It Just Happened That Way || JEONGIN from skz!

25

I grin to myself as I leave the company to head over to Google. I wanted to surprise Yeona right as she left the office, and head to the restaurant together. As I walked up to the building, I kept to myself and just kept an eye on the front door. Unexpectedly, I jumped as I felt someone tap my shoulder. I whip around and make eye contact with the perpetrator — Yeona.

I melt a little on the inside. She and I are dressed a bit similarly. Both wearing black skinny jeans, boots, long coats. After exchanging a couple words about how attractive I am, (okay, i'm kidding) we head over to the subway station. With both of us wearing our sunglasses and masks, it was harder for us to be recognized on public transportation, hopefully.

At the restaurant, we are seated toward the back as per my request for more privacy. I didn't mention that I was a celebrity, but I think that the lady might have recognized me because she quickly freed up a table at the back for us. Yeona seemed to feel a little awkward with the whole exchange, but since I had gotten used to this kind of treatment, I just tried my best to accept the help and be kind in return.

Within minutes of ordering, our food was out and we dug into the meal.

"God, it's been so long since I had soondubu. I think the last time I had it was last winter with some climbers," Yeona says, as she carefully gulps down another hot spoonful of the spicy tofu stew.

"Was it on one of your trips?" I asked. I knew that she had been going on weekend trips when she had time to go outdoor climbing. It was honestly so interesting — I had never met someone this committed to a sport, but not going pro. I hadn't seen her climbing before, but could tell that she wasn't just an average climber.

"Yeah, it was a little bit outside of Seoul. One of the guys at the gym has a car, so we went on a weekend trip a couple times. I think you were in the studio those weekends?"

"Probably was. That's all we do, haha." I felt awkward — my life didn't seem to have as much dimensionality as hers. "Did you climb well? Do you have pictures, videos?"

She smiled and nodded at me, her eyes turning into pretty crescent moons. I couldn't help but to smile back at her.

"It's too bad you don't follow my instagram. I have some climbing content on there!"

"You use instagram?? I don't follow it??" I pouted at her, and she looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"You have a personal instagram and this is the first time I'm hearing about it? Dang, I should've signed an NDA ages ago."

We both pulled out our phones. I switched over to my super private instagram where I shit posted random photos of my life and followed my closest friends and family members. It was under the name "insane_life_123" — hopefully that wasn't obvious enough for fans to figure out that it was me.

"My instagram is lee_yeona," she said, as I typed in the simple username and hit "Request to Follow." I watched as the notification popped up for her, and as she burst out laughing. She abruptly stopped the loud outburst, looked around to see if anyone noticed, and whisper joked to me, "insane_life_123?" before quietly laughing again.

"Hey! I gotta be careful, okay!!!" I whisper shout at her, "I can't just have my username be yang_jeongin_from_stray_kids!"

We quietly laughed in our little corner, our heads leaning in close, as we finished up the last of our food. We finally stopped and she picked at the food a little. I had my elbow on the table, head resting in my hand, and gazed at her.

I can't believe that I felt this way about her. I was letting myself feel this way for the first time. The butterflies were endless — I couldn't believe this was real life. The corners of my lips lifted just slightly. I couldn't even control it. She finally looked up at me, and met my smile with one of her own, her eyes crinkling into their signature crescent shape.

"What?" She asked, nervously.

"Nothing. I was just..."

"Admiring the view?"

My jaw dropped, before could regain control of it and close it. "Maybe!"

She grinned at me, "Stop it, you're making my heart skip."

We laughed a little. It was strange but also natural to be flirting with Yeona. It was fun, and it felt comfortable and nerve-racking at the same time, as if all of our interactions had a new added dimension to them.

With dinner done, we got up to pay ("No, I'm paying, Yeona. It's our first date. Just let me!" "Fine."), and headed out to have some dessert.