[Zelo]

I watched with mild amusement as Zico kinda dragged Heena all over the place. He seemed to have a serious alpha male complex, but Heena put up with it pretty well. Probably used to these types of guys from Himchan, Jiyong, and Yongguk hyung…

“Hey, hey, heyyy, let’s play a game,” Park Kyung grinned, bringing half a dozen cans of Coke to our table. “One shot. Last one to finish needs to…” he looked around. He grinned at a hot girl sitting at a distant table, “Go hit on her.”

He passed the cans around to all the guys, but Zico declined his. “I’m taken dude,” he said, pointing to Heena. Heena and I exchanged amused looks.

She leaned in and whispered to me, “It’s cheating if you lose on purpose Zelo, to talk to that chick.”

“I would never,” I said, faking offense. I grinned as I popped open a can.

“Ready, set, go!”

The other five guys chugged down their drinks with an amusing intensity.

“Y’all look like ing idiots,” Zico muttered. While we drank, he slid his hand over and slowly intertwined his fingers into Heena’s.

“Jeez, you really like his whole skinship biz, don’t you?” Heena said, shaking Zico’s hand off. “Sorry, but I'm not as easy as your previous girls.”

There was a moment of silence before Taeil began coughing loudly. When he finally cleared his throat, he began to laugh. “Oh Zico, that stings, doesn’t it?”

Cokes forgotten, everyone started laughing.

“Aw, baby doesn’t like skinship?” Jaehyo asked, reaching forward to cup Heena’s face in his hands.

“Not really,” Heena said, swatting away his hands. “Especially not with strangers.”

“She hates holding hands with people,” I added. Unless it was Kai… I thought to myself. “Surprising that Haemi let you held her hand so much today.”

Zico leaned in towards Heena and said with a crooked smile, “I’ll change that soon.”

Zico stood up, “Lunch break’s over. C’mon, lets go look around.”

[Heena]

While we looked around the shops and such, Zico kept me at the back of the group with him, stubbornly holding onto my hand. It wasn’t like I hated holding hands… I just didn’t like that finger intertwining feeling. Felt a little too intimate.

“Let’s sneak away,” Zico whispered into my hair.

“What about your friends?”

“They’re big boys,” Zico rolled his eyes. “They can take care of themselves. C’mon, I want to enjoy an actual date.”

As Zico quietly pulled me away from the group, Zelo was the only one who noticed. I gave him the okay sign and he nodded.

“Where’re we going?” I asked Zico as we went from the men’s clothes floor to the women’s clothes floor.

“I’ve never seen you in casual clothes,” Zico said, pulling me to an expensive looking store. “So I guess today’s the day.”

“Mm…” Zico looked through the racks of clothes, easily picking out outfits and handing them to me until my arms were full and weighing me down.

“Go try these on,” Zico said, steering me to the dressing rooms. He sat down in one of the sofas at the entrance of the dressing rooms.

“All of these?” I frowned. There had to be at least a dozen…

“We’ve got time,” Zico said, leaning back. “Go.”

I sighed and stepped into the dressing room. I stripped off my uniform and put on the first outfit: destroyed skinny jeans, a gray button up, and a light blue sweater. A comfortable fall outfit.

“I like it,” Zico smiled when I stepped out. “Okay next one.”

This continued on for the next half hour or so, Zico giving the yes or no to each outfit. I thought he would get bored soon, but he surprisingly stayed interested during the whole time, seeming to judge each outfit with thought. I found myself liking his fashion sense more and as I tried on each outfit.

“Okay, give me all the ones I said I liked,” Zico said, holding out his hand as I stepped out in my uniform again. Questioningly, I handed him the stack of seven outfits. He headed over to the cash register with them in hand.

“Wait…!” I said, stopping him. “You’re just gonna… return these, right?”

Zico gave me a funny look, then laughed, “Haemi, I said I liked them, not disliked. I’m gonna go pay.”

I gave him my most sincere wtf look. “What? These aren’t even cheap clothes. I can't let you buy me all this stuff… no.”

