You had an inkling of a feeling that whoever was serving your table, knew who Jihoon was.

You knew it wasn’t likely, but he kept being really weird. Smiling too widely, his hand lingering on the table for too long, him lingering near you two for what felt like an eternity… You tried your best to ignore it, as Jihoon was really paying no attention to the waiter whatsoever.

“What are you going to order?” Jihoon asked you softly. You startled slightly when he spoke and looked away from the waiter. An action that JIhoon seemed to notice. He pressed his lips together but didn’t comment at all so you had no clue what he was thinking.

“Uhm, I don’t know,” you admitted. “I’m really not that hungry.”

Jihoon rolled his eyes.

“Okay, I’ll order for you then, but you have to eat everything I order,” Jihoon apprehended. You leaned forward on your elbows and let your head fall slightly to the side as you watched him look at the menu. He seemed so determined to get you to eat. His fingers tightly held the menu still as his eyes flickered from each and every corner of the menu.

A single glance at your own menu and you recognized that the whole thing was in Japanese. You weren’t exactly sure how good he was at Japanese, but you figured he wasn’t good enough to be able to do much but look at the pictures to figure out what was what. It was kind of cute to watch as his eyebrows moved with each item. The way he would wrinkle his nose whenever he read a certain thing but got confused by what exactly it read.

He glanced up at you over the menu, a disgruntled look falling over his face as he caught you staring.

“What?”

You raised your eyebrows.

“Oh, nothing, nothing. Just watching you is all,” you mumbled. You let your eyes drift down to the table. “Honestly, for a second I forgot you could see me. I’m so used to watching videos of you online…”

Your eyes widened and you looked back up at him.

“Not that I watch videos of you online and just stare at you!” You blurted. “I mean, that’s kind of creepy a-and-”

You were interrupted by Jihoon laughing softly. You shot him a glare for laughing at you, which made him hide his face behind his menu once again.

“If there were videos of you I could watch online, then I would probably do the same thing,” he mumbled. A short smile crossed your lips and you looked away from him, your eyes trailing across the restaurant again.

You found the waiter from before was staring at Jihoon, eagerly whispering to one of his coworkers. Your eyebrows furrowed as you made an attempt to hear what they were talking about, but they were too far away and the music in the restaurant was too loud…

“What are you looking at now?” Jihoon asked, his gaze following yours for a second. You looked away from the waiter.

“Oh! Nothing, really. So, how has Japan been?” You said, redirecting the conversation. Jihoon set down his menu and rolled his head to the side.

“Same as always. Just concerts and exploring if we have the free time,” Jihoon said offhandedly. “What about you? It’s your first time in Japan after all.”

“I haven’t gotten out much. The most I’ve seen of the city is… Well, everything I’ve done today,” you admitted. “I think we are doing some activities tomorrow with my class…”

“What? You’ve had all week to explore the city on your own,” Jihoon exclaimed. You waved off his surprise.

“I was busy,” you insisted.

Busy being of course only half the reason you hadn’t gone out. Quite honestly, everyone expecting so much out of you for the stupid busking event had made you feel like you couldn’t have any fun when you still hadn’t all performed yet. So no matter how often you got asked to hang out, you had told people that you couldn’t even if you had the time. Sure it was your first time in Japan and you shouldn’t let unnecessary pressures ruin that but… You knew you would hate yourself more for going out then you would for not.

Jihoon rolled his eyes.

“It’s your first time in Japan. We are going to do something really cool,” he insisted. He called the waiter over, who’s eyes wouldn’t leave Jihoon as he spoke. “Can we please have the Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, and Ikayaki. And two bottles of Ramune, Lychee and Matcha flavor.”

The waiter nodded and picked up the menus, saying he would bring it all right out, but Jihoon wasn’t even listening anymore. He had his phone out and was typing in some things. The waiter lingered behind Jihoon, his eyes on the phone as he stood there. His eyes flickered up to you after a moment, and once the waiter realized you were staring he made a face and shyly ducked away.

