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―
Stress; that's what Krista feels for the past few weeks. Stress-eating, stress-watching, stress-everything. Technically, she knew she had to finish all the requirements she had to finish. She couldn't procrastinate but her hypocrite side lets her do so. She knows stress comes to her life; she doesn't even deserve it.
Krista is not attenuating herself, she reminded herself. A heavy sigh came out of her chappy lips, dropping the thick book she had to read as a requirement in school and a growl was escaped on her tummy. She's starving — for goodness' sake. Rolling her eyes, she stood her ass up from her debilitated couch and grabbed her car keys; she's going to eat no matter what happens. Going out from her apartment room, she saw Seokjin getting out of the elevator, a satchel hanging around his body. Krista had the sudden urge to drag Seokjin to eat outside.
"Hey," Krista called him, trying to sound like she's welcoming him, and waved her hand to him. Seokjin curved his lips upward, beamed at her, and waved his right hand back. She ran next to him and eventually followed him as he goes to his apartment room.
"Hi Krista, what's up?" he replied calmly, both of them stopping in front of his room, grabbing the room key inside the pocket of his thick coat, and unlocking the door. He wore off his coat and gently paced it on his coat rack. "Come in."
Krista gladly went inside his home, although she knows deep inside she's getting shy to invade his property, if that's the case. Boxes were surrounded inside Seokjin's house. It's been three weeks since he introduced himself to Krista so she wondered why he didn't have enough time to fix his room. Here it goes, Krista breathed and spoke, "Seokjin, I'm heading to McDonald's right now. Would you like to come with me?"
"Yeah, I would love to. Actually, I'm about to head to a vegan restaurant near here since I'm trying to be healthy," he chuckled as he said those words to Krista.
"Oh, that sounds amazing. Why don't we just head there instead? I haven't eaten anything healthy these past few days," she sighed, earning a nervous giggle. Seokjin nodded as a response and told Krista to sit down.
While Krista was waiting for Jin, she saw him rushing inside his bedroom, not bothering to close its door, and took off his plain white shirt, showing half of his body which caused Krista to gasp silently because ― oh my God, I've seen muscles in his stomach. Krista did not hate it when in fact, she liked it. Her case is that whenever she gets to see attractive men, she would feel like she has betrayed her own boyfriend. She felt flustered so she, her stupid self activated, covered her face using her hands.
"I'm done," Krista heard Jin spoke in front of her, so she looked up to see him, guessing he has finally worn a shirt on. "Shall we go?"
Krista laughed at herself, Jin being confused as to why she's laughing by herself. She nodded and smiled, "Yeah."
On their way to the parking lot, silence was the only thing that happened ― complete utter silence. Shit.
"Is it really fine by you to drive? I mean ― I don't have driver's license yet even though I already know how to drive and―" Seokjin was cut off when Krista began to speak.
"It is literally okay for me, Jin. Don't worry, a'ight? We're going to arrive there," she playfully winked at him, giving him a thumbs up. "What's the name of the vegan restaurant?"
"Um ― I think the name of the restaurant goes by Loving Hut, if my research is correct. It's more of a fast-food chain but a vegan one," he responded, looking at Krista. The both of them arrived the parking lot when they began talking and Krista opened the driver's seat, including the passenger's seat so Seokjin could sit there.
"I'm looking forward to that. Are you vegan?" she asked him out of curiosity. Seokjin shook his head in response and Krista just nodded. On the road, there's full silence between the both of them. What the heck is Krista supposed to do? To say? To make him laugh? What?
"So―" she hesitantly started the conversation, trying to break the awkward silence between them, "―you drive in your country?"
"Well, I have a driver's license in Korea ― but not here, yet. It won't work here since this is California and my license is from Korea," he mumbled, looking at her. Krista nodded, him nodding as well. Another moment of silence and oh my God, this conversation really is turning to be awkward.
"What are you going to order there?" Krista asked once again. "I'm not that familiar about vegan food yet."
"Vegan food are varieties of foods made out of plants. Maybe there are vegetable nuggets, fries, tacos, vegetable burger," he continued, giving recommendations as Krista bobbed her head up and down, a sign that she's listening to what Seokjin says. From all the food recommendations he said, she thought that vegan food isn't bad after all.
"That sounds nice," she mumbled, focusing herself on the road. "Do you want to listen to music?"
"Yeah, sure. Should I plug the aux cord on my phone?" he asked permission once he found the cord just beside the glove compartment.
"Go ahead," Krista replied, looking at her left side mirror to check if someone is behind her since she's going to turn left. Seokjin, on the other hand, played his own recording. He isn't embarrassed with his own voice since he's confident with himself, a good thing about him. Krista moved her head, loving the music she isn't even familiar of. The chorus began and Krista felt mesmerized just by hearing the music. She didn't know it was Seokjin's amazing voice.
"Yo, dude. Who sang this song and what's the title?" she questioned Seokjin, truly amazed by the song. Damn, it's the music of her ears now. Usually, she would listen to hip-hop genre songs and didn't go to this kind of genre she's listening right now. Little did she know, it sounds so calm, more calm than the What U Mean song by Dae Dae.
"I made that," he softly chuckled, now getting shy of his own piece. One thing Seokjin is sure of is that he wants to be confident for the sake of making other people happy. "The title is Coffee."
"Damn!" Krista exclaimed as she pressed the horn, not bothering to confuse other drivers why she's beeping. Seokjin felt nervous all of a sudden; it's either because of the way she drives or because she's making fun of his piece. "God, Jin. I never knew you were this talented. I'm amazed by your voice, holy shit. You should post this on YouTube or something. I swear ― I loved this song."
"Thank you," he smiled, a sigh of relief escaped his lips because he thought she wouldn't like it. "I made this to surprise my girlfriend, actually."
Krista accidentally forgot to step on the break as a hump passed by. Seokjin bumped his head on the window and he groaned.
"Ouch, that kind of hurts," he moaned in pain as he squeezed his forehead. Krista looked at him, obviously concerned since it's her responsibility to drive safely.
"Oh my God, are you all right? I'm sorry," she told Seokjin, looking at him, and sighed. Stupid Krista.
"Yes, I'm all right. It's only a small bump so don't you worry," Seokjin reassured her, giving her a toothy grin, making him squint his eyes. Krista found his grin adorable.
God knows she wants to befriend Seokjin. She knows it and she doesn't hate to admit this truth.