“Oh c’mon,” Zico grinned, taking another step towards the front desk. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while.”

“Do what? Go into debt?” I asked.

Zico laughed, “I’ve always wanted to do this. Go shopping with my girlfriend, pick out clothes, and buy all the things that look pretty on her.”

“Do that with some other girl,” I said stubbornly. I wasn’t going to allow this guy to pay a few hundred dollars worth of clothes for me.

“Nah,” Zico said, turning for the cashier. “I don’t think I’ll be able to find another girl worth spending my money on.”

Unwillingly, I followed him to the cash register.

“Hello Mr. Woo,” the lady greeted him, scanning the clothes. My eyes got bigger and bigger as the total price got higher and higher. $130… $304… $565… $730.

Oh my ing god.

“Will this be all for today?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Zico said, pulling out a shiny, gold credit card. “Deliver this to my place, will ya? I want it home before I get home tomorrow after school.”

“Of course,” she said politely, ringing up the total.

“Ah okay, let’s go,” Zico grinned, putting an arm around my waist. “Next store.”

“No!” I exclaimed weakly. “… No more clothes… How about we go to a different floor?”

And that was how we ended up on the accessories floor.

“Haemi, give me your hand,” Zico said, taking my hand and slipping a thin, silver ring on my finger.

“I don’t wear rings,” I said quickly, taking it off and putting it on the counter. I fought to think of an excuse other than the truth, “It gets in the way when playing guitar.”

“Hm… then how about this?” Zico said, slipping the ring onto a silver chain. He stepped behind me and expertly fastened the necklace. Before I could even respond, he said, “I like it. Noona, how much is this?”

“That’s 20, but I could give you both that and the matching ring for 30,” she bargained, eyeing the close distance between us.

“Alright,” Zico easily agreed.

She handed a matching silver ring to Zico, “For the boyfriend.”

Zico paid and slipped the ring on.

“Do me a favor,” Zico said. “And keep that on for this week. Just while you’re my girlfriend.”

I sighed, “Alright.” I knew there was no point in arguing with him.

We rejoined with the rest of the group for dinner. Zelo stared at my new necklace with amusement.

“I see you’ve been spoiled by your boyfriend?” Zelo mused.

“I had no say in this,” I said, tucking the ring under my shirt.

Zelo tilted his head, “What happened to no rings?”

“I don’t know…” I said quietly.

“Heena, come over here,” Kai said, pulling me onto his lap. We were at his empty apartment, his parents gone as usual.

“What is it Kai?” I asked, spying something in his hand.

“Happy 100^th day,” he smiled softly, leaning in slowly until our lips met. I closed my eyes letting myself get drifted away by Kai’s gentle kiss. I felt Kai intertwine his fingers with mine and squeeze my hand. When I opened my eyes, a small ring was on my ring finger.

“What’s this?” I said happily, admiring the simple jewelry.

“Do you like it?” Kai asked worriedly. He held his hand out, an identical ring on his finger, “Couple rings.”

“Thank you,” I smiled, leaning forward to kiss him again.

“Wait, hold on,” Kai said, putting a finger to my lips. I felt my cheeks redden. Kai laughed. “You don’t want to hear what it means?”

“What?” I asked, resting my head on his chest. I could smell the cologne I had bought him.

“Have you heard of purity rings?” Kai asked, tucking my hair behind my ear.

“Mhm,” I said, tracing the pattern on Kai’s shirt.

“This ring is a promise that I’ll protect and respect you always,” Kai said. He leaned down and whispered into my hair, “Gotta protect the V, Heena.”

“Hey!” I nudged his stomach, laughing.

“Kidding~” Kai said playfully, his eyes full of laughter. “But not kidding.”

He frowned at his own words.

“You’re weird,” I said, leaning in closer to his face until our noses almost touched. “So are you gonna let me kiss you now or what?”

“Yeah, I was wondering when you were gonna get on that…” Kai grinned, closing his eyes, waiting.

“You’re weird,” I repeated. “But I love you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Kai said, not opening his eyes. “Just kiss me already.”