“So what does it mean when a guy says, promise not to fall in love with me?”

Chaerin stares at her friends one by one, the much needed girl’s night out are finally happening. She really needs it. She has a lot of things she wants to clear out but judging from the way her friends are behaving tonight, it seems impossible. All three are occupied with their phones and it’s frustrating to see them smiling and giggling like an idiot, totally ignoring her. She rolls her eyes.

“Phones on the table. NOW!” she claps her hands gaining their attention and all three look at her.

“But..”

“No buts…” she cuts off Bom.

“I need to reply Dae”

“It can wait” she said sternly while looking at Minzy and her pleading gaze.

Dara did not get to say anything because it was enough to just have that glare from Chaerin and she pouts. All three reluctantly put down their phones on the table and Chaerin smiling victoriously and put away all their phones in her bag.

“Now… this feels more like it… now we can see each other faces and doesn’t it feel good?” Chaerin shoots them with sarcasm and chuckles to see their pouts.

“Chae is donning her CL side tonight…” Bom rolls her eyes and sips her cocktail.

“Yeah… I missed Bae already~” Dara with her exaggerate gesture, placing one hand on her chest and the other is pointing towards Chaerin’s bag.

“Chae unnie is hard on us tonight” Minzy teases her using the ‘unnie’ making Chaerin cringe looking at Minzy whom is seated beside her..

Occupied with their own work, after much planning, tonight is the only time they can meet all four together, they have to arrange this to suit with their schedules.

“I just want us to have fun tonight without all those other distractions… I know I’m the only single one among us, so forgive me if wanting to spend time with my best friends are too much to asked for” Chaerin puts on her pitiful expression.

The three exchange looks, realization and guilt crept in.

“Babe…. Sorry… we were being selfish” of course Dara would be the one to hold her hands.

“Sorry Chae, okay… those texts can wait… right girls?” Bom nodded to the others and they nod back.

It’s working and Chaerin smile inside ‘you guys are so easy’

“Thanks girls…” she smiles.

“What were you saying just now?” Minzy ask while fixing her fringe.

“Oh… I was watching a movie the other day…”

“What movie?” Dara cut her off.

“I forgot the title… anyways, there’s a scene where the guy sort of asking the girl out but then he said promise not to fall in love with me… I don’t understand why he said that”

“Well, what’s the ending?” Bom said.

“It’s so confusing… why he asks her out but he said that?” Minzy frown.

“You know.. guys… I bet he just wants to get into her pants.” Bom continue with her accusation.

“What movie was that? How come I never knew about that kind of story? Is it local? Or foreign movie?” Dara is still pestering her and Chaerin starts to get overwhelmed over her friends reaction.

“Why didn’t you watch until it finished?” Minzy look at her.

“Crappy plot…” Dara pinches her nose bridge.

“I bet the actors are not famous, that’s why we didn’t know about it…” Bom munches on the fries on the table.

“Oh my gahddddd…. Calm down… it’s uhm.. let me rephrase it, he was not actually asking her out… it’s like they had to.. his mom wants to set him up with countless blind dates, so he found this beautiful, charming, bubbly and charismatic girl to have a fake date with him, to avoid from getting set up with blind dates from his mom” Chaerin explained to her friends who is listening diligently to her.

“Are you sure the girl possess all that criteria? Then why did the guy say those words?” Bom casually ask her.

“Yes!! She is! That’s the question now.. because I uhm… have work to do and didn’t manage to finish the movie… but it get me thinking... don’t you guys think so?” she sips on her drink.

She could’ve just said the truth but she can’t bear the teasing she will get from her friends. Not to mention Bom and her loose mouth. She will surely ‘accidentally’ told Seunghyun about it.

“Crappy….crappy plot” Dara continue with her signature pose making Chaerin rolls her eyes.

“Why her of all people?” Minzy gaze into her eyes and her words immediately resonate in her mind.

“Yeah, why her…? What is so special about her?” Chaerin is speechless with their questions and start thinking to herself.

“Based on my experience as an actress, this kind of plot…. It’s either the guy think she is easy and can use her, she’s rich and he wants to get something out of her or something ty like that or he doesn’t want to be tied to her and pretend to be with her, so the nosy mom will stop. Why he use her? Easy, because he knows she won’t fall for him, just like what he said…”

Chaerin is bummed hearing all the theories stated by Dara and feels bitter hearing the last theory.

“It’s like that huh…” Chaerin sounds so disappointed.

“Oh! I missed out one theory.. or.. that guy is falling in love with her but he’s afraid of something…”

“Oh?” Minzy squints her eyes at Dara “I think so too.. hey, he could be falling in love with her, but he’s afraid…”

“Afraid of what? If this happens in real life, I’m going to smack that guy for being a sissy~”

Chaerin felt her face getting red and sips on her drink.

‘Love?? No… no it can’t be… no… that guy doesn’t love me.. scratch that theory’

“Afraid that… the girl doesn’t love him…”

“The girl don’t have feelings for him..”

Dara and Minzy say those words at the same time and they high five while giggling at their similar answer. Chaerin face getting hotter hearing that and starts fanning herself.

 “Why? What’s wrong?” Bom notices Chaerin is fanning herself vigorously.

“I just ate something spicy….” She just mumbles whatever comes to mind and the three look at the table searching for spicy food but none. They give her a suspicious look and she points her spaghetti and the tobasco on the table.

“Tobasco overload..” she said, practically saving herself from the suspicion.

“Oh I know!! Another theory!!” Bom clap her hands and smirk. “He already have a girlfriend.. that .. but his mom doesn’t approve him with her, so he pretended to say he’s single, so his mom sets up this whole blind date thingy and to save his he basically just ask this easy girl to help him”

“Bom.. no..” Dara shakes her head and rolls her eyes.

