Jinyoung sighed and shivered slightly, both from the chill morning air and at the memory of last night. Her cheeks were glowing red now, more from the embarrassment than anything else. Then what are we? Friends? She recalled that question from last night. Was she supposed to say ‘no’? Jinyoung frowned and crossed her arms more tightly across her chest. She huffed. She still didn’t want to say ‘no,’ honestly. They were good friends, and Jinyoung thought that was a good thing, an important thing. I wouldn’t like you if I also didn’t consider you as a very good friend, that was her reasoning and maybe she should’ve stopped and told him that.

“Good morning, Hong-saem!”

Jinyoung snapped her head back up and smiled at the students passing by. That’s right. She was on gate duty today. She needed to greet the students, and more importantly act like nothing was bothering her.

Ah! I can’t believe I trusted The Bull over him! Jinyoung stamped her foot when that thought popped into her mind, again. He tried to tell her it was just coffee, but she jumped to all sorts of conclusions (well, she was led to those conclusions). It really should’ve been no surprise that he had walked away from her that night.

And now, right now, he was walking away from her again, or at least he was trying to hurry past the gate while barely acknowledging her.

“Did you get home okay? Sunggyu?” she spoke up and called him by name in order to better get his attention. And it worked. He stopped and pulled out earbuds from his ears as he looked over at her questioningly. He hadn’t heard what she said, so she repeated it, “Did you get home alright?”

“I did,” he replied, with that look still on his face until he looked back and saw students walking towards them. Jinyoung stepped to the side and gestured at him to stand with her, which he did. His face warmed up and continued, “Obviously, or else I wouldn’t be here.”

“I guess that’s true,” Jinyoung said lowly. The both of them then greeted the students who walked past the gates. Afterwards, when the students were a safe distance away and there were none approaching them, Jinyoung whispered, “I’m sorry about last night.”

“Sorry? For what?” he whispered back.

“Ah.” Honestly that apology just fell out of without her thinking, especially without thinking that Sunggyu would press her on it. After thinking about it for a few moments, she started with the easiest apology: “First of all, for keeping you out so late. And then you had to drive home on top of that.”

“It’s fine,” Sunggyu dismissed it, even though it was obvious that was exhausted this morning. “I had a good time last night.”

“You did? Even though you were forced to eat with my friends?” now it was Jinyoung’s turn to press him. She knew how overbearing the Hyuns could be at first, but they were still her very best friends and a very big part of her life. But Sunggyu appeared to have liked them, as he nodded in answer to her question. “I’m glad,” and she felt relieved as well.

“It was nice to meet them. I can see why they’re your friends,” he remarked through a yawn.

Jinyoung scrunched her face as she asked. “Really? Why?”

“They just seem like they’d be your friends, like Yewon-ssi,” he vaguely clarified. “They’re good people.”

“That makes sense, I guess. We came together for a reason,” Jinyoung agreed with that reasoning. After all, now wasn’t the time to carry on an in depth conversation about friends. Neither of them had the energy for that.

“So…is there anything else that you’re sorry for?” and Jinyoung definitely didn’t have the energy (or the courage) to answer Sunggyu’s new question.

“Probably,” she began with a shaky smile. “Like…” her voice drifted away as her gaze shifted away from him too.

But he wasn’t going to let her get away. He nudged her and asked again, “Like what?”

“Good morning, seonsaeng-nim!”

“Ah, Good morning!” They both snapped their heads towards the students approaching them and shouted their greetings a bit too loudly. After them, more students filtered in through the gates after them. A few of them gave their teachers suspecting glares, which made the teachers in turn look at each other awkwardly and smile.

Eventually, Sunggyu decided to take his leave, when there was a lull between the gaggles of kids. “I should probably get going. I’ll see you inside.”

“Oh! Bye,” Jinyoung waved to him and then greeted a few more students. Her eyes followed the kids as they walked across the school yard and they fell once again on Sunggyu, who’d looked back at her too. He then shook his head at her, while smiling widely, and turned to walk into the school.

What was that about?

Jinyoung was hurriedly eating lunch before musical practice because she had no time to do so until now because she was either teaching, lesson planning, or running errands. So since she was so fixed on her food with her ravenous hunger, she didn’t notice when Dongwoo sat down and rolled his chair over to her desk as soon as he came into the office. “What’s this I’m hearing about Sunggyu going out with Hwang’s daughter?” he asked when he reached her, jumping right into the issue.

Jinyoung coughed. She guessed that Dongwoo had seen Hwang and not Sunggyu for him to be asking her this. After swallowing down her food, she answered, “They did. For coffee.”

“What?” Dongwoo asked. “Was that it?”

Jinyoung nodded as she continued to each her lunch. She answered the other while eating, “Sunggyu was giving her advice, from sunbae to hoobae.”

“That makes more sense,” Dongwoo muttered to himself. He then told Jinyoung: “Someone should tell Hwang though. She’s calling him son-in-law already.”

Jinyoung rolled her eyes at that. The Chinese teacher was telling even more people today about her daughter’s ‘date,’ which was nothing more than coffee and a chat. Jinyoung would love to tell Hwang that Sunggyu thought of her daughter as a child, but, she sighed. “I don’t think she’d believe me if I told her the truth.”

“Truth?!” Dongwoo hung onto that word and scooted in closer so much so that Jinyoung backed away a little. He cocked an eyebrow. “What truth is that?”

“That Sunggyu thinks she’s a child. He doesn’t even see her as a woman,” Jinyoung told him. Something about the look on Dongwoo’s face, made her want to add, “He told me that…yesterday.” He was still sitting there, blankly staring at her. “When I asked him…after musical practice.”

“Ah, that truth,” Dongwoo finally spoke. “I thought you meant some other truth.”

Jinyoung put down her spoon and turned towards him. “What other truth? That’s the only one I know,” she confessed and wondered if Dongwoo knew something that he wasn’t telling her. That smile on his face made it seem like he did.

“Really? That’s the only truth you know? No other?” he pressed her.

“Well, I do have a theory,” she admitted. Dongwoo leaned in again. Jinyoung did too this time so she could whisper to him, “Hwang left for the day, right?” Dongwoo nodded eagerly. He might just be nodding so that she’d tell him, and he didn’t even know whether Hwang was there or not. It didn’t really matter because Jinyoung felt like telling him anyway. She had been stewing over this for a while. “So you know how Hwang is such a bull and pushes and pushes until she gets her way?”

“Yea, sure,” Dongwoo prompted her to continue.

“Well, with her bullish ways, she somehow wore Sunggyu down to meet with her daughter, and now she keeps bragging about it to people, to me! Especially to me! And I don’t know why,” Jinyoung wasn’t even whispering anymore, but gradually raised her voice as she continued.

“Really? You don’t?” he asked as if he himself knew.

“No! Okay, maybe I do,” and deep down Jinyoung thought she knew why Hwang did too. “I’m a positive person. I’ll tell her what she wants to hear. She knows that. ‘Oh, that’s great. Sunggyu and your daughter would be perfect together. Such a cute couple. Blah, blah, blah,’” she mocked being excited and ended with a deep frown, slinking down in her seat.

“I’m positive that you wouldn’t say that,” Dongwoo remarked with a slight shake of his head.

Jinyoung stood up straight again. “Well, of course,” she quickly agreed. “Because Sunggyu’s not interested! It’s important what he thinks!”

“It is,” Dongwoo concurred with a slight laugh.

“Right.” Jinyoung then moved onto her theory that she couldn’t hold onto any longer, “Anyway, because she’s so insistent in making Sunggyu a part of her family, it kinda makes me think that Hwang secretly loves Sunggyu. She obviously can’t marry him, but she still wants him. And so she is trying to live vicariously through her daughter.” When she finished her rant, Dongwoo was staring at her blankly again. She gave him a nervous smile. “It makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“Nope,” he said and shook his head. “Not at all.”

“Eh, it does!” she argued and waved her hand at her.

‘No, it doesn’t,” another person jumped into their conversation. Jinyoung nearly jumped out of her seat too. Tentatively she raised her eyes and saw Sunggyu slung over the top of her desk, who was staring down at her with a cheeky smile. “I agree with Dongwoo,”

“I didn’t even hear you come in,” Jinyoung muttered, while pushing her chair back. She turned to Dongwoo. “When did he come in?”

“I said, ‘Hi’ to him,” Dongwoo replied. He then waved up to his friend. “Sunggyu, what’s up!”

“What’s up?” Sunggyu waved back.

“I didn’t hear that either,” Jinyoung grumbled, while fiddling with her hair. She assumed that she was just so lost in her rant and that was why she didn’t notice the man come in. A frustrated pout formed on her lips as she looked up at him again. “How long have you been there?”

“For a good while,” Sunggyu answered as he lifted himself from the top of her desk.

Jinyoung slunk down again in her chair. “I should really stop gossiping and mind my own business,” she mumbled.

“Yes, you should stop, but only because we have to do musical stuff now,” Sunggyu agreed to a degree. The smile then fell away, and his face was somber. His eyes were on the rolled, torn script in his hands. “But I have something I want to say to you about the whole Hwang thing, so let’s talk afterwards.”

Ah he needs to rant too, she concluded. Jinyoung nodded. “Sure, after we’re done, let’s talk.”

“Great.” Sunggyu flashed her a smile. “I’ll head out first,” he announced. With a wave to Dongwoo, he left.

“I should probably get going too,” Jinyoung announced herself and got up from her desk.  “I’ll see you later, Dongwoo!” she told him as she passed him by.

“You two, have fun!” Dongwoo shouted back at her.

Jinyoung was almost out of the office, when she walked back in, stole two more lollipops from his desk, and then darted out into the hallway. Today, none of her students were going to get injured on her watch. She wouldn’t let them out of her sight.

