"Well, we better get going. Don't want to miss the movie," Junghwa says as he gently grabs Hana's hand, making her blush. "Bye, Ara! Bye Mrs. Kim."
"Bye, kids! Stay safe," Ara's says mom Junghwa and Hana walks out of the front door. After closing the door, the woman turns around to face her daughter with a smirk while crossing her arms.
"So...is it a date for two, or a dinner for three?" Ara's mom ask with sarcastic smile.
"Dinner for three, mom," Ara says. She roll her eyes since she knew that her mom is probably smirking at this point.
"So when is he going to sweep you away?" Ara's mom ask with a cheesy smile this time.
"More likely Zach's just picking me up for dinner," Ara says. Her mom eventually enters a long session of laughter, before actually calming herself down.
"Ok, I'll be serious now," Ara's mom says, breathing after her laughting session.
"So...how's your music lessons going on?"
At this point, Ara feels relief that her mom is finally talking about something else.
"Good. I'm getting better and better. Junghwa even taught me a song he played on the piano," Ara says.
"That's great, Dear," says Ara's mom.
A few minutes later, the door bell rang. Ara walks over to the door to open it, revealing Zach standing on the other side looking all set for a night out. He is wearing a black tuxedo, complete with a black bow tie. Ara was surprised to see her friend looking more formal than usual.
Ara's POV...
My jaws almost drop at the sight of Zach in a suit. It's not every day that this kid would want to dress so formal. It actually surprised me.
"Hey, Ara! You look great," Zach comments on my look for tonight. His eyes are studying me from head to toe, which I obviously notice.
"Thanks Zach. You look great too," I say to Zach with a smile, in which he smiles back.
"I think I know a few people who are in love," my mom suddenly adds, making both Zach and I turn our attention towards her. Right now I'm literally staring at my mom with a "seriously, is this a joke?" kind of look, while Zach is just smiling and trying his best to hold his laughter.
"Then can I take the beautiful girl out tonight, Mrs. Kim?" Zach ask my mom as he wraps one of his arms around my waist. As he touch my waist, I couldn't help but feel a different feeling. This is not the feeling I usually have when I'm around him. For some reasons, I'm actually feeling a little nervous right now.
"Of course you can! Just don't forget to bring her back, since she needs to go to school tomorrow," my mom says with a big smile, before giving me a sassy wink. Oh great..
"Yes, Mrs. Kim," Zach says as he walks out of the door with me, with his hand not moving from my waist.
"Umm..bye mom." I wave to my mom awkwardly.
"Bye Mrs. Kim," says Zach to my mom as we exit the house.
"Bye kids! Have fun," says my mom to us. I bet she is hoping I'm gonna fall for Zach tonight. Yeah, she's hoping I'm gonna fall for my best friend, which is crazy. Well, that's what she's always hoping for.
The drive to the restaurant is silent. Zach still refuse to tell me where we are going, since he wanted it to be a surprise.
After a moment of awkward silence, I decided to break it.
"So...is Grace already there? Since she hasn't reply my text," I ask Zach as I watch him drive. Even in the dark, Zach looks pretty cool. I never knew my best friend could be THIS attractive. Well, even though he always looks cool in school, yet tonight was different.
Though a lot of girls actually tries to hit on him a few times, he always decline them. Zach isn't a player. He takes relationship seriously. Pretty much, this is the reason why an attractive guy like him is single.
"I haven't ask her again, but I think she's heading there," Zach answers while keeping his eyes on the road.
During the ride, I took a few chances to steal a few glances of Zach. I don't even know why I'm stealing glances of my best friend, but I just feel good about it. Zach eventually realize what I was doing.
"Are you stealing glances of me?" he ask with a cheesy smile, while keeping his vision on the road.
"Maybe a little," I answer shyly, before I end up bursting in laughter.
"What's so funny?" Zach ask me.
"Nothing," I reply to him with a smile which even myself couldn't understand. Why am I smiling at this point?
We finally arrived at the restaurant. It is a fancy french restaurant, which has beautiful interiors. The place looks lovely.
Zach parked his car and exits, before opening the car door for me. I step out of the car with Zach giving me his hand. I took his hand happily, and the both of us enters the restaurant.
Turns out Zach already booked the table hours before. Yet, I couldn't find Grace anywhere. It's not like her to be late. Grace is an on time person.
"Where's Grace?" I ask Zach, who is on his phone.
"She just texted me that she couldn't make it, since she has some unfinish work to do," Zach answers sadly.
"Oh..too bad," I reply to him. I eventually check my phone to see if there is any message from Grace.
"Hi Ara! Sorry but I still have some unfinish work, and so I can't join you and Zach tonight." - Grace
"It's ok, Grace! There's always next time." - Alexa
With Grace unable to join us, I guess it's just me and Zach. I'm literally feeling a bit nervous right now. I don't really know why, since I never felt like this before when I'm around my best friends.
Zach notice the weird look on my face. He looks up from the menu he was holding and face me.
"Hey! Are you ok?" Zach ask me.
"Huh? Oh..I'm fine." I say to him, before I start to look at the menu on the table.
"Are you sick? You look a little different," Zach ask me, sounding worried.
"I'm fine. I was just thinking about my homeworks." I lie to him.
After a few minutes, our food is served. The food is pretty good, with variant dishes of both Western and Asian touches. During the whole dinner, I start to wonder about what Junghwa and Hana were doing. I bet they're having fun just enjoying each other's company over a movie.
Remembering the way they looked at each other, it was obvious for anyone to know that both of them like each other. I guess my duty as a cupid was done well. I'm happy for them.
After dinner, Zach drives me back home. As I was about to enter my house, Zach tells me that he wanted to talk to me in the front yard of my house.
