Part 2: Don't You Know Any Boundaries?!

“How did you trick me into this again?” I asked, groaning. I remembered, of course, but I just had to wonder aloud again anyway.

It was about a month ago, and I was home for the weekend to visit my family. Chanyeol insisted that I meet up with him because he hadn’t “seen me in years” -- mind you, it had only been two weeks since he, Jihye and Kai visited Baekhyun and me. Chanyeol was a bit flustered when he reached me at the coffee shop, though. He handed me a flash drive.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” I had asked him, obviously unamused.

“Noona, could you do me a huge favor? Could you develop these pictures for me right now?”

“Is that the only reason why you asked me to hang out?” I was ready to hand it back to him, but he grabbed my hand and forced it shut around the USB. “I’m only home this weekend for Kai’s birthday.”

“No, no, of course not,” Chanyeol replied. “But right now I just have something I need to do first. For student council,” he added quickly, seeing the unconvinced look on my face. “There are only seven pictures. I’ll pay you back, too. Can we meet back here after you’re done?”

I sighed, defeated. “I guess I might as well.”

“Thanks, noona!” he said, grinning happily, wrapping both of his hands around mine and shaking them in gratitude.

“You owe me, Park Chanyeol,” I snapped, breaking my hand free from his. The kid really didn’t know his boundaries.

“All right, I’ll be waiting here for you, noona! Thank you!” he said again, already bounding out the door.

I groaned again, following in the same direction. I didn’t know why he asked me to develop the pictures for him when the store was only a block away from the coffee shop. What did he have to do that was so important, anyway?

I went up to the photo-printing kiosk and inserted the flash drive into the USB slot before mindlessly pressing a few buttons to bring me to the main order screen. The contents in the USB drive loaded, and as Chanyeol had directed, there were only seven pictures. I selected them all and ordered standard-sized prints of them. The prints were ready in a few minutes.

After I paid for the pictures, I headed back to the coffee shop and found that Chanyeol was already there. But so were Sehun and Suho; both stood on either side of Chanyeol with cameras in their hands.

“Hey Sehun, hey Suho. Chanyeol, here are your pictures. You owe me 5000 won, buddy,” I greeted before dropping the envelope of pictures onto the table in front of him. That’s when I noticed he was holding onto a single sunflower with a red ribbon tied around it. I don’t know why I didn’t notice it earlier, since sunflowers have always been my favorite. “Oooh, who’s that for?”

“You didn’t look at the pictures?” Chanyeol asked, ignoring my question. I shook my head, still waiting for him to pay me back. He ignored me yet again and grabbed the envelope. He took the pictures out and sifted through the contents, reordering the pictures until they were to his liking. He sighed. “Well, I guess my planned failed.”

“Just let her see it anyway,” Suho whispered, as though I wouldn’t be able to hear him at this distance.

Chanyeol shrugged and handed me the pictures. “These are for you, noona. Let me know what you think of them.”

“So you made me pay for a present for myself?” I joked as I accepted the pictures. I looked through the photos and noticed that each one had a single word artistically written or strategically placed as the subject. The word “will” was written with a bunch of stones; the word “you” was taken from a title of a magazine article; “go” was created with hand shapes.

“Wait a second...” I had thought, going back to the first word.

Will

You

Go

To

Prom

With

Me?

“Wait... what?” I looked up to meet Chanyeol’s eyes, completely bewildered.

“Yes! This was the kind of reaction we were waiting for,” Sehun said, taking pictures like crazy. Suho kept his camera still, and I figured he was recording. However, I was too stunned to chastise either of them.

Chanyeol smiled, though it wasn’t one of his regular goofy smiles. It was a soft smile, one that I would need to take a while to get used to. He handed me the sunflower and I accepted, though I was still in a daze.

“So, whaddoya say? Will you go to prom with me, noona?”

Well, it wasn’t like I could say no, right? “Ye-yeah.”

“Yes!” Suho and Sehun cheered in unison, whooping in the background as I continued to register what had just happened. I couldn’t even fathom how red my cheeks were at that moment -- which was the thought that brought me back to my senses.

“Ya, you two,” I said to Suho and Sehun sternly, suddenly covering my face with the photos. “Stop recording! Stop taking pictures! Ah, how embarrassing...”

“Yeah, you guys can stop now,” Chanyeol said laughing loudly. He came closer and placed an around around my shoulder, supposedly shielding me from the cameras. However, this only invited Sehun to take more pictures of us together. His claims of “just one more!” were not at all reassuring; he didn’t even bother trying to make his lie sound believable.

And now it was prom night, and I was back at my alma mater, covered in white polka dots that speckled the strapless black dress that draped down to my knees. My date successfully complemented me with his black button-up and dark pants. His sleeves were rolled half-way up his arm, revealing his forearms -- which, I might add, were very well formed thanks to his drumming. A white tie dangled from his neck.

“Who tricked who? You came with me willingly,” Chanyeol said in feigned offense.

