I woke up the next morning in the best mood all because I was going to see Henry. I truly didn’t know why I had liked him so much, it made me feel extremely weird and clingy that I felt so strongly about I guy that I had just met. I got up and headed to the bathroom only to scream when I looked in the mirror. Saying I looked terrible was an understatement. My hair was all frizzed up, my eyes looked swollen for some reason, and to top it all off, I had a huge zit on my forehead. I never had acne. Why on the day when I was about to go out with the most attractive guy did I have a zit on my forehead. I felt like I had committed a crime against humanity, and karma was getting me back for it. I checked the time. It was 10am, so I still had a lot of time to get ready. I took a thirty minute shower, and went to my room to straighten my hair. By the time I was done it was noon. I scrambled to my closet and threw out almost everything. I had absolutely nothing to wear. I continued to search, and I finally settled on knee length floral dress. It was a little chilly outside so I decided to put on a white cardigan. Now all I had to do was get rid of that nasty zit. I didn’t like wearing make-up so the only thing I decided to do was put on cover up, and a little bit of eyeliner. The cover up got rid of the zit, and the eyeliner made my hazel eyes stand out. I slipped on a bar of solid white vans waited for it to reach 1:00.

When the clock finally did strike one, I walked outside my house, and made the fifteen minute walk to Starbucks. When I got there, I scanned the place and Henry still wasn’t there so I decided t grab a hot chocolate and wait. I sat at a table next to the back of the store, and waited. Maybe five minutes later, the door opened and in walked an amazingly good-looking dare I say y Henry. He was wearing black jeans with an open red checkered shirt on top a solid white t-shirt, and all black high tops. His golden-brown hair was ruffled up to wear it looked like he just got out of bed, but it wasn’t messy, it was cute. He looked incredible. Henry scanned the place to see the place and before he could spot me I closed my mouth before I started drooling over him. When he finally did see me his brown eyes lit up, and me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. “This boy should not be having this kind effect on me,” I thought. He walked up to me,

“Hey Kelsey, you look pretty!”

I’m pretty sure I blushed. I think I blushed more in the time I’ve known him more than all the times I have blushed in my entire life. “Thanks Henry, you look great too.”

“So,” he said, “Wanna get started showing me around? I want to see everything.”

“Yup, let’s go.”

We got up, and I decided to take him to see Jefferson square. It was where most of the shopping and restaurants were in town. While we were walking he had his hands in his pockets, while I clung desperately to my cardigan. He couldn’t possibly be as nervous as I am.

I was grateful when we finally arrived at Jefferson square.

“So. This is Jefferson square, and I’ll be your tour guide this afternoon.” He smiled which made me feel a little less nervous. “Now ladies and gentleman, or I guess just you Henry. You have probably noticed that our little town of Melbrook is a pretty boring place, but don’t worry there are some upsides to this place. On your left we have Ronnie’s Italian Cuisine, which for some reason serves Sushi and Burgers, but that place is pretty good. Across the street, there is a little arcade thi-“

“Can we go there now?” Henry said “Please?!” He gave me a little puppy dog look which was so adorable it could have brought a grown women to tears. But luckily for me I recollected myself and said,

“Yeah, sure. I guess if we’re gonna be friends you should start losing at games now, instead of getting your hopes up about winning.” I smirked at him and he looked astonished.

“ONE MORE TIME!!!” He was relentless.

“Henry, this has been the sixteenth time. I beat you sixteen times Henry. Is that not enough?” I wanted to sound serious but one look at his face made me burst out in laughter.

“Whatever, this is a girl’s game anyway.” A girl’s game?

“You’re the one who suggested we play it.” We had been playing table hockey for the past hour, and I had beaten him all sixteen times we had played. He was the one that said he wanted to play it, but what could I say my skills were pretty awesome.

“Fine, whatever. I’ll admit you are pretty good, but next time I’ll beat you. By the way I’m kind of hungry, is there a good place around here where we can eat?” He didn’t have to ask twice. I was starving and I hadn’t eaten all day.

