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The day was perfect for a game.
The sun was shining, the clouds were white and fluffy, and people were in good spirits as they flocked to the school stadium. The general mood and weather synchronized wonderfully. The seats were gradually filling up with people, it was mostly parents and friends of the hosting team who showed up, but there were also some of the guest team’s friends.
SeonTaek’s face lit up as he ran over to LeeRa, calling out her name. His jacket was unbuttoned, flapping in the soft breeze.
“Come on, don’t end your career falling over in front of me.” LeeRa snorted in laughter, as he skidded to a halt.
“Hey! Don’t jinx it.”
“I’m sorry,” LeeRa said, teasing as she drew a shape in the air. “Here, all bad luck is dispelled. No need to thank me.”
“I… um, am glad you came today.”
It wasn’t like she ever missed a game. Well, at least it happened pretty rarely. “Sure… why is this one special?” If LeeRa recalled correctly, they were not in season and this game was to make sure the teams didn’t get rusty – in SeonTaek’s own words.
“Well, it’s ‘cause of… something I wanted to ask you.”
“Alright, what do you need? Depending on what it is, I might consider this petition favorably.”
“So… if our team wins today…” SeonTaek paused and grabbed LeeRa’s hand just as she tilted her head, pondering what he wanted to squeeze out but couldn’t. “Will you go on a date with me?”
They were together their entire lives.
LeeRa genuinely didn’t know a time when she didn’t know SeonTaek. There was a time , but not within her memory. As far as she was concerned, he was who she always got in trouble with. They grew up in the same neighborhood, they went to the same grade school, and middle school, started at the same high school just now too. They’ve been teased about this closeness thing before, and for it to come true… Realizing there were romantic feelings between them has been such a small realization in the scheme of all that went about in their daily lives, that it felt like it wasn't going to change anything.
However, in a way, everything changed.
LeeRa felt her face heat up and her heart lurched in her chest. Was she getting nauseous? “What like today?”
“No! Not like immediately… uh… I will probably stink… I mean!” SeokTaek blurted out.
“So… uh… tomorrow?”
“Uh, yeah, it works–”
“If you win today?” LeeRa’s chest grew tighter as she shoved her hands in her pockets. “You know… you don’t have to win to ask me out!”
“I want to! For you!”
“Fine then!” Why the hell was she yelling? “If you lose, I will ask you out next weekend!” So embarrassing!
“Quit jinxing it!” SeonTaek replied in the same tone, their faces so close, both burning bright red.
“I already lifted off all curses!” LeeRa knocked her forehead into his, but she saw the happy glint breaking through the nervousness and knew her own tension broke with it. “Good luck.”
They shared awkward smiles, and he ran off back to the changing rooms to meet with the rest of the team. LeeRa walked to join the other spectators, scratching at the back of her head. She found SeonTaek’s parents sat close to the fence. Auntie Hyunju smiled at her and LeeRa took a seat beside her.
She pulled out her sketchbook, her heart still beating fast as she put pencil to the page and began doodling idly.
Her head felt muddled, made worse so by the fact that her boyfriend’s parents were sitting next to her. Those people who saw her grow up alongside their son, and she had done so many embarrassing things that she didn’t know if they could ever take her seriously.
She had never before worried about how they viewed her. They were “auntie” and “uncle” her whole life. This anxiety was not what she ever felt around them. The people around her didn’t change, but something did.
LeeRa was close to jumping out of her skin when auntie asked her if she felt alright. She reassured her that she was, but at the moment, was a terrible liar. Not that SeonTaek’s parents were ever easy to fool, thanks to Nayeon paving the way of childish deceit, making them both wiser to it before LeeRa had the chance to rise chaos. Similar to her own parents, as she had two older brothers herself.
“How’s Nayeon?” she asked instead to take attention off herself.
“Last I heard, she was holding on desperately because she’s rushing her thesis.”
“That stuff is normal?” Oh, finally a thing she dreaded more than thinking about dates and relationship dynamics.
“Sharing any of your own ideas for the future?”
“I have an idea, but is it… I feel like… I’m making it up as I go.”
“That’s how life goes.”
“Doesn’t sound too optimistic.”
“It’s not so bad.” Auntie smiled reassuringly.
“It’s not,” LeeRa agreed, her attention drawn to the field as the games began.
LeeRa distracted herself with the game, cheering at the growing scores, groaning when things went wrong, and yelling when the team’s runner was having close calls with the ball. Dust was kicked up and sweat poured down the faces of the players.
