Thursday came sooner than expected. Ok, who am I kidding? Time passed by really slowly, giving me enough time to overthink everything. I ended up questioning why nodding means ‘yes’ and shaking your head means ‘no’. I mean, isn’t it weird that all around the world, people agree with that? Or maybe it comes included in your survival manual, just like the sound you make when you laugh, because that must be the reason why you laugh the way you do and you don’t express that something is funny by shaking your tongue or something like that. Anyways, overthinking is BAD.

It took me years to choose what to wear and usually I’m not complicated when it comes to clothes. I spend 30 minutes doing my hair and I even took some time to select the ideal ring to put on the ideal finger. I didn’t want him to think I was taking the date too seriously but I also didn’t want him to think I didn’t care. Because I really want this to work, he seems like a nice guy, but I wasn’t necessary looking for a relationship. Being friends is cool, I love being friends with people. And there I was friendzoning myself again. But sometimes people are just meant to be friends and not lovers. It’s a matter of chemistry, believe it or not. Maybe friends can become lovers, but things get harder when it’s the other way around. I believe in friendship between a boy and a girl, and between a heteroual boy and a gay boy and between a… OVER THINKING AGAIN.

At 2:02pm I arrived at the coffee shop and I ended up wearing THIS. I like it because it says “I’m girly and a free soul so I’m wearing a dress, but hey I’m not THAT girly because I am actually wearing converse”, and the grey ‘jacket’ says “I’m an independent woman, if I get cold I don’t need your hoodie” and the fabric gives the feeling that I’m ‘suave’. Please don’t judge me; I tried my best, ok?

When I got there Chanyeol had already arrived. He was wearing simple clothes that looked perfect on him, just as anything he would wear I guess. He gave me a little smile.

“Hi, sorry if I am late” I said as soon as I reached his side. “Oh, I just got here.” He’s smile grew bigger. I promised myself before leaving the house that I was going to avoid awkward silence as much as I could so I quickly asked him what he wanted to do. He didn’t have anything in mind so we agreed to have a drink there and we would figure out the rest later.

We barely managed to tell each other the basic about ourselves like our last name and what we did with our lives when a few girls started to constantly look at us from the table next to where we were. When one of them took out her mobile phone to take a picture, we knew it was time to leave. Chanyeol gave me an apologetic look and I smiled at him. I didn’t know he was that popular since, well, Seoul was full of famous people. But anyhow, those kind of things must happen a lot to him, it was not his fault, though. And it wasn’t a big deal either.

“Come on, let’s go for a walk” I said and he followed me out. As soon as we closed the door behind us Chanyeol started talking non stop.

“I’m really sorry, really really sorry… I didn’t know they were going to recognize me and ugh… I don’t know what to say to you. This maybe will keep happening and I’m so sorry…” he pouted a little bit and my heart skipped, he is so cute!

“Chanyeol, Chanyeol, calm down. It’s not a problem. I mean, it’s weird but it’s ok.” He stood in front of me with a sad smile looking at the floor. I sighed. Something had to be done about it or we wouldn’t be able to have fun that afternoon.

So, I grabbed his wrist and led him down the street.

“Wha-what are you doing?” He caught up with me and I let go of my grip. I looked at him smiling; he was very confused about the situation but went along with me.

“Well, since you won’t stop being famous we should make it harder for others to recognize you.” He gave me a puzzled look and tilted his head to one side. I let out a little laugh. “For now put this on.” I said and took out a scarf from my bag. He made an ‘o’ with his mouth and then smile so widely that his eye twitched.

“This is going to me fun” He said.

We walked aimlessly for a few minutes until he made me turn around a corner and walked up a tiny street. He looked at me and smiled reassuringly. “I’ve come here a few times with Chen. He showed me a really nice place full of costumes and toys. You’ll see, it’s awesome.”

When we were in front of the place Chanyeol was talking about I couldn’t help it but let my jaw fall. ‘Awesome’ wouldn’t be the world to describe it. That place was HUGE and looked like freaking Disneyland. My face must have looked really stupid because Chanyeol asked me if I liked it without being able to hold a laugh.

“Are you kidding me? WOAH. But wait, wait. People in there…”

“Are kids, so they won’t know who I am. Now come on!” He ran inside and I followed him more excited than what I should have been considering that I was 18.

I entered and saw Chanyeol running down a corridor. I ran after him when he suddenly turned to the right. I turn to the right, too, but to my surprise he wasn’t there. , this guy is fast. I slowed my pace looking left and right. “Chanyeol. Yah! Chan-” A pair of arms grabbed me by the waist and lifted me throwing me into a pill of fluffy stuffs. “AHHHH What the…” And there he was, laughing hysterically for no reason. We were both lying on a huge amount of plush rabbits and bears. Somehow, after a few second I found myself laughing, too. 

