It’s not enough that you already feel bad for bailing on your best friend yesterday for a freaking assignment you need to hand in last minute but you’re very much late the following morning from turning in said essay at the university. Of course, you happen to have such an old-school professor with outdated preferences like your Communication prof who requires not only online submission but also a printed version on his desk by 9am on a fine Monday morning. This is just great.

So when you finally stumble out of the bathroom, half-ready with still messy hair but at least a decent makeup, you’re welcomed by silence - which is odd because your roommate is usually up earlier than you - but catching a sight of her shoes by the door, you come to the conclusion that she arrived home safely. And she probably had fun by herself, otherwise she wouldn’t have stayed out for that long. You make a mental note to ask her about it later but right now, you don’t have time for such things.

You have already put on your shoes by the time you notice that your favourite hoodie isn’t hung by the door and you aren’t supposed to cross the rug with your shoes on - house rules number eleven. Sigh. You really don’t have time to go back, so you just grab your friend’s jacket from the stool and put it on. Even if it’s a bit too big, it’s better than freezing in the cold outside. You’ll apologize later for taking it without her permission but now you’re in a hurry.
Your first stop is the copy and printer shop on the campus and the odds might be, for once, in your favour because there’s a free printer you can use and print out the material quickly. The bored shop assistant takes your money as if it hurt him but no, you’re a responsible adult, so you don’t comment on it. Then with the papers finally in your hands twenty minutes before the deadline you make a run for the professor’s office. You are actually panting in the elevator (because gosh who the hell has their freaking office on the fourth floor?) when the guy next to you inside the metal prison smirks down at you.

“Hey, nice jacket you have there,” he compliments. At least you hope it’s just an innocent compliment and he’s not trying to flirt with you while you’re in your worst condition. That would be a bit weird.

“Thanks. Do I know you?” You look up at him, gaze lingering a tad too long over the ginger looks, the sharp eyes and the wide grin. Nope you’re pretty sure you don’t know each other. You would remember a face like his.

“No but I know whose jacket that is,” he points at the black material you’re wearing over your loose white shirt. Not knowing what he’s talking about, you look down at yourself momentarily confused but then it clicks. Oh, your best friend knows such handsome guys?
“Cool,” you shrug, not wanting to drag the conversation more than the short elevator ride allows. It’s not really your business then, your roommate definitely has a good reason not to introduce the two of you.

As the red neon number turns from 2 to 3, you think it’s going to be the end of this whole chit-chat but the guy keeps it going and gosh, you really don’t have time for this.

“I’m actually glad we met. I wanted to ask you something,” he blurts out suddenly and you don’t know what to make out of it.

“Me?” You blink at him in question and pray for the elevator to go a little faster.

“Yeah, you. I wanted to ask your opinion on putting the Runaway Baby cover at the end of the concert. Do you think it’s a good outro or it should rather be an intro?” Handsome Guy asks as casually as if you were talking about your favourite ice cream flavour but you totally lost his train of thought when he mentioned Runaway Baby or whatever. But lucky for you the elevator dings signalling your arrival on the fourth floor.

“Sorry, I really don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know anything about music,” you excuse yourself quickly rushing out towards the professor’s office.

“Come on, I’m sure that’s not true. You don’t have to be intimidated by me just because I’m his friend. He didn’t tell you about me, huh? What an awful friend.“ The ginger guy follows you, so you are more and more convinced that he thinks you’re someone else. A leather jacket isn’t that uncommon, probably hundred girls run around in the same one.

"Look, I gotta go. It was nice to chat but I have a paper to submit,” you tell him and without waiting for him to say anything, you basically flee and run to the office as if your life depended on it. Well, your grade actually does.

You swear the professor has an almost disappointed expression on his face when you made it in time and it haunts you all the way to your favourite breakfast place on the campus. You need a big mug of coffee with lots of whipped cream because after the all-nighter you just pulled you deserve the sugar bomb. You add a croissant to your order too because you haven’t had breakfast yet and just as you’re ready to dive into this heaven, somebody stops by at your table.

“Hey, fancy seeing you here. Can I join?”

It’s Handsome Guy from earlier with that happy grin on his face and internally coo at how his eyes seem to disappear into crescent moons when he smiles. He has a milkshake in his hand - what is he, nine? - and looks at you expectantly, patiently waiting for your answer.

