Mark was impressed with the clothes Joey had picked out for him. He nodded in approval when he looked at himself in the mirror.

First, Mark had lightly spiked his hair up with the help of just enough hair gel to make his hair still look and seem soft. Next, Joey had picked out a patterned black and white t-shirt with khaki shorts. On top of that Joey decided to put a jacket on for Mark.

“You guys are staying out late; most girls don’t take into account that it’ll be cold late at night. You can be cliché and give her the jacket later.” That was Joey’s reasoning. And Mark agreed.

Mark nodded and slipped on a pair of converse before saying a quick goodbye to his family members.

“Have fun on your date Mark!” his parents smiled and waved back.

“Say hi to Unnie for me!” Grace chirped.

“Don’t do anything stupid, her family will gladly kill you. Trust me,” Joey chuckled.

“Oh… Is that so… Okay… Thanks guys, bye!” Mark chuckled nervously and hurried out of the house.

He took a deep breath as he started walking to Soori’s home. Has he ever been this nervous for a date? He couldn’t remember. Several thoughts ran through his head, thoughts about how the date would go, what they would do, how it would end, what would she look like, would she enjoy it? Mark sure hoped she would enjoy the date.

Before he knew it, he was in front of her house. He gulped and fixed his jacket before approaching the front door and ringing the doorbell, politely waiting for someone to open the door.

To his surprise, Soori’s brother answered. If he remembered correctly, Soori did mention that her brother was rarely home since he was always busy with his work or college activities.

“A-Ah… Hello Hyung,” Mark quickly bowed out of respect.

“Hey, Mark. Soori’s still in her room, probably doing a quick last minute douse of perfume,” Hyuk smiled.

Perfume huh…

Mark couldn’t help but to think of what she smelled like. Strawberries? Cherries? Watermelon? Or maybe a flower.

“Why don’t you come in for a couple minutes. You never know how long the girl will be,” Hyuk chuckled and stepped aside for the red-haired boy.

Mark blinked a few times before quickly nodding and bowing his head respectfully before entering their house. “Thank you…”

“Don’t be so awkward. Anyway, I’m going to give you a couple brief pointers on Soori before she gets down here,” Hyuk suddenly said, making Mark stare at him in surprise.

“Wait… What…?” Mark asked, bewildered.

“It’s the first time Soori’s been out on an actual date. Casual or not. She’s hung out with Moonhyun and the other guys plenty of times, but never on an actual date. Her past boyfriends… Their dates never really counted, considering I’m one the only ones in the family who knows about them. Besides… What those guys did shouldn’t really qualify as a… Date,” Hyuk explained. “Point is. I want her to have a good first date, so I’m going to tell you a few things.”

“She’s very nervous about the whole hand holding thing. Try your best to keep your hand away from hers. Just wrap your arm around her waist or shoulders if you must. Ask her questions. She doesn’t seem like it, but she likes talking about herself just as much as she likes learning about other people. Play a good, long game of twenty questions. Let’s see… She’s a picky eater. If you guys plan to go eat… Make sure to ask her what she wants. If you’ve got the money, sushi would be your best bet. Oh but she loves just about all sweets. Like… Lots of butter on her popcorn, lots of candy, lots of sugar in her coffee, anything sweet really, she loves sweets, especially ice cream.”

With that last sentence, footsteps were heard coming down the hallway. Mark was too busy making a mental note of everything Hyuk had told him about Soori. He wanted to make sure he didn’t ruin Soori’s Friday. The goal for now was to give her a good time. The second goal was to score a second date. And Mark’s third goal, was to get a kiss. But he knew from the start that that was unlikely.

“Oh, Soori, about time,” Hyuk laughed as he stood up. Mark quickly shook himself out of his daze and stood up too, his jaw immediately dropping when he saw Soori.

She looked beautiful.

“Wow…” he murmured. It was all he could do to make sure he didn’t spend too long checking out Soori’s body. She was showing a lot of skin; Mark had a hard time keeping his eyes up instead of down.

