boomerang

Chapter 2

"I love you."

"Okay."

"To the moon and back."

"Okay."

"I'll choose you over anything else in life."

"Okay," Chaeyoung repeated. "Over your boyfriend?"

"Know your place," Jennie playfully pinched her cheek before she smiled widely. "You look gorgeous, Chaeng."

Chaeyoung looked at herself in the mirror after Jennie finished blowing her hair. "Shit, this won't do."

"What? Why?"

"What if he falls for me?" Chaeyoung asked with a teasing smirk.

"Then, he's all yours," Jennie winked.

"No, did you hear what I said? What if he falls for 'me', aka Kim Jennie?" Chaeyoung asked with her brows knitted, a tiny smile playing at her lips.

Jennie gave it a thought. "If that happens, I will expose myself as Kim Jennie and tell him that you are Park Chaeyoung."

"If that happens, he better be hot," Chaeyoung said. "How does he look?"

"I don't know," Jennie shrugged. "My mom never showed me what my blind dates look like, including this one. All you and I have now is the restaurant's name and a table reserved under her name."

Chaeyoung clicked her tongue. "That sucks," Chaeyoung put on the stilettos Jennie bought for her birthday last year. "At least if we know what he looks like, I could have better preparation. I could decide early on whether he's worth it or not."

Despite all the jokes that Chaeyoung threw together with Jennie about this whole thing, Chaeyoung was nervous when she entered the restaurant. She was just supposed to act as Jennie and leave a bad impression, but she couldn't help the natural instinct to look good and show everyone her best behavior as she walked toward the table where she could see the back of the man who was already waiting.

Chaeyoung swallowed hard as she stood behind the man for a few seconds before she inhaled deeply and slid her hand across the man's shoulder and she could feel him tense under her touch for a few moments.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long," she said with her best elegant laugh that people praised so much. Her insides cringed at the fakeness she showed him, especially when a few people from other tables were watching.

The man's head turned to where her hand was and didn't turn his head even after she took a seat. Chaeyoung's mission was to annoy him, and the expression on his face told her that she was one step onto success. Although, when the man brushed off the area where she had touched him with an expression that was close to either disgust or annoyance, she felt embarrassed and hurt at the gesture.

"You're late," he said flatly and when he turned to look at her, a heavy frown decorated his face.

"Only five minutes late," Chaeyoung chuckled. "I wanted to look the best, so I figured that the five minutes I took to fix my dress and makeup for you would be worth it."

"Sounds a lot like poor management skills," he said, again with that flat tone. "If you can manage time well, you wouldn't have to spend an extra five minutes to do that." He rolled his eyes and took a sip of the wine.

Oh wow. It didn't seem like it was even necessary for her to be there until the end of the dinner. She could tell that she had successfully annoyed him to the core with lesser effort than she thought she would have to put on. She should feel happy that their plan was working, but somehow, she felt none of that.