Gikwang has been attracted to her from the beginning. He glances at her discreetly from his table near the window, hiding behind the restaurant’s menu. He already knows what he´ll order but the other customers doesn´t know that so he´s using it as an act to be able to look at her without looking suspicious. He´s always sitting by the same table, ordering that chili pepper pasta and ice water, and eats as he regards her. He wouldn´t call himself a stalker though.

The beautiful girl with the bright and carefree who always work so hard to please the people around her but seldom gets anything in return. Her semi-long hair floats beautifully around her as she works as a waitress, gracefully giving the costumers their orders with a polite but bubbly smile. She has a great workload since she´s one of the more experienced people at the restaurant. The younger and newer workers ask her for help and advice which she gladly gives them. However, some tend to ask too much of her and she is too kind to decline. This seems to make her seriously frustrated at times. But no matter how stressful work is, she´s always giving him his order with a smile.

“The usual, I see.” She chuckles as she comes with his pasta.

Gikwang nods at her as she puts down a tray with his pasta and glass of water on.  It seems as if she has noticed that he always buys this spicy dish. He can´t pretend to look through the menu anymore.

“Thank you.” He smiles softly up at her.

“I hope you´ll enjoy your meal.” She tells him. “I added some more veggies for you.”

Such a simple comment makes the singer´s heart flutter. It means that she actually pay attention to him… a bit at least. He always goes to the salad bar to add more veggies. A chuckle leaves her lips before she leaves to help her coworkers who seem to have messed up again. One of the girls is literally crying as the coffee machine keeps beeping loudly. Gikwang notices the frown on her face, but she´s good to hide her irritation as she helps the younger girl with a task she should have mastered by now.

This restaurant quickly became Gikwang´s favorite, and he drops in after work as often as possible. People don’t disturb him here, not even his fans and it makes him able to relax a great deal. The restaurant has a classical feel which attracts the older generation, and most of them doesn´t know B2ST at all.  Gikwang also tends to wear sunglasses when going there, in case some fans would recognize him in the streets. He wouldn´t want to ruin this peaceful atmosphere by accidentally bringing hoards of fans with him. He doesn´t want to bother her or make her work load worse.

Even though he can avoid fans, it didn´t take long until the rest of B2ST found out where he has been sneaking off to. Two of the five other members of B2ST decided to show up and see why Gikwang likes the place so much to risk being spotted by fans on a daily basis.

“Yo, Gikwang ~ !” Yoseob greets him followed by Dongwoon´s “Hi.”

Gikwang smiles at them even though he´s a bit bothered by their arrival. This has always been his spot, his alone and he might not be ready to share it with the members. Yoseob and Dongwoon sits down while looking around. Yoseob seems disappointed as if he was expecting something totally different. The three young men talks quietly so they won´t attract stares but there are some middle aged women across the room that steals glances once in a while. They doesn´t seem to know they´re famous, but they´re attractive enough to get that attention anyway.

The girl arrives after a while, and she looks at the three men curiously. “Do you want to order?” She smiles.

“Eh?” Yoseob looks a bit annoyed since they were in the middle of discussing something he really likes. “Just give us some shrimps and rice…Oh, yeah, and some coke.”

She writes it down, but eyes widen and she looks Gikwang´s way.“But he doesn´t like seafood.” The words seem to just pop out of . Gikwang´s eyes widen a bit at this and he looks at her with surprise. He´s allergic to seafood but he have no clue how she could know about it.

“What?” Yoseob´s eyes widen.

She realizes her mistake and tries to save face. “Gikwang-sshi… is allergic to seafood right? I couldn´t help but notice how you avoided it so I assumed you are allergic…” She repeats. “I wouldn´t want you to get sick…”

“I´ll take the chili pepper pasta again, with a glass of water, thank you.” He smiles at her warmly.

His chest feels oddly warm. No one, not someone who´s not a fan, has been that observant about him before. First about the veggies and now about the seafood. During the first visits there, he tried some different dishes before finding his favorite pasta, and he did indeed avoid the dishes with seafood. He must have mentioned his allergy, or declined a dish suggestion when he noticed it was seafood in it.

Dongwoon and Yoseob exchanges glances in silence as they watch how their friend looks at the waitress as she makes her way to the kitchen with their order. The shorter of them starts grinning broadly as he finally realizes the reason why Gikwang goes to this restaurant, and it´s not only because of the food.

