Dear stars scattered all over the sky

Can I make a wish now?

(I wish my problems away)

Once that day breaks

I’m brand new yeah

Cause you are the no. 1

It is their fifth date that Baekhyun decides that he wants more than just dates with her. He is over at her place, cutting up vegetables for dinner with Jinju while the older sister cooks. He has found out that while their father had died when Jinju was only one, their mother is still around but doing many odd jobs around the clock to raise her two daughters.

It has only been two weeks since he started bringing her out on dates but he has already learnt so much about her. Like the fact that she doesn’t like tomatoes, like the fact that she likes going to the beach, like the fact that she is a fidgeter. And though he knows he can keep going on dates to get to know her better, he doesn’t want to just leave things at that. He wants to take things up a notch, to make things official between them. Because he has never felt so strongly for someone ever before and he knows he never will.

“Jinju,” he whispers to the girl when he glances behind him and sees that the older girl is busy frying some pork. The little girl looks up from trying to cut a carrot with her blunt, toy knife. Baekhyun leans in closer. “I really, really like your unnie,” he tells her softly, hoping she understands him. “Do you think she likes me back?”

The little girl nods her head. “U-Unnie a-always talks you a-at night.”

“She talks about me?” Baekhyun repeats, eyes wide. (He has also found how that Jinju stutters and has a problem with constructing proper sentences though she is slowly getting better.) She bobs her head. “What does she say?” he asks, eager to know.

She hums. “She says y-you is hands-some. And um… jellymantly!”

“Gentlemanly?” Baekhyun guesses, smiling when Jinju bobs her head cutely. He reaches out to her hair. “Jinju,” he starts, really hoping she knows what he is asking when he questions, “I really want to make your unnie my girlfriend. Will you let me?”

“Y-Yes!” she exclaims excitedly, big eyes sparkling and her small lips stretched into a smile.

He grins at her and pats her head. “Thank you, Jinju.” She giggles cutely. Baekhyun turns back to watch the older sister facing this way now as she washes a knife. He traces her features, so beautiful even without makeup. He feels his chest swell with love. He turns back to Jinju. “Do you think she will say yes?” he asks her worriedly.

But Jinju doesn’t seem at all worried about it when she bobs her head. “Unnie really likes Prince Baekhyun,” she tells him happily. Baekhyun is both amazed by her response and by her perfect speech. “She t-told Jinju!”

“Ahhh, Jinju!” Baekhyun squeals, so proud of himself and also of her for constructing a whole sentence without even stuttering. He reaches out to squish the little girl’s cheeks between his palms and gives her a big fat kiss on her forehead, making her giggle. “You’re a star, you are.”

And so Baekhyun, with the help of his sidekick, Jinju, goes ahead with the plan to make the relationship between him and the girl he has been seeing official.

So on their sixth date, Baekhyun gets up extra early and cooks even though he is terrible at it. He bought a whole set of bento making stuff and takes a good two hours to make the the bento box. He refers to YouTube videos every so often and he has probably cursed more than his lifetime’s worth in that span of two hours. And when he is done, he stares at the box of ugly as sausage octopuses and deranged-looking rice bears in curry that is a little bit too salty. He has to hold himself back from throwing it out of the window.

He really thinks that falling in love has got to be the strongest black magic on earth and that love has to be the greatest motivation ever to mankind. He doesn’t even remember the last time he cooked anything apart from ramyeon, much less a ing bento box that costed him two hours and several cuts and burns on his hands. He would have thought anyone would be crazy to make their partner a stupid bento box yet here he is, trying to attempt to cut bears out of bread so that dessert would be cute Nutella sandwiches.

It is so much work and lunch that should be a simple affair has now become a three-hour job. The sandwiches are the easiest to make though they still look scary with hazelnut chocolate jam oozing out of the sides and the eyes of the bears. Baekhyun feels like crying.

He barely even has time to dress up so he only pulls on a shirt and a pair of torn jeans before grabbing the prepared lunch and leaving the house. He drives to the girl’s exam venue where she is just finishing her last paper for the semester. He leaves the food in his car and waits for her outside the hall.