“Right, and remind me again, why?” I joked.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just so charming,” Chanyeol replied smugly.

“Whatever, go get us some drinks like a good dongsaeng,” I said, brushing him away.

“Whatever you say, noona,” he complied, patting my head before heading to the refreshments table.

“So, you and Chanyeol, huh?” Minjeong commented slyly, appearing out of nowhere and nudging me as if to insinuate something.

“What?” I laughed. “What are you talking about?”

“Uh, you already graduated and you’re at prom. And you’re Chanyeol’s date.”

“Don’t be silly, girl,” I laughed again. “Chanyeol said he only asked me because he didn’t think anyone else wanted to go with him. Though I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to...”

“That liar,” Minjeong said quickly, interrupting my thought. “There were a bunch of girls in our class that wanted to go with him.”

“Then why...” I asked out loud, even though a part of me already knew the answer.

“He wanted to go with you,” Minjeong said. Again, her tone seemed insinuating. “Come on, unni, you must have known something was up between you two.”

“No,” I laughed, shaking my head in denial. “That’s crazy.”

“He worked really hard trying to think up a way to ask you to prom,” Minjeong stated matter-of-factly. “Suho promises Chanyeol that he won’t say anything, but he tells me sometimes.”

“But it doesn’t make sense.”

“Doesn’t it, though? You guys get along really well. You guys have always gotten along really well.”

I wrinkled my forehead in confusion. I had noticed how Chanyeol acted around me. But I thought it was just my imagination; that my mind was making things out of nothing because I had started to feel an attraction for him. Of course he didn’t feel the same way about me, I convinced myself. I was just being silly.

“Er, I’m sorry if I made you feel weird about it,” Minjeong said, noticing my contorted face. “I’m gonna... find Suho...”

“All right, see you later,” I said, allowing Minjeong to escape.

“Hey, I didn’t know you’d be here, too! We could have ridden home together,” said a familiar voice as a hand patted my shoulder. I was surprised to see that it was Baekhyun.

“I didn’t know you would be here either,” I said, greeting my friend with a smile. “Who did you...”

“Jihye,” he answered before I could finish my question. “Kai and Lay had a dance competition this weekend.”

“Oh, that makes sense. That’s why he wasn’t home all day... I figured he was just spending the whole day with Jihye.”

“Nah, I’m borrowing the lady for the night,” Baekhyun replied. “Well, I better get back to her; I was just coming back from the restroom.”

“I see. All right, then. Have fun! I’ll see you guys later.”

“Oh, Luhan is here, too, if you want to say hi. Man, I haven’t seen that guy since winter break!”

“Wow, I haven’t seen him since then either. I almost forgot Xingle’s part of this class, too! Duh -- I should have known Luhan would be here, too.”

“Yeah, we should all meet up after for a little reunion,” Baekhyun suggested.

“Definitely,” I agreed, giving Baekhyun a short hug before letting him go back to his date.

“Hey, hyung,” Chanyeol said, sounding a bit suspicious, as he returned with our drinks.

“Oh, hey! I was just about to go find Jihye, but I was just saying how we should have a little reunion later!”

“Yeah, that sounds good. We should.”

We waved goodbye, and it wasn’t until Baekhyun left us alone that I remembered what Minjeong and I had talked about earlier.

“Hey, Chanyeol,” I said hesitantly. At this point, I still wasn’t sure of what to say. Or even if I wanted to bring it up at all.

“Hmm?” he responded, looking at me over the rim of his cup.

“I have to talk to you about something,” I decided.

“Is there something wrong?” he asked, a little worried.

“Well, no...”

“You don’t want to dance? This is a really good song right now,” he laughed, wiggling his body a little bit. I laughed, too, but I couldn’t let it go. I was always the type to point out “now or never” situations, and this was one of those times.

“I need to get this off my chest now,” I replied, shaking my head. I grabbed his hand and pulled him along with me as I looked for a quieter place where we could talk.

“Getting a little rough, there,” Chanyeol commented, amused. “I’ve never seen this side of you before.”

I ignored him as I continued to lead us toward a quieter corner of the room -- as far from the blaring music and the dance floor as we could get.

“Chanyeol,” I said, letting go of his hand and facing him now, although I had to bend my neck up a bit to compensate for our height difference.

“What’s up?” What was up with him and that goofy smile, anyway? Was he incapable of not smiling ever?!

“Well, first of all I wanted to thank you for bringing me to your prom,” I started off, stalling myself. “I’m really having a lot of fun so far.”

His grin turned into that oh-so-familiar smugness. “See, I didn’t force you into anything. You were so willing.”

“Chanyeol, why did you ask me to be your date?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I was bored.”

“Why did you ask me to be your date?” I asked again, though this time changing my intonation of the question.

He paused for a moment to give me a peculiar look, then he shrugged again. “You’re fun. I missed you. And I figured it’d be a good chance for you to see everyone again.”

“Before, you told me that it was because no one else wanted to go with you.”

