Mir’s POV

She enjoyed today. She wants to go on more dates with me. Does this mean she wants to be my girlfriend? Does this mean I passed the first date? I reached up to touch the place where she’d kissed me, smiling happily, as I drove home.

I am one lucky guy.

Yuri’s POV

As soon as I opened the door to my room, I was not surprised to see Minzy, Taemin, L.Joe and Chunji in my room, sprawled all over the place. Chunji and Taemin were playing with my Play Station in front of the TV. L.Joe seemed to have fallen asleep on my bed. And Minzy was sitting on my beanbag, reading a Seventeen magazine.

They looked up the moment I entered and L.Joe must have a six sense or something because he woke up as well. Chunji paused the game and Minzy put the magazine down.

I smiled warily at my friends. “Hi, guys.”

“Hi!” Chunji and Taemin both said enthusiastically while L.Joe just grunted sleepily, running his fingers over his messy hair. He stifled a yawn and sat up, smiling at me.

“How was your date?” Minzy asked me without wasting a second.

I smiled, remembering how the date went. “It was . . . good,” I said dreamily.

Taemin’s eyes popped out in mock horror. “You didn’t do it with him, did you?” he asked me, covering his mouth.

“Gimme a break,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes at him. “Of course not!”

“So, where did he take you?” Chunji asked with a twinkle in his eye.

I turned to him. “Yah, as if you didn’t know. I’m sure Minzy told you all about it.”

Minzy giggled. “I can’t believe you didn’t force me to tell you why I was at your house so early in the morning! By the way, your brother was a bit peeved off that you left without a note.”

I shrugged. “He’s over at Seungho-sshi’s house now though. I saw the note in the kitchen.”

L.Joe sat up and I sat down next to him. “It was so amazing,” I said. “We went horse-riding and he showed me around town. We took a lot of pictures. I just cannot describe how wonderful the day had been but I know it’s a day I’ll never forget.”

L.Joe smiled. “So does this mean that you’ll be going on a lot more dates with him, then?” he asked me with a teasing smile and I blushed, nodding my head. “Ha, I knew it,” he snickered.

“Ngaaaww, she’s blushing!” Taemin cooed, pressing his hands to his cheeks.

I laughed. “Yah, Taemin, you looked like a girl when you do that!” I said, lying on my bed. “Aigoo, I am so tired!” I sat up in contradiction. “And hungry. Have you guys eaten your dinner yet? What time did you guys even come? How long have you waited for me?”

“We’ve been here for half an hour,” Minzy replied, looking at the clock to calculate. “We roughly estimated the time you’ll be back. It turns out our estimation wasn’t that off.”

“Wow, you guys sure waiting quite a long time,” I teased, knowing that half an hour was long for someone who have been waiting for news they’ve been waiting for.

Minzy just grinned. “You have no idea.”

My brother, who apparently seemed to be back from Seungho's house, popped his head into my room. “Knock, knock. It’s dinner time. Are any of you going to stay? Minzy, our mom made donkatsu again.”

“Awwww,” she whined. “I can’t stay.”

Chunji raised an eyebrow and she immeidately gulped. “Are you implying that you don’t want to go on a date with me?” he asked her, pretending to be offended.

“Not at all,” she quickly said without missing a beat. She smiled sweetly at him that always made his heart raced a litter faster. She kissed his cheek and giggled. Chunji looked a little dazed, distracted by her aegyo.

L.Joe shook his head at their direction but turned to Joon and nodded. “I guess I could say. I’m stuck finding my own dinner.” He turned to me and gave me a lopsided grin.

“Oh and you just so happened to have found it, huh?” I said sarcastically.

He grinned. “Yeap,” he answered shamelessly.

“Aish . . .”

All of us went downstairs. I walked the couple out of the door to say goodbye and to tell them to enjoy their date before L.Joe and I went to the kitchen, where my parents were already eating with us.

“You started without me?” Joon gasped.

“Too hungry,” Umma replied with a grin.

L.Joe and I cracked up, taking our seats and digging as well. After dinner, I walked him out the door.

He turned and smiled. “You’re happy?”

I knew what he was talking about. He knew about what happened to Woo Chul. “It’s been almost four months,” I told him. “I do need happiness. Besides, he is not worth it.”

He nodded. “Of course.” He hugged me. “But if he ever hurts you, Joon hyung will beat him up. So will CAP hyung, and the others.”

I rolled my eyes. “My goodness, having Teen Top around is like having another additional six brothers. I always wanted one, but I didn’t anticipate in getting another six. Yeesh.” I poked my tongue out.

He laughed, knowing I was just kidding so he wasn’t offended. “Nights, crazy,” he said and walked down to the street.

