It was Young Bae’s room.  He was lying flat on his bed.  Not listening to music, not reading, not watching TV.  He wasn’t doing anything.  I knocked lightly on the glass.  He sat upright and looked around, confused.  I finally caught his eyes and he rushed forward to the window.  He stuck his head out.

            “Seung Hyun hyung’s window is one over,” he told me.  I rubbed my hand on his Mohawk, trying to mess it up.  He swatted at my hand with both of his.

            “I’m not here to see him.”

            “No?”  I nodded.

            “You know, your roses fixed things between us,” I told him.  His face fell ever so slightly.  “They ended them and showed me how stupid I was being.”

            His eyes looked back up from the street below and back to me.  “You’re not stupid.”

            “Not anymore.”  I in a breath.  “I’d like to hang out with you sometime.  I know you’re busy with your schedule and everything, but maybe sometime-”

            “I can make time for you.  During the day, let’s go out.”

            I couldn’t stop my eyes from lighting up.  “Can we go shopping or something?”

            He laughed.  “We can do whatever you want.”

            “Next weekend?  Are you really busy?”

            “Next weekend.  I’ll pick you up at your house,” he said.  “Saturday.  Two o’ clock?”

            I nodded.  “Ok, see you then.”

            The week couldn’t have dragged out any slower without dipping into the Twilight Zone and going backwards.  I had to practically threaten Bea’s life to keep her from coming to my house to approve of everything I was going to wear and then follow Young Bae and me on our date to make sure I didn’t do or say anything stupid.

            I was dressed and ready to go at noon.  Yes, it was official, I’d turned into a girl that gets all jumpy when it came to a guy.  I sat on my bed, staring at my phone, willing it to ring.  After praying to every god and goddess of dating in every culture I could think of and it still didn’t ring, I gave up and flopped over on my bed, hiding under my pillow.

            The doorbell rang.  I popped upright.  “Who’s coming here?”  Stumbling off the bed, I flung myself down the stairs and through the kitchen and living room to the front door.  Mrs. Kim had already opened the door and was talking to the person on the front step.

            “Amara?  Yes, she’s home.  You must be Young Bae.  Come in, she’s upstairs getting ready,” I heard her tell the person.

            I came to a sliding stop right behind Mrs. Kim.  “I’m here, Mrs. Kim,” I said trying not to sound out of breath.  Young Bae stepped through the door.  He was wearing a fitted tee shirt and baggy dark denim jeans.  In one hand were his hat and sunglasses and in the other, red roses.  Red?  With a smile, he handed them to me.

            “They’re…I, thank you,” I stammered.  What a fool, I scolded mentally.

            “How kind,” Mrs. Kim cut in thankfully.  “Amara, let me put them in some water for you, alright?”

            I just nodded and let her take them from me.  She bustled into the kitchen.

            “You look nice,” Young Bae told me.  I laughed uncomfortably and looked down at my clothes.  He made a tee shirt and jeans look much better than I could ever.

            “I’ve never been on a date before,” I admitted quietly.  He laughed, but when I couldn’t, his face grew serious.

            “Wait, seriously?” he asked.

            “Yes, seriously.  What’s that look for?” I laughed.

            “I just, I don’t know, figured you dated a lot.”

            “Misconception,” I replied.  Seung Hyun had never once taken me out like this.

            “Are your parents home?” he asked, looking around a little.

            “No,” I told him.  “They usually work on Saturdays.  Why?”

            He shrugged and looked down at his feet.  “I thought, if you told them about me, they’d want to meet me before I took you out.”

            “Oh,” I exhaled.  “That’s sweet.”

            “Well, you should run along if you’re going to go,” Mrs. Kim said emerging from the kitchen.

            “She’s the next best thing,” I whispered to Young Bae.  “Young Bae, this is Mrs. Kim.  She works for us, but she’s my favorite.”

            “Oh, Amara,” she laughed with a wave of her hand.  She shoved me forward a little, making it look like a pat on the back.  “It was nice to meet you, Young Bae.  Have a nice time.”

            Young Bae bowed and thanked her before he held the door open for me.  Once outside, he slipped the sunglasses and his hat on.  Adjusting his cap low on his face, he bent his arm holding his elbow out to me.  I linked my arm through his and all but skipped next to him.

            I was a little worried that someone would catch him and all sorts of crazy rumors and scandals would result from some misunderstanding, but as we walked along and went in and out of the subway, no one even looked twice at us.  Except for the few people who gawked at the white girl and the Korean guy, but I was used to that kind of attention.  I barely noticed it next to Young Bae.

