"You're extremely happy today," Renjun voices out his observation as they get out of his car. "Why is that?"
"Can't I just be happy without reason, dear brother?" Dahee says a little bit too enthusiastically, the smile she's had on her face since that morning still there.
In her peripheral vision, she sees him narrow his eyes at her and just ignores him, leaving him no choice but to let it go and follow her into the bustling diner. Jisung, Chenle, Jaemin, and Jeno are already there along with two of the latter's bandmates. Renjun was the one to suggest for them all to hang out and catch up since everyone has been either busy with soccer practice or schoolwork the past few weeks.
"Hey, Rennie." Jaemin pulls his boyfriend in for a kiss on the cheek when the siblings get seated.
"Some of us are still single here," Jeno says in between his fake coughs. "Anyway. These two are my bandmates, Yangyang and Shotaro. Hendery couldn't come 'cause of a family emergency."
She doesn't pay any more attention to the others after introducing herself to the new faces and turns to Jisung who's been looking at her since she arrived, "Hey."
"Hi." He smiles shyly as he swirls the straw in his drink.
Under the table, her hands find his and she takes the initiative to intertwine them together. She sees the surprise in his eyes and tries to hold back a smile, but fails. One appears on his face, too, not long after. It feels nice holding his hand. And something about hiding that from everyone around them and the thrill of getting caught makes her more giddy.
"How did your interview go yesterday?" She asks, keeping her voice low so only he can hear (but the others are too busy eating to care).
"It went well... I think," he says with uncertainty. "There were two other more people who were applying and one of them seemed very confident, competetive even. Like, it's just a position in a coffee shop, not an executive one in a company, but okay."
She giggles and he raises an eyebrow, "Sorry. You're just so cute."
"Oh, um, thanks," he says with reddening ears. "You're cute, too."
The smile on her face grows wider seeing him flustered─it's always the other way around─because of the words she had uttered and gives his hand a gentle squeeze. She feels his thumb rub against the back of her hand, and it makes the butterflies in her stomach go crazy like it always does whenever he did that. She wonders how he can make her feel like that so effortlessly, or if he even has a clue about the effect of his actions. If this is what love is supposed to feel like, then maybe she has actually fallen in love with him. But has she really?
"You two aren't slick." Chenle says rather loudly for the whole table to hear, pulling Dahee and Jisung out of their own little world and back to reality.
"What are you talking about?" Jisung asks, acting like he didn't know a thing.
"Oh, please," the older scoffs and crosses his arms. "Don't act like you two aren't holding hands under the table right now and looking at each other with heart eyes. It's so painfully obvious."
Well, there goes their not-so-secret secret.
"That's why you were all smiley and giddy since you woke up," Renjun narrows his eyes at her like he did earlier. "So, who admitted defeat first? I bet it was you."
"Actually," she smiles victoriously. "It was him."
"You're still a loser since you fell for him, too," he shrugs and has a smug look on his face when she can't find the words to prove him wrong. "Well, are you two dating now?"
She purses her lips and glances at Jisung, "Uh, no."
"Not yet," he adds. "We decided to take it slow."
"Okay then," Renjun says nonchalantly as he leans against Jaemin's shoulder. "Treat my sister right, Jisung. If you break her heart, I'll break your limbs."
"Don't worry, hyung," Jisung glances at her and smiles. "I could never break her heart."
She feels something in the pit of her stomach at the promise that fell from his lips. And it's not butterflies this time, it's dread. She pretends she doesn't feel it gnawing at her nerves.
"Hey," she says lowly and he looks at her. "Wanna get out of here?"
"Where do you wanna go?" He asks in the same volume she spoke in, already taking his car keys from his back pocket.
She shrugs, "Just... anywhere."
Subtly but not so subtly, the two slide out of the booth and leave the group and their half-eaten chicken waffles for a spontaneous adventure. If anyone notices them leave, they don't say anything and let the two lovestruck adolescents go. So, they hop in his car and drive around pointlessly. The destination of their trip is unknown, but they just enjoy the ride.
He rolls the windows down and she closes her eyes as the wind tousles her hair into a disheveled mess. She reopens her eyes when the car stops at a red light and sees the sun setting in the distance. It reminds her of the sunrises they always watch after spending most of their nights at the diner, talking but mostly sitting in comfortable silence. That same comfortable silence fills the spaces between them, but they don't feel the need to say something or anything at all.
As they continue driving around the streets of Seoul with no destination, she stares at him and watches as the orange hue of the skies seep into the windows and spill onto his face. His eyes are glistening and his skin is glowing under the sunlight. She thinks he looks particularly ethereal in this lighting.
The car comes to another stop at another red light, and he finally turns to look back at her, his eyes sparkling with adoration and love. Love. When she identifies that look in his eyes, she wonders if she also looks at him that way. But she won't be able to know; this is her first time being in love and she has doubts about her feelings.
