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"Opener" — Baku paused for dramatic effect — a phrase you can easily use to start a conversation with a girl.
Baku had watched an entire pick-up course on YouTube and decided to make it everyone's problem.
1. Opener by Location
"So where are we right now?"
Suho, Hyeontak, and Juntae — who unfortunately happened to be within arm's reach — looked around. Each of them managed to figure out they were in the subway.
Baku, making sure his students understood where he was going with this (they didn't), concluded:
"We're in the subway. So you approach a girl you like" — since no such girl was available, Juntae was given the role, though no one asked him — "and you say" — he paused for a second to fully get into character — "'Ah, this subway.'"
Juntae blinked and nodded. Baku took that as his victory.
"See? Now you go."
With that, he clapped his friends on the shoulders, blessing them on their way. Hyeontak and Suho exchanged pained looks.
"I don't think we should..."
"Can't we just go to that ramen place..."
Baku glared at them as menacingly as he could.
"Come on. Do you want to stay bachelors for the rest of your lives?" His friends were silent, as if they hadn't fully decided on that question yet. "The surefire way to end up like that is to show up at graduation without a date. And we have" — he theatrically looked at his wrist, which didn't have a watch on it at all — "a little over two months left. Time is running out."
Juntae wanted to point out that before graduation, there were also exams starting a month earlier, and maybe they should think about those instead, but he didn't.
"I think I can get a date for graduation and the rest of my life without advice from YouTube losers," said Hyeontak, unimpressed.
Baku looked around. There were no girls near Hyeontak.
"Fine. Just so you'll drop this whole thing" — and the first test subject went off to search.
Juntae reluctantly shuffled in the same direction.
"Listen, if your methods are so great, why are you still single?" said Suho, yawning.
The next second, after a smack from Baku and a shout of "you don't play the coach!", Suho was standing next to a group of girls waiting for the train. He didn't know which one to approach — approaching all of them at once would be weird, and he couldn't take all of them to graduation anyway. While he was thinking, the train arrived, and the girls disappeared. Couldn't they have left him at least one?
Suho looked around. The subway was empty, except for Hyeontak and Juntae fidgeting in the corner, Baku watching them intently, and a stranger standing alone on the opposite platform.
Suho decided to try it on him. It wasn't like he was taking this seriously anyway. With all his part-time jobs, he didn't have time for girls anyway.
Suho casually walked from one end of the platform to the other, stopping right in front of the stranger. He cleared his throat lightly and began.
"Ah, this..."
The guy, who had been staring off into space, turned his attention to the newcomer.
And suddenly, he turned out to be the most beautiful person Suho had ever seen.
His eyes genuinely sparkled — not just for literary effect. The softness of his hair — even someone who had never touched it could be sure of it. His lips were, well... Baku had once dug up the word "kissable" somewhere, and... yeah. They were exactly that.
"...subway."
The stranger, whose ears were occupied by earbuds (otherwise Baku's method would have worked immediately), held Suho's gaze for a second, then turned around and disappeared into the train that had just arrived.
Suho, who hadn't blinked for a suspiciously long time, kept his eyes on the car where the stranger had settled until it was out of sight.
"So? How'd it go?" Baku suddenly appeared behind him, triumphant.
Suho, still staring ahead, just shrugged.
He suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.
2. Opener by Situation
Since not everyone had managed to properly apply the knowledge from Baku last time (Hyeontak came back empty-handed; Juntae was called "cute" five times and given phone numbers five times), it was decided to move on to lesson two as soon as possible.
"Opener by Situation."
Baku paced in front of them, holding up an instructive index finger.
"Street musicians are playing nearby" — today their lesson was outdoors. Unfortunately, the air was filled with the scent of freshly made tteokbokki — "so you approach a girl and say" — Baku straightened his posture — "'Street musicians are playing.'"
Exchanging glances and sighing in unison, Hyeontak and Suho turned around. Each thought about making a run for it and disappearing into the crowd, but they knew that with Baku, it was useless.