“Sure,” you mumble because you don’t mind the company even if you’re a bit embarrassed about what happened earlier. You hope he doesn’t think you run off because of him, but if he did, he probably wouldn’t be here, right? Or who knows, maybe he still wants your opinion on a topic you don’t know anything about.

The guy sits down in front of you and actually facing him, you find it kind of funny how your outfits reflect each other: a plain white shirt and a leather jacket on top. You take a sip of your drink and then to break the sudden moment of awkwardness, you point at the earbuds still emitting music over the table.

“Can I listen?”

The guy seems taken back for a moment but then he chuckles and holds out the earbuds for you to take. His fingertips are soft as they brush against your skin when you take them.

“Oh, sure. It’s just a demo though, I’m revising it right now. So constructive criticism is welcomed,” he tells you in advance as he replays the song to the very beginning.

“Are you a music major?” You blink in surprise but you aren’t sure what makes you so dumbfounded. The guy literally asked you about music the moment he could and now his eyes are sparkling like a kid’s during Christmas but still, you have to ask.

“Yeah.”

“Cool,” you conclude after his short answer and put the buds in your ears waiting for music to fill the space. It starts off slow with piano then after the first verse suddenly it becomes heavy. The singer has a really powerful vocal and the lyrics are great. And there’s something about the instruments, you aren’t sure but it’s pretty unique-sounding, so you’re one hundred percent honest when you say: “It’s a great song.“

There’s something sheepish in the music major’s smile when he takes back the earbuds after three minutes of intensively staring at you. You’re pretty sure he had you blushing a bit just by looking at you.

"Well of course you think so, it’s Kihyun’s band. We wrote it together for Royal Rebels.”

The alliterative name makes you stop for a second. It sounds familiar but suddenly you don’t remember when or where you heard about it. You narrow your eyes while thinking and dig deep into your memories but the lack of sleep doesn’t help at all, so you give up quickly.

“So you tell me Royal Rebels is a band?”

“Yeah, an alternative rock one. Like the one you just heard,” the guy says while tapping a rhythm on his phone’s screen.

“Do you sing?” you ask curious whether it was his voice on the track or no. To be honest, from his speaking tone you’d expect him to have a deeper singing voice, but you never know, right?
The guy chuckles as if you told him the joke of the century.

“Nah. I’m not officially in the band. But I help them write songs.”

“Congrats I guess,” you mumble not knowing what else to say while still munching on your croissant.

Maybe that Kihyun dude is some famous musician you should know of but you really have no idea. Music is something you just listen to but aren’t involved in.

"I have embarrassing stories to tell you about him if you’re curious,” Handsome Guy says and it probably should be a nice deal but you aren’t one for such stories about strangers you don’t know.

“I don’t really care about embarrassing stories,” you admit and see in the other’s puzzled expression that he didn’t expect this answer. Well, you are a girl of surprises. And maybe a bit reckless too as you make a request: “Tell me about yourself, or anything. Just take my mind off uni. The semester’s end is killing me.”

“Ah tell me about it,” the guy smiles and as he does there’s milk moustache just over his upper lip. Adorable. Just like his shy laugh when he wipes it off when you pass him a napkin.

Jooheon, as you finally get to know, is in his final year of Music Production. He should have graduated last year but he did a yearlong internship in the States, so he couldn’t. He has been back for this semester and started working together with other artists while working on his own mixtape. It takes a bit of pleading but he promises you to let you listen when it’s ready. He even makes an impromptu rap about the menu and you laugh so carefree like you haven’t done in so long and you can literally feel the stress melting away. From the uptight, bit rude girl from the morning, you are slowly turning back into yourself and smiling more. It’s hard not to around Jooheon, you realize because he keeps on joking with you and telling funny stories like that cursed 13th Friday when his roommate dropped his phone onto his face and he, himself, walked into a glass wall instead of through the automatic door.