“Right now we are in Dotonbori, but you have to see Osaka Castle, and Expo Park of course,” Jihoon stated. “We can ride a bus to the castle, and it’s only thirty minutes away. Then we’ll catch the bus, and the monorail and go to Expo Park!”

“Do we have time for all of that?” You asked, your eyebrows raising in surprise. He scoffed and waved his hand through the air.

“Of course,” he assured. “We have all the time in the world when we are around one another.”

Your eyebrows raised and a large teasing smile spread across your lips at those words. He looked at you, his cheeks tinging pink.

“I was just…” He trailed off. “Trying out lyrics for my new song. Too cheesy?”

You giggled into your hand.

“No, no, I wouldn’t say so,” you responded. The waiter brought out your food and beverages… He set all of the food in front of Jihoon. Geez, that was fast and you began to pick at the food Jihoon had ordered in front of you. “What exactly is this?”

“Osaka delicacies,” Jihoon replied. He picked up a ball that was on a plate with his chopsticks and held it up in front of your mouth. His eyes were lit with excitement. “Open up.”

You obediently opened your mouth and he plopped the fried dough into it. It was really good. A slightly crispy shell with a chewy inside.

“Octopus balls,” Jihoon said. Then he picked up one of the items on the plates… It looked like a pancake. A very odd pancake. He took a piece of it and put it into your mouth as you went to speak. “Squid pancakes.”

You made a face at him for all the force-feeding that he was doing but obediently chewed the food. It was a little saltier, and chewier then he had imagined it would be. Once you had swallowed Jihoon put another completely different piece of food into his mouth. He used the same chopsticks. It made a short smile cross your lips.

You really enjoyed sharing things with people. Drinks, food, all of the above. It was something weird that just felt kind of intimate to you. Ever since your later years in high school, you had grown accustomed to sharing things with your friends, and it was weird to you now if people weren’t comfortable sharing a straw with you. So seeing Jihoon so comfortably sharing utensils and food with you…

You were surprised. You had always thought he wouldn’t like doing that sort of thing.

Then again, the two of you had kissed before. It was kind of presumptuous to think that someone would be willing to kiss you but wouldn’t be willing to share food with you.

You wanted to mention something to him about that. Or the food, or anything really, but you couldn’t when he was force-feeding you every time you opened your mouth… Luckily the food was really good. He made you eat half of everything he had ordered, and he ate the other half himself, not leaving even the smallest crumb on the plate. Then he smiled and got to his feet.

“I’ll pay and we can go to the bus,” he suggested. He started to head over to the waiter but… There was something about the expression on the man’s face that made you not want Jihoon to go anywhere near him.

You were probably just being crazy… Or maybe even being a bit possessive. Since you had met him, you hadn’t really had to share his attention all that much, and even now he was all focused on you. But the waiter treating him like some sort of… Untouchable… It just bothered you. At least most carat’s still treated him with some sense of familiarity.

“How about I pay! You ordered, we both ate. I’ll pay for dinner, and you can pay for whatever we do next or… Dinner next time,” you suggested. He squinted his eyes skeptically at you.

“What kind of…” He trailed off hesitantly and then nodded slowly. “Okay… Alright, just…”

He trailed off momentarily, which made you pause in your hurry to make sure that waiter didn’t get to see him again.

“What?” You asked softly. He looked away from you.

“Why… Why are you so obsessed with the waiter?” He asked.

At first, you were surprised he had noticed your attention to the waiter. You didn’t think there was any reason for him to be concerned with how you were acting… You had just been watching him almost the entire time you had been…

Oh, no way.

He wasn’t… He wasn’t jealous… Was he?

You hid a small smile behind your hand.

“I think he recognizes you,” you replied. “I just want to make sure he doesn’t do anything weird. Meet me outside?”

Jihoon visibly relaxed.

“Oh.”

He glanced to the waiter who had been staring at him once again, and then glanced back at you.

