Later that afternoon, I received a call.

“Yobseo.”

“Hey, what are you doing?” Yong Guk’s voice came through the phone.

“I’m working on the project. Wea?”

“Can we talk?” he asked his voice sounded eager.

“Yeah, what about?”

“I would rather talk to you in person. Can I come pick you up?”

“I guess, if you really want to, I can ask CL to drop me off.”

“No, no, it’s alright I need to get out of the house anyway, can I have your address?”

I told him my address, and he said he was on his way. I got my things together, and went into the bathroom. I fixed myself up, I don’t know why, but I was worried about how I looked. I never thought much of it before, but for some reason I couldn’t help myself. There was a knock on the door. I grabbed my things and ran to it, as CL was heading for it. “I GOT IT!” I yelled beating her to the door. 

“Okay… Why are you in such a hurry?” She asked looking at me suspiciously from the other side of the room. “Going on a date with Daehyun?”

“No, I’m going to work on my bio project with Yong Guk, He’s picking me up.” I said lying and I opened the door.

CL stuck her tongue out at me, and went to sit down on the couch, “Whatever, just be safe, I’m going to watch my drama now.”

I shook my head, and laughed as I opened the door. “Hey” I said.

“Are you ready?” Yong Guk asked.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” I said patting my bag, “bye” I called to CL

“See you later” Yong Guk said.

CL didn’t look over to us, but said, “Okay… Bye.”

I closed the door behind me, “Why is she acting like that?” Yong Guk asked me as we headed down the hall.

“She’s always like that when she’s watching her dramas. You don’t interrupt her during them.” I said with a smile, “You get use to it, but I’m like her with that too.”

“Note to self, don’t interrupt you during your dramas.” He said to himself.

I climbed into his SUV, which was an Infiniti QX. It was black both in the inside and out. 

“Wow this car is nice.” I said to him.

He laughed as he started the car, and put it in drive. “Thanks, I try.”

He started to drive off, “Where are we going?” I asked looking at him. He stared straight ahead at the road.

“I don’t know, are you hungry?”

“A little bit, but….”

“So then lets get dinner.” He suggested, “I know a really good restaurant.”

“But it thought you wanted to talk?”

“I do, and we still can at dinner.” He said with a smile on his face, “What kind of music do you like?”

“Everything… I just don’t like country, or a lot of hip-hop.”

He laughed, “You don’t like hip-hop?”

“Nope not really, it all sounds the same to me. Why do you ask?”

“Cause hip-hop is my favorite.” He said, eying me, “why do you think it sounds all the same? It really doesn’t”

“Well it’s not just it all sounds the same, its just…” he looked at me suspiciously, “All the songs talk about alcohol, drugs, and . They are also very discriminating towards women too.” I explained my point and he nodded.

“I don’t listen to a lot of the hip-hop songs that pertain to those things. A lot actually have good meanings to them, you just have to be willing to find them.”

“Well I haven’t come across many.”

“That’s because you most likely have only heard of the American ones.”

“True.”

“So what you’re saying is, you shut down all hip-hop because of what you’ve heard.”

“I guess. If you say there are meaningful hip-hop songs out there then prove it to me.”

“I will.” He said, plugging in his I-pod, “are you ready.”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

He played a few songs. I understood where he was coming from, but I still was entitled to my opinion. We reached the restaurant, and he parked the car. We both got out and entered it. The lady who was serving us asked us what we would like, and we ordered. When she brought us our food she said, “You two are such a beautiful couple.” And then walked away. “Couple?” I asked myself, ignoring what the woman said. I guess she couldn’t see that two friends had gone out together to hang out.

“So what did you want to talk about?” I asked him as I began to eat.

“Nothing really, I just wanted to hang out with you.” His deep voice said kindly.

“Then why didn’t you say that in the first place?”

“I don’t know, I just thought…” he stopped what he was saying, and put food in his mouth.

“That I wouldn’t come?”

He didn’t say anything for a long time. “I just didn’t think you were willing to hang out with me.” He said softly.

“Why would you think that?”

“Because of everything I did to you.”

“I told you, that it’s in the past, and I’m not going to hold that against you anymore, and you shouldn’t either.”

“Okay”

“Thanks for inviting me.” I said smiling to him.

“No problem.” He smiled back to me. I saw that he was happy to spend time with me. Truthfully I was happy to spend time with him.  I don’t know why, but I really did like being with him. We ate our food talking about ourselves, and getting to know each other better. I really looked at him. Yong Guk was extremely good-looking. He had beautiful chocolate brown eyes. His smile was welcoming, and his voice was soothing. His voice was deep, and husky. It was different from any other guy I had met; I really liked the sound of his voice. It warmed me from inside out. When we finished and were about to pay, I pulled out my wallet, to put money down for my food, but he had already paid it.

