Final Puzzle Piece || SKZ 9th Member

Two Kids Room: Seungmin X Kala

"Do you realize that we're always in the same car?" Seungmin decided to start with a question he himself had been wondering since they had been active as a rookie group that got a handful of schedules everywhere.

"Well, I may or may not purposely always choose a car that had you in it," Kala admitted in the truest way possible, coupled with an innocent grin that appeared across her face.

"No way," a laugh lingered between his words, "me too."

She reflected on his laugh. "Really?"

"Mhm," Seungmin answered in verification. "Well, the first times might be only a coincidence. But then we also always sit next to each other in the car."

"True," Kala confirmed instantly. "And it keeps going on like that without us realizing. It's not even because we have something fun to do in the car. We barely even speak while on the way. We'll talk if we have something to say, and the rest of the ride, we just share earphones and listen to music." Seungmin nodded throughout the narration to approve all the facts. "For me, I just enjoy being in your company."

"The feeling is mutual," he replied, flashing a dimple-worthy smile at the younger girl. "Every time we're going somewhere, I always ask our manager which car you are in and ask him to save my seat beside you."

"Are you for real?" A giggle bubbled from Kala's lips, fascinated by Seungmin's confession.

"Yeah, seriously," he affirmed without hesitation. "Before meeting many people, I always need some time to recharge, and I mostly get that when I'm with you." A smile sprouted on Kala's face when he said that. "At this rate, sitting next to you in the car becomes more like a habit."

Kala placed one hand on her chest and bowed playfully at Seungmin. "I'm honored."

Letting out a chuckle at her antic, Seungmin took a lollipop and unwrapped it. "Maybe many STAYs also don't know this yet, but we have a couple guitar bag."

"That's right, STAY." Kala settled her gaze at the camera, considering it as if she was talking with their STAYs. "Seungmin Oppa has the brown one and I have it in black."

"We bought it not long ago because Kala really needed to change her guitar bag. It was ripped so bad that everyone kept asking her why she didn't just buy a new one."

"Hey, it wasn't because I didn't want to buy it sooner, I was saving up to buy a good one so it can last longer."

"I know, I know," Seungmin sniggered, not trying to oppose. "Channie Hyung even wanted to give you a new guitar bag for your birthday, you know?"

"Did he?" Kala asked in surprise but clearly could expect that coming from Chan.

"Yeah," he nodded, "but he knew you'd been putting a lot of effort into saving up your money, so he didn't want to invalidate your hard work."

"He's always so considerate," Kala muttered, grabbing a pillow and placing it on her lap to prop her arm there. Then she put her chin on the palm of her hand while thinking about what other stories with Seungmin that she could share. "Ah!" she exclaimed lightly."Before we debuted, we also had this routine after we had dinner together, we always went to the convenience store and bought ice cream or yogurt for dessert. And then we would go to the park near our apartment and sit on the swing in the playground area to hang out."

Seungmin brought up a smile upon remembering all those times when he was trying to get Kala to loosen up to him. "That was how we were getting to know each other. We still do that now once in a while."

"Yeah..." she trailed off, also reminiscing their bonding moments. "Come to think of it, why was I so awkward with you back then?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Seungmin fleetingly pointed to her with his lollipop because, at that time, Kala was the one who wouldn't let her wall down for him.

"Well, to be fair, you know I was so not good at social interaction. It was hard for me to open up to new people, so I tended to hold back and not talk much. And you're a boy, to top it off," Kala tried to reason, which made Seungmin frown at the last point.

"Why was that a problem that I'm a boy?" he rolled off the question the next thing.

"I never had a male friend before, so I didn't know how to act around boys. Even with Channie Oppa, I was so awkward in the beginning."

"But, you were kinda tomboy—you are still—yet you didn't have at least one male friend?"

"That's how bad my social skills were."

Seungmin responded with a long hum, absorbing the new information to remind himself that Kala was indeed really not excelling in society. "That explained why you were having trouble getting close to almost half of us when you first joined."

Kala sighed as a form of disappointment to herself. "I really need to fix that."

"It's okay. It is definitely not easy for some people," he reassured her. "Just don't be too hard on yourself with that."

"Yes, sir." She sent a two-finger salute to the older boy.

"To the usual park tonight?"

"I'm always down."

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌✎

✉ Seungmin to Kala

To: My car seatmate

It was fun talking to you as always. I'm glad we find each other's company enjoyable. Hope it stays like this because I'm so used to having you next to me in the car. Even when we don't talk much and just listen to some music, I don't think I'll get bored or sick of that as long as you're there to share the earphones with. Dinner is on me tonight.

✉ Kala to Seungmin

My couple guitar bag partner,

Have you thought about this? When we're in the car, we tend to keep the conversation short, but we will talk about so many things when we hang out at the park after dinner that sometimes we lose track of time. It sounds like we have a lot to say after a long day and it's our way of talking about it, don't you think? I'll pay for the dessert then.