The incident from the day before left the whole art club visibly shaken, and everyone was overly cautious of Daeyeol, who surprisingly was still there. When Jinyoung asked how he was feeling, he muttered that he was okay (in spite of his heavily bandaged hand) and that he really just wanted to see this through. The way he looked at her when he said that, it appeared like he was begging. So Jinyoung let him stay and help out as much as he could, which now was painting.

Jinyoung watched all of the others like a hawk, especially if they were handling tools. She tried to do most of the hammering on her own now, but a few of the art students had to help. They were so close to finishing one of the projects that they all wanted to complete it today. They managed to do so, and when the students had enough of painting and building, Jinyoung stepped back and took everything in. They were almost done, which meant that she was almost done supervising them.

This is all going to be over soon.

And Jinyoung was going to miss it.

But before it all came to an end, Jinyoung had a promise to fulfill. So when art club had ended, Jinyoung left the auditorium for the practice rooms. She had told Jiyeon that she’d watch them rehearse, and that’s what she was going to do.

A few of the students, including Jiyeon, did notice Jinyoung trying to sneak into the room. She waved to them and then put a finger to her lips, while she stuck alongside the wall and tried to find a seat. She only wanted to watch them rehearse and not make an “appearance.” She didn’t want to draw any attention to herself, especially since Chilgoo and Sunggyu were talking to the seriously about a scene.

“HYONG-SAEM!”

But that wasn’t the case. Teenagers didn’t know anything about subtlety. Joochan was the one who started shouting her name, but soon Youngtaek and Jisoo joined in too. “Did you come to see us, saem?” Jiyeon asked. Jinyoung nodded.

“I promised that I would,” Jinyoung responded quietly as the two musical directors looked over at her and one of them began walking towards her. “Just pretend like I’m not here,” she insisted as she took a seat along the wall. “Please continue.”

But the man coming towards her did not want to ignore her, like she wished. “No, this is great,” Chilgoo announced to the whole room even though he was facing the History teacher. “You can be our first audience!” Many students behind him agreed, and the other director (Jinyoung had to lean to the side to catch sight of him) was finding this all very amusing. And she didn’t quite know how to respond, expect for nodding, which she did. She nodded very much until Chilgoo spun back around and faced the rest. “Alright, everyone! Let’s start with the opening number!”

A few of the girls whined. “We’re not in the number,” Jisoo remarked to Jiyeon as the two of them walked to the side in order to make room for the rest.

“Let’s do a song that everyone is in,” Sunggyu suggested. He stood on the other side of the room, opposite of his rival, with his arms crossed. “They do know ‘Jailhouse Rock’ the best, but ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ is going to be the showstopper. Why don’t we do that one instead?”

“I want to see the showstopper,” Jinyoung inserted as well as raised her hand in the air. “I want to be impressed.”

“Oh, you’ll be impressed, Hong seonsaeng-nim,” the Drama teacher retorted and then excused himself, “I only suggested ‘Jailhouse Rock’ since it was the opening scene, but because Hong seonsaeng-nim had already read the script, she know what’s going on.” Jinyoung nodded very much again. Chilgoo’s smile was soon replaced with a stern lip. “Let’s go over the entire scene from the beginning, starting with Mayor Matilda discovering Dean and Lorraine.” After he issued his commands, the students started setting up themselves up for the scene. Jinyoung watched as they did so. She rarely had seen the students this serious, almost professional. Yes, she had watched the school’s musicals for the past few years, but she didn’t expect the gravity on stage would be with them off-stage as well. The students barely chatted with one another as they set up. Fewer than she expected were checking their scripts to make sure that they knew the lines, which meant most had them memorized already. It was probably time for them to know it too. They were going to have their first rehearsal in a few weeks. They should have already mastered Act I.

It’s really going to be over soon.

Jinyoung would have no idea what to do with her time once the musical was over.

“Excuse me.” Jinyoung tore her eyes away from the students, who’d already begun acting, and met them with Sunggyu’s. “I’m in charge of starting the music,” he stated as he gestured to the stereo next to her.

“Ah, so this is your seat? I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” she apologized as she popped up and moved the next seat. When they both settled in, she whispered to him, “So you’re in charge of the music, huh?” It was obvious that Chilgoo put Sunggyu in charge of pressing play on the stereo so that he’d be out of the way and so that he could step up as the main director.

But Sunggyu didn’t seem to mind, or at least that small grin on his face didn’t led her to think he was bothered by it. However, that grin wasn’t directed towards her but towards the students. He put a finger up to his lips and then gestured to the kids in front of them. “We should watch them,” he whispered back.

Jinyoung tucked her lips into , sat up straight, faced the students performing for her. She was there now for them, and she should pay attention to them. Other things could definitely wait. But this performance was, honestly, amazing. Sure some of the students needed to be fed their lines, and others had a hard time keeping a straight face (Jinyoung did too). However once they all started singing, Jinyoung was breathless, and whatever breath she did have, she spent it saying “ooh” and “aah.” Some of these kids were definitely stars in the making, and they were already shining brightly.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the man in charge of music was smirking at her reactions. Jinyoung leaned closer to him. “Watch them, not me,” she hissed below her breath.

Sunggyu faced forward again. “I am. I’m evaluating them.”

Like a river flows surely to the sea

Darling so it goes

Some things are meant to be

Take my hand, take my whole life too

For I can't help falling in love with you

For I can't help falling in love with you

When they hit the final note, Jinyoung jumped up from her seat and gave them a well deserved standing ovation. “That was perfect!” she exclaimed. “You all were amazing!” The students looked proud of themselves, but there was also a tinge of apprehension in their expressions. A few seconds later, Jinyoung found out why.

“Everyone gather around!” Chilgoo summoned the kids over to him. Critiques. It was practice after all. And even to Jinyoung’s tone deaf ears, she could think of a few areas for improvement. But even so…

“They werereally good,” she remarked to the other director, who was getting up from his seat. “Practically perfect!”

“Practically,” Sunggyu picked out. “It’s my job to make them perfect.” He then turned to her. “After this, we should be done, so…” his voice drifted off, unable to finish the statement.

But Jinyoung knew where it was heading. “I’ll wait out in the hall,” she announced as she stood up. Once she was upright and (nearly) eye to eye with the other, panic set in. His face was unencouragingly blank. “That’s what you wanted, right?” she had to make sure.

Sunggyu nodded, still with that blank expression. He then let out a great sigh as he prepared himself to talk with the kids. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

Jinyoung nodded. And after waving to a few of the students who caught her eye, Jinyoung left the practice room. Once out in the hall, she looked up and down it. Where would be a good place to wait? She walked down the opposite direction of where she expected the kids to leave. They wouldn’t notice if she was down here, would they? Did she want them to notice her? No because she wasn’t here for them now. But what am I here for? Jinyoung wondered to herself. What were they going to talk about? Hwang and her daughter? Were they going to continue their conversation from last night? Could they continue it?

Knowing them, Jinyoung imagined that the two of them could talk about something completely unrelated. So to pass the time, Jinyoung thought of every possible thing that they could talk about. She didn’t want to say the wrong thing this time.

While she was daydreaming, the students began filtering out of the room and were walking away from her. Jinyoung waited for them to leave and stuck very closely to the wall, trying her best to blend in with it. And she must’ve done a good job of ‘disappearing’ because Sunggyu, who poked his head out of the door, didn’t seem to see her. He withdrew his head back in after looking up and down the hall a few times.

“Sunggyu! Kim-saem!” Jinyoung called him back out.

And Sunggyu did come out into the hall. “Jinyoung-ah,” he called to her right back, with a grin. “You’re still here.”

“Of course,” Jinyoung replied as she walked up to him, growing more and more anxious with every step. I thought we’d planned on it. Why does he seem surprised to see me? He just asked me to wait.

Sunggyu put his hand on her shoulder in order to stop her from entering the room. “Let’s go over in that room, instead,” he suggested and pointed at a room down the hall. Jinyoung questioned the change of location, until they were in the room. It was a one of the smaller practice rooms, made for music rather than dance, so there were no mirrors lining the walls. Nothing to make her (or him) feel self conscious.

 “How is it that you normally end earlier than we do?” Sunggyu asked her suddenly after she entered the room

“Because I want it to end,” Jinyoung gave too honest of an answer because she was caught off guard. And they both sputtered into a laugh at it. Jinyoung then explained herself further, “Those kids are basically on autopilot. They know what to do, and when they’re done, they’re done. I’m just there to make sure no one gets…hurt.” Her voice got caught over the last part.

He stopped in the middle of the room and turned towards her, scanning her up and down. “You’re doing a good job,” he replied. Jinyoung shifted in her spot and her gaze drifted away. She knew that he was trying to lift her spirits, so it seemed more like an encouraging comment rather than a truthful. Right now, she didn’t want to hear it. “So did Daeyeol come today?” he asked, following where Jinyoung’s own mind was going.

“Yes,” she responded, looking at him once again. They both let out a heavy sigh.

“He really should be training instead,” he remarked and spun on his heels, heading towards the piano. “I’ll talk to him later,” Sunggyu offered and sat down on the bench.

“Thank you,” Jinyoung spoke as if it was a favor for herself and not for the student. It felt that way. After all, he would’ve never opened up about his idol life to anyone, not just Daeyeol, if she didn’t ask him to. Why are you listening to me?Jinyoung asked herself as she waited for the other to meet her gaze. And when he did, she let go of a shaky breath and stepped closer. It was time for her to listen now, and she was ready. “Now, what did you want to talk to me about? Hwang?”

“Eung, that and more,” Sunggyu replied. He then slid down the bench, closer to the edge, and patted the place next to him. “Sit down. Here.”