Girls are constantly looking his way, trying to give him flirty eyes. But Baekhyun is no longer about that life. While he used to wink back just to watch them swoon over him, he keeps his eyes trained on the closed doors of the exam hall, waiting for the students to leave.

He only waits for five minutes more. His heart rate starts to amp up at the thought of seeing her again. He bites on his bottom lip and strains his neck to search through the hoard of students leaving the hall. And among the mass of people, Baekhyun swears it is the glow around her body that no one else has that sets her apart from everyone else. His lips tilt into a smile all on its own when he sees her talking animatedly to her friends, a bright smile on her face. She looks so terribly pretty, especially in an oversized tie dye shirt and a part of frayed denim shorts.

She only notices Baekhyun when she reaches the bottom of the stairs where he is standing right opposite, waiting on the grass. Her features brighten up even more and Baekhyun feels another surge of love and affection for her shooting straight through his heart. She turns to her friends and excuses herself quickly before walking over to Baekhyun. She stands in front of him, staring up at him while he looks back down at her, the both of them unaware of people watching them. They have never seen the campus’ playboy look at a girl like that, much less wait for her to finish an exam.

“How was the paper?” he murmurs, eyes roaming about her face, trying to look for new things he hadn’t yet already noticed. (There's none because he does it so often, but it makes it easy for him to spot something different on her face.)

“I think I can pass,” she beams at him.

He smiles softly. “That’s good.” He glances down at his watch before looking at her. “Hungry?”

“Yes!”

He chuckles and nods. “Let’s go, then.”

Baekhyun is watching the girl nervously, wrecked with apprehension. She is scanning his disastrous curry rice bento box and the slightly scary bear sandwiches. He bought drinks and fruits too, to distract their taste buds from his bad cooking. The girl has been staring at the food for a whole minute without saying anything. Baekhyun feels like he might actually die of anxiety.

But then she looks up at him and he sees that her lips have stretched into a wide smile. He holds his breath even longer instead of letting it out. How does she look so breathtaking with just a simple smile?

“They’re so cute, Baekhyun,” she coos. “Did you make them?” He nods wordlessly. “You actually did?” She sounds so surprised for a moment. But then she pulls out her phone and grins. “I need to take pictures of them.”

“No, they’re ugly!” Baekhyun gasps, covering the boxes with his hands.

She laughs her beautiful chime-like laughter. “They’re not, Baekhyun. I think they’re adorable,” she reassures him. He lets her pull his hands away and take the pictures. Then she locks her phone and puts it away. She smiles at him in affection. “You’re so sweet, Baekhyun.”

He blushes and looks away. “I can’t cook,” he says instead, always so terrible at accepting compliments from her even though he had no problem before with other girls. “The curry is a bit too salty and the rice is a bit uncooked. And the—”

“It’s fine,” she chuckles, reaching over to lift his chin to look at her. She has the warmest, the sweetest, the most beautiful smile on her face. “Thank you,” she murmurs gently.

He flushes and his heart is pounding in his chest. He quickly shakes his head. Embarrassed and shy, he looks away and grabs the chopsticks and spoon he brought along to give them to her. He watches her take her first taste. He lets out a relieved breath when she smiles at him, eyes crinkling happily. He falls in love with her all over again when she picks up a sausage octopus and giggles at how the eyes are not levelled.

“And I think the eyeball of the other one dropped off,” she laughs, prodding the other sausage octopus.

Baekhyun breaks out into a grin at the sound of her relaxed laughter. He now thinks that the three hours was well spent and the cuts and burns were all worth it. He didn’t even have to worry about the food tasting bad because he is once again exposed to her kindness. She drinks a lot of water to make up for the salty curry but she doesn’t complain about anything. In fact, she seems to enjoy the bento lunch immensely.

And now Baekhyun finally understands why people make bento lunches for their partners. The pride in impressing the girl makes him want to throw another three hours of his life away again, just so he could watch her enjoy the food he made.

For the rest of the day, Baekhyun brings her to a summer carnival where he wins her a Hello Kitty watch which she wears proudly and a plushie of a dog for Jinju. He buys her carnival food, pays for all her rides, and only asks for something small in return.

