^ so relevant you don't even know ^

warning(s) ; awkward first date. hodance and hopride. wasting food. also a flying dinosaur. 

oh my good god. i seriously lose track when it comes to submission day. i suppose the submission day is now moved to sundays... i hope that's not inconvenient. unu
i've not much to say except sorry if this has been too long of a wait: this chapter is our longest, so far, and it required some attention for things to be suitable. :P
it's at this point that we'll have to keep people guessing on what's going on on the next chapter. sorry 'bout that. xP

anyway... please enjoy the chapter! writer sister worked really hard on it. ;u;

He showed up at his door holding a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates.

It's familiar and heartwarming, but it nonetheless gives Dongwoo a shock. He hasn't opened the door just yet, opting to look through the spy hole with his whole body and weight pressed on the door while standing on the very tip of his toes. Both of his hands are getting clammy once again; his thin are fingers shaky against the wooden surface he's leaning on and his knees are a little wobbly from how he's holding himself up. He feels a little pathetic, oddly enough.

Dongwoo pushes himself off of the door, only to have his back pressed against it so he could slide onto the floor beneath him. He pats himself on the shoulders, eyes closed and lips moving with silent words of encouragement, “He asked you out on a date and you said yes. A handsome man is waiting for you behind this door, and he's going to take you out on a date. You can do this,” he breathes in deeply and puffs out a great big sigh. He gets up on his two feet with another set of pats on his own shoulders, turning around and unlocking the door.

“Mr. Lee!” Dongwoo croaks and, wow, smooth moves, guy.

Mr. Lee merely smiles and doesn't seem to take note of how off his name sounded off of the pink-haired and pink-faced teacher's tongue, “Teacher Jang,” he says instead, charmingly and with a voice like honey. Dongwoo bites his lip, “I'm, uh, here to pick you up.”

“Ah? Pick me up—? Oh! Yes! Yes, for our—our date,” the other stammers, and Dongwoo just wants to slap himself so much, “Yes. You said six, right? On point! Well done!”

Mr. Lee chuckles and scratches the back of his head with his free hand. Goodness, he probably thinks Dongwoo's a huge dummy. But he doesn't say that, “I try to be punctual for things like this, you know? Ah, not that I've been on many dates. Not that I've been to any. I actually haven't gone out with anyone since my divorce—ah, wow, yeah, I shouldn't have said that, should I? That's just odd to hear from someone you're going on a date with...”

Dongwoo shakes his head and waves his hand in dismissal, “It's fine! It's fine. That's just something that needed to be said, at some point. Uhm...” Dongwoo his lips in and nods, looking towards the bouquet of pink and white roses that the other man is holding. He pulls on a smile, “Those are absolutely beautiful! Are those for me?”

Mr. Lee blinks rapidly, processing the question in his head before shaking himself out of his thoughts, “Ah! This bouquet?” He turns his attention to the bouquet before practically pushing it towards Dongwoo in a clumsy way, “Yes, I got them for you. And these chocolates, as well.”

Dongwoo takes the items and bows politely, “Thank you. They're quite lovely,” he smiles and takes a whiff of the roses. A thought surprises him and Dongwoo jumps in his place, “Oh! I'm such an idiot. Mr. Lee, would you like to come inside?”

Mr. Lee's lips twist into a not-quite smile and somewhat-smirk, “I actually intended to take you outside for tonight.”

An imaginary hand slaps Dongwoo. Right. That's the purpose of tonight, isn't it? Dongwoo blushes with embarrassment and bows again, excusing himself for a moment so that he could put the roses in a vase and leave the box of chocolates on the kitchen counter, “I'll be ready in a moment,” he assures the other man as he takes a minute to curse himself and his slow thinking process. Soon enough, he emerges from his apartment wearing colorful shoes adorned with little stars and a coat that is a few sizes too large on him.

“You look very nice tonight, Teacher Jang,” Mr. Lee comments behind him as Dongwoo locks up his door with a press of a button. Dongwoo giggles shyly and turns to look at the other.

“You do too, Mr. Lee,” he says with an honest tone that has Mr. Lee biting down on his own lip. “You look very handsome!” The younger man becomes virtually bashful, to the point that Dongwoo fears the skin on his face would burn off, but he offers his arm to Dongwoo to take. Dongwoo beams up at him, bright and joyful, happily taking the offered arm in one balled up hand as the younger leads them down the stairs, into the car park and to a large car.

“You're so polite, Mr. Lee,” Dongwoo comments as Mr. Lee opens the door for him, “Such a nice and young gentleman!”

… Mr. Lee …

“You don't have to call me that, you know,” Howon tells the teacher before he closes his door.

“I'm sorry?” The pink haired man looks at him curiously. Howon feels his cheeks burn.

“Mr. Lee,” he says, settling in his seat. He doesn't look at the older man; he fusses over his seat belt, how his feet are placed on the pedals like he's never laid them there before, “You shouldn't call me by that name right now. That's how you refer to someone with whom you have business with, and right now we're just two people having a—having a date. So Mr. Lee, well, it sounds too professional, and I don't intend this to be professional.”

