“Are you sure that you don’t want us to go with you?”

I heard one of my housemates calling out to me as I slipped on my sneakers, all dressed to go out and I replied her with a quick yes before making my way out of the apartment in a hurry, not wanting to hear any of their long talks or lectures. I appreciate their love for me really, but the three girls are even worse than my mom when it comes to me going out on my own. Apparently, they were afraid of losing their ‘maid’ if I found myself a lover and spend more time with him or her, which is the reason why they were so reluctant on letting me roam out on the streets alone.

Sometimes, a part of me regretted on introducing myself as a good cook and cleaner the moment I met them. No one knew that three decent looking girls (and by decent, I mean gorgeous girls) to be such monsters. It was as if I had just signed up for babysitting three giant babies when the fact is, I was just finding a place near my university to stay at.

I glanced around the place where my feet had taken me to, pondering over what I was going to have for dinner. There’s tons of cafés around the area, filled with youngsters but after a certain incident happening just not long ago, I had been suffering from caféphobia (which I doubt actually exists in the medical terms). You see, my dear housemates decided to tail on me when a male acquaintance of mine asked me out for a lunch date, at a café and it didn’t take long for them to freak the guy out. Hot coffee on his shirt, pancakes topped with ice cream on his lap and a fake cockroach on the table was enough to make him dash out of the café.

Lucky for me, I didn’t have to pay a thing for the mess that they made since Soojung, whose parents is insanely rich, paid for everything. Perhaps, that is the only thing that makes me appreciate her more compared to Seulgi and Jinri.

A food truck near the pavement caught my attention after some moment and I could hear my stomach growling just at the scent of the freshly cooked oily food. Yes, oily food. I definitely need that right now.

“What do you sell here?” I asked carefully, not needing to use any formalities since I didn’t see any older person in sight.

“We have fried chicken on a stick, tortilla with egg and cheese and everything that you can see here!” she chirped and by then I had already taken a glimpse on what kind of person the girl might be. On the scale of Soojung to Jinri, she seems to be a Jinri to me. Loud, loud and loud.

“What do you recommend?”

“Well, I’d-“

Her words were cut off when another voice interrupted her, making her turn her attention to her left.

“Soonkyu unnie. It’s time for us to switch shifts,” I heard the person said, rather softly I must add.

“Oh, that’s a shame. I had fun taking care of the customers.”

“Don’t worry now, I’m pretty sure that we would get a chance to do something like this again in the future.”

I wasn’t really paying much attention to their conversation afterwards, deciding to fiddle with my phone to let the time pass by but the moment she cleared up , my breath was stuck on my chest as I laid my eyes on her.

I have a soft spot for beautiful people you see, and the person that stood before me was beyond that.

“Excuse me miss?”

“Y-Yeah?”

“What would you like?” the left corner of her lips lifted up into a crooked smile and it was oddly attractive to me that it even made my heart skipped a beat (as cheesy as it sounds).

“You.”

“Excuse me?” she raised an eyebrow and it was then I realized that I had blurted out what was supposed to be an inner thought. Way to play it cool, Son Seungwan. My cheeks heated up almost instantly and I hung my head low in return, muttering my reply.

“I-I mean, what do you recommend?”

“Hmm. I’d say that the chicken on the stick actually, or should I say stick chicken?” she joked dryly. It was lame, I had to admit but even at her very lame joke I found myself chuckling. Why is it that attractive people get the benefit of the doubt all the time? It’s almost unfair if you think about it.

“I’ll have two of those then.”

-

It turns out that the chicken was as good as she said actually. It wasn’t too oily for my liking and it tastes even better to me when she told me that it was her idea to put this menu up for sale. I later found out as well about her name, Irene which suits a goddess perfectly, and that they were running the food truck for a day for their business project.

“So, you’re not very much younger than I am I’m guessing,” Irene stared at me for a moment with a smile, leaning over the food truck just to take a closer look at me (I’m guessing because why else would she do so? I mean my looks are above normal just by a tiny bit).

