Just like any other day, Yoona found herself sitting in Kyuhyun’s car without a clue to where they were headed. Kyuhyun was back to his old self, she realized as she turned her head to look at him talking about something she honestly didn’t really care about. But she humored him, nodding her head at occasional times just to show that she was listening, when in reality she wasn’t.

She found herself growing accustomed to Kyuhyun’s noisy presence, she hated to admit it but she actually felt queasy if he wasn’t there to disturb her all the time. Although she didn’t particularly like the way he dragged her out of work for useless reasons such as ‘just to visit the restaurant that just opened up across the street’ or ‘to keep him company because he felt bored’, she also didn’t like the way he was quiet just like the other day. She would much rather be with his spontaneous and noisy self than his quiet and closed self who was as much as a stranger to her.

It’s weird, she thinks to herself because she never imagined herself liking that side of him.

“Yoong?” Kyuhyun called. “Are you listening?”

Yoona nods her head just like she has been doing the whole time. “Yeah. Go on, I’m listening.”

“So, anyways…”

Yoona drones his voice out of her head and goes back to her thoughts. She wonders how much work she’s skipped ever since she met Kyuhyun and cringes painfully when she imagines how less the numbers are going to be in her paycheck since she’s ditched work a lot of times.

Yoona has tried declining to go hang out with Kyuhyun so many times, but every time she does so, he looks at her and tells her that it’s fine, that he’s got it, and she can’t help but believe it and go along with him. It’s no wonder that he’s a lawyer, he can seriously be persuasive if he wanted to.

Yoona looked at Kyuhyun to check if he is still talking. He isn’t. He must’ve caught on and realized that she was no longer listening to him talk.

“How do you have so much time to come and disrupt my work to take me somewhere?” she blurts out, curious. “Don’t you have work too? I mean, you’re a lawyer. You should be even busier than I am.”

“I do have work.”

“Then how come you seem like you have all the time in the world?”

Kyuhyun just shrugged his shoulders, not giving her a definite answer.

“That’s it? A shrug? That’s your answer?”

He gave her another shrug as his reply, making her huff out of annoyance. A playful grin creeped its way up his lips as her looked at her through the corner of his eye, happy that he .

“Don’t worry about my work and just worry about yours, alright?” he softly said and took his eyes of the road for a moment to give her a wide smile.

“Whatever.”

“Why are we here?” Yoona asked when Kyuhyun finally pulled up on a parking spot, her eyes swirling with confusion.

“Picnic.”

“Picnic?” she repeated. “I swear you watch too many dramas. Did you see a scene of two people having a date at a park with a picnic basket and decided you want to do it too? And why did we go all the way here when there’s a park near my place?”

“This is a date?”

Yoona felt her face go warm at the question and looked away, knowing how flushed her face was. “N-no.”

“Hm?” he grinned. “What was that? Yes?”

“I said no!” she shouted back, her face still looking out the window as she tried to regain her natural color back.

“Whatever you say,” he sing-songed with a playful tone, ticking her off even more.

“Shut up, will you.”

“You really came prepared for this,” Yoona said in amazement and whistled as she looked at the picnic mat and basket filled with various foods.

“Well, what picnic would it be without these things?” he replied in a smug tone as he was laying down the mat on the field of grass. “Bet you didn’t think I had this side to me, did ya’?”

Yoona hummed in agreement and sat down on the picnic mat. She peeked inside the basket and her eyes brightened at the sight of food, watering automatically.

“So what made you want to go on a picnic?” she asked, bits of rice falling as she chewed on a roll of kimbap. Kyuhyun realized that he was very bad at slicing rice rolls after his fifth attempt at them bursting in the middle so he just decided to give up on cutting and left it as it was.

“Oh, you mean this date? I didn’t get the idea for a picnic from a drama, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he teased, chuckling when Yoona momentarily stopped chewing at the word ‘date’. “I just haven’t been on a picnic in a long time. And I recall you saying you liked stars the other days so I prepared something.”

“What?”

“It’s a secret,” he grinned and sent her a cheesy wink, laughing when Yoona faked a gag. “You have to wait until its night time.”

“That long?” she whined and childishly kicked her foot to show her disapproval towards the idea of sitting in a park for hours.

“Hey, I woke up extra early this morning just to prepare this huge amount of food for you to make sure that it doesn’t even taste bad and even cut my finger as I tried the cut the ingredients,” he paused for a while to raise his finger up to her eyes and show her the Doraemon bandage that was wrapped around his finger. Childish, she thought.