The other man giggles and Howon feels his heart throb in his chest, “I see,” he says while laughing his warm and soft laugh, “What should I call you, then, if not Mr. Lee?”

Howon swallows, looking up to see how the man's cocked his head aside rather cutely. He shrugs and smooths a hand over the back of his head, “Howon. I'd like it if you called me Howon.”

“Howon,” he can't help the smile that cracks onto his face; hearing the other man say his name like that is somehow satisfying, “Okay. Howon it is,” Howon sighs in relief, “But if I get to call you by your first name, then you should do that for me, too. No more of this Teacher Jang if you really intend for this to be a non-professional thing.”

“I'll call you Dongwoo then,” Howon looks up at the other's risen brow and his slightly gaping smile. It's his turn to chuckle, “You've told me your name before. Don't look at me like that.”

“I know,” Dongwoo says with a playful pout, “I just thought you'd ask me for it.”

“No need to ask if I already know, right?” They're both looking down now, laughing at each other. Their words aren't particularly funny, but they can feel themselves slowly ease off of their initial reluctance and discomfort. The awkwardness is ebbing away and they've not even left the comfort of Teacher Jang's—Dongwoo's—building's parking lot. Howon supposes that's a good thing.

“So where are we going?” Howon raises his head and gaze to see Dongwoo looking at him with such interest and excitement. It makes Howon's heart flutter.

“I have the night all planned out,” Howon tells him seriously, “I plan to take you to see a movie at six thirty and, by eight, to a specific restaurant to eat. It's sort of scheduled.”

Dongwoo grimaces briefly, but he changes it into a forced smile when Howon notices, “That sounds... That sounds great. Scheduled. Perfect.”

Howon frowns, “Is there something wrong?”

“...no! No, no! There's nothing wrong with schedules,” Dongwoo nods as he speaks, “It's just—well, I suppose it's better to plan ahead.”

Howon's lips twitch into a half-smile as he drives off.

When Howon looked the time up on his phone, back when he was planning the date, he thought he had read the schedules of the screenings correctly. He had decided to take Teacher Jang—Dongwoo—to see a comedy film that he thought would be on at six thirty. He didn't know the actual time of screening was five thirty.

“We—we could always wait for the next screening,” Dongwoo tells him when the other sees him fussing about. Howon's cursing himself internally, so much so that he barely notices Dongwoo's sheepish smile and worried eyes, “Or, you know, not.”

Howon raises his head, “Yeah, let's not,” he almost mumbles, mostly due to being so embarrassed that he's almost physically hurting, “It—It probably wasn't the best choice of film, anyway.”

Dongwoo giggles, “I'm sure it would have been fine. I like funny movies,” he pats Howon, on the younger man's shoulder, light and comforting, “But a lot of your concentration is taken out, you know? When you're watching a movie, you mostly get engrossed with the plot and you have to keep watching so you know what's going on, but you're not totally able to talk to the person you're watching it with. And I get really uncomfortable when I can't talk to the person I'm sitting with!”

“The car ride must've been awful for you.”

“Yah! We did talk!” Dongwoo laughs, “Not a lot... But we did!”

“Then we should go somewhere we can talk,” Howon decides, feeling himself brighten up so suddenly, “We are in a place with many places to go to and lots of things to see. I'm sure one of these places has something we can do that we both enjoy.”

Dongwoo bobs his head, looking around as his thoughts run through his mind. At some point Howon sees the older man's body jolt, then he's jumping excitedly—from what, Howon doesn't know—and then his arm is being tugged on by the pink haired man. Dongwoo shuffled on his feet, not quite running but not walking either, dragging Howon to where his eyes seem to be readily fixed on.

They're still within view of the movie theater, but not quite there anymore. No, Dongwoo had lead him to a dark place with only colourful lights, from machines of all sizes, illuminating the large room. Howon notices that the most of the people in this place are younger—young teens and young adults who live for games. It would have bothered Howon had it not been for the look of delight and eagerness that's spread onto his date's face.

“Let's play here,” Dongwoo bounces on the balls of his feet, eyes set on Howon.

Howon gapes a little, “Play?” he asks, “You mean with the video games? Here?”

“Well, yeah. It is an arcade, Howon,” Dongwoo's smile is bright and sweet, “It will be fun, and we can easily waste an hour away here! You get to play games, get tickets and trade those in for prizes at the counter over there... And there's al sorts of games here!”

“Aren't we a little too old to play these games?” Howon smiles wryly.

Dongwoo's beautiful and alluring smile slips away from his lips and is replaced with a pout, his eyes glum all of a sudden. Howon bites his lip, immediately regretting saying something that made this man visibly upset, “I suppose we are, but...” the older one trails off, eyes downcast, “Mm, yeah, we are...”

“You know what? We aren't,” Dongwoo looks up at Howon, the younger man's eyes on him and Howon's lips twisted up lopsidedly, “Sorry. For saying that. You see, I've just never been to this sort of place before. I've never taken my boys to arcades, and I never went when I was a kid—I just don't know what to do here and