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You wait in front of the cafe, hoping to whichever omniscient being there is that your bestfriend didn‘t get catfished. Your bestfriend is unsuspiciously waiting for her dream boy to arrive as well. As a safety measure, you two have decided that your best friend would monitor your meetup and coach you so that he doesn‘t suspect anything.

Time starts going on pretty slow and you feel like you AND your friend got ghosted. While silently mourning the chance of meeting such a pretty boy — speaking of which has just appeared in front of you, panting and out of breath: “Hi.“ he says once he catches his breath.

The guy is the epitome of your type: Cute, childish and charismatic.

“Hey!“ you say relieved.

You both go inside the cafe and order your acai bowls: “One bowl with strawberries, strawberry purée, whey protein, paçoca, and honey please!“ you and ‘Kyungmin‘ say in unison, making the cashier giggle at how similar you two already are.

Waiting for your orders strain into awkward silence - neither of you know nothing about each other. You smile at him politely and he mirrors your actions.

“Nice weather, huh?“ you hear a facepalm from an unnoticable distance.

At this moment, you slightly spiral, believing you‘ve ruined your best friend‘s chances with the love of her life due to your awkwardness. You try to go through the notes your friend gave you before the date to atleast make him not think you/your friend is an unsociable asshole. He seems to be uninterested in engaging conversation whatsoever since he‘s also on his phone and pursing his lips. That‘s it. You‘ve ruined everything. All your friends hard work, all his hard work. You shouldn‘t have agreed to this it was stupid idea of course he wouldn‘t believe this kind of sham of course he would have seen through this bullshit I mean what were you thinking he may have seemed childish but that is STILL a person who is smart enough to know you‘ve LIED YOU‘RE A LIAR A BIG FAT STUPI-

Your bowls arrive and you both leave out a sigh of relief, making the two of you giggle. Laughing the awkward atmosphere off, the boy finally starts a conversation.

“So I heard you play ball?“ he smiles, smiling as if you could fall in love with him at any moment - FOCUS! He‘s interested in YOUR best friend, they have been basically in a LDR since forever. Don‘t ruin this for her.

“Yep!! You too?“ you take a bite of your bowl, ignoring the butterflies you feel as you realize how similar the two of you are.

The conversation flows smoothly afterwards, you talk about multiple topics and end up with silly but also similar thoughts on each topic. You could talk for hours with him and feel it was only a few seconds and this does happen. At the moment you two suddenly realize how late it‘s become. The sun has already set, your best friend is giving you signs and wrting you to finish up, both of your bowls have been empty for a while now and the cafe is cleaning up the place - a sign that they would like to close up. Even with all those factors that give you both reasons to end the day, you don‘t want the day to end, no, you don‘t want this date to end.

“Since you play, do you want to head up to the court before going home?“ your eyes sparkle with excitement with this offer.

On the way to the weather has gotten a bit chilly, making you shiver as a small breeze blows through. He notices and drapes his windbreaker over your shoulders. You look at him and wanted to express gratitude when you notice that he‘s already looking away from you with a stupid proud grin plastered on his face with red ears. It makes you wonder if he‘s embarassed, shy, crushing or simply just cold.

As you arrive at the basketball court, the rush of playing suddenly kicks in - you‘re ready to play. Before the small game between the two of you start though, ‘Kyungmin‘ packs out a bluetooth speaker and connects his phone to it. “I‘m more in the flow when I listen to my favorite artists.“ he chuckles, trying to play it off. Instead of an irritated expression that he expected, you actually seem overjoyed he shares the same mindset.

“Which artists do you listen to?“ you ask him with astonishment screaming in your eyes.

“It varies sometimes Oasis, maybe Radiohead orrr..“ ‘Kyungmin‘ then starts playing “Dominic Fike!!“ you squeal in excitement “I can‘t believe it, this is my favorite song from him.“ “WAIT?? You too???“ he runs his fingers through his hair “Man, the more i know about you, the more I think I was meant for you!“

Hearing him says that brings a shiver down your spine for some reason. It feels like you‘re stealing him away from your best friend but you can‘t disagree that the chemistry between the two of you is there.

Suddenly you notice eyes glancing towards the both of you while playing (or atleast trying to play - you‘re way too out of it to focus) and that‘s the reminder that you needed. Despite the chemistry, you have to let him go because he was never yours in the first place. Gathering all your courage you go over to your best friend (who seems to have gotten acquainted with somebody? nevermind that isn‘t important), drag her to ‘Kyungmin‘ and finally tell the truth:

“Kyungmin, this is Francis. She accidentally sent a photo of me instead of herself, but she is the person you have been talking to since forever. It‘s her personality that you fell in love with and she‘s the one. Francis is your dream girl.“ You step away from the court, embarassed to believe you two could actually happen and apologize again. That‘s the last thing ‘Kyungmin‘ hears from you before you run away.

Running seemed to be the most natural thing for you. Flight or Fight is human instinct after all. Although you could have never chosen fight - I mean, who would sacrifice their friendship for a boy? Not you, that‘s for sure.

You can‘t help it, but tears slowly start dropping while running away. There‘s a slight pain in your chest that you just can‘t seem to get, as if no medicine in the entire world could ever heal this pain you feel. The sadness hits you in waves, the next one bigger than the one before until it‘s as huge as a tsunami that could drown you in sorrow and drown your hopes and dreams with it. Being so focused from your crying, you hadn‘t noticed the small gap on the trail, which made you trip. Like a salt to a wound, you go from small sobs to uncontrollable wailing in an instant. It reminds you of the little kid who got hurt from playing, crying and sniffling, wishing someone would come over and help you - maybe take you away and comfort you with such softness and love. But you know that would never happen. You always knew.

No one would help you. Just like nobody did when you were a little girl, helpless, alone, unlovable.

You curl up into a ball due to all the pain you‘ve suffered this entire date. And keep weeping.

Just then, you feel a tap on your shoulder - it‘s ‘Kyungmin‘. He seems worried and concerned. Out of breath and panting, he blurts out “Finally. I found you.“ before trying to catch his breath again. You‘re confused. Why is he here? He should have been with Francis. Oh god did he leave her? To chase after you? Did a guy go in between your friendship?

He lets out another huge sigh before giving you a tight hug, as if if he let you go, you would fly away or disappear into thin air. He‘s warm. His hug gives you a sense of comfort. Although you‘re unsure if you should hug back, still worried as to why he ran to you and leaving your best friend alone. At that moment, your best friend is also walking towards you with that mystery acquaintance at the court earlier as well. It seems like you missed a chapter.

Before you get that explanation ‘Kyungmin‘ checks on your wounds, tends to them and questions you if you‘re okay. You nod before he wraps you into a hug again. He helps you off the ground and brings you to a park bench to take a seat. “I haven‘t been totally honest to you either.“ he looks away ashamed “We kinda did the same thing you guys did.“ Your eyes widen at the revelation. Francis intervenes as to hope to not make it awkward “The guy right next to me is the real Kyungmin. We were both scared for some reason and thought we wouldn‘t like the other.“

“Ahhhh this is embarassing. Can we just start off fresh?“ ‘Kyung- no this total stranger asks you. But is he a total stranger? More like your soulmate. Yeah. Your soulmate asks you.

So you answer. “I‘m Yani. I like acai, playing basketball and Dominic Fike. But I also like more things and you‘ll know it soon enough once we get to know each other.“

“Keonho. I‘m Ahn Keonho. I like all those things too but I‘d like to get you more better. I‘m sure we‘re more similar than we think.“ He finally smiles again. God that smile. This time, you‘re glad because you know you can fall in love with him - no consequences.