Krystal's POV

After getting fully ready I walked past my sister’s room.

‘’Where you going?’’ I could hear her voice suddenly spring up.

‘’I’m going out.’’ I said. I gulped slowly and my lips, is she was going to find out who I was about to meet with she won’t let me go.

 ‘’That I can see, but who’re you going with?’’ She asked as she stepped out and had a good look at my attire, her fingers were winding up a few strands of her hair.

 ‘’My friends.’’ I said and noticed her eyes squeezing together at me.

‘’Okay, have fun.’’

She popped back into her room and I breathed out. It was weird though. Why did she tell me to have fun when she doesn’t normally care what I do? She really has changed recently. I knew that she likes Zico but I had no choice but to keep all of this quiet from her, it was his fault anyway, he was the one who wasn’t leaving me alone and he was the one who made me ‘fall in love with him’. I tried to keep away from him. I tried that all the time but somehow he’d manage to come back no matter what the reason was.

Maybe I should tell her what’s going on.

I felt my feet move but then I stopped. I knew that up until now I didn’t feel so included in the teenage life, or to have even set foot out of my bubble if it wasn’t for Zico. I felt as if I was surpassing my fears and for once I didn’t have to care about anything, I have done everything for Jessica up until now, maybe it was time to stop and think about myself and it wasn’t as if I really had a choice, Zico would come looking for me instead and it wouldn’t turn out as good.

 I drew my foot back and headed for the door.

I went on the elevator and closed up my coat. I knew taking jeans was a good idea, It was cold and I knew I’d be a frozen human being when I stepped out of this apartment block. I went on the bus and waited to get to this address he had texted me to go to. When I arrived there I sat down onto this bench and waited. A couple of cars went past and for the time being I though he wasn’t going to come.

 I jumped when I felt a jab at my waist, I looked down and saw two hands and being the me that I am, I started to freak out.

I turned around and saw Zico behind the bench trying really hard to scare me again.

‘’Thanks for scarin-‘’ I stopped talking as I saw a dozen of red roses held out in front of me. My mouth opened and I looked up at him.

He bought me flowers?

‘’These are for you.’’ he said as he walked around. I placed my hands around the bouquet and smelled the scented flowers.

‘’Thank you, it’s really nice of you.’’ I said. He sat down at the same time that I did, I admired the dark red colour of the roses in awe. It was probably the first time I had ever received flowers. I felt really tense at once as the only thing I wasn’t focusing on was Zico, his face was really close. I moved further away from him but I had reached the end of the bench, I looked back at him.

‘’Aren’t you gonna reward me?’’ He asked, I stared at him blankly.

‘’What do you want in return?’’ The way he chuckled at me annoyed me, if you want something in return why doesn’t he just say it, he knows that I’ll never get it through his laughter.

 ‘’I don’t know…’’ he scratched the side of his temple and looked up. I looked down at the flowers. What do you normally reward guys who give you flowers?

I finally remembered my dad giving my mother flowers and then I remembered, I decided to copy that.

‘’Oh, you shouldn’t have.’’ I said and gave him an awkward pat on his shoulder.

‘’Is that it?’’ he asked and I nodded.

‘’That’s all I can remember my mother doing. Why? Was I meant to give something in return?’’

He started laughing and out of nowhere he said ‘yes.’

I frowned now.

‘’Then what is it?’’ I had no patience left.

‘’I swear that falling in love with someone is more hard work than I expected.’’ I said and huffed air out.

‘’Let me teach you.’’

He suddenly leaned in and kissed me on my lips. 

My eyes widen in surprise and soon he pulled away, my hand shot up to my bottom lip and I looked down ashamed to reveal any signs of embarrassment.

I could hear him laughing silently beside me.

 ‘’If you don’t learn, I’ll just have to keep teaching you.’’ He said and I gripped onto the flowers. This is hard. And uncomfortable.

‘’Why did you call me here?’’ I tried to quickly changed the subject before he had anything else to teach me and I watched him reach into his pocket. He bought out his key and jingled them in the air.

‘’Wherever you want.’’ He said.

I looked at him through the slits of my eyes, that really can’t be it.

‘’I haven’t done this before so… you can lead the way.’’ I said and he placed his keys back into his pocket. He breathed out as if in frustration and I looked down for the lack of input I had here.

‘’Krystal, what do you really want to do on this date?’’ he stood up in front of me and looked down at me.

‘’I don’t know.’’ I shrugged and finally made eye contact again. He raised an eyebrow at me.

‘’I’ll just take you home then…’’ he was about to drag me up before I quickly changed my mind.

‘’No, we’ll go somewhere.’’ I said.

I had to figure something out.

He was laughing out loud now.

‘’What?’’ I asked.

‘’Do you really think I came here just to ask you where you want to go? I already made plans, let’s go.’’ He pulled me off the bench and rushed me to his car.

‘’So, where are we going then?’’ I asked.

‘’You’ll see’’ he said and I looked at him worried. Last time he said that I ended up soaked at a lake.

He pulled up in a car park and so we walked out in the cold again. He came into this narrow road and stopped in front of a restaurant.

‘’Let’s go.’’ He said and bought me inside. Someone took my coat, flowers and scarf whilst another lead us to our table. The place looked nice and expensive. It had a very elegant touch to even the smallest thing and the music had been drawn out from another country.

Zico came around to push my chair in and I thanked him silently. My hands seemed misplaced and me feet felt restless, how do you normally act on a date like this?

‘’What can I get you to drink?’’ I looked up and was shocked to see Zico’s friend as a waiter just next to our table. I looked at Zico and he smiled uncontrollably.

‘’His family owns this restaurant.’’ He stated. I felt as if he had put real thought into this date and I looked at him take care of things like he had done it a thousand times over. 

‘’An orange juice for her and a coffee for me.’’ Zico ordered and his friend left.

It all felt weird to me. He was doing all of these things for me and I wasn’t giving him anything in return. Even though he knew about my condition, once he found out he never left me alone like the others. In fact he seemed more interested in me, I was starting to think that he was becoming more like Sehun.

Caring.

‘’What do you think?’’ he asked. I nodded.

‘’Zico, you’re being too generous. I don’t think I can come up with a reward for this.’’ I just stopped talking as he sat there with his head resting on his wrist, staring at me with a slight smile on his lips. He was calm. Very calm and it was just like I mentioned before, uncomfortable. He was acting weird and I don’t know what to make of it.

‘’ You’ve been the most honest and nicest girl I’ve ever met. I don’t plan on letting you go and certainly don’t plan on asking you for a reward. Krystal, you’ve already paid me back.’’ I gasped at his words, it was the nicest thing I’ve ever heard him say.

‘’So, did you guys decide on what you want to order?’’ His friend came back.

I felt tears sting my eyes softly. He had told me something beautiful, I smiled through my tears and I felt him reach out to my hand, he squeezed hard.

‘’Thank you.’’ I said.

 ‘’Should I come back…or…?’’ I looked up at the waiter and tried to wipe my tears away.

‘’Oh, right.’’ Zico flicked through the menu whilst still holding onto my hand and ordered whilst looking at me. The waiter had left and the silence was filling up the atmosphere between us, he had stared at me trying to wipe away my tears.

‘’Why are you crying?’’ he asked.

I shrugged.

‘’ I didn’t know why.’’ I was happy.

After what seemed like two hours we finally finished eating. Zico offered to pay and I felt at fault for relying on someone once again. I got my coat and Zico wrapped the red scarf I had around my neck. For a moment there I swore that I was watching Sehun but as soon as I blinked Zico’s face had appeared. I really had no idea why Sehun would think of him as a bad guy, he