Hyuk quickly nudged him out of his trance. Mark blinked and quickly straightened up, clearing his throat.

Soori smiled at the two boys and chuckled. “Uh… Well… I guess we’ll be going now, Oppa!” At the mere mention of the word ‘Oppa’ Mark began to feel envious, he wanted Soori to call him that.

“Yeah… Have fun you two. Make sure to take your key, I’m going out and I don’t know when Mom will be back,” Hyuk said, ruffling the girl’s hair.

“Ah… Okay…” she nodded and fixed her hair. “I’ll see you later then idiot!”

“Bye ugly!”

Soori chuckled and looked over at Mark, signaling for him to follow her out.

“Ahem… Um…” Mark cleared his throat again when they stepped outside. He immediately got a whiff of her perfume, it definitely smelled of candy, watermelon flavored candy. The scent drove him out of control as well as the way she was dressed. He could barely find his words but in the end he was able to say, “You look gorgeous.”

Soori rolled her eyes and smiled, “Thank you. But don’t get used to it, this’ll be the one time I dress like this.”

“Why? You look… Amazing…” Mark smiled as he looked over her outfit again. This time, he let his eyes wander over her body. He cursed her for showing so much skin.

She narrowed her eyes at him and then punched his arm when she saw where he was looking, “Hey! Don’t be a ert!”

“I can’t help it you’re showing too much skin!!” Mark sighed and then quickly took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders, “There.”

“Tch…” Soori scoffed but nonetheless wrapped his jacket tighter around her. Surprisingly, she felt comfortable in it and it smelled like it was doused in just the right amount of cologne, which Soori loved. She absolutely adored the smell of cologne.

“Hey… Are you wearing makeup?” Mark suddenly brought her out of her trance.

“Me? Makeup? Mark, you’ve lost it.”

“I definitely see makeup on your face, babe.”

“Who said you can call me ‘babe’ huh???”

“I did.”

“So?”

“So… Babe. You look good in makeup and all… But I loved your bare, non-makeup face.”

“Really? I guess I shouldn’t have wasted my time with this after all…”

“No! I like the fact that you actually took the time and effort to look nice for our date,” he grinned cheekily.

Soori rolled her eyes yet again and crossed her arms, nudging the man. “Shut up.”

“Wow! So mean!” Mark laughed and nudged her back.

“Only towards you. Anyway, what do you have planned for tonight?” Soori turned to face Mark, giving him a light smile that made his insides explode.

“Ah, I have a couple different things planned it just depends on what you want to do,” Mark answered.

“Okay… So what are our options?”

“The cliché movie and dinner date. We could go to the water park, we’d just need to you know… Change. Or we could go hang out at the mall and play at the arcade there, most likely window shop since you’ve told me you’re not much of a shopper… Yeah,” Mark said.

“Let’s go for a cliché movie and dinner date.”

“Somehow I was expecting that.”

~

“Go ahead and pick the movie, I’ll get us some snacks,” Mark told Soori as he left her with money to buy tickets for the both of them while he went to buy popcorn, a drink (only one), and candy. He remembered that Soori’s favorite soda was Sprite, so he decided to get that and made sure to also put extra butter on their popcorn.

Soori nodded slowly and looked up at the screen to show what movies were showing. She knew for sure she didn’t want to deal with watching a chick flick, so The Fault in our Stars was out of the picture. She had already watched the new X-Men. She didn’t want to watch Maleficent. So that left 22 Jump Street. That seemed to be the best movie to get.

When Soori met up with Mark again he just looked over at the tickets and nodded in approval.

“You know what I really like about you?”

“I’m not forcing you to go through The Fault in our Stars?” Soori made a random guess.

“Exactly. Thank you so much for that. And I got you a lot of candy and if you don’t mind I wanted to save money for our dinner so I only bought one drink.”

“If you wanted to save money for dinner you could have cut down on the snacks,” she loved as she took some of the candy out of Mark’s hands.

“But I wanted to share a drink with you and Hyuk Hyung said you like sweets a lot!”