“Yeah, sure what are you in the mood for?” I asked him? I sarcastically hoped he wasn’t in the mood for French food because I wasn’t sure if there was any of that around here.

“Anything really.”

“Okay then let’s go to Ronnie’s” I led the way out of the arcade and across the empty street. For a Saturday afternoon Jefferson Square was unusually empty. It felt like we were in an old western ghost town.

When I opened the door to Ronnie’s the smell of Italian food hit, and I then felt how hungry I actually was. The place wasn’t big, but it wasn’t small either. It had somewhat of a cozy feeling to it; the walls were painted with different tourist spots in Italy. Lights hung above every table, but Henry must have wanted a booth because he walked right past me and sat in one on the left side of the restaurant. I followed behind him and slid onto the cool green vinyl seat. A middle aged waitress by the name of Ashley came and handed us our menus. She was a good friend of my mom’s and they hung out together often.

“Hey Kelsey,” she said, “haven’t seen you in a while. Is this your boyfriend?” She gave Henry a suggestive wink which got a chuckle out of him, and a horribly noticeable blush out of me.

“No Ashley he’s not my boyfriend, his name is Henry Lau. He’s new to town, and asked me if I could show him around.”

She looked at Henry before smiling like she knew something I didn’t. “Ahh, so you used the old, ‘Hey, I’m new to town, could you show me around trick, huh? Not bad, not bad.” Henry looked at her with wide eyes, and then looked down embarrassedly and blushed. Did he actually do that? No, no way he felt the same way about me as I did about him, at least not this soon. Right?

To save him from further embarrassment I spoke up and asked Ashley to give us a few minutes to order. I gave the menu a once over knowing that I was going to order the same thing I always ordered when I came her. Cheese ravioli. I usually didn’t like it at other places but here it was delicious. Henry on the other hand looked like extremely confused and dumbfounded by the extensive menu.

“Do you need help ordering?” I asked him. He looked up at me and nodded.

“Well um, the thing is that the only thing I’ve ever ordered from here is the cheese ravioli. It’s really good if you wanna try it.”

He smiled at me and said. “Sure, anything’s fine with me, but that menu is seriously big. By the way, why is this place so empty?”

I looked around and noticed for the first time that the place really was empty with the exception of a few middle-aged couples and their kids. This place was usually packed, but I probably hadn’t noticed before because I was so focused on him. His smile was contagious, and every time he did smile, it was like something would light up in the back of his eyes making them brighter.

I looked back at him and answered, “I don’t know actually. This place is usually pretty packed.”

Ashley came back after that and asked if we were ready to order. I ordered for the both of us and we waited for the food to arrive. While we waited we made small talk about the décor but I could tell that Henry wanted to talk to me about something, but he never did bring it up. When the food finally did arrive I was starving. Me and Henry were so fixated on our food, well at least I was that I didn’t hear the door to the restaurant open, and I had just stuck a whole piece of ravioli in my mouth when I heard the only voice that could ruin my day.

“Hey Henry!” Kim. Could she just smell out guys? Like honestly it was extremely irritating and maybe I wouldn’t have been so annoyed by it if I wasn’t so jealous of her talking to Henry, but I was. The only upside was that he looked uncomfortable about her presence. I stayed quiet and continued to eat my ravioli. “Oh..,” she didn’t sound pleased, “Hey Kelsey.” I looked up at her and gave her a wave that made it clear as daylight that I was not interested in whatever subject she wanted to bring up. She turned her back to me and turned to face Henry. “So what’s up Henry?”

“Um…,” he said, “nothing much, just hanging out with Kelsey here.”

“Yeah.” Kim stated flatly “I can see that.”

“Then why’d you ask?” Henry responded. I couldn’t help it, I had to chuckle. The look on Kim’s face was to priceless.

“Anyway, why don’t you come eat with me and ditch little Kelsey over here?”

“I’m not little,” I muttered but mostly to myself.