“-and even brought a picnic mat for your comfort and prepared a surprise. The only thing you have to do is to wait for the surprise,” he said, lacing his voice with sadness as he tried to guilt trip her. “Is that a problem?”

“No,” she mumbled dejectedly.

“Is it time yet?” Yoona asked as she nibbled on her fingernails, her eyes narrowed as she tried to think of her next move. They were on their third game of chess, Kyuhyun having won all of them.

Kyuhyun leisurely checked his wristwatch. “Nope.”

“I don’t want to play this game anymore!” Yoona angrily declared and swiped her hand over the chessboard when her king was eaten yet again by one of Kyuhyun pieces. “This game is rigged, I tell you!”

“Do you want to play checkers, then?” he cheerfully suggested, happy that he was winning every game, and picked up the fallen pieces that were thrown over by Yoona’s hand.

“Okay. But just one.”

“Is it time yet?” Yoona questioned with a whiny voice. “I think my legs are starting to fall asleep. And I am just so sick of losing to you at every game.”

Kyuhyun reached for his phone in his back pocket –momentarily forgetting that he had a watch- and glanced at it, nodding afterwards. Yoona let out a happy “yes!” before sitting up.

“Here,” he said, handing her a pair of binoculars he dug out from his backpack.

Where did that backpack come from?

“What’s this for? Is this the surprise? Binoculars?” she asked, dumbfounded. “Thank you… I guess? I shall treasure it forever.”

Kyuhyun lightly knocked on her head and clucked his tongue. “You’re supposed to use the binoculars, you fool.”

Yoona raised the pairs of binoculars to her face. Kyuhyun didn’t remember the binoculars looking so big when Yoona placed it near her face; it practically took up half her frame.

Yoona let out an ‘ooh’ after looking through it. “I can see every inch of your face,” she stated. “Although I admit this is a very weird surprise since I’m basically looking at your pores, thank you. I still don’t get why we had to wait until night came to do this.”

Kyuhyun grabbed the pair of binoculars away from her. “That’s not what it’s meant for!” he cried, his ears a burning red caused by his embarrassment. Insecurity washed over him for a second at the mere thought of Yoona looking at every inch of his face. “You’re not supposed to look at my face,” he scolded. “You look at the sky.”

“It’s pitch black.”

“Oh my god,” he groaned. “Look at the sky with the binoculars, idiot!” he shouted, his voice unknowingly raising in frustration.

Kyuhyun raised his own pair to his eyes and pointed Yoona to where a cluster of stars stayed. “Do you see them now?”

“They’re beautiful,” Yoona murmured, her voice sounding a bit stunned. “It’s different. I’ve never seen them as close as this. Thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

“No, really,” Yoona persisted. “Thank you. No one has ever done this for me. Thank you.”

“No, really,” Kyuhyun laughed, repeating what she said earlier. “It’s my pleasure.”

“No, I mean-“

“I get it, I get it Yoong!” he laughed once again. “You’re thankful, I know. And it’s my pleasure to be doing this for you. Seeing you happy makes me happy.”

Kyuhyun let out a yelp when she pinched his nose.

 “You’re gross. You’re so cheesy that I feel like vomiting. You have enough cheese for me to dip my nachos in.”

“That,” he halted, “does not make any sense.”

 “So how was today?” Kyuhyun asked. They were on their way back now. “Fun? Exciting? Relaxing? Something that you will never forget? Awesome? A one of a kind picnic?”

“Boring,” she replied. “And please stop with the synonyms.”

“Boring?” he exclaimed.

“I’m kidding, it was nice.”

“Just nice?”

“It was fun? Exciting? Something I will never forget in my entire life?” she repeated what he said earlier.

“Ding dong daeng!”

Yoona just sighed and shook her head, not wanting to say anything.

“We’re here,” he announced, pulling up in front of her building.

“Yeah, we ar- hey, where are you going?” she questioned when she saw Kyuhyun unbuckle his seatbelt and head out of the car.

“Relax, I’m just opening your door for you.”

“I can open it myself, you know. I mean, I do have two arms that work perfectly fine.”

“I know you can.”

“You’re weird.”

He smiled; he already grew accustomed to her calling him that by now. “I know.”

“Good,” she concluded. “Anyway, thanks for today. I really appreciate you doing this for me. And yeah,” she trailed off awkwardly, not really knowing what to say next. “I’ll see you soon?” It was more of a question than a statement.

