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"Yeah, we'll be right there."
Kitty wasn't looking at Min Ho. She couldn't bear it. But all he could do was stare...
"Kitty--"
She briefly met Min Ho's eyes. He was about to say something in response. He was about to confess. No. It was too soon, right? There was no way he still felt the same. But... she had been under the impression that he had been acting like he did. What if he said he was still in love with her?
"Come on, slow pokes!" Joon Ho shouted back at them.
Min Ho pinched the bridge of his nose, beyond frustrated at this point. Why could he never get a word in edgewise when it came to Kitty? It wasn't even her fault. It was his brother's because, apparently, Joon Ho had no idea how to read a room.
"You heard him," Kitty said quietly. "We should go."
"Yeah," Min Ho agreed through a sigh. "Are you sure that you want to, though? We don't have to join them if you don't want to. We can... continue our conversation if you'd like."
He saw the way Kitty's eye visibly twitched. "You already said we'd be there, so we should probably join them."
Min Ho nodded. "Right. We should go, then."
"Mhm," Kitty hummed. The second he said they should go, she started speed walking away.
In the entire time Min Ho had known Kitty, he'd never seen her so... skittish. It was strange. Sure, he'd been the same way when he'd confessed on the plane, but that was after Kitty rejected him. This wasn't the same. He hadn't rejected Kitty at all.
In fact, if his brother hadn't selfishly interrupted them, he might have told her he loved her. No. He might have kissed her. NO!
Truly, he had no idea what he would've done. He just wished his brother hadn't interrupted them...
Joon Ho held the doors open for them. They followed in behind Eunji. Min Ho insisted Kitty go first, but she wasn't so sure. Her heart was pounding. She could hardly even stand next to him and breathe at the same time. So, she pushed Min Ho into the restaurant ahead of herself.
Min Ho sat at the first end of the table across from his father, a forced smile immediately etched onto his face. Kitty felt her body flush with pure embarrassment, and she quickly shuffled down the room to the other side of the room to sit next to Eunji.
Watching her from across the room, Min Ho frowned as he saw her sit so far away. If it was a normal day, he might get up to go sit by her, but he wasn't sure that was the best idea now. She seemed so... off put. Maybe she was just flustered. That did seem to happen more often than not. But she'd never fully gone out of the way to avoid sitting next to him just for a meal.
"Kitty, ae you alright, love?" Eunji asked after taking in her friend's chaotic state. Kitty forced a toothless smile onto her lips and nodded. "Yeah. It's just been a long day."
Joon Ho set his napkin in his lap and leaned back into his chair. Upon hearing their conversation, he leaned forward and whispered, "If my brother's done anything stupid to upset you, just smack him. I'd do the same thing."
Kitty's eyes twitched a second time. "What? NO! I mean- um, no. Min Ho hasn't done anything to upset me."
He also hasn't done anything to not upset me. I don't even know how he feels, and it's eating me alive! He just stood there in shock and acted like he lost all capability to think. He just stood there with that look of love in his eyes. He just stood there staring at me.
"Well, if that changes, or if you have the sudden urge to share something you didn't before, please feel free to talk to us," Eunji spoke kindly.
From across the length of the table, Mr. Moon, Min Ho, and the other crew members could hear Kitty shout, "NO," and were deeply disturbed by her sudden objection. Mr. Moon glanced across the table at Min Ho, raising an eyebrow, silently asking for some kind of explanation.
Min Ho looked at him cluelessly and shrugged. How was he supposed to know what she was upset about?
What if it was about their conversation? What if she regretted it? What if she didn't actually feel something for him? Would she tell Eunji and Joon Ho about it?
"Kitty, is everything alright down there?" Mr. Moon called from the far side of the table.
She forced a smile onto her face and nodded, taking a shaky breath as she looked in his direction. "Everything's okay. Thanks, Mr. Moon."
Thank God. She didn't catch his eye. Min Ho was undoubtedly staring, but they hadn't made eye contact. She'd avoided it on purpose... again.
Eunice, who was sitting next to Min Ho, nudged his arm with the end of her fork. "What is going on between you and Kitty?" She whispered.
"What do you mean?" Min Ho whispered back through a frown. Was it that obvious?
Eunice rolled her eyes. "She's not sitting with you like she normally does. Did you manage to piss her off more than the usual spat?"
That earned a judgmental side-eye from Min Ho. "No. She just wanted to sit down by Eunji and Joon Ho. Probably because tour's ending soon, and she's grown quite close to Eunji."
"Oh," Eunice said, nodding. "Hopefully, she'll sit with us next time.
Min Ho simply nodded. That's exactly what he wanted. No, that was what he needed. Along with clarification. Because... if Kitty really did have feelings for him...
It was going to change everything.
A little over an hour later, Eunice started chatting with some of the other crew about outfit planning and dance rehearsals. Not thinking much of the seating decision, she decided to get up from her seat and walk over to where Eunji, Joon Ho, and Kitty were sitting.
Kitty was miserably picking at her food with her fork, staying much quieter than her regularly perky self. The weight of the situation had settled in her stomach for a little too long, and she was in desperate need of a distraction. Because... what if she really had been wrong? What if Min Ho didn't still have feelings? What if he'd just let her join tour out of mere friendliness?
Why hadn't he said anything yet? It didn't matter that they were at dinner, much less countless seats part. If it really had meant something to him, why hadn't he said something? There was no way he was actually afraid. Not when she'd blatantly admitted her feelings so upfront.
"Kitty! Do you mind if we swap seats so I can talk to Eunji for a little while?" Eunice asked sweetly.
Kitty looked up at her, smiling, and nodded. "Yeah, that's cool with me. Where are you sitting?"