“Yeah, that too,” he nodded his head in agreement.

“But that was a lie.”

“Possibly,” he said, nodding again.

“Do you like me?” I finally asked, biting my lip nervously. Did I really just say that? Did that really just happen?

“Yeah,” Chanyeol replied matter-of-factly. Then he laughed. “You always think that I hate you. You don’t know how wrong you are. I just like to tease you.”

“That’s not what I--”

“Oh! Let’s go back to the dancefloor! This only lasts a few more hours, you know,” he interrupted me after checking his watch. He was the one that grabbed my hand this time to pull me back toward the crowd.

“--meant,” I finished lamely, though he couldn’t hear me once we became resubmerged in the loud music.

… fail.

-----

The rest of the dance was fun; we danced a lot -- go figure. But now we were on our way home. The car ride wasn’t awkward per se, but it was quiet. I used the excuse that I was just tired when Chanyeol asked me if I was okay, but in actuality my mind was running tactics on how to bring up the “like” subject again. True, I was able to get an answer out of him earlier, but I wasn’t even sure if Chanyeol understood what exactly I was trying to ask him.

It’s now or never, I urged myself. Now or never. However, the car had already slowed to a stop -- I was too late. We were already outside my house. Chanyeol killed the engine, and I instinctively took off my seatbelt and reached for my door handle.

“Wait!” he yelled, insisting that I remain seated as he jumped out of the driver’s seat and circled around to open my door.

“Wow,” I said, admittedly impressed. “When did you become such a... gentleman?”

“I have a few tricks up my sleeve,” he replied, tipping his imaginary top hat. He offered his hand to help me out of the car, and I obliged. “I hope you don’t wake anyone up,” he said, gesturing to my house with his head.

“Nah, no one’s home right now.”

“Ah, I see. Well, I guess that means I won’t be in trouble for bringing you home so late, then.”

“Nope!” I agreed, shaking my head as he laughed.

“Well,” he said as we got to my door. “Thanks for being my date.”

“Thanks for asking me to be your date,” I said in return. He gave me a quick hug and headed back toward the car.

Now or never.

“Wait,” I said this time, just as suddenly. He was kind enough to meet me halfway when I started walking back towards him.

“What’s wrong? Did you forget something?”

“I think you misunderstood me earlier,” I said, trying to muster up all the courage I had left from my previously failed confrontation.

“I don’t understand,” he said, furrowing his eyebrows in genuine confusion.

I took a deep breath. “When I asked if you liked me.”

He raised an eyebrow, and for some reason that worried me. Actually, at this point anything he did probably would have worried me. “I said ‘yeah,’” Chanyeol repeated. “Of course I like you.”

“No,” I said, frustrated now. “But do you like me? Like, do you have a crush on me?” Ugh, could I sound any more lame?!

“Noona, I think you may be the one misunderstanding,” he chuckled, sliding his hands into his pants pockets. “But by any chance, do you have a crush on me?” He leaned down to match my height -- he had done this a few times before. And as always, his face was only centimeters away from mine, though by now I had grown a bit more accustomed to this and was only barely affected by this action. Well, at least I was able to keep a straight face, anyway.

I refused to answer, and neither of us moved, so his face lingered. He had a small smirk on, but his expression was different this time; he looked almost serious.

And at that moment, I knew what was going to happen.

He kissed me so suddenly that I barely had any time to react. I didn’t kiss back, but I also didn’t break away. So he broke away first.

“Don’t you know any boundaries?!” I gasped. Though I immediately noticed the confusion and disappointment on his face.

“I’m sorry,” he stammered. “I thought that was the right moment. Was I wrong?” It looked childish. It was childish. But technically speaking, he was only a year younger than me. And honestly, all I could see right now was that Park Chanyeol was a man.

“Ugh,” I groaned, knowing that he was not at all wrong. I took a step toward him and reached for his silk tie -- again, why did he have to be so tall?! I pulled him down so he could match my height and pressed my lips against his. He was confused at first and almost stumbled over his lanky body as I pulled him close, but he quickly caught on, reciprocating the kiss and wrapping his arms around my waist to bring me closer.

I broke the kiss this time, and we both opened our eyes. He had his goofy grin on his face. I scowled.

“Noona,” he called me playfully. His deep voice still seemed so out-of-place in comparison to his cute face.

“You were right,” I admitted sternly, still embarrassed. I let go of his tie and headed back to my front door, hoping with every fiber of my being that there really was no one home who could see what had just happened. I fumbled with the buttons a little before successfully inputting the code to unlock the door. I turned back toward Chanyeol, who was still grinning goofily in the spot where I left him.

“Well, are you coming or what?” I snapped at him. As soon as he heard that, he bounded towards me, still grinning. He grabbed me again by the waist and bent down so his face could reach mine, all in one fluid motion. I instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck in response. And he locked the door behind him.

A/N: I'm always awkward when it comes to endings... but I hope you all enjoyed! Thank you for the subscriptions and for the comments! :)