"Again?! Mom, I've already told you—I will never go on a blind date that you arrange." Jo Shinhye grumbled, as she struggled to comb the tangles out of her frizzy hair. Her mother simply shook her head and let out a worried sigh. "You know I only want you to be happy. How many times have I seen you come home and sobbing over a boy? Too many." 

"It's not as if you know what's my ideal type of guy, Mom," Shinhye rolled her eyes. "You always, always pick your friends' sons, and look where it ended up," Shinhye groaned as she set down her brush. "One had his allergies act up on the 'date', and I had to bring him to the clinic, another had horrible body odour and bad breath, and the last one ate his food as though he had never tasted food in his life!" 

Her mother, instead of getting upset at her daughter's grumbles, merely chuckled in amusement. "Hmm... so I admit there was a slight lapse of judgement, but they are nice boys. I know because they came from good mothers." She grinned as if for a toothpaste commercial. "Don't forget, my dear, it's not as if you have the best judgement of boys either. The last one you went out with...what was his name, Mingyu? Didn't he get arrested for being in a gang?" 

Shinhye rolled her eyes. "First of all, mom, his name is Minguk. Second of all, he didn't get arrested for being in a gang. He just happened to get caught in a fist fight." She got up from her dressing table, clearly annoyed. 

Her mother sighed in concern. "Just give this another try, Shinhye. I honestly just want you to be happy."

Shinhye ignored her mother and made a beeline for the living room to catch the latest episode of Infinity Challenge. When she was sure she was out of earshot, she muttered under her breath, shaking her head. "She probably chose some guy with acne issues and bad teeth that was photoshopped out of his photo..."

————

Byun Baekhyun was scribbling in his sketchbook, but erased his sketches after every few . His scribbling-and-erasing pattern was noticed by his art classmate, Sehun, who sauntered over. 

"Artist's block?" Sehun commented, watching his friend erase one of the eyes from Baekhyun's supposed attempt at a portrait. With one less eye, it resembled a female Cyclops. Baekhyun simply shooed his friend away with his free hand. "I'm trying to get her face right. I think I'm almost there though..." Baekhyun cocked his head to the side and raised his thumb, as if trying to gauge the portrait's features. 

Sehun raised an eyebrow. "Who's her? I've never seen you so immersed in portrait drawing before, let alone of a female subject." Baekhyun simply sighed. "I've seen her before. It's just that for the life of me I can't remember her face." Sehun looked even more confused. "So, you saw your dream girl on a street? You passed her by?" 

Baekhyun stopped sketching, and stared at the page, dirty with smudges and fingerprints. "No. I saw her, literally, in my dreams." 

Sehun flinched in mild horror. "Dude, you're not serious..." Baekhyun nodded and smiled shyly, returning to sketch the portrait's face. "You seriously need to get out more. You're so damn sentimental. No wonder when I was snooping through the pile of books beneath your desk, I found 'The Notebook' and 'My Name Is Memory'." He shuddered as he remembered discovering Baekhyun's little romance collection underneath his desk. Baekhyun ignored his traumatized friend and got back to completing his portrait.

"Ah, I almost forgot." Sehun paused in his steps as he got ready to leave the art room. "My mom set me up on this blind date with her friend's daughter. I can't go because I have a modern art presentation which will count towards my final grade, so could you do your buddy a favour and go in her place? I already informed my mom."

Before Baekhyun could retaliate and throw his pencil at his friend in reply, the door had already slammed shut. 

————

Baekhyun couldn't sleep. He stared at the ceiling, and grabbed his sketchbook from his bedside table. The female portrait on the page seemed to be smiling at him, and somehow he couldn't help but smile back. The portrait seemed to be smiling a reassuring smile, as if to give him some well-needed energy for the challenge that lay ahead tomorrow. He suddenly found himself speaking to the portrait, in hushed tones.

"To be honest, I've never been on a blind date. I'm also way too shy to meet girls, unlike my friend Sehun. I also can't compete with the basketball captain Kris, he's really popular too...hah, now I'm rambling, as usual. But also, I think I don't want to meet so many people first,  because I really want to meet...to meet a special person."

"Someone like you."

————

It was The Morning. The morning where Shinhye thought, in her opinion, that she would get her entertainment for the day, from yet another failed blind date that she knew, or so she thought, would be doomed to fail even before it had even begun. 

But still, somehow, she needed to look at least minimally presentable. She braided her hair in a quick French braid, wore a simple striped shirt and jeans, to be comfortable. And also to be able to run away quickly from any awkward situation that may arise, she thought. 

She quickly applied some lipgloss, took one last look at the mirror and rushed out, but her mother was not waiting to say goodbye at the front door. Instead, she found a note taped to the door.

"Enjoy yourself today, and be on your best behaviour. Good luck! I'm going out shopping and may be back late, remember to come back for dinner. Love, Mom." Shinhye chuckled and pulled off the note, tucking it into her bag, as she bolted through the front door.

