Before Her Arrival // NCT Kim Jungwoo

Chapter 24: Date

So instead of pursuing her dream, she prioritized her family and now she's an engineering student. Though she doesn't want it, she's still studying hard to finish the course.

"Practice it again, you'll get it after lots of times," I told her and sat a little on her desk. "You won't learn Math just by learning it overnight. You need practice."

"It's easier to be said than to be done." She pouted while staring at the papers. I ruffled her hair again before standing up straight.

"Hey, Jungwoo." I lifted up my head and saw Minji in her peach dress. She let her hair down and curled its ends.

I smiled at her after seeing her. Never thought I'll be seeing her again after we parted our ways before high school.

"Nice dress, Minji," Chanmi commented and turned her swivel chair before scanning Minji from her head to toe.

I never saw Chanmi dressed the same way, she's always on her loose shirt, pants and sneakers. If not, she's covered by her hoodie and rubber shoes. Her hair is always in a messy bun and I never saw her wearing makeup. To be honest, if I knew her first before Minji, I swear I'll be having a huge crush at her.

"You go now, don't go home late," she said before glancing at me.

We went out of the apartment and went straight to the Hidden Paradise. It was hard for us to stroll around public places just to be careful not to be noticed by anyone. It was just the same with Chanmi but despite that, we still enjoyed those moments.

"Chanmi was right," Minji spoke out of the blue. "This place is really beautiful."

I smiled while staring at her. Even the half of her face was covered with mask, I can still see how sweet her smile is under that. She touched some of the flowers and I can't help but to take pictures of her without her knowing.

"Chanmi said you really like flowers," I told her while watching her fascinated with the flowers in front of her.

"Yeah, I do. We're the same but the difference is that she has allergy with flowers." She glanced at me and continued taking a picture of the flowers again.

I gave her a puzzled look after hearing what she said. Chanmi didn't mention that to me before, not even when we visited this place. She was sniffing the flowers and holding them like she wasn't allergic to those.

"What happens to her if she touched or smelled it?" I asked her as we walked again.

"She usually sneeze continuously then fell sick at night," she replied. "It once happened when I asked her to go with me in our neighbor's garden and she didn't tell me about her allergy. That night, she fell sick and continuously sneezed."

She shook her head before continuing. "She told me that she did that because she doesn't want to ruin the moment. My mother doesn't let me go there alone so I asked her without knowing about it."

"She's not drinking coffee too, right?"

She nods her head. "Yeah, she has lower caffeine tolerance than I did. A sip would make her palpitate that's why she prefers milk."

I remembered buying her coffee and she gladly accepted it without telling me about her low caffeine tolerance. She even went inside this garden, not even mentioning about her allergy to flowers.

"She didn't mention any of that to me," I told her.

"I won't be surprised," she commented while shrugging her shoulders. "She choose to keep those so she won't ruin anything, that's what she said."

We sat at the table reserved for us and waited for our food.

"When we were in highschool, she received a flower on Valentine's day and even she's allergic with it, she still accepted it so she won't hurt the guy's feelings. But what's funny is that she avoided the guy after that day." She laughed and I did the same too. "She's too worried about ruining the moment, so she sets aside her allergies."

"Sometimes, I can't understand her," she blurted out and exhaled.

After we finished eating and strolled around the garden once more, we decided to go home. I'm sure Chanmi will glare at us when Minji got home late.

"That bracelet looked better when you wore it," she commented, pointing her forefinger at the bracelet she gave me on my birthday. My name in cursive is engraved on its pendant.

***

The moment I got home, the hyung are having fun while watching television. Some eyes welcomed me as soon as I step inside.

"How's the date?" Yuta hyung asked.

"You know the answer to that question, Yuta," Johnny hyung replied. I smiled at them and sat beside Haechan.

"Hyung," Haechan called Jae hyung who's sitting beside him. "Who's that girl on your homescreen wallpaper?"

"My homescreen?" Jae hyung asked him.

"Are you like Jungwoo hyung?" Haechan asked. "Who is that?"

"None of your business?" Jae hyung immediately kept his phone inside his pocket but Haechan snatched it.

"Jaehyun hyung's wallpaper is a girl!" he exclaimed and ran around while Jae hyung chased him.

We are watching them while laughing then Mark joined them when Jae hyung snatched back his phone from Haechan. They even fell on the ground, trying to get the phone from hyung.

Mark got hyung's phone and immediately threw it to Haechan which he successfully caught. Jae hyung was just laughing while Mark stops him from running towards Haechan. He wasn't even trying to freed himself.

"He changed his password!" Haechan cried when he can't open the phone. "That's unfair!"

Mark's shoulders fell after hearing it. Jae hyung continued laughing and caught his phone with one hand when Haechan threw it back at him.

The dorm is usually this chaotic especially when we're complete and when the other members are here, it's twice or thrice of this.

I opened my phone, Minji's picture on my lockscreen while our picture on the homescreen. Hyung asked me before if I confessed already but what I kept on asnwering them is that, it's not yet the perfect timing for that. But the reality is that, I am not yet ready for her reply.

Does she feel the same way as I do?

#

A/N: We're done on our second to the last chapter!! Next update will be the last chapter and then epilogue~