Seventeen
Shin Hye

A part of me regrets it. I think I let myself be carried away and I know I should’ve stopped it or at least control it. I still can’t fully trust him and I think it was a dumb move of me to just believe him and dive into it. But at the same time I can’t fully regret what I did and I think if I were in the same position again I would choose the same. I wanted to kiss him, I wanted him to hold me like that even if that means I’m taking a huge risk. But I enjoyed it, I really, really enjoyed it and even when I’m alone at home I play the kiss in my mind over and over again, letting giggles escape and shaking my head at myself for being silly.

My heart is racing as I head to where we decided to meet. He took very seriously the whole taking me on a date and made sure to use our night off to ask me out so now I’m supposed to meet him outside the bar and then he’ll take me somewhere. He didn’t say where, it’s supposed to be a surprised, and I didn’t nag him to tell me where and ruin what he’s trying to accomplished. I’m partial to surprises, after all.

Once I make it there, before the time the bar opens, I see hims standing there with hands shoved inside the pockets of his jeans, keeping a casual pose and oblivious to my presence there. My heart races even more when I see him and I try to fight the smile on my lips, but it turns impossible. I push to the back of my mind the fear I feel and tell myself it’s okay, we all have to take risks from time to time and lately he has proved himself to be serious.

Then he finally notices my presence even if I haven’t moved a step closer, but he turns to meet my eyes and when he does a smile lights up his features.

“Shin Hye-yah,” he says or I think he does, I read his lips because he speaks so lowly I can’t hear a thing.

I wave my hand quickly before taking a step closer and he does the same so we meet halfway. “Hi,” I finally say, bitting my lips tightly to keep me from smiling. 

“You look beautiful,” he says instead and I look down, feeling embarrassed myself. “Are you ready? I hope you’re hungry because we’re going for dinner first,” he says next and I just nod.

He then grabs my hand and leads me downstairs. I allow myself five seconds to notice our fingers laced together and I give up on fighting the smile, I let myself be. And as we walk down, taking our time, he tells me about this place he loves because the food is delicious even if it isn’t fancy or anything. He says he wants to show me one of his favourite places and I love that he does that. He could take me to a food cart and I wouldn’t mind if that was his favourite place. I guess I just want to know more about him.

It is a small and family run fried chicken restaurant. 

“Don’t let it deceive you, it’s amazing,” he promises me still leading me inside. 

I notice how the owners practically treat him like a son and ask him about his teammates, which shows me they are regulars here and I practically feel like he’s introducing me to his family. 

“And who’s this lovely lady with you tonight? Is she perhaps your girlfriend?” the ahjumma asks, elbowing him and Yong Hwa only chuckles, blushing a bit, which is answer enough for her. “It’s the first time he brings a girl. Please, take a seat and I’ll bring you the best!”

“Thank you, and it’s a pleasure to meet you,” I say with a bow and she just smiles brightly. 

She leaves us mumbling something about how delightful this is and how it was about time. Both Yong Hwa and I blush and sink in an awkward silence that it’s a bit hard to break, but we eventually do. I realise now that I know very little about him, mostly what his team mates have mentioned, which isn’t much. I’m sure I know more about Min Hyuk than I know about Yong Hwa. But noticing that now helps me to ask him questions about his own life. I learn that he lives with his appa and about the music store. I learn a bit more about his time in school and how the band started. I learn about that time they got scammed and how they’ve been working twice harder to pay back the loan they asked for that. I learn about his favourite bands and how many instruments he plays. I learn about his favourite film and book. I learn about him and I also share about me and I’m happy that the conversation flows smoothly and that he even jokes our differences away. Like the fact I enjoy romances and he’s a er for action films, or the fact that I do love watching dramas and he thinks they are cliché and pointless. I don’t see him belittling me for my corny likes, he just shakes his head and teases me.

I can’t say we are soul mates or anything remotely like that, we don’t match on many of our interests, but we do get along and find a common ground, which is music, even if we follow it in different ways.

Ahjumma keeps bringing us food and lingering a bit more, asking questions like where we met and how long we’ve been dating. 

“It’s our first official date,” Yong Hwa replies with a coy smile.

