“Wh-What are you doing?! I never agreed to this! I’m not ready for this!” He tried to sit back up, but she had him pinned down. The lights were still off, and Dongwoo had no idea what to expect. With his eyes tightly shut, he waited for her to make some kind of move.

“What are you thinking about? ert..” He slowly opened his eyes. The moonlight was shining through the window behind her, so he could clearly see the silhouette of the one he had fallen for. She had let her hair down and was wearing a form-fitting long sleeve shirt. She didn’t have to do anything special to make his heart beat so quickly, but at that moment he could feel his heart beating so loudly he was sure he could hear it, nonetheless feel it reverberating through his body.

“Then what are you trying to do? You are making it really hard for me to breathe. Can you tell me why you taped off the light switch and why you are sitting on me in the dark?”

“It’s a surprise. You can’t know about it yet!” Out of her back pocket she retrieved a sleep mask and placed it over his eyes. “Now you stay here like a good boy until I’m ready for you to look.”

Pouting, he got up and sat on the couch “like a good boy.” He could hear her walking around and placing different items around the room. It made him so curious. She had never treated him this way, so he didn’t know what to expect. “Maybe she is cleaning her house because I’ve told her so many times before to clean up. Or maybe she is just acting like she is cleaning to tease me.” So many thoughts ran through his mind, but he just couldn’t figure out what she was doing.

“I think you’ll like it,” she said softly. She told him he could take off the mask now, which he did hesitantly.

“And by liking it, will it be like-love or just like—“ He was speechless after he looked around the apartment. There were green and yellow balloons (their favorite colors) taped to the wall as well as floating around the apartment. She had a homemade cake, decorated herself with the words “Happy 100^th Day!” on it, sitting on the table as well as a small neatly wrapped present next to the cake.

“Or just like-like… What is all this?”

“You know I really don’t like all these cheesy stuff, but I prepared all this just for you. Did you really think I would let this day end without doing something for you?”

“You didn’t have to do this much.”

“Well I wanted to. I felt like I was always receiving stuff from you. It’s my turn to do something for you.”

“This is more than I need.” He reached for the present. “And this is..?”

“Open it!”

He quickly tore away the wrapping. It had been so long since he got such a heartfelt present, probably the first after his first love, who was a pretty girl a couple years older than him from his dance academy during his high school years, gave him a goodbye present when she left the country to study abroad. The first thing in the box was a bookmark of a cartoon dinosaur. “Because I know how much you love to read.” Below the bookmark was a beige-colored knit scarf. “It took me forever to knit that. It’s not perfect, but I still worked hard on it.” It was true. She stayed up all night for weeks knitting and sometimes un-doing it fixing the little mistakes she made. Dongwoo could still see a few places with little mistakes, but the fact that she went out of her way to learn something she would’ve never learned for herself made him a happy man. Finally, laying at the bottom was a card. “But you can’t read it until you get home. You have to promise to read it on your own.”

“This is so perfect. Thank you so much.” He hugged her tightly, and he didn’t want to let go. He was so touched. He never imagined she would be the type to make bookmarks, or cakes, or scarves. She went out of her way to make this day special.

“Oh, by the way,” Dongwoo said as he took something out from his jacket pocket. “I have something for you too.” It was a small box with a small bow on the top. She looked at him expectantly and couldn’t hide her smile when she looked to see what he had gotten her. Inside the box was a simple ring with the infinity symbol and a note that said “Together forever.” He took the ring and placed it on her ring finger.

“Look. I have one too.” He held up his hand to show her.

She gave him a quick peck on the cheek, which made him blush. “I love it. Thank you. We still need to eat. I actually prepared some food. Well, actually a lot of food. I wanted you to invite your friends over. You still haven’t introduced them to me you know.”

“Hoya and Woohyun? I didn’t know you wanted to meet them.”

“Isn’t it normal for someone’s girlfriend to meet the friends?”

“I don’t know. I guess so. You sure you want to meet them? Well, you met Woohyun before.”

“I haven’t met Hoya yet. Go call them and invite them over. I’ll go heat up the food.”

He was hesitant about calling his friends, not because he didn’t want them to meet but because he didn’t know if he was ready to take that step. To him, introducing his girlfriend was a big step into their relationship. It seemed like it wasn’t a big deal to her, but he hadn’t even thought about letting the three of them meet.

“Did you call them yet? The food will be ready soon and then we’ll have to set it up and stuff,” she called out from the kitchen.

“I was just about to. Hey, are you sure about this? I don’t know if I’m ready.”

“Yes! Just call them.”

He fiddled with his phone for awhile and finally decided to call Hoya. After the fifth ring, he heard a groggy voice pick up. “Hello?”