She relaxed without meaning to and resumed her normal chatter, showing off her newer sketches to uncle Gyeongseok and talking more about things in her life with auntie Hyunju. She had a good relationship with her own parents, but it didn’t mean she didn’t find them embarrassing or hard to talk to sometimes about some things. LeeRa could talk to her mom about getting a piercing, but not about how she felt like she was struggling in school.
When the hosting team ends up winning, LeeRa cheered with everyone else, but felt it die down as her anxiety reared its head again.
At least if SeonTaek lost, then she would have one more week to mentally prepare. Her heart began to race and her mouth dried up while the boys became embarrassing on the field tackling each other and acting way too excited about winning an unofficial match.
SeonTaek loved his team. He had great friends and they were always supportive.
However, they were cheering so excessively that they were short of chanting that he was going to have a date with LeeRa. He shouldn’t have told them about asking out LeeRa, but what he wanted less now was his parents in his business about his dating life.
Yes, his parents had some interest in that regardless, but it was… normal. His mom asked if he was interested in anybody and his dad said he should always be …safe, and that was normal.
It was.
SeonTaek just didn’t want his mom to tease him, or anything…
Well, finally, they got off the field and people filed out while others cleaned up the equipment. SeonTaek lagged behind because he did not want to be in the locker room with his teammates being this overexcited. They already did tackle him about three times.
LeeRa was with his parents when his mom called him over to tell him they were driving back, so he couldn’t say anything about meeting up. Instead, SeonTaek said he was going to stay and celebrate with his team and he would be home later. He wasn’t – he wanted some time alone and to text without anyone looking over his shoulder asking him why he was so nervous or happy.
It wasn’t that bad of a lie, he wasn’t going out drinking – which his mom told him not to do exactly when he lied to her. It still made him feel terrible.
So he took care of things with his coach praising his performance on the field and telling him to keep it up, but SeonTaek didn’t feel like he did all that well. He promised home run, didn’t get it. The ball slipped from his hand when he could have caught it, and it costed them a point, doesn’t matter that the runner was at the penultimate base. He missed another runner, and his teammate had to get the ball back to the base.
They won with a 20-point difference, and he did hit a home run without promising one, but it felt like he embarrassed himself over and over again, and like he didn’t do good enough for something that was supposed to be big.
He would make up for it…
SeonTaek sat at a bus stop, playing with his phone, trying to think of how to start the conversation with LeeRa. There was a really cowardly part of him that wanted to turn away and put everything back to the way it was, but it was much too late for that. He was kind of… scared of messing everything up and pushing LeeRa away. They had a string of messages about how to call each other (nothing changed, still using names), and then they went back to sending memes and gossip. They weren’t exactly romantics, so trying to flirt felt forced.
1 new message
[LeBron Kang] 17:22
When are we meeting?
SeonTaek fumbled to change her nickname in his phone after that. Just her normal name. No more of that stupid joke.
He promised to pick her up tomorrow, and began to stress out about what to wear and whether he had to ask his parents for money. They definitely would want to know what for…
If he was honest, they would get so weird.
Ugh…
LeeRa fixed her hair, brushing through it with her fingers, then she looked over her jacket. She wore simple jeans and a band shirt, because you couldn’t go wrong with casual. She put a bit more effort into make-up, however.
When her brother inevitably teased her, she grumbled, only to get him teasing more. Oh, she would dump Jihyeok’s body on a pig farm one of these days.
Her parents were watching a movie, and didn’t really bat an eye when she said she was going out to meet with SeonTaek. Her dad only told her the usual, be careful, and get home before it gets dark, and if it does, LeeRa was to call ahead, and she could get picked up.
With the sun high up, the heat of the day reached its peak, but it wasn’t exactly the weather to wear light clothes. Maybe she should have picked something else… It was her first date, after all. Although, anything else would make her even more uncomfortable, besides she put so much time into make-up there wasn’t any left to double back.
She met SeonTaek halfway as he was walking towards her home, and then they walked together.
Sweaty hand in sweaty hand.
It was so awkward, but it was nice. LeeRa was half-tempted to get her hand free and wipe it on her jeans, but it wasn’t a possibility because it might send the wrong message to SeonTaek.
When has her mind gotten so loud and unbearably anxious?
He mumbled about her looking pretty. She answered, “I know”, which was the worst possible response.
SeonTaek was half-willing to cut off his hand.
Not for some insane reasons of “oh, I will never wash my hand again”, but because it was so fucking sweaty. Why couldn’t he hold hands like a normal person? Out of hundreds of thousands of times he held another person’s hand, why was it when he held his girlfriend’s on their first date, that his palms couldn’t keep dry?
They stopped holding hands at the bus stop.