“Because I don’t want to,” said Henry. Yup, Kim was pissed. The look on her face said it all. She wasn’t used to rejection. She turned to me.

“Hey Kelsy...”

“Yeah?” I responded. She picked up my plate and spilled the contents onto my dress. I was too shocked and embarrassed to say anything, so I just looked down onto my ravioli covered lap, with unshed tears stinging my eyes. “You got a little something on your dress.” I didn’t need to look up; I could hear the smirk in her voice.

“What the ?” Henry shouted “Who the hell do you think you are to do that to here? Is there something wrong with you? Don’t even think of coming anywhere near her again or we are going to have some serious problems, you understand me?” I looked up in time to see Henry rush to my side, and the shocked and terrified look on Kim’s face. He took of his checkered shirt, and gave it to put on to cover my dirty dress. I quietly did while he turned around and put money on the table. He grabbed a hold of my hand and looked at Kim, “Oh and if you haven’t figured it out yet, stop flirting with me I’m not interested.” That sentence made all the difference as the heated blush made its way to my cheeks and the frenzy of butterflies returned to my stomach.

We walked out into the windy street, and walked for a little bit. Henry still hadn’t let go of my hand, and the silence was getting awkward. “Hey Kels, is there a place where we can sit down and talk? Like a park or something, there’s something I want to tell you.”

“Yeah, Russo Park is only a couple blocks away” I answered. I was only just starting to get over what happened and my voice was still a little shaky. His hand tightened around mine, while I led the way to the park. We remained quiet, but it was a comfortable quiet. His hand continued to hold mine until we arrived at the park and sat on opposite sides of a picnic bench. He looked like he was trying to figure out exactly how to put what he was trying to tell me together, so I gave him the time he needed to do that. All the while the number of butterflies in my stomach continued to increase as I noticed just how cute he looked when he was deep in thought about something.

“Well do you remember how I told you my cousin Zhoumi was in the group Super Junior- M?” I nodded slowly, I had no idea where he was going with this, but I saw something light up in the back of his eyes, excitement maybe? “He called me a couple of days ago. There is an audition for getting into the group in a couple weeks, it’s in China, but my mom gave me her approval, so I’m gonna go audition.” That was actually exciting and I was happy that he was so excited.

“My gosh Henry! That’s great! Isn’t this what you were telling me about in chem? You said you always wanted to be a singer.” I genuinely felt happy about it, but something in the back of my mind kept nagging at me. What if he did make it into the group? Would I not be able to see him anymore?

“Yeah, I’m so excited! I’ve been waiting so long for this opportunity I can’t believe it’s here. I have to practice so hard. I really want to get in Kelsey, this is my dream and it’s so close to coming true.” The way he spoke about it, it was something to admire really. How much he loved the idea of his dreams coming true. It was inspirational, it was wonderful, but it made me feel like I was losing him. Well, it wasn’t really like I had him anyway. I decided not to voice my thoughts on whether I would be able to see him again or not, me liking him this much wasn’t healthy for either of us, and if he were to leave, I didn’t want him to leave with a bad taste in his mouth about me.

“Henry that’s so great. I hope you do well, it’s amazing how determined you are to making your dreams come true.”

“Thanks Kels, I’m not going to able to go to school the week after this one because I have to get to China for the audition.” He paused a little bit. “But there is something that I want to tell you now.”

“Okay sure, go ahead.” I waited for him to tell me what he wanted to say.

“Well, the thing is, umm, well the thing is, I-“ I couldn’t really hear him well because he started mumbling.

“Wait can you repeat that I couldn’t hear you”

“Oh umm, the thing is Kelsey, well I sorta kinda-“ he was mumbling again so I had to lean closer to hear him. He stopped talking realizing that I still couldn’t hear him. I leaned back,

“Nevermind Kels, it’s not important.” I was disappointed. I wanted to know what he wanted to say because he looked really nervous when he was about to say it.

“Are you sure?” I asked, hoping that he would tell me

“Yeah, it’s not something that has to be said now.”

