You miss one hundred percent of the chances you do not take.

 

Jihoon repeated this sentiment inside of his head like a mantra as he approached the woman sitting alone in the café, smiling softly while she held her cup of steaming coffee up to her nose in delight before taking the tiniest of sips. His heart leapt when she winced—her eyes squeezed shut, causing her nose to crinkle slightly along the bridge and a little pout settled on her face with a bit of her stark red tongue peeking out between her teeth—probably still burning herself despite all of the precautions she took to avoid it. Jihoon couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on his face when the woman started whining quietly to herself as she placed her cup down and went for her phone.

 

Classic Minatozaki Sana.

 

“Are you okay?” He asks, sliding into the seat in front of Sana, setting his own drink down onto the table. Contrary to Sana who appreciated matching the cold Winter season with a nice, hot drink, Jihoon went for his usual Iced Americano, which is unsurprising considering he was still refusing to give up on wearing his Gucci slides—he figured that he worked his off doing several jobs he hated just to afford these damn things, he might as well wear them to death.

 

“Yeah...” Sana responded with less enthusiasm than she was known for which made Jihoon chuckle, taking a proper sip of his drink as a subtle tease. “Kinda wish you hadn’t seen that, though,”

 

“If it wasn’t now, then it’d certainly be another time, guaranteed,” Jihoon replied easily, offering a sip of his drink to cool Sana’s tongue.

 

Sana took the drink graciously and sipped at it with a satisfied sigh afterwards. “Thanks.” She giggled, handing the drink back. “Almost makes me forgive you for bullying me,”

 

“Almost?” Jihoon hesitated taking another sip, the thought of an indirect kiss lingering in the back of his mind.

 

“Almost.” Sana responded, picking up her cup of coffee again and making sure to blow on it for much longer this time before taking another sip. Her effort was rewards this time, as she didn’t burn herself, and she lets out another satisfied sigh. “So, this is quite unusual,”

 

Jihoon is the one to wince this time. “Ooh, straight into it, huh?”

 

“I’m just very curious about why you invited me out today. My friends have been going crazy with theories,” Sana admitted behind her coffee. Jihoon raised a brow at this, panic beginning to settle into him; this scenario was far too familiar to him, but he tried not to let it bother him just yet.

 

“Theories, you say? Like… that I’m an alien, or something?” Jihoon chuckled awkwardly, unconsciously fiddling with his drink instead of drinking it at this point. The coolness of the beverage soothes his nerves a bit. Sana huffed out a laugh that devolved into a string of unstoppable giggles. Jihoon allowed himself to get distracted by bubbly laughter that couldn’t be muffled, shouldn’t be muffled, in Jihoon’s honest opinion—Sana’s laugh was one of the few things he treasured most in this world, along with his family, his friends, and these (damn) $400 Gucci slides.

 

“You know, I think Dahyun-ie just might think you are an alien!” Sana replied, still reeling with laughter from the idea.

 

“Dahyun..ie? Kim Dahyun?”

 

Sana nodded. “I think she’s in your Music Theory class, the one with the French Professor whose name I still refuse to say after everyone laughed at me for trying the first time,”

 

Jihoon snorted, because he knew Dahyun enough—they were partners in class since they both admired each other’s musicality—for the younger woman to tell him all about Sana’s mispronunciation of their professor’s name. “Yeah, yeah. I know her well, we’re actually close enough. I can’t believe she might think I’m an alien...Ironic, really,”

 

“That’s exactly what Nayeon unnie and Chaeyoung-ah said,” Sana burst out into another fit of giggles, finding this whole thing so amusing.

 

“I feel like I’ve heard those names before too...Our friend groups must be more connected than we think,” Jihoon mumbled to himself.

 

“It’d be great if they were. That way we can hang out more even when this semester is over,” Sana dropped that statement so casually, Jihoon didn’t have time to overreact and overthink.

 

“Yeah, I know right...but even if they weren't, I’d still want to hang out. It’s always a good time with you,” Jihoon’s small, soft smile was back on his face.

 

“Really?” Sana’s voice became smaller as she asked.

 

Jihoon hummed in affirmation. “Of course. I like you a lot, you know?” Jihoon said, but his brain finally caught up with the present and he choked on his own casual confession. “Oh,”

 

“Oh,” Sana returned slightly breathlessly, her posture straightening quickly as she jumped up a bit in surprise. Jihoon tried to look everywhere but at Sana, though he gave in and glanced up at her regardless; her eyes were wide and sparkling and was hung open slightly. Pink dusted her cheeks lightly, the color looking even more spectacular on her once she slowly began to smile.

 

“S-Sorry, I didn’t meant to just...drop it on you like that, I—” Jihoon fumbled around his words, running a condensation coated hand over his face, hoping the droplets would wake him up from whatever bad dream this was.

 

“No...no, it’s okay!” Sana’s smile grew wider and she covered her face with her hand. “I’m just a little surprised, is all...Or a lot surprised. I always thought it was a miracle that you never seemed bothered by me. You know, I had a different partner at the beginning of the semester, I thought he was a really nice guy and I really started to like him, but then he just blew up at me one day, saying that I was too annoying and loud,” Sana recounted, her face falling gradually as she began to remember the incident.

 

“Oh yeah, that Dong Ryubin prick?” Jihoon recalled the guy with a scowl on his face. “I remember when we switched partners, he thought he was doing me a favor by “warning” me about you. I called him a to his face and I said I hope he failed, that er. I’m glad we switched partners, because the dude I was with was a good for nothing anyways,” Jihoon’s words grew rougher and he plopped back into his seat, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

 

“Wow…” Sana covered with both hands.

