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"Eomma, you look..."
"Like a supermodel? Yeah, I know," my mother flips her jet-black extensions that cascade in ripples down her back. Her lips are cherry red, just like her name, Chae Ri, and it's hard to recognize the woman before me as she slips on her heels which are black, to match her dress that fits her slim figure nicely. In fact, she can easily pass as a twenty-five-year-old party girl with the way she looks right now - complete with a smoky eye and two silver hoops dangling from her ears - and it terrifies me.
"When will you be back?" I ask.
"When I feel like coming back," she replies with a cat-like grin, and I roll my eyes.
"You're such a Saggitarius."
She pokes her tongue out at me before grabbing her purse and opening the door, bidding me a last goodbye as she disappears behind it. I count to ten, then run to my room.
I too have a date to get ready for. But it's no ordinary date.
I pull out the dress from the wardrobe, still safely secured inside the bag it came in. Goosebumps tingle my skin as I change into it, already feeling like a different person. I wear my hair down, slip in some dangly earrings, swipe some plum lipstick over my lips and curl my eyelashes, lining my eyes with some eyeliner for a finishing touch. I go through all these motions with a fluttering heart and a racing mind as I anticipate what is yet to come.
This is the first time I am dressing up for him.
The first time I am purposefully making myself look pretty – for him. And it's exhilarating.
He said he will meet me here, outside the building, so naturally I jump five feet in the air when I hear a knock on the door, and then the doorbell, multiple times.
"Yah, I thought you said you'd text me first!" I trip through the apartment to the door, yanking it open in a flourish. For a split second my soul leaves my body as I register that it's really him, standing right there, and nobody else, like I feared. And my soul remains detached as he takes me in, dark eyes sweeping over the almost unrecognizable girl before him, slightly frazzled and barefoot, yet still so –
"Wow," his husky voice tugs at my heart. "You look even better than I imagined."
"Thanks, I guess?" I tilt my head, letting out an anxious laugh.
Taehyung scratches his head, reciprocating my laugh. "I mean, you look really good. Like, really..."
As he continues to gawp at me, my soul decides to return to my body so that I can truly admire him in that leather jacket. Something about a leather jacket makes a person look incredibly attractive, but on him...it's almost unfair how good he looks. Even with his coconut hairstyle.
"We need to do something about this," I fork my fingers through his bangs, surprising him and myself as I reveal flashes of his forehead, as well as his strong thick eyebrows. I smile.