“Oh…Okay,” I decided to drop it. If he wanted to tell me he would have.

We sat there in the park till about six just talking about random things, what he still wanted to me was nagging me in the back of mind, but I didn’t want to make things awkward or ruin the mood, so I chose to just ignore it. A little bit later his phone rang, and some Korean song was playing, I knew because I understood most of the words.

“Hello?” he said. “Yeah, okay Mom, I’ll be right there. Yes, mom. Okay mom, I got it mom. Yes. Uh huh, Love you too bye.”

“Kelsey, I have to go my Mom wants me to get home.” We stood up off the bench at the same time, and I was about to give him back his shirt, when he shook his head.

“Keep it.” He said.

“Oh uhm.. Thanks”

“We should hang out again soon,” he stated.

“Yeah we should. This was fun, well except for, you know.”

“Don’t let that kind of stuff get to you Kelsey, I mean I know it’s a pretty big deal, but I can tell that Kim isn’t the kind of person that can handle rejection well.” I laughed and told him to call me when he wanted to hang out again. He said okay, and told me he would text me later. We walked away in separate directions.

When I finally got home, my parent’s car wasn’t in the driveway, which meant that either one or both of them weren’t home. I walked into the house and checked the kitchen. My mom wasn’t in there, and no one was in the living room. They must have both been out. I climbed the stairs to my room and changed into my pajamas. I made a bowl of popcorn, and sat on the couch, and hooked up my laptop to my TV. I had to watch Nail Shop Paris. Henry had asked me if I listened to Kpop, not if I watched K-dramas. While I was watching I realized that for one, Bunny should really be with Kei instead of Alex. I mean it was obvious that Alex was starting to like her a little bit, but still Kei, was Kei. It didn’t seem right if he and Bunny didn’t end up together. But, I also wondered about me and Henry. What he wanted to tell me was bugging me, I wanted to know. This may seem really sad and desperate, but it seemed to me that he was going to tell me he liked me. I mean the way he acted today was strange for someone who thought of someone as just a friend. He snapped at Kim for me, gave me his shirt to cover my dirty dress, held my hand, and held it tighter when he saw how upset I was about the Kim thing. He held my hand all the way to the park, and was nervous when he told me he wanted to tell me something. I had already gave up the idea of Henry just being a shy guy, so it seemed weird to me that he would get nervous. Could Henry actually like me? It seemed like it could happen, but why would Henry be interested in me? He couldn’t possibly like me like that, and if he my some miracle did, it wouldn’t be like how I liked him. I seriously liked him; I was in way to deep.

A little while later, I got a text. It was from Henry.

It said, “Hey, are you asleep?” Scratch a little while later, it was 11:00pm, I must have gotten caught up in my K- dramas.

“Nope,” I answered, “Just watching Nail Shop Paris”

“…You watch that too?! O.O?”

“Haha, I didn’t know you watched it! And yeah, it’s the best show?”

“Are you team Alex or team Kei?

“Team Kei ofcourse :P”

“What? :O That’s ridiculous, Bunny should be with Alex!”

“Are you serious? Why Alex?”

“Because she was supposed to be with him first, she liked him first not Kei.”

“That doesn’t matter. I think you’re just jealous of Kei :) its okay he is pretty cool.”

“…That makes no sense Kelsey. Why would be Jealous of Kei, when I have you?”

That TOTALLY caught me of guard. I was there sitting in my living room blushing like an idiot and the butterflies returned to my stomach, and were pretty much multiplying in number. I had to answer with something, but I didn’t want to make the conversation weird so I just answered with,

“Haha, you’re funny ^^”

“Lol yeah, thanks :) but I wasn’t joking, goodnight Kelsey!!!!!!!!” Wow, he wasn’t kidding? So did he like me? Ugh this is so confusing! Why are guys like this!!!! Maybe I should just move to a Covent and become a nun.

“Night Henry” I put my phone down and just sat there. I had only a week left with Henry before he left for his audition. Would anything happen between us before then?