“So you bought all of these sweets for me or…?”

“All of these sweets for you. Except… I might want a few…” Mark chuckled.

Soori rolled her eyes and chuckled, “Thanks, Mark.”

The two made their way to the theater and got themselves seated. They arranged their snacks and the drink so they knew what was where.

“Hey, let’s take some photos before the movie starts,” Soori suggested while taking out her phone.

“Wow, even you can act like a regular teenage girl.”

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” Soori raised an eyebrow at him.

Mark just chuckled and shook his head, lifting up Soori’s phone, “Let’s just take pictures, babe.”

Soori rolled her eyes and scooted closer to Mark so they could take good photos together.

The couple took about ten different photos before Mark suddenly moved, keeping Soori’s phone with him. The girl narrowed her eyes at him and tried to peek over his shoulder to see what he was doing.

“You better not be hacking my Instagram!”

“Whoops,” Mark said and chuckled when he uploaded the photo. The caption read, ‘On a date with the handsomest man on Earth! <3 He’s such a gentleman~’

Soori sighed and shook her head while she added a comment. ‘#hacked’

Afterwards, she put her phone back away into her pocket and glared at Mark. “You are never getting hold of my phone again, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, babe.”

“You also need to stop calling me babe,” Soori frowned.

Mark let out a soft chuckled and smiled charmingly at the girl, scooting closer to her, “But… Babe just sounds so fitting.”

“It’s only fitting if we were actually a couple. And we’re not.”

“Funny you bring that up… Do you want to be my girlfriend then?” he asked cheekily.

She just raised an eyebrow at him, “Oh shut up.”

The two continued to chat until the movie started. Mark had carelessly flirted with Soori only to be shot down with each pickup line he gave. Although it would seem that Soori truly hated Mark, she found herself honestly enjoying his company. She laughed more and smiled more at him as the date dragged on. Surprisingly, she even kindly fed him some of the snacks that he bought. There was no sign of her trying to choke him with the candy, just her feeding the small snacks into his mouth like a caring girlfriend would.

Mark couldn’t stop smiling as he noticed Soori loosening up with him. So far, the date was going well, and they were acting like how any normal couple would. Finally, the movie had started.

Halfway into the movie, Mark was able to see how into it Soori was. She wasn’t even eating anything anymore let alone drinking their Sprite. Though, her actions showed nothing of being too into it. She didn’t move or have any noticeable reaction to the scenes. Yet Mark noticed the little reactions. Her body had a very small flinch to sudden unexpected events; it was such a subtle flinch that if you had blinked you would have missed it. Her eyes very slightly widened at certain points, you would have needed a magnifying glass to see that her eyes did in fact grow wider. Then her small laughs, which were the most noticeable. She would quickly raise a hand to to make sure her laughs weren’t too loud.

Mark was able to notice all of that while he watched her from the corner of his eye. With a small smile, he slowly slid his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. She had no objections, plus she didn’t want to cause a scene in the theater, so she let him pull her close. Soori figured she could kick his for it later.

It wasn’t until near the end that Soori had finally let out a soft yawn and laid her head down on Mark’s shoulder. She reached out to grab what was left of the popcorn and drink some of the remaining Sprite. Mark just smiled sweetly at her while gently rubbing her arm and shoulder. After a few moments, he had rested his head down on top of hers.

The couple remained that way until the end of the movie. As soon as the credits appeared Soori pulled away from Mark, much to his dismay. She stood up and stretched out her arms, Mark followed suit.

“That was a good movie!” Soori commented as they got out of the theater.

“Yeah, yeah it was,” Mark nodded and chuckled.

“Oh and…” Soori suddenly slapped Mark’s arm.

He yelped, “Ow! What was that for?!?!”

“For putting your arm around me without any warning!”

“You didn’t push me away!”

“I didn’t want to be rude!”

“And that wasn’t?!?!”

“You should have expected it.”

He sighed and shook his head, “Alright, alright… Where do you wanna eat?”

“Hmm… How much money do you have?”