 

Jihoon jolted, realizing just how coarse his language use was. “Oh, —, I mean—Oh my god…” Jihoon sighed heavily and rested his head in his hands. Disappointment and embarrassment rested on Jihoon’s shoulders, weighing him down in a pit of his self-loathing.

 

Soft snorts and unconcealable giggles sounded out from in front of Jihoon, and when he looked up, Sana’s was doubled over to the side, her entire body shaking with laughter. “That was freaking funny.” Sana whipped her head back up and waved at her face, which wasn’t doing anything to stop amused tears from welling up in her eyes. “I’ve heard about your “true personality” from a few people here and there, and I’ve always wanted to see it. Everyone said it was scary, but to me it’s just so funny! I love it!”

 

Jihoon watched as Sana tried her best to keep quiet, as there weren’t many customers at the café today. His body slowly began to feel light and lighter until he was starting to feel like he was at the top of the world, his own small chuckles leaving his body shaking slightly.

 

Jihoon shook his head at himself as he thought about all of the worries that he allowed to bury himself under the days leading up to this one. The fact that he was going to ask Sana out had conjured up thoughts of his past relationship that he prefers not to think about regularly, as any person would. He had tried so hard at impressing an older woman that he pined after for so long, and while she did end up giving him a chance, she didn’t really hide the fact that Jihoon was the exact opposite of what she wanted.

 

Jihoon was shorter than most people preferred, a bit rougher around the edges too, and he could come off as emotionally stunted since he doesn’t feel the need to express deeply sincere feelings at every moment of the day—on the other hand, the woman preferred the typical tall, dark, and handsome man that could sweep her off her feet and treat her like a Queen, expressing his love and admiration whether it was through verbal affirmations or monetary ones.

 

The only good thing about the relationship is that she didn’t blatantly cheat on Jihoon; she let him down easily enough, but seeing her with a man that Jihoon could never hope to be days after still hurt him deep.

 

“I really like you,” Jihoon ended up confessing once again once their laughter died down.

 

Sana blushed a deep pink, this color even prettier than the last. “I really like you, too. You’re so interesting, but in the most normal way. Like...you’re not afraid to just be you. Whether it’s a grumpy old man with expensive as hell Gucci slides or a sickeningly sweet and super soft old man,”

 

“So either way, I’m an old man?” Jihoon snorted.

 

“Of course,” Sana answered with a resolute nod.

 

“Well, if I’m an sometimes grumpy, sometimes sweet and soft old man with expensive tastes, then you’re a hella excitable old lady with a cute obsession for scents,”

 

Sana sputtered. “First of all: how do you know that? Secondly: cute? And thirdly: do people even still say hella?”

 

Jihoon shrugged. “I’m an old man, what do I care?” They both share a laugh, Sana more so than Jihoon. “And it’s pretty obvious, and pretty cute. I mean, imagine this: we go grocery shopping together, right? You stop to smell everything imaginable and get super excited when things smell nice, and then you have the hardest time deciding what to buy between it all. I think that’s cute, and grocery shopping would a lot less than it does now,”

 

“You…!” Sana was a proper shade of red now, and she was beginning to fan at her face. “This is why I called you sickeningly sweet and super soft! What the heck?” Sana whined into her hands, the embarrassment not ebbing away one bit.

 

“Just living up to my name. I could keep going, honestly. Embarrassingly enough, it’s so easy to imagine a future with you...so I have. Quite a bit,” Jihoon blushed a deep red immediately, his pale skin giving him away even if his words and expressions haven’t.

 

“You’ll have to give me a few days, but I’ll get you back for this,” Sana huffed and finally stopped hiding her red face once she saw just how red Jihoon was. The two of them shake their heads at each other before laughing into their forgotten drinks that they regret taking sips at as soon as they did—Sana’s coffee has gone cold, not something she enjoys, and Jihoon’s drink has been oversaturated by melted ice cubes. Aside from that, though, the rest of their date goes by fairly smooth, the two of them flirting a lot more openly now and the walls that they had up around themselves slowly but surely crumbled down. It ended with Jihoon walking Sana back to her dorm while grumpily retelling a story about how he went to go see a movie recently and had the worst couple sitting in front of him. Sana indulged in his anger and cursed about the couple alongside Jihoon in between much louder bouts of laughter now that they were out of the quiet café. 

 

It wasn't until later when Jihoon was sinking into his bed back at his dorm that the phrase he was so adamant about repeating to himself beforehand came back to mind: you miss one hundred percent of the chances you don't take. He thought about how he and Sana clicked so well before the two of them opened up to each other, and how doing so only brought them closer, and while he did imagine futures that consisted of having Sana right by his side as his girlfriend, there was also a (large) part of him that couldn't help but be skeptical about it all. He always looked at Sana and wondered just how could a girl like her possibly be into a guy like him? She was everything he wasn't, and he was probably everything she didn't want.

 

"You really do miss all the chances you don't take..." Jihoon muttered to himself with a smirk as he changed Sana's contact information in his phone to something more appropriate for a girlfriend of his to have (reading it back to himself, he realized just how accurate Sana's description of him was). He was so ready to give it all up before he started in order to avoid the pain of his past relationship, but the thought of possibly missing out on this—Sana, his girlfriend, who was already texting him messily written paragraphs of future scenarios they could possibly have—inspired him to take that leap of faith that he's not quite known to take, and for that, Jihoon couldn't have been any more thankful.