I have been standing for almost an hour and a half in the midst crowds of this busy city.

My feet are hurting me. Real bad. I take a look at my watch again.

He’s late.

Really late.

And then I see him.

Chanyeol running towards me, he waves his hand at me and calls my name.

 

“I am so sorry I’m late.” Chanyeol stops in front of me, panting.

 

He takes deep breaths and waits for me to respond.

Honestly, I don’t know how.

I glance at my watch to avoid looking at him, “Well...we missed the show.”

 

Chanyeol apologizes once more and runs his hand through his hair, “Well...We could watch the next show.”

 

I shake my head. “Can’t. The next show is tomorrow and you have rehearsals tomorrow, right?”

 

Chanyeol’s face turns bitter.

 

I just smile and walk ahead of him, “Come on. Let’s just go somewhere...”

Chanyeol takes my hand and pulls me back. He sighs and looks at me straight in the eyes.

 

“Are you mad?”

 

I shake my head. “I’m not.”

 

“Yes you are.” Chanyeol frowns, “Look I was caught up with some things with Kyungsoo today and-“

 

“Chanyeol.” I stop him before he continues, “I told you... I’m not mad at you.”

I’m not mad.

I’m just disappointed.

Of all the days he could act like this. I was really looking forward on our date but I guess some dates aren’t that perfect.

Chanyeol places his forefinger between my brows and lets out a small smile.

 

“I hate seeing you frown,”

 

He releases his grip from my hand and says another apology.

 

“Let me make it up to you.”

 

I shrug and walk ahead of him. Again.

 

“Where are you going?” Chanyeol asks, catching up with me.

 

I shrug, “I don’t know...somewhere I guess...”

Chanyeol takes my hand again and drags me back. He keeps on walking without looking back at me, I try pulling myself away from his grip but he’s too strong.

 

“Ya! Where are you taking me?!”

Chanyeol grins, “You don’t know where to go, right?”

We turn left at the next street, “I’m taking you somewhere nice.”

Well. I guess we should go, I mean we missed the show. There’s nothing else to do.

Chanyeol leads me to black van. The driver’s window opens and greets Chanyeol.

“Date’s done?”

Chanyeol shakes his head, “Actually I need a favour, Driver-hyung.”

He lets go of my hand and leans to the window and whispers something to the driver. I see the driver grin and pat Chanyeol on the shoulder.

 

“Okay.” The driver starts the engine.

Chanyeol opens the car door for me, “Let’s go.”

I get inside and watch Chanyeol get in and close the door. He pats the dirt off his hand,

“All set?” the driver asks.

 

Chanyeol nods, “Yup.”

The driver steps on the gas and we head someplace. I look outside and watch what was happening outside.

The ride towards our destination is quiet. He must have sensed the situation.

 My disappointment and his efforts to turn this date around.

We take a few more turns before we stopped.

 

“We’re here.” Chanyeol holds my hand and points at the view on his window. It was the Coex Aquarium. He took me to the only place I haven’t gone when I was a kid.

I smile.

“You know this place?” he asks, pointing at the sign.

I shake my head, “I know the place but I haven’t gone inside.”
 

Chanyeol grins. “Let’s go then.”
 

The driver parks at the parking lot away from the cars. He looks back at us and smiles, “Enjoy. I’ll be out here, if you need me.”

Chanyeol thanks the driver and opens the car door. He gets off first and I follow.

“You excited?”

I nod.

“Is the driver-hyung...you’re company driver?”

Chanyeol laughs and nods shyly. “Yeah...I was in a hurry and didn’t get a cab so I asked him to drive me to our meeting place...”
 

I see. Chanyeol and I walk to the entrance of the Aquarium. There were a lot of kids standing outside with their teachers.

I guess it’s Field Trip day for others.
 

“Wait for me here,” Chanyeol says. “I’ll buy us our tickets.”

 

The kids are noisy, indeed.

I watch them laugh and play with each other but something caught my eye.

A girl, she’s crying.

I approach her and crouch so our eyes would meet.

 

“Hey.” I say.

She looks at me and quickly wipes the tears off her face.