“Enough to cover the most expensive of meals,” he chuckled.

“Really?” Soori suddenly gave him an evil smirk.

“Okay… Okay… Maybe not…”

She laughed and shook her head, “Let’s get sushi!”

“…Okay I can afford that,” Mark laughed.

~

“Hey, Soori…” Mark said as they were waiting for the waiter to return with their order.

“Hmm?” she looked up at him while taking a sip out of her glass of water.

“I don’t actually know a lot about you… “

“What do you want to know? I’m an open book, I’ll tell you anything,” she said while placing her glass of water down, resting one arm on the table as she propped her elbow up on the table, resting her chin on the palm of her hand, her fingers curled in, resting against her cheek.

Mark thought for a moment, “Basics. When’s your birthday?”

“January 19. Next?”

“Favorite color?”

“Purple.”

“Any sports?”

“I don’t play many sports myself. I love watching basketball though.”

“What do you like to play?”

“You mean other than video games?”

“Yeah, sports.”

“Tennis and basketball I guess.”

“Ideal type?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Then name some random things you like in a guy.”

“…Talent. Whether they sing well, dance well, or rap well; though I prefer dancers. I like basketball players. I prefer longer hair rather than shorter hair. I’d want him to be tall, or at least taller than me. He better have a sense of humor. And he better get along with my family.”

“Family person huh?”

“Yeah. You could be the most amazing guy I’ve ever met, but if you don’t get along with my family then you’re out.”

“Hmm… Who do you look up to the most?”

“One of my cousins; you haven’t met her. She lives in California.”

“Really? You know I was born in California.”

“Really? I didn’t know that actually.”

“Yeah, I lived in Los Angeles.”

“Really? Me too. I go down there for at least a week every summer.”

“Oh… You should take me with you this summer!”

“Yeah you wish.”

“I sure do. I’d love to go down there for a vacation with you,” he winked.

“A vacation with you? Please, I’d rather kill myself,” she playfully rolled her eyes.

“Ouch. That hurts!” Mark dramatically put a hand over his heart.

With another roll of her eyes, Soori just shook her head.

“Your turn.”

“Huh?”

“Your turn. Answer the same questions you asked me.”

“…My birthday is September 4. My favorite color is blue. I play basketball and that’s about all. I can play other sports but my main is basketball. My ideal type is just a girl who makes me want to be with her. And uh… I don’t exactly have anything I look for in a guy… And the one I look up to the most? Probably my dad.”

“So what do you look for in a girl?” Soori asked.

“You,” Mark winked again.

She rolled her eyes, “No, seriously.”

“A pretty face, a strong personality, someone who makes me chase after them. It may not seem like it since I’m a player and I flirt with a lot of girls, but I really like those girls who make me work to get what I want. Like you, you’ve shown no interest in me despite my growing interest in you. I like challenges.”

“So you’re saying I’m a challenge?”

“Have you seen the way you treated me since we met? You are more than just a challenge,” Mark laughed.

Soori chuckled and shook her head, “So what you’re saying is… I’m your ideal type?”

“Hmm… More or less… Yeah you are.”

“Aww… You’re the first to say I’m your ideal type.”

“Well, other guys must be unaware of what they’re missing out on.”

Soori rolled her eyes, “One more flirtatious comment like that and I swear I’ll duct tape your mouth shut.”

“Oohhh… Fiesty,” he smirked teasingly.

“Tch…” Soori scoffed at him, turning her head as she noticed the waiter back with their platter of sushi.

“You’re lucky the waiter got here,” she muttered before smiling at the waiter and thanking him.

~

After their dinner, Soori insisted on the both of them walking home. She knew a shortcut from the restaurant to her house and they could bond more through walking instead of riding a bus to her house. Besides, there were several stars out, Soori thoroughly enjoyed stargazing.

“You know… It’s hard to believe that just last week you hated me,” Mark said.

Soori chuckled, “Who said I didn’t still hate you?”

“Do you?”

“Nah. Strongly dislike.”

“Ouch. That hurts. Why do you even dislike me?”