Suho looked around. Unlike in the subway, there were plenty of people here. Including girls. But again, he wasn't particularly interested — though for a different reason now. He had taken the train to that same subway station several times and spent some time there (the exact amount he wasn't about to tell anyone), trying not to think that he looked exactly like a stalker from a thriller drama. But it was all in vain — not once did he see anyone even remotely resembling him. No sparkling eyes or anything. Baku had been eyeing the unusually quiet Suho suspiciously but hadn't said anything out loud — just insisted that the next lesson needed to happen as quickly as possible.
Next to Suho stood a guy with his hoodie pulled over his head. Something about his silhouette seemed vaguely familiar, and Suho didn't even realize it when he opened his mouth.
"Street musicians..."
The test subject looked up. And here we go again.
"...are playing."
Suho didn't believe in soulmates, fate, or Baku's pickup methods, but if any of those things could help him keep running into this guy (a person really shouldn't be allowed to have such sad eyes), then he was ready to change his mind.
The stranger blinked. He was clearly not impressed.
Suho had no script beyond this point. According to Baku's plan, everything should have flowed naturally, but as you can see...
The guy was about to turn away, but Suho's hand cut through the air in a greeting gesture.
"Ahn Suho."
The other looked at the hand presented before him without much enthusiasm. Still, he quietly said:
"Yeon Sieun."
And after a few tense seconds of silence, filled with street music, he added:
"I think we've met before."
Suho nodded much more vigorously than the situation required.
"Yeah. In the subway. But you had earbuds in, so you didn't hear me" — his previously extended hand smoothly (Suho really hoped so) and naturally (no one hoped for that anymore) slipped into his pants pocket.
Sieun's gaze clearly indicated that the earbuds were the least of the issues, but he didn't say that out loud, for which Suho was very grateful.
"Hey, do you like tteokbokki? Or it could be bulgogi, I don't really care, I'll eat anything. Or we could—"
"Hey, dude!"
Hyeontak crashed into him at full speed. In his hand was a crumpled piece of paper with some hastily scrawled numbers that might have been someone's phone number.
"I did it!"
By the time Suho managed to push Hyeontak away, firmly gripping him by the shoulders, Sieun had already disappeared.
"What is wrong with you?"
Suho had forgotten all about tteokbokki, bulgogi, and everything else.
3. Opener by Favor
But now he had a name. Yeon Sieun.
Nothing on Instagram, no matter how much Suho tried to twist the spelling and pick different characters.
He did find, online, many lists of winners of various math Olympiads, and in each one, the name Yeon Sieun shone brightly. At least Suho hadn't made him up. (He still wasn't sure.)
Now he was heading to some trendy new place that Hyeontak, Juntae, and Baku had invited him to — they'd decided to go somewhere other than the restaurant owned by Baku's father for a change.
The problem was that Suho had one extremely inconvenient quality for a delivery driver. Topographical cretinism had followed him throughout his life. And now, stuck in an unfamiliar area, he was completely lost. On top of that, his phone — clearly mocking him — had just died. Suho was about to give up and head home when he realized he had no idea how to get there either. He had to rely on passersby.
"Opener by favor. Ask a girl for directions. For example: 'I'm looking for a park — I'm supposed to meet a girl there. I just haven't decided who the girl is.'"
Ran through Suho's head in Baku's voice. His advice had already helped Juntae, and Hyeontak was halfway there. Suho had refused further training but didn't want to explain why. Maybe he would today — if he managed to get somewhere safely.
Nearby stood a guy in a school uniform. It was nearly eight in the evening, so Suho couldn't understand why this weirdo hadn't changed yet. Oh well.
"Excuse me, could you..."
Suho had stumbled over his words four times in his life. All four had happened this week.
Sieun — who was impossible to find on Instagram — was suspiciously easy to find in real life.
"...tell me where to go?"
