‘I’m home!’

Jiyoonie arrived…

‘Hi!’ I greeted her with a kiss on her cheek.

‘Hey…’ she pouted. ‘I want a real kiss’

I chuckled. ‘You have to earn it first’

‘What?’ she complaint cutely. I laughed.

‘You know what day is today?’ I asked hiding the note behind me.

‘Huh?’ she gave it a thought. ‘Today?’

I nodded waiting for her to say she doesn’t know what day was today.

‘Is today supposed to be special or something?’ she asked with that smile of her that I know very well… Is the smile that let me know she knows what I’m talking about but she’s playing dumb.

I felt happy that she hasn’t forgotten in the end.

‘Yes, today is a special day…’ I said playing along.

‘What special day?’ she started cornering me against the kitchen table. I let her…

‘You have to guess…’

She grinned and got closer to my face… ‘Really? …Why don’t you tell me…?’

I shook my head. ‘You have to remember…’

‘Remember what?’

Her lips almost made contact with mines but I avoided her somehow.

‘Hey’

Her complain made me smile. I love our game…

‘You have to tell me what day is today and maybe I’ll think in kissing you’

She pouted like a little kid. I had to bite my lips to not kissing her right there…

‘Tell me’

She tried to steal me another kiss but I avoided it successfully. She furrowed her eyebrows.

‘Fine!’ she puffed her cheeks. ‘Today, a month ago, was our first kiss. Happy?’

I laughed. ‘Not completely but this will do for now’

‘What about my kiss?’

I smirked evilly. ‘Nope’

‘Why not?’ again that pout that melt me… I looked away.

‘Later…’ I moved her. ‘First, we have a dinner to eat’

‘Dinner?’

‘I made a reservation in “Il Pozzetto”. That Italian restaurant I told you the other day’

She smiled. ‘You made reservations?’

I chuckled. ‘Yeah, now let’s go change so we can go’

After we were ready, we went to the restaurant. We walked side by side slightly touching our hands when we get too close. I shivered every time. ‘I wish I can hold her hand now…’

My thoughts were turning me bitter when I felt her hand slowly sliding against mine and I felt her fingers entwining with my own. I turned to look at her panicking. She was serene, like she wasn’t doing anything.

A single quiet smile was her answer to my worries. She was sure of what she was doing. She knew I would be afraid to do these things in public but with her smile she was telling that everything would be ok…, that she would protect me…

I said “I love you” with my eyes. She nodded and returned her eyes to the waitress that was leading us to our table.

I looked around to see if there was someone staring, but there was no one. Everyone was in their own worlds. I almost sighed…

‘This is your table’ the young woman said when she arrived to an empty table with the note “Reserved” on the center of it. She removed the sign and invited us to sit. We thanked her and sat on the well-arranged chairs. We both opened the menu the woman gave us and started to choose our dinner.

When the woman left, I moved myself a bit on top of the table towards Jiyoonie.

‘Why did you do it?’ I whispered.

I knew she knew what I was talking about so I didn’t bother clarifying it.

‘I’ve wanted to do it for a long time… I thought it was perfect opportunity’

I remained silent for a couple of seconds before she moved her eyes from the menu to me.

‘Haven’t you wanted to do it too?’

‘Of course I did, but…’

‘Don’t worry, no one was looking anyway’ she smiled silently. ‘Not that anyone cares…’

‘What if they care?’ I whispered loud. She shrugged.

‘Well, then they’ll think we’re two very good friends that aren’t afraid to show it to the world’

I looked at her in disbelief. ‘People is already talking in Cube…’

‘So what?’ she frowned a bit. ‘Cube is our family; they won’t let anything scandalous go out the company’

I moved back to my seat and gave it a thought. ‘You know… We’ve never stopped being the trouble makers in Cube…’ I said almost giggling. Jiyoonie did.

‘We are the real troublemakers’

We both went silent and shared a little inside joke with our eyes. We smiled shyly to each other and returned to our menus.

The soiree went by smooth and cute. She talked to me about the first time she knew she had a crush on me. She said it was one day after practice. I supposedly bullied maknae for something she said, as usual, and when maknae started talking back, I giggled and put myself behind Jiyoonie like if I were hiding. She told me I back hugged her and that moment, she felt butterflies in her stomach. That was two years ago. I asked her why she never said anything but she told me she wasn’t sure at that time that I would like her back. I told her I fell for her the moment I met her. She giggled and told me I hid it very well for a long time. I nodded.

‘You have no idea how hard that was…’ I told her reminding the countless times I bit my lips and put my serious face to hide my emotions.

She said she felt hurt when I did that. She was convinced I hated her affections towards me. I said I never hated them, I told her I hated me for a long time. I tried to deny my feelings telling to myself that they were wrong and sick, but after a talk with Doojoon-oppa, I started accepting my feelings and I started accepting me from who I am. After that, I opened myself more and that’s when everything started to get evident.

She asked me if Beast-oppas know. I said no, only Doojoon-oppa knows. I asked him to keep it as secret. She said she’s sure they all know now. I agreed. We were glad they haven’t judge us or tell anyone else.

I a bit with Junhyung-oppa. I had to release a bit of that jealousy I had, even if it was joking. She laughed the whole time I talked about him. She said he wasn’t in love with her and that he was probably in love with me and that’s why he looks so sad lately. We teased each other with him until we got bored of the topic.

We talked many other things, about our first girl crushes, for example. She said she had always looked up to strong pretty woman in the music industry. I was the same. I guess that’s one of the countless things that bond us together. We have many things in common. We even have the same taste in men… Good thing neither of us is really into them…

In our way home I told Jiyoonie that NamG and maknaes were going to spend the night at Gina’s so we had the dorm for ourselves… Her eyes shined when I told her this. She even made a cute little dance in the middle of the street. I told her she was crazy, but the truth is I did that little dance in my head when I read the note on the fridge.

‘If we have the dorm for ourselves, that means we can do it in the kitchen?’

I almost choked with my own saliva when she asked this. I blushed so hard there was no way I could hide it this time. She laughed at my face.

‘YAH!’ I hit her arm but she just kept laughing.

‘That’s all I wanted to know’

She didn’t stop laughing the whole way home. I asked her many times to stop but she just didn’t listen. She laughed and laughed. She even said her ribs were hurting because of so much laughter.

‘My face couldn’t be that funny’ I said frowning a little.

She stopped her laugh to look at me and then started laughing again. ‘That’s because you didn’t see it!’

I have to admit that hearing her laugh made me laugh too. I knew I was laughing at myself but Jiyoonie’s laugh is so contagious…

 

--TBC--