He Started It by Hitting on Me

Their First Date Went A Little Like This

Everything went by so fast.
One day I'm vowing revenge on the biggest player of school, the next I'm going out with him. Well, it wouldn't really be called '"fast", as to what had happened during the last eight months. But, you know, it's still strange. When Jonghyun asked me out, I didn't really have an answer. I mean I couldn't say anything-the shock and the fatigue running away from Jonghyun had been still buzzing around my head. Nonetheless I smiled and let him have his satisfaction.
It had only been a few days after that day. Jonghyun didn't speak to me in that time. I didn't know as to why he was being so quiet around me, but it was probably because he wasn't still sure whether or not this reality was real. Did I really say yes? Are we on date terms now? How will the other act? I didn't talk to Jonghyun either, for I waited what he might say. He seemed to be much in thought for these couple of days. I might as well stay clear of his path and let him do whatever.
However, when I was walking home he decided to talk to me and told me about how he had been thinking what to do for our first date. He had nothing in mind since he was afraid of what I might think of it. That's why he wanted my thoughts for a first date.
The thing is, I didn't know. I don't know anything about romance, let alone dating. Watching millions of crappy sappy movies with Key I was able to tell girls and boys share this attraction force and they date, seeing how it would go. But people (it's usually the guys) tend to make these dates seemingly perfect and whatnot. You know, with all those roses and the dinner-and-music theme and such. Ninety-five percent of girls love those concepts of romance. I was part of the five percent that didn't.
As we were talking, we had forgotten about those nosy friends of ours eavesdropping behind us. Key went ballistic that we hadn't told him sooner and he had to stay quiet throughout our whole conversation to hear the unthinkable. Everyone else was happy for us and Onew even complained how long he had to wait for us to get together. Taemin commented we should make a baby now and name it after him.
The other two were patient while the others took their part in talking. After things calmed down, Yanna spoke up saying she would love to take us on a double date on Saturday. She had persuaded Jonghyun enough after she suggested the idea. That's how the double date proposition started.
And with that, Saturday came in a blink of an eye.
I woke up at ten in the morning with a call from Yanna, informing me I must be ready by three in the afternoon. The guys were coming to pick us up so we would just have to lie around a while, doing whatever until they came around. I picked out an outfit consisting of a gray shirt with the sleeves ending at my elbows, blue jeans, and black Converse. Looking at myself in the mirror, the best I could say was I really had outdone myself with such casual attire. This date thing must've really made an effect on me. I usually just went in some worn out jeans and tee I thought looked fine to wear outside.
I waited for the remaining time, watching TV and eating anything I could find. Mom went to work before I woke up so I didn't have a chance to tell her I was going out. I don't think she would have really cared. It didn't take much longer until I heard a honk outside. I exited the house with my phone and keys, and some money as well. When I got into the car, everyone was already in there, waiting for me.
"Hey, Mi Young!" Yanna greeted me, waving. I waved back, taking a seat by the window. Jonghyun was by the other window. Minho went back driving on the road, and the whole car drifted into silence. It was silent for a while, not too long, yet not too short either. I kept looking outside- the heat Seoul was enduring today was unbearable and I cursed myself for wearing not wearing shorter sleeves.
"...Hey, Mi Young? Aren't you going to sit next to Jonghyun?" Yanna's suggestive voice called out to me.
I fluttered my eyelashes once. "Oh. Yeah, I guess." I slid in the seat next to Jonghyun and let our knees bump against each other. He turned his head towards me and raised his eyebrows in a rather teasing way. I poked his cheek and made him turn to face towards the window. "Where are we going?" I asked, my curious side opening in public.
"Somewhere really nice. We're going to spend the whole day there, so sorry if we ruined any plans you had after sunset," Yanna apologized in advance.
"No, that's fine, I really didn't have any plans." I could do my load of homework on Sunday. Minho drove for fifteen minutes, making turns here and there, telling Yanna he knew where he was going. Jonghyun asked how I was doing and I replied with a simple "fine". That was the only conversation we had in the car. It took about half an hour until making it to the destination. It took an extra ten minutes for parking. When I set foot on the ground, the heat absorbed the air around me and I felt trapped in a scorching confinement. "It's ing hot," I commented, fanning myself.