“Hey, Hoya. It’s me. Are you busy tonight?”

Hoya didn’t respond for a few moments. (It took a sleepy Hoya a few moments to register and think through what Dongwoo just asked.) “No, I don’t think so. Why?”

Dongwoo could barely hear his voice, but he was so used to talking on the phone with a tired Hoya. “Do you want to come eat dinner with me? I want you to meet my girlfriend.”

“It’s about time,” Hoya mumbled on the other line, inaudible to Dongwoo’s ears.

“What?”

“I said I’ll be there. Text me the address.” And with that the two friends hung up. Dongwoo had a similar conversation with Woohyun, who was more than awake hanging out with some of his other friends.

He walked into the small area supposedly called a kitchen to help out only to find that she was almost done preparing everything.

“Wow. You did all this by yourself? I didn’t know you could cook.”

“When you live on your own for awhile, you learn to cook for survival.” She offered him a bite of the food, and he was surprised. She was a very good cook, almost comparable to his own mother who not only loved to cook but also cooked for the family restaurant.

“Hmm. It’ll do.” He had a teasing smile on his face.

She shook her head and pushed him away. “Jerk. Why don’t you make yourself useful and clean up a little? I have a small table we can lay out. It’ll be enough for the four of us.”

By the time Hoya and Woohyun arrived, they had the living room cleaned up and the food set out. Hoya and Woohyun brought small gifts for the couple like couple t-shirts and other couple items. (They knew how cheesy Dongwoo could get, but wasn’t sure if his girlfriend liked those kinds of things. “Just buy it. If she doesn’t like it then she doesn’t have to use it,” Woohyun said as Hoya and he were shopping around.)

“So… Nice to meet you. I’m Hoya.” Hoya stuck out his hand, and as she reached out to grab his hand for a handshake, Dongwoo interfered and slapped Hoya’s hand away. “Jealous boyfriend much?”

“Come on, Dongwoo. We’re not here to steal your girlfriend away. We just want to be friends,” Woohyun said as he wrapped an arm around Dongwoo’s shoulders.

“You’re the one I’m more worried about, Woohyun,” Dongwoo replied. She looked on with an amused smile. Dongwoo never acted jealous before, but it was definitely a cute side to him.

“I’m starving. Let’s eat.” Woohyun and Hoya sat on the floor as they adjusted themselves around the table. Dongwoo and his girlfriend followed suit and took their seats as well. For the first few minutes of the meal, they were silent as church mice. Dongwoo kept looking stealing glances from his girlfriend, who only shrugged whenever their eyes met. He gave her a look that said, “You were the one who wanted to meet them. Now say something.” She responded with a look that said, “They’re your friends.”

“Will you guys stop being lovey-dovey in front of us? I am trying to eat,” Woohyun said with a mouthful of food.

Hoya hit the back of Woohyun’s head. “Woohyun, I told you so many times before. Stop talking with your mouth full. It’s rude.”

“You’re not my mom! Leave me alone. I can do whatever I want.”

“No one wants to see food spilling out of your mouth,” Dongwoo interjected.

“You guys always team up against me!”

“Shut up and eat.”

She tried to suppress her laughter, but she was soon laughing so hard she was gasping for breath. “You guys are hilarious.” The three boys looked at her confused.

“She laughs at random things. Don’t mind her,” Dongwoo explained as he continued to eat.

“This is really good. Did you cook all this yourself?” Hoya asked politely.

She was still giggling when she nodded. “I heard you had a girlfriend, Hoya,” she managed to say after she calmed down a little.

From there on, Hoya and Woohyun were able to open up a little. For the rest of the night, the four of them talked, played games, and so on. Dongwoo was just relieved that the usually quiet and reserved Hoya, who was also very similar to Dongwoo in many aspects, and the full-of-jokes grease ball Woohyun were able to feel comfortable around his girlfriend. When the three boys got home after helping to clean up, Hoya and Woohyun couldn’t stop complimenting her.

“Honestly, at first I didn’t think you guys would last. You guys are like polar opposites, but seeing you guys today, she might be the one,” Woohyun said as he patted Dongwoo’s back. “She’s a keeper.”

“Thanks, guys. Really.”

“Anything for you.”

-------------------//---------------------

Hiiiii! So I wanted to clarify if you don't know what the low table thing is. Basically Koreans will sometimes eat on little (usually long) tables that is just tall enough for someone to sit under. Ex: http://www.burpandslurp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/IMG_3692.jpg And thank you to all those who subscribed~ It really does mean a lot to me. Comments are always welcomed. (And I am really liking this purple font. hahah hoya made me like purple..)