can't react quickly enough, with my head still trying to process all of the surprise.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I then subtly lean in towards him. "You loser, what are you doing?!" I hiss.

The lady with her two kids from before suddenly meets my eyes when I look up, and when this happens, she begins to sadly shake her head at me.

I wince at the disappointed look on her face. "Ahjumma, it's not what it looks like," I try to explain.

Her little daughter then boldly makes her way over to us, and gives Seyong a pat on the arm. "Oppa, are you okay?" she innocently asks.

Seyong looks up and begins to sniff. "No," he gingerly replies, with a shake of his head; "My girlfriend over here wants to break up with me."

The little girl looks at me with her big deer-like eyes and frowns. "Unnie, why are you so mean to oppa?" she questions, looking so sad.

I blink at her, and then furiously shake my head; "No-no-no, don't listen to him, he's just being weird!"

"Leave her, you deserve someone better!" calls out a random person, from somewhere in the place.

Hearing this, Seyong shakes his head. "I can't," he dramatically declares; "Because she's the only one in my heart!"

I gag.

The whole place is filled with "Aww”s, and some of the girls our age swoon, where they then say something about wanting a boyfriend like Seyong.

Which makes me gag even more.

I can feel my cheeks begin to heat up, both from embarrassment, and a strange tingling feeling that I'm not so sure about. Swallowing down my nerves, I then put on my best apologetic face, and then place my hand onto his. "Seyong-ah, I'm really sorry for overreacting," I say, as sweetly as possible. "I love you too, so let’s never fight again, okay?"

See, I can play this game, too.

Pulling him into a forced hug, people then start to clap, cheering for our 'love' being repaired.

And as this happens, I make sure that my long hair is able to hide a section of my face, as I then mutter into his ear, in a threatening voice; "Just you wait until we get out of here."

———————————————

"Okay, spill!" I order, as soon as we're a couple of meters away from the shop. "What the hell was that for, huh?!"

Seyong is laughing, obviously way too entertained by his little prank back there. "For fun!" he brightly says.

"Fun?" I hiss, "That was so embarrassing, I just—argh, now Daehyun thinks that we're dating!"

This seems to brighten Seyong's mood, as he laughs some more; "He already thinks we do, so it shouldn’t be too much of a shock to him."

"What?!" I yell out, in disbelief. "Why does he think that? You—“ My jaw drops, as I suddenly remember back to their ‘code talk’. “You told him that we we’re dating, which is why he went all weird out of nowhere, huh?! Oh my God, I can’t believe you said that to him, I wouldn’t ever date you, I just—ugh, you're so embarrassing, why are you always like this?!"

All of my anger exploded. I'm too humiliated to say anything else, so I focus that energy into attempting to bruise him. Strangely finding my response amusing, Seyong continues to chuckle away, as he dashes over towards a pole, as if saying that the metal stick can actually protect him. We run around for a bit, with him teasing me that I'm too slow to catch him, but it's not my fault that he's a friggin' acrobatic!

"Seyong, I hate you, come back here!" I holler out.

"Lies!" he happily chirps back. "You don't hate me, because if you did, then you wouldn't be asking me to come back to you!"

I slow down my pace, and then just watch him from where I am.

Why is he always messing around with my words?

Giving my head a shake, I let out a sigh, and then turn to the opposite direction, only to bump into the red-head.

"Tired?" he queries, with a tilt of his head. "Come on, let’s go and get a drink."

I frown, "I don't want to get a drink with you."

"Oh come on," beckons Seyong. "We'll get your favourite strawberry iced tea!"

Surprised by his choice of words, he takes advantaged of my temporary stunned self, to take a hold of my hand, where he then begins to lead the way.

And as my feet continue to follow his footsteps, the only thing I can think of is; how does he know my favourite drink?

———————————————

After getting our iced tea, we then decide to head back home.

It's been a long and somewhat interesting day, and even though Seyong is so embarrassing to be around, his effort for taking me out makes up for it. We take our time with the walk, where Seyong does most of the talking, and I think it's because he just really likes the sound of his voice or something. Along the way, we see a stray tabby cat, and are instantly reminded of his joke of that other cat wanting some 'milk' from me, which makes me let out a squeal of disgust.

"Geez, it's nice to know that you think of me and my chest when it comes to tabby cats," I sarcastically say. "Wonderful, really."

Seyong laughs, "I'm sorry, but you have to admit that my joke is funny, right?"

"Mm, it's so funny, I think you could easily be a comedian," I dully say.

Seyong pouts, "Aw, don't be such a Squidward."

"I'm not a Squidward!" I retort, feeling slightly offended; "You're just too Spongebobby."

"But that's why we go so well together!" he chimes. "I like playing, and you're all 'rawr-I-hate-everything', it's like that whole 'opposites attract' saying."

"I don't 'hate everything'," I grumble. "You're just always picking on me, so of course I'm going to get all snappy."

"But if I don't, then you won't talk to me," he murmurs. I give him a strange look, but then get distracted by what he says next. "Oh, I should be the clarinet instead!"

"Why would you want to be that weird instrument...?" I slowly ask.

Seyong beams at me, "Because Squidward likes his clarinet, so we'd be on the same page!"

I shake my head at his odd conclusion, but smile at it anyway; "You're so weird."

The topic somehow then changes to being about his stomach, and that with the amount of eating we had done today, it was going to be my fault for ruining his 'abs'. I roll my eyes at him, telling him that he had brought it upon himself, and that his 'abs' isn’t the only thing being ruined, because there's also my stomach, as well. Seyong then somehow comes up with this crazy idea of exercising together, but I just gave him a queer look and refuse.

And then before we knew it, the two of us have already reached my front door.

I then turn towards him, with a genuine smile on my face. "Thanks for making me feel better," I sincerely say. "I really needed today, and even though I almost exploded from being overfed, I had fun."

Surprise washes over Seyong's face, just before his expression softens. "I'm glad," he replies.

Turning my attention back to the door, I'm about to give the doorbell a buzz, but he stops me.

"Hyeri-yah, I—"

Seyong suddenly pauses, sounding a little hesitant, and I'm about to turn back around to face him, but my sudden nerves prevent me. I can feel his body heat, and it's enough to tell me that he's now standing a lot closer to me than before. This makes me nervously swallow, as my body tenses up. There's a weird feeling inside of me, and I'm not exactly sure if I want to hear him tell me what's on his mind or not.

I mean, half of me is curious, but the other half of me is kind of...scared?

"I thought...I thought if we were to spend some more time together, then you would get an idea of how I feel about you," he quietly says. "But since you don't seem to understand, then I'll just say it right now; I like you, and I’ve liked you for quite a long time."