"That's the reason why I brought us here," Yanna said, pointing in the distance.
I followed her finger and laid my eyes on a public water place, swarming with kids and a few teens. There were large green lollipop trees lined around patches of the area, and it was mostly concrete from where I was standing. Well, the pavements that is. Minho walked up beside Yanna. "That, and the fact it didn't take money out of my wallet," Minho mentioned.
Yanna made a face at Minho. "What wallet, Minho? You're broke," she scoffed, waving her hand in his face when he tried to retort. All four of us began walking across the street and entered the park named Yeouido Park. I had been here once with Hea Won and my mom, but it was for a picnic and I hadn't seen the water before. Not to mention the screaming kids having immense fun as they played. We stood before where the water sprayed and splashed, observing the kids playing. The blistering hot weather had something against me, for it beat against my skin and let perspiration roll down my face.
I am not joking around when I say the next thing I had witnessed startled me. When I turned my head to ask Yanna something, she was ambushed by Minho as they went staggering into the water. I turned to my other side, where Jonghyun stood. He was staring at me as well, his expression impassive.
"Close your mouth before a fly zooms in," he stated, shutting my mouth for me.
"You're not going to do that to me, are you?" I asked, gesturing to Minho and Yanna running.
"If I did you would have silted my throat by now. I thought it was better to be safe than sorry," he replied.
"It's like this date thing has gotten you smarter," I remarked, slightly amused by his sudden change in logic. He would have pushed me. Maybe.
Jonghyun's lips transformed into a full smirk and he cocked an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? You think I'm smart?"
"Not at all."
"Tch. I was hoping for a compliment just this once," he pouted, looking down to the floor.
"Yeah, well..." I was about to mention I had already complimented him with the smart thing, but then decided he could figure it out himself. I grabbed the collar of my shirt and began to shake it back and forth, earning warm air entering and exiting my body.
"You know, if you're hot you can jump in there and play with them," Jonghyun suggested, nudging his elbow with mine.
"Aren't you hot?" I asked.
"Well, yes. Yes I am." Jonghyun began to simper, his lips turning upright to a certain extent.
"No, stupid, I meant are you sweating in this heat."
"Yes for both, then."
I rolled my eyes. I winded my pant sleeves up to my knees and took my sneakers off, rolling the socks neatly inside.
"Roll your pant sleeves up," I ordered as I pointed at Jonghyun's jeans. He did as I told him.
"Take your shoes off." He did that as well. "Come on," I said as I began to pull him towards the water. His skin felt hot under my touch, and the fact he wasn't wearing long sleeves made it worse. We were both dying from this unbelievable heat.
As soon as we stepped into the water, I could already feel the sudden cool sensation that slapped the heat away from my body. Jonghyun couldn't help but to give out a shuddering sigh of relief. "That feels good," he mumbled behind me. I nodded in response. We stood silent for a moment, taking in the fresh feeling of crystal clear water swarming below us.
I turned around to face Jonghyun. "Hey, where-" But he wasn't there. My eyebrows wrinkled. I was just holding onto him. How could have I lost him? "Where'd you go?" I mumbled to myself, scanning for a certain boy that resembled a dinosaur. I searched for another minute, but he wasn't in sight. "That boy..." I muttered under my breath.
"Hey, look!" I turned to face the familiar head of Jonghyun, who was beaming at a plastic water gun in his hands. "I found this in the water lying around. No one was using it, so I took it," he explained further, examining the gun closely.
"You should put it back. It could be anyone's," I warned him.
"Ah, they could get it themselves. What does this button do?" Jonghyun pressed the red-orange button on the side. Suddenly, a force of cold, sharp water shot me in the face. I made a soft grunt at the sudden strength of what this gun can hold and rubbed my possibly reddened cheek. I glared at the culprit, and he wasn't looking so happy either. He had left his mouth open as he blinked. "I didn't mean to..." he trailed off, not sure what to say. The button was pushed again and another force of water smacked me in the face.
