“Why are you wearing a swimsuit?” Seyoung asks with a raised eyebrow.

I swallow thickly, “Aren’t we supposed to?”

Gayeon snorts, “No. It’s a bathhouse.” My eyes drop down all three of their bodies noticing how they clutched their towels to their chests. They were really underneath them?

“It would be weird to bathe in a swimsuit.” Yoonmi adds in after a minute. “Wouldn’t it?”

“I guess so.” I mumble slightly embarrassed as I glance down at my new swimsuit I brought for the bathhouse. I wanted to fit in with the girls, so I had gone out and bought a new swimsuit and everything.

“Good thing we stopped you before you actually got in.” Seyoung smiles glancing behind Yoonmi pointing towards a door near the back of the bath room. “Go take it off in there. Gayeon will go grab another towel for you.”

I glance towards the door. “Oh, okay. Thank you.” I smile towards them. They were nice to help me out. I wouldn’t look weird if other girls were to come into our shared bath.

I strip my bathing suit off and sit it on the bench while I duck into the open toilet at the back of the room. I hear the door open and Gayeon is hollering out to me that she’s dropped the towel on the bench and that they’ll be waiting in the bath.

I finish up my business before moving to glance at my appearance in the mirror. Thankfully I had shaved and everything the night before, so I’d be extra clean going out there.

I round the corner where the bench was, and I slowly come to a stop at how there isn’t a towel sitting there like she said there’d be. My eyes fly down the bench, my swimsuit is gone too.

My eyes fly to the door anxiously. Was this some sort of joke? I don’t like this. I glance down at my body willing away the feeling to cry. Never had I experienced anything like this.

Not even in high school.

I swallow thickly moving towards the door my hand resting on the handle. I had to go out there to get my swimsuit back, hell I’d even settle for a towel. I rest a hand on my chest at my pounding heart.

Be confident. Don’t let them know they’ve affected you. You can do this, we’re all girls.

I take a deep breath before yanking the door open moving quickly out of it towards the bath. I round the corner and my lips open to form my confident statement. “Yah-.” My voice cuts out as my eyes land on a face that wasn’t supposed to be here. A man’s face one who seems as equally shocked as I am.

“Oh my god!” I quickly move back around the corner to the other room I was in but when I try and turn the knob it’s locked. She must’ve thought ahead and locked it from the inside. I let my head bang against the door.

What did I do to deserve this?

I collect myself as much as I can peering around the corner. He’s still there, he’s now out of the water sitting on the edge. He was in swimming trunks but nothing else.

Why did I let them talk me into taking my swimsuit off?

Staring at him know I realize he’s Kim Doyoung. He’s in the same school as me, however, he was going to be a doctor and I was going to be a nurse. He was famous in his program for his good looks and good grades.

How did he end up in here? Was he in on it too? Is that why he hasn’t left yet?

I clear my throat, “Um. I’m sorry you had to see that.”

He doesn’t look up from the water he’s been staring at. Maybe out of courtesy since I was . “Um, why are you ?” He shakes his head. “If you were going to be you should’ve switched the occupied light to female. Then I wouldn’t have come in!”

“I uh…the girls in here before told me I was supposed to bath , so I went into the back to take off my swimsuit but um…they took off with it and now I’m stuck.” I lower my gaze.

I notice him stand up and my eyes follow his every move. “I’ll grab you some clothes.” He starts to back up. “Switch the tab to females once I’m gone, okay?”

He opens the door but is quickly shutting it not leaving. He whips his head around, “Um, Professor’s Im, Lee, Park, and Baek are headed this way.” His eyes are blown wide, and I feel my heart drop.

“What do I do now? The door is locked to the back room!” I wanted to cry. If they come in here and see me with Doyoung there’s not much to assume other than we were doing something we shouldn’t in a public space.

Doyoung’s rushing across the room hand grasping mine as he tugs me out from behind the wall. I gasp trying to hide my body but he’s not looking since he’s dragging me over and to the shower area. He tugs me all the way to the back one moving the curtain shut behind us.

Doyoung leans back against the wall releasing my hand letting his head rest back against the tiles. His eyes were closed so I take the time to calm myself down. He takes a deep breath letting it out slowly but pauses once we hear the professors enter the bath. His eyes pop open and they meet mine and I quickly move a hand over my s and the other down to cover up my crotch.

At my sudden movement his eyes drop down but quickly he closes his eyes turning his head away. We spend almost a half hour in the positions we were in hearing the professors faintly joke back and forth. It isn’t until Professor Park’s voice echoes in the shower area that we both are meeting eyes once again.