Kisses.

Which she gives him very readily on the cheeks. It only makes him want to spend more money on her. And she knows that. So she pulls him away from the carnival and reminds him that they should pick up Jinju from her daycare center soon. He argues to buy one last thing, and she only agrees to it only because he promises that this one is for Jinju. He buys her a malt candy lollipop with edible flowers inside of it.

So they return to the car and Baekhyun drives to Jinju’s daycare center that he has been to several times already to pick her up. He parks outside the center and tells the girl to stay in the car while he goes to pick Jinju up. She smiles and lets him. When Baekhyun sees Jinju waddling towards the entrance with her teacher, he beams and squats down, helping her wear her shoes while she leans against him.

“I got you something, Jinju,” he tells her as he carries her up in his arms after he is done strapping on her velcro shoes.

“W-What is i-it?” she asks excitedly, her big eyes on Baekhyun.

“You’ll see,” he grins at her. “Also, oppa is going to ask your unnie to be his girlfriend later. You’ll help me, won’t you?”

“Yes!” she exclaims loudly, throwing up her two hands in excitement. “J-Jinju will help P-Prince Baekhyun!”

He chuckles at her cuteness. As he reaches his car, he pecks her chubby cheek. Her sister leaves the front seat and sits with her in the back. Baekhyun doesn’t hear them talking about the dog plushie or the flower candy. Because all he is thinking and fretting about is what will happen later. He is sure he is going to either stutter or choke on his words. But what he isn’t sure about, is what the girl’s answer would be. Sure, she flirts with him and gives him kisses. But what if she’s just that nice? What if they shouldn’t even mean a thing?

He should have had enough time to prep himself the entire day but he had been so wrapped up in her presence that he couldn’t even think of anything else. And now that he is minutes away from popping the question, he feels terribly under qualified and seriously inadequate. Maybe he shouldn’t ask her yet. He still has much to change about himself. Maybe he should just ask her next time when he has changed entirely.

Baekhyun has somewhat come to a decision to postpone the question when he reaches the front of the two sisters’ apartment building. He parks the car by the curb and turns around in his seat to look at the girls in the back seat, smiling when he sees the two of them staring at him with wide eyes, surprised to already be back so quickly.

“We’re here,” he tells them gently.

“Alright,” the girl mutters, unbuckling her seatbelt and Jinju’s. “Let’s go, Jinju—”

“N-No!”

The girl stops and stares at Jinju. She frowns. “Jinju—”

“B-Baekhyun op-p-pa!” The little girl calls out. “Ask unnie!”

Baekhyun has totally forgotten about Jinju being in on this as well. His face flushes. He glances at the girl who is frowning at him now, wondering what the hell is going on. He guesses it is now or never. He could still postpone the question but he doesn’t want to let Jinju down. Not when she is staring at him so excitedly. So he makes a quick wish to the stars that are only barely visibly in the summer evening.

He unbuckles his safety belt and turns fully in his seat to face the girl. He takes in a deep breath and the question just tumbles out of his mouth like it has been waiting to be let out.

“Will you be my girlfriend?”

Baekhyun’s heartbeat is loud in his ears. The girl is gaping at him, surprise written all over her features. She doesn’t quite know what to do because this is unexpected. Flattering, but unexpected. The silence drags on for so long that Jinju can’t take it any longer.

“Say yes, unnie!”

It takes awhile for her words to sink in but when they do, the girl turns her head to blink at her younger sister. “Jinju,” she breathes. “You weren’t stuttering.”

The little girl beams proudly at her. “Me get b-better now!”

She is still staring at her baby sister in disbelief and pride. But Baekhyun is dying to know her answer and he thinks he might explode with anxiety if she doesn’t answer him soon. He thinks a rejection would at least be better than an unanswered response. So he calls her name quietly, bringing her attention back to him. She blinks at him, a little dazed. Baekhyun gulps and asks the question again. Life returns to her blank eyes as her lips tilt into a sweet smile, her eyes sparkling.

“Of course, Baekhyun,” she murmurs with a small, happy smile. “Of course I will be your girlfriend.”