His Smile

Chapter 2: Part 1

   Korain turned over in his bed, waking from a nap that had lasted about two or three hours. His headache was finally gone and he no longer felt dizzy when he sat up and looked around for his phone. He found it and turned it on, discovering that it was only 6:45. As he sat there he wondered if Tiago would still be up for going out to some burger joint. The Korean-American teen figured that he could manage to hide his smiles for an hour or two. Plus, Korain was about 82% sure that his smile didn't have any affect on guys, so if Tiago did see his smile, there was a good chance that nothing would change. With this in mind, Korain gathered his courage and texted his friend.

Korain
6:48 - "Hey"

Tiago
6:50 - "Oh hey, dude! You feeling better?"

Korain
6:51 - "Yeah, I feel a lot better. I took a nap after my mom nearly drowned me, telling me that I just needed to hydrate (╥﹏╥)"

Tiago
6:55 - "That's good, but what's with that emoticon?? I've never seen it used before"

Korain
6:57 - "Idk, I just have them on my phone. Idk why, but I like using them. Wanna see my favorite one?"

Tiago
6:59 - "Sure"

Korain
6:59 - "༼;´༎ຶ ۝ ༎ຶ༽"
Tiago
7:01 - "LMAO- wHat tHe fUck iS tHat-"

Korain
7:01 - "AHAHA- THATS WHY I LOVE IT SO MUCH"

   After a few more minutes of joking and talking, Korain finally asked if Tiago still wanted to go out to eat. He got a positive answer almost immediately. A time was set for Tiago to come pick Korain up, and Korain gave his address. The time was set for 7:50, and Korain was glad, since his parents made him promise that he'd be home by 10 p.m.. Korain was bubbling with excitement by the time 7:45 rolled around. He was dressed in a pastel blue sweater, black jeans and blue vans, which was accented with an ocean blue scarf, and light blue mask with black strings. Suddenly, Korain began to think of this as a date of sorts. His face exploded with shades of pink and red.
"A date!? Of course it's not a date!! Dammit, you just met this guy! Guy? That's right, he's a guy!! Since when was I into guys??" He asked himself, questioning his entire life up until Tiago got there.

   Finally, Tiago pulled up in the driveway in the darkness of the autumn evening. Korain jumped up when he heard the car door slam, his heart racing at a billion miles per hour. Korain opened the door before Tiago even had the change to knock and threw himself into Tiago's arms without a second thought. At least not until he was pressed into the latino's chest. His face grew hot and he realized that Tiago was really fit, which was more than Korain himself. Korain was relatively toned, but Tiago seemed like he was one of those guys who had a workout schedule that he actually committed to. Tiago laughed and patted Korain's back. "Missed me that much~?" The older teen joked, teasing Korain, who promptly let go of his friend. "S-sorry, I dunno why I did that..." He muttered shyly, wanting to dissolve. He looked at what Tiago was wearing, and the older teen seemed more casually goth now, probably not to seem too aggressively punk when he was with Korain, who was obviously a pastel boy.
   Korain's father came to the door, hearing the unfamiliar voice. Korain's father was the one who could speak the best english out of the entire korean family, since he was American-born, but grew up in Korea. "Hello, young man. Are you here to take my son out?" Now Tiago's face blushed a bit. "Em, yes, sir. I'll have him back by ten, just like you wanted." Korain's father gave a smile, then went back into the kitchen to help his wife make dinner for the two of them. Korain let out a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding.
"Well, we should go so we'll have plenty of time." Tiago said, leading his friend out to his car. When Korain got in, he noticed how clean the car was. Tiago seemed to take notice of Korain's surprise at the cleanliness, since he said, "Yeah I cleaned my car before I came, since I don't think you'd appreciate all of the trash that was in here." Korain chuckled and gazed at Tiago's face as he drove. "It couldn't have been that bad. I would've dealt with it, but thanks for cleaning up on my behalf." He was feeling more and more comfortable around the mixed teen.

   Soon, the two arrived at Cookout, only one of the best burger joints in the area. It just happened to be Korain's favorite burger joint ever, so he was ecstatic. After the boys placed their orders, they waited off to the side, chatting about casual things, and asking each other simple, blind date sort of questions. Things like favorite colors, foods, weather, season, etc.,. Before long, their food arrived, and they carried it over to a table that was behind a colorful wall, away from anybody else that was there. It was a booth table, so the boys slipped in on opposite sides of each other. Korain brought his knees up and rested them on the edge of the table and sipped his milkshake while he watched Tiago dig into his burger. The questions that they were asking each other slowly got more and more personal. Soon they probably knew more about each other than their parents knew about them.

"So, have you ever kissed a guy?"

Korain nearly choked on his fries. "Wh-whAt?" He asked, wanting to make sure he had heard the question right. Tiago repeated himself with a chuckle and Korain felt his cheeks heat up for the millionth time tonight. "N-no I haven't... Why?" Tiago snickered. "No reason, I just wanted to see your reaction to the question." Korain scoffed, although he was trying to resist a smile. "You're so dumb." He said, to which Tiago pretended to be insulted. "Tch! How dare you!" He said dramatically in an Old English accent.
   The rest of their night continued like this, the two of them growing significantly closer than they had been before. Soon, it was 9:40 p.m., and Korain was starting to get tired. He was nodding off in the booth, trying to finish his milkshake, which was apparently amusing to Tiago, because the older male was watching Korain with a slight smile on his face. "Okay, sleepyhead. Let's get you home." He got up and tugged on Korain's arm, prompting him to get up and leave. It took a couple minutes of this to get Korain up and alert, and even then, he was still struggling to keep his eyes open. Tiago threw away their trash and led his Korean friend out to the car, getting him inside and buckled. Korain was dead asleep during the car ride back to his house, and Tiago opted to basically carry the boy inside rather than wake him up again. This was the first step towards building up their friendship, and it ended up being a nice night together. Tiago stayed for a few minutes and talked the best he could with Korain's parents, then he said goodbye and took his leave, excited to see his counterpart at school the next day.