I smiled and turned back, walking up the stairs, into my brother’s room. He was at the windows, phone to his ear, trying to call someone. “Pick up,” he muttered impatiently. “Pick up, pick up, pick up. Pick up!” He turned to look at me and walked toward his bed.

I innocently took my phone out and pressed it to my ears. “Yeobosaeyo?” I said with a grin.

My brother collapsed on the bed, laughing, putting his phone aside. I jumped on bed and giggled with him as well. “That was a good one,” he remarked.

“Of course.” I poked my tongue out. “I’m awesome that way, didn’t you know?”

“By the way, how was your date? Did you have fun? It’s not funny, you know. I woke up to find a measely note on the table saying you went out on a date and that you’re not sure what time you’ll be back. I had to find my own food.” He pouted at me like some little kid. Seriously.

“Choding,” I retorted. “That’s good, then, finding your own food. It teaches you how to be independent, right?”

He rolled his eyes.

I grabbed his pillow and bounced it on my lap. “It was good. I had a great time. Mir Oppa was really sweet and fun to be with.”

“Would this mean you’ll be going on more dates with him?”

I nodded. “Well, that’s only if he asks me,” I told him.

“From what I saw, I know that he sincerely likes you and these past few months when you were trying to get over Woo Chul was difficult for him because he wanted to sweep you off your feet but he didn’t want to rush you,” Joon told me.

“Chincha?”

He nodded.

I kissed his cheek. “Anyway, I’m tired so I’m going to sleep now. Good night.” I walked out of the room. Just as I closed the door of my bedroom, my phone rang. I dove for it.

“Hi, Cheolyong Oppa!”

He laughed. “Hey.”

Mir and I ended up talking on the phone for hours despite what I said to my brother about being tired and wanting to sleep.

Mir and I went out to many more dates, each even more special and wonderful every single time. I always have a great time whenever I am with him, be it just at the park, his house or in school. As long as I was with him, it was as if there was nobody else in this world but the two of us, and the two of us alone. It was us against the world.

One day Mir dropped me home from school. I got off and smiled. “Thanks.”

He kissed my cheeks, smiling back at me. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Or do you want me to call you later at night?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Whichever works best,” I replied.

“I’ll call you at nine.”

“Okay.” I hugged him before going inside the house. I looked around and saw my mother lying on the couch. I walked to the living room. “Umma, how come you’re home? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

Umma works as a cashier at a supermarket. She would normally come home in two more hours, so I was surprised to see her home earlier than usual. She looked up and smiled. She looked pale and very tired. “I decided to take a day off because I’m so tired. Darn the customers, so indecisive. It’s not nice to work at such long ideas for women my age.”

I sat down next to her. “Umma, you’re not old,” I told her. “You’re so young. How can you say that you’re old? You’re still the coolest mom I know.”

She shrugged. “Either way, I needed a break.” She smiled. “Mir fetched you home?”

I nodded. “He always does that,” I replied.

“He’s a nice boy. I like him. Appa likes him too. I like him better than Woo Chul, to be honest,” Umma told me. “I wonder how that boy is holding up.”

I shrugged, not wanting to tell her that ‘that boy’ has already forgotten about me. I’m not supposed to let her know that Tony knows and if I tell her about his new girlfriend, she’d ask me where I found out and I will have to tell her I called Tony.

I got up. “I have homework.”

“All right. We’ll talk later.”

I walked up to my room and called Minzy.

“Mmm?”

“Are you going to be mad at me for choosing Mir over L.Joe?” I asked her.

“L.Joe likes you too, you know,” she said. “Chunji told me. You broke his heart.”

“I liked Mir first!” I argued back. “Can’t you, as my best friend, be a little bit more supportive for me about Mir? I really like him. He makes me happy; happier than any guy has ever made me.”

“So . . . do you want to be something more with him? I mean, you’re only dating him. It’s not official yet, right?” she asked, changing directions.

“Now this was the reply I was looking for earlier,” I muttered under my breath. But to her, I replied, “I don’t know. I mean, I would want to be something more. But I don’t know how he feels about me.”

“There’s a reason why he’s dating you,” she pointed out matter-of-factly.

I shrugged even though she couldn’t see me over the phone. I lied on my bed, facing the ceiling, watching the fan turn at a slow speed. The window was open and it was quite windy, so the slow speed was fine.

“Do you think maybe we could?”

“I think you could. I know he likes you a lot by the way he looks at you. And if he didn’t, he’s blind.”

We talked on the phone a bit longer before we both decided it was time to do our homework.

Cheolyong Oppa . . . why do you make me feel like this?