I glowered at Jonghyun and sprinted towards him, wanting to get revenge. He gave out a small cry and ran away, taking the water gun with him. We ran for a few minutes, making sharp turns to avoid bumping into people.
"Yah, I'm innocent! I swear to God I am!" Jonghyun cried out before I had caught his shirttail. Eventually I caught up to him and sprayed him with the water gun. We found Minho and Yanna somewhere along the time. All of us fought in the water with guns and pushing each other in the deeper areas. It was mostly water and I wasn't able to tell what I was hitting with the water gun or where I was being pushed. The only sounds heard were screaming, laughing and splashing.
Possibly half an hour passed when all four of us exited the water, fairly soaked and tired. We sat down on a curved pavement and began eating the sandwiches Yanna made and Minho brought from the car. We ate while conversing and both Jonghyun and I looked away when Minho and Yanna would share a kiss or two. After our clothes had dried off enough and the food was finished, Yanna suggested we do something fun.
"Haven't we done enough?" Minho groaned, throwing his head back.
"Aigoo, why do you have to complain so much?" Yanna scrunched her nose in disgust.
"What are we going to do?" I asked, smiling slightly from their previous conversation.
"Well, I was checking what we could do around here when the water thing would get boring. I almost lost hope but then I found this-" Yanna pointed at this bike renting thing a few feet away. Two people were to cycle through Yeouido Park on one bike. I spotted a few couples renting them and getting on. "Seems nice, right?" Yanna smiled. "Let's go on it and ride." She began to walk towards the place when a small voice spoke up.
"I don't know how to ride a bike." I turned around to furrow my brow at Jonghyun, the silent boy in the shadows. He bit his lip consciously, looking at the ground. I raised my eyebrows. Jonghyun doesn't know how to ride a bike?He doesn't know how to ride a bike?
"You don't?" Yanna asked.
"The shrimp never learned or bothered to try," Minho explained, slapping Jonghyun's back. Jonghyun scowled at Minho and then turned to Yanna.
"Sorry, Yanna. You guys could go though. I'll wait until you guys are done," he offered.
"Yeah, I'll stay with him," I said, walking over to Jonghyun's side opposite of Minho.
Yanna stared at us for a while, contemplating what to do. "...Okay. But if you need us, just call either Minho or me. Okay?" she began walking and Minho was already by her side, putting an arm around her shoulders. Both Jonghyun and I nodded and waved bye when they were renting a bike. We stayed to wave until they were out of sight.
Jonghyun averted his attention to me. "So, you stayed for me, eh?"
"Well, if I left you alone it wouldn't have been really nice, now would it?" I replied, making a point. "Besides, you're my date and I know you'd be crying in the inside."
A wide grin broke out on his face. "I'm your date."
"Yes, date. We're dating, aren't we?" I began walking and he followed by my side. Jonghyun nodded, extremely enthusiastic and cheery. We walked for several minutes, making comments on the day and thanking God for making it cooler when the sun began to set. It seemed odd that we hadn't really insulted each other or done anything to make the other aggravated, besides the whole episode with Jonghyun and the water gun.
It was weird, in a good way.
"You don't know how to ride a bike?" I asked Jonghyun.
He shook his head. "Didn't really want to. I get afraid when I think I'll fall from sitting on the seat. Like you know, I wouldn't able to keep balance? Yeah. I get scared," he admitted.
"I never knew that," I mumbled.
"You don't bother to know anything," he said, but his tone was more lighthearted than the statement.
"You never bother to tell me," I countered.
"Okay, okay. I'll ask you something. What can't you do?" he asked.
I pursed my lips and looked at the pink and orange painted sky, watching a flock of birds fly over my head. "Dance."
"What? You can't dance?" he asked, a small laugh escaping his lips after. I glared at him, wrinkling my eyebrows in the process.
"Don't laugh at me. I didn't laugh at you when you said you couldn't ride a bike," I said, faintly waggling a finger in his face. Jonghyun ignored me and laughed again.
