Characters: Kibum, OC, SJ
Rating: PG
Chaptercount: 25/36
Summary: Soojin meets a guy who turns her world upside down but then there's a few dozen others as well.
A/N: This is one of my most beloved novels (not that I wrote THAT many, but still) and I think I will forever cherish the characters in this. This story also helped me shape my view on the different members and is the first of few stories in which I used first person.
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The kiss made my stomach explode into a bunch of nervous butterflies, flying all through each other as they were trying to get out. When I let myself sink back on my heels, I quickly hid my face against Kibum’s shoulder, closing my eyes and trying my best to will the blush away from my cheeks. He didn’t say anything either, just tightened his arm around me a little and rested his head on mine again. I could feel him softly breathing in and out, which made it easier for me to calm down my rapidly beating heart again.
“Oh that.” he finally mumbled, causing me to giggle because of the silliness of his comment.
“Yes that.” I then replied, leaning back a little against his arm to look up at him. At least my cheeks weren’t as flushed anymore, so it was safe to show my face. He was smiling and looked at me as well when he noticed me looking. We stared at each other like that for a while again, until his expression turned questioning and he cocked his head to the side a little.
“Does this mean that we are on a date?” he then asked, which made me think it over as well.
“Yes.. At least, I think so.. Do you want this to be a date?” I replied after a moment or two.
“I wouldn’t mind, but it doesn’t have to be.” I frowned when I heard those words and hit his arm playfully.
“See? This is exactly the kind of behaviour that makes us unable to get anywhere. I’m not sure and you don’t want to decide either. Of course we’re stuck having to ask other people then!” I complained, but he laughed at my words.
“You’re right, Jinnie.” he told me, nodding a little with a thoughtful expression on his face. “So from now on, you can be the one deciding everything and I’ll just go along.”
“Is that a promise?” I mimicked his own question from a week earlier, trying to use the same amused tone he always used.
“It’s a promise.” he replied calmly.
“No matter what happens?”
“Are you going to kiss me again?” he asked, raising his eyebrows in mocked wonder as he caught on to what I was trying to re-enact. His question caused me to laugh and I leaned a little closer again.
“I might just do that, would you mind?” I then retorted.
“I just promised I’d go along with anything you decide, so I think that answers this question as well.” he said, frowning slightly.
“Oh right.” I mumbled, thinking it over once more. “I think I’d rather have you make the decisions and I’ll go along. Is that alright as well?”
“Sure. Let’s go back inside.” he replied, taking his arm from around me. He still held on to my hand as he started following the path again.
“Why?” I asked, but I followed him without a doubt.
“Wasn’t I going to make the decisions and weren’t you going to go along?” he asked.
“Well, yes. I am going along, am I not? I just want to know why.” I replied, smiling innocently. “I’m an obedient but curious follower.” He chuckled over those words and shook his head in amusement.
“Because the pancakes are probably ready and you are hungry.” he then explained his reasoning.
“Oh, right.. I had forgotten all about that.” Sadly enough it was true, I had forgotten all about being hungry and the pancakes being made for me.
“How can you forget your own hunger?” he exclaimed disbelievingly.
“By having the butterflies filling up my stomach.” I mumbled softly, not sure if he could hear it. Even though he didn’t answer in words, he did give my hand a little squeeze and there was this happy, satisfied smile on his face that told me he had understood.
When we went back inside we let go of each other’s hand, as if it was agreed like that. Henry just came walking out of the kitchen with a plate of pancakes, about six of them and smiled at us as he put them down on one of the tables. When he straightened himself again, he shot us a short suspicious look, but that expression almost immediately changed into a friendly one again.
“What did you say you wanted on them?” he then asked with one of his signature happy smiles. He never seemed to stop smiling. I turned towards Kibum to hear what his answer was going to be. He was just about to ask me, actually, but when he saw my questioning look, he changed his mind and turned to look at Henry with a smile.
“Thanks, Hamster. We’d like some jam on them. Do you have strawberry jam?” he told the younger boy calmly. Henry tolled his eyes at him.
“Of course we have strawberry jam and you know that too or you wouldn’t have asked for it.” he replied rather brutally, but then he showed an innocent smile and added a “Hyung.” to his words. I chuckled, trying to hide it behind my hand, as Henry disappeared into the kitchen. Kibum and I remained silent for a moment, until I turned to him.
“Ok, so how does this camera of yours work?” I asked, smiling still. “Do I have to be smart to use it, because if so, then maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Kibum replied teasingly. “I think even you can work with it.” I gave him an offended look and smacked his arm, but he merely smiled at me as he took the camera out of its bag. He handed it to me and came to stand next to me as he did so, to be able to explain the possible options and features to me.
