“Got it. Talk to you later, man. And happy birthday.”

Jiyong ended our call, and I couldn’t be happier. It was my birthday, and I was going to spend the night with Hani, just the two of us.

Promptly at eight, I arrived at their apartment. Hani was already waiting for me, and she looked lovely as ever. I couldn’t hide my smile as she entered my car, and she smelled like vanilla, sweet and pure.

“Hey,” I said, “Would you be okay spending time with me without Jiyong tonight?”

She just nodded.

I already knew she would answer like that. She was being polite, and I hated it. I hated the fact that she was playing courtesy with me, because that would only mean she was not that comfortable around me to let herself go as she would around Jiyong.

But I was happy enough to let the bad feelings went away. I had Hani for myself tonight.

“I hope this won’t be too awkward for us.” She was smiling at me and I almost lost my focus on the road. She stunned me too much.

“Hani, do you feel awkward when you’re with me?”

“Oh, no, it’s not like that Seunghyun.” The sight of her panicking was breathtakingly cute. “I’m sorry if I make you feel that way, but you should know that I do feel at ease around you. You are a doll, Seunghyun.”

“What? A doll? Way to crush a man’s ego, Hani.” She guiltily looked at me, but she knew I was just messing with her. We burst out laughing, the mood instantly lifted up and stayed like that throughout the night.

Hani gave me a tie. I could tell that it was carefully chosen, that she had spent her time browsing through hundreds of ties just to pick the one that suited me the best. The idea that she tried so hard to please me made my heart flutter. I was going to treasure the tie like nothing else in this world.

We had pleasant conversations and we finished our dinner earlier than I thought. I tried to avoid from mentioning Jiyong in our talk as possible as I could. I wanted the night to be all about me, and Hani.

“It’s still early, would you like to go to my house and grab some beer? We could call Jiyong, he could fetch you on his way home.” I refused to let her go just yet.

“Sure. A beer sounds great.”

We grabbed our coats, and we headed to my house. Oblivious to Hani, I actually had no intention on calling Jiyong.