"Why am I surprised that they actually let us leave?" I asked Hoseok, once we were both in my car, since he had ridden with his parents. We had both changed into more comfortable clothes. Me in jeans, a t-shirt, and a lavender leather jacket, and him in jeans in a hoodie. And I had to admit, he really did look cute in it.
"I don't know," he told me. "I think that they were all three relieved that we actually wanted to spend some time together. I gave my parents Hell before we came here today, and from the sounds of it, you did the same to your father."
I laughed as I pulled out of the long driveway and onto the road. "Oh yeah. I did. I was pissed."
"And now?" he asked, a hopeful uptake at the end.
"And now...I'm not?" I laughed again.
He laughed with me and shook his head. "I'm not really upset about it anymore, either, Princess."
I stopped at a stop sign at the end of the street and turned to look at him. "Princess?"
He made a face at himself. "I'm sorry. That just kind of slipped out."
I cocked your head to the side and thought about it for a moment. "I don't hate it." I turned my eyes back to his and smiled. "Does that make you my prince? Are you going to bust out into a Disney song at any given time?"
"Ummm...No," he told me. "I can't sing."
"I find that hard to believe," I said as I finally started moving again.
"Why is that?"
"You have such a calm and beautiful speaking voice," I explained. "I bet you can sing and you just don't want me to ask you to do so."
He scrunched up his face and shook his head. "I definitely don't want you to ask that, Princess."
I smiled brightly at my new nickname. "I won't." I looked over at him pointedly. "For now. I'll keep that for later."
Hoseok groaned and covered his face with his hands. "Here and we were doing so well."
"If I ask you to sing, then you'll change your mind?"
Hoseok laughed and shook his head, making his soft, platinum locks bounce back and forth a little before settling back into place. "No. If you hear me, then you'll change yours."
I laughed at him as I pulled up in front of a building. "We're here."
Hoseok turned his head and looked at the building, then scoffed. "Here? Really? I tell you to take me to the best sushi place in town, and you bring me here?"
I giggled at him as I looked at the building. It basically just looked like a run-down Waffle House, but for sushi. It was even called 'Sushi House.'
"Yep," I said as I unbuckled my seatbelt and leaned over the center console of my car to get my purse from the back seat. "Best place in town."
"How is that possible?" he asked me. "I don't think that I would trust a fortune cookie from this place to not give me food poisoning."
You rolled your eyes a little. "Hobi, honey, I don't know how it is in South Korea, but something to learn about the US? The little hole-in-the-wall places are almost always the best ones."
He looked skeptical. "Really?" He ran a finger over his chin for a moment. "How about if I make a deal with you?"
"What kind of deal?"
"I'll try your sushi place that looks like I need to call the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on," he said with a chuckle.
"Hey!" I said as I swatted at his arm. "I'm going to assume that that's the South Korean equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration, and be very offended for my favorite restaurant."
"Woman! Let me finish!" he said as he caught my wrist with a laugh, and held onto it. "I'll try it if you give me a kiss."
I laughed with him and shrugged my shoulders. "Fine. But the joke is on you, if you actually do get food poisoning."
"Why is that?"
I shrugged again. "I would have given you the kiss whether you tried it or not."
"Damn," he said with another laugh. "And I thought that I was being smooth."
I shrugged at him with a giggle, and he leaned over to kiss me softly, a little longer than the first two kisses we had shared, which were mere pecks, but still nothing too heavy.
He was smiling when he pulled away. "Come on, Princess. Let's go try this...uhh...peteuli jeobsi of a sushi restaurant."
"Umm...what?" I asked him.
He held up a finger to me and pulled out his phone, then typed something in. "Pert...pret...peri..." he shook his head in frustration and tried again. "Pet-ri dish."
"I am no less confused," I said with a small giggle. I didn't want to make him feel bad, but it was just so damn cute.
He turned his phone so that I could see the screen. He had pulled up a Korean-to-English translation app.
"Oh! A petri dish!" I busted out laughing, then looked at the restaurant and put on a fake pout. "How rude!"
He chuckled and got out of the car, then walked around to the driver's side and opened my door for me, holding out his hand. "May I please escort you into this fine and completely healthy looking establishment?" he asked me.
I looked up at him and saw the twinkle in his eye as I grabbed my keys and purse and put my hand in his, hitting the lock button on the door before shutting it. "That's much better."
He didn't drop my hand, and instead, turned his wrist a little until he laced his fingers through mine and led me to the front door, opening it for me, and letting me walk in first, but still not letting go of my hand as he followed me inside.
"Ya'll can just sit anywhere," the lady behind the rolling sushi counter tells us.
Hoseok leaned down until his mouth was close to my ear, so that he could whisper to me. "What's that word she said? 'Ya'll'? You said it earlier, too, I think."
I giggled as I pulled him over to an empty booth and sat down across from him.
"It's a southern US thing," I told him. "'Ya'll' is like saying 'you all' but, I don't know, faster, I guess? I'm not entirely sure how it started, or why, but it's just part of our southern charm."
"Is Tennessee really considered the South part of the country?" he asked me. "I thought that it was more in the middle."
I reached for his hand that was on the table and squeezed his fingers. "Shhhhh! Not so loud." I paused and looked around like somebody might overhear us. "Those are fighting words in this part of the country. We're in the South, okay? Just go with it. Even if it makes no sense."
He turned his hand over to hold mine, too, then sat back in his seat with a laugh. "Americans are weird."
I looked to the side like I was thinking over what he said, then I used my free hand to point at him. "You speak the truth, sir. But I love it here."
Saying that made me think of something. "Umm....when our parents were arranging our marriage, do you know where they envisioned us living?"
Hoseok shook his head, then cocked it to the side like a puppy again. "No idea. Why? Are you scared of South Korea?"
"Why would I be scared of South Korea, dude?"
He laughed and shrugged. "I don't know. It was just the way that you asked that question. Where would you want to live?"
I copied his gesture and shrugged my shoulders, too. "I don't know. I really like my job. I'd hate to leave it."
He got a horrified expression on his face and used his free hand to cover his beautiful mouth. "Oh God. I didn't even ask what you do for work. Or if you work. I'm so rude. Please forgive me, Princess."
I playfully rolled your eyes at him. "You're being silly, honey. I didn't ask you either. We haven't really had time. We've been discussing other things."
"You can tell me now, though."
"I'm a teacher."
An absolutely gorgeous smile spread across his beautiful lips and up to crinkle the sides of his eyes. "Are you really?"
I couldn't help but smile back when he was looking at me so....adoringly? I couldn't tell, but I thought that might be it.
"Yeah. I really am," I told him. "I teach Art. 2nd-8th grade, at a small school."
"That's incredible."
"Why?" I asked him. "It's not really a big deal."
He frowned and shook his head. "I forgot that the US doesn't treat its teachers the way that the rest of the world does. But I have so much respect for what you do, sweetheart."
I cocked your head to the side, about to answer him, just as a server walked up and plopped two menus down on the table. "Can I grab you something to drink?" she asked.
"Root beer, please," I told her with a smile.
"What is that?" Hoseok asked me as he looked through the drinks on the menu.
"It's a type of soda," the server answered for me. Her eyes never leaving his face.. She must have picked up easily on his accent, because then she said "it's not really popular in the rest of the world, like how it is here."
He looked at me. "You like it?"
I smiled at him and nodded my head. "Yeah. It's my favorite soda, actually."
That must have been enough for him. "I'll take one, too."
"Do you want me to bring you something else, as well? In case you don't like it?" She asked him with a bright smile. "Not that I mind a reason to come back to your table."
Was she batting her eyelashes at him? Gross. I didn't think that girls actually did that.
"Nope, I'm good," Hoseok said and reached for my hand that was still resting on the table. "I trust my girl's judgement."
The server visibly rolled her eyes and turned to go and get our drinks.
I smiled at him. "Hey. You're nice."
He chuckled softly and lightly squeezed my fingers. "What did she think she was doing? I'm here with you. Did she think that I was going to take off with her or something?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "It does happen here in the US. I take it that it doesn't in South Korea?"
He shook his head. "No way. We have much more respect for each other."
I pointed a finger at him. "Bingo. Let's go live in South Korea."
He laughed at me again. "You're joking, right?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know. Maybe? Maybe not."
"What if we live here when your school is in session, but go there every chance we can?"
I thought about that for a moment, then shrugged my shoulders again. "I guess that could work."
He tugged my arm a little until he could lean forward enough to kiss the side of my pinky finger. "Guess that settles that, then."
I giggled at him and rolled my eyes playfully at him. "You make it sound like us getting married is a settled matter."
He cocked his head to the side again, studying me.
"Okay, you have to stop doing that," you told him.
"Doing what? What am I doing, Princess?"
"I'll say something, and you kinda tilt your head to the side and study me with wide eyes," The way he was looking at me was making me nervous for some reason. I tugged at my ear with my free hand, an old habit to relieve my anxiety a little bit. "Like an adorable puppy who is trying to figure out what it's owner is saying to it. It's really damn adorable, and I'm not sure that my heart can take much more."
He looked down at where he was still holding my hand with his long, slim fingers. "I wasn't meaning to do that. I'm not sure why I keep doing so." He paused to look up at me. "What would happen to your heart if I kept doing it? You said that it couldn't take much more. What does that mean?"
I swallowed and stared at his adam's apple as I spoke. "I'm pretty sure that it would f-" I stopped and tugged at my ear again.
Just as I did, the server came back with our drinks and a pad to write our orders down on. Once she had them, she left the table, and he was staring at me again. The look on his face made me pull at my ear again.
He watched me for a moment, then stood up and moved over to my side of the booth.
I scooted back into the corner to give him room. "What're you doing?"
He didn't say anything, but, instead, he reached out his left hand and moved my right hand away from my ear, then gently trailed his finger around the shell of my ear, before rubbing the lobe back and forth with his thumb and pointer finger. It instantly made me feel better.
"Tugging at it is only going to pick and pull at the anxiety. Not too mention, it'll make your ear hurt," he said, his voice calm and relaxing. "But if you rub at it, gently, it will calm you down better."
I dropped my jaw a little and stared at him. "How...how did you know what I was doing?"
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A/N: Again, I'm going to point out that I'm changing the formatting of this store, so please be patient with me. Thank you for reading, and don't forget to comment and vote!
I'm sharing this, just because I love this pic of Hobi and his bestie.