            We went to lunch and then the movies.  Young Bae was really fun to be around.  He talked and joked and I smiled so much, my face hurt.  It was nice to be out with him.  At the movies, he held my hand.  I almost flinched when he oh-so casually grabbed it off the arm rest.  Seung Hyun had never taken my hand before.  It was a nice feeling, I realized.  Not being d.

           It was long after dark by the time we left the movie theater.  Walking from the theater, we passed a park.  Not much grass, in fact, it was cement with a few oddly planted tall trees.  A park in the true Korean sense of the word.  Seeing it was empty, we cut through it.

            He picked up his pace and stepped in front of me, holding my arm up by my hand.  He spun me against him and then dipped me.  He danced in a circle around me and began to softly sing a song I didn’t know.  He led our impromptu dance all the way through the park.

            We ended up walking the entire way back to my house.  After being let in by the security guards, he walked me to the front door.  “Did you have a good time?” he asked as he leaned against the railing that led up the stairs to my front door.  Hidden in the shadows of the night, in the corner where the moonlight could barely reach us, I hugged him tight.

            “Yeah, I had a great time, thank you,” I told him with my chin on his shoulder.  I made a mental decision not to move until he pulled away.  It didn’t occur to me what to do if he didn’t pull away.  When Young Bae smoothed his hand down my back, I was sure he was going to start getting handsy.  Tugging on my clothes and corner me against the door.  No.  Young Bae was nothing like Seung Hyun.

            Finally, he pulled away.  “I should go,” he murmured, his forehead against mine.

            “Ok,” I said.

            “I’ll call you.  We can hang out again if you want.”

            “Yeah, I’d like that.”

            He didn’t move.  I kept my eyes on our sneakers to keep from losing my mind and tilting my face up to meet his lips with mine.

            “Young Bae, are you going to kiss me?” I finally asked, still looking at the ground.

            “Do you want me to?”

            “Yup.”  Nothing.  He still did nothing.  His forehead stayed on mine and my eyes stayed on our shoes.  He cleared his throat lightly.

            “I’m waiting for you to look at me,” he told me in barely a whisper.

            My eyes bounced up to meet his.  He smiled and lowered his mouth onto mine.  Drawn like a magnet to his body, I bent my arms around his neck and pulled closer.  After not nearly long enough, he pulled away.  He dropped another kiss to my forehead and took a step back.  He looked flushed.  Probably as much as I did.

            “Goodnight,” he said taking another step backward.

            “Night.”  I turned and hurried into the house.

           Closing the front door and locking it, I leaned against it and touched a finger to my bottom lip.  I could feel his lips there.  The house was dark.  I knew the route to my room like the back of my hand.  I could do it in the dark with my eyes closed.  I took the steps two at a time to get to my room faster.  I was so content at that very moment, I probably could have floated up them.  I still didn’t need any lights when I entered my room and began to undress.

            That was when I saw the dark figure on my bed.  With a gasp, I flicked on the light.

            “Seung Hyun!” I whispered harshly.  Clutching my tee shirt to my chest, I ran into the closet.  Peeking around the door, I glared at him.  “What are you doing here?”

            “Sorry,” he apologized, not moving from his spot in the middle of my bed.  He then smirked, looking at me with heavy eyelids.  “Why are you being shy now?  It’s not like I haven’t seen every inch of your body.”

            My grip on the door tightened until my knuckles hurt.  “It’s not yours to look at anymore.”

            His words were slow and almost garbled, I noticed.  I studied his face and rolled my eyes when it finally hit me.  He was drunk.  Really drunk.

            “Right…how was your date with my band mate?” he asked casually as he stared down at his hands in his lap.  He was blinking so slowly, at one point, I thought he’d fallen asleep sitting up.  Until he blinked rapidly and straightened his spine.  His eyes focused on me.

            “Seung Hyun, what’s going on?  I thought we talked about this.  You were cool with how we ended it,” I reminded him.  I hadn’t spoken to him since we talked last weekend.  He was fine.  I thought we ended things well, but now he was here.  In my bedroom.  His eyes were dark and clouded.

            “I was.  I mean, I thought I was, but Amara, it’s different now that I’ve had time away from you.  I thought about what you said and you were right.  Everything you said was right about me.  I was a jerk.  I’m sorry.”  He pushed himself off the bed and, stumbling once over his own feet, he headed for the closet.  I backed up, taking the door with me until it shut in his face.

            “No, Seung Hyun, you can’t do this,” I told him from inside the closet.  “You never cared about me.  It’s over.  There’s someone for you, but it’s not me, remember?”

            Silence.  I leaned closer to the door, thinking he’d left or maybe passed out, when a loud bang sounded from his fist slamming against the wooden door.  He hit it so hard, it vibrated and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

            “I don’t want someone else,” he growled from the other side of the door.  “Young Bae is the one who needs to find someone else.  I’ve already had you.  You’re mine.”