Doyoung turns backing us into a corner and I move the hand from my s away to stable myself on the wall, so I don’t trip. His back presses into my s and he jolts forward at the feeling glancing over his shoulder. I pull my other hand up pointing two fingers at his eyes and then pointing them away to get him to not look at me.

He does as he’s told but we stay backed into the corner the entire time each professor showers off. We’re in the corner for another thirty minutes before they leave.

Doyoung sighs relieved before slowly stepping away from me and the corner. I rest a hand on his arm, and he glances back at me.

“Don’t you think we should wait it out some more?” I whisper.

He shakes his head moving to grasp the curtain he tugs it open and has one foot out when we hear the bathhouse door shut again. My eyes widen and he’s quickly stepping back into the shower, tugging the curtain back into place.

“.” He mutters out resting a hand on his chest.

Suddenly the shower curtain is being ripped open and Doyoung’s flying back into me, my hands falling from my body to stable myself on the tile wall. A cleaning lady stood behind the curtain her mop held like some sort of sword.

She glances down the two of us fully before her eyes slowly widen her mop dropping to the floor in a low clanking noise. “It’s not what it looks like!” Doyoung squeaks out. “I promise!”

“Where are her clothes?” The lady squeaks out equally embarrassed as she looks around.

“Someone stole them!” I admit to her over Doyoung’s shoulder. “I came out from the bathroom over there because they were gone from the bench and the girls who took them left and he was here in their place.” Tears drop down my cheeks as I finally start crying.

This was all too much for me!

The lady grasps the mop holding it up towards Doyoung. “Was he doing something inappropriate to you, Miss?”

“No.” I quickly shake my head. “He helped me because our professors were coming in here and had they walked in us like this we’d be in so much trouble.” I wipe at my eyes as my chest heaves.

The woman sighs, “Stay here, I’ll grab you some clothes. No one will bother you as I’ve put up the closed sign alright.”

“Thank you so much!” I sob out.

The woman returns with some clothes, and I dress quickly behind Doyoung’s back before I come out from around him. I’ve stopped crying by now, but I was still utterly defeated inside.

“I’ll step out and make sure no one sees you come out together alright?” The cleaning lady turns waddling to the exit.

“Thanks.” I mumble to Doyoung as I move towards the door. I exit after her and trudge over to the elevator hitting the up button.

So much for making friends on this trip.

The doors open and I step inside hitting my floor number before Doyoung’s entering the elevator as well. He hits his floor and there’s a dead silence until the elevator doors are closed. Then he’s turning to me.

“Shall we exchange numbers?” He hums out.

I whip my head towards him so fast that I almost give myself whiplash. “Huh? Why would we do that?”

He shrugs, “I feel like we just went to war together.” His eyes trail off to the floor numbers that were changing above the doors. “So that makes us friends.”

My heart twirls at his words, friends, maybe I did possibly make one friend?

“My number is 111.1111.” I say as the elevator dings open on my floor.

He repeats it under his breath, “I’ll text you!”

The trip ends without any more run ins with him, but the girls are shocked at seeing me the next day. I’m not sure if they planned on the professors finding me before Doyoung or not. It was probably that. I’m sure had that been the case I would’ve been in trouble. But it hadn’t happened that way.

The first night I’m back from the trip I open a zoom call with my best friend Juah. She went to a fashion university thirty minutes from here, so I haven’t seen her in a bit. Initially I was upset that our paths diverged from one another as the two of us have been by each other’s side since elementary school, but I grew to accept it.

It was hard making friends here, but I didn’t blame her.

“Hey hey!” She smiles through the screen. “How was the trip? Make any friends?”

I shake my head, “No. I thought I was going to, but they ended up being mean girls.”

“Oh no! What happened?”

“They did what?” She gasps out as I finish the story up until the point where my swimsuit was missing from the bench. She stands up pacing back and forth in her room. “Should I come down tomorrow and teach them a lesson?”

“No no. It’s okay.” I try and calm her down. “That’s not the end of the story. Sit down.”

“Not the end? Oh god, what’s next?”

“I walked out of the back room to find a guy out there.”

Her eyes widen, “What? Who? Was he in on it?”

I shake my head, “No an innocent bystander.”

“Did he see you ?”

“I’m sure he saw a bit of something.” I blush out.

“Do you know him?”

I nod, “Yeah, he’s one of the popular guys at uni. His name is Kim Doyoung.”

