Dongwoo was the first to answer the door early in the morning. With a half bitten sandwich in his mouth, he opened the door and smiled so widely that the bread almost fell off.   “Hyunmi, your boyfriend is here!” He loudly announced and quickly ushered Woohyun inside. Seeing his sister’s surprised expression while trying to hide her elation was a precious sight.   “Boyfriend?” Their mother asked, looking up from the dining table as Dongwoo and Woohyun appeared at the entrance. She wiggled a little in her chair to take a peek past the two boys. “Since when do you have a boyfriend? Where is he?”   Since both Woohyun and Hyunmi seemed too bashful to verbally answer that question, Dongwoo was more than happy to answer on their behalf. He nearly danced when he excessively pointed at Woohyun from different angles.   Their mother’s eyes went wide, and she nearly dropped the cup of tea in her hand. “You two are dating?” She screamed, getting up on her feet so abruptly that the chair nearly fell over.   “Yes!” Dongwoo answered again, rushing over to join their mother’s celebratory up and down jumping, like a bunch of kids.   “I gotta call your father and Woohyun’s parents! We are gonna be in laws!” And then she was gone as Dongwoo trailed after her.   “Um…” Woohyun hesitantly began, not knowing how to react to that. He knew how happy his friends were that the infamous Woomi finally got together, but he didn’t expect Hyunmi’s mother to belong to that fangroup.    He turned to Hyunmi who was already pulling a chair out for him to keep herself busy and ignore her mother’s words. He couldn’t help but observe the slight wave in her hair, recalling she had experimented with new hairstyles for a while.   “I like this style on you,” he said, taking the seat beside her. He loved the way the simple comment had her going all shy and red, unlike how she would usually carry herself. He loved being the only person who had such an effect on her.   “You noticed,” she said coyly, twirling the curls between her fingers. “You know the whole reason I started curling my hair was because you said it looked good during our pretend date, right?”   “Really?” There was a blunt confession he didn’t expect. “You know you look good with any kind of hairstyle, right?”   “Because you’re biased.”   “Only to you.”   He loved the way she tried to hide her embarrassment while nudging his arm, but really, that smile of hers gave away her true feelings. Embarrassed, yes, but definitely flattered and giddy.    He never had this with any of his previous girlfriends. They were always so careful of their image during the early stages of their relationship. With Hyunmi, there was no need for such pretension since they already had a whole history of getting to know each other.   “I made a lunchbox for you today,” Hyunmi then said as she smeared some chocolate paste on the bread and handed it to him. He had visited over for breakfast often enough for her to memorize his favorites.   “You made it?” He asked in disbelief. Normally she’d ask her mom to cook for them both or make sure he ordered something proper, but she’d never enter the kitchen on her own. Sleep was more precious, she had always argued.   “Yeah, I thought we needed something special for today,” she said and immediately turned to him with a big smile. “Are you touched? Are you proud?”   Woohyun couldn’t help muster the biggest smile his lips were capable of forming. If Dongwoo and their mother weren’t in the room next door, he’d be unable to stop himself from pulling her into a hug for being so adorable. But now, his fingers twitched with the urge to hold her, so he settled on affectionately pinching her cheeks.   “Always,” he replied, and that made her smile in satisfaction, knowing that her efforts hadn’t been in vain.   ***   The moment they were to set off to school—as they usually would after he became her personal chaperone—Dongwoo and their mother stood by the front gate of their house, watching them leave with teary gazes and a hand to their chest.   The unwavering attention made things awkward, and Hyunmi made sure to keep some distance from Woohyun before her brother and mother would lose their sanity. Woohyun must have had the same idea, for they walked the whole street in silence.    It was only after they turned the corner that Woohyun let out a sigh and before she knew it, he had already clutched her hand in his. She abruptly turned to him in shock, but he was gazing towards the sky, his lips firmly tight, and his ears bearing a slight tint of red.   “I… I couldn’t do this in front of them, you know,” he reasoned, stuttering through his words.   Honestly, Hyunmi thought she’d be the only nervous one since this was her first relationship while Woohyun was probably an expert by now. But seeing how holding her hand had him blushing and stuttering proved he was just as nervous as she was.    “I know,” she said, looking down to hide her own reddening cheeks.   It wasn’t the first time they held hands, but everytime, there was always a novel sensation to it. They had never held hands as a couple, and the mere skin to skin contact had their heart race to the point it could’ve jumped out their chest.   “So how did it happen for you?” Hyunmi suddenly asked, biting her lip as she stole a curious glance at him.   “What?”   “You know,” she trailed off, embarrassed to say it herself. “The moment you realized we weren’t just… friends.”   “Ah, when I started liking you, you mean?” Woohyun rephrased, grinning when the frontal choice of words made her bashful all over again. “I’m not sure. But whenever I said I wouldn’t mind dating you and stuff, a part of me was hoping you’d play along and agree to it.”   “Really?” Hyunmi recalled all those times he had spoken those cheesy lines at her, and every single time she had dismissed it as a joke. What if she had actually hurt him? Worse, she had tried to match him with Hime back then.   “But I really noticed a change when you wanted to go on a date with Baekhyun. Me holding your hand at the movies was like a desperate final attempt to make you realize you didn’t want to go with Baekhyun,” he also confessed.   “And that I wanted to go with you instead?” She teased.   “It worked, didn’t it? You were the one who said you couldn’t stop thinking of me all day long,” Woohyun bragged of her confession, laughing when she wailed in embarrassment.   “If you had told me you didn’t want me to go, I wouldn’t have.”   “Really? The solution was that simple?” He squeezed her hand lightly in his and grinned impishly. “Meh, maybe I needed a good excuse to hold your hand anyway.”   Hyunmi feigned a surprised gasp before matching his smile, impressed and flattered at the same time. “Sneaky.”   “As if you didn’t enjoy it.”   “I did. I even considered not washing my hands for a few days just to savor your touch.”   Woohyun abruptly turned to her, his eyes wide. “Um… That’s—”   “I’m kidding! I’m not that gross.”   “Good, cause that would’ve been as creepy as you wanting to sell my hair to my fangirls to make voodoo dolls,” he laughed.   “As if I’m going to share you,” she said nonchalantly, laughing it off.    But Woohyun clutched his chest with his other free hand, trying his hardest not to grin like an idiot at her words. Again, he loved the part where she did not need to filter any o