Milkshake and coffee long gone, plate empty you still don’t move from your table. You enjoy this moment way too much to end it abruptly even if minutes pass quicker now in good company. It’s really not fair. And everything just clicks so well with Jooheon. The more you go on, the more you get to know him, the less you want to tell him the truth, that you aren’t whoever he thinks you are. But of course, the truth has to be laid out on the table sooner or later and it’s for the best to get over with as soon as possible. Still, it almost makes you choke on your own saliva what Jooheon asks next:

“So you and Kihyun are… a thing?” he inquires and it’s so uncharacteristically shy of him you don’t know what to make of it. Is he worried you might say yes? Does he hope you won’t?

Anyways, you don’t keep up the fake facade anymore and just blurt out the truth:

“What? Sorry I have no idea who is this Kihyun guy you always talk about.“

"Uhm, the guy whose jacket you wear,” Jooheon points at your outfit quite puzzled by your answer. But you’re even more surprised by his answer. You look down at the comfortable, worn material. This can’t be a guy’s jacket, can it?

“No. It’s my roommate’s,” you shake your head and you can literally see the cogs turning in Jooheon’s head as his mouth hangs agape.

“Wait. Weren’t you with Kihyun yesterday?” he asks suspiciously and you let out a sigh thinking back on yesterday. Oh how you wish you were out instead of stuck in the apartment all day long.

“I was on a romantic date with my assignment,” you admit rather dramatically and it makes the guy laugh so hard you fear for the life of the glasses on the table.

“Oh my god, I really thought you are Kihyun’s girl,” he hides his face in his hands in embarrassment, still smiling wide.

“Aaand does it matter?” you singsong while fondling with the zipper of the jacket,
“Well I would feel really bad for flirting with a friend’s girl,” Jooheon looks up with a hint of coy smile in the corner of his smile.

You lean forward, elbows resting on the table and ask boldly: “Are we flirting then?”

From this close you see the sparks in the boy’s eyes framed by the ginger locks hanging onto his forehead.

“I hope so,” he nods to himself and he mimics your position which easily makes you smile once again. You have never enjoyed a cat and mouse game so much. You haven’t found the guy who made it seem natural instead of a forced power play, so this feeling is freeing.

“Oh boy you have to try harder than that,” you tease but it’s actually very nice knowing that he wants something from you. It makes your insides like jelly and fills you with excitement.

“Oh believe me, I will,” Jooheon promises right away and you will just have to take his word for it. But all the what ifs dissolve from your mind when he asks you out straightforwardly out of the blue. “Let me take you somewhere Friday evening if you’re free.”

“Well… let me check my calendar,” you purse your lips as if you were deep in thought but then quickly no. “Okay, I guess, you can take that time slot. What’s on your mind?”

It’s not that you don’t like surprises - because you do, look at how this day turns out - but you like to be ready for what’s about to come. Especially because of Jooheon’s mischievous smile.

”You will see. Just give me your number, so I can send you the details. But for now, do you wanna grab lunch somewhere?”

Oh, time really flies when you enjoy your time together with someone, you realize once again as you glance at your watch and see the time. You have actually started to get hungry because that one croissant wasn’t much, so the question actually has perfect timing.

“Yeah, let’s go,” you nod and stand up ready to leave. Jooheon follows your lead and both of you start walking towards the exit in sync when someone literally jumps in front of you.

“Excuse me guys, I just wanna tell you that your couple outfits are really cool. Hope you enjoyed your stay, have a nice day!” a waitress comes up to you then waves goodbye too soon for your to process the whole event. You just stand there dumbfounded until Jooheon burst out laughing.

“See? We look cool next to each other,” he smiles at you and pats your jacket lightly over your back. In the mirror on the coffee shop’s wall, you can now actually see how it looks on you and you immediately realize how Jooheon knew that the jacket can’t be yours. It has Royal Rebels written on the back in a pretty cursive font. Ah of course, it belongs to the band members, so Jooheon knew that the jacket can’t be yours. But how did it end up with your best friend then? That was the question.

The next thing you know: Jooheon’s face close to you, eyes shining like thousand stars and your heart does a backflip.

“But you know next time if you want to wear a guy’s leather jacket, just take mine,” he winks at you playfully and suddenly you can’t believe your luck. Just this morning you were complaining about an essay, you were drained and wanted nothing but to sleep, and now you’ve scored yourself a date with a funny and handsome guy whom you don’t want to stop talking to. And it all happened because of a borrowed leather jacket…