Translation of Love

14

People are staring. And why wouldn't they? I'm staring too.

"Sohee?"

I could probably drool at this point.

"Oh—" His ears start to turn red, "I knew I should have changed before meeting you, but I was running late."

"What—" That's all I can say as I stare at him some more.

"I do some modelling to help pay for school. I never wanted to, but people scouted me a few times and I became desperate for cash so..." He looks at me, becoming amused by my expression.

"What kind of model dyes their hair for one photoshoot?"

"One that's getting paid enough to not care."

Oh.

"Sorry, I should have at least taken these out." He gestures to his eyes.

"They're kind of scary," I say. He laughs. "It's like you're a different Taeyoung, like a twin or something," I continue, still in awe of his gorgeous looking hair and off-putting contacts.

He chuckles before taking off the sparkly jacket, but it doesn't do much to camouflage him. Even with just the white shirt, he stands out like a sore thumb. When I look around, sure enough, every girl is staring in awe, some even pulling out their phones to take pictures.

"Come on," Taeyoung grabs my hand, breaking me out of my trance.

We walk around the streets—Taeyoung ends up buying a cheap black baseball cap to somewhat cover his hair and face. It doesn't stop me from staring at him every chance I get. I'm so infatuated with this surreal looking man beside me that I barely notice that he never lets go of my hand.

"Are you hungry? Or do you want to do something else."

"Uh..."

He chuckles. "Will you stop staring please, it's still me."

"Okay," I say while still staring.

"Let's go to a cafe."

"Ooh, can we go to a cat one?" I remember seeing these cafes online last year.

"Oh, you don't want to go to a sheep one?"

"WHAT?!" My eyes widen in shock.

He laughs with his mouth open and eyes crinkled. "How about we start with cats and work our way up."

I nod my head vigorously. Food plus cute animals? What kind of heaven on earth is better than that?

So we end up in a cute cat cafe, drinking lattes and sharing a waffle equipped with scoopfuls of ice cream and a mountain of fruit. I end up inhaling the food as I eye a big fluffy cat lying down in the corner. He's mine.

Taeyoung laughs at me as I jump out of my seat, wiping a bit of ice cream off of my lips before heading towards the ragdoll.

The animal trills at me when I reach it, immediately getting up to stretch it's long back. Then it weaves between my legs before plopping on its side in front of me.

I groan from the cuteness, turning towards Taeyoung with a pained face, "Taeyoung, I want it."

He chuckles, mouth full of fruit. He comes over to me and pets the cat. "We can't have it. These cats live here."

I pout as the cat rolls on its belly. "But—"

"Nope."

We spend at least an hour petting cats. The older lady that works there even asks Taeyoung if she can take pictures of him to put on the photo wall. He humbly agrees, not phased one bit. Is he used to this?

I stay on the sidelines watching him get photographed. He eventually grabs my hand and pulls me to sit with him. I try to hide behind him so I don't get in the photo shots.

The lady gives us free 빙수 [bingsoo] as a thank you. Taeyoung smiles at me when I first taste it. While it doesn't look like it's much, don't take it lightly, this shit is delicious. I end up emptying most of the bowl.

We leave the cafe hand in hand, and that's when I realize that we aren't just simply hanging out, we're going out. Out on a date. How do I figure this out? Well, we spend the whole rest of the day together.

We end up watching a comedy in the theatre and eat some more afterwards. I even tell him about my mother, describing her bright fire-red hair and her big light brown eyes. He says that that must be where my "big beautiful eyes" come from, and this makes me blush just as red as my mother's hair. I even bring up that my father is Korean, but that I've never met him. He doesn't push me to talk more about him which I'm thankful for.

I don't mention that my mom is dead.

Eventually, it's nightfall when he walks me back to my dorm.

"So how was our first date?" He asks me with a mischievous smile on his way too attractive face.

Was he always this sexy? I swear he always just looked cute before.

Wait.

"So this was a date?"

He laughs at my obliviousness, using his hand to tuck a lock of my hair behind my ear. Then he leans in to kiss my forehead and leaves.

I turn around to stare at him as he walks away. His left hand is in his pant pocket, sparkly suit jacket hanging over his arm. His white hair peaks out from under the black cap.

Holy shit.

"He's hot," a familiar voice finishes my thoughts for me.

I don't even turn to look at Koko, I just keep staring at Taeyoung as his figure gets smaller.

"Wait a second. Is that him?" She asks, looking at me.

Without looking I just say, "yep."

She turns her gaze back to where he is.

"Well shit. Good luck." Then she walks into the building, leaving me standing there.

. . .

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Love,

Sooaura