“I mean, he is pretty attractive,” Jihoon said. His face scrunched as he spoke. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if you were interested in him.”

You snickered.

“Please, he’s not nearly as attractive as you.”
Jihoon laughed and rolled his eyes.

“I’ll wait for you outside,” he assured, and then with a short wave over his shoulder, he walked out of the front door.

It was nice to see that he trusted you. It wasn’t that you weren’t used to people trusting you, because truth be told you had never really met anyone who didn’t trust you. If you promised to keep a secret, people trusted you to do so. If you said that you would get something done for someone, they trusted you to do so. If you said you were happy people just assumed you were.

You had figured that Jihoon wouldn’t really trust you on this one considering the fact that he knew how you liked to lie about your own intentions and mental state but you supposed this just proved that he really was someone special in your life. He knew you. He knew when you were lying, and he knew when to trust you…

You couldn’t help the large smile that spread across your face as you spoke to the waiter, so you made sure to talk all about your lovely boyfriend, Min Chaewon, in order to throw off whatever the waiter was thinking. Then to really set the lie, you mentioned how he looked just like an idol, and let it pass that maybe you were a bit of a Koreaboo, before returning outside to Jihoon.

He raised an eyebrow at you.

“Smiled pretty big in there,” he teased lightly. You rolled your eyes at him and smacked his shoulder.

“Not as much as I smile with you big boy,” you replied, smacking him lightly on the shoulder. “Now, where is this bus you keep talking about?”

-

The city of Osaka was beautiful.

Everything that you saw while there was absolutely beautiful. The trees seemed greener, the buildings taller and shinier. The lights seemed to shine even more brightly. You were entranced by everything that you saw.

There were moments where you thought maybe you hadn’t seen anything this beautiful.

You thought maybe it was more beautiful because you were getting to see it with Jihoon.

He had you sit by the window, as to avoid any fans seeing him, but he was practically in the window anyway with how often he would point at the scenery outside the bus to show you places he had been before.

You thought maybe he was more excited to show you the city then you were to even see it.

You hardly ever saw him this animated either. You knew he got that way. Every once in a while in a video you would see him get this energetic, but you were so used to him mainly keeping to himself, that you were always a little surprised when he wasn’t.

He all but dragged you off of the bus, first taking you to the Shrine outside of the castle, and then taking you to the castle itself. He kept making you pose for pictures in front of the different landmarks he took you to. Then you took some for him, and then you two took some of each other together.

It was so pretty.

The trees, the castle, the bridge overlooking the water… Being there with him.

When you two were on top of the bridge in the shadow of the castle you took a second to bend down over the railing and look at the water. As you did, Jihoon came up behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist.

“Well, you know what they say about the Osaka Castle bridge,” he said pleasantly. You turned around so that you could face him. You could still smell the Kushi Katsu on his breath from earlier, the fried dough from the skewers on the street right after you two got off the bus kind of making him more appealing to be close to, but also less appealing to be around all at the same time.

“Actually I don’t, why don’t you enlighten me oh senpai,” you replied teasingly.

“They say that people who kiss on this bridge stay together for a really long time,” he mumbled. His eyes flickered down to your lips, which made your cheeks redden. You didn’t respond at first, the implication was obvious after all. You leaned forward and tentatively pressed your lips to his, kissing him for a brief moment.

It was still a strange feeling, kissing him.

It was confusing to feel your lips touch his, to taste what he tasted like, to be so close to him that you momentarily forgot how to breathe… You hadn’t been sure before exactly how much you liked kissing him, but when you two had been away from each other you had spent nights awake in your bed, missing the feeling of his lips on yours. When you eventually pulled away, you looked away from him shyly.

“Of course, that only really applies to couples I’m sure,” you mumbled. Jihoon laughed, still staring at you fondly.

“Yeah, only couples.”

You pulled out of his arms and pointed.