She did join him, sitting on the very edge of the bench. Although they were probably physically closer earlier, when they were watching the rehearsal, sharing a piano bench like this felt more intimate. It was appropriate. They were about to become more intimate emotionally, Jinyoung supposed, since Sunggyu was about to tell her his inner feelings about the whole Hwang situation (and only the Hwang situation, right?). And perhaps in an effort to show just how close they really were, Jinyoung had pulled out two lollipops from her pocket, and offered one of them to him. “Here,” she spoke lowly.

“How did you know?” he took the candy and quickly unwrapped it.

Jinyoung kept her eyes forward. “It’s not that hard to figure out that you’d need a fix after dealing with the kids,” she explained.

“True,” he mumbled back. The lollipop was in his mouth, judging by his muffled words and the amount of lip smacking that was coming from next to her. But Jinyoung kept her eyes forward and the second lollipop in her hand, fingers playing with the edges of the wrapper. She was still waiting, ready for him to start, ready to listen to him before she’d do anything else, even if it was just to look at him. But she did end up glancing over at him, when Sunggyu gave her a sharp jab in her side with his finger. “And you! Why do you keep taking them from me?” he goaded her.

“I’ll buy you new ones,” she muttered, straight faced. She tore off the wrapper and popped the candy into after asking, “What did you want to say to me?” Now she couldn’t say anything else, since was preoccupied. But she kept her eyes on him.

“Everything,” he began. He then smirked, “I know you want to know everything.”

“I do,” Jinyoung spoke through the candy and nodded. Dang it. She wasn’t doing a good job of ‘not talking,’ and she kept doing a bad job of it as Sunggyu explained his side of everything. She prompted him with questions, wanting clarification, she made remarks to get him to laugh, and she agreed with him on a few points, validating his feelings.

All the while, Jinyoung hoped that she’d stop herself from saying too much, from not crossing the line that she had been toeing for awhile now. One slip of the tongue could change their relationship. She needed to be careful. Jinyoung wasn’t sure if she wanted to change anything between them at all. Even though she was sitting awkwardly on the bench, she was comfortable with him like this.

It was very comfortable, hearing him rant about Hwang who had slowly wore him down by constantly talking about her daughter to him, who guilted him with the dinners that she made him. Hwang only really had to ask him once to meet with her daughter, and he agreed, knowing that the request was inevitable. He felt like he owed that much to her. Sunggyu didn’t really want to go. He made that apparent to Jinyoung, saying it at least 10 different times. He didn’t want to go, but he felt like he had to. And Hwang had made it sound like such a small favor too: “Just talk to her. She’s nervous about the new program.” That was how she phrased it. And Sunggyu was a fool to think that it was just going to be that simple.

Hwang had dropped off her daughter for their ‘date’ and literally put her daughter’s hand into his, telling him to ‘take good care of her.’ Luckily, the daughter was just as embarrassed as Sunggyu was. But, in spite of the awkwardness, they still had coffee and talked about the program. He had promised this favor, and he was still going to fulfil it.

“Luckily, her daughter doesn’t take after her at all, so it was bearable,” he remarked.

Jinyoung stiffened. While they were talking, they had turned towards each other. Jinyoung was leaning, with her elbow propped against the piano, and Sunggyu was straddling the bench. They’d been comfortable, but she know was getting too close to that line. She sat up straight and looked away, across the room. “That’s good, I guess,” she muttered. She is too young. He said she was too young. Be reasonable, she chided herself. It’s not like that. We’re not like that, well, yet…or…

“Jinyoung.”

“What?” she asked and glanced back over him. Well, her eyes were on him, but she was looking past him.

“Lately, you always look at me like that,” Sunggyu commented. Jinyoung focused her eyes on his and shook her head. Her teeth clenched down on the stick in (the candy had dissolved long ago), but her lips turned up into a tight smile, trying to act like she wasn’t looking at him weirdly by giving him another weird look. Counterproductive? Yes. Did it work? Of course it didn’t. Sunggyu quirked his eyebrow at her. “You do,” he fought back. “What does it mean?” Jinyoung shrugged, clenching her teeth harder and tightening her smile. Acting like there was nothing wrong, only gave him more proof that something was. He sighed, but he wasn’t admitting defeat, just his disappointment in her. “You’re normally so honest, but about this you can’t say a word. Tell me. What’s on your mind?”

Jinyoung had wanted Sunggyu to control the conversation; she’d hoped he would. She wanted him to do most of the talking, and she’d interject every so often. That would be easier. That would be safer. But, honestly, deep down, Jinyoung knew that wasn’t the type of conversation that they should be having now. They were both toeing a line, and maybe it was time for one of them to cross it.

But it wasn’t going to be her.  

“You…worry me,” was all that Jinyoung would allow herself to say.

“Worried? Why?” Sunggyu moved, bringing his legs up onto the bench. There was even less room between them now. His knees now grazed her thigh. Jinyoung looked down at it.

“So many people like you,” she mumbled.

“And that worries you?” Sunggyu asked, ending his question with a slight laugh. And indeed it was a ridiculous answer, but Jinyoung had her reasons for it.

“Yes! Can’t you just be a bit more odious?” she joked, hoping to ease the tension (and to distract him, get him talking about himself again).

“No! I like being liked,” he replied with a shake of his head. Jinyoung raised her head again, but that was it. She didn’t know how else to respond, what else to say besides, well, that, her secret, which was suffocating her now as secrets always did. And just like last time, he knew it. And because he was just as nosy as she was, he was going to keep prying. “What’s wrong? Why does it worry you?”

Unlike last time though, Jinyoung couldn’t confess the secret so easily. She stumbled over her words, “When…when so many people like you…does it really matter if this or that person likes you? I mean, do they all matter to you?”

“What are you saying? I’m not following,” he wanted her to be clearer.

“I mean,” Jinyoung paused to sigh and closed her eyes. Perhaps she could speak her mind better, if she couldn’t see him, if she pretended that she was talking to air. “People like you for a reason, and they like you in a certain way. Like they see you as a friend or…s-something more. But, of course, not everyone will mean something to you. They might see you as a friend, but how do you see them? You can’t be good friends with everyone.” Okay maybe she couldn’t speak better. She only just spoke more. But she hoped that he could still interpret the mess that she had spewed out. “That’s what I meant.”

“I still don’t understand what you’re getting at. Or at least I’m not entirely sure,” Sunggyu mumbled lowly as he crossed his arms and leaned back slightly. His eyes scanned all of her, and he settled on looking at her from the corner of his eye. “Do you…is it like the other day when you said you didn’t want to assume too much or else you’d get hurt? Well, I think you areassuming too much, in the wrong way. I feel hurt.” He now was facing her head-on, with a hand over his heart. And his voice sounded genuinely offended. “You know, I don’t like everyone who likes me. I’m not…like a playboy or anything.”

Jinyoung’s eyes widened. When he said it like that, it sounded bad, so it wasn’t surprising that it made him feel equally as bad. “I know that, deep down,” Jinyoung mostly told herself. She then directed a joke to him, “You’d be in jail if you dated everyone who liked you. Because of the students. The students like you a lot.” She over-explained that joke, beat it into the ground, where it had fallen flat.

“Right,” he didn’t find funny at all. In fact, he looked even more concerned. “Also, just because people like me now, it doesn’t mean they always will. They don’t!” Jinyoung couldn’t believe that, and Sunggyu could read the disbelief on her face. Now he had to over-explain himself, “I’ve had people turn against me because I’m different from what they imagined. You know how our teaching persona can be different from who we really are. Or how first impressions are different, especially in my case. And people also turn against me because I did something wrong, say an inappropriate joke, and they hate me as much as they used to like me.”

“Eh, that can’t be true,” Jinyoung dismissed his explanation, no matter how honest it sounded. “I can’t imagine. How are you different?”

“Like…” It seemed like Sunggyu had to think a little too hard to think of an appropriate example. The longer he thought, the more anxious Jinyoung felt, as she imagined quickly every possible example that he could use. Then he finally spoke, “I'm not as funny as they thought I was, and I’m more awkward. What? You look offended.”

Jinyoung was offended. Out of everything horrible that she had imagined, that wasn’t one of them. It was inconceivable to her! “I think you’re funny. How are you not funny?” she argued.

Sunggyu chuckled. “You laugh at anything,” he reminded her. Jinyoung found herself laughing, as if on cue, while nodding in agreement. And now she truly did agree with what he was saying. Not just that she laughed easily, but how he was different from how people might’ve expected him to be. She could see how people would find him awkward. He was fidgeting a lot right now. His leg was bouncing so vigorously that Jinyoung was surprised that his whole body hadn’t jumped up along with it. Also words weren’t coming to him as easily as they would when he’s in front of a class. He had anxiety, just like a normal person. He’s not as cool and calm as his front seems. But Jinyoung knew all of this already. She didn’t expect him to be any different. She’d been watching Sunggyu, talking with him, for a long time. She couldn’t imagine being disappointed in his character.

While she was thinking about all of that, Sunggyu continued, “But instead of being liked how I am now, I’d really rather have people stay by my side…like you do.” Jinyoung stiffened. “People always seem to have a good opinion of you.”

Her smile grew stiff too. “I don’t know about that.” And she didn’t know how to take that compliment, if it was one.

“I do. I know,” Sunggyu argued. “I’m the one that should be worried. The people that like you, like you forever. Even your exes still…want to get tea…with you,” his voice stuttered into a halt, stopped by a sudden realization. “Wait a second.”

“Eh,” Jinyoung spoke up and tapped him, but her hand soon recoiled into a fist, fearful that she acted too familiar (but she hadn’t meant to touch him. It just happened). “Why should you worry about that? My exes are my problem.”

“Because I like you,” Sunggyu quickly replied. He crossed the line. One of them had finally crossed it! And once he was on the other side of it, he seemed to gain confidence: “I want to date you, only you by the way. And you like me too.” With that, he had pulled Jinyoung across that line with him.

And she followed, stunned. “I…I do. How…how did you know?”

