The makeup she had on was minimal, the dress she decided upon was simple yet flattering, the shoes she was wearing had her towering a few inches higher than her already quite impressive height (for a stereotypical Asian female). Brushing off imaginary lint and dust of her dress, Soyou looked out of her bedroom window, spotting the dim headlights of the taxi she’d called for a few minutes ago, pulling over to a park and waiting patiently in front of her house.

She missed her own car.

Soyou received a spanking new car from her dad when she first got her driving license, which was just a few months before she turned 18, but after just two years of amazing service she made a choice to trade it in for more cash when her family went through a rather tough time. She didn’t regret it though; she would give anything up for them but surely one will always miss their first ever ride.

She still drives though; sometimes she would rent a car for a few days or perhaps borrow a friend’s –none of them minded much— and enjoy driving around as if to take a break from her bike and public transport.

“Good evening miss, where we headed tonight?” Soyou was greeted with a faint smell of coffee and peppermint gum when she slid inside the backseat of the taxi; it’s slightly worn out interior squeaking slightly at her movements. She looked over at the driver seat and saw a kind looking ahjusshi looking back at her through his rearview mirror.

“To ----- -----, please” she replied back to the now smiling old man as they began to drive away from her front porch to the dreaded meeting place.

“Do we have a date tonight?” the old man attempted at polite conversation with her as they drove out of the suburban area and into town. Soyou looked ahead and let out a nervous laugh, a bit unsure of what to answer.

Of course she could always say no, but why else would a woman go out at 7pm for if it weren’t for a date and more importantly why does she have to lie? The taxi driver looked harmless enough and the kind to enjoy a simple conversation with his customers, so brushing the slight discomfort off she answered.

“Yeah, my friend thought it would be a nice change for me” An understanding hum came from him as they rounded a corner leading to a wider road with brighter signboards and wider entrances decorating its sides. Soyou thought that they were probably nearing the restaurant already, though she doesn’t want to leave the warmth of the artificial heater in the taxi just yet.

“I hope he treats you right..” came a slow reply from the old man once he caught sight of the rather high end restaurant near the end of the street. Pulling over as near as he could to the establishment, he turned back to find Soyou staring out the window at the bright lights of the building.

“I hope so too..” she sighed out before giving the old man another smile and paying for the fare. The wind outside was exactly how she imagined it be on a warm fall night in the city, chilly and unforgiving. It wasn’t windy –that she was thankful for— but the temperature was low enough to have anyone’s teeth chattering in a couple of minutes.

She walked to the grand looking front doors, unsurprised to have it opened upon her arrival; no doorman in sight, technology has really had made it easier for everyone. Soyou inquired about her reservation (which she had no participation in setting) and was lead to a table near the buffet table. Her eyes flashing with want before dismissing the kind Host and sitting herself down.

Really now, if her unnie expects her to stay in shape she shouldn’t have booked her so near to all the food. Her eyes not-so-subtly looked over all the tables: the appetizers were a plated together, the main courses were in separate serving dishes with little sign holders to tell what food was hidden beneath each dish and the desserts were laid in line with each other making hard for anyone to resists any of them.

‘This is going to be a long night’

Her blind date was nowhere in sight, so it must mean she got there quite early or her date was running a bit late; she wasn’t quite sure, she didn’t check her phone for the time yet because she was still a bit occupied at planning her buffet plate in her head.

‘Just when I said I was going to stick to this diet, but then again she insisted that I go on this date, so anything that happens tonight is not to be blamed on me..’

Grinning at the thought of getting away for stuffing herself, she tore her eyes from the buffet tables and lingered to the tables near her. They were all filled with couples, which did little to bother Soyou, she was used to it by now anyways; but what interested her was how all of them were behaving.

Almost in a cliché character introduction movie way, she looked at each table identifying each problem at hand:

Table #1 – The regular date; guy takes out girl for an evening together, flowers and chocolates are a given and wine or any alcoholic beverages are set aside for tonight. The couple simply relishes the dinner in a simple albeit cheesy way.

 

Table #2 – The imminent break-up date; either the boy or the girl wishes to appeal and/or apologize to his/her lover after a fight or an argument. No extras such as chocolates or flowers, but is accompanied by numerous pregnant silences when neither one has anything to say but is trying to fix the relationship.

 

Table #3 – The work date; either they are business partners or colleagues, this date consists of mainly work related talks, planning of projects and setting dates for further discussions.  Either one could initiate flirting every now and then but in the end of the night work would be the main priority.

