It Just Happened That Way || JEONGIN from skz!

24

Jeongin's POV

I can't believe I just asked her out. I asked Yeona out?? I asked her out. This is the first time I've ever asked anyone out on a proper date! I know, I'm in my mid-20's, what happened? Well, that's just the unfortunate reality of someone married to their job and fans.

Although this was the first time that I had ever asked anyone out, because it was Yeona, I didn't fuck it up too much. There's a baseline level of comfort that I feel with her, and that helped a lot with getting the words out.

The whole situation with the NDA made me realize that the two of us were kidding ourselves if we thought that this wasn't more than a typical friendship. We clicked like no other, right off the bat. We were compliments of each other. Something like that was really hard to find, and it would be foolish of me to let her go. It would, however, be selfish of me to keep her close. Luckily for me, I'm a selfish guy!

I barely slept all night. I tossed and turned, so many thoughts racing through my head. Thoughts about what it would be like dating Yeona, what kind of reactions the guys might have, how long we might end up dating, how the fans would react. Would we get married? I shook my head at that and firmly thought, Don't do this. It's way too early for that.

I finally crawled out of bed to go to work — the car would be here soon and I wasn't even ready. I quickly pulled a shot of espresso and added ice and water to make my usual iced americano, and got ready for the day. I had laid out the outfit the night before because I didn't want to have to think about what I would wear on the date in the morning.

The weather was finally cooling down, which made me happy — I hate hot weather. I'd rather wear more layers than have no more layers to shed. With the cool weather, I decided on layering a shirt and sweater with a long camel colored overcoat, with my black skinny jeans and some black boots. I put on a beanie and some sunglasses before grabbing my bag to head out.

Throughout the day, the guys could tell I was distracted. But, I couldn't tell them yet. I didn't want to tell them anything until we were official, because I didn't want to jinx it. I did, however, tell them that Yeona had officially signed an NDA, to which they "oooh"ed. Felix came over and patted my shoulder, while raising his eyebrows with suspicion.

We got on with the rest of the day, practicing choreography for some new songs. During a break, I texted Yeona to set the plans for dinner — simple yet hearty soondubu, and maybe some bingsoo (Korean shaved ice) for dessert afterwards. Hopefully she would like it. Ah, who am I kidding, I know her well enough to know that she would like it. Unless she's different when she's dating compared to when she's a friend... I shake the thoughts of uncertainty from my head. Yeona is Yeona. She is level headed, she is mature, she is courteous, she is kind, she is pretty, she — I snap out of it, and chuckle to myself.

"Someone's not telling us the whole story," Hyunjin says, giving me the side eye.

My eyes go big in protest. "What!"

"Yeah, what's going on, my baby?" Jisung says, teasing me and poking my shoulders.

"Oh go away, nothing's going on."

A couple of the guys raise their eyebrows, and Seungmin chimes in with a singsong tone, "Something's going o-onn and he's not telling us!~"

"Guys, please, leave him alone!" Felix says. Aw. Felix always on my side. "He probably doesn't want to jinx his first DATE!" Felix joins the guys in dog piling me. Shouldn't have trusted him, I think to myself, indignant.

"Gerroff of me!!!" I shout at them, gasping for air. "I have to go now!!"

"Ohh! He has to go meet Yeona!!" Jisung yells.

"Argh, guys!" I finally free myself and grab my things before they can catch up. "See ya later, suckers!" I run off as they roar with laughter.