Chapter 17

I can't believe I'm wearing a dress and my nicest jacket for this kid. Not that I don't often wear dresses, but still. I ring the bell and awkwardly stand straight, trying to look casual despite being the most dressed up that he's ever seen me. The door opens to his mom. Her face is twisted in confusion, her mouth opens without words coming out. Jaewook comes from behind her and swiftly says goodbye. "Wait! Jaewook, where are you going?" She asks him in a way that sounds a bit strange to me. It isn't in an authoritative tone, as most parents would have; it almost sounds disappointed, even desperate. "Out," he simply says while staring at me and my dolled up appearance. I nervously swallow a lump in my throat and bow to his mother before walking away. His family is making me feel unsettled lately. Jaewook says bye again and closes the door before she can get another word out. "If your mom doesn't want you going out, you should stay," I say to him. We stop in the middle of the hallway. "No, she's always like that. She doesn't work and doesn't have many friends so she clings to me a lot," he says this quickly as if it's unimportant. I get a better look at him now. His hair is slightly styled so it curls on his forehead, his lips are even more pink than usual from lip balm, and he wears a flattering sweater. He's staring at me as well, blatantly gaping at me. I clear my throat when his eyes don't stop grazing over my dress and legs. "Let's go then." I put my hands in the pockets of my long coat and continue walking to the stairs. He follows me, but I keep feeling his eyes on me. Before leaving the building, I pause. "Jaewook," his eyes widen. "Please stop staring so much or I'm going back to my room." At first, he just looks at me in shock, but soon a silly smile breaks onto his face. "How can I not stare at you, you look beautiful." I purse my lips as a smile threatens to blossom on my face. This little smooth talker. I open the door to our apartment complex without another word and walk ahead, but then I stop abruptly when I realize that I have no idea where we're going. "You need to stop trying to be in charge all of the time," Jaewook says with a laugh. I snarl disdainfully and let him lead the way. After a while of walking through the cold, his hand lightly taps against mine. A few brushes of his skin on my skin and I eventually feel his fingers run along my hand before holding on to it. He doesn't look at me, but a goofy smile is on his face. I snort with laughter at his expression and look down at my feet as my face heats up. Why does this feel like my first date ever? "Where are we going?" "First we're going to get warm drinks," he says as he heads into a cafe. He pays for my drink and holds my hand at every chance he gets. Once we have our drinks, he grabs my hand and heads out. He sneakily asks for a sip of my drink to "see if it tastes good," but I let it go. The giddiness of his actions today is adorable; I just can't say no to him. "Where are we going?" I ask again. "Patience Noona, patience," he teases. We start walking down a busy street and I begin to realize where we're going. "Are we going to see the lights?" He laughs and looks down at me. "You really don't have patience, do you? No wonder you're not a good tutor..." "Hey!" I let go of his hand to slap his arm. He bursts out in high-pitched, boyish giggles. "Come on," he holds my hand again and leads us to the beginning of the famous street; famous for its lights at night. There are sparkling white lights everywhere, so many that it's hard to keep your bearings at first. A giant tree made of lights stands at the centre of the pedestrian street. "You know, I've lived in this city for almost 21 years and have never actually seen this before," I say as I look in awe at the display. Many other couples and families walk around. A feeling of magic and warmth lingers around this area. Jaewook squeezes my hand and continues to slowly stroll the path. He stops sometimes and forces me to stand by the lights so that he can take photos of me. "Hey, enough photos, you aren't a photographer," I laugh as he even squats down to take a photo like a professional. He stands up, looking at the screen and nodding his head in approval. He walks up to me and shows me. "Look, you're shining even brighter than the lights." I shake my head in disapproval. "You're so cheesy." His eyes curve like his smile. "Come on, you have like a hundred photos of me, we should take one together," I say. I hold up my phone and put it at an arm's length. He soon grabs the phone from me and shows off his long arms. I roll my eyes at him. He begins snapping photos, an adorable smile plastered on his face. Eventually, I turn my head and kiss his cheek. When I pull away, his eyes are wide, his arm slowly falling. He looks at me in surprise. I smile at him and ruffle his hair. "Cutie." "Hey, don't touch my hair!" He pushes my hands away and tries to fix it. I laugh in his face and he scowls at me. I fix his hair for him, making the curl over his forehead again. Then I wipe my thumb on his cheek where a slight mark of my tinted lips remains. He's looking at my lips, and I know he wants to kiss me, I even see his Adam's apple bob as he swallows, but he doesn't do it. Looks like he remembered my words from last time. I grab my phone and take his hand, then I begin walking ahead. The date ends up being very pleasant. Despite being new to the dating experience, Jaewook is comfortable around me and easily gets me laughing. I've never seen him smile so much. I was getting used to seeing him with not much expression on his face, I didn't know he could smile so much and so brightly. I actually feel a bit of disappointment when we end up where we started—by our front doors. His hands are holding onto both of mine, that sweet bunny-like smile still on his youthful face. "Can you help me study again?" "Im Jaewook, are you just asking that so you can get me into your room?" I glare at him jokingly. He faces scrunches up in laughter. "Maybe. No, your tutoring actually was helping—somehow—but we haven't studied together in weeks. I want to improve my grades, for real this time." His eyes are round as they sincerely look at me. "Okay, just text me whenever you're free." "Okay," he smiles again at me and squeezes my hands before leaving and waving goodbye. I type on our keypad as he opens his own door. I look back at him, a smile still on my face, but it drops when I see his smile fall. He looks intently at something inside and is about to speak when he closes the door. I pause on the last number of our code, wondering what could cause his pure expression to fall so quickly.