"What is it, Zach?" I ask him as both of us sits on the bench of the yard.
"I have a confession to make," Zach says as his eyes are looking on the grass.
"What?" I ask him. I thought I misheard what he said. Did he just say confession? What is he going to confess at this time?
"To be honest....tonight was actually a plan," he starts. "Since Matt and Kate revealed their relationship, the guys and I noticed that you look different. You didn't smile often like you usually do, and you even looked sad. So the guys and I thought we could make a surprise for you tonight, by pretending to have dinner for at a restaurant. But well, Grace told us that you need some alone time with a guy to actually make you feel better," Zach continues with his words. He eventually let out a deep breath. "And that's why she didn't join us tonight."
I'm surprise to hear everything I've heard from Zach. Knowing this, a part of me is touched by how my friends really cared to make me feel better. I stare at Zach with a surprised, yet mixed look at the same time.
"I didn't expect it. Thanks, Zach," I say to Zach. He smiles at me as I give him a hug. It's a hug I always gave him back when were in middle school, whenever we were happy or sad. I consider it as our friendship hug.
Zach looks at me as we part away. He smiles at me, before standing up to let out a hand for me. "May I have this dance tonight?" he ask me with a sassy smile.
I let out a small laugh while staring at his rosy cheeks. I give him my hand and answer at the same time. "You may."
We end up dancing in the front yard. The stars are shinning in the sky, making the night look luminous. Zach and I dance like we are dancing at a ball, not caring that it was getting late. We eventually stop dancing with a laugh, after both of us simply had a hard time keeping up with the steps.
"Thanks for tonight, Zach," I say to him as I stare into his eyes.
"You're welcome, Ara," he answers with a smile while starting to pull his tie.
"I was surprised to see you all dressed up," I say as I stare at his face.
"Believe me, it was all for the plan," says Zach.
We are staring at each other's eyes under the night sky, when the door of my house suddenly opens, making both Zach and I surprise.
"I guess I wasn't wrong when I said I knew some people who are in love," says my mom in a sassy tone.
"Mom..can you not?" I whine as I put my hand in my head. Zach just laught at the whole situation.
"I hope I didn't return her too late, Mrs. Kim," Zach says to my mom.
"Not at all, Zach. If she didn't have school in the morning, you can even bring her home with you," my mom adds.
"Mom," I sound annoyed as ever.
"Ok..I better get back before any unwanted things starts happening. Bye Ara," Zach says to me.
"Bye, Zach," I reply to him as I look at him again in the eyes.
"Bye Mrs. Kim." Zach waves to my mom.
"Bye Zach! Take care!" My mom waves back to Zach. And with that, Zach drives his car to exit my neighbourhood.
10:30 PM...
At Hana's house...
Junghwa's POV....
"Alright, you're back in the crib," I say to the beautiful girl sitting beside me in my car.
"You're too sweet, Junghwa. I'm not even a baby," Hana says as she smiles shyly at me. I could see her cheeks turning red, which I thought was adorable.
My lips form a smile at the sight of the beautiful girl. Tonight has been the best date I ever had in my life of being a high school player. Somehow, a part of me keeps giving me signals that Hana is different from other girls. Other than her charm, her bubbly personality got me drawn to her more and more.
She notice me staring at her. She turns her head to look at me face to face. The tension between us starts to heat up as I could feel our eyes speaking more when our lips are silent.
"Uhh...I should get going," Hana says as she removes her seatbelt. "Goodnight, Junghwa."
I smile at the girl. "Goodnight, Hana."
With that final word, Hana walks out of my car and enters her house. I took one final glance at the girl, before driving off to leave the neighbourhood.
The next day, at school....
Junghwa's POV...
I sit in my class as I continue to solve a math task that Mr Frank had given us.
I notice Ara glancing at Zach from the left side. Usually that guy likes to throw paper balls at us with silly jokes, or even makes a ridiculous face during class. His purpose was that so we would end up laughting, and eventually get detention together. As stupid as it actually sounds, but Zach actually thought it was fun to be stuck in detention together with his friends. I know, weird!
Just as I expected, Zach starts making silly faces at Ara. I took a little glance at the two before tearing an empty paper from my notebook. I wrote something on the paper before throwing it at him. It actually hit his head. Haha, bull's eye!
"Is that really how you flirt with girls?You look like an insane kid at the grocery store!" - Junghwa
Haha, that was my note to him! He ended up looking at me with an annoyed look before he continues to solve his math task. Ara, on the other hand, ended up struggling to hold her laughter as she noticed how Zach was annoyed at me.
A few hours later...
Ara is heading to the cafeteria, when she feels a pair of strong arms pull her back. She turns around to see who pulled her so firmly, only to see Junghwa standing with a cheeky smile on his face.
"What was that for?" Ara ask in a whiny tone as she cross her arms.
"I just wanted to ask how did your date with Zachy went last night," Junghwa says. "Tbh, I was the one who suggested him to wear a tuxedo."
"It was more of a night out with a friend," Ara says casually. "And honestly, the tuxedo was too much. You didn't have to make Zach went through all of that. You know how much he hates dressing up."
"Hey! He agrees to be your one night boyfriend. He was happy," Junghwa says.
Ara rolls her eyes. "One night boyfriend? Are you nuts or something?"
"Haha, just messing with you, Miss Kim," Junghwa says.
Ara eventually lets out a small chuckle. "And what about you and Hana?"
"Cool. She's really different from other girls, including you," Junghwa says before he burst out laughting, making Ara roll her eyes at him.
"Silly Junghwa," Ara says. "I'm going to the cafeteria.."
Ara storms off leaving Junghwa standing alone while trying to catch his breath. He eventually stop laughting and sees her walking away.
That kid is a funny one. Junghwa thought.
To be continue...