“Yeah, I’m still in my first year in uni,” I smiled shyly.

“Ah, I see-“

“Yo.”

I was startled by the sudden voice and my face turned pale when I got a good look on who it was, or should I say, who they were. All three of my housemates had suddenly popped out of nowhere and they were scrutinizing Irene not long after that, as if she was a person of interest. Well, she is ‘my’ person of interest (chokes).

“Who is this?”

“Oye, a girl running a food truck?”

“You’re into these kind of girls now?”

Questions were thrown to me simultaneously but first things first, how on earth did they manage to track down my location?

“How did you guys-“

“We bugged your phone,” Soojung said nonchalantly, as if she had just read my mind.

“Sure you did,” I sighed and shook my head, feeling embarrassed in front of Irene. Was me embarrassing myself earlier not enough that my friends now have to step in and embarrass me more?

“Are you interested in Wendy?” Seulgi asked boldly but just before Irene could say anything in reply, I made my escape from the three crazy girls in a blink of an eye and hailed for a taxi, averting their attention from Irene.

“Where the hell are you going Seungwan!”

“Hold up!”

I should’ve noticed that only two voices went after me then, because I wasn’t even aware of the fact that one of the girls decided to stay behind and have a chat with Irene.

-

I rolled around my bed in frustration, glaring at Jinri occasionally, still mad for the night before. If it weren’t for them, I would’ve scored a date. If it weren’t for them, I would’ve gotten myself a beautiful date. If it weren’t for them, I would’ve-

“Don’t be upset now. We were just trying to save you from the hell called love.”

“Sure,” I replied in sarcasm and rolled my eyes.

“She is pretty though, I have to say.”

“Then why on earth did you guys ruined the chance for me?!” I growled and threw a cushion to her direction, which she successfully managed to block and it ended up bouncing on Seulgi’s head, disturbing the bear from her sleep.

“Tone it down now kids,” Seulgi said, scratching off the itch on her rear. How lady-like, really.

“You guys are crazy. I’m terminating my contract with the landlord by the end of this year,” I grumbled.

“Are you sure? I have Irene’s number though.”

And that was enough to make my grumpiness poof away, replaced by giddiness and I quickly made my way in front of Seulgi.

“Seriously? You’re the best Seul!”

“I didn’t say that I’m going to give it to you though,” Seulgi smirked.

“W-Wait, then what are you going to do with the number?”

“I’m going on a date with her.”

“What?!” I yelled out as I widened my eyes only to have her laugh her off afterwards.

“I’m kidding. Of course I’m going to give it to you.”

“…I’m guessing that there’s a catch to this,” I eyed her suspiciously and my suspicions were answered when she opened , her smirk creeping back on her face. I kept a mental note to myself on to stay away from her whenever she has that creepy smirk on. It’s freaking me out.

“A hundred bucks for her number.”

-

Spending a hundred dollars just for Irene’s phone number was worth it to be honest. I texted her the minute I got her number from Seulgi, apologizing to her for leaving abruptly that night and of course, I had to take the chance of asking her out for ice cream just to make it up to her and she said yes to me surprisingly. Nothing in the world could explain the bliss that I felt when I saw her once again near the bus stop, close to where we first met.

“I’m sorry that I’m late,” I smiled sheepishly and rubbed my nape.

“Two scoops of ice cream for me,” Irene returned the smile, only that hers is a playful one.

“Sure, I’ll buy you the whole ice cream parlor if you want me to!”

“Now, an ice cream parlor would be too much,” Irene chuckled and once again, I humiliated myself in front of her for speaking my thoughts out loud.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. You’re cute,” she said, making my heart jump a little.

“Should we get going now?” I cleared up my throat.

“Lead the way then.”

As if the day couldn’t get any better, Irene decided to wrap her arm around mine and that’s when I realized that there were still the good in this world. Living with Seulgi, Soojung and Jinri blinded me of that fact.