I listened carefully, trying to keep everything in mind, but there were so many little details to the camera’s different shooting styles and lenses that I was sure I would have forgotten half again by the time he was done explaining. Yet somehow I managed to remember quite a lot, which was proven when Kibum asked me to repeat what every option and every style was for.
Henry, who had come back when Kibum was still in the middle of his explanation, and who had stayed to listen along, was awestruck by my ability to remember so much. I laughed and told him that’s what happened to a person when they went to study languages, which made him grin and say he was glad he wasn’t studying that then. I understood him very well.
Kibum and I sat down at the table after that short lesson and revision, all set and ready to eat our pancakes. We didn’t need long to finish all six of them as I had found my hunger back after the butterflies disappeared and he seemed to like a little pancake as well.
Henry sat with us as we ate and we talked a little about his parents who were the actual owners of the shop and about how he and Jongwoon knew each other because their mothers had taken them to the same kindergarten and had become friends since then. By the time we finished our pancakes, however, other customers started to arrive and Henry had to go and serve them, so Kibum and I went outside into the garden to start taking our pictures. It was 5 in the afternoon by then so we had but an hour left to do so.
We did take pictures at first, with Kibum walking ahead of me and me randomly taking pictures here and there, but when I went to show him the result of the pictures I had taken, he wrapped his arms around my middle as he watched and I liked the feeling of simply standing in his arms so much that it caused us to just stand and hug for the rest of the hour.
By the time we walked back to the house, there were people taking up all the tables outside and a bunch more sitting inside. Apparently the pancake house was doing good business, even on a Tuesday evening, something that made me smile, since I thought the younger boy and his parents deserved the crowdedness. We didn’t stay to chat with Henry as it was near dinner time and he was busy, so we simply thanked him for helping us out and for the free pancakes, before setting off.
I drove us back the way we had come, because the pancake house was basically on the opposite side of school as our houses were. Kibum was silent sitting next to me, watching the streets fly by and I didn’t say much either, since I was focusing on the road. I drove him all the way home, stopping nicely in front of his house, where he seemed to snap out of his daze. He leaned in again like the last two times we had gone out and I received another kiss on my cheek. As he got out of the car, taking his camera bag with him, we exchanged a smile and he set off to the front door. When he reached it, he turned back once more to wave at me shortly, after which I drove off, to my own house.
Once there, I was immediately stormed by Yumiko who wanted to know every tiny little detail of my outing with Kibum and I gladly gave in to her wishes, telling her about the pancake house and the boy named Henry first, before moving on to the gorgeous, almost idyllic garden and eventually revealing the fact that we had kissed again. She completely freaked out over that, before asking more, so I also told her about the pictures I took of him and of us simply standing there most of the time, just hugging.
We discussed the events of the date a while longer after that, which caused Yumiko to decide that Kibum and I were officially going out and that, since we knew each other for quite a long time already, Kibum would probably ask me to be his girlfriend soon enough. I could only smile at that statement, telling her that she might be right and that I would like that. My words made her grin widely.
“Of course you’d like that!” she exclaimed. “One kiss and you’re head over heels for this guy!” I blushed again, but slowly shook my head.
“That’s not true. I’ve always loved him. Well, not always, but it started a while ago already. I think from the first day we played basketball on the university’s basketball court, I started to get feelings for him and they gradually grew as we spent more time together. I just never noticed, so the feelings were waiting for me to realise That kiss made me notice.” I retorted. She looked at me in wonder for a moment.
“You have really thought this through, haven’t you?” she then asked. I could only nod.
“I had a whole week after that first kiss to figure out what I felt about it and why it bugged me so much that nothing else happened anymore between Kibum and me. I kind of figured it out completely when I was leaving Heechul’s place last Friday. Hangeng hugged me goodnight and there was this weird twist in my stomach when his face hovered very close to mine for a moment. Thinking back I felt like that a few times before when he was closer to me in the past. I figured only then that it was nervousness, a fear of him maybe seeing more behind our closeness than there is, because for me, Hangeng is like a brother, nothing more than that.” I explained, before sighing softly. “It was when I thought more about that feeling, that I realised Kibum is so much more than that to me.”
Yumiko thoughtfully stared at me in silence for a while after that explanation. I simply stayed put on the bed, waiting for her to process it all and possibly form a reply to it. When the silence lasted, however, I simply got up from the bed and started walking towards my wardrobe to pick out something more comfortable to wear inside of the house. When I pulled my T-shirt over my head to put on another one, she seemed to snap out of her thoughts.
“I was trying to see that maybe I had the same thing going on with Sungmin and Zhou Mi, but no.. I’d sleep with both of them.” she told me with a sigh. My head snapped towards her and I exclaimed a shocked ‘Yumi!’ right when my mother called for dinner. Yumiko gave me an innocent smile as she walked out, and I followed mere moments later, still dumbfounded about her blunt words. She would tease me with my expression for the rest of the month.
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