Guardian

21. If this isn't love, I don't know what to call this.

Jeongyeon

Hopefully this time she wouldn't make any excuse since I want to use this opportunity to settle the beef between us.

I knock on their door to check her out. "Sana, are you ready?"

"Just a minute." She shouted inside the room.

I opened my mouth in awe when I saw what she is wearing. It's an ash gray above the knee dress plus a moon pendant necklace and a brown gladiator shoes while I'm just wearing a striped shirt under my brown leather jacket plus ripped jeans.

"Should I change?" She said shyly when she noticed that I've been staring for long.

"Ani. It just that, I think I will look like your maid." I said as I scratched the back of my neck.

"Not really, you look cool actually. Shall we?" She said pointing the stairs.

"We shall." I said and held her hand to guide her downstairs. I felt her flinched but I chose to ignore that. Standing close to her feels great.

"JeongSa couple on a date?" Chaeyoung ask happily intertwining her hands.

"No. I'll just help her find a gift." Sana said and tugged some strands of her hair behind her ear.

At the corner of my eyes, I could see Nayeon looking at us blankly.
—
I opened the passenger seat and guided her before I went in. She is struggling to lock her seatbelt so I helped her. Her iconic vanilla smell invaded my nose. I hope she doesn't notice that I sniffed her.

"So do you have any specific brand on your mind?" She asked ending the awkward silence.

"She's fond of Chanel actually." I said and looked at her.

"Well nice taste." She said and opened the radio.

I watched her with my peripheral vision as she sing along with the songs on track until Passenger Seat played. I know this sounds cliché but it played really.

My heart started to beat so loud. If not for the radio, she might as well hear it.

She bit her lip and focused on the window. I don't know why I'm feeling this towards her. I am hurt every time she tries to avoid me. I am happy every time I saw her smiling. I always wanted to protect her. I wanted to be near her. If this isn't love, I don't know what to call this.

I tried to held her hand that's resting beside her. She looked at me in shock. I squeezed it and smiled at her. She didn't snatch her hand back that made me smile more.

When we arrived at the mall, I quickly ran to her side to open the door for her.

She smiled at me as we walked side by side to the entrance. A bunch of people is also entering the mall—no surprise since it's weekend, so I held her waist to avoid people from pushing or squeezing her.

"Why don't you just told me you wanted to date me. You even used your sister for excuse. I'm sorry for her." She said shaking her head, giving me her famous smirk.

"I didn't know I wanted to date you. Thanks to my sister." I said returning the smirk.

I'm not sure if this is a real date to her but better treasure it while it lasts. I don't know what tomorrow will hold.

"So, could you be my date today?" I said shyly to her. How dare me to ask a gorgeous woman for a date when I don't even had flowers to give.

"Just for today? Why not today and the day onwards?" She said making the both of us chuckled.

We roamed the mall giggling and laughing with her silly stories. She's the kind of girl who always have something in her pocket to talk about. You will never get bored.

"Ow I forgot, I had to watch this movie for our movie review project." She said showing me the title of the movie on her phone.

"Let's watch it after we eat. You accompany me so it's my turn to accompany you." I said grabbing her hand and locking it to my arms.
——
It's almost in the middle of the movie when I noticed Sana rubbing her arms. She must be cold.

I hit her head lightly and lend her my jacket. "That's because you wear thin clothes."

"I saw you wearing a jacket so why bother?" She said still focused on the movie.

I shook my head in her response. She is really hard-headed. But what surprised me is when instead of wearing my jacket. She pulled me closer and covered us with my jacket.

"I cannot let you to be cold too. I do have a conscience." She said and held my hand between hers. She alternately rubs both of my hands to avoid it from getting cold.

I noticed a man in front of us taking glances at Sana every once in a while. He even took a picture of us secretly. I planned to confront him after the movie but when he showed the picture to a woman beside him who giggled. I realized that they are being fond of us. The girl even asked us how long we've been together.

"You look perfectly together. Hope to see you again." They commented as we exit the cinema.

"We hope to see you together again too." Sana said blushly at them.

We learned that they've been together for almost 9 years since their junior high.

Sana eyed them as they walked away. There's something in her eyes that I cannot figure out. Is it jealousy or sadness, I'm not sure really.

"So, what do you think about long term relationships?" I asked her when we settled on the car.

"When you entered a relationship, that should be your goal. To grow old together." She said looking at the window before asking me a question. "What do you think about people in long term relationship who fall out of love?"

"I didn't know you have a deep side." I said and chuckled but when I saw that she's serious, I cleared my throat and answered.

"I think it's okay to break up instead of fooling yourself and your partner. How about you?" I said and took a glance of her.

"For me, if you quit because the cheesy factor is gone, if you couldn't longer feel the butterflies on your stomach, then I think you're the worst. If you're only after the blushing and cheesy feeling, you better just watch a romantic movie than entering a relationship. You will only break someone's heart in the end. If you couldn't commit for a lifetime, you shouldn't commit in the first place." I could feel the bitterness in every word she spoke as if those came from her heart, as if she's speaking in experience.

"Did you experienced being broken hearted?" I nervously asked her when we reached the dorm.

"Thanks for the night. And for the record, yes—been there, done that." She said and entered the dorm.
——-

[A/N: here's to @PrincessLacsinto thank you for supporting.]