Luda’s special place wasn’t that special, it was rather mundane, still she loved it. Near the campus there was a park that was mostly frequented by children and old people that come to illegally feed the ducks in the lake – her grandmother was one of these people and Luda used to help her growing up, no matters how many times people told them they shouldn’t be doing it. The days were getting colder, what means no ducks to see and less people visiting it there.

“Well, that is…Surprising.” Jiyeon commented taking a look around at this rather peculiar place. It wasn’t a bad place, it was just a bit too simple and different of what she was expecting. Her journalist skills weren’t as great as she supposed. “I thought we were going to a cat cafe or even a game PC cafe.” Luda simply didn’t come off as the kind of a person that enjoyed outside activities.

The small brunette let her gaze travel through the lake surface, having trouble facing the older woman. Her dating skills were really terrible. She realized a little too late that the park wasn’t exactly the most comfortable place to be, it was a bit too cold and boring. Winter wasn’t the best season for the place and she should’ve have known better. She moved, switching the weight of her body from one foot to another.

“I come here often. Is not far away from where my family lives, so…” She shrugged, trying to play it cool and failing miserably as the nervousness was shown in her insecure smile. “I just think it’s a nice and quiet, and since we came from such a loud place…You don’t really like it? Sorry, I should have asked you.”

Would Bona have picked that place for a date, particularly in such a cold day? Definitely not. However, she wouldn’t mind spending some time there if Luda was with her.

“It’s fine. We can talk with some privacy here.” She made sure to give Lee her trademark smile, not the clumsy gummy one that she couldn’t control when she was truly happy, but the charming half smile that never failed to captive people.

Jiyeon wasn’t the kind that falls easily, she had always being popular and flirting was boring most of the time. Nevertheless, Luda was adorable, this was one thing that Bona already knew, and now she was looking utterly cute. Luda’s ears peeking through her hair that waved with the cold breezy were slowly becoming pink, her nose following suit. She was moving around unable to conceal her nerves. The girl’s insecurity was rather endearing, her apparent innocence just made her a little more attractive.

Bona sat down under a tree, tapping the place next to her so Luda could do the same. The smaller woman seemed surprised, but soon joined her.

The brown haired girl pulled her knees closer, bracing them and resting her chin on it. She wasn’t as agitate now, albeit she still knew the idea was bad, having Jiyeon agreeing on staying and try to get to know each other, was a much better outcome than she could have asked for. Lee stole a glance at the raven, noticing how the wind wasn’t strong enough to mess her perfect black hair, although it seem to hurt her pale skin a bit.  The last thing she wanted was to make her gentle company to get a cold, so she promised herself they would head to a warmer place soon.

“So, computer science? Doesn’t it have like a bunch of math and stuff?” Jiyeon cut her train of thoughts. The brunette extended her arms behind her, using it as support as she stared at the sky through the tree’s leaves. She looked relaxed, therefore Luda tried her best to act the same.

“Yes. I mean, it does have a lot of math, but I like it. I used to do some basic programing when I was back in school, I wanted to improve and work with it.” She explained with a smile, feeling more confident to talk about a topic she was comfortable with. However, she tried to not talk too much, she didn’t wanted to come off as a…

“A geek, I see. That’s what I thought when I first saw you.” Bona had said even before the shorter girl could finish her thought process. Apparently her try at not being the tech equivalent of a nerd was a big fail.

The corners of Jiyeon’s eyes crinkled, forming cute half moons as she gently bumped her shoulder against Luda’s. “Who doesn’t love a smart girl?”

“The guys from earlier?” Luda left out a light chuckle, relieved. Once again, she was too tense because of something that wasn’t that big of deal at all.

“They are idiots. And blind, too.” Now Bona had her eyes back on Luda’s face, what didn’t fail on making the younger girl feel a warm sensation spreading through her chest. She wasn’t one to easily believe in compliments, but somehow the ones from Kim seem sincere and she just didn’t feel the foolish need to reject it. Instead, she smiled once again, letting her own gaze travel back to the greyish water of the lake.

“You took a year off, right? I like your work on the campus newspaper. It’s quite entertaining.” Luda said, letting her curiosity show. She heard about Jiyeon, and her very notable family of journalists before, she was an avid reader of certain section written by the older girl. Although, she had never seen Jiyeon in person before today and it took her a while to connect the dots.