SeonTaek checked the time, and it wasn’t long before they got on the bus. It arrived, they found seats, and he glanced down at her hand again, wanting to muster enough courage to take it, when he saw her wipe it on her jeans, while staring out the window.
“Um… so…” He needed to try harder, and do something else, other than trying to hold her hand, because that was gross, and he was for sure grossing her out, but because they were on their date, she wouldn’t say anything.
“Hm?”
“I mean… it’s awkward, so…”
“Yeah, we should talk about something.”
“Yes.” SeonTaek murmured, before taking a deep breath. “What did you watch recently–”
“Good game yesterday–” LeeRa said at the same time.
They stared at each other, falling quiet at the same time again, then they opened their mouths, and paused, staring at each other. They urged each other to be the first to speak, before they burst into laughter.
“Alright, so… where are we going?”
“Since I have humiliated myself thoroughly to get cash from my parents, I thought why not spend the whole day just having fun?”
“Are we going to the arcade?”
“Close enough.”
“So, not arcade, but–funfair?”
“Yeah!”
“Okay, that works…” LeeRa said, but sounded relieved as she did.
“I like it. Dad used to work at one,” SeonTaek remarked, scratching at his cheek.
“I don’t remember that?” LeeRa wrinkled her nose. Cute. She always has been.
“I mean, it was before I was born… Sorry, I’m just rambling. My mom would take me and my sister when we got free time, and dad would introduce us to his old friends and show real tricks to winning, but would always preach to us not to gamble.”
“Oh my God, am I getting one of those overstuffed buff bears?”
“I will try my best.” SeonTaek laughed, but suddenly felt nervous about his aim.
The funfair was fairly crowded on a Sunday afternoon. Quite a number of people had this day as their only day off with family.
“...and that’s when I got Mingyu in trouble for exploding grapes in the microwave.” The sunlight fell through the leaves of the trees as they walked close. Not holding hands this time. LeeRa would try again later. For now, she exhausted her assortment of new anecdotes, chatting through the pressure building in her chest.
“Oh, so that’s why it’s broken this time?”
“No, it was just dirty after that. Mingyu smashed the rotating plate thingy when cleaning it all up. He has to buy a new one, and it’s getting shipped in.” LeeRa looked over at him, her gaze dropping and lingered on his arm. She didn’t have to necessarily hold his hand. She could… loop her hand around his. Would that be too much like a romance comedy? Would it be too forced?
“Shipped? Where did you guys get the microwave?” SeonTaek asked, naturally oblivious to her thoughts.
Oh, to be able to implant ideas. She shrugged, admiring the cool breeze. It wasn’t exactly sweaty weather, but she was hot under her collar. “I don’t know, it’s taking a damn long time.”
“Oh! There it is!” he exclaimed suddenly, taking the edge of her sleeve between his fingers and dragging her through the crowd.
Now or never, she told herself. Her heart was going to explode. Big girl pants, LeeRa.
With a half-step lunge, she wrapped her arm around his and as the two of them came to a stop in front of the ticket booth. At that moment, the whole world seemed to come to a halt.
SeonTaek looked at her and she could feel it, but couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze.
The man at the ticket booth asked which rides they wanted to go to.
A lot of the times they were paying for just playing the funfair games, knowing there was no way they were getting any prizes. It was fun enough doing just that. Though, LeeRa was quite mean with her trash talk.
After an hour and a half of walking around, spending money on false promises, they got iced sodas, each pocketing a pencil from their (fake) gun tournament, plus some hideous keyrings.
They looped back around to the ticket booth, now forced to stand in line. It took about a good 20 minutes, during which they discussed exactly what and where they were going before surrendering to hunger. Neither fancied throwing up, so to be safe, they didn’t eat.
SeonTaek bought tickets to the swing, rollercoaster and bumper cars.
With the ticket wait over, they took off for the next queue. Another half an hour later, he was weak in the knees with LeeRa giggling, and patting his back, but also out of breath. The swing was huge, looked like a pirate ship, but the motions made him feel unwell, strangely. Not to mention, LeeRa had a video of it.
He couldn’t even protest her laughter as she went through the clip of his pale, grimacing face.
“That’s what you get for mocking my rollercoaster sickness.” The rollercoaster wasn’t so high, but it had a set track of going forth really fast, and then switching to ride backwards really fast, and speed up the second time it went forth again. Three loops going up and down.
“You can’t have a motion sickness for a single type of transport.” SeonTaek huffed.
“I mean, you did.” LeeRa’s voice was still a bit hoarse from yelling, though, not in delight.
“I didn’t!”
“Give me the tickets, I’ll just go on the bumper cars myself, twice.”
“No? Absolutely not.”