“Are you serious?” Sunggyu asked with a loud laugh. “What have we been doing this whole entire time then, if we didn’t like each other? You’re not very subtle. I’ve had a feeling that you liked me for a long time.”

Jinyoung felt almost hurt after hearing that. “Why didn’t you tell me that you knew?” No, she was truly hurt and embarrassed. Her cheeks were growing hotter by the second. He knew! He knew and just let me…

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Sunggyu argued back. Jinyoung looked up at him. He appeared to be just as agitated too. “You should have confessed yourself!”

“You could’ve confessed too. You knew that I liked you!” she snapped back.

“I just did!”

“Oh, right. You did,” Jinyoung’s voice grew small. Her hands were on her red-hot cheeks now. Why? Why was she fighting him like this when he’d just confessed?

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a conversation like this. Maybe the two of us have been set up on blind dates for too long,” Sunggyu offered her an explanation that he didn’t know she needed (or did he?).

“True,” she had to agree. After all, it had been so long that she apparently didn’t know how to react to a confession. For the past several years, she had been set up on blind dates and kept dating those guys until she was convinced that she, in fact, did not like them romantically. It had been a long, long while since she had liked someone first, and then dated them “It’s been years since I’ve dated somebody after confessing like this. Since I chose someone for myself,” she confessed.

“Technically, you still haven’t confessed to me yet,” but Sunggyu pointed out that she hadn’t confessed enough to him, in words. He was practically begging her to do it now, pout on his lips and bow in his brow, “I even confessed for you. So…”

“I like you, Sunggyu,” she finally said it. Finally, at last, her locked up secret was released and came flowing forth. Talking was much easier now. Breathing was much easier. Her smile was the brightest it had been for a long time. “A lot. Like I said, it’s the first time in a long while that I’ve chosen someone for myself. I want to date you too.”

And Sunggyu was grinning too. “Then, let’s date,” he concluded with a sharp nod.

“Okay,” Jinyoung readily agreed.

At this moment, in dramas, a bubbly love song would play and this scene would gradually fade into the next with the newly formed happy couple smiling at each other. But this wasn’t a drama. It was real life. And the both of them were awkwardly and gradually losing their smiles, not knowing what to do next. “So ummm…” Jinyoung tried to break the tension quickly forming between the both of them but couldn’t. Her mind was filled with only one thought: Holy cow! He actually likes me. I wasn’t imagining it. This is really happening!

“Hmmm,” he hummed along with her. Sunggyu reached over and took her hand into his. And Jinyoung wrapped her other hand around his, cradling his hand. She unconsciously smiled when she looked down at it. Her thumbs ran over it. “What?” Sunggyu whispered with a chuckle. Jinyoung’s head snapped up, and she shrugged. He shrugged too and then put his other hand over his too. Jinyoung shrugged again in response, but she moved from side to side as she did, with a devilish grin on her face. It was a Heartthrob dance move, and Sunggyu was almost in disbelief that she was doing it.

“Didn’t you have a move like that for one of your songs?” she .

“Don't do that!” he exclaimed. He then tugged on their conjoined hands to make her stop, and she did, knocking into his shoulder and giggling crazily. She was having fun, so much fun teasing him. And she was going to do it some more. Jinyoung pulled one of her hands away from him and was about to do another Heartthrob dance move, but then a phone rang, her phone.  

“Hm? Oh!” she exclaimed once she read who was calling her. She told him, “I have to take this call.” Sunggyu’s hand tightened around hers, and she could understand why. It took them this long to cross the line, and Jinyoung was already retreating. So she showed her phone to him. “It’s Yewon.”

His hand loosened but he was still holding onto her. “Okay,” he muttered, barely giving in.

Jinyoung could’ve easily slipped out of the loose grip, but she didn’t. Truth be told, she wasn’t all that thrilled about leaving him so soon. But it was Yewon calling her. And for now, Yewon took precedent. “I’ll be back,” Jinyoung told him.

“Promise?” He sounded much more distressed than Jinyoung would expect him to. Did he think she would not come back?

“Where would I go?” Jinyoung joked. It did little to alleviate his distress, but he did finally let go of her hand.

“Tell her that I said ‘hi,’” Sunggyu sent her off to talk with Yewon. And Jinyoung left him and the room as she walked out into the hallway.

Jinyoung was able to answer the phone right before it had stopped ringing, and when she did, Yewon’s voice was shaking and threatening to dissolve into tears. A bad day, it was a very bad day for Yewon. She was having a difficult time sleeping. And Jinyoung didn’t want to say that Yewon was speaking nonsense, but the words coming out of her friend’s mouth weren’t what people typically said. Jinyoung, however, trusted in every word because it was Yewon’s reality right now, even the phantoms that she was seeing in her bedroom late at night.

This wasn’t the first conversation that they’ve had like this. And this sort of conversation typically ran over an hour long.

Crap, Jinyoung thought as she tried to pay attention to Yewon’s ramblings. It was hard for her to concentrate, especially since Sunggyu had gotten up from the piano bench after waiting five minutes and came over to hover in the doorway. Jinyoung watched him as she lied to Yewon on the phone: “No, I’m not busy. You aren’t wasting my time. Keep going.”

Sunggyu was definitely hurt by that, although he tried not to look like it. So Jinyoung quickly added, “Hold on a moment. I’m still here. It’s okay. I just need to do something real quick. I’ll be back in a second.” Her hand was reaching out for him as she spoke and cupped his arm. Placing the phone over her heart, she explained the situation as best (and vaguely) as she could: “This is going to take a while. She’s…not good. I’m sorry. She just needs someone to talk to.”

“It’s fine,” he said in word but without the feeling. He forced a smile on his face. “I’ll see you later then.” As he took his leave, he squeezed her shoulder when he passed her by.

But before he could go, Jinyoung caught that hand. “Thank you for understanding,” she whispered, afraid that Yewon might hear her speak to him all of the sudden. Sunggyu’s eyes weren’t on her but their hands. He grinned and squeezed them before letting them go. His gaze slowly lifted up to hers and waved to her as he walked backwards down the hall. Jinyoung waved to him too and kept waiting until he turned the corner.

While excessively waving to each other, Jinyoung resumed talking to Yewon, trying her best to give her friend her undivided attention, but it was difficult. There was a nagging thought in the back of her mind that she did the wrong thing. Should she have told Yewon that she was busy? Should she have not picked up the phone at all? Sunggyu had obviously wanted her to tell Yewon that they were together.Tell her that I said ‘hi.’ But instead, Jinyoung said that she wasn’t busy, implying that she was alone.

However, if she did do the opposite, if she did not answer the call, there would still be that nagging thought in her mind.

No matter what she did at the moment, it was the wrong move.

An hour and half later, Jinyoung was finished talking with Yewon. On her way to her bus stop, she was still clinging onto her phone. What should I do? Should I call him? She felt like she should do something. She felt like they should do something. After all, they confessed. They said that they wanted to date each other, and Jinyoung really didn’t want that to end up like an empty promise, like when she told Howon that they’d get tea together. The both of them were never going to get tea. Which was fine. Jinyoung didn’t want tea with him. She wanted to have tea with Sunggyu now.

While she was debating with herself, her bus came and she got on. Well, that ended that for her. She was now going home, far away from the school, far away from Sunggyu, but closer to her best friends. And she entered their apartment before she went into her own and flopped on their couch. With her head smothered in a pillow, she groaned.

Is it too late to ask him out for tea? Ugh, but then I have to go back there. I should’ve asked while I was still there. Why didn’t I? Why am I so stuck on tea?

“Oh, it’s a Jinyoung!” Woohyun entered the living room with a shout. Jinyoung pulled herself up (but not together) and waved at her friend. “Do you want some food?” Woohyun asked.

Jinyoung nodded, realizing that she hadn’t had dinner yet. “Yes, please.”

“Okay, let me warm you up something,” he replied and then went into the kitchen.

Hyunae then came into the apartment. “Oh, Jinyoung-ah, what are you doing here?” she asked. Jinyoung rolled over on the couch to face the door. Apparently, Hyunae had just returned from a quick trip to the store, and Jinyoung could guess what was in the black bag.

“Is that ice cream?” she asked her friend.

Hyunae nodded. “It is. I got you some too because I had a feeling you’d be coming over,” she stated as she walked over to the couch, placed the bag on the coffee table, and sat down with her friend. The closer the got, the more concerned her face looked. “But what’s with you? Did something bad happen at work?” she asked when she was sitting next to Jinyoung.

Jinyoung quickly shook her head. “No, not really. I mean, not at all,” she amended her statement almost as soon as the words came out of . After taking in a deep breath and letting it go, she told her friend, “Sunggyu confessed to me. He likes me.”

Hyunae grinned cheekily and nudged her friend. “I already know,” she whispered.

“Huh? How?” Jinyoung was confused. She hadn’t told anybody about it yet, not even Yewon with whom she talked with immediately afterwards. How could Hyunae know?

“Woohyun told me,” her friend revealed. “When he and Sunggyu talked while we were doing the dishes, Sunggyu kinda made it apparent.”

Jinyoung shifted in her seat to face her friend head on. “It? What’s ‘it’?” she interrogated the other.

Hyunae was taken aback by Jinyoung’s intensity. “His feelings?” she sounded unsure of herself right now.

“How so?” Jinyoung moved in closer, so much so that Hyunae backed a bit away.

“Well, he didn’t come right out and say it, but Woohyun said it was how he talked about you, all soft and whatnot. And he knew a lot about you, too,” Hyunae relayed. Jinyoung leaned away and her eyes drifted elsewhere. Sunggyu’s feelings were that obvious? Her friends could see them. She couldn’t because her perspective was clouded by doubts. But now, where were those doubts? Hyunae hit her playfully, bringing Jinyoung’s focus back on her. “See, we knew that he liked you! We were right! You were wrong! Sunggyu confessed to you like the moment you left our apartment,” she bragged.