“Good luck.” Dongwoon smirks as he and Yoseob decides to leave early.

Gikwang just shakes his head at them, trying to act ignorant as he feels how a blush travels up his throat to color his cheeks red when he wonders if he´s that obvious to the waitress as well. He feels like a fool.

Days proceed like this. Gikwang comes to eat and visit her but their relationship stays costumer and waitress. He´s aware that he´d trouble her if he confessed since he´s famous and he´s aware that she dislikes being restricted, which their dating would be. When his fans would know he has a girlfriend they´d also bother her restricting her freedom. This made him keep his feelings to himself.

It´s only when the girl´s smile gets clouded that he gathers the courage to approach her. It scares him, to see the smile that once made him fall in love with her fade from those lips. He can´t just leave her even though he probably should.

“Hey…” He greets her.

She´s sitting by a table by herself with a frown on her face. She looks really sad, but above that angry, or even disappointed at something or someone. Gikwang, who´s used to that she´d say good bye to him with a smile, stopped by her table when she didn´t notice him leaving.

“Oh, hi!” She forces a smile, but she seems more embarrassed over that he saw her like this. “It´s already this late, huh?”

“Is everything ok?” He asks her, hoping not to offend her.

“Yes…” She starts and Gikwang is a bit disappointed.

He has noticed that she´s always smiling, keeping up a bright façade, to those around her, as if she tries to act strong. He selfishly wished to be special, to be able to see her true emotions but it seems as if she´s trying to hide from him as well. What did he expect? He might be just a customer to her.

“Who am I kidding?” She burst out.

His eyes widen a bit at the sudden turn of events. Is she opening up to him? Gikwang doesn´t want to force her to tell him so he stays silent.

“It´s my birthday the day after.” She breaks the silence after a while of thinking.

“Then, shouldn´t you be happy?” He asks her, trying to cheer her up with a teasing smirk.

She laughs at this and seems thankful.

“It seems as if my parents forgot about it again.” She sighs and turns serious. “My friends are either too busy or don´t seem to care about it and I couldn´t get off work either…”

Gikwang listens to her explanation in silence. The way she talks makes him think that she was really looking forward to celebrate her birthday but everything went wrong and now it´ll just be like any other day at work for her. He suddenly understands her frustration. She must feel forgotten, like no one cares that it´s the day she was born, because they have more “important” things to do or are to selfish to be the ones helping her out for once. Gikwang feels bitter when he realizes this.

He puts his hands in his jeans pockets.“Would you let me spend your birthday with you?” He asks carefully.

“Huh? But I´m working.” She seems really surprised and startled by his suggestion.

“I can wait until your shift is over.”He doesn´t give up even though his whole being wished he didn´t say it so easily.

He doesn´t know what to do if she rejected her.

She thinks about it for a moment before she turns to him with a curious smile on her face. Her eyes sparkle as she looks up at him.

“… You know? Why not!!” She beams happily.

It´s getting dark outside as the day slowly comes to an end, an orange glow colors the sky near the horizon. A little of this natural beauty can be seen and admired from the restaurant even though it´s located in central Seoul. The waitress looks through the window dreamily as she´s preparing to leave. No one of her coworkers seems to remember this day, because no one congratulated her, but she could hold back her tears because she knows someone will come for her.

Someone did remember her and she´s looking forward to be with him. She even dressed up a bit for the event.

Gikwang enters the restaurant the second her shift ends, and he´s greeted with a big bright smile. The brightness of the smile seems to surprise him, because he can´t help but avert his gaze due to a bit of embarrassment.

“Let´s go.” He tells her.

“Where are we going?” She asks him curiously.

“It´ll be a surprise.”

Giwkang relaxes enough to be his a bit dorky self around her as they walk down the streets of Seoul side by side. His confidence grows for every time he makes her laugh out loud sincerely, and in the end, the two of them goofs around loudly together. People must think both of them are drunk. He makes it his mission to make her forget about her family, her friends and work. He just wants her to laugh.

“This way.” He tells her.

He takes her to a park where a small coffee shop is still open. It´s a very small place famous for it´s colorful cupcakes and ice cream. To be honest, Hyunseung told him about it, but it´s not like she needs to know.