Minzy chuckles hearing Bom’s theory but Chaerin can’t help it but having it planted to her mind. She already had trouble sleeping this past few days thinking of Jiyong’s last word that previous night. They have yet to set when this fake date will take place and he already made her anxious and restless with that sentence.

“By the way, enough talk about that… not importante~ How’s life living in front of the mighty GD?” Minzy blurted out and Chaerin accidentally choked on her drink she was sipping.

“God… slow down…” Dara passes her a napkin.

“Err… fine..”

“Fine? Wow…” Bom raised her eyebrow at her.

“I mean, he’s okay…” Chaerin tried to sound as casual as possible.

“He’s not being a pain in the anymore?” Dara smiles.

“No… not really” she answer while thinking about their recent encounter.

“Are you seeing him in a different way now?” Minzy places her elbows on the table and rest her head on her knuckles.

“If different you mean aside from being an , yes… he’s actually quite…okay” she look at them exchanging meaningful looks suspiciously. “What? What’s with the telepathic mind conversation you guys are having?”

“We just have this crazy idea… both of you look really good together” Bom shows her grin followed by constant nodding from the rest.

“What??!! No…” her face starts getting red again.

“Why are you getting red then?” Minzy teases her.

“The mind says what the heart thinks otherwise” Dara wiggle her eyebrow.

“Besides, you did go out with him the other day right?? How was it?” Bom refers to the weird text she received from Chaerin the other day ‘.O. alert.. I’m with splashed guy.. if I gone missing, you know who to find… will fill u in later, xo’ Of course Bom texts her countless texts after that and only quiet down when Chaerin text her saying they were going to dinner.

“What? When does this happen??” Dara frowns.

“It’s nothing… gosh” Chaerin shoots her glare towards Bom who is avoiding her eye contact.

“What do you mean nothing? Details. Now.” Minzy get closer to her only to be pushed by Chaerin because she can basically hear her breathing.

“We had dinner. That’s it” she conclude it in a simplest way as possible.

“That’s it?” Bom sounded disappointed.

“Yup..”

“No good night kiss?” Minzy blurted out.

“Heck no.”

“No second date?” Dara raised her eyebrow.

“God, it was not a date and there is…..none. No second date”

“Wow… it’s been years… this is the first time I heard Ji going out on a date again” Dara turn her gaze to Minzy and Bom

“It was not a date~” Chaerin rolls her eyes.

“Why? What happened to him?” Minzy ask.

“This happened long ago, but Ji had a girlfriend before, they were pretty serious, living together and all, but one day.. puffff!!! She disappeared, nobody knows where she went… she totally gone AWOL, just like that” she snap her fingers in front of them.

Chaerin felt something over hearing the fact that Jiyong have lived with a girl before and before she could comment on anything, Bom was ahead of her.

“It’s no surprise, like Chae said, he’s an , so his girlfriend might not stand him and ran away”

“Yah, Bommie… he’s not a complete .. I don’t think he would treat his girl that way” Chaerin backed him up earning judgemental look from her friends.

“Umm…. It’s because I seen a different side of him already…” she mumbles.

“Actually I agree with Chae… I seen him with Sohee.. he was very loving… They look good together and I really thought they were a real deal...”

“Pshhh… what kind of name is that? Sohee..” Chaerin blurted out.

“Awwhhh don’t be such a jealous babe…” Bom chuckles making Chaerin realized the remarks she just made.

“I’m not… I was…”

“Nawhh, don’t worry, you’re much better than her…” Dara continues making the rest giggles watching Chaerin flustering.

Chaerin knows her next word she said will be used against her if she said the wrong ones.

“Girls…” she brushes them off acting like it’s not interesting to her making an end to it.

Seeing her that way puts them off of teasing her further.

“Not fun~” Bom pursed her lips.

“Enough about that, let’s start planning our trip to New York….” Chaerin change the topic which brings life to Bom again and Dara who is excitedly taking out her notebook, the ‘book of planning’, and the bible of their road trip.

The night fills with their laughter and catching up with each other’s updates. Minzy was the most excited one when Chaerin gives back their phone which caused the rest to start teasing her. This is what Chaerin needs before she could face with Jiyong again this week.

However, something weird is going on. Instead of wanting to avoid the weekend, she is actually looking forward for it.

**************************

“Ji, let’s go visit Dara at her sight this weekend, she’s filming close by..” Youngbae is watching his cousin eating his lunch while looking at some of the details for their fashion show.

“Oh…Oh… yes! Let’s…” Seungri wipe his mouth and shakes Jiyong’s shoulder.

“I said Jiyong…” Youngbae teases him.

“Yah…” Seungri stare at Youngbae. Jiyong pushes his hand off his shoulder and still have his eyes glued on the papers.

“Can’t. Have things to do”

“It’s weekend, we’re free… basically you schedule all our business trips on weekdays, and our weekends are clear now thanks to you…” Youngbae frowns.

“I’m telling you.. there’s a girl” Seungri mumbles.

“You know what? I’m starting to think you’re right…”

“Give me back my money…” Seungri gesture to Youngbae.

“Dude, it turned to … you still want it?” Youngbae chuckles.

“Yah~” Jiyong puts down the chopsticks, suddenly losing his appetite.

“Oh…so you’re still alive?” Seungri rolls his eyes.

“In case you hadn’t notice, I’m focusing on work here…”

Youngbae snatch the papers from Jiyong getting his full attention towards him.

“Tell me Ji, is there a girl?”

He looks into Youngbae’s eyes. Jiyong knows he’s dying to know but with Seungri’s presence there, he still not sure whether he is ready to talk it out with Seungri.

“No” he grabs the paper back and continues where he left off. Truth is, his mind is already wandering to one person right now. Chaerin.

*************************************

 <