this is how we fall || kim sunwoo

four

“You’re late,” Sunwoo comments, raising a brow at you the moment you step into the restaurant. “I almost thought you didn’t need a date to that party anymore.”

You give him a tired glance. “Let’s just get this over with, okay?”

As easy as it was to blame your annoying roommate for holding you up, it was actually your fall at the park earlier. Even if you’re not normally clumsy, you should’ve known that rushing through uneven ground was a recipe for disaster. It was times like this when you wished your ability would let you see more useful things than random points in other people’s futures.

Something else you wish you’d seen is how your choice of restaurant is nothing like what you’d expected. You’d picked the place after scavenging through the depths of Google Maps, digging up pictures left and right from various reviews, and the single review of this place was the only one that seemed to match the one in your visions. In the photo, the restaurant had been just as dim, and looked like a casual place. But now, in front of you, is a restaurant that looks nothing like the one in the photo.

It’s much fancier with small chandeliers hanging above every table, and elegant decorations lining the walls. In other words, the restaurant must’ve gone through a major upgrade since the local reviewer posted those pictures from five years ago. Now not only was your attempt at finding the restaurant in your visions futile, but this place made you wish you’d chosen a different occupation entirely. Preferably one that paid more than the meager amount your reading was worth.

“Well, this is an interesting choice,” Sunwoo comments, eyes travelling along the walls of the restaurant. “Seems like a nice place.”

You debate pulling him right out of there. “Um, actually, it’s not—”

“Hi, do you have a reservation?” the hostess asks, looking between the two of you. And before you can even answer, there are two menus in her hand and she’s leading you to your table. Great. Perhaps you’d just have to take off one of your rings and fake a proposal for the sake of a free meal if it turns out to be too expensive. You’d heard that it worked for a friend of a friend once upon a time.

Once seated, you nearly do a double take. There’s no hood hiding Sunwoo’s handsome face this time, and under the glow of the chandelier, you can finally see his smooth skin, plush lips, and large eyes that seem to twinkle when he glances at you for whatever reason. He almost looks out of place without the hoodie and sweats that you’d continued to picture him with after the last time, but you have to admit that the button up and jeans make him look even better. Or at least, less like a fuckboy.

You turn to the menu instead, studying it intensely despite having immediately picked out the cheapest option. Five minutes go by. The waitress comes by to take your orders. Another five minutes. Were first dates always this awkward? It’s been years since you’ve gone out with anyone, but if this were the reality of the dating scene, maybe third-wheeling your friends for the rest of your life wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Sunwoo clears his throat. “Should we start with the basics?”

“What?”

“A story to tell people at the party if they ask.” He swirls his drink around, eyes flickering to yours occasionally. “We need to be on the same page with our answers to make it convincing.”

That was something you hadn’t even thought about, but he’s not wrong. “Oh. Um, okay. So how did we meet? It probably won’t be through mutual friends because most of them would be there. Maybe a dating app?”

“Hmm,” he hums, eyes tracing over everything on the table as he thinks. “We met at your shop when I got a reading done. Then I asked you to show me how everything happens.”