I walked in a few minutes early and sat down to wait. The waitress came around and I ordered some water. Yongguk soon appeared by the table and took the seat across from me. I looked up in surprise. My back had been towards the door, so I hadn’t noticed when he entered. He looked at me and smiled.

“Hey,” It was that cute shy smile this time, rather than his confident smirk or contaigious gummy smile that I often thought of. But this smile managed to make my stomach flip just as much as the others.

“Hey,” I finally managed as I smiled back.

We began to talk slowly, beginning to overcome our awkwardness as we warmed up to each other again. We talked about all kinds of things. I was in school studying most of the time. He was also in school and spent most of his free time writing songs, music, and performing with Soul Connection in the music underground of Seoul. It even turned out that we went to the same school, although neither of us claimed to have ever seen the other around. We accounted that to the fact that we spent all of our time in different parts of the school. He was a music major, always in the music building, far from where I spent most of my time on campus.

He told me all about his bandmates. They were all like family. It was really nice for me to see him talking about his friends like this. It was obvious they were really close by the way he talked about them; so kindly and fondly. But he also held some complaints. He was the youngest, which I found extremely hard to believe, and so he was often teased more than the others. But, that was often the price you had to pay when fulfilling the role of adorable maknae. I told him this, with a totally straight face, curious to see what his reaction to such a ridiculous comment might be. He stared at me for a moment, clearly trying to see if I was serious. I tilted my head to the side and raised an eyebrow. That’s when he let it out. He exploded into laughter; his deep pitched guffaws echoing around the room. My lips pulled to the side in a small smirk at his reaction. He continued laughing hard for awhile. He finally slowed to a stop, wiping his eyes in the process.

“Oh, that was good. I didn’t know you had it in you. Ha! Me? The adorable maknae?” He let out a few more good natured chuckles as he shook his head. I continued to smirk at him.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” I said non-plussed. He grinned his big gummy smile, eyes scrunching up in that totally adorable way I loved.

Our food came, we ate, and then far too soon it was soon time for me to go.

“I’m sorry. But, I really have to go now.” I really did hate to leave. I could have sworn I saw him pout slightly when I announced my need to leave. But it was only for a split second, and then his face switched back to its normal, passive, calm look. He nodded slightly, as if saying he understood. I began gathering my things together.

“Wait,” He said, reaching across out, as if to grab me before I stood up. I looked up,

“Hmm?” I asked.

“Uhh… I-Uhh…” He stared at me, a blank expression on his face as he tried to put his words together. I smiled slightly at him. “Oh! Yeah! Uhh, I wanted to tell you… We’re playing again tomarrow night… And I wanted to ask if you’d come?” I blinked back, surprised.

“Uhh…” I said as my mind processed what he said.

“Uhm, I mean, you don’t have to… I just know that you said you enjoyed it and…” He trailed off and I came back to my senses.

“Huh?! Oh! No! I’d love to come! I’m sorry, I was just thinking. But I’ll come. Definatly. I’ll just have to finish this paper tonight and…” I began trailing off as I thought of my homework waiting for me at home.

“Oh!?” He smiled happily, “Well, okay! Thanks! I’m glad you want to come!” It was cute how excited he had become. I know he likes to try and act all calm and cool on the outside, but I know that cute, adorable maknae is in there somewhere.

I stood up and grabbed my wallet as I began to try and pay for my share. He began standing too. He looked over at me pulling out my wallet.

“No, don’t. I’ll get it.” He smiled as he pulled out his own wallet and laid the cash down.

“What?! No! I can pay!” He laughed.

“No, it’s my treat. I’m the one that asked you to meet anyways.” I pouted, but let it go.

“Fine.” He chuckled, entertained by me.

“Come on, I’ll walk out with you.” We left the table and walked out the doors. “Which one’s yours?” He asked, pointing to the cars in the parking lot. I pointed to his left,

“There,” I began walking and he followed along. I stopped at the driver’s seat door and turned around to face him. “Well… thanks… for today… I’m glad to see you again.” He smiled,

“Of course.” He smiled once more and with that he turned and walked away, back to a car a few spots away. He looked over and waved quickly, before ducking into his car and driving away.

I slumped down into my seat and sighed,

“How did this happen…?” I asked myself outloud as I placed a hand over my racing heart.