Jiyeon nodded, it was the kind of question she would hear at least once a day ever since she came back to college. “You could say I needed to find some inspiration…And also, I took some courses overseas, so it wasn’t all fun and games. Not that there weren’t some.” She shrugged with a mischievous smile that was more a façade than a reality. The truth wasn’t as fun. Kim left for study abroad for only six months, but stayed longer due to the fact that she struggled more than expected fitting into a new and different society and adapting. She wanted to learn from the best, find her own amazing stories, but most of the time she only got headaches and enormous amounts of homework.

“But what did you read?” Bona changed topics, sitting up to give her arms some rest. She was lucky she was accepted back into the campus newspaper as soon as she got back – perhaps because it wasn’t popular enough to reject any new recruit. “My very interesting tale regarding the mysterious case of the disappearance of the school’s mascot every year before Christmas?”

Luda shook her head slightly, taking a moment to think before answering. “That one was good, too. However, I liked the best that time you wrote about urban legends of the campus. It was very smart.”

Yes, their college was that boring, but at least she tried her best to make it a fun read. The ‘urban legends’ were actually short stories about ‘ghost students’, jabbing at the college administration office’s suspicious behavior and the accusations of (alleged) special treatments given to some spoiled rich kids, however she was careful to not make it too obvious otherwise her precious non-paid job would be in risk.  It was her style, always giving small hints about what was really important, using humor to keep the public interested.

“I see you’re a woman of taste.” She inclined her head towards Luda, giving her an approbation nod. That said article had got her quite a few nasty looks from the administration office, yet they couldn’t do anything about it since she was careful enough to make it look almost innocent. “Unfortunately things have been slow lately. Don’t you have any scoop I should know about?” Jiyeon raised her eyebrows, a playful smile on her face. “Like for example…What would make someone who clearly hates blind dates agree on going on one with a bunch of random guys?”

Lee shook her head, an airy chuckle leaving her lips. “I guess I was taking one for the team?” She tried, shrugging at her own vague explanation. The real explanation seemed too embarrassing to say out loud, but it wasn’t like Bona was really going to publish it…At least she hoped not. “I was the only single girl, so they asked me to go.” Luda wondered what her classmates would think when they figured she had dumped her partner and left with a pretty girl instead – the thought was funny enough to make her want to laugh, although she doubted she would be able to do so when she had their attention and face their questions on Monday. “I also wanted to see how it was.”

Bona nodded once more. The explanation fitted what she had supposed. Luda didn’t seem the type that would easily volunteer for something like that, usually the quiet ones ended up in those meetings thanks to their nosy friends, or classmates in this case. “I supposed it was your first time doing something like that. You are not good at playing it cool.” She gesture the girl’s face, the same face that would be covered in color at any sign or embarrassment.

“Talking like this makes it sound like you’re a professional.” Luda argued, covering her cheeks with sweater pawns, afraid her cheeks decided to betray her again.

“I went to my fair share of blind dates. It’s fun, but it always ends up with a ‘I think we should be friends’ kind of thing.” And it was Jiyeon the one that would say it most of the times, but she wasn’t sure if saying it would make her look like a good date anymore. Indeed, by the way she saw Lee frowning slightly before accepting it with a short nod, Bona realized she probably shared more than she should’ve. Perhaps she wasn’t that great at dating either. “I mean, I had never happened to find someone with whom I felt a good connection before…” Before today, she added mentally, hoping her tone was enough for the shorter girl to grasp the meaning behind her words.

Bona was clearly overrating Luda’s social skills.

“Oh, I see.” Luda nodded slowly. Was Bona flirting with her for real or just acting like she always did in those other dates? Was she also supposed to do so until both of them got bored? It was hard to think she would ever get tired of the raven’s company, despite Jiyeon not feeling the same…She was starting to overthink and it was no good, so she just tried to give a proper answer. “Well, at least is a good way of making friends.”

“I suppose…” Jiyeon’s dark eyes that reflected the grey water of the lake and seem as mysterious as it was, found their way to Luda’s gentle almond ones. Her gaze was intense as she leaned in, coming a bit closer to the shorter girl. “But I’m not really interested in being friends with pretty girls. Just to let you know.”

There was again, that half smile that was charming enough to turn heads around, and as if it wasn’t bad enough, Bona winked at her, for the second time that day. For gods sake, no one had ever winked at Lee her whole life – besides her friends when they were trying to give her weird signals during tests to convince her to help them cheat, but those winks got nothing on Jiyeon’s. Her friends winks weren’t enough to make little heart go into crisis mode bombing all the blood it could towards her face, like it was now.