“Next bus is in ten minutes,” you said excitedly. You offered him your hand, which he took happily.

The trip from Osaka Castle to Expo Park was a lot longer than the one they had taken before. First, there was a long bus ride, and then a long monorail ride through the city and over the river. It was a whole hour-long trip.

You had always liked riding public transit. It was one of your must-do’s on lists whenever you went on any vacation. After all, on public transit systems, you saw the most people and really got to know the city the way local people tended to see it. Besides, you liked the way that trains and buses tended to move. Lurching back and forth unexpectedly, making their passengers jostle with every movement. You had ridden so many buses by now, most of the time you didn’t even have to hold a railing to stand without falling.

You loved the way that time tended to pass when riding the public transit and being there with Jihoon helped make the hour-long ride feel like it only took five minutes.

As the monorail pulled into the station, you were so excited you got out of your seat, completely abandoning the conversation that you and Jihoon had previously been having.

“Is that a Ferris wheel?” You asked excitedly, watching the giant metal machine light up in the night sky. “Can we go on it?”

Jihoon went to stand up, and that was when the monorail began to stop. He stumbled forward, which made you rush across the train to catch him. You did just before he fell to the ground. He looked up at you, a sheepish smile spread over his face.

“Did you say something about a Ferris wheel?” He asked. You laughed and nodded practically bouncing as the doors to the train slid open. You rushed through the station, dragging Jihoon along with you. He nearly tripped over his feet as you pulled him towards the Ferris wheel.

You had never been able to pinpoint exactly why but you loved Ferris wheels. No amount of riding them seemed to sate that either. At some point, you had spent hours and hours every day keeping track of the biggest Ferris wheels in the world. You had fantasized about visiting every one of them, and if asked could tell people which cities had the most impressive ones.

Those days were mostly behind you, but something childish inside of you still popped up when you saw the colorful carnival lights dancing across the spokes of a Ferris Wheel.

You were so excited in fact that you almost forgot to let him pay for the tickets to get on the Ferris wheel… Not that that mattered once you were inside the Ferris wheel going up. Almost the entire cart was made of glass, which was admittedly terrifying, but you were too excited to think about it too much. Instead, you pressed your face against the glass, looking over the city of Osaka with a huge smile spread across your face.

“Jihoon look! Isn’t that where we were earlier?” You asked excitedly, pointing at some bright city lights. He didn’t respond so you looked back at him in surprise, to find him staring at you. He smiled.

“You know, when you’re happy you act just like a little kid,” he said softly. You chuckled.

“I may act like one, but at least I don’t look like one,” you quipped right back. He hummed.

“Does that make you a e? You’re the one always kissing someone who ‘looks like a little kid’,” he said right back pleasantly. You stuck your tongue out at him, which made him tilt his head to the side. “Speaking of, you know what they say about kissing in Ferris wheels.”

You raised an eyebrow.

“Let me guess, it’s good luck for the happy couple?” You responded.

“Only if you do it at the very peak,” he responded.

You laughed, starting to think that maybe he was making up all of these kissing rumors, but before you could state just that he took your hand and pulled you close to him. He pressed his lips to yours again, deepening the kiss before you pulled away to breathe.

“Suddenly, I’m not so interested in the Ferris wheel,” you mumbled.

“Hope you get interested again,” Jihoon said pleasantly. “We have two more stops on our tour.”

“Oh?” You replied. “Never thought that I would be up until all hours of the night with a boy in a strange city.”

“You’ve never done this before?” Jihoon asked. You were a little surprised to hear him say that because he sounded a little genuine. You chuckled.

“No, never really trusted a guy enough to go out with him,” you said with a laugh. “Especially not this late. It’s almost midnight.”

“The perfect time to be exploring a city,” Jihoon responded. “But… I should admit that I am a little relieved to hear that I’m a first too.”

Your lips twitched upwards.

