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"You never want to go out before music class. What's the occasion?"
Jeong-Soon flicks his girlfriend's nose playfully, eliciting a giggle from her before he twines their hands together. "Why, can't I take my gorgeous girlfriend out once in a while?" Her hand's small and warm in his, and he can almost feel her pulse at the place where his fingers meet her wrist, affettuoso beneath her skin. The butterflies in his stomach roar to life with a torrid flap of their buzzing wings, terrified that Mia might pick up on his guilt.
Mia bestows a smile upon him, sunlight threaded into every corner of her grin. "This is about yesterday, isn't it?"
Jeong-Soon's heartbeat picks up in his chest, thudding so loud he's sure Mia can hear it. Crescendo, crescendo, crescendo. "Of course not," he lies, because it is about the day before, about the almost euphoric rush he'd felt at being pressed so close to Gregory Gan, about the way he'd sensed Gregory's arousal, about the stupid, stupid headphones and their stupid, stupid wires.
Mia rolls her eyes at him teasingly, but something rests beneath the surface of her candied gaze---Jeong-Soon can't quite tell what. Silhouetted in the afternoon sunlight as they cross the street, she looks like an angel---golden and pure and so deliciously warm, every sunbeam stitched into her soul, every star scattered in her hair. "You're a horrible liar."
Jeong-Soon doesn't say anything until they reach the other side of the road, stopping right in front of the row of shops opposite Bailey. Then he lets out the breath he's been holding for at least twenty minutes, allowing to rush out of his chest in a deep, flooding exhale. "I'm sorry. For everything."
"It's okay." Mia pulls him to her, tilting his face enough so his cheek rests on her curly head; Jeong-Soon notes how she's only a little bit shorter than Gregory. Her dark hair is soft and fluffy against his face, like a cloud of cotton candy. "It's okay. Really. I understand. You don't need to be sorry. And you didn't need to take me out to make up for it, because there's nothing to make up for."
Jeong-Soon rests there for a moment, before stepping away and looking down at the ground. "I'm sorry."
Mia laughs. "Babe, it's fine. Don't apologise." She locks their fingers together again. Tight. Inseparable. Two pieces of the same puzzle. "Besides, I'd never pass up a chance to spend time with you." And just when Jeong-Soon feels like his heart might explode, she asks, "So, where are we going?"
