Changmin: For our first date, I decided to give it a theme using the “20-Questions” game. It’s a game my sister recommended for getting to know new people, and [shrugs] I thought it’d be interesting to learn new things about Yoona on the way. Especially since we were a new couple and all…

Did you find out any interesting things?

Changmin: You could say that. But it took us some time to get to the interesting bit. Thinking of questions to ask is surprisingly difficult, and even more so when Yoona has those eyes staring at you.

Yoona: [laughs] The only problem was… we didn’t know what to ask! It was like every possible question was already asked by other people in interviews and variety shows. It was so hard to think of questions that I didn’t already know the answer to.

There must have been a question you were dying to ask from before?

Yoona: … there was, actually. That was the first question I asked and his answer shocked me! [laughs] But it was a good kind of shock. I hadn’t realized that our date today passed by so fast until it was suddenly over.  [smiles] This ’20-Questions’ theme… it’s really fun. And sunb—I mean, my husband is… Changmin…nie is really interesting.

* * * *

Damn. This part I didn’t quite think through.

Changmin let out a sigh under his breath as he and Yoona walked along the late morning streets of Seoul. The weather was cooperating today (there was no rain, Thank Goodness, the first time for this week) and they were out and about in the public eye as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’. He dimly registered the bug-eyed looks people threw at them when they walked past, his mind working on more important things than noticing their fans gawking.

Sure, Changmin – propose a theme for a date and yet not have anything prepare after that. Genius. His thoughts berated him, running back and forth to think of something – anything – to say. It was fortunate the cameras weren’t rolling yet, or else the whole nation would have figured his distress.

He was never good at this part, the ‘getting-to-know-you’ stage. Changmin detested it, since he was always at a loss of words with girls he dated or wanted to date – but this was Yoona! Im Yoona – the girl known for her alligator laugh and doe-eyes; the goddess who could eat more than her own body weight and could lift moving boxes from one room to another with minimal effort. That was the Yoona he knew and greeted every morning since 2001. They were friends before, but it wasn’t so hard to talk to her back then.

“Have you thought of what to ask?” Yoona’s voice broke into his reverie, snapping him back to reality with a careful nudge. Changmin turned his head to look at her and shook his head sheepishly. She grinned, glancing away to giggle a little and covered with her hand. “I thought so. I’m having a hard time thinking of what to ask too.”

“I wanted to ask questions that didn’t have answers I could just easily look up in the Internet,” Changmin said, kicking a stone in front of him, “But apparently, that puts the usual list of questions to ask into a very strict minimum.”

He put his hands in his pockets, unconsciously drawing her closer to him with the slight action. Their arms were still links and so the brief movement caused her to react as well and towards him. Changmin caught her eyes in surprise when Yoona’s side bumped into his and he realized just how close they were at that moment. And in broad daylight. He cleared his throat unwittingly.

Were her eyes always that bright? Somehow, Changmin couldn’t remember.

[ MC#1: Omo. Did you see that?!

MC#2: [pointing at the screen] I think I saw something in his eyes.
I don’t know what it was but there was something!

MC#1: [laughs, clapping enthusiastically] I saw it too!!!
Wow… this awkward couple’s getting more interesting. ]

Yoona was the one who broke eye-contact first, pulling away just a bit almost immediately to tuck her hair behind her ear. She pushed her glasses closer to her face and put a smile on her face, glancing discreetly at the camera crew following them. “Well, there has to be something we’d like to know about each other, right? I mean – we’ve known each other for a long time inside the agency… it shouldn’t be so hard to find things we were curious about each other.”

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