“Sorry, Daniel-ssi Manager-oppa told me to come to practice an hour early-”

“The other day, Taecyeon-oppa and Junho-oppa took me out for an early  birthday dinner-”

“Daniel-ssi, How did you and Seulong-oppa meet anyway??-”

“Haha look at this meme Sungjin-oppa shared in our group chat Daniel-ssi-”

“Oh, that? Jaebeom-Oppa gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago-”

Technically, they haven’t been officially dating for very long. Only a few days since they made it official, only a few weeks since they started "hanging out", and only a few months since he gathered up the courage to call her and introduce himself. 

So he can understand why they are still addressing each other pretty formally. 

Daniel-ssi. Ugh. 

He didn’t really mind it at first. Although she was born in 1997, they are still technically same aged friends since she was born early in the year. They even entered kindergarten in the same year, so they could have easily been classmates (if she grew up in Busan).

He’s also used to it.

He’s one of the youngest in his neighborhood so he made a lot of friends who were older than him. Naturally, because he mostly hung out with an older crowd, he ended up being attracted and dated a lot of older girls as well. So the fact that she doesn’t address him as “Oppa” shouldn’t bother him too much...right?

But he was. Very much so. 

Park Jihyo, who’s been in the industry since she was 10 years old just has too many god damn oppas in her life. 

The managers, 2pm-sunbaenims, Got7-sunbaenims, Day6-sunbaenims, so many other ex-male trainees from JYPE, and even her childhood friends outside the company were mostly males. 

And every. Single. One. she calls Oppa. 

 Except for him. 

He knew he was being very childish about this. She would probably laugh at his face if she knew. But he can’t help but feel jealous every time she addresses some other guy “Oppa” , and him, her boyfriend of 5 days and 22 hours “Daniel-ssi”.

He has got to find a way to get out of this “-ssi” business and get into “Oppa” territory before he loses his mind. 

-----------------

It was during one of their late night drives the following week when he finally plucked up the courage to try to address his concern. 

“Hey Jihyo, since we’re officially dating now, maybe we should call each other more comfortably?” 

There was a long awkward pause and I can sense her stare. The silence was killing me, and I felt myself losing focus so I decided to park on the side just to be safe while I anxiously wait for her to respond. 

A few seconds later, I heard her speak. “ Should I call you just Daniel then? Or maybe a nickname? I heard your mom call you Euigeon once... and I heard Sungwoon oppa calls you Niel sometimes, should I call you Niel too?”

I cringed when I heard her say "Sungwoon-Oppa" and couldn’t help but whine from the injustice, “ How come Sungwoon is Sungwoon Oppa and I’m still Daniel-ssi??”

Just as I expected, she instatly laughed at my face. I could feel my face turn red from embarrassment, but also weirdly feeling pretty pleased with myself for making her laugh so hard that she has tears in her face. 

She brings her hands to the sides of my face and squeezes my cheeks while she comes closer and says, “Aigoo. My Daniel is so cuuuute. Are you actually jealous??” 

I nod, as I feel my neck and face become even hotter-no longer from embarrassment, but from the proximity of her face from mine. It is usually moments like this where I often find myself getting lost in her eyes and I just melt into a pile of goo. 

Then just before I can gain some sense of focus and try to regain some dignity, she whispers “oppa” and kisses me before I can say anything back.

A/N: I wrote this because in my earlier drafts for this couple I always had Jihyo refering to Daniel as "oppa", but then later realized that they were only a few months apart. 

Even though Jihyo is a 97-er and Daniel is s 96-er, Jihyo was born pretty early (Feb 1) in the year so her zodiac sign (Rat) is the same as Daniel’s and therefore would be considered as same age friends. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but this is just based on my understanding of korean-age system).

In reference to Twice members: 96-line JeongMoSa and 97 er Jihyo are all Year of the Rat, but Mina who was born in March of 97 is Year of the OX.