"I'm sorry, it's just...I can picture you dancing and being bad at it," Jonghyun smiled, not able to keep another chuckle inside his mouth. I gave out a short sigh and looked away. "Can you dance for me?"
I shot my head to look at Jonghyun. "No," I refused firmly.
"Why not? Let me see how bad you are," Jonghyun insisted.
I shook my head again. "No," I repeated.
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"PLEASE?" he practically yelled, causing people to glance in our way. I told him to quiet down but this just hyped him to be even louder. It wasn't Key who was the loudest. It was this guy. "Please? I'm begging you, come on. For me? For your date? Your friend?" Jonghyun pestered, making hand motions as he talked.
"Why do you want to see so much?" I sighed, annoyed.
"I've never seen you dance before and honestly...I want to see how you dance," he quietly spoke.
I groaned silently and rubbed my temple with my right hand. "Fine," I croaked. "What do you want me to dance to?"
"You choose," he said. I thought about all those dances Key had demonstrated in the past, in my bedroom, in his bedroom, on every ground his feet were planted on. Everything was a blur. I hadn't really paid attention to everything he danced to, however, there was this one dance.
I started to dance to Bo Peep Bo Peep by T-ara, doing that slow motion backing away thing Key once did, and then going into that dance where my fists knocked on air in a rhythm. I avoided Jonghyun's stare, not wanting to see him laugh at me. It was bad enough I was doing this in public.
I hesitated for a moment, trying to remember what Key did after that but stopped short when I realized I had to jiggle my in front of Jonghyun. "Um...I'm done," I announced to him, ignoring the few people who were staring at me. Couldn't they go suck a or something?
"Done? Ani, you haven't done anything," Jonghyun claimed, shaking his head.
I scowled at him. "I'm done. You saw me dance. Let's go."
"Aren't you supposed to move your...?" he stopped to shake his behind the way I had seen Key do it. I suppressed a smile appearing on my face and looked away.
"You're embarrassing, you know that? Stop being weird and let's go find Minho and Yanna," I told him, walking forward.
"You haven't moved your though," he almost exclaimed, pointing at my rear. I slapped his hand away and told him to quiet down. The disobedient kid didn't listen.
I argued I had done enough and he could always see T-ara or Key do the dance. He countered with he wouldn't be able to see T-ara live in a long shot and Key made him uncomfortable when he danced to girl group dances. He also added on the fact no one would turn him on unless it was me, since I was the one he liked and all. This shut me up and gave him victory for the day.
"You know, you don't dance bad. You just look uncomfortable," Jonghyun commented, smiling reassuringly. I replied with silence.
We walked for a few minutes without much to say. Instead we looked around the park and observed the slightly darkened sky. I watched as a little girl ran to her mom and practically begged for ice cream with aeygo. The mom complied with a smile, grabbed her hand, and began walking to the nearest ice cream vendor. I watched them longingly, not really having a thought occupy my mind yet I was still conscious. "You want ice cream?" Jonghyun's voice brought me back to where I was at the moment, and I shook my head no to answer.
He looked to where I was looking at and back at me. The girl had just gotten the ice cream and hugged her mom's legs, yelling cries of thanks and an "I love you". My eyes stayed on them for a while longer, unable to look away. I felt my heart take a disappointing squeeze. They were able to do this: laughing, hugging. They were able to share affection and fight at the same time. They had something my mother and I could never have. And I envied them for that.
"Oh look, I found Minho and Yanna! Let's go over and bother them," Jonghyun told me as he grabbed my hand and began to pull me away. I abided by his suggestion and walked with him to where he spotted the couple. We spent a few minutes looking for them but didn't find them at all. We walked up and down and around, yet they still weren't in sight. Jonghyun claimed he saw them somewhere; they probably ran away from seeing us. But we couldn't find them.
"Yah, you're just making me tired. Calm down, will you?" I sighed, arching my back.
"Okay, we don't have to look for them. We can rest, if you want," Jonghyun suggested.
"No, it's okay. Just don't drag me everywhere," I said. It was already the evening time, the dark indigo sky emerging from the pink-orange paint that had once been part of the vast space a while ago. Streetlights were flickering white and orange light on every corner.
