The Real Us

. chapter 4 .

"What about you?" the male asked.

"I used to do Ballet." Taeryoung replied. "Used to?" the male repeated. The girl nodded, "I fell and broke my foot pretty bad a few years back, and the doctors told me I couldn't dance anymore."

The boy felt he related to her a bit as he recalled the injuries he had gotten from his skating training.

Just then an older woman brought out their chicken and Sunghoon immediately dug in.

The girl watched as he practically inhaled the chicken. Feeling the corners of her mouth lift, she stifled a laugh. "Hey. Are you laughing at me?" The boy said in between bites. He raised an eyebrow at the girl across from him as he chewed another piece of chicken.

She looked away and pursed her lips to prevent herself from smiling. "Not at all. You seem to like chicken a lot though," she managed to say.

The boy looked up from his almost empty plate to see Taeryoung trying (and failing) to get a chunk of chicken off of the wooden skewer. Without hesitation, the male reached over and took the skewer from her hand. "Hey I can do it myse-"

She swallowed her words as he effortlessly slid the chunks onto her plate. "Didn't seem like it," he retorted. "Plus, it was seriously frustrating watching you fail at something so simple."

"I feel attacked," she whined as she melodramatically put her hand on her heart. "Tsk," the boy scoffed, eating the last of his chicken. He leaned back and sighed, satisfied after a good meal.

-

By the time the pair left the restaurant the sun had already set. "Which direction is your house?" Sunghoon inquired. Taeryoung pointed down the road. "That way."

The male blinked a couple times before saying, "Alright, let's go." He walked a few steps ahead before realizing his "girlfriend" wasn't following him. "You coming?" He turned to look at her with an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah..." she mumbled as she caught up to him.

They turned another corner onto her street and started walking towards her residence. "Is your house close to here?" She looked at him as she asked. His face seemed to have softened since they first met. Maybe it was just in her head.

The male slowly nodded his head in response to her question. "Oh, really? What a coincidence," she scratched a spot behind her ear as they stopped in front of her house. "Yeah..." he said quietly, "See you tomorrow."

He turned to leave but was caught by Taeryoung's words "Tomorrow? Tomorrow is Saturday," she watched as the tall boy turned to look at her over his shoulder. "Oh." He said before he walked down the sidewalk and out of sight.

The girl couldn't help but think he had sounded a little sad when she had reminded him of the date. No, why would he be sad? What was there to be sad about? It wasn't like they were really together, it was only an act. She reminded herself.

-

Park Sunghoon finally arrived at home after the long 30 minute walk to his residence. He walked straight up the stairs to his bedroom, ignoring his mother's 'where were you?' and 'why were you out so late?'.

Just as he was prepared to shower he heard his phone ding.

Taeryoung:
Did you get home safe?

Sunghoon:
Mhm.

Taeryoung:
Ok
Sleep well
read at 8:56 pm

Sunghoon felt the corners of his mouth lift a little bit when he read her last text. Then he looked at himself in the mirror. Ugh what is that weird face I'm making? He thought as he reverted back to his stone-cold expression.

He shut off his phone and stepped into the shower. It felt nice to take a warm shower after a good meal.

The male was mid-shampoo when he heard a ding from his phone again. Ignoring the fact that his hands were soapy and he was completely soaked, he opened his glass shower door and reached for the device. He quickly typed in his password only to see a new message that made his brows furrow.

Unknown Caller:
Hey is this Park Sunghoon?

Sunghoon:
Who are you?

Unknown Caller:
Kim Kyojun.

Sunghoon recalled the name as the name of the boy who had wanted to date Taeryoung. But despite that, he still replied:

Sunghoon:
Who?

Kyojun:
Are you dating Taeryoung?
read at 9:09pm

Sunghoon scoffed and shut off his phone. Realizing he still had shampoo in his hair, he stepped back into the shower to finish washing up.