Eunice motioned towards the other end of the table. "Just down there next to Min Ho."
Oh, shit.
"Oh!" Kitty exclaimed.
"Is there something wrong?" Eunice asked through a frown.
Kitty shook her head, forcing a smile across her lips. "Oh, no. Nothing at all. I was just surprised, that's all." She bit her lip for a second before asking, "Um, do you know how long you'll be here? I don't want to rush you or anything, I just want to be able to finish my food."
"Not too long," Eunice commented, shrugging. "If you want to take your food with you, I'd be happy to bring mine over here."
Shaking her head again, Kitty said, "Oh, no, that's okay. I'll just finish it later. Honestly, I'm not really that hungry tonight anyways. See you!"
Knowing that Min Ho was probably going to not react in any sort of way because he was in a somewhat professional setting, she took her time getting over to Eunice's seat, chatting with a crew member or two along the way.
It's okay, Kitty. You can do this. Q would be cheering you on if he was here... and probably screaming too. You got this.
"Hi, this is Eunice's seat, right?" Kitty asked Min Ho casually. Her voice was quieter than normal, but it sounded sweet and genuine.
Min Ho's eyes glistened with hope and endurance as he nodded. "It is."
She slowly but surely pulled the chair out from under the table and babbled, "She's sitting with Eunji and Joon Ho right now, so I'm sitting here. I hope that's okay with you."
"Of course it is," Min Ho quickly reassured her. "Have you gotten your food yet?" He asked, as if he hadn't been watching her like a hawk when the waiter had handed it to her twenty minutes before.
Kitty hummed in response, nodding. "Mhm, a little while ago, but I didn't eat much of it."
That earned a frown from Min Ho. "Why not? You said you were practically starving on the boardwalk."
Oh my god. Kitty visibly stiffened at the mention of the boardwalk. Why was he bringing it up so casually? Like she hadn't told him-- "Lost my appetite, I guess," She sighed.
A wrinkle formed in between Min Ho's eyebrows. Lost her appetite? That was a rare sentence to hear from Kitty's lips. "Are you feeling well?"
Kitty leaned back in the chair and let out a small, barely audible, sigh. "Yeah. Doing just fine."
She was, in fact, not doing just fine. She was dying on the inside. The way they were talking made her want to burst at the seams, claw at the walls to escape, throw herself dramatically overboard a sinking ship... all of the above. None of this was casual. Their relationship was not casual. It never had been, even from the very beginning.
Mr. Moon glanced back and forth between the two young adults. Even he noticed they were acting strange, like their friendship had no real depth to it at all.
~~~
At the end of the night, nothing had changed.
Leaving the restaurant, Min Ho made to stay back until he could leave by Kitty's side so that they could talk.
He wasn't stupid. He knew something was bothering her, and he knew that it was the confession. She hadn't been the same since. It made him doubt her real feelings only slightly; however, he was feeling more worried for Kitty than his own confusion of how this had even happened.
"Kitty..." His voice was tender and gentle as he spoke, trailing off when he caught her eyes.
She blinked harshly. "Yeah..?"
"I know else is heading back to the hotel, but do you want to stay here for a little while longer?" He asked gently, making sure it was evident that he wanted to talk but not too much to scare her.
Her expression was guarded, but her voice sounded more skeptical than anything. "Do you?"
Why was it so horrifically awkward? One person had said one thing about there being something more than friendship, and all of a sudden, they couldn't even hold a normal conversation about anything that wasn't surface level. "Only if you want to."
Kitty shrugged loosely. "I'm... actually kind of getting tired. Maybe another night?"
Min Ho nodded firmly. "Yeah. Another night, for sure."
As they walked down the slightly chilly boardwalk because of the wind, Kitty shivered. Min Ho wasn't hesitant to take his expensive jean jacket and draped if over her shoulders. "If you were cold, you could've said something instead of freezing to death," He laughed. It wasn't humorless, but the familiar warmth surrounded his little quip.
The first genuine laugh escaped Kitty's lips for the first time since her confession. "Thanks."
"Look..." Min Ho spoke quietly, "I know that you don't want to talk about it tonight, so I'll keep this short, but I'm sorry if I did something to scare you. I just... wasn't expecting you to say something like that."
Kitty felt a flare of confidence and bravely met his eyes. "No- Min Ho, you seriously have nothing to apologize about. I should be the one saying I'm sorry. I didn't let you say what you were going to because I got scared. No matter what you have to say, I should still be able to hear you out. It wasn't fair that I just avoided the conversation."
Min Ho slowly nodded, taking in the weight of her words. "So... does that mean you'll answer a question that I have?"
"Yes," Kitty muttered, momentarily squeezing her eyes tightly.
He chuckled at her reaction, but it quickly fell off when he asked, "Did you mean it?"
Kitty's eyes immediately fluttered open, and she stopped walking just to fully face him. "What?"
"What you said before dinner... did you mean it?" He asked quietly, the loudness of the whipping wind in their ears overlapping his voice.
Her eyes softened at the dire vulnerability in his question. "Yes."
Min Ho blinked back the doubts and let out a sigh of relief. "Wow."
Kitty pressed her lips together, stifling a laugh.
The funny sound from her throat was enough to make Min Ho squint at her suspiciously. "Are you laughing at me?" He teased.
"A little," Kitty admitted, shaking her head as they continued walking.
Min Ho shook his head along with her, in disbelief of what he'd just been told. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it tonight, but we have to soon, alright? When we're both ready."
As Kitty met his eyes, a flame of hope for the future was ignited in her heart. Maybe, just maybe, things would be easier for them than not. "When we're both ready."