Not Bad, for a Girl

            I woke extraordinarily early the next day and made myself coffee and a large breakfast, whistling to myself as I cooked, and saving a decent portion for my cranky roommate who glared at me with dark eyes from under his covers.  I could hear him grumbling, but he never actually complained, since he still shuffled out of bed and ate the food while it was hot.  Then I took a long, hot shower as I sang love songs and took my time to do my hair and dress in my best casual clothes.  At this point, Kyuhyun was sitting at his computer, drinking coffee, and giving me suspicious looks out of the corner of he eyes.

            “What are you doing up so early on a Saturday?”

            “I have a date with my new girlfriend,” I informed him as I put on my most expensive cologne.

            He rolled his eyes.  “Lovely.  Where did you meet her?”

            “She’s from my music class.”

            He didn’t bother responding at first as he was reading through something on the computer.  Since he was generally a rather productive person and I could tell he wasn’t playing games at the moment, I figured he was either reading the news or looking up an article for the paper he’d been doing research for. 

            “Where are you taking her?  Shopping?”

            “No.  There’s an art exhibit that just opened that she wants to see.  Then we’ll go out to eat afterwards,” I informed him.  One of his prime complaints about my string of ex-girlfriends was that they lacked interests.  I really was going to take Ryeowook to the art museum.  We were going on a double date with Siwon and Heechul so that Ryeowook could get some pointers on how to act more feminine in real world situations, which was easier to do if you were in a public setting.  But Ryeowook had suggested the venue.

            “Does she like art?”

            “She seems to have a variety of interests.  She sings, plays the piano, and writes music.  She also seems to have an eye for fashion.  She dresses trendy and always looks pretty,” I explained.

            “Well, that’s a new one for you,” he said, glancing over at me.  “No wonder you’re trying so hard to look good.”

            I only smiled at this and grabbed my jacket.  “Don’t wait up for me,” I told him, leaving the dorm.

            Of course, I returned to the dorm by eight o’clock in the evening.  I didn’t want him to be asleep when I got home.  We wanted his first meeting with Ryeowook to be brief, but convincing.  I called ahead before leaving the restaurant and asked Henry to check that Kyuhun was still at the dorm.  He was working on a big research paper, but I couldn’t guarantee that he’d take a night off.  Henry faked a computer problem, dragging Kyuhyun down the hall to his room to fix, which Kyuhyun easily remedied by simply turning the computer off and turning it on again.  He ruffled Henry’s hair affectionately, reminding the youngster that ninety percent of all computer problems seemed to fix themselves simply be restarting the computer, before heading back into the dorm to keep working on his paper.    

            Knowing that Kyuhyun was at the dorm, everything was set.  The plan was that I would go home and that Ryeowook would have to come up after me because I’d left something in the car.  The first meeting was meant to be brief.  I just wanted an initial reaction out of Kyuhyun.

            So, I walked into the dorm and found Kyuhyun hard at work on the computer.  He looked over at the door, a little surprised to see me.  “I thought you weren’t coming back tonight.”

            “Ah, I was just teasing,” I said, hanging up my jacket.  “We went on a double date with Siwon and Heechul.  Siwon drove us all and he just dropped me off.  I wasn’t really going to be gone all night with her.  I just meet her.  She’s not like that.”

            Again, this is not exactly like my previous girlfriends, who I often slept with very early on in the relationship.  Don’t judge me. 

            “Sounds like she’s a little smarter than the other girls you’ve dated.  If she’s really smart, she might leave it at that.”

            I walked over and smacked him in the back of the head playfully.  “Be nice.  I’m dating a nice girl for a change.  Try to be happy for me.”

            “I’m happy for you and somewhat worried for her sake.”

            “You don’t even know her!”

            “I know,” he said, laughing.  “And now you know why I refuse to let you meet my sister.”

            I shook my head and walked into the bathroom.  This was part of the plan.  Ryeowook should be knocking on the door in seconds and I needed to get the hell out of the way so he could work his magic on my roommate without interruption.  I walked into the bathroom and locked myself in.  Kyuhyun can’t hide in a bathroom if it’s not available.  A couple seconds later, I heard a soft knock on the door.

            Let the fun begin.

            Yesung asked me to give him a three-minute head start.  That would be a reasonable length of time for him to greet his roommate and then disappear into the bathroom.  It was also a reasonable length of time for me to find his cellphone still sitting in the car and to chase after him to return it. 

            But I was a little nervous about it and it wasn’t simply because I was trying to trick his roommate into thinking I was a woman, although that was certainly part of it.  I had been wanting to meet Kyuhyun for the last year.  I’d seen him in a couple school plays and was blown away by how talented and attractive he was—he’s certainly not bad as a sword fighter in The Three Musketeers or as a tapdancing man in love in Singing in the Rain—and I had been dying to meet him since.  But he’s kind of elusive.  He doesn’t come to many of the big parties on campus and we don’t run in the same circles.  The only friend we have in common is Yesung.  But Yesung said that he wasn’t interested in dating.  What he probably meant was that Kyuhyun was dating someone else already, but he didn’t want to break my heart.  Or worse, he had seen me on campus already and wasn’t interested in me. 

            The problem was, I just couldn’t take no as an answer.  I still wanted to meet him, even if nothing came of it.  But I was nervous about it.  I’d had a crush on him for the last year and no one knew of it but me. 

            Heechul pushed me towards the dorm.  “Time to go!”

            I moaned and walked over to the building.  I bit down on my lip as I looked up at the dormitory where Yesung roomed.  I was wearing a maroon dress over a while blouse that went midway down my thighs, white socks that nearly came to my knees, and brown Mary Janes so I wouldn’t kill my feet walking around the art gallery all day.  I had on a long wig with dark brown hair that matched my eye color and red lipstick because Heechul would not let me leave the house without it.  I clutched onto Yesung’s cellphone and walked up to the dorm door.  The moment I reached it, one of the men heading out of the building opened the door for me and held it open.

            “Are you trying to get in?”

            “I am, thank you!” I said, rushing inside. 

            “You’re welcome,” he simply said, going on his way.

            Were I a man, he would have asked me what I wanted and who I was there to see before even thinking about letting me into the building.  My current identity as a woman did have its advantages.  I walked up the six flights o