I blinked and realized Do-hyun was holding up two hoodies. 

“Which one?” he asked. 

I didn’t see much difference in my hungover hazed state. They were both plain and black. Both boring and ugly. I think one had a zipper and the other didn’t. 

“Err, whichever?”

Do-hyun looked at me suspiciously before walking right in front of me and placing his hand on my forehead.

I could feel the rush of a blush creeping on my face. “What are you doing?”

“Checking if you have a fever. Normally you’re obsessed about my clothes. Saying shit like I don’t have any taste whatsoever.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong. I just didn’t think this was that huge of a deal—we were only going out for a bit. I slapped his hand away. “I’m not your mom and we’re not heading to a fashion show or anything.”

“Then don’t whine about it later,” he said, chuckling, and pulled on the one with no zipper. Thank gods—I didn’t need to deal with his bare, all too smooth skin any longer. For all I cared, he could have worn a neon green sundress with orange flowers and I would’ve been happy that he had at least some clothes on.

It was a sunny day, so we were both able to wear a cap and big-ass sunglasses and no-one would bat an eye. I also put on a black mask, insisting that Do-hyun  at least bring one with him as well. He refused to wear it, but did end up stuffing one in his pocket. 

After gathering the necessities—phones, wallets, a water bottle—we headed outside. We didn’t even need to speak out loud to decide we weren’t taking Do-hyun’s bright red Porsche—it was way too attention attracting. And the others had probably taken the rest of the cars. Still, it was somewhat weird to take the elevator only to the ground level, because normally we would’ve gone straight into the underground garage. It was almost like we were sneaking out—we didn’t even tell our security staff we were leaving, let alone where we were going.

Do-hyun pushed the door open and we hit the street. Not that I could see much while partially blinded by the sun despite the heavy sunglasses. What a harsh reminder that I never took the Advil after all.

“Aish,” I hissed under my breath, trying to shield my eyes from the harsh sun rays with my arm. 

Do-hyun stepped in front of me, holding out the painkiller pack. “I knew you’d forget, so here.”

How sweet. Though not like Do-hyun at all. I wondered what had changed him in the army, as he was now way more considerate than ever before. I eyed the box he was holding out to me suspiciously at first—maybe he’d flip at any second and turn to the old Do. But the banging headache made me eventually grab the box and fish out a pill.

I washed it down with water and handed the small box back to Do-hyun. “Now what?”

“I suppose we should walk a couple of blocks before calling a cab.” 

“Yeah, I guess,” I said, nodding. It was a good idea to get some distance from the dorm in the rare case someone—perhaps the cab driver—would recognize us. Besides, we didn’t have any guards with us so we had to be extra careful. I even spotted a group of teenagers hanging around a convenience store, but when none of them recognized us, I relaxed.  So did Do-hyun, and we started our stroll. 

“One more thing,” Do-hyun said, abruptly stopping me once we were in a safe distance from other people, planting his hand on my shoulder and looking me straight in the eyes. He was too close again. Way too close. I could hear the pounding of my heart—never a good sign—but my feet were too glued to the ground to take any distance whatsoever. It was like he held me in place with his eyes only. 

“What?”

With a blank, totally serious face, he said, “It’s a date.”

I swear my heart stopped for a millisecond. 

“Ugh, stop joking around,” I said, quickly turning my eyes to the ground before I blushed epically, then swatted his hand away.

Do-hyun laughed and started strolling ahead on the street as if nothing weird had happened at all.