 

Table #4 – The quiet date; now this kind of date is categorized in many other ways but the most common are: Food Tripping & Listeners. Food Tripping is when the couple simply eats out for the food, not much interaction with each other but has more than enough attention to give to their food. While the Listeners are exactly as stated, both lovers are not much talkers but enjoy just looking at each other lovingly and enjoying their meal.

 

Table #5 – The you-know-what date; I rather not dive too deeply into this sort of date, for I quite prefer to have my appetite intact. Very sensual and , has enough to fuel a rocket to the Moon, this kind of date mainly consists of everything being a ual innuendo and if both of you get it expect the hours to follow to be booked.

 

Table #6 –The Playboy date; —

Soyou was snapped out of her mental narration when the Host approached her able and this time is followed by a rather young looking man. Bowing slightly at the arrival of her blind date she looked up to find bright eyes smiling at her.

“I’m so sorry, I’m late. I got lost on the way” His voice was chirpy and boyish and it certainly matched his features. Soyou looked at the guy –or rather boy— in awe, he was tall and well built, he had broad shoulders and confidence to sweep any hormonal teenage girl off her feet.

But that was the thing; a teenage girl.

The male sitting comfortably in front of her couldn’t be older than 17. His face was roundish but was a bit more pointed nearing his chin, his cheeks were large and soft looking (soft enough to pinch) yet his eyes possessed the charm and characteristic glint of a cat; very sly and seductive.  The hair cut he had wasn’t of much help; dark locks were slightly teased and styled in place to make his hair look messy and masculine yet Soyou (with her being a stylist after all) noticed how he would also be quite able to pull off straighter hair accompanied with a vibrant snapback; just like how she styles one of the maknaes in the company.

“No, it’s fine. I didn’t wait for long” she gave him a smile, her glossed lips turning at the corners giving him the shy kind of smile she would often give to strangers. In returned he grinned back at her and she can’t help but feel –even more so that the boy was definitely younger than her.

The grin that was currently donning his face was playful, arrogant even, the kind she knows adolescents often used to get what they want. God, she was feeling old.

“I hope not. By the way, I’m Jimin” the now identified male spoke up once again and reach out his hand towards Soyou for a handshake.

“Jihyun, but please call me Soyou. Nice to meet you” she replied pulling out her right hand from her lap only to let it be held by Jimin’s surprisingly warm hands. But instead of a handshake like she’d assumed, the boy rose from his seat slightly and leaned forward to their connected hands before kissing the top of her hand gently.

“The pleasure is all mine, miss Soyou” Fighting a blush rising to her face for the sudden action, Soyou racked her brain at how she completely missed the possibility of him acting like a 90’s gentleman on this date. It’s a bit late to regret it now, so she simply squeezed his hand gently before pulling her palm away from his grasp.

Smooth.

She breathed a deep breath before looking down at the menu she never remembered being there in the first place and looking through the dishes for something small to order before she launches herself to the buffet. Jimin, however chose to lean back and look at her, much to her embarrassment.

He noticed how her hair was nicely done and her dress was stunning on her body. She was beautiful, really.

“So Soyou, what do you do?” he asked rather bluntly as he looked at her small face, almost ducked in the large menu.

“I work at the entertainment company near Evergreen” she replied her eyes not tearing away from the mouth-watering picture of premium rib-eye steak, cooked to perfection on the ‘Main Course’ page. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Jimin’s sparkle with interest.

“Really? Are you a model?” he inquired, thinking that if she said yes, this date would be considered a success; after all he taking a model out to dinner even if it was a blind date, still counts for something.

“Close enough” she giggled out, amused at the contented look on his face. He could possibly be more interested in her now that he must’ve thought that she was a model in the works. She doesn’t look far from it at all.

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“Come on hyung! Let loose a bit!” One of his friends bellowed loudly from his seat, it’s hard to believe that the man wasn’t nearly as drunk as his partner who was already flushed bright red from the amount of piña coladas and margaritas he decided to try earlier.

The older of the two was notorious for being a real party goer in his high school days, it was only during college when both of them met and one thing led to another; they were inseparable ever since. Though in their current society, their kind of relationship was looked down on, neither was bothered and so was Yongguk.

He actually found it quite brave and cute at the same time; that they could stand up for their love for one another yet be so adorable together.

He smiled his gummy smile and waved him off before sipping some more of his light beverage. He wasn’t much of a drinker anyways, he often thought it was a threat to his well-being and wasn’t healthy but of course being a normal man in his twenties he couldn’t refuse alcohol altogether; but at least he was wary of it.

He saw things in different ways than the typical man, but then again he didn’t quite know what a typical man thought of regularly so he also wasn’t aware that he was much more adept than them. Of course he could always imagine but then it would be like stereotyping his own kind and that he definitely did not want to do.