Jiyeon didn’t look away, patiently waiting for her reply.

Luda might be a little bit dense, however she couldn’t possible be to the extent of not understanding what the Kim meant – well, it couldn’t get much more direct than that.

“I don’t want to be friends either.” The words rolled out of her tongue and out of before she could do anything about it, adding extra embarrassment to her already flustered self. At least she didn’t stuttered this time or hide her face in her hands – not that she didn’t want to, because it was so very tempting.

“You are saying I am a pretty?” Jiyeon’s smile grew, showing off her gums in a smile that made her look adorable and not so intimidating for once. “Do you want to go for an unfriendly outing with me then?” Bona stood up in a fluid movement, offering a hand so the brunette could to the same.

“I-I never said it!” Luda tried to defend herself, her voice pathetically weak as she accept Bona’s help. “What do you mean? Where are we going?”

“To a place I only take my favorite pretty girls…” She winked. Again. “Let’s go back to the dorms!”

“The d-dorms?!” Luda’s stuttering was back with full force as her mind ran wild imagining all kind of scenarios.

Jiyeon muffled a laughed, clearly enjoying the scene. “Don’t worry, I have an apartment for myself. We will have all privacy.”

If Luda was flustered before, now she was feeling like she could melt at any moment. No matter how attractive and charming Jiyeon was, things were going a bit too fast and she should stand up for herself before she did something she would regret later.

“I’m not going. I mean, I’m going, but to my room and you go to yours and…” She took a deep breath, gathering courage to speak, well, try to speak without stuttering at least. “We barely know each other.” She puffed her cheeks, arms crosses in front of herself as she tried to stand as tall as possible – what wasn’t very tall at all.

Jiyeon thought she looked like a little hamster throwing a fit and it was hard to not laugh out loud this time. She managed to only giggle softly.

“Stop there, lover girl. I’m not that easy, you know?” Bona clicked her tongue, little pink spots forming on her cheeks as the only demonstration that the older woman could also get embarrassed. She was having fun teasing Luda, but she didn’t want to go overboard with it. Besides, Jiyeon was already feeling a little embarrassed about the way the conversation was evolving.  “We are just going to grab some stuff. I have a Christmas coverage to make and I think you will love it. Now can we go or are you going to keep staring at me like that?”

Luda avoided her gaze, one hand covering her face that was a little too hot due to the shame. She was making a fool out of herself. Of course, Bona was only joking and didn’t mean anything else, she should’ve known better than act like a panicked eighteen century bride.

“Sorry, I…Sorry. I’m really sorry!” Luda rarely wished to be even smaller than she already was, but in the moment she wished she was as small as insect and could fly away out of there without having to face Bona and admit her dumb demeanor. “Can we go now?”

“So now you are excited to go to my place?” Jiyeon teased one last time, letting out a soft chuckle before grabbing the brown haired girl’s hand. It was small and delicate, fitting perfectly into hers.

“Come on.” Luda echoed, shaking her head. She was still avoiding Jiyeon’s eyes, instead focusing on their jointed hands for a moment. Jiyeon’s hand was soft and warm, Lee wasn’t very fond of skinship, but she didn’t mind the touch. Actually, she liked it quite a bit. Her eyes darted down, taking notice of Bona’s elegant cream colored coat that had been in direct contact with the damp soil covered by a layer of leaves. Her small almond eyes grew wider, realizing that it might as well ruin Jiyeon’s clothes.

“Jiyeon unnie, your coat!” She said, nervously trying to clean up the leaves that had already attached themselves to the soft fabric. It took her a moment, in which Jiyeon’s half smile became a grin, to notice she had used such a word to describe the other. “S-Sorry! I didn’t mean to be so informal, and your coat is-“

“We are on a date, nothing more normal than get close, right?” The grin was still there, even brighter than before. Luda was indeed one of kind, getting so worked up about small matters when she’s been flirting so shameless all along. “Besides, you are already going home with me. We are close enough.” Okay, now this was her last teasing of the afternoon, Bona promised herself. She didn’t pay much attention to her coat, that would most likely need to be left at the dry clean later, instead she started walking pulling the girl behind her.  “Let’s move!”

A/N: Sorry for the late update guys! This chapter is almost double the usual size, so it kind of compensates. I'll do my best to keep the schedule and finish it by new year's eve. I apologize for any mistakes. Thank you for reading and for the nice comments <3