-

“Oh wow, what is this Son Seungwan? You texted her a goodnight with a heart?” Soojung snorted at me mockingly right after she peered over my shoulder, my hands busy scrolling through my previous conversation with Irene. Talk about being lovesick.

“Yes, would you like me to text you that too?” I hummed softly.

“…Eww.”

“Then go away.”

“You’ve really fallen for her, don’t you?” Soojung gave my cheek a gentle poke.

“Yes.”

“Are you happy?”

“Yes.”

“I’m guessing that we shouldn’t in this time then.”

I heard her whisper to me before leaving me behind and as I turned around, I saw Soojung skipping towards her room and I wondered to myself what had gotten into her.

-

“I have to admit, I’ve never gone on a jog in the middle of the night,” I said, walking next to her in a park after having jogged with her for some time. I was glad really, that she wanted to spend some time with me but I’m not exactly fond of jogging, what more jogging at night but since Irene wants to, there’s no way I could say no to her. Besides, I got to drive her home so everything is good.

“You should do it often. It gets the stress off you,” Irene smiled and went on to stretch her limbs and damn, she looked hot.

“Oh? Yeah…”

“What are you looking at?”

My gut tells me that she knew exactly what I was thinking, and that her question only serves as a purpose to tease me because I swore I saw her flashing a smirk for a moment before smiling back to me.

“Nothing,” I shook my head furiously, slipping my hands into the pockets of my tracksuit, keeping my eyes glued to the ground.

“I’ve said this tons of times but you really are cute.”

“I-I’m not cute though.”

“There you go denying things again,” she chuckled and our conversation was interrupted when a rustle behind the bushes caught our attention. I instinctively pulled Irene close to me, trying to protect her from whatever it was but to our surprise, it was no longer a simple rustle as we slowly approached the patch of grass.

My cheeks were beet red when I realized that it was the sound of someone making out and I hurriedly dragged Irene with me by her hand, her face seems to be flushed as well.

“Does this always happen when you used to jog alone back then?”

“I-I… No..”

“Well you should take me out with you more often. You know, so that nothing bad will happen to you?” I tried to reason with her.

“I will,” Irene lightly pulled on my hand, making me turn my back to face her. “Thanks,” she said, a smile tugging on her lips.

-

Exactly a hundred days from Christmas and thirty days since we had gotten to know each other. I used to mock those that fell in love easily back then but karma always has a way of hitting you back and now, I ended up falling in love with a woman whom I met at a food truck. That doesn’t sound very romantic, but yes, I am in love with Irene.

“That drama ,” Irene muttered under her breath as she pulled away from my shoulder and it was just another night of us watching a drama series together at her place. I do want to take her to mine but I doubt that we could even watch the television in peace if the three devils are around. Although, they have been toning it down a bit this lately and didn’t really bother me much about Irene other than the occasional teasing. “Say, do you believe in those kind of love?”

“What kind of love?” I asked.

“Love that started from your childhood,” she chuckled. “I doubt that they’re going to last long though. It’s not as if loving someone for a very long time guarantees you a forever.”

Her words somehow gave me the courage to say what had been running on my mind. It was after Irene had turned the tv off that I grabbed her hand, earning a curious stare in return from her.  

“Then. Let me be forever with you,” I managed to utter out as I gently squeezed her hand. “Spending your forever doesn’t have to be with someone you knew the longest. It should be with someone whom you feel the most and right now, you’re the one whom I feel the most,” I blushed, hoping that she would get a gist of what I was trying to say. For one second, it scared me quite a bit on how she wasn’t saying a word to me at first but my worries were soon put to rest when Irene opened to say something.

“Nothing lasts forever,” she spoke out to me softly and paused. “But this is getting good for now,” Irene continued, reaching out to caress my cheek and soon enough, I let myself lean towards her and kissed her tenderly, fixing my arms around her waistline. She is right. Nothing lasts forever but at least I’ve managed to secure this little bit of happiness, called Bae Joohyun for now.

Author’s Note – It’s been a while peeps \o/ So here you go. ; u ;