“Well… Yeah. My first real kiss, my first celebrity crush, my first…” You trailed off, not wanting to say anything that might expose your feelings a little too much. You just chuckled to yourself. “Let’s just say you’re a lot of my firsts.”

Jihoon’s face reddened at that.

You were so entranced by the expression… You had the power to do that to him… To make his cheeks turn red. You had seen him do it so many times now, and it was one of the most precious things that you had seen in your life. You reached forward, touching Jihoon’s warm cheeks, which just made them burn even more.

“What are you doing?” He asked, his voice actually shaking a little.

“Just appreciating this moment,” you replied. “In a Ferris wheel, in Osaka, with you.”

“Now who’s being cheesy?” Jihoon teased. “Anyways, we aren’t done yet.”

The doors to the Ferris wheel rolled open and he grabbed your hand, pulling you out.

He took you to this huge statue thing with a big stone face on it, called… Tower of the Sun? It honestly didn’t really matter what it was called. It was tall, it was cool, and Jihoon was so excited to show you. He dragged you around the giant statue, and then he dragged you around to a beautiful park located not far from it. You two sat down in front of the huge pond and fell silent as you watched the water lap on the shore.

You moved forward, kneeling before the cool water, trying to see if you could catch sight of any Koi fish. After a few moments, Jihoon joined you.

“You know what they say about kissing in front of a koi pond?” Jihoon asked you. You giggled.

“If I didn’t know any better I would say that you were making up these kissing legends,” you accused. His eyes widened, his expression showing genuine surprise.

“You would really accuse me? Your Japan tour guide and Japanese expert, of lying about sacred kissing traditions?” He asked. You smiled and pressed your lips to Jihoon’s, allowing him to kiss you again. Your hand laid gently on his cheek so that you could feel its warmth and when you pulled away you rested your forehead on his, smiling brightly.

You had always wanted to kiss someone and then rest your foreheads together, and it was just as intimate as you had always imagined it to be.

God, you might actually be in love with Jihoon.

“Oh no, I know you’re making up the kissing traditions,” you responded softly. “But it’s okay because it’s cute to know that you want to kiss me so much that you need to make up little excuses to do so.”

Jihoon’s face burned again against the palm of your hand, which made you laugh softly.

“You know you don’t need excuses to kiss me.”

“It’s kind of weird for friends to kiss each other,” Jihoon mumbled. Even as he said it, he pecked you briefly on the lips. “Besides, who said that I even like kissing you all the time?”

He gave you another peck. It made you smile.

“Oh no, you clearly hate it,” you responded. He laughed and rested his head on your shoulder, looking over the water.

“I had a good time tonight,” he mumbled. You smiled and lolled your head against his.

“I did too.”

You two fell silent as you looked over the water.

It got you thinking.

This time about stuff that was more… Good, then bad.

Your thoughts tended to turn negative pretty quickly… You felt like you didn’t really have to spell that one out. Your own negative thoughts were always preventing you from doing anything risky. Really living your life as well as you really could.

You were happy with Jihoon.

You didn’t know why he made you so happy, but he did. He made you… So unbelievably happy and judging by the way that Jihoon was resting on you… You made him happy too.

Normally you wouldn’t dream of telling him but… In this instance, you were feeling… Oddly brave. Safe.

That’s what you were with Jihoon. Safe and brave.

“Hey, Jihoon… I think I might be really, really falling in love with you,” you whispered, your voice so soft that you could barely hear it. He didn’t respond, so you looked over at him, surprised to find that he had fallen asleep. You chuckled and watched him for a moment. You could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed against your body, and you watched happily as his eyelids fluttered gently.

You took in a deep breath.

“Scratch that Jihoon,” you mumbled. “I am totally and completely in love with you.”

You let your own eyelids flutter shut as you sat there, figuring a short nap wouldn’t hurt anyone. Just as you were dozing off, you could’ve sworn that you felt him shift beside you.

“I love you too, y/n.”

But you wrote it off as you fell asleep beside him, as just another aspect of your definitely overactive imagination.