“Aerin for 4,” Aerin says to the hostess.

The four of them agreed to go on a double date at a Korean BBQ joint. As it was located near campus, the place was flooded with struggling college students trying to get the most of their money. So, Aerin made sure to book a reservation.

“This way,” the hostess directs them to a small booth; the table is decorated with all of the side dishes, a few bowls of rice, and the puny cups of iced water.

“Ahh! I’m so excited,” Soojin and Aerin say concurrently.

“We can tell,” Baekhyun replies, looking at Chanyeol for follow-up response, maybe even a laugh. But Chanyeol doesn’t even break a smile.

After the girls sense the awkward tension, they all immediately sit down and get right to opening up their chopsticks and taste-testing the banchan. Aerin signals a waiter and orders their first round of meat.

“So,” Soojin starts conversation. “Can I ask the story of how y’all got together?”

Aerin wraps her arm around Chanyeol’s (quite muscular) arm. “Do you want to say it or me?”

Chanyeol warms up instantly to Aerin’s touch. He’s further touched by recalling their story of how they got together. “Doesn’t matter. Long story short, we were at a party, and I asked her while trying to get her away from Jinyoung.”

Their tray of meat arrives at the table, which distracts Aerin from correcting Chanyeol from his sorry story-telling. She proceeds to dump the entire tray onto the grill, nearly salivating at the instant sound of the sizzling. Chanyeol takes a look at how enthralled his girlfriend is into the food, and reaches out his hand to squeeze her cheeks.

Baekhyun wants to vomit at the sight. Soojin thinks to herself that she wishes Baekhyun did that, too.

Aerin starts assembling her self-proclaimed, perfect wrap. She sets a piece of lettuce first, followed by a generous portion of kimchi, a smidge of paste, and finally, the first cooked piece of beef she could find. She closes the wrap with her chopsticks, picks it up, and brings it straight…

To Chanyeol’s mouth. He opens his mouth wide open for the hefty bite and squeezes her thigh as a thank you. The process repeats: Baekhyun is once again disgusted, Soojin wishes Baekhyun did the same. Soojin watches as Baekhyun picks up a piece from the grill and right into his plate. She awkwardly smiles, trying to reason to herself that she shouldn’t have expected anything. It’s just the first date, Soojin says.

After Aerin eats her own wrap, she quickly reminds herself of where they left off before the food came. “Oh yeah! The story of how he asked!! Okay, Chanyeol did not explain that well AT ALL.”

She continues, “Chanyeol has always been nice to me. Ever since we met, I think, he’s always been extra protective, extra caring, extra kind. And not to mention, he was the first person I met when I got here to college. He helped me out with directions.”

“How ing cute,” Baekhyun says with fake, googly eyes. “You know, I do remember Chanyeol mentioning helping out a cute, 12 year old girl one night before the semester.”

“Bro, what? Chill,” Chanyeol laughs at the joke. Baekhyun is surprised at the reaction. “I did not say such a thing, Aerin.”

Aerin smiles at the first step in perhaps them making up again.

“Anyways, he was always very nice to me. And then at that party that Chanyeol was talking about, he came up and said, ‘You know I’m not this nice to everyone’.” Aerin continues and Soojin squeals. “And then he told me he liked me.”

“You said you liked me first,” Chanyeol cut in.

“Nuh uh, you obviously did.”

“No way, I’m too cool to admit I like girls first.”

“Too cool? What are you even talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that me, Park Chanyeol, would never admit I like a girl first. Girls go up to me.”

“Oh, ing get over yourself. Shall that explain why I’m your first girlfriend--because no girls have never gone up to you?”

“No, so many girls have confessed and I have rejected them. I’m telling you, I’m too cool to tell a girl first.”

“You sound stupid, Chanyeol!”

“You guys know what sounds stupid?” Soojin interrupts, “This entire conversation. Can we move on, please?”

“Yes, of course,” Chanyeol says first, followed by a soft ‘sorry’ to Aerin. “Okay, so moving on. How did you and Baekhyun come to be?”

“I can take this one,” Soojin says, before Baekhyun can even open his mouth. “He hit me up multiple times about a date, and I finally agreed.”

Baekhyun scoffs, and Soojin is quick to yelp, “Oh, don’t even try to deny it! He was practically blowing up my phone every 2 seconds. But anyways, he kept pestering me, and we went on a date at the pub downtown. He got really drunk, surprise surprise, and I had to take care of him the entire night.”

“And she brought me over her place; she dimmed the lights, put on some Frank Sinatra, and well, the rest is history.” Baekhyun smirks and raises his brow as he drinks water.

“Yeah, he ing wishes,” Soojin says, “I took care of him the entire night, and at some point, I just got bored. So, I started practicing makeup on him.”

Aerin and Chanyeol busts out in shocked laughter. Seeing this reaction, Baekhyun rolls his eyes and slouches down in his seat (in attempt to look cooler). He then crosses his hands, “My story was so much cooler.”

“But it was so false.” Soojin smiles, “But I started practicing, and I guess he started sobering up and realized what I was doing. He went ing mad, but also couldn’t stop laughing? I think we laughed for a solid 30 minutes together.”

“We spent the whole night together. I asked the question right before we went to sleep, which was what? 9 AM?”

“I think it was 10.” Soojin replies. “Longest night of my lif