“Let me give you money for my dinner, I can pay for it myself.” I said handing him the money.
“Keep it,” he said pushing my hand away, “it’s my treat.”

“But, you don’t have to pay for me.” I argued

“I know, but I wanted to.” He said taking my hand in his, lets go for a walk. His hand was warm, and he led me out of the restaurant and to the park across the street. We walked for a while talking about, music, and other things. I was surprised by how much he knew about music. He didn’t seem like the type of guy to do that kind of things. “At the Up All Night, I saw you perform.” He said.

“Oh… You saw that?”

“Yeah, you were really good, you surprised me. I didn’t know you could sing like that.” He said putting his arm around me after noticing me shiver. It was late October and the weather was getting colder. The colors of the leaves on the trees were all different colors that ranged from reds to yellows.

“Thanks… I guess. I saw you and the guys perform. You guys were really good, and I really liked the song.” I said, moving closer to him. His body heat was warm, and comforting.

“Thanks,” he said looking down to me, “I wrote the song.”

It took me by surprise, “You wrote the song? I thought Daehyun did.”

He laughed, “No I did, does that surprise you?”

“Yes, don’t take this wrong, but you don’t seem like the type to write a song like that.”

“Like I said, there are hip-hop songs that have good meanings” he said, stopping.

“Okay okay, you got me. I believe you now.”

“Good, because I don’t know how I would be able to convince you otherwise, you’re stubborn.”

“And you’re not?” He pulled me into a hug, and we both laughed. I was happy with him, and spending time with him wasn’t as bad as it use to be.

We left the park and he brought me back home. He walked me to the door, putting his arms around me. He pulled me close to him once again, and he pressed me against him. Every time I took a breath I smelled him. Yong Guk always smelled nice. I smiled as he hugged me, for some reason my heart raced, and I didn’t know why. I looked up to him, and he looked me in the eyes.

“Thanks for dinner.” I said.

“You’re welcome.” He whispered in my ear. I felt his warm breath against the side of my face. My heart skipped. Yong Guk slowly released me looking into my eyes once again.

I felt my face get hot, and I smiled to him, “I should go inside.” I said.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, as he looked into my eyes once more. His voice was comforting, and he then smiled.

“Goodnight.” I said opening the door, and stepping inside.

“Night.” Yong Guk replied, turning to leave.

The next few days went by as normal. Melia and I ended up being in dance together, once they fixed her schedule. We grew closer and closer, all us girls did. Melia moved in with CL and I. Daehyun, and the rest of they boys help move her in. Her room was very trendy, and fit her personality.

I could see that there was something between Melia and Daehyun. He started acting different, and it was noticeable that he liked her.

“Jeo Jeo.” Daehyun called me.

“Yeah.”

“I need to talk to you about something.” He replied.

“What?”

“Well, I really like Melia… And I want to make sure she likes me back before I ask her out.”

“Okay, to tell you the truth, and I promised her I wouldn’t say anything to you, but…”

“But what?” his voice sounded eager

“She told me she really thinks you’re cute, but she doesn’t want to ruin the friendship you guys have, besides, the mask thing bothers her.”

“She really said that?”

“Yeah she did.”

“And even the part about the mask?”

“Yeah I swear on my life she did. She says, she would like to see your whole face.”

“Oh… well that can be arranged.” He said with a sparkle in his eyes.

“So… Are you gonna ask her out?”

“Yeah, I’ll ask her to go out to the amusement park with us tomorrow.”

“That’s not really a date, unless you two go off on your own.” I said trying to explain to him from a girl’s point of view.

“Okay, we will. Himchan said than he and CL had a scavenger hunt for all of us to do.”

“Oh geez those two and their bright ideas.”

“Yeah I know it will be some friendly competition. I guess it is going to be teams of two.” He said, “so that way I can be alone with her.”

“Well you’re going to have to leave the mask behind.” I said patting his shoulder.

“I will.” He said

The rest of the day we all hung out in our apartment, watched movies, and ordered food. I sat with Yong Guk on the couch and he put his arm around me. CL had invited Bom, Dara, and Minzy over for dinner, and the movies. They came later after we finished moving Melia in. She and Daehyun were in her room organizing her things, and I could hear laughter coming from the room. We all got along great, and things were wonderful. My life had turned around from what it was like in the beginning. Tomorrow would be the amusement park day, and that should be interesting.