————

Shinhye plugged in her headphones, and it just so happened that Taylor Swift's Begin Again began to play.

"Took a deep breath in the mirror, he didn't like it when I wore high heels, but I do..." 

Shinhye frowned. The line reminded her of her exes, which obviously she wanted to forget. As the song continued, somehow, the memories began to flow back.

Joohyuk, who insisted she wear flats instead of heels on their dates, because they'd be more 'balanced' heightwise. But she was already about 20cm shorter than him.

Mingi, who didn't understand her love for Standing Egg's music, while instead blarring electronic music whenever they were in his car, and constantly made fun of her taste in music.

Jungmin, who didn't appreciate her wavy hair, and not-so-subtly tried to get her to straighten it. It also didn't help that he was always late and had lame excuses, with reasons that she found out way too late...like that he was meeting three other girls before her.

Shinhye shook her head. I'm going on a blind date. This isn't the time to be reminiscing the ugly stuff, she told herself. But still, wasn't she planning to take this seriously. So, why was her mind telling her otherwise?

She simply brushed aside her thoughts, and switched to one of her favourite Standing Egg songs, while admiring the view from the bus window.

————

Baekhyun had arrived at the cafe early, and was tapping his feet to some unknown rhythm. He could feel the sweat building at his palms, and tried to calm himself down. 

He kept turning his head every few minutes, looking at the window. Was she lost? Could she have lost her way? But unfortunately for Baekhyun, he didn't have his blind date's number. He was simply given the meeting place and time. He fidgeted in his seat, obsessively compulsively checking his phone. 

He was tempted to call Sehun to clear the awkwardness, and had a slight stinging urge to back out. But he couldn't back out, because he felt that it would be not only unfair to his good friend, but also to Sehun's- no, his, blind date. Maybe the poor girl was caught in traffic, or was lost, or-

Just as he was getting immersed in his worries, he heard a female voice within earshot.

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect you to be so early. I hope you haven't been waiting very long!" The voice was cheerful and seemed friendly.

When he looked up, it was as if he had recovered a long-lost memory.

————

Shinhye walked slowly to the table, and apologized to the worried-looking boy who was staring at his phone.

When he finally looked at her, her eyes widened. 

"Are you...Baekhyun by any chance?" she asked in a formal tone.

Baekhyun smiled at her, and somehow Shinhye felt her face growing warm. "Hello, I'm Byun Baekhyun." He got up to shake her hand, and even pulled her chair for her to sit down.

Once she was seated, she put on her best smile. 

"I'm Jo Shinhye. It's nice to meet you."

————

About a few hours later, and a few cups of coffee and some pasta, Baekhyun and Shinhye found themselves laughing at each other's jokes and stories. They both discovered that they had a love for Standing Egg as well, and mysteriously, they had been to the same gigs but never bumped into each other.

"You know what's funny? My favourite Standing Egg song is We Are Not A Couple," chuckled Baekhyun, as he sipped what he thought to be his thousandth Americano. 

Shinhye giggled. "Same here, to be honest. I've never met many people who like Standing Egg. These days, my friends are into the pop stuff. I prefer the plain old guitar and vocals."

Baekhyun nodded. "Hey, maybe we should go to Standing Egg's next gig together sometime," he suggested.

Shinhye giddily nodded. It was probably the first in a long time that she met someone who liked Standing Egg as much as she did. She was slightly tempted to mention her ex's dislike for Standing Egg and preference for electronic music,  but somehow decided to keep that story aside for now. She found herself leaning in to listen to Baekhyun talk about life in art school. Shinhye was actually a webtoon artist who released stories once in a while, and her past story about a girl who ran away to join a band won an award.

Baekhyun's jaw dropped when he found out. "I really enjoyed that story, and I actually admired that art style. I can't believe I'm meeting such a great artist." Shinhye blushed. No one actually knew about her webtoon work, and now she found herself telling her webtoon career story to Baekhyun.

Shinhye suddenly had a flash of realization.

This guy could indeed be a source of entertainment, but in a totally different way. 

He wasn't half bad, and Shinhye found herself typing a message to her mother saying that she wouldn't be coming back for dinner.

————

Baekhyun and Shinhye were walking along the Han River, shoulder-to-shoulder and the sun had almost completely set.

"So...I guess this blind date worked out, huh?" Shinhye remarked shyly, brushing a stray fringe out of her face.

Baekhyun smiled. "Yeah, I guess." He scratched his head. "So, um, you up for a second one?" He smiled yet another one of his shy smiles that Shinhye found her face becoming warmer in response, and she was beginning to think that it wasn't because of the autumn chill.

She gently nodded, and as they walked towards the train station, their hands slowly found each other, and she wasn't sure whether it was her hand or Baekhyun's that was so warm.

FIN

————

A/N: So...I finished this story! Hahahaha. It's not perfect, and I feel that there are things to fix. 

(and aishah, I hope you like this! AIEEEE)

PS: Standing Egg is an actual Korean indie band.