I threw a pink bunny at him. “Yah, you scared me!” I threw another one “Stop laughing!” And another one “Dude, stop laughing!” But he kept clapping like a retarded seal. A little girl stood next to us. She remained there for a couple of minutes staring at Chanyeol in his hysterical state.

Her mother came right after her and took her by the hand “Come on, sweetheart. Some kids are born with mental diseases, nothing to worry about…” And they left. Chanyeol stopped laughing and opened his eyes at maximum, blinking excessively.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” Now was my turn to laugh my guts out. Who cares if I looked like a dying hyena, Chanyeol was the derpest person I’ve ever met and the best part was that he didn’t care about it. And now was also my turn to be hit by numerous plush animals. “Stop it! Yah, Abi! Stop laughing! I’m pretty sure I’m older than you, you should respect me, especially when you talk, little brat” I finally managed to calm myself down and look at him after wiping a few tears from my eyes.

“Well, you’ll never know if I’m younger or not.” I quickly got up and ran like the devil was after me. A few second later I felt Chanyeol chasing me behind.

I was crossing a hall full of toy guns so I stopped and grabbed the first one I could. I turned around and shot Chanyeol right in the chest with a little red ball that came out. He opened his mouth and touched his chest dramatically. He then proceeded to take another gun from the shelf next to him and pointed at me. I narrowed my eyes defiantly “You wouldn’t dare…”

He gave me a half smile and added “Watch me.” He moved the finger that was touching the trigger and I gulped. And then, numerous bubbles started filling the space between us. Chanyeol glares at them startled.

I couldn’t contain my laughter. A moment later I saw him shake his head from the corner of my eye and join me laughing with a deep and loud voice.

10 minutes later we were walking around the store playing randomly with the different toys. I didn’t remember the last time I was in a place like that, or the last time I’ve laughed so much in my life. I guess during dates you’re more giggly than usual and adding Chanyeol things can just get funnier.

He wasn’t necessarily the entertainer type of person that acts clumsy to make you laugh. He actually didn’t do anything particularly comical, but once something was amusing to him you couldn’t do anything else but laugh with him. And let’s say that he paid attention to little things others wouldn’t appreciate being blinded by more ‘solemn’ matters. Being impressed by how little the collection figures were, laughing his off when he clapped and the Donald Duck robot started dancing moving his hips to one side and the other, shaking the hand of a real size Goofy and then smiling so widely half of his face were teeth, Chanyeol was so precious…

“Hey, try this fake nose on” I told him handing a plastic nose bigger than what is naturally human in his direction.

“Hahaha, YOU try it first” He said pushing my hand.

“Are you… are you rejecting my present?” I pouted pretending I was sad.

“Well, then put on this unibrow!” He quickly stuck the hairy thing over my eyebrows, took the nose from my hands and put it on. We took a glimpse at each other’s face and cracked down.

That’s how we spend more that half and hour.

“Trust me, this mustache will highlight your slim face, Abi”

“But I’m a girl, Chanyeol” Never mind, I was already looking like Mexican cowboy.

“HAHAHAHAHA I told you that rasta wig was totally your style…” Chanyeol put a dreadlock behind his ear and made a duck face pretending to be y, and failing.

Vampire fangs, prison uniform, fake pink eye lashes, elf ears… we tried on everything.

“Take out the elf ears, Chanyeol. That would only bring more attention to you on the streets…” I said while we were walking towards the cashier.

“I already did.”  .  .  . 

“Oh…” awkward.

“So, you’re taking the sunglasses and the extra chin?” He broke the silence.

“I still don’t understand why I have to disguise myself. It’s not like anybody cares about who I am, anyways…”

“Well, in that case it doesn’t matter if you’re wearing a unibrow, too” He winked at me.

“Shut up, I’m not putting that on my face.” I hit him slightly on the arm.

We paid for our stuffs and got out of the store. I was going to take out the fake chin from the plastic bag when Chanyeol’s voice stopped me. “Ugh, it’s already 5:50. I have to go. I’m really sorry, I didn’t know we spent so much time in there” He looked down and let out a sigh.

“Oh, don’t worry. Ummm… it was fun.” What was I supposed to say? Nobody ever trained me for this kind of situations.

“Yeah… I’ll… text you.” Was he nervous? Or maybe he just didn’t know how to tell me he was uninterested. He was looking at me with a tiny smile and expressionless eyes. He was waiting for me to say or do something and I think I let too much time pass before reacting because he started to look around a little uncomfortable.

I lifted my arm and patted his shoulder. “Bye.” I muttered. “Bye!” He smiled showing his teeth, turned around and left.

A pat on the shoulder? Someone shoot me. The queen of awkwardness is back.