"Mmm...too late," Jonghyun smiled, squeezing my hand. I had almost forgotten he was still holding my hand. I opened my mouth to say something, but then a voice popped up.
Let him hold your hand. It'll make both of you feel good.
What would you know? You're a part of me. I know nothing about this.
I told you, you like him, didn't I? Was I wrong? No, I don't think so. Appreciate the things I've been doing and enjoy what you're doing with him. You like it.
Shut up.
And this is where I win.
I sighed softly and stretched my neck. "Any signs of Minho or Yanna?" I asked Jonghyun.
"No. Why don't I call them and see where they are?" He took his phone out of his jeans pocket and began dialing numbers.
"You couldn't have done that before the sun was still out?"
"I was lazy to take it out! Stop making me feel bad~" he whined, putting the phone against his ear. "Yoboseyo?" he answered in a deep voice, turning one-eighty degrees. I gave out a short scoff and rolled my eyes. He talked for a few minutes, telling Minho and Yanna where we were. Another minute later Jonghyun and I were walking back down a familiar path towards the black car Minho drove. The couple was already inside, waiting for us. Minho put the car in drive and drove away from Yeouido Park, the big area now becoming a little speck of black and white, as the distance grew larger.
Minho and Yanna talked about how the bike-riding thing went. Yanna complained Minho got too worked up with other couples and tried to ride faster than them, though those couples had no idea they were provoking Minho. It was funny, listening to Yanna rant on how Minho can misunderstand in some cases and Minho telling her he would stuff a stinky sock down her throat if she didn't quiet down. He even insulted her saying she was as worse as Key. This had earned a whack on Minho's head.
Time went fast during that car ride. It seemed as if ten minutes passed when we made it to my house. Yanna and I were getting out and we said goodbye to the guys in the car. "Wait, I'll walk you home," Jonghyun offered to me.
"It's just a thirty second walk to her porch, Jonghyun," Minho rolled his eyes.
"Let him do what he wants. You never walked me home so shut your mouth, Minho," Yanna snapped at him, half joking, half serious. Minho didn't reply after that. Jonghyun got out of the car as well and walked side to side with me, keeping silent. When we got to the front door, he cleared his throat.
"This has been weird, huh?" he asked me.
I nodded once. "Yeah."
He laughed for a second and sighed. "You never gave me your number," he pointed out.
"Really? I thought you would have lured it out from someone by now," I confessed, staring at him.
"I'm not that desperate," he defended, folding his arms.
"Whatever you say. Here, hand me your phone and I'll put it in." He gave me his phone and I gave him mine. We exchanged numbers and gave each other's phones back to the original owner.
Jonghyun coughed into his fist and looked around the night area. "Minho and Yanna are probably looking at us."
"Probably."
"You think they're making fun of us?"
"Why?" I asked, slightly curious.
"They always make fun of me for being so awkward."
I smiled at him. "You were always awkward," I commented.
He smiled wryly. "Thanks," he replied with the same wry tone. I nodded. A moment passed by with silence, neither one of us speaking nor looking at each other. It was awkward as it was. "So...see you later?"
"Yeah, later. 'Night," I bid him farewell. He opened his arms and pulled me in his embrace, engulfing me in warmth and a scent of bleach and mint. It could have felt embarrassing, if it weren't for Jonghyun's ability to make things seem right.
You're not pushing him away. Must be enjoying it that much, huh?
I didn't even bother telling my conscience to shut up.
He let go of me as he smiled shyly, a pink tint appearing on his cheeks. "Goodnight, Mi Young." Jonghyun jogged down my front porch steps and quickly got into the passenger seat next to Minho. I watched Minho drive away as my mind drifted in a daze.
"You called me 'Mi Young'," I murmured. A small butterfly fluttered through my stomach. It was an uncommon feeling, those butterflies and all. I tried to shake the feeling away, but to no avail. Had today really happened? Am I really...dating Kim Jonghyun? Who knew I would be one day feeling like this, and Kim Jonghyun, a guy I've hated for a substantially long time, caused it all.
You like him.
He already knows.