“Is that really a question right now? I have told you plenty of times in the past why I do.”

“No I mean… Why do you still dislike me?”

“It takes more than just one date to make me change my hatred into liking you. Be glad I stopped hating you,” she chuckled lightly and crossed her arms, glancing up at him.

Mark sighed but then grinned widely, “So… How about a second date?”

“No.”

“What?!”

“Just kidding,” Soori chuckled and smiled at him.

That smile alone forced Mark to clear his throat and tear his gaze from hers, afraid that his cheeks would explode with how much heat was going up to them.

“So… I uh…” Mark struggled to find some words.

As he opened his mouth to speak again, a loud shriek was heard followed by several muffled noises. The couple quickly turned their heads just in time to see a group of men walking into an alleyway, the muffled noises were definitely coming from them.

“I told you it was a bad idea to wa—Soori??” Mark’s eyes widened as he saw Soori heading towards the alleyway. He hurried to grab onto her hand, holding her back, “Are you crazy??”

“Someone among those men is in danger and we’re the only ones who are around to hear it! Call me crazy but I won’t ignore someone’s desperate cries for someone to do something about it!” Soori pulled her hand out of his grasp.

Mark quickly grabbed at her again, “I understand but we’re just two teenagers. That was a group of grown men! What good can we do? We’ll call the cops for now.”

“…Fine…”

Soori at least convinced Mark for them to wait nearby the alleyway for the cops to arrive. As time passed by, minutes seemed to have taken years. As each second passed by, the muffled noises only grew louder, almost as if whoever was making them had only one purpose in life – to make those noises. Each time they were echoed through the alleyway, Soori felt shivers going down her spine. She paced back and forth and tapped her foot impatiently while waiting for the cops. What was worse was that it was starting to get colder.

Mark tried to calm her down, but nothing he did helped. The change in weather wasn’t helping Soori’s mood, so Mark took his jacket off and wrapped it around her, in his mind he thanked Joey for forcing him to wear it. Soori smiled gratefully at him and wrapped his jacket tighter around her body.

It wasn’t until the cops sirens were heard that the men started to panic. “Oh !” Mark and Soori heard one of them yell. The muffled noises stopped and full on sobs were heard, now it was obvious it came from a female. The men hurried out of the alleyway. Mark didn’t even have time to react before he saw Soori run over to grab the female out of one of the man’s hands.

As soon as another man put his hand on Soori, Mark felt the world slow down as he rushed over to his side, quickly pushing the man away from her. He put the men on one side with him and the two girls on the other, keeping both girls behind him.

“Don’t you dare lay a finger on these ladies,” Mark said coldly as he glared at the men.

The men just laughed, “What’s a scrawny little boy like you going to do about it?”

“Eh, nothing,” Mark shrugged, “I’ll let the cops take care of you.”

And, almost as if the scene were planned out, the cops came out, surrounding the men.

Mark turned back to Soori and the other girl when he saw the cops handling the situation. His eyes widened as he noticed the girl. She was no younger than Mark and Soori, and her clothes were ripped so her private parts were easily seen. Soori hurriedly removed Mark’s jacket and covered up the girl’s body with it. Secretly, Mark frowned when her private parts were covered. He knew it was a bad time to be checking out another girl, but when it was right there in front of him, his instincts just couldn’t help it. It took all of his power to not say anything about it.

“Are you okay?” she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

The girl just shook her head and continued weeping.

“Do you want us to take you home?”

The girl shook her head again.

Soori pursed her lips, “Shall we leave you to the cops then?”

The girl didn’t do anything and just wept.

One of the cops came over to the teenagers and knelt down beside Soori and the girl. “We can handle it from here. I’ve got a blanket to cover her up. It’s cold; you kids should keep the jacket.”

“Oh… Okay… Thank you, officer,” Soori bowed politely to him as she took the jacket back.

The cop immediately wrapped the blanket around the girl’s body once Soori has Mark’s jacket wrapped around her body again.

