~

“What do you think about this?” I held up a black slinky dress to both Stella and Kimmie.

I was going on my first official dinner date with Myung-Soo this weekend and I was uncharacteristically nervous that I couldn’t pick what to wear. It had been a few weeks since we aired everything out and since then we’d kept our morning rides to work and school like a routine, had a few café breaks whenever our lunches matched up and even movie nights, but we hadn’t had an official date.

Whatever that even was.

It was more of my fault than anything else, as much as I tried to get all my tasks done within the work week it continued to pile up, spilling over into my weekends – but not this one luckily.

Myung-Soo didn’t tell me much about what we were going to do, but he did say to wear a dress. The only genuine dating I’ve experienced was from the movie theatres, and apart from the idealistic images I’d seen in the movies I had no knowledge. Which was exactly why I had Stella and Kim over to help me out.  

The girls looked at my outfit and gave it a thumbs up without a question, so I quickly changed into it. It was a black off the shoulder body dress which stopped just below my knees. I paired it with a pair of new black stilettos and red lipstick. I'd never worn heels this high, heck I wasn't much of a heels person but I wanted to make the effort tonight. I turned to the girls to gauge their reactions and they gave me another thumbs up with an addition of squeals of approval.

“Girl, you look smoking!” Stella cooed.

“I’d tap that.” Kimmie added and I hid my face embarrassed. 

I turned back to face the mirror to take a look at myself and I wasn’t sure if it was fancy enough or if it was even too much, but it was too late now. I had ten minutes till Myung-Soo was supposed to pick me up but knowing him he was probably already outside waiting.

I strutted over to my floor length window, peering outside the curtain and low and behold Myung-Soo was stood across the street fumbling with his keys.

I had to hold back a chuckle when I saw him. He looked just as nervous as I was.

“He’s here!” I announced to no one in particular, more to calm myself down. As I turned around Stella already had my purse held out towards me and Kim spritzed me with some more perfume.

“Thank you~. Let yourselves out and please don’t finish my ice-cream.” I paused, noticing their sly expressions. “Okay fine, you can finish it. There’s cheesecake in the fridge too.”

“Will you be coming back tonight?” Kim sung cheekily, and I refrained from laughing as I walked past her through my door.

“I’ll see you at work ladies.”

“You’re not planning to do the walk of shame are you?” Kimmie shout-whispered as I approached the elevator doors. I turned around giving her a ‘keep-your-voice-down’ look and simultaneously looked to Stella for help.

“Kimmie, hush!” Stella came to my aid, “Who says it has to be shameful?”Or so I thought.

I shook my head at the duo laughing as I tried to contain my own behind the closing doors.

As I walked through the elevator doors and out of the building, my eyes fixed on Soo with his hands deep in his pockets leaning against the door of Youngjae Oppa's black ‘91 Mustang. I tried not to laugh thinking about how many tries it must have taken him to perfect his stance.

He hadn’t noticed me yet with his eyes fixed on the ground so I took my time to take him in. He was adorned in a fitted black suit trouser and a loose cream shirt with the collars turned up. I was glad I went with my dress, one it suited what he was wearing and two, it wasn’t too fancy yet not too casual.

I cleared my throat to make my presence known, watching as his startled form stood up from the car door and our eyes met.

“H-hey.”

“Hey.” I returned, closing the distance between us.

“You look… Amazing.” He scanned me from head to toe and I didn’t even bother to hide my blush. We’d dressed up many times before, complimented each other just as many yet there was this palpable difference that had my heart beating out of my chest.

“Likewise.”

“We should get going.” He opened the door for me and I slid in as he helped me with my seat belt and jumped to his side of the car. If this was any other guy I would have questioned how long this chivalry would uphold, but Soo had been doing this for as long as I could remember so I didn’t worry about that.

“Where are we going? Don’t say it’s a surprise.”

“…It’s somewhere that I cannot tell you yet.” He smarted. 

“So, it’s a surprise?”

“Bingo.” I smiled along with him as he pulled away and drove to the destination that shall not be named.

We drove for a while as we talked and Myung-Soo’s Oasis cassette played in the background. I say talked, but for the last fifteen minutes we were debating which Oasis song on the album was the best. The car came to a stop and I noticed we weren’t anywhere that I recognised in LA, but the view of the beach to our left took the breath out of me.

