-i'm sitting on a bench in coney island wondering where did my baby go?-

 “Hey.”

 “Hey,” Jennie rested one side of her body against the door and tilted her head to smile at him. “What’s up, big brain?”

 Sehun rolled his eyes at the nickname. It was clear he had been playing something strenuous. His shirt clung to his body with sweat and his wide basketball shorts made his thin legs look even thinner. Sehun smirked before ing something in between their bodies. Jennie’s eyes widened at the sight of her favorite treat. Sehun held his head high, knowing very well he could get her to do anything now that there was ice cream in the equation. Her eyes sparkled, the smile on her face was priceless. He blinked the reverie that took him for a while before clearing his throat.

 “Come out,” he said, gesturing towards the porch.

 Jennie took her packet out of his hand and they settled on the wooden stairs, thighs touching as the wind drove through their hairs. Jennie tore off the packet and began eating while he just stared at his house right before hers. A melancholy took his face. Jennie knew he was thinking about his father who was not there anymore.

 “You...wanna go to prom with me?” He asked out of the blue a while later.

 With two big bites of the ice cream in both her cheeks, Jennie blinked with wide eyes, pausing her chewing. Sehun laughed at her cute face before patting her cheek. “Fine, eat first. Then we’ll talk.”

 Jennie swallowed the ice cream inside with all her might. “Prom? I thought there are only guys at your school?”

 “Yes, we were told to bring a partner. And...guys will go with guys if they want to.”

 “You...will take me?”

 “If you say yes, this one’s yours,” he waved his ice cream before her eyes, tempting her with it. Jennie eyed him suspiciously and he made a face at her before going back to staring at everything else. At that moment, something sparked. On this cloudy afternoon, Jennie felt the sunshine radiating from his body. She wondered when it became like that for her, Sehun began to look like a man, and not the skinny boy she used to beat other guys for. Perhaps it was the fact that this friendship had been thrown to the back of her closet after starting high school, the long stretch of days they had spent without speaking to each other. The moles on his milky skin became more attractive and she found herself staring at his brown eyes that got lost in the folds of his skin when he would smile.

 His hair danced with the wind, which also picked up the sticky perspiration from the jersey he wore of some famous soccer club. His hands around the cold treat made her look twice. When did he become such a fine man? 

 “So...what do you think? Am I good enough for you to be seen with me?”

 “W-What do you mean?”

 “You were checking me out...so...what do you think?”

 “I was not.”

 “You were checking me out.”

 “No.

 “Whatever, I don’t care. I know I’m not much of a looker but still, you are going with me. I won’t take a no. I swear I’ll try to look good that day. 25th, seven p.m. and you’ll be ready. Just wear anything, okay? I don’t mind. Pajamas are alright too. Please understand, I feel like they’ll be secretly grading us…”

 Jennie in a breath, nodding. “Okay, I’ll go.”

 “Thanks. You saved me--”

 “Give me the ice cream,” she opened her palm for it and with a grin on his face, he gave it to her. “Red...let’s wear red,” Jennie continued, tearing open the plastic. Sehun nodded, mumbling something to himself. “There will be a lot of food, right?”

 Sehun nodded again, “Definitely, yes. We can just sit there and stuff our faces.”

 “No, let’s dance too.”

 “Okay...okay.”

 They sat there in silence until Jennie finished the ice cream. Sehun sighed, as if exhausted from the day and laid his head on her shoulder. Jennie felt worms crawl on the insides of her skin. Her heart skipped a beat and what was worse was that she even noticed it. But she let the day pass and sat before her homework, trying to figure out her feelings for her best friend.

 He had looked good that day. It was clear he didn’t have a friend in his school because no one even bothered about him, which made everything else very peaceful and enjoyable for the two of them. “Then you’ll go to my school’s prom too,” she had included in the middle of all the random things they were talking about on the rooftop of his school.

 Sehun had nodded, “But...I don’t know. You’ve got cool friends now. It will look...unflattering, no?”

 “You? Unflattering?” Jennie had laughed at his choice of words. “No, Sehun. I don’t know what kind of mirror you’re looking at these days. You’re handsome. If you were in my school, you would have been a king.”

 He chuckled but his voice died down as the wind flew through the gaps between their bodies. Jennie’s heart bloomed with a kind of excitement she didn’t know she was capable of. Her red dress pooled around her as she sat beside him on the floor. Their eyes met in glitters and Jennie wanted to touch his face. It was at that moment she knew that she liked him.

 Sehun went to her own prom with her. Weirdly enough, he had let her paint his nails too. It was like he was returning a favor but Jennie didn’t want it to be that way at all. She showed him off to her friends, hoping they got the message that Jennie was not dependent on her high school friends and if they didn’t want to hang out with her, she had Sehun. 

 It was written on his face that he felt intimidated in an unknown circle. Girls always made his palms sweaty, regardless of whether he liked them or didn’t. So Sehun held Jennie’s hand, wondering if his hair was alright as she weaved themselves through the crowd to dance. But that didn’t really work as Sehun was just really too awkward and shy in a new crowd who sounded as judgemental as one of his aunts from his mother’s side.

 “Let’s get out of here, Jen,” he whispered into her ear, his smooth lips touching her skin and making her blush.

 She had nodded without even hearing what he had said. He held her hand and pulled her out of the dancing school, breathing in largely as the stuffy air left them. 

 “So where do we go now?” She asked.

 “You wanna go to my house and dance in my room? Mom’s not home and Rim doesn’t really mind so…” he asked, pulling at the tie around his neck. Jennie raised her hands and helped him remove it. “I’m sorry...it’s just, I don’t feel very good.”

 “I understand, Sehun.”

 “Thank you, Jennie.”

 So they chose a song from a violin playlist and played it in Sehun’s speakers, the ones he had fixed himself. Jennie held him close, teaching him to sway with the music. She remembered the number of times she had to remind him not to be so s