“So when are you planning on packing up and moving there?” One of his more sober friends asked him.

“I’m not sure, hopefully by next week I could get everything done” He was answered by an understanding nod and a grin. He then promised to come and visit once in a while; Yongguk agreed heartily, everyone needed a good ruckus in their house once in a while and his rowdy group of friends would surely do the trick.

Their conversation was cut short when he heard a loud guitar riff explode from the speakers, causing even some of the bottles behind the bar to tremble the slightest bit. Turning his head towards the stage he spotted a group of adolescent boys that he thought was a bit too young to perform, much less to enter and bar like this.

“Yo everyone, the entertainment has arrived!!” The stage was light up by bright colors, spotlights moving and swirling frantically to the beat of the music for effect and to add to stage presence.

“Rap Mon here, waddup!”

“Suga!”

“And I’m Jin”

The three boys definitely deserved props for making almost all of the women in the establishment swoon over their charms; plus their rapping wasn’t half bad either. Yongguk watched leisurely with his drink in hand, noting the lyrics and beats in their performance, he may not look like it but he’s actually already starting on a new composition right there and then.

His mind working on the beats and already finding the few couple of words to follow up the song, in short, he’d be running to his little makeshift ‘work space’ the very moment he and Himchan got home.

He really got a thrill over discovering more songs and getting inspiration from them, it amazes him sometimes at how he could create so many out of watching a single performance.

The people sitting closer to the stage bobbed their heads to the music whilst more enthusiastic (not to mention drunker) ones danced and jumped along on the dance floor. Two of which were his friends; swaying and moving rigidly to the music as they forced their barely sober selves to dance.

It was a funny sight.

“Hey Bbang, we have a problem” He turned to the new voice on his right, finding his sleek black haired roommate on the high stool next to him by the bar. His shoulder was placed atop the clean wooden surface countertop and his chin on his palm.

“What’s wrong?” the small light from above the bar acted as a spotlight on his friend’s head, making his black locks shine.

“Those two idiots on the dance floor are going to drop out soon, which means our night’s almost over...” he pouted, his thin lips looking plumper than usual.

Laughing a bit, he shook his head, not really as bothered as his friend by the turn of events. “Relax; let’s just make sure neither of them hurt anyone or each other.”

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“Tonight was really nice Soyou-ssi” Jimin grinned at her again, as he walked fairly close to her on the narrow interlocked sidewalk a few feet from the restaurant they were previously in. The smell of freshly washed table cloth and food still lingered in their presence.

Soyou more or less felt the same, other than the part of her that was still disappointed and moping internally over how she wasn’t able to feast on the buffet of her dreams for Jimin already (very gentlemanly) ordered for her. Although she was touched at the action; guys rarely showed that kind of attitude towards women nowadays, but on the other hand women today don’t look like they deserve that kind of praise and respect, she still wanted the buffet.

Dinner went on without a hitch, their orders were carried out well, the food was good (verbally thanking him for his good choice) and surprisingly small talks and conversations wasn’t that hard to keep up with.

“Yeah, it was” she replied quietly, her voice shrinking because of the weather. The wind wasn’t blowing at their bodies, but it simply gushed out in small gusts from time to time, but the temperature was cold enough to completely ignore the wind.  Open shops and kiosks they passed by gave them little warmth from their outer heaters whilst street lamps bathed them in dim orange light.

Her hands inside her coat pockets were already starting to shake even though it hasn’t been 10 minutes since they left the warmth of the restaurant.

“I hope we can meet again, maybe?” The man to her left cocked his head to the side to face her as they both walked to a designated taxi stand near the area.

Her face flushed pink at the thought, she never really thought of what comes next after a first blind date.

‘A second blind date? Or would it be a first date? The even if it was the first date, wouldn’t it still technically be considered the second date?’

A look of confusion must’ve decorated her face, because soon she heard a quiet chuckle erupt from Jimin, who quickly covered it up by clearing his throat.

“Oh, I suppose that wasn’t the best way to phrase it. Hmm, lemme try again” Stepping in front of her, causing both of them to halt their trek to the station, Jimin placed a palm on him chest and another in a fist behind his back. Soyou looked confused as ever yet he thought it was quite nice, the look she had would’ve been cute to anyone except herself, who still had no clue as to what was going to happen.

The mighty relationship specialist was stunned, not because of what he was doing but how she should react. Sure, she’d seen and heard these things happen in real life and in fiction to other people (and fictional characters) but seeing done to her was something new.

“Miss Soyou, would you like to go on a date with me?”