Sadly enough we didn’t have any time to do a lot of leisurely things since we came here to study and work, I was yet to visit many of the attractions here. All the fun things I did when I was younger, but as I grew my visits became more goal-purposed and the fun was taken away.

“This is beautiful.” I breathed, beholding the almost empty beach that probably went on for miles.

“It is isn’t it, but we’re actually here for the food.” He gently ushered us towards a pathway covered in lights and filled with noise from the people that flooded each and every restaurant on it. My nose was invaded with a mixture of smells from the food from each store, fried, salty, sweet and every other sensational smell you could think of, I was experiencing it. 

“We’re here.” He announced as he walked us into a restaurant with the sign 'Homely food' written in hangul.

“Myung-Soo…”

“I know, you’re probably thinking why, but you’ve been talking about how much you miss the food back home. I actually wanted to cook for you, but I didn’t want to give either of us food poising so… Here we are. If you don’t like it, we can-”

“Are you kidding? I love it.” I held onto his arm and smiled, “You actually listen to what I say.”

“Of course.”

One of the servers directed us to our reserved table and I couldn't help but notice the big difference with traditional restaurant's back home. The interior was a tad more American yet kept the Asian authenticity. We spent majority of the evening in that restaurant and I don’t think I would have wanted it any other way. While Myung-Soo ordered japchae and grilled meat, I had ordered kimchi jjigae with extra kimchi on the side (boy did I miss that thing) and strawberry ice-cream for dessert. The food was so delicious that I didn’t even want to leave, but Myung-Soo had other plans. Apparently there’s a part two for this date, and of course when I asked him what it was, he said it was a surprise.   

The drive back to the centre was peaceful, we had forgotten our debate on the best Oasis song and had settled to just listening to the radio. Our full stomachs probably had a lot to do with that.

We walked into a neighbourhood I recognised and up to a small building with ‘Tango for Two’ written on top with neon lights. Unfortunately they had closed for the night so dancing there was no longer an option. Myung-Soo seemed very taken aback which was quite cute actually considering he was beet red.

"You wanted us to go dancing?" I asked softly and he nodded shyly. 

“Wait, don’t worry I know another place.” He reassured me, but when we had gotten to that location it had already closed… Down. Yeah, according to the homeless man we met there the place had been out of business since yesterday.

“Okay… So I don’t have another plan.” He admitted, scratching his head. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to drag you around for nothing. I just thought it would be nice to dance together.”

 “Hey, it’s okay! How were you supposed to know they just shut down?” I giggled, “I thought you said you didn’t like dancing anyways?”

“Yeah, but when I’m with you it’s different.” He whispered.

I stared directly into his eyes and squinted my eyes at him amused. “You are so full of it!” I laughed.

“What? It’s true!” He defended with a smirk on his face.

“Right, sure it is.” I continued to chuckle as we strode away from the closed centre.

“You know…” I felt Myung-Soo link his fingers between mine and lean in closer towards me, “I’d even do algebra for you – and I hate Algebra.”

I let out a hearty laugh at that confession because it was true. Myung-Soo was intelligent, but the boy despised mathematics.

“Thanks, that means a lot.” I threw cheekily, drawing closer to his side.

“You’re welcome.”

We continued to stroll around the area, hands linked and feet in sync. “I’m no expert in dating or anything, but this all seems like a lot for a first date, don’t you think?”

“Yeah I know, but I guess in my head it wasn’t just a first date… It was our first date.”  

Myung-Soo was right. This wasn't just a date that I'd seen in the movies or read in the books, this was the present reality. Myung-Soo and I- our date.

I paused to scan our surroundings and noticed that on our side of the street, night cafes along with bars lined up the pavement. On the other was an empty field with one huge tree rooted in its centre and a street lamp overshadowing it.

“What’s wrong?” Soo asked and I turned back to him with a smile.

“You’re right. This is our first date, so who says we can’t do what we want?” I held onto his hand tighter and slowly pulled him across the street through the fields by the tree.

“What do you mean?”

“Dance with me.” I grinned as his face displayed all of hi