"I love you."
The three words that sounded like a dream for Nara even though she had heard them before. From other guy. But this time, somehow it felt different to her. More over that he said it in a simple, unexpected way.
"N-no- wait-" Nara finally reacted.
"No? You don't feel the same way? Now I'm hurt." He pretended to be shot at heart.
"I mean- when did I agree to be your girlfriend? Did you even ask me out? Since when did you like me?" Her voice was damped as she already had her helmet on.
Youngho just chuckled. "Why are you curious about that? We're together anyway." He held her hand.
"I need to know because-" Her cheeks were heated and she felt hot. She then made up some reasons since she felt embarrassed. "I need to know because I don't know our first day. How are we going to celebrate 100 days, or 1000 days then?"
He intertwined her hand in his, playing with her fingers. "Our first day? That day you gave me 500 won coin."
"It was the first day that we met. It's different."
"To me it's our first day." He smiled. "Get on. I'm hungry."
She obliged and got on the bike with a sulked and incomplete feeling.
"Aren't you going to hold on tight, girl?" He teased her as he tried to put her arms around his waist. "You said it yourself, I'm your boyfriend."
Nara blushed and held her smile. She awkwardly placed her arms around his waist. "You don't hide anymore secrets from me, right?"
"Only things you need to know."
Youngho started the engine and rode away. He kept one secret for himself.
'Just one. I will keep this for myself.' He smiled.
/Flashback/
A guy turned off his motorbike. Clinking sounds of coins in his pocket kept bothering him. "Aish, why did I make these kind of promise..."
He walked toward DDP building and stopped his steps when he saw a girl stood by the door. She looked like she was waiting for someone.
He felt curious and walked inside. The girl went inside again and he saw her in one of the booths.
"Are you waiting for someone?" The other girl asked.
"I don't know." She grinned. She looked sad to him. He saw her fidgeting the coffee cup in her hand. "Maybe."
She then walked back to the door and he followed her.
The clinking coins reminded him of something so he got to the gachapon machines to buy the toys.
One gachpon, he stared at her. She was reading the map.
Two gachapons, he stared at her again. She read another map in Chinese.
Three gachapons, four gachapons. He stared at her again, who now read another map in Japanese.
Then he noticed he was 500 coin short. Sighing, he went to the coin exchange machine. He took out a 1,000 won bill and almost entered the money into the slot.
He took another stare at her. She had finished her coffee.
'Who is she waiting for?' He thought.
As if being possessed, he took the 1,000 won back into his pocket and approached the girl. He poked her arm lightly. 'What should I say...'
"N-ne?" She answered.
"Excuse me, but do you have 500 won coin? I ran out of them." He said out of nervousness, making his voice sounded deeper than usual. She looked confused so he pointed to the gachapon machine. "It's 3,000 won but I only have 2,500 won and the coin exchange machine doesn't work."
'Wow, a nice excuse, Johnny.' He said to himself.
The girl helped him more than she should. She even helped him to get another gachapon with her remaining coins.
...
"Here. Thanks for helping me saving a toy crisis." He shoved the rest of the eggs into his jacket. "Sorry that I already wrote my brother's name on it. And I will pay back the coins, if you allow me to meet you again."
'Please say yes.'
"It's fine. This gachapon should do." She lightly threw the gachapon up and down.
"But I owe you 2,500 won. It will be enough for one soft ice cream, right?" He felt proud with his own lines.
"But it's fine. You don't have to."
He chuckled and took the pen and small paper from his pocket. He wrote something down. 'What should I write... I should sound cool. Should I write Johnny, or Youngho...? Ah, english names sound better... Will tomorrow be okay? Or is it too fast? Two days from now? Ah, sounds good.' He stared at her, unknowingly making her nervous.
"What are you writing?" She asked.
He handed the paper and took the gachapon from her other hand. "I'm consficating this until I'm paying back the coins I owe you. Now you will feel I'm in debt." Then he threw a ck along with a small hand gesture and walked away from her. "See you."
He walked away with light steps. 'What did you just do~ but at least you sound cool.'
/End of flashback/
"Why are you smiling?" Nara asked while mixing her ramen.
"What? Me? Smiling? No. Nothing." Youngho denied. "Let's eat. I have piano class at 4. We need to hurry."
"You want me to get choked or what?" She said in english.
"You were the one who was asking those questions, making us late to have lunch."
"Yaaa!"
"Don't steal my gyoza!"
She then put down her chopsticks and looked less cheerful.
"Here we go again, the overthinker." He joked as he slurped his ramen.
"Am I really, really, really your girlfriend?"
"What's with that tone?"
"I just saw a drama and she used a cute tone to her boyfriend. It wasn't cute?"
"It wafh." He slurped his ramen again to hide his red face. But she didn't hear him.
"Ah, it doesn't work on you. What more can I do..." She thought hard with chopsticks in her hands.
"Put down those chopsticks if you're not eating, you will poke someone's-"
"Oppa." She said out of the blue.
"-eyes." He gulped. He had heard her said this before but it felt different when it was addressed to him. She was indeed younger than him. "F-finish your ramen."
Nara felt frustrated. "I don't feel like I have a boyfriend..." She pouted and studied Youngho's face. "But he's good-looking and tall, what can I do, I can't leave him..."
"Starting from today..." He finished his ramen. Nara waited impatiently for his next words. "...stop watching drama. Or reading manhwa."
She sighed in disappointment.
He held his laugh seeing her cute face. "...because you're going to experience it yourself. You don't have to watch or read it somewhere."
Nara widened her eyes. Couldn't hide her flushing, she finished her ramen in one go.
"Eat slowly. I'm not leaving you."
Her face was getting more and more red. "Stop making me blush!" She said behind her large bowl.
Youngho continued to tease her. "What should I call you then? Aegi (baby)? Jagi (honey)? My Nara? Wow, that sounds patriotic." (Uri nara = my country)
She snorted her noodles listening to him. The two laughed as he wiped the mess on her face with his bare hand.
"I love you." She said.
"Wh- you just snorted some noodles- can't you pick the right timing?" He pretended to be sulked but in fact he was surprised hearing those words from her.
"Hehe."
The two enjoyed their lunch together and walked together like a real couple. They walked past the classical music store and the owner ahjussi greeted them.
"You two play piano, right?"
Both Youngho and Nara looked at each other. "Of course."
Then they spent their afternoon playing piano in the store. Without knowing what the future would be like for them, they spent times like there was no tomorrow. She had saved him from his past, and he had helped her to overcome her past.
And piano was just there, waiting for them to reunite.
- 끝 -
_________________________
I hope you guys enjoy this story!
NCT Dream just won their 2nd win yayyy
And last night I dreamed of Jeno as my school mate. Might be a sign of good luck hehe