[Jiyong]

        “Aren’t you a little too big for this kind of thing, Jiyong?” Dara rolled her eyes at me, smirking condescendingly. I’m not gonna deny, I was a little taken aback.

        “But…but girls love these sorts of places!” Ouch, that sounded like whining. But they do! According to my personal experience and all those dramas I watch in order to learn new romantic tricks…Anyways, the point was, GIRLS WERE SUPPOSED TO BE IN LOVE WITH THIS PLACE! And last time I checked, Dara was definitely a girl.

        “What-EVER.” She shrugged. “Keep on making excuses. In our hearts, we both know that you’re secretly a little girl at heart who loves sewing and lace and romance.” With that said, she flounced away, leaving me no choice but to follow her.

        I had this all planned out, using my first golden coupon to take her on a date (OK, except the fact that she doesn’t even think it’s a date, she probably think it’s just me making her tag along to whatever places I want to go to, but HELLO, which straight guy would pick a ZOO on a SATURDAY?), but who knew it would turn out like this? She thinks it’s immature!

        “So which animals do you want to see, JIYONGIE?” She emphasized my pet name dryly. I sighed in exasperation. Why can’t she just go along with my original plan? The whole point of coming to a zoo is to have the girl squealing over every animal, pulling the boy with her in every direction, thus leading to natural skinship such as holding hands. THEN as the girl complain about how much her feet hurts from walking around the huge zoo, the guy would act like the perfect gentleman and give her a fantastic foot massage, which would lead to-

        Doesn’t she watch any Korean romance dramas? Aish this girl…

        “Whatever…let’s go look at the…hippos,” I suggested lamely. I wanted to slap myself. Really, Kwon Jiyong, with your experience as a Casanova, the best thing you came up with HIPPOS? Well, some girls think baby hippos are as cute as anything, so why not? I perked up at that thought immediately. Then my plan may still be in-

        “Ew!” Dara looked at me in utter disgust. “Did you know that hippos are responsible for more deaths in Africa than any other animal?”

        Or…not.

        “Fine, let’s still go, since you love hippos so much.” She shrugged, and I gawked at her as she headed towards where the hippos were. I’m trying to rack my brains for ways to turn this date into something more romantic. Somehow, my father’s words keep on appearing in my head: WOMEN APPRECIATE A LITTLE ROMANCE.

Why so serious, get your crayon-

        Oh, speaking of my father…

        I picked up the phone, my eyes not leaving Dara, who was peering over the fence carefully as if she’s afraid that the hippos are going to jump on her once they see her. “Father?”

        “How’s the zoo, son? Never knew you were into hippos, though.”

        “I…wait, what?” How did he know I was at the zoo? I frowned as I quickly scanned the area. No bodyguards following us. “How did you know I’m here?”

        “Oh, come on, son. What’s the point of having all this money lying around when you can’t use it to enjoy your son’s date by watching all the lovely angles from the surveillance cameras?”

        I groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

        Dara turned around, puzzled at my outburst. Forcing a smile to assure her that, yes, I’m alive and sane, I turned around to calm myself before assuming my conversation with my father who is probably watching me from his office while smoking his favorite kind of cigar. He probably looked like a mad Mafia mobster, in his dark, Victorian-styled office while staring at the computer screen. But the only wrong with that picture is that, HE’S WATCHING ME GOING ON A DATE WITH SANDARA PARK!

        “Show her the real Kwon charisma,” my father continued, unaffected my by outburst. “That would definitely make her head over heels for you.”

        “Father,” I tried to remain as polite as possible, “why are you supervising our date when you have so many important matters to do?”

        “THIS is an important matter. In fact, this matters more than anything else.” I didn’t miss the underlining meaning of his words, which made my heart sank. The previous giddiness of being on a date with Dara washed away. “I’m counting on you, son. Don’t let me down.”

        Don’t let me down.

[Dara]

        I don’t get Kwon Jiyong at all. Isn’t this his idea in the first place to use his first golden coupon to go to the zoo? I’ve always been afraid of large animals, such as elephants, tigers, and HIPPOS. As reluctant as I was, I still came, thinking it was way better than strutting around in a bunny suit. Now, the devil is acting so quiet and distant it was getting on my nerves. He’s been like that after the phone call, all the previous playfulness wiped away immediately. We’ve visited the koalas, tigers, giraffes, elephants…and I had been talking on and on about random things, and he was still wrapped up in his own world.

       “YAH! Why aren’t you talking?” I snapped. Don’t tell me he made me come here just to ignore me! This must be a higher-level Kwon Jiyong prank.

        He shrugged lightly. “Nothing. Where do you want to go next?”

        “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you, since you’re the one with the golden coupon?” I asked sarcastically. “Oh, great, master Jiyong.”

        “I like the sound of that, but easy on the sarcasm, would you?”

        “You’ve been ignoring me for the past few minutes, and now you’re finally awake because of this great title?” I clasped my hands over my heart mockingly. “Wow, this must be some magical spell! Like abracadabra, or bibbidi bobbidi boo!”

        “Bibbi-WHAT?” Jiyong looked at me in confusion.

        Oh gosh, doesn’t this guy watch Disney movies? “Bibbidi bobbidi boo! You know, from Cinderella?”

        “Bibbity…what?” He can’t be serious.

        “It’s Bibbidi bobbidi boo, not TEE.”

        “Bibbity body…”

        I