She slowly nods, “So then what happened?”

“Well, he was gonna go get me clothes but before he could a handful of our male professors headed into the bathhouse, we were in.” She gasps and I nod. “Doyoung drug me to hide in the showers. We hid there until they left, and a cleaning lady caught us in there.”

“Oh god, I bet she thought you two were messing around, didn’t she?” Juah seems slightly amused.

“Yeah.” I nod. “Until I started crying.”

Juah gets serious again. “Back to the real issue. Those girls sound like awful people!”

“I know. I can’t believe I was so stupid to believe them when they said that.” I groan. “I feel like an idiot!”

The first time Doyoung messages me is two days after I’m back home from the trip. I was surprised at the notification at first because I had no idea who it was. When I click into the unknown number and see the message, I am led to believe it’s Doyoung.

From: ???-????

Hey it’s Doyoung.

I don’t know if I was stupid to believe that it was him or not? The girls could’ve found out he saw me and were just ing with me too. But I chose to play along in the meantime. What else would I do?

To: Doyoung

Hi

From: Doyoung

Wanna meet up for dinner?

I squint towards his question. Why would we get dinner together?

To: Doyoung

I don’t know.

Suddenly there’s an incoming call from the number and I answer it. “What do you mean you don’t know? How does one possibly not know? It’s a simple yes or no question.” Doyoung’s voice comes through the phone.

So, it was in fact him. I felt relieved.

“Why would you want me to go to dinner with you?” I say through the phone.

“It’s the least you could do after what I did for you.” He remarks through the phone.

“Oh, so you want me to like pay for your dinner. That makes much more sense.” I hum out slowly nodding.

“That’s not what-.”

“Yeah, sure. Where do you want to go?” I cut him off.

He sighs, “Just meet me at the corner of 4th and Hide Park.”

“Alright.”

-

It’s become very apparent to me that Doyoung is very much a tease. He likes the satisfaction of seeing someone embarrassed because of his words. In a way he was sort of like those girls. At least in a less harmful way.

His teasing was all for fun, or at least I took it that way. Like when the guy at the restaurant asked if I wanted my wings with sauce on them or if I wanted them . I blame the restaurant for the terms they used to describe their chicken.

Doyoung answered for me, “. You like that don’t you?” His eyes sparkle when I glare towards him. He simply smirks and the waiter simply hums at his answer not hearing the subtle undertones of teasing that were thrown my way.

It’s a good thing I do in fact prefer my wings . After the waiter is gone, I slam my hand on the table. “Yah, what the hell was that?”

Doyoung shrugs, “Was I wrong?”

I deadpan and groan as I admit, “No.”

He smiles teasingly, “Should’ve got two s instead.” His eyes drop down to my clothed chest and I roll my eyes at his immaturity.

“It’s hard to believe you’re going to be a doctor.” I lean back in my chair crossing my arms over my chest. I think he was going to concentrate on the brain, but I wasn’t sure if he had decided yet.

He chuckles leaning forward in his to lean on the table. “Why is that?”

“You just seem unprofessional.” I shrug back smugly.

“I didn’t know I was expected to be a professional already. I’m only in my second semester.” He remarks not seeming offended by my comments in the slightest.

“I hope you don’t act like this with your patients in the future.”

“Of course, I won’t. I won’t have to see them .” He winks.

He really wasn’t going to let that go. “Did you even get a good look? I was fast about returning behind the wall!” I puff out.

He laughs nodding, “I saw everything.”

“I was so fast there’s no way you did!” I roll my eyes. It seems I’d be doing that a lot tonight.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” He hums out as the waiter returns with our food.

Despite everything, teasing including, Doyoung was charming. Especially since he was nice and easy on the eyes. Who am I kidding? He’s model material. It made sense why everyone in our school thirsted over him.

When he wasn’t teasing me, he was being genuine. He was passionate about his degree, intelligent beyond belief. He spoke well of his friends and his family. It made me jealous that he seemed to have a good experience so far in college.

Meanwhile this was my first night out with a classmate from university. I smile to myself thanking Doyoung in my head for the experience.

By the end of the night there’s a budding crush on him that I know won’t go anywhere given our differences but I’m alright with it since he seems like a genuine person.

I don’t know why but I end up back at his apartment. His roommate isn’t home, according to him he’s at his girlfriend’s place. We spend the first few minutes with him giving me a tour and by the end of it we end up in his room.