 

“What’s wrong?” I take my handkerchief from my purse and give it to the girl. She takes it and wipes her tears with it.

 

“I...I’m...scared...to...go inside...” she sniffs.

 

“Why are you scared?”

 

“I might get lost inside...and...Big sharks would...eat me...”

 

I smile at the girl. How innocent. “Oh. You won’t get lost. There will be someone who’ll guide you and if you ever see big sharks, good fishes will come and rescue you.”
 

Then she lets out a smile, “Really?”

I smile back.

The teacher calls her and she runs away with my handkerchief. It’s alright. I don’t need it anyways.

 

Chanyeol calls my name and I see him holding the tickets, I walk back to him.

Together, we walk inside the aquarium.

It was a good thing that they weren’t much people today. Mostly are elementary kids and their guides and a few families.

“It’s a good thing only kids are here today.” Chanyeol smiles.

He’s doing it again.

Whatever I’m thinking, he is the one saying it.

 

“What is it?” Chanyeol asks. “You were smiling at something?”

 

“You just said what I was thinking,”

 

“Really??” Chanyeol laughs. “I knew I had super powers.”

I laugh. Chanyeol shouts in success.

I ask him why.

Chanyeol places his hands at the back and sways childishly, “I finally made you laugh today. I thought you’ll be mad at me for the whole day.”
 

“I can never stay mad at a person for long.” I say, holding his hand as we walked further in the Aquarium. “Especially with you.”

 

“So, I guess this date is a success, huh?”

 

I shake my head, “I’m not sure...”

 

Chanyeol sighs but recovers with a smirk on his face. He didn’t tell me why he was smiling, I didn’t mind.

Chanyeol and I decided to see some of the aquarium’s animals first.

We head to the jungle. Apparently this place doesn’t only have an aquarium but also a jungle.

“Oh. Look.” I pull Chanyeol’s sleeve. “It’s a monkey.”

 

“Yeah,” Chanyeol’s eyes on the monkey.

 

“It looks a lot like you,” I giggle.

 

Chanyeol laughs and pinches my nose. “No, it looks more like you.”

We get to see more of the animals like prairie dogs, penguins, different fishes (of course) and a turtle.

 A two headed turtle.

 They’re peculiar indeed. Chanyeol commented how the turtles think.

“Do they think with two brains? Or is it just one?”

 

I laugh at him; he’s making me laugh again. I guess he did make our date a success.

Chanyeol made me forget about the thing he just did.

We sometimes stop and take a closer look at the animals.

 

“This is the last stop.”

 

Chanyeol and I walk inside the tunnel aquarium.

Wow.

The first thing I see was the great white shark swimming just above us.

I grab hold of Chanyeol’s arm quickly. “Don’t worry, good fishes will come and protect you.”

 

Why does that seem to be familiar?

 

Chanyeol smiles as we walk, “I saw you talking to that little girl...”

 

Oh. That’s why it was familiar.

 

“I really like what you did. Making the little girl lose her fears with just simple words.”

 

We walk along the tunnel and get to see schools of different fishes. Out of nowhere two scuba divers waves hello to us.

I smile and wave at them.

 

One of the scuba divers point at us and make a heart shape with his hands. I laugh.

Chanyeol nods and shouts, “WE’RE A COUPLE!!”

 

I laugh. “They don’t hear you!”

 

Chanyeol looks confused, “Yeah...they do. Look, I’ll prove it to you.”
 

We look back at the scuba divers.

 

“DO IT NOW!” Chanyeol shouts at them.

I laugh but then I stop as soon as I see the scuba divers holding out a sign that says:

CHANYEOL LOVES YOU.

HE PLANNED ALL THIS OUT.

 

I look back at Chanyeol and see him smiling.

 

“I wasn’t late. I did that on purpose...” Chanyeol walks over to the edge of the tunnel and pull out something from behind the door.

“Because I prepared something much better than the show we were supposed to watch.”

He holds a stuffed whale shark plushie.

I take the stuffed plushie from Chanyeol and embrace him.

 

“I take it back. This is a date is a success.”