“No, no he didn’t!” Jinyoung shouted. Why was she getting loud? She lowered her voice and her eyes to her lap. “It was today. After school.”

“What? Today?” Hyunae asked. This time she was inching too closely to Jinyoung, but that was to whisper, “Woohyun said he saw you two kiss last night.”

“He didn’t. We were…I don’t even know…just talking?” Jinyoung stammered, still hanging her head low. We weren’t talking. We were arguing. My goodness!

“Woohyun?” Hyunae called out to her husband, and when he didn’t respond a second later, she raised her voice, “Woohyun!”

Woohyun poked his head out of the kitchen into the living room. “I’m busy right now. I’ll be there in a second,” he said and was about to head back in, but something about the expression on his wife’s face made him stay. “What is it?”

“But what you told me happened last night didn’t happen,” Hyunae vaguely put, but Woohyun still understood.

“What?” He was about to come into the room; however a pot boiled over in the kitchen and smoke was filtering out of the kitchen. “Crap!” he yelled and ran back in.

“Oh, sounds like trouble,” Hyunae mumbled as she rolled off of the couch and onto her feet. “I better go in.” She then walked into the kitchen.

Jinyoung followed five steps behind, even though the kitchen was only about five steps away. She was in a daze, head still bowed. It didn’t happen last night. It happened today. It should’ve been yesterday, but I…Jinyoung raised her head when she got to the threshold. Hyunae flashed her a smile as she set the table. Woohyun brought the food over. (Jinyoung is in a daze as she follows them into the kitchen. And leans in the doorway as she watches Hyunae set the table. Woohyun making the food. It was almost a repeat of last night. Jinyoung was here, standing in the kitchen, doing the same thing. But it seemed like years ago now. What was this feeling? She should be happy, but…I ruined it yesterday. I ruined it today. This isn’t good. Why am I doing this?

“I thought it was only Jinyoung was eating,” Woohyun remarked as gestured at the two sets of dishes on the table.

Hyunae sat down in front of one set. “I wouldn’t want her to eat alone,” she replied and began filling up her own bowl.

“Then I’ll join you guys too,” Woohyun chirped and went over to grab a bowl himself. He then saw Jinyoung who hadn’t moved. “Sit down.”

“Okay.” Jinyoung stopped watching the domestic scene in front of her and became a part of it.

Woohyun soon joined the other two at the table, and the three of them began eating. Of course the silence never lasted between them for so long, especially when there was such an interesting conversation to be had. “So you and Sunggyu-ssi didn’t kiss last night?” Woohyun breached it.

“No,” Jinyoung answered plainly. She placed her hand on her cheek and played with her soup. “I told you last night. We weren’t doing anything. We were only talking.”

“You were mistaken,” Hyunae told Woohyun.

Woohyun refused to believe that he was wrong: “But you guys were talking awfully close.”

“That’s because they like each other,” Hyunae answered for her friend. “They confessed today. Maybe you interrupted them yesterday.”

“I did?” Woohyun gasped. He turned towards Jinyoung. “Sorry. I told you to continue.” Jinyoung continued eating so that she didn’t end up blurting out ‘I tried.’ “I’m sorry.”

“Well, it wasn’t like it was their only chance. They got together today, right? That’s good!” Hyunae spun the matter around. Her attention too was on Jinyoung now, who wanted for once to not be with her very invested best friends. “So…how was it?”

“How was what?” Jinyoung asked.

“Uh, the whole thing? Did you kiss?” she asked the second question lowly. Woohyun nudged her while chuckling. Hyunae looked over at her husband. “What? Aren’t you curious too?”

“Not about that! Not in the slightest,” he retorted.

Hyunae didn’t care if Woohyun was like that. She still wanted to know every detail just like a good friend would. “So what was it like?”

Jinyoung thought about it, about the two of them in the practice room, about their whole conversation. She smiled. “It was good,” she replied. “We talked through a lot of stuff, including the thing I told you yesterday, but we didn’t kiss.”

“What thing?” Woohyun interjected. Ah, Jinyoung bit her tongue. She had blurted that out. She didn’t want him to know how silly she was being, how she had misread that whole situation. But Woohyun hated being left out of the loop. “What thing did Jinyoung tell you?”

And Hyunae knew that. “The Bull’s daughter,” she whispered to him. Jinyoung glared at the both of them. Of course Hyunae had told him. She told him everything, especially at Jinyoung’s expense. Hyunae ignored her friend’s glare and returned to the original conversation. “It’s good that you guys talked that out. But no kiss? Did you hug?”

Jinyoung shook her head. “No. He just confessed. And then I told him that I liked him too. Well, first he told me that I liked him, and then I told him…we like each other,” she revealed. “And we said that we both wanted to date.” Her voice got very quiet.

“Then what?” Hyunae was eager to know more.

But there was no more to give. “We went home.”

“Wait, what?” Hyunae gasped. “You guys didn’t do anything else? All you did was confess and leave?  Is all you guys do is talk?” As she asked question after question, Jinyoung was growing more and more hot, anxious. If Hyunae thought the situation was weird, then it was. And all of Jinyoung’s worst fears were confirmed.

“Talking’s good,” Woohyun allayed those fears a little with that remark.

“Yea, we pretty much just talked,” Jinyoung replied.

“Did you seriously not do anything else?” Hyunae was still in disbelief.

Jinyoung finally remembered that there was something else! “Well, we…” she couldn’t finish that out of bashfulness so she mimed it.

“You guys shook hands?!”

“No! It was like this!” Jinyoung exclaimed and wrapped her hands around Hyunae’s hand which still was holding her spoon. She then grabbed Hyunae’s free hand and placed it on top. “More than just a handshake. It’s a hand hug.”

Hyunae cocked an eyebrow. “So you held hands,” she wasn’t impressed. No, she was concerned for her friend.

“No. It was more than just holding hands,” Jinyoung insisted and held her friend’s hands more tightly. Hyunae was still a blank slate. Jinyoung let the hands go. “You had to be there,” she grumbled. “I know it wasn’t the most romantic moment, but I liked it. And…” Jinyoung stopped. She didn’t want to say what happened next.

“And what?” the couple asked.

“Yewonnie called me, like almost right after he said he wanted to date me.”

“And you answered her call?!” this was the most shocked Hyunae sounded all night.

“I had to answer,” Jinyoung defended herself. But no one was arguing against her. No, in fact, the couple was just staring at her, completely silent. So Jinyoung continued, “Sunggyu knows that I had to take the call.”

“Wah! This is like a drama! Bad timing!” Woohyun exclaimed, exasperated.

“Did you really have to take it? Right then? You could’ve called her back. Couldn’t you?” Hyunae kept going with the questions, and Jinyoung was getting hot again, seriously too hot.

“No. Maybe? I don’t know!” Jinyoung blubbered. “Yewonnie was crying, and I had a feeling she would be…” she had to stop. She wasn’t just hot from the embarrassment. It reached her eyes. She was on the verge of crying. “Should I have not answered? Did I mess up? Oh my gosh! Did I? I thought I did. I really…” This time when she stopped, she buried her face in her hands and rubbed away the tears that had come out.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” she heard Woohyun whisper to his wife.

What am I doing? Jinyoung thought. “Oh gosh!” she gasped and raised her head again, fanning herself, trying to calm down. “I messed up,” she admitted with a forced smile.

Hyunae moved over to the seat next to her friend and began smoothing out Jinyoung’s hair. “Everything is fine. Sunggyu knows about Yewon?” she asked in a low and comforting voice. Jinyoung nodded. “That she’s having a hard time?” She nodded again.

“He knows…everything. I told him,” Jinyoung replied. He knows more than you.

Hyunae gave her a short side-hug. “If he’s a good person, he’d understand. And if he tries to give you for this, then run. Okay?” she threw in a joke to draw out a genuine smile from her friend, and it worked. That was until Woohyun snorted. Both girls frowned and faced him. “What? You look like you want to say something,” Hyunae’s voice was curt.

Woohyun shifted in his seat under their glares, but he didn’t back down. He spoke his mind, “Well, thinking from his perspective, this…this isn’t the best start of a relationship.  It’s not that you should give up your friends for him. If he suggests that, then you run back to us. Fast!” He tried to lighten the mood too, a bit, before he brought it back down again. “But…right after his confession, you ignore him for Yewon? I know that Yewon is in a bad spot, and she needs you. But he might need encouragement, it takes courage to confess and what you did isn’t very…”

Hyunae slapped her hand over his mouth, stopping him from saying anything more. “Woohyun, honey, not helping,” she spoke through gritted teeth. She then lowered her hand to his shoulder, massaging it a bit. With her free hand, she put a finger to her lips. Hyunae then got up from her seat and returned to Woohyun’s side. Jinyoung watched them closely as she did. When Hyunae sat down again, the couple held a conversation with their eyes and facial expressions alone, and when that was finished, Woohyun put his arm around her, hands massage his tired and pregnant wife. And Hyunae leaned against him, with her head on his shoulder. Jinyoung felt that sad and embarrassed heat return to her. She should be as lovey dovey with Sunggyu as they were, no even more so since they’d just gotten together. But instead, she’s here flipping out.

I ruined it last night, and I ruined it tonight. What if I ruin tomorrow too? Why am I ruining this? Why am I running away?

Hyunae thought her friend’s attitude was just as suspicious. “Jinyoung, is there something you aren’t telling us? Did something happen that changed your mind about him?”

“No!” Jinyoung quickly dismissed that idea. The fault wasn’t in him. “I like him. I really do! I just…” she couldn’t find the words to describe how she felt.

