Image credit: 스마일 단 (Smile Dan)

Hani hasn’t seen Daniel for a few days since their first date. Nonetheless, he never failed to send her texts and call her every other day. His words ranged from a simple –yet undeniably hot with his deep and husky voice– wake up call of ‘good morning babe’ or good night wish of ‘sweet dreams’ to lengthy reminders or sweet words that never fails to make her smile and anticipate their next meeting.

Daniel kept the reasonable distance to give her some space to consider him as her boyfriend. He knew that Hani is not a superficial type that judges people based on appearance and would accept him as a boyfriend as soon as she laid her eyes on him.

He tried his best to satisfy all the ideal type criteria she filled in the forms. It wasn’t hard for him as most of them matches his real personality, it was as if she knew him personally and wrote a description of him.

That night, Hani’s phone vibrated on the dresser just as she finished getting ready for bed. She stared at the picture of Daniel for a while in excitement before taking a deep breath to answer the call. This was a first late night video call from him.

“Hey babe,”

“Hey,” she tried not to sound too excited.

“Did I wake you?” he asked, noticing her bed in the background.

“It’s okay. I couldn’t sleep anyway.”

There was a moment of silence as both waited for the other to speak. “What were you doing?”

Daniel spoke in Busan satoori (dialect) as Hani smiled at another unexpected charm from him. Busan dialect sounded so attractive coming from his voice.

“Just finished studying for my upcoming exams. You?”

“I was just thinking about you.”

She melted once more. Where does he get all these sweet lines from? A romance novel? “Flirt.” She retorted.

“Well, I have to try since you haven’t really call me your boyfriend yet,” Daniel smiled, watching her reaction. “Is it working?”

Hani bit her lower lip, avoiding eye contact. “Maybe?”

“Beautiful,” He giggled at her endearing charm.

“I like your laugh.” She accidentally voiced her thoughts out loud.

Daniel continued laughing, “I’m glad to know that at least you like something about me.”

“Are you a camera? Because I smile every time I see you~” He cooed.

“Are you giving pick-up lines now?” Hani cringed hard at his words.

“You know what you’d look really beautiful in? My arms…”

“Too cheesy,” Hani showed him her curled up fist, wincing at all his corny pick-up lines.

“I dreamt about you last night.”

Maybe it’s working? she thought.

Suddenly, Daniel looked away from the phone as if someone called for him, interrupting their conversation, “Babe, give me a moment.” He told her.

He had a concerned expression on his face which instantly turned bright when he found his target. “Yes, I’m coming my baby~”

Daniel left his phone on the table and walked towards whoever was calling him. Hani swore her heart dropped after hearing that. She felt jealous hearing his tone of voice, he sounded very affectionate. Who was he calling baby?

“W-who was that? A girl friend…?” Hani couldn’t hide her curiosity the moment his face appeared back on her screen.

Much to Hani’s surprise, a furry orange striped creature came into sight. “Say hi to Rooney!” Daniel introduced, waving the cat’s paws. “This kitty was playing in the kitchen just now.”

She was relieved that it wasn’t some random girl and mentally scolded herself for thinking too much.

“Aww, he’s adorable,” She waved back as the cat meowed. Rooney moved nearer to the camera and tried to touch Hani’s image on the phone with its paws.

Daniel Rooney’s head, feeling pleased. “She likes you already…”

“It’s a she?” Hani wondered.

“I got too excited and gave her a name before checking the gender,” Daniel rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

He continued with another pick-up line. “If I were a cat, I’d use all my 9 lives on you.”

“Yah Kang Daniel, stop it~!”

She commented, “I see you more of a dog person though.”

“I’m a puppy~” He responded by impersonating a dog shaking it’s paws while tapping his cheek and sending her a wink.

Hani wished she could pinch his cheeks and pat his hair through the phone screen. She never knew a grown man could look as adorably soft, cute and cuddly as a puppy. He’s such a cutie pie~

“Anyways, are you free tomorrow?” Daniel asked, finally getting to the reason why he called her in the first place.

Her eyes were fixated at the interaction between the small fluff ball and its owner who is also a big fluff ball himself. Daniel even playfully tried to bite on Rooney’s ears, earning him a dumbfounded look from the feline as he giggled cutely at its reaction.

“I’m going to the library.”

“I’ll help you study then.” He stated, Rooney was now sitting comfortably on his broad shoulder, also looking at the camera. Hani didn’t miss the chance to screenshot the adorable scene.

“Have you thought about us?” Daniel asked out of the blue.

Hani wasn’t expecting the question. She naturally interacted with him like they are dating, but she still doesn’t know what to call their relationship. She knew that Daniel declared himself as her boyfriend, but she doesn’t know whether to do the same for him.

“Look, I still need time to think about this whole boyfriend thing…”

“Take your time, I’ll still be here when you’re ready.” He replied, being understanding.

***

It was an exam week for Hani as she started her usual routine of studying in the library until closing time. She sat at a quiet area of the library exercising her brain to try and understand the difficult theory that she learned last month. Hani took a deep breath to clear her mind and read the paragraph once more. She tried drawing out the info into a mind map to have a clearer understanding.

Suddenly, a cup of freshly brewed coffee appeared in front of her. Hani lifted her head up to see Daniel sitting in front of her while smiling sweetly. She was pleasantly surprised and had to confess she missed seeing his beautiful smile along with his overall presence in person.

He waved cutely, announcing his presence and mouthed ‘for you’ while motioning a drinking gesture at the cup of coffee.

Hani took the coffee and found a sticky note that said ‘Hani all the best for your exam! You can do it! Fighting!’. Daniel personally made the ‘fighting’ action with both his fists after she finished reading. She couldn’t help but to chuckle at his cuteness.

It was thoughtful and sweet of him to bring Hani coffee, but she’s one of those people who couldn’t drink coffee. She have tried enough coffee before to know that it was not a good match for her. The caffeine scent was too strong for her and she ended up feeling a bad headache and experienced insomnia.

Hani took a whiff of the aromatic coffee and immediately scrunched up her face as it was making her dizzy. Daniel was crestfallen when she pushed the cup back to him.

‘why?’ he mouthed while checking the coffee.

Hani simply shook her head and replied with a silent, ‘I can’t drink coffee.’

Daniel immediately sprang up from his seat, the chair making a loud screeching noise displeasing the students near them. He signaled her to wait for him as he walked out of the library.

Hani checked her watch, it has been a while since Daniel left with the coffee. She stood up from her seat to get a book and stretch her legs at the same time. She was scanning the bookshelves for the correct serial number of the book that she wanted.

A minute later, she found the book sitting at the top shelf to her dismay. Hani tried reaching it with her hands but ended up cursing at her short stature. Swiftly, a hand rea