“Then that means war!” LeeRa declared upon him.
He sometimes wondered if LeeRa was unintentionally trying to kill him.
Obviously, that wasn’t true. She was dating him. They knew each other since they were like five…
But the vicious look in her eyes as she almost launched SeonTaek out of his bumper car when colliding with him head on, made his blood freeze, before his adrenaline kicked in to get his heart racing and try to repay her in kind.
Naturally, they weren’t the only people in the rink, but they were chasing each other specifically and going out of their way to basically try and derail the other. SeonTaek was sure he would be bruised by the end of the fifteen minutes.
There was some manic joy in the crazed glances and thrashing every time the cars hit one another.
LeeRa didn’t know she could get so sweaty from bumper cars.
Famished, they got a greasy dinner. Killer burgers, salty fries, huge sodas… and they were still walking around hungry… Well, outside the food court, they got to the sweets – particularly a crêpe stand with true food artistry.
SeonTaek did his best impression of chivalry and sent her to sit down somewhere, while he went to battle the queues.
She tied her jacket around her waist and leaned back. She almost forgot they were on a date. It didn’t feel like it, or maybe it was supposed to be just like that? A rush. Nothing about romance, just enjoyment.
“I got a gift,” SeonTaek said cheerfully.
LeeRa looked up from her phone, after shooting her mom a text. “Oh, yum.”
“Wait, hold both of these.”
Confused, LeeRa accepted.
SeonTaek kneeled and then… began to tie up her shoelace.
“I can do that myself.” It was awkward to look down at him just… that wasn’t really what she pictured when thinking romance.
“I know, but you carry the precious cargo, and I’m just gonna do this quickly.”
“That… was odd.” LeeRa grumbled, dragging her shoe over the dirt.
He reached into his pocket and presented on one knee his other purchase. “Uhh… I also got you this huge lollipop.”
LeeRa flushed, exchanging the ice cream-stuffed pancake for a heart-shaped lollipop. “You’re so embarrassing, you know that? I can’t believe I am here.”
“I try,” he replied, clearly not taking it to heart.
They ate, rested, and walked back to the bus stop.
They chatted, gossiped and joked, while waiting, and when they got on the bus, they were both nearly knocked unconscious from the sudden wave of exhaustion. LeeRa laid her head against his shoulder for a moment, and then the next thing he knew, he opened his eyes, seeing the bus pull into a familiar street. SeonTaek barely woke up in time to drag LeeRa off the bus, before they got taken to the other side of Seoul.
The sun was setting, and a colder breeze brushed through the suburban streets.
This time, SeonTaek’s hands were not as sweaty. They slid together nicely, fingers intertwining. LeeRa dragged her feet, and SeonTaek couldn’t help but grow convinced that she was… upset.
“I should have brought you flowers.”
“What?”
“Um… you know. I didn’t get you like… a prize or anything. Kind of…”
LeeRa shook her head. “Don’t beat yourself up. You told me they were rigged anyway.” She shoved him with her shoulder.
“But–”
“Butts have nothing to do with it!” LeeRa smiled, but only felt herself ease up when her boyfriend laughed.
“What… did you think of today?” He asked.
“Why do you sound like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like an Uber driver.”
“LeeRa, you’re so mean!”
“And you’re super embarrassing.”
They stopped talking for a while. LeeRa was beating herself up for her smart mouth, while SeonTaek thought he was too much of a wuss for this.
“I like you, a lot. I wanna impress you.”
“Yeah, I know. Since you were, like, six, you’ve been trying.”
“Don’t–not like that.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t change that I’m used to this… and I like it this way. I like you too.”
SeonTaek let out a shaky sigh. “That’s… good to hear.”
They stopped in front of LeeRa’s house.
“So…”
“Sooooooooo…” She mocked, but she blushed, feeling his thumb rub back over her hand.
They paused, before they hugged.
“Uh…” LeeRa pulled away and looked down at her shoes.
SeonTaek felt himself burn with shame. “Umm…” No. Try again, that wasn’t… “Can I–”
“–Could you?”
“Kiss?”
“Yes. That.”
“You sure?”
“Oh my fucking–” LeeRa knocked her face into his shoulder. Then she straightened her back and took on a more neutral expression. “Yes.”
“Sorry…” Just don’t admit you’re nervous, your whole body is already shaking, idiot.
Very gingerly, he put his hand on her cheek, and leaned in. He closed his eyes, like a coward, but that would be weird to keep them open, right? What was he thinking?
SeonTaek and LeeRa kissed softly, nervously, and tenderly. It was quick, and they rasped out a word of goodbye, before each took off, each much too scared to remain a moment longer in place.