Say You Love Me || TXT Soobin

Chapter 2: Lovesick

He first asked her out after three months of knowing each other.

They had grown very close in that amount of time, much closer than Soobin thought they would, but it was what he had wanted since the beginning. He felt comfortable around Ava, which was something that rarely happened with other girls, and he just knew that he had to ask her out soon, before she met someone else and forgot all about him. The thought made him nervous, though.

Nonetheless, he took the opportunity when they were studying together at the library. Soobin was having problems with Math class, so Ava offered to help him out. When she was writing something down on her notebook, he finally spoke up. "Ava?"

Her brown eyes stared up at him, and suddenly the little confidence that he had managed to gather vanished. "Yes? Do you still have some doubts?"

"No, It's not that." he shook his head quickly. "I just..."

She urged him to go on with her look, but Soobin seemed to forget how to speak for a moment. Everything he had rehearsed in his head turned to blank. "Well, I-" he scratched the back of his neck nervously. "I just wanted to say that... thank you for helping me with this."

"Oh!" Ava laughed softly. "You're welcome, you know It's not a problem. I like helping you out."

He grinned at her, the familiar warm feeling indulging him as he watched the way she threw her hair over one shoulder, and began combing it with her fingers. "You're smarter than me, after all."

"I am, aren't I?" she joked, making him laugh. She suddenly began to put all of her things back into her backpack. "Anyways, I have to go now. My last class starts in ten minutes. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Of course." he was disappointed in himself. He had been planning to ask her out for a while now, but it always ended the same way, with him cowering out from the situation. It was pitiful, even his friends were making fun of him for it. "See you..."

Ava waved at him before walking away from their table, and he watched her take every step until she was near the front door. No, he thought. Not this time.

He stood up abruptly, forgetting where he was for a moment. "Ava," he called to her one more time. She, alongside other students who were in the room, turned to look at him. "Will you go out with me?"

Her eyes slowly widened when she heard what he said. The other students were either whispering excitedly to each other, or simply staring at the scene in anticipation. Even the librarian had stopped what she was doing at her desk in order to see what would happen. When Soobin realized what he had done, and how much attention it had garnered, he lowered his head in shame, about to sit back down when he heard her voice again. "Of course I'll go out with you, silly."

His head snapped back up, and he saw that she had the biggest smile he had ever seen on her, and she didn't seem to care that there were others around. She was only looking at him. "Really?" his voice cracked.

Ava chuckled. "Yes, really. How does Friday night sound?"

Soobin spoke again once he regained his composure -or at least tried to. "Yeah... yeah, Friday sounds great."

"Okay, then. So, It's a date." was the last thing she said before she exited the room.

Soobin sat back down on his chair, not missing the way that the students' attention fully turned to him. Some were giving him thumbs up, others were clapping at him quietly, but all he could focus on was the fact that he had finally mustered up the courage to ask Ava out.

And she had said yes.

***

Although it sometimes felt like an eternity, and other times it felt like a flash, Friday eventually arrived.