I occupy myself with photos he had on his bookshelf, and I smile to myself seeing a younger Doyoung with friends and family. He was adorable. After I realize he’s went silent I turn and he’s lying on his bed on his phone.

I was confused what we were supposed to be doing now. Would we watch a movie? Should I go home? Was I overstaying my welcome?

I glance back at him noticing his phone’s been set aside as he’s holding his hands up like he was picturing something. “What are you doing?” I approach him moving to stand next to his bed.

“Picturing you .” He smirks as his eyes connect with mine through the rectangle his hands made.

“Shut up!” I blush letting a scoff slip from my lips. My eyes drop down to where his shirt was folded up revealing his waist and part of his stomach. I’ve had enough. Two could play this teasing game.

I quickly move up on the bed throwing my leg over his hip sitting directly on his crotch. His hands freeze but his eyes dart to where he’s staring over his gesture from before at me.

My hand presses into his exposed skin pushing his shirt up more. This time he’s the one asking, “What are you doing?” As his hands fall to his sides.

“I think it’s only fair that I see you now.” I continue pushing his shirt up until I can’t anymore due to the way he was lying on it. My fingers move to them pushing the shirt aside until his entire torso is bare.

My eyes peer at his chest, he was relatively skinny, but he had some muscle. I hadn’t noticed in the bathhouse due to being preoccupied with my own . My hands slide back down his stomach to the hem of his jeans, hooking into them where the button was. I manage to pop the button out before his hands are grasping mine.

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Daeah.” His eyes bore into mine.

I smirk pulling my hands from his flopping down beside him. “So should I leave or are we watching a movie?”

-

“You did what?” Juah’s eyes were wide on her side of the screen.

I blink towards her, “What?”

“You really straddled him, took off his shirt, and teasingly ed his jeans?” Her facial expression screamed shocked, and I don’t know why I was suddenly embarrassed when I wasn’t before.

“What’s wrong with that?” I peer at her.

“What’s wrong with that?” She repeats with a gasp. “Daeah, he’s a boy!”

“So?”

“You practically said you’d have with him by doing that.” She slams her fist down on her desk.

“What? No, I didn’t!” I huff out even more embarrassed.

“Yes, you did! Had you gone any further I’m positive that’s what it would’ve resulted in!” She laughs lightly at the blush on my cheeks.

“No, it wouldn’t have. He’s Kim Doyoung and I’m me, he’s out of my league and he knows it. Someone like him would find with me revolting.” I roll my eyes.

“He’s a boy, they their own hand for God’s sake what do you mean he wouldn’t have?” She scoffs. “Also stop knocking yourself down, you’re hot, any guy would be lucky to have you practically undress them.”

“I am not!” I sigh.

“What’s this guy look like again?” She hums clicking away on her mouse. “You said his name was Kim Doyoung, right?”

“Mm.”

She was probably on Instagram searching him up as she was typing away now. She lets out a hum, “He is cute! Daeah you should’ve just went for it.”

“I’m telling you, Juah, he’s not interested in me, and he never will be.” I glance over at my phone that lied open to my chat with him. “In fact, because he saw me and he was so disgusted by me, he’s making me pay him back.”

She squints, “How so?”

“Well, the other night when all this happened, I paid for his dinner and Friday night I have to take him to the stupid carnival that’s in town.” I shrug.

She snorts, “So you pay him by spending time with him?” She hums nodding. “Sounds like he’s making excuses to keep you around him to me.” She clicks her fingers. “And his comment about picturing you , that’s straight up flirting, Daeah!”

“No, it’s not, he’s just teasing me because he knows how embarrassed I am about it.”

-

“So, what do you want to ride first?” I glance at him as his eyes wander over the rides at the carnival.

“Ferris wheel?” He questions me. “Or haunted house?”

“Haunted house.” I shrug and he nods somewhat reluctantly. And I realized why shortly into the experience. He was scared. It was quite funny seeing him jump at the very obvious jump scares.

I can’t help but giggle as he lets out a screech grasping onto my arm. “You’re a baby, who would’ve thought?”

He glares at me, “I am not!”

To which another actor gets him with their jump scare. “Sure, keep telling yourself that.” I turn away guiding us the rest of the through it.

Doyoung’s sighing relieved afterwards. His face is pale, and he looks like he needs to sit down so I tug him over to a picnic table. “Why did you suggest the haunted house if you were gonna be so scared?”

He shrugs, “I don’t know.” He mumbles like a baby.

“Let’s go play some games to take your mind off of it.” I tug him up and over towards the game