“Thank you for calling us. This was really brave of you both. I wish more teenagers were like you guys,” a cop bowed to Mark and Soori.

Mark and Soori immediately bowed back and smiled at the cop, “Don’t mention it… Just make sure the girl gets home safely,” Soori said politely.

“Of course. Be safe on your way home you two, do you want us to drive you?”

“Oh, no thank you. My house is just around the corner and his house isn’t too far away after that. Thank you, though.”

~

“I didn’t expect you to do that,” Mark chuckled once they were far enough from the cops. By now, it was only a minute more of walking before they hit Soori’s home.

“I stand up for people regardless of whether or not I’ll get hurt… I don’t think things through well enough when it comes to situations like that. Honestly… If it weren’t for you, I probably would have ended with the same fate as that girl,” she sighed.

“…I doubt it. Those men may have looked strong but… I know for a fact that you’re strong as well. Beside, you have strong willpower. You would have been able to fend for yourself. At the time, I could only think that I didn’t want to see you fighting them and possibly losing, that’s why I insisted on calling the cops instead.”

“You would have saved me though, right?”

“Of course! What kind of man would I be if I didn’t??”

Soori laughed softly and looked up at the sky, “I hate rapists more than any other criminal.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t know… I just do,” Soori lied. She knew exactly why she hated criminals. But her reasoning was private information that Mark didn’t need to know.

“I see…”

Now, they had reached Soori’s home.

She turned to him as they stood in front of her gate. “Thank you for a fun date.”

“It was my honor to spend the evening with you,” Mark gave a silly grin and exaggerated a bow.

Soori laughed softly and shook her head, “I’ll regret saying this but… It was actually nice having my first date be with you.”

“So… Would you mind having a second date with me?” Mark asked with a smile.

“Second date? Already? Mark we just finished our first!” she laughed.

“It doesn’t have to be anytime soon… I was hoping it could be on the night of homecoming. I’d like to be your date to the homecoming dance.”

“Mm… I’ll think about it. Try and ask me out again another time and we’ll see if I’ve made up my mind by then,” she grinned lightly.

Mark chuckled and shook his head, “Alright… I’ll ask you until you say yes.”

“Now we don’t want you looking desperate. Might ruin your reputation Mr. Player.”

“Ah you’re right… I’ll just ask another girl then.”

“Yah!”

“Aww so you do want me to ask you!”

“…I’m going inside now. Go home.”

“Aww, baby!!”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Are you really mad?”

“Yes.”

“Baby…”

Soori rolled her eyes and turned to look at Mark, quickly leaning in and kissing his cheek. “I’m not mad. But it’s getting late, I don’t want you walking home too late at night… Go already.”

Mark froze for a moment as the heat rushed to his cheeks again. Barely a minute passed before he grinned widely and looked at Soori in shock. He couldn’t even find any words.

She just smiled and opened her gate, turning around to close and lock it again. “Good night, Mark. I’ll see you on Monday.”

Then, she turned and walked into her house. Giving him a small wave goodbye before walking inside.

Mark remained frozen outside her house for another minute before he quickly walked back home. As soon as he way in the safe confines of his room he fist pumped and grinned widely to himself. He hadn’t even noticed Joey and Grace at his doorframe until they started interrogating him.

It was their first question that got Mark even happier.

“Hyung… Where’s the jacket I told you to wear?”

~~~~~~~~

Wow. That took so much longer than I expected it to.

Sorry this chapter came out so late... I had finals last week but now I'm out of school! But I have a summer assignment and then I'm going on a vacation... Hopefully I'll be able to come online every now and then to give you guys another update...

On another note... I didn't really revise/edit this chapter too much so sorry if there's any mistakes xD

Drop some comments, they motivate me <3

Comment Replies~

christina914 - Ikr?? He's adorable <3

isabelisthename - Joey is definitely gonna be like one of my favorite characters to write scenes for <3

thelillcat - I hope their date was satisfactory for you <3

almightytofu - Welcome, new reader! :D I'm glad you like my story <3 Thank you for reading~!