JIYEON

I stood there staring at the mirror, the girl staring back at me had my face but she was a completely different person. What am I doing? My hair was done; beach curls, half pinned up the rest left down. I was wearing light makeup instead of the heavy eyeliner I normally have on, and nothing I was wearing had any sign of black. For the first time since I started dressing myself; I was wearing pink. Of all the colors I could be wearing . Why pink? And it wasn't even just pink, it as floral and pink. I felt nothing like myself. Why am I going to such lengths? It was just dinner with Insoo.

"You look amazing," Eunji smiled.

"What if it's cold? Maybe I should just go put on some pants,"

"The only pants you own are black ripped jeans, or tight leather pants. Unless you're going to borrow a pair of mine, stop over thinking it. You look great, put on some shoes and go down to Insoo, who has been patiently waiting for the last ten minutes,"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, he's probably worried you've changed your mind,"

"Okay, I'm going," I sighed fiddling with the hem of, what even is this thing? The hem of the floral material.

He was pacing the hallway frowning at the floor, he paused for a second, shook his head, and then continued pacing. He looked good; dark denim jeans held up with a belt, he wore a leather jacket over his black shirt that was tucked into the front of his pants. why did he get to wear so much black? His dark hair was styled more than usual, it barely moved as he continued to pace.

I made my way down the stairs, he finally saw me and stopped pacing. I don't know if he was surprised or nervous but I've never seen him with that expression before.

"Hi," I rubbed the back of my neck feeling extremely self conscious and for the first time in a while; exposed and not in the good way. I was so far out of my comfort zone wasn't even sure I knew where it was right now.

INSOO

I was having trouble finding words; she looked so different that I had to blink a few times to make sure it was actually her. There was not a trace of black on her, instead she wore white. I'd never seen her so girly; feminine yes, but not girly. Honestly, I'd never seen her without something black on, unless you count the times were she wasn't wearing anything.

She was standing at the bottom of the stairs biting her bottom lip nervously. I guess she was waiting for me to say something but I could only stare at her in awe. I cleared my throat and attempted to get my brain to function enough to form words.

"Ah, hi," I finally choked out, good job Insoo.

"Hi," she said again.

"Should we go?" I asked, she nodded.

She frowned when I walked away from the front door and towards the back of the stairs but she followed me anyway. We entered the garage, she nodded when she realized that's where the car was. I opened the door for her and she stared blankly at me, or she tired, but I could see the smile tugging at the corners of .

***

The car ride was silent and not a comfortable silence either, it was extremely awkward. I wasn't sure if it was because we were nervous or something else but I was slowly starting to regret the idea.

"You look nice by the way, I'm not sure if I said that earlier but you do," I rambled slightly.

"You didn't, but thank you," she was fiddling with the hem of her shorts.

"I was going to get you flowers, but, well, you're you so I didn't," I tired to keep the conversation going.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" she mumbled more to herself than to me.

I sighed not really knowing how to respond and the car fell silent once again, this was a horrible idea. Things are just going to be awkward from now on aren't they? I sighed again pulling into the parking lot, it wasn't hard to find somewhere to park. I turned the car off and quickly got out to open her door.

"Thanks," she nodded getting out and waiting for me to lock the car.

We walked into the building, past the front desk, and into the elevator. I pressed the button for the 8th floor and once again we were silent. Could it get more uncomfortable? She didn't stand too far away from me but she wasn't exactly close either. Was the whole night going to be this awkward?

JIYEON

The hostess escorted us to our table which was by a huge window looking out over the city. I felt so out of place not because of what I was wearing, it seemed to fit the dress code. But because I didn't do things like this; I didn't do dinner, or dressing up, or dates. This was so different to what I was use to and I wasn't entirely sure how to act.

Insoo pulled my chair out for me before taking his own, he slid his leather jacket off and hung it on the back of his chair. It was quite warm in here, it had a calm welcoming atmosphere, there was no question that the place itself was nice, it was just different. The waiter came over, introduced himself and gave us our menus before telling us he'd be back after we'd had time to decide on what we wanted.

I didn't know what I wanted, I didn't even know if I was hungry or if I would end up throwing up because of how nervous I was. I read through the menu more as something to do rather than to actually find something I wanted. What am I doing? I continued reading. I ended up reading the menu five times just to avoid eye contact. The whole time I sat there with my elbow on the table looking down at the menu, chewing on my thumb.

"Do you know what you want?" he asked, my heart sped up, I was surprised he couldn't hear it pounding in my chest.

"Uh, no," I shook my head.

"This is really awkward huh?" he smiled at me.

"Yeah,"

"Well this was a horrible idea," he sighed to himself.

"No, it's just, different,"

"We should just pretend that we're at the dinning table in the dorm, it's just quieter, and larger," he shrugged.

"And fancier, and the food is probably better," I added.

"I highly doubt that," he winked.

"We'll just have to order to find out," I challenged.

"Well find something you want,"

"Oh, right," I laughed.

And just like that the awkward tension seemed to ease away and we started joking and acting like ourselves.

***

"Have I told you that you look amazing tonight?" he asked sticking his spoon in the ice cream.

"Do I not look amazing any other day?" I glared playfully.

"Oh, no, you do. You're just exceptionally amazing today," he stammered holding the spoon of ice cream in front of my face.

"Amazing, no, but you've used about 20 other adjectives," I answered his question eating the ice cream off the spoon he was still holding in front of my face.

"Oh," he looked a little embarrassed.

INSOO

I paid the bill taking her hand in mine and directing her to the elevator, it wasn't awkward this time. She stood close to me even though there was no one else in the elevator, and she was smiling, at least when she didn't think I was watching. We reached the lobby and were greeted by a cool breeze, I guess it had gotten colder outside.

I took my jacket that I'd been holding at the time and draped it over her shoulders before re-connecting out hands, we walked together to the parking lot still holding hands.

"Where too now?" she asked as we reached the car.

"Where would you like to go?" I let go of her hand to unlock he car and open her door.

"We could go back to my apartment?" she shrugged, I frowned closing her door and getting into the drivers seat.

"Your apartment?"

"Yeah, well you said you wanted to her to now each other, why not get some Soju and play a few drinking games?" she shrugged, I had a feeling this was the only was she was going to share anything about herself.

"Your apartment and drinking games it is," I nodded.