“Jinyoung-ah, are you okay?” Hyunae asked. “You’ve been acting weirdly ever since you came in through the door. The guy you like just confessed to you. Why are you crying sad tears? They should at least be happy.” She reached over to wipe away the fresh tears coming down Jinyoung’s face. Jinyoung didn’t even know they were there.

What’s wrong with me? “I don’t know,” Jinyoung mumbled.

“Oh! I know!” Woohyun interjected. And from the smug look on his face, he was proud of the answer he came up with. “He’s a former idol. You know how Jinyoung is. This is like a dream come true for her. Now that she’s achieved her dream, she has nothing else to live for. Is that it? Is it not like you’d thought it’d be?” There was no response, from anyone, for a few seconds. The table fell silent.

Hyunae remained stoic. “Was that supposed to be a joke?”

“Yes,” Nam Woohyun, forever the moodmaker, replied.

“Can we talk alone?” Jinyoung whispered to Hyunae. She was in one of those moods where Woohyun’s jokes made her feel worse instead of better.

Hyunae nodded to her friend and then turned to her husband, “Honey?”

Woohyun immediately got up. “Right, I get it. The girls need to talk. I’ll go work on the crib,” he grumbled. This wasn’t the first time (or last) that he’d been thrown out of a conversation like this. He still wasn’t happy about it, every time it happened. But he understood. When he walked past Jinyoung, he patted her on the shoulder. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Jinyoung muttered back and waved goodbye to him.

After he was out of sight (and hopefully out of earshot), Hyunae came next to Jinyoung again. Judging by the look on her face, she knew how Woohyun had gotten under Jinyoung’s skin. “So about what Woohyun said…”

“That’s not my dream!” Jinyoung cut her off. “Besides, Sunggyu really doesn’t look like an idol now. You wouldn’t be able to tell, if he didn’t tell you, right?” Hyunae had been a moment too slow. “Right?!”

“No, I wouldn’t know,” Hyunae replied in a calm voice.

Jinyoung crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t like him because he used to be an idol,” she mumbled.

“I know. I know,” Hyunae quickly agreed with the other and rubbed her back. “But…if that’s not it, then what’s the matter? You seem more guarded than last night.”

Jinyoung snorted at that. It was totally true. She’d been more honest with Hyunae yesterday, and with herself. Why was that? She had admitted to everyone that she liked him, including Sunggyu, so why was she acting so strangely? “I like him a lot, Hyunae. Like a lot, a lot. Too much. I haven’t liked someone this much in a long time. Or maybe even ever,” Jinyoung began to put her feelings into words for once. “I don’t want him to know because…I’m afraid that I like him more, and I don’t want to. I want him to like me more.”

And that was it. Jinyoung was running away now not because she didn’t want Sunggyu to know that she liked him but because she didn’t want him to know how much she liked it, which was an incredible amount. So incredible that Jinyoung was afraid. She was afraid of being a fleeting fancy for him. She was scared of trusting him with her heart. Yes, Sunggyu wasn’t a playboy, but Jinyoung was still scared nevertheless because if this relationship failed, she didn’t think she could ever recover. Sunggyu felt like the one for her (yes, even because of his idol past. She was a fangirl through and through). But it was impossible to say the same for Sunggyu. All Jinyoung knew was that she was a girl that he wanted to date.

Jinyoung, you just confessed today. It’s not time yet to think about forevers and eternities. Her heart was getting ahead of itself, pounding crazily in her chest. Her head couldn’t soothe it, rationalize away these feelings.

She felt Hyunae tuck a hair behind her ear. “Jinyoung, love isn’t a competition. It’s not about who loves who more,” Hyunae was chuckling as she said that. A part of her was probably relieved that Jinyoung’s biggest worry was about how much she liked the man. Yet she still misunderstood Jinyoung’s concern. “And I wouldn’t worry so much. He’s smitten with you.” Jinyoung rolled her eyes, which Hyunae caught. “What? I knew he was when he came here. Woohyun and I could plainly see it, but you were in denial and said he liked some other girl.”

“I thought he did,” Jinyoung mumbled.

“And Ithought you were blind for not noticing Sunggyu’s feelings for you,” Hyunae retorted.

“I noticed them, but…”

“No! No ‘buts’!” Hyunae interrupted. “There are no ‘buts,’ trust me. Next time that you see him, do yourself a favor and just...look at him.”

“I do look at him,” Jinyoung argued. “How do you think I fell for him if I didn’t look at him?”

“Aigoo,” Hyunae chided as she knocked her friend lightly on the head. “That’s not what I meant and you know it! Just really look at him. You’ll see everything then.”

Jinyoung sat for a second, letting that all sink in. Her eyes stayed on her friend, giving her a good luck. Hyunae was sitting there patiently and looking back at her with a soft smile and slight concern in her eyes. Jinyoung would never doubt how much Hyunae loved her because she could see it all of the time like she had in this moment. But why couldn’t she do the same with him? Once again, it was fear holding her back.

“What if I don’t?” she asked in a small voice.

“You will. Trust me,” Hyunae sounded certain, and Jinyoung wished that she had just an ounce of that confidence.

“I'm going to go to bed,” Hyunae announced. When she stood up, Jinyoung did too, helping her friend steady herself as she did. Hyunae was tired from the long day and night. But she still gave Jinyoung a hug good night. “Don't worry your pretty little head.”

“Do you want me to say anything to him?” Woohyun had poked his head in. Of course, he stuck around to overhear everything.

Jinyoung shook her head. “No. I can do it,” she replied. I have to do it. She then started walking out of the kitchen, waving all the while. “Good night!”

Now that Jinyoung admitted that she was afraid, other things became clearer. First, if she’s afraid of losing Sunggyu, she won’t keep him if she always so afraid of ruining things. Being afraid made her guarded. Being guarded made her cold. And so now she was acting like a tsundere character that you’d see in dramas, torturing her crush with hot-and-cold treatment.

She even tried to get away without saying “I like you” to Sunggyu earlier, but he called her out on it. Would he always call her out? Would he get tired of doing so at some point?

Woohyun was right; she needed to give him more encouragement. And she hadn’t been doing that. At moments, she had wondered if Sunggyu had liked her, why wasn’t he more proactive? There were so many moments when he could’ve confessed, that it seemed like he was going to but then backed off. It was because he wasn’t sure of her affections.  He was just being as apprehensive as she was.

And she was going to start doing that now…but in little steps, first through text messages. However, when she was about to text him, she noticed that she had received a text from him almost an hour ago.

Sunggyu: Where are you?

Jinyoung: Home! I was with the Hyuns earlier. Sorry for not responding.

Jinyoung: You?

(sent 2 minutes later) Sunggyu: I’m home too.

Sunggyu: Did you eat with them?

Jinyoung: Eung. Did you eat?

Sunggyu: I did. I had dak-kalguksu.

Jinyoung: Oh, I’m jealous. I like that.

(1 minute later) Jinyoung: But not as much as I like you.

Sunggyu: Then let’s have it together next time.

Sunggyu: I had to eat alone tonight. Because of you.

Jinyoung: I’m sorry.

Jinyoung: I didn’t know what to do. Yewon was so sad. I couldn’t leave her.

Jinyoung: I thought about calling you after I was done, but I didn’t want to bother you.

(3 minutes later) Sunggyu: Is Yewon okay?

Jinyoung: She fell asleep when I was on the phone with her.

Sunggyu: Okay, good. I’m going to sleep too then.

Jinyoung: Alright! Good night.

Sunggyu: Good night

(5 minutes later) Sunggyu: Next time don’t worry about bothering me. Just call, okay?

Jinyoung: Okay.

Being honest and affectionate through texting paid off. Now Jinyoung just had to bring that same confidence out of the virtual world into the real one. Which was easier said than done.

“Hyong-saem!” Sunggyu called out to her when they passed by each other in the hallway for the first time the following morning.

“Oh, hi! How are you?” Jinyoung greeted him no differently than she’d greet him on any other day, or from any other coworker.

“Good?” his answer sounded more like a question, probably because she was walking right past him.

“I got to go to class. I’m late!” she turned around a bit and informed him. Afterwards she picked up the pace and went into her classroom.

As she was setting up for class, Jinyoung thought about the sad look on Sunggyu’s face as she passed him by. But what else was she supposed to do now? She was working. He was working too. And hundreds of eyes were on them. There was little she could do at the moment. But shouldn’t Sunggyu know that?

“Hyong-saem, why are you so red?” Youngtaek asked.

“I was so excited to teach you guys today that I ran all the way here,” Jinyoung answered with a grin on her face.

“You couldn’t be a little less excited?” Jaeseok .

“You’re walking a thin line, Jaeseok-goon. Everyone open their books!”

Her students were still very cheeky with her during art club. It was like they knew she was in a sensitive state and gave even bigger reactions than she normally would, and they capitalized on that. She probably should’ve reprimanded them, but since they were joking around with her, they were also joking around each other. The atmosphere was very jovial and the kids were having more fun than she’d seen them in a while.

Right, they need to blow off steam every once in a while. I wasn’t any better at their age, she told herself. Part of them “blowing off steam” came in the form of Jiae wanting to practice stage make-up, namely the make-up that should age Myungeun’s face from the teen she was into the middle-aged woman that she should be. And Jinyoung was available for her to practice on.

Unfortunately for Jinyoung, Jiae was a little too good at aging her face, and the teacher looked like a grandma now. Which only incurred more jokes from the kids.

And since Grandma Hyong (her new nickname) was going easy on them today, she also took up the tedious task of going through the storage room to gather things for the set. The kids had drawn up the list of what they needed, all Jinyoung had to do was collect them. Which once again was easier said than done.

“Hi.”

“Oh my gosh!” Jinyoung nearly stumbled into a stack of boxes and knocked them all over. Now this task was going to be even more difficult with this unexpected visitor. “What are you doing here, Sunggyu?”