“Aigoo! You should’ve said sooner. I’ll stop bothering you. Ommo, what a cutie, he brought his girl to us on their first date, I feel so honoured,” she leaves mumbling and I can’t help smile when she says I’m his girl.

The food is delicious and I don’t even realise how I keep and keep eating. Between laughter and more questions, time flies by without noticing until I get a text from Min Ha asking me how I’m doing. I know he’s worried and he was most displeased when I told him about my date with Yong Hwa. He didn’t forbid me to see him or anything, but he didn’t hide his anxiety and told me to be careful a billion times. His words make me anxious myself because I don’t know if he is so suspicious of Yong Hwa for a reason or he’s just being overprotective.

Everything is going fine. I’m having a great time. Don’t worry —Shin Hye

I reply his text and only when I’m shoving it inside I realise it’s past ten and I comment that to Yong Hwa.

“Then we have little time to get there,” he mumbles and I furrow my brows.

“Where?” I question.

“The next stop,” is his answer and I shrug, not insisting on that either.

He makes sure to pay the account so we can leave. Ahjumma begs him to bring me back again and that it was lovely to see us. We say goodbye and then he takes my hand again and guides me to the main square where people are always walking by and there’s a lot of live. He doesn’t stop at any stand, he keeps walking until we find a crowd a bit far from the centre. He guides me through the mass until we make it to the front and I can see the street performers there, playing happily. He stands behind and his arms wrap around me, keeping me close.

“We used to play here sometimes, too. Specially when we began. This was our first stage,” he whispers in my ear as the musicians keep playing their original songs. They are an indie band and I guess they are quite new and unexperienced, you can feel it in there music, but that doesn’t lessen their talent.

“Did you attract a crowd like this one?” I ask him, leaning on him.

“Larger,” he says cockily and I laugh. He then kisses my cheek and I close my eyes. It’s a different kind of kiss but it makes my heart race, nonetheless. “I know we still have a long way to go, but I like coming here and see how we started. It makes me appreciate how far we’ve come until now.”

“You’ll get far,” I tell him, feeling confident about it. I’m familiar with their talent and I don’t need to be a genius to know these boys will one day own the world. “I’m sure of it.”

He hugs me tighter and then we just watch the performance and even give them money when they are done. Only then, and with his arms still around shoulders, he decides it’s time for him to take me home. This time we take a taxi although we’ve moved on our feet so far. I don’t mind keep walking, it gives me more time with him, but he insists. So we get in a taxi together and I give my address to the driver and we’re on our way. It’s not far but I wish it were, just to spend a bit more of time with Yong Hwa. He keeps his arm around me, bringing me closer and from time to time he leaves kisses on my hair, even it.

We get home way to soon and before I get down he tells the driver to way for him. He gets down with me and walks me to the door.

“I had a great time,” I say with an honest smile. It was a sweet and innocent date, but it allowed me to get to know him better and that helps me to trust him a bit more. “Thank you, Yong Hwa-yah.”

He takes my hands and plays with them before saying, “I hope it’ll be the first of many.” I just smile.

He takes a step closer and starts leaning in. His proximity sets my heart racing. I lean towards him too and close my eyes when our lips meet. A soft and chaste kiss that grows more intense the moment his arms wrap around my waits and pull me closer. It takes my breath away and my head starts spinning, but a part of me is still conscious we’re outside my house and there’s a taxi driver waiting for Yong Hwa, so I pull back. He still keeps me close, our foreheads touching.

“Thank you for the date. I’ll see you at work tomorrow,” I tell him and he nods.

“Good night, Shin Hye-yah,” he bids me with one last peck to my lips before releasing me. 

I know he’ll wait  until I get inside my house so I wave him goodbye and turn around to go inside my place. My smile grows wider and wider with every step and only when I’m inside I burt out giggling. I feel fifteen all over again!

I am so very sorry! It's been like two months since I updated and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! *bows* I was... stuck. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with this story but I think I finally did so now I should be able to write it and finish it. I hope so! I hope you can forgive me for taking so long. I swear I haven't forgotten about this. I started this story without a clear idea of the whole structure and I never do that, but I thought I was going to manage and then got stuck *sighs* I'm sorry again.

Bel, xx