Sieun stared at him, raising his eyebrows slightly.
"You again."
Suho nodded, agreeing with the stated fact.
"Yeah" — what followed was solely the responsibility of Baku and his YouTube recommendations — "I'm looking for a café — I'm supposed to meet a girl there. I just haven't decided who the girl is."
Sieun blinked. Looked around. They were alone on the entire street, so the comment was clearly directed at him. They were both silent for a while.
"Do you always act like this?"
Suho suddenly noticed that his palms were starting to sweat profusely, so he shoved them into his pockets just in case.
"Like what? Like someone who's very attractive?"
The awkward laugh that followed from his own lips didn't exactly support that claim.
Suho was ready to sink into the ground. Or turn around and walk in a random direction until he died of hunger, dehydration, or a heart attack. Probably the latter.
Sieun's eyes suddenly filled with a strange sparkle that Suho hadn't noticed before. And the corners of his lips. They kind of. Lifted slightly.
A heart attack could strike Suho right here and now.
He decided he wanted more, and he wouldn't spare any expense to get it.
4. Opener by Compliment
"I won't give you examples. Just give the girl a compliment. I think you can manage that."
"Do you always have such huge eyes?"
Suho realized he had gone somewhere he shouldn't have.
"I mean, black?"
Suho realized there was no coming back.
"I mean..." — he stumbled for the fifth time — the milestone — and whispered the rest of the sentence, reflexively closing his eyes — "so beautiful."
When he opened his eyes, he saw that Sieun's lips were still in that slightly lifted position. And from his mouth came something resembling either a "ha" or a "hee." Suho definitely needed to study this further by repeating the experiment. For accuracy, he would need a huge number of tries, so he asked:
"Can I have your phone number. Like, your number."
Sieun's expression was unreadable, so he added:
"Please."
Sieun looked at him for a moment longer, then the corners of his lips crept up again, and he gave a small shrug.
"Okay."
Suho froze and simultaneously forgot how to breathe. In the ensuing silence, the thumping of his heart was clearly audible, and to hide that fact from his conversation partner, he had to start forcing words out.
"Do you have a pen? And paper? Or anything?"
Suho was ready to carry away a concrete slab with Sieun's number chiseled into it if necessary. He decided not to say that out loud.
"I can just tell you the number, and you can add my contact to your phone."
Sieun was practical. Suho decided that was now his favorite quality in people.
"My phone died," Suho waved his dead phone disappointedly.
Also, he wanted to have a physical proof that Sieun was real to hold tightly in his hands. And maybe wave it in front of Hyeontak's face.
Sieun sighed, and in that sigh fit a heaviness that seemed to have been accumulating for millennia. But he still pulled out a pen and a sticky note, and even wrote on it what Suho hoped was his number.
"Why are you in your school uniform?" — Curiosity wasn't a flaw.
"Prep courses."
Sieun didn't seem to be a man of many words. Suho decided he liked that too.
"Studying is good. I study a lot too."
Sieun looked at the speaker with disbelief, then finally handed over the precious piece of paper.
Suho took it with a hand that wasn't shaking at all.
"See you around," Suho saluted with the sticky note, "study hard!"
Sieun huffed (another victory for Suho) and waved.
Already a fair distance away, Suho realized something. He still hadn't figured out where to go, and he'd been hopping along in a random direction for ten minutes.
Oh well. He wasn't hungry anyway.
P.S. 5. Opener by Accusation
Suho nervously fidgeted with the lapels of his jacket and finally knocked on the door.
As soon as it creaked open, Suho declared:
"You stole something from me. Don't even deny it."
Sieun, with the same sparkling eyes and unreadable gaze, silently looked at Suho.
"My heart!"
Suho theatrically placed his hand over his right chest. Then, realizing his mistake, switched it to the left.
"You need to learn how to just say hello. I'm serious."
"You like it."
Sieun huffed. He didn't say no.
They had the best Graduation ahead of them.