“It feels strange to be served, and not serve.” She comments as the waitress comes with the sweets Gikwang ordered for them.

Her eyes widen as she sees the amount of sweets. “Wow, can I really…?”

“Please eat.” He laughs.

The two of them eats until their stomachs hurt, and they feel too full to continue walking so they sit there for a while, enjoying a warm drink while chatting comfortably. It´s quite dark in the café and the lit candles on the table gives them a cozy, almost a bit romantic, feeling. It feels like they´re on an actual first date. She doesn´t seem to mind though, which encourages him to give her the gift he prepared. He pulls up a small gift from his pocket.

“What is this?” Her eyes widen a second time.

“Your birthday present.”

Their hands touch as he gives her the package. It feels like electrify runs though him at the simple touch. He wonders if she´s feeling the same thing, but her pokerface doesn´t help out a lot. She´s only looking surprised over the gift.

“You didn´t have to…”

“I wanted to.” He smiles. “Now, open it.”

Her eyes glisten as she unwraps the gift carefully. It seems as if all she wants is actually to tear the paper off, but keeps her cool to not be rude. It makes him laugh a bit. She´s so cute. He regards her with a tenderness he seldom possesses. The girl makes a delighted sound as she looks at the necklace he gave her. It´s a simple one, but she seems to adore it.  He wanted to give her a bracelet at first but changed his mind when he realized she wouldn´t be able to wear it during her work. He´s happy she seems to like it.

“I love it, thank you so much!”

Gikwang simply smiles and shakes his head, silently saying it wasn´t a big deal. He had a hard time to pick the gift since he really didn´t know what she liked. A silver necklace with a simple, but beautiful, pendant with the words “success comes to those who first lived hardships.” It´s his way of trying to cheer her up without being to nosy.  She can´t stop looking at it.

 “What time is it?” He asks.

“It´s soon midnight, I´ll turn one year older any time now.” She answers while looking at her wristwatch.

Gikwang gets up, takes her hand and pulls her with him suddenly. She´s too surprised to realize their holding hands until several moments later.  He leads her through the park silently, and she can´t help but be amazed of the beautiful night scenery around her.

“Sit down.”

She does as she´s told silently, warily, as she glances at him. The bench is a bit cold. Some seconds pass, and the sound of the clock far in the distance echoes through the silent and almost deserted park. The moment when she officially turns one year older is magical. The sound dies out slowly and Gikwang knows it´s time to act. He seems to hesitate a bit, regretting his decision on doing whatever he will do in a moment before he takes a deep breath and the silence is broken by a beautiful sound. He takes her hand in his for a second time as he looks her in the eye, his eyes are burning with a sudden confidence and sincerity.

“I like you the most, you’re the prettiest. Wherever you pass by, your charm overflows,
I like you the most, I only need you. Engrave it in your heart, you’re the most precious in the world.”

He feels how her hand trembles a bit in his but she doesn´t pull away. He knows his voice cracked a bit, showing his emotions, but he think he sang his best and hopes she understands the silent meaning behind the lyrics. She looks at him in silence for a long moment. It´s killing him. He wants an answer but he can´t bring himself to force her to reply right away. Gikwang is about to pull away when he feels how she squeezes his hand. Eyes widen a friction.

“Do you, do you really mean that?” She asks breathlessly.

“Yes.” He tells her honestly. He has nothing to lose now. “I don´t want to only see you at the restaurant. I want to be with you a lot more. I want to know you more, know your good and bad sides. I want to know all of you. This is sudden but do you want to try… going out with me?”

Gikwang´s eyes widen as she bolts up from the park bench and hugs him all of a sudden.

“This is the best birthday ever…” She murmurs into his neck.

He doesn´t know what to say, but she makes it easy for him by sealing his lips with hers. Gikwang´s eyes widen by surprise, but he closes them as he sighs into the kiss. Everything is so sudden but he likes it. She feels so warm, and so much alive against him as he hugs her body closer to his. He loves how her curvy body feels in his arms, and he wants to hold her forever and protect her from what threatens to erase her smile. No matter what it is. He breaks the kiss slowly as if he´s trying to print the feel of her lips into his mind.

“Happy Birthday.” He tells her.