“Yeah, see you.” He waved. Yoona took that as her sign to leave.

Kyuhyun’s arm reached out to stop her from leaving but hesitated. Because of his moment of hesitation, she was far out of his arm’s reach. Instead, he settled with shouting a frantic, “wait!”

He jogged up to her when her steps ceased. “Wait,” he said once again.

“What is it? Did I forget something?”

Wordlessly, he started moving closer to her. His eyes were on her and nothing else. Kyuhyun started getting too close to Yoona for her own comfort so she decided to take a step back. Kyuhyun curled his arm around her petite waist and gently rested his hand on her back to stop her from moving away from him.

“Kyuhyun, would you mind walking a bit back? You’re getting too close.” She lifted her arms and placed them on his chest, trying to push him back. She was breaking out in cold sweat. “Kyuhyun?” She tried again.

“Yoong,” he murmured. She could feel his breathe hit her face. He was that close. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a while.”

“Do what?” she asked, although she did have an idea of what he had in mind. She wasn’t completely dense. She just wanted a confirmation, something to prove her assumption wrong. Because it was impossible. He couldn’t.

A few strands of hair were covering her face, preventing him from admiring her face fully so he pushed them back behind her ear, his cold fingers leaving a strange sensation as they brushed past her ear.

“Kyuhyun?”

Yoona stopped questioning when she felt something soft and light on her lips. Her first instinct was to close her eyes, and so she did, but that was it. She didn’t move a muscle, she completely froze. Her mind was frozen.

Kyuhyun kissed her.

No, he was kissing her.

It felt familiar in a way. She didn’t know why.

It was weird.

It was weird because she wasn’t repelled. She didn’t hate it.

No, she felt okay with it. A part of her actually liked it.

Yoona unconsciously pushed herself forward and leaned into his touch. He pulled her even closer, liking the warmth she was emitted. She didn’t know what she was doing. Her body was moving on its own accord, ignoring every wave of warning her brain was sending.

Strange enough, she didn’t want to move away from him. Yoona blamed it on her brain that was currently going into overdrive. Her senses were heightened, everywhere he touched left a burning sensation on her. Goosebumps started to form on her skin.

She could smell him. She could smell his cologne mixed with the tangy scent of sweat. Her ears seemed to block out everything except for the hollow breaths he exhaled through his nose from time to time. Everything else just seemed to whizz past her, disappearing into tiny particles. She could feel every inch of him. From the broad expanse of his chest to his strained muscles that held her close to him. She felt his nose that was awfully close to hers, his eyelashes, his cheeks, his smooth skin. She felt everything.

Although she unwillingly pushed herself close to him, her lips hadn’t moved. Yoona blinked open her eyes when she she finally registered what was going on. The thought struck her again.

Kyuhyun was kissing her.

What was she doing?

Yoona hastily pushed herself away from him and stepped back. Her eyes were appalled while Kyuhyun’s were drowsy, his eyes were still half closed, a dazed look in his eyes.

“What..I-I’m sorry,” she apologized. Her fingers were placed on her lips, still burning from the kiss. She had a stupefied look on her face. “I- you- no. This is wrong. This is very wrong,” she muttered to herself, trying to convince herself that this was all wrong.

“Yoong-“

“No. What happened, no. That was a mistake. I’m sorry- I- I have to go.” Yoona turned her back on him and ran away.

“Yoong!” He wanted to call, but she was too far away from him to be heard. He had a feeling that she wouldn’t turn back even if she heard him, anyway.

A Cheshire grin stretched his lips as he walked back to his car. This kiss was different from the previous one. She was sober this time. She was aware of the kiss. She felt the spark.

 His mind was still hazy from the intimate action they shared. He had mixed feelings, yes. He probably scared Yoona off by kissing her out of nowhere and she would probably hate him until eternity but he decided that he could worry about the consequences of his action later. He would focus on the positive side for now.

He just kissed her. He couldn't stop thinking about it. The word 'kiss' kept appearing all over his head. He kissed her. Her. Im Yoona.

And she was about to return the action. He felt it, he swore he did. She was about to kiss him back, he knew it. And that was enough to make him happy because that second was enough to light up a candle of hope inside of him. If she hesitated for a moment and didn’t push him away immediately after he made his made, then maybe she was willing to give him a chance. It was going to take some time, he knew. Yoona was not one to give in easily. But it didn’t matter.

Because he was going to try.