He entered the prop closet and came closer as he talked, “Bong seonsaeng-nim sent me away so that he could ‘teach them the secret arts of acting,’ or whatever. He just wanted to seem like he was head director again. Anyway…” he paused when he was a few steps in front of her. “I thought I’d come help out here.”

“Help?” Jinyoung repeated. “I don’t know what you could do.” She then looked down at the list in her hands and looking for something for him to do.

“Do you not want me here?”

Jinyoung snapped her head back up. “What? No! I do!” she exclaimed. She showed him the list. “I was just thinking of something you could do.” She then looked at the list herself again. “Oh! Bottles! I think I just saw them over here.” She turned her back on him as she inspected a shelf nearby. She had sworn that there were bottles somewhere amongst this shelf.

“Are you avoiding me?”

“Huh?” Jinyoung slowly turned around. “No. I’m trying to find something. A box of bottles for the bar shelf.”

“But what about earlier, in the hallway?” he brought up.

“Sunggyu, I was working. We’re working,” she reminded him. “I…I don’t know what you want me to do.”

“Yea we’re working, but you still could’ve talked to me for a minute,” he pointed out. “You had time.” Well, that was true. This morning Jinyoung was running late for being five minutes early for class, which was her habit to be that early. So yes, she technically did have time to spare for him, and he’d be well worth that time.

“I didn’t know what to say,” Jinyoung confessed.

“Anything. Literally anything,” he replied with a slight laugh.

Anything? Jinyoung raised her head and finally gave him a good look, finally. And even though she felt heat creeping up her neck, she kept looking. I have nothing to hide from him anymore. It’s fine. He already knows. I don’t need to be afraid, she reminded herself and kept looking.

What did she see? Well, the longer that she was quietly staring at him, the more anxious he looked, and he looked pretty anxious to begin with. Yet his eyes were fixed on hers, attentive, waiting, and somehow still soft. He looks like me. Now all the questions he asked before made more sense. Whereas Jinyoung didn’t voice her anxiety about the change in their relationship, he did. It made her smile. He feels the same way that I do.

So she finally said something: “Hi. What’s cooking…good-looking…” And immediately regretted it.

But it made him laugh. “Why is this so awkward now? It’s awkward, right?” he lamented.

“Probably because I left too soon yesterday,” Jinyoung answered.

“You did,” he agreed. “We didn’t even get to do anything.”

Jinyoung raised an eyebrow. “Like what? What did you wanna do?” she asked.

“This.” He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her closely. Jinyoung held him too, leaning into the embrace. This was nice, much better than the hand hug from the night before.

“This is nice, but are we only gonna do just this?” she asked.

“Hm?” Sunggyu then unwrapped his arms around her but kept his hands on her upper arms. Her arms were still around his waist. “What did you have in mind?”

“I don’t know what you have in mind right now, but I just wanted to talk with you a bit more, a lot more actually,” she answered and then sighed. “But we can’t talk now either.”

“I know,” he grumbled. “We’re working.”

“Speaking of working,” Jinyoung said. “Do you want to help me find some things?”

“The bottles? Sure,” he answered and removed her hands from her (and she let go of him too). “Are they over here?” he asked as he squeezed himself next to her side. Their shoulders pressed together. There wasn’t much space to move around since there were boxes everywhere.

“Eung,” she hummed as she kept searching for them too. She didn’t find them but she found something. “Oh my gosh! There’s the black paint!”

“I thought we were looking for bottles?”

“I have a whole list,” she reminded them. She then handed him the list which he took and then placed on the shelf. “I should probably give the paint to them now, since they need it to finish the chairs. You try to find something else on the list,” she said and picked up the paint can. A frown tugged on . “I don’t want to go yet though.”

“Then let’s talk more over dinner tonight,” he suggested.

The frown morphed into a smile. “Sure, I’d love to.”

“Great,” he added. “Go, I’ll find some of this stuff.”

“Before I go.” When Sunggyu turned his head to give her his attention, Jinyoung kissed him. It was too short and unexpected for him to do anything. So she asked, “Is that okay?”

“Eung.” It was more than okay. Sunggyu kissed her back. Jinyoung put down the paint can, and then she kissed him. And they kissed again. It was difficult to stop. They had been interrupted and discouraged so many times recently that now when no one or nothing to stop them, they didn’t want to. And Jinyoung wanted him to know just how much affection that she had for him (she refused to be the first one to end things again). Sunggyu must’ve had some idea of how she felt, with her hands at his collar and his cupping her face.  

Sunggyu eventually pulled away. “I thought we were working,” he teased.

But Jinyoung couldn’t laugh at the joke. “Oh no!” she muttered instead, because the bright red lipstick that Jiae put on her was now all over his mouth.

“What?” Sunggyu asked obliviously with a small smile and bright red lips. “I’m sure that it’s fine, if we do it every once in awhile. No one saw.”

“No, that’s not it!” Jinyoung was going into a panic and she went to wipe the lipstick off of his face with her thumb, which she didn’t know was covered in paint. And now there was a large black smear across his face. Jinyoung’s eyes quickly went to the paint can, which did indeed have wet paint dripping on its sides. When she grabbed the can, the paint got all over her hands.

“Ew! Why did you do that?” Sunggyu whined as he tried to wipe the paint away, but it just made it worse.

“My lipstick got on you and then…your shirt!” Jinyoung tried to explain but then she stopped when she remembered where else she had touched. And in fact there were two black splotches around his collar.

“What?!” He looked down at his collar, pulling it away from his body in order to see it better. “Aish, are you serious?” he lamented and let go of his shirt, looking up at the ceiling now. But only for a second. He soon rolled down his head, eyes now on the paint can. He dipped his finger inside and then turned towards her. “Come here!”

Jinyoung shook her head and spoke quietly, “I don’t wanna.”

“Come here!” She still didn’t, so he stepped forward and wiped paint on her face too, not just once or twice. It didn’t take her long to realize that he was painting whiskers on her face. Jinyoung didn’t even fight against it because he looked like he was having fun. He even went to get more paint in order to give her a black nose. She wasn’t fighting against it because she was waiting for her chance to get even. When Sunggyu was sniggering and coloring her nose, Jinyoung slowly reached over and swiped her hand across his cheek.

“Y-yah!”

Jinyoung laughed so much that she missed hearing the door open. Sunggyu hadn’t. He put a finger to his lips quickly and whipped his head over towards the door.

“Hyong-saem?” It was Daeyeol. Luckily the couple were a bit deeper in the prop closet so they still had time to get themselves together before the student came. Sunggyu turned around to look through the boxes again, and Jinyoung grabbed the paint can and started heading out. Soon she met with Daeyeol, who looked at her with his jaw unhinged. “Hyong-saem! What happened?”

“I fell…and knocked some paint over,” Jinyoung lied very poorly. Paint doesn’t splatter on someone’s face like that. “I was just cleaning it up….with Kim seonsaeng-him. He’s helping us today.”

“Are you okay?” Daeyeol asked. “Do you need help cleaning up?”

Jinyoung shook her head. “He has it covered, and I have the paint!” she tried to distract the student. “Let’s go back and finish those chairs!”

“Okay,” Daeyeol muttered and followed her back to the stage.

While Daeyeol remained quiet and allowed himself to be distracted, none of the other art students did. She could hear them whispering already.

“What happened to Hyong?” Jiae whispered to Sujeong. “She ruined my make-up.”

“I don’t know,” Sujeong replied. “She went into the prop closet and came out like that. Do you think she did that to herself?”

“Wasn’t Kim-saem looking for her earlier?” Jaehyun added. He was Jiae’s new victim. While she was doing his make-up, Sujeong found a can of colored hairspray and had been painting his hair grey.

“That’s right! He went into the closet too!” Sujeong exclaimed and stopped fiddling with Jaehyun’s hair.

Jinyoung cringed at that. Would the two of them really be discovered this soon? It hadn’t even been a full day! Well, she wasn’t going to give them any reason to suspect her, and she carried on as if she wasn’t overhearing their conversation. She was painting the chairs along with Jaeseok and Daeyeol now.

“So you think that he went into the prop closet just to mess with Hyong?” Jiae asked Sujeong. She wasn’t paying any attention to her “client” and was getting powder all over his mouth. Jaehyun started coughing. Jiae quickly apologized.

“Maybe,” Sujeong spoke in a daze and sprayed a strand of Jaehyun’s hair until his was stiff and stood up straight on its own.

“Do you think something is going on between her and Kim-saem?” Jaehyun proposed.

The other two girls burst into laughter at that thought. “Nah,” Sujeong dismissed as she was still laughing. “Kim-saem just likes messing with people. You’ve seen him with Jang-saem. Hyong-saem and Jang-saem are easy targets for him.”

“Right,” Jiae agreed. “But I often wondered if Kim-saem and Jang-saem were dating.”

“This is real life, Jiae. Not fanfiction,” Sujeong ended that with a tired sigh as if this wasn’t the first time Jiae had said something like that. It made Jinyoung laugh, which she quickly had to choke down. She wasn’t very good at pretending like she wasn’t listening.

“Will my lipstick get all over my face like it did with Hyong’s?” Jaehyun asked while trying to not move his lips which Jiae was currently painting.

“What?”

Crap! Jinyoung had been too concerned about the lipstick she’d gotten on Sunggyu’s face that she hadn’t considered it transferring on her own. Desperately, she tried to rub it away.

There was another heavy sigh coming from the trio; this time it was Jiae. “Just don’t be a mess like Hyong-saem, and it’ll be fine,” she told him.

“Saem.” Jinyoung’s attention was torn away from the trio. It was Jaeseok. He was pointing at his chin. “You have something right here.”

“I do?” Jinyoung asked. “I should probably go and wash it off.”

She got up and scurried over to the nearest bathroom. When she saw her face in the mirror, she burst into laughter. Her face was a mess. She hadn’t seen Jiae’s handiwork yet. She’d only knew about the results because the students were calling her “grandma.” It was as if Jinyoung was looking at a cartoon version of her 80 year-old self, that was now cosplaying as a kitty. Jinyoung the tap and started splashing water on her face.

It was funny, and Jinyoung had to stop because she was still laughing because it was just so funny. How did Sunggyu have such a serious conversation with me when I looked like this? He barely even reacted to her make-up. He kissed her in this make-up. He…he must really like me.

It was funny that Jinyoung was so worried that he didn’t.

When Jinyoung got back to the kids, Sunggyu was there, with a clean face, and he’d taken off his button-down too. So it was like nothing had ever happened between them. The both of them were able to act more naturally and relaxed around the students now. Yet the students weren’t relaxed at all. In fact, they’d gotten crazier. They were really excited to work with Sunggyu. Of course, the favorite teacher was still the favorite, but Jinyoung didn’t mind. She was grateful to have the attention off of herself for once. Instead she got to watch the students tease their Snuggly and watch Jiae relentlessly ask if she could practice on him. Unlike Jinyoung, he could refuse them.

And with Sunggyu’s help (or with him as motivation at least), they got a lot of work done. But also the meeting lasted longer than usual. The musical actors and actresses finished their practice first for once. And Jinyoung took that as a cue that they should wrap up things there and call it a day.

Jinyoung, however, wasn’t ready to go home just yet. After they’d put things away and saw the students off, Jinyoung turned towards Sunggyu. “So, dinner?”

“Yea.” He then frowned. “Why did you clean up? I liked your make-up.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “You wanted me to go out like that? Looking like an old grandma cat?”

“Well, I wasn’t really planning on us going out,” he revealed and began to walk out of the auditorium. Jinyoung followed.

“What were you planning on doing?” she asked.

“Ordering in,” he answered but wasn’t confident in it. “Is that okay? It’s not very…”

“No,” Jinyoung interjected and shook her head. “It sounds perfect.”

The thing about eating out is that, well, you’re out in the public. And in the public eye, one is more restrained, even unintentionally. You don’t laugh as loudly as you normally do. You may stop yourself from saying certain things. And you certainly couldn’t sit in the schoolyard and look up at the stars while you ate, which they were doing now. Jinyoung and Sunggyu were getting loud, talking about everything and everyone, and laughing so hard that it hurt sometimes. It truly was the perfect first date for them, their sort of romance.

While they were waiting for their food to arrive at the school, they went to the nearest convivence store and bought a few bottles of soju. However they waited until the food came before they cracked them open. “I’ve always wanted to drink at the school,” Sunggyu said as he filled a cup for himself and Jinyoung. “Break the rules a little.”

Jinyoung took one of the cups and cocked her head. “You haven’t?” she asked with an embarrassed laugh.

“No!” he exclaimed in shock. “Have you?”

After taking a sip, Jinyoung pinched the air with her fingers and whispered, “Just a little.”

“Wah!” he shouted. “Of course, you did. I’m not surprised. You like to bend the rules quite a bit, don’t you?”

Jinyoung nodded. “It was to celebrate the end of my first year here,” she explained. “After I finished grading the last test, I had just a little box of soju.”

“You should’ve asked me to celebrate with you,” Sunggyu countered. “You could’ve had more than just a little box.”

Jinyoung laughed. “We weren’t like this then!” she raised her voice (shouting more for the fun of it than to shout at him).

Sunggyu shrugged and retorted, “We could’ve been.”

“We were dating other people by then!” Jinyoung shouted again.

“So? People who aren’t dating can drink with each other,” he pointed out.

“True,” Jinyoung agreed and her voice dropped decibels. She felt her brows knit together, and she drank more. It was curious, really, how they didn’t become closer sooner. Sure she was dating Howon by then, but that relationship didn’t stop her from being friendly to Dongwoo. She had kept her distance away from him, and something told her that he did the same. But why? She put down her cup and glanced over at him.

He caught it. “It’s all in the past now,” he said. And that was also true. What mattered was them now, tonight, on their first date. He took her cup and placed it with his own, which was also empty now. Jinyoung hadn’t even seen him drink it. “Let’s have another.”

After another drink, and another, and a few more, they finished their meal and were even more jovial and louder than before. Their faces were flushed from excitement and the alcohol. They were leaning on each other for support to sit up straight now. Sunggyu dug into his pocket. Jinyoung leaned over in order to see what was in there and laughed when she saw it. She should’ve known. He had pulled out two lollipops and handed one over to her.

“Do you actually like these things?” he asked as he watched her unwrap it.

“Eung, I have a major sweet tooth,” she answered and popped the candy in . “Do you not?”

Sunggyu probably didn’t know that he sighed right then. “I’ve grown to like them,” he replied.

“Did…Did you really quit because of me?” Jinyoung almost didn’t ask. However her curiosity was stronger than her shame. And well, if they were dating now, she could afford to have less shame with him. “Was it because I said it worried me?”

He sighed again, but this time he realized he had and began to chuckle. “I’d been meaning to quit,” he confessed. “I’d actually been smoking less, and I thought that was good enough. But then you, and my mom, of course, and other people made me think that it wasn’t, that I should just quit for good. So it made me think, and I did, and I quit.”

Jinyoung raised her hand and his head. “Good job,” she praised him. “You worked hard.”

“I did!” he concurred, with the candy in his mouth. He took it from his mouth like a cigarette and then rolled his head onto her shoulder, into her touch. “It was really hard, you have no idea.”

“And you did it!” Jinyoung praised him again because he truly deserved it. Her heart swelled up,. She ruffled his hair. “I’m proud of you.”

He pulled away and scoffed. “You’re proud of me over the weirdest things.”

“Why?” Jinyoung challenged. “Should I not be proud of you?”

“No, please be! I like it!” he exclaimed. “I can peel a melon with my teeth too. Are you proud of that?”

“So proud!” she immediately replied. While Sunggyu was laughing over that, probably thinking that she’d been joking, she added, “Can you show me? That’s pretty cool.”

He stopped and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “You weren’t kidding. You’re actually proud of that?” he asked in disbelief.

“Of course, I am!” she responded with an emphatic nod. “If we ever get stuck on a deserted island, your powerful teeth are going to save us, and we’ll survive off of melons.” That made him laugh again, showing those ‘powerful teeth’ as he did. Jinyoung giggled along with him, slapping him lightly to get his attention. “So will you show me? Just once?” she begged while still laughing.

“I’ll think about it,” he answered once he calmed down. He then let out a heavy sigh and glanced down at his phone. Jinyoung raised an eyebrow. Was he getting a call from someone now? She hadn’t heard it ring. “Isn’t your bus leaving soon?”

“Oh my gosh, it is!”

They had 15 minutes to clean up their mess and to run over to the bus stop. Jinyoung nearly left behind her phone, but Sunggyu had grabbed it, stuffing it into her purse as she threw away their trash. Then hand in hand, they ran over to the bus stop, and surprisingly, they were early.

“We made it!” Jinyoung exclaimed, panting.

“With time to spare,” Sunggyu added. “What do we do now?”

“Hm,” Jinyoung hummed in thought as she swung their hands back and forth. “I can think of something.” She wouldn’t say what that something was, but she placed a finger on her lips.

“Hm.” Sunggyu leaned in, but quickly pulled away. “Nope!” he .

Jinyoung pouted and let go of his hand so he could push him. “Why not? Do you not like me anymore?” she played along.

“I don’t,” he retorted with a cheeky grin.

“Hey, don’t say that,” Jinyoung whined and stepped away from him.

And he took several steps forward, hugging her tightly, and they took a few steps back together. His cheek was pressed against the top of her head, and Jinyoung could barely breath, but she wanted to make him just as breathless with her embrace. “I like you. And I like to tease you,” was his apology.

“You’re lucky that I’m so forgiving,” her voice was muffled.

Sunggyu loosened his hold. “Don’t act like you don’t tease me too,” he chided her.

“No, I’ve been nothing but nice to you,” she retorted.

“You have,” he gave in and finally gave her the kiss that she’d ask for moments before. And that made her really happy.

“I like you,” she found herself saying without any thought. “And I’m happy. I’m happy that we’re together.”

“Me too,” he replied. His eyes then flickered down the street. Jinyoung craned her neck back and looked too. The bus was coming. She let go of him and moved towards the edge of the sidewalk. “Are you going to be okay?” Sunggyu asked suddenly.

Jinyoung glanced at him, confused. “Going on the bus? Of course!” she answered.

Sunggyu shook his head. “Are you going to be okay without me?” he tried his best to sound pitiful.

And it made her giggle. “Maybe not. But I’ll do my best to manage,” Jinyoung responded. “I’ll text you when I get in.”

“Okay.” The bus was about to pull up to the stop. He tugged on her sleeve. “Just one more.” Now it was him begging for a kiss, and unlike him, Jinyoung gave it to him without any teasing (there was no time for it and no time to act like she didn’t want it). “Okay, now you can go. Go!” He pushed her towards the bus.

“Good night!” Jinyoung wished and got onto the bus.

“Don’t forget to text,” he reminded her before the door shut.

As Jinyoung went to her seat and sat down, she began to replay the day’s events in her head. For once, she felt like everything went perfectly. She did perfectly. Of course not every day was going to be like today’s. She’d mess up again, and then he would too. But Jinyoung was ready for those times. She felt confident that they could get through those times all right. Why?

Jinyoung was about lean her head against the window, but then something caught her eye. Sunggyu was waving to her as the bus pulled away from the stop. She quickly sat up straight and waved back.

She was so confident because no man had ever looked at her like that, a mix of happiness (from them being together) and sadness (from their departure). And she was pretty sure that she had the same expression on her face.

Their story was going to work out because they were on the same page (and hopefully will be at every turn).