"i traveled around europe for a year in search of peace, but it took one night in vienna with you to find it."
彡 heeseung, a high school graduate taking his gap year, manages to convince ella, a translator in her first year of college, to disembark...
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"and then we broke up."
heeseung's jaw drops at ella's words, slapping his hands on the table as the glasses and dishes clink in protest. the two had managed to find a fast food restaurant that serves tasty dishes in affordable prices & were now half an hour into their dinner, talking about their ex lovers. they'd covered ella's first ever boyfriend and were now onto her second one, the story of which had just come to an end with heeseung's priceless reactions pulling strings of laughter out of the woman.
"so let me get this straight." he coos, grabbing a fried potato & shaking it between the two. "he left you... just because you like taylor swift?! taylor! fucking! swift?! how petty does one have to be to leave their partner over something so insignificant?"
"thank god he did, honestly." she says & grabs a fried potato herself, hastily munching on it before she speaks up. "a month later, he was in prison." she smiles at the way he gasps. "for drug dealing." she deadpans, laughing at heeseung's look of utter shock.
"y' got yourself a really bad boy." he muses and claps, as if congratulating her for her feat. "i'll give you that."
"seventeen year old ella was, indeed, a different breed." she grabs the third piece of her club sandwich and pulls the stick in the middle out, catching a drop of mayonnaise that was trailing down her finger before it could reach her sleeve. she licks it off her finger with a pop before saying: "but on god, he was themost handsome guy i have dated so far."
"it's always the bad boys!" heeseung exclaims & crosses his arms over his chest, pressing his forearms against the table's edge while watching her take a big bite from her food.
"always the bad boys." she echoes and nods her head, wiping some sauce off the corner of her mouth. she takes a quick sip from her sprite & sets down her glass with a soft thud. "well, after him, i was way too traumatized to give dating a second chance."
"valid."
"but i did anyway."
"excuse me?"
"yeah!" she laughs. heeseung shakes his head in disbelief, gripping onto his soft locks & pulling on them. he drags his hands down his face and looks at her through the gaps between his long fingers.
"let me guess. he was a murderer?"
"worse."
his brows raise to the point that they vanish underneath his bangs. "eh?"
she leans forward & he does the same, curious as to what is she going to say that requires such secrecy. her mouth hovers above his ear, her breath hot against it as she speaks.
"a nerd."
he frowns, not quite grasping onto the meaning behind her disgusted face & the head-to-toe shiver.
"ah!" a pause. "ew!" he exclaims and shoves the last piece of his burger in his mouth. "you've to have some sort of magnet within you that's pulling all those problematic rats towards you."
"i'm convinced. now i can't change in my own room and instead do it in the closet. my sleep schedule is also really fucked because he used to install tiny little cameras in my plushies and i'd always wake up feeling like someone is staring at me. did i mention that he used to steal my panties and use them to─" she balls her fist and shakes it up and down, pulling a gasp out of him. "─& then put them in my laundry bin like nothing happened?"
at this point, heeseung's bottom jaw has reached the floor and his brows have knitted in a thick line. "do men like this really exist?"
"of course they do, i just told you 'bout how i was dating one." she shoves the remainder of her sandwich inside her mouth and munches on it with a tiny, satisfying grin ─ as if she hadn't just trauma-dumped about her disgusting ex's actions. "and you know what's the worst part?"
"there's more?!" he shrieks.
"no, not about him." she shakes her head while dipping two fries in the ketchup sauce before her. heeseung's left hanging from her lips as she takes her time to munch and swallow. a few beats later, she asks: "are you familiar with tumblr?"
"the song by g-easy?" "no, the app! the song is tumblr girls." "ah!"
"i used to read a lot of fanfiction back in the day ─ don't give me that look ─ and you'll be surprised to know that there are a lot of people who are into this shit." her voice faints at the end as she grabs the last piece and takes a big bite ─ heeseung notices how her body shivers again, catching sight of the subtle shaking of her hands.
"they glorify such perverted behavior and find an obsessed man to be sexy." she says, setting her sandwich down and immediately grabbing her glass. she takes a long sip, ignoring the burn that the carbonated drink causes as it travels down her throat, sighing in relief once the sudden nausea that had hit her subsided. "sickos."
heeseung is at a loss for words, throat having gone dry long ago. "what has this world come to?" he mumbles and reaches for his own glass of coca cola, in dire need to quench his thirst and get rid of the bilious feeling at the pit of his stomach.
"okay." she suddenly claps. heeseung jolts in surprise. "your turn."
"uhh..." he sets his glass down & sucks air through clenched teeth, smacking his lips together. "well..."
"i'veneverbeeninarelationship."
"...what?"
he takes a deep breath. "i've never been in a relationship."
"no, i heard it the first time ─ perks of growing up with an anxious mother." she clenches her eyes and shakes her head. "the point is─" she puckers her lips and looks at him. "─how have you never been in a relationship? like, i'm not lying, if we knew each other for a longer time and we lived in the same city, i'd date you!"
heeseung feels heat creep up on his cheeks and ears, as he scoots closer to the table & coughs to clear his throat. "first of all, thank you, that is really flattering. second of all, i've been in a relationship, but! it wasn't serious."
ella quirks a brow. "specify."
"okay so." he rubs his hands together. "back in fourth grade─"
"seriously? fourth grade?" ella cuts in with a snicker, slapping a hand on her forehead. "these relationships are not just unserious ─ they're a joke!"
"just you wait!" he laughs, adjusting himself on his seat. "so back in fourth grade ─stop laughing! ─ i had a huge crush on this girl, yeah?"
"yeah."
"and i really wanted to confess to her, so i just did it. she rejected me, which was expected to be honest, but that didn't stop me from liking her either."
"you're strong." she chuckles, placing her chin on her threaded fingers and slightly tilting her head to the right. "i would've fled the country, changed my name & started a new life if i ever got rejected."
"because of a crush?" "just continue!" "but because of a crush?" "heeseung!" "okay!"
"fast forward to seventh grade, just a few months before my parents moved me to the other school. my class had gathered in a circle during recess and we were playing truth or dare."
"friendships were ruined because of that game!" ella muses, eyes widening at a certain memory of her classmate borderline killing her friend in tenth grade after she admitted on hooking up with her boyfriend.
"well, in my case, it's the opposite. so my friend asked her if she found me attractive ─ he hadn't even warned me beforehand, i almost had a heart attack right then and there! i am not exaggerating when i say that i was sweating like a pig and shaking like a fish out of the water while waiting for her answer!"
"which was?"
"she said that i looked 'exceptionally better than most guys in our class' ─ best compliment i've ever received, by the way. anyways, when it was her turn again, my friend asked me if she would go on a date with me and she agreed. we dated for three months & she broke things off once i left."
"ouch." she hisses. "well, at least you got that off your system."
he scoffs. "at what cost?" he mumbles and downs the rest of his drink. "she went around spreading rumors about why i left ─ things like me pressuring her into doing stuff & being obsessed with her to the point of madness."
"the heck was her problem?"
heeseung shrugs. "i've no idea. maybe that's why no one contacