"So... How was the date? Did you two have a great time? Did you like their food? Also, Brooklyn wants to know if Min Ji told you she had a good time. Said something about how if she did say she had a good time then there's an 80% chance of a second date happening."
Harry hasn't even gotten the chance to sit on his chair before he's bombarded with questions from Niall who apparently has been waiting for him at his desk. Giving his friend a sideways glance, he points out, "You're early."
Niall crosses his arms and shakes his head. "Yeah, changing the topic isn't gonna work on me." Karma's a bitch, Harry thinks. He used to be the one pestering Niall about Brooklyn and now Niall's pestering him about Min Ji. "So you gonna ask her out for a second date soon?"
Harry frowns as he pulls his chair out and sits. "We just had our first date last night."
"So? Brooklyn and I had our second date a day after we had our first." Harry gives his friend a pointed look, but otherwise doesn't say anything else. "Alright, yeah, I get that the circumstances are different but would you like to take her out for a second date?"
Harry thinks about the way his heart beat like crazy for the rest of the night last night, thinks about the warmth that courses through him when Min Ji stood on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek, thinks about the disappointment he felt when he didn't get to spend more time with her after the date.
Of course he wants to go on a second date with Min Ji. But that's not all he wants. He wants to go on a third date with her, a fourth date, a fifth date -- he wants to go on a lot of dates with Min Ji because he wants to spend as much time as he can with her.
That last thought catches Harry by surprise. He's made peace with the fact that he has a crush on Min Ji but that's all it is: a crush. It's just a crush and crushes usually come and go. But this... This feeling, whatever it is that he feels whenever he thinks of Min Ji or whenever he's around her, runs deep.
As soon as realisation dawns on him, both fear and worry grip at his heart. He's only known her for a short amount of time so it doesn't make sense that he's already feeling so strongly towards her. If he's not careful, he'll hurt himself. Or worse, he'll repeat the mistake that he swears he'll never commit again.
"You okay, H?" Niall's concerned voice brings him back to reality. Harry blinks his eyes once, twice and then nods. Niall doesn't look convinced but instead of dwelling on it, he says, "Okay great because you haven't answered my questions."
Harry scowls at his friend. But knowing that he won't be able to get away from this, he lets out a sigh and says, "Yeah, of course I want to go on a second date with her."
Niall smiles, happy with his friend's answer. No doubt Niall already knows the answer to his question but he wants to hear Harry say it out loud. "Then you should ask her out."
"It's not that easy." Harry shakes his head as he switches on his computer. In an attempt to distract himself from thinking and worrying about the date yesterday, he focused all of his attention on his article and finished writing it before it was time for him to leave. So today the only thing left for him to do is to go through it once more and edit it. Later on, maybe he can start planning his article for next week -- he should get nervous about a date more often because he can't remember the last time he's on top of his work.
"I think you should just ask her out. She'll say yes. Trust me." Niall says once again. Harry gives him an exasperated look. "Call it... best mate's intuition."
Niall leaves Harry with a wink and a pat on the back. But that's not all. He also leaves him with a lot of things to think about.
&&
Harry is about to unlock his front door when his phone rings, signalling a video call. He takes a look at the screen and half cringes, half winces when he sees who's video-calling him: his mum. He hasn't called her in a while and no doubt his mum is not happy about it. And he's going to hear all about that as soon as he picks up the call.
Thing is, Harry can handle his mum babbling through a phone call but a video call? He might not survive -- okay, that's an exaggeration.
"You're not gonna answer that?" Min Ji's voice makes him jump. She laughs when she sees him clutching his chest. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."
"It's my mum," Harry tells her, waving his phone around. Min Ji kinks an eyebrow at him. "I haven't called her in a while so..."
Min Ji crinkles her nose. "Oof, I hope you survive the call."
"Video call," Harry corrects her and she winces, an apologetic look written all over her face. Glancing at his phone, he wishes his mum would give up and end the call so he could talk to Min Ji because them coming home at the same time is now a rare occurrence. But he knows his mum and knows that she won't give up until he picks up and the longer he tries to avoid this call, the longer he'll have to hear her talk his ears off. So, there's only one thing to do, "I gotta--"
Min Ji nods understandingly and smiles. "Do what you gotta do."
Harry mirrors her smile and quickly unlocks his door to get inside. Once inside, he shuts the door and makes his way to the couch where he throws himself onto it. Tension seeps out of him but it's short-lived.
Taking a deep breath, Harry curves his lips into a smile, accepts the video call and says, "Hey, mum."
"Harry Edward Styles, have you completely forgotten about your mum?"
Harry would roll his eyes if his mum weren't looking directly at him right now. He keeps his smile intact and shakes his head. "Of course not, mum. I've been busy." Besides, it's only been three days so there's no way I've forgotten about you, he'd say but he swallows those words. His mum will not appreciate his smart mouth. Not now, at least.
"Too busy to call your mum?" Harry's mum kinks an eyebrow at him and he winces. Squinting her eyes, she suddenly gets closer to her camera until the only thing Harry could see is her face up close.
"What... What're you doing, mum?"
She pulls back a little and frowns. "Are you at home, hun?"
Just like that her mum's demeanor changes and she's no longer mad at him for not calling her -- at least that's what Harry would like to think. Her face takes on a concerned look and that confuses him.
"Yeah. Why?"
"You didn't go out with Niall?"
"No," Harry shakes his head. "He's got plans with Brooklyn."
"Ah." His mum nods. "They're still going strong?"
"Stronger," Harry replies, smiling.
"When will it be your turn, hmm?" His mum quizzes. "Or have you met someone already?"
Ever since he was a little boy, Harry's convinced that his mum is a psychic. Teenage him didn't like that because he felt like he couldn't keep a secret from her when all he wanted was to keep things to himself and not share it with his mum, but as he gets older, he learns to appreciate it.
Harry has always thought that his relationship with his mum is something that no one could truly understand -- apart from Niall, of course. He supposes that's what happened when his mum raises him and his sisters alone. Growing up, they only have each other to rely on and to look after. It's a responsibility that he carries ever since his father left and whilst his mum has told him time and time again that it's not his job to take care of her or his sisters, Harry refuses to listen to her.
Eventually, though, they came to an agreement: he and his mum agreed to take care of each other. That agreement comes with a phone call every other day (it was supposed to be once a day but Harry negotiated and managed to convince his mum to say yes to once every two days) so they could update each other on their lives.
"You're quiet," his mum comments. "Something on your mind?" Harry opens his mouth but closes it a second later. He shakes his head. "Harry."
Harry looks at his mum, at the knowing look written all over her face and he knows he can't hide it from her, can't hide anything from her. Besides, he knows from experience that talking about what's bothering him to his mum always makes him feel better afterwards no matter how much he's against it in the first place.
And that is how, albeit reluctantly, Harry begins telling his mum about his neighbour.
When he's done, Harry lets out a sigh and throws his head on the back of his couch, his eyes squeezed shut.
"This Min Ji girl sounds like a lovely girl. I wanna meet her. Should I come over and visit you this weekend?" Harry's eyes nearly bulge out of his sockets. His mum laughs. "Just kidding. I have plans this weekend."
Even his mum has plans for the weekend. Meanwhile, his only plan for this weekend is to sleep in.
"I don't see the problems here, hun. You obviously like her and based on what you told me, she likes you too."
"The problem is that I think I like her a lot. Like a lot, a lot." Harry wants to bang his head against the wall as soon as those words leave his mouth. He sounds like a little boy who is hung up on the first girl he's ever liked and is worried that she doesn't feel the same way.
"So?"
"So..." Harry trails off, unsure if he should say what's really bugging him. Everything that he just told his mum is just him scratching the surface. He hasn't yet delved deeper and exposed the thing that he's most scared to think of, let alone to talk about.
See, Harry knows it's okay to talk about his feelings -- his mum has never failed to remind him of that -- and that it doesn't make him any less of a man but there's still a part of him that thinks it's better if he bottles up his feelings.
His mum is not having any of it, though. She's not going to sit there whilst her only son battles with his inner turmoil when she could be there for him, help him and maybe offer him a word of advice. "So...?" She prompts.
Harry heaves out a heavy sigh. "I just... It's scary, you know?"
His mum nods. "I know."
Pressing his lips together, Harry scratches his jaw whilst he tries to think of a way to string his thoughts into coherent sentences. "I... I have the habit of falling too fast and too hard, and I—"
"Don't want to repeat the same mistake?" His mum finishes the sentence for him. He nods. "I don't see it as a mistake."
"Breaking your own heart isn't a mistake?" There's an unreadable expression on his mum's face but he continues anyway. "Remember what happened with Suki?"
"I do."
Harry runs a hand down his face. Remembering how devastated he was when things didn't work out between him and Suki reminds him of how far he's come (he's truly happy for her now that she's found someone) and also how much he used to like her. Liking someone is a scary thing and he's done a pretty decent job at keeping his feelings intact but now he's gone and done it again. He's pulling a Harry.
"I don't think I've told you or your sisters this but... you got that from me." Her face softens as she tilts her head to the side. Harry cocks an eyebrow at his mum. He needs an explanation. "I fall hard and fast too, but I don't think that's a bad thing."
"How?" Harry really wants to know how falling for someone too hard and too fast isn't a bad thing because right now, he's convinced that it's the other way around.
"It just means you have a big heart."
Harry lets out a mechanical laugh. "Yeah, I don't think so."
His mum ignores his remark. "Well if you wanna know what I think, here's what I think you should do: ask her out for a second date. I have a feeling that she really likes you too and who knows, maybe she's also worrying about the same thing. Wondering if you feel the same way."
Harry narrows his eyes at her. "You sound confident."
She nods, grinning. "Let's call it a mother's intuition."
&&
Harry almost listened to his mum.
When they ended their video call, he almost left his flat and went over to Min Ji's so he could talk to her and ask her out for a second date. His mum was so convincing, was so confident that Min Ji feels the same way that he nearly believed her. At the last minute, though, his fear got the best of him and he stopped himself before he could step out of his flat.
As Harry gets under the covers, he decides that it's better this way, that he lets his worry takes over. Even though his mum tells him that he should follow his heart and his heart is telling him to go to Min Ji's place, he chooses to listen to his head and his head tells him that he should sleep on it. Should not rush into things because that's how he ended up breaking his own heart in the past.
His fear is well grounded, he'd like to think.
Which is why when his phone lights up in the darkness of his room, signalling an incoming text message, and he sees Min Ji's name on it, he reads it and puts his phone back down on the nightstand. She wants to know if he's still awake but he doesn't reply. He feels shitty for ignoring her text but after convincing himself that this is just him protecting himself, he feels slightly better. He turns his phone face down and tugs at the covers until it's covering his entire body except for his head.
Eyes screwed shut, Harry braces for unconsciousness to immediately take over because he is exhausted after the day he had but instead, the first thing that he sees when he closes his eyes is Min Ji's face or more specifically, her smiling face. The twinkle in her eyes when she talks about her job or when she listens to him talk, the flushed cheeks when he teases her or compliments her, the secret smile they share when they agree on something or when they catch the other looking at them.
"Fuck." Harry groans, running a hand down his face. "Shit. Fuck. Shit."
Now that he can't fall asleep and frankly he doesn't want to close his eyes because he fears he'll see Min Ji's face again, Harry blindly reaches for his phone on the nightstand so he could reread Min Ji's text.
Hey, you're still awake?
And as he reads it again and again, obsessing over that simple question, another one comes in. And then another and another.
I'm guessing you're asleep but I'm just gonna say this...
I had a great time with you last night.
I didn't get to tell you that last night because Chul showed up unannounced and I was going to tell you that earlier but your mum called and I was going to come over to your place but then I chickened out. Anyway, I guess that's all I wanted to say (oof sorry for the long message!). Good night!
Or good morning in case you read this in the morning.
The three dots disappear and Harry's fingers hover over the screen. Maybe his mum's intuition is right, after all.
He wants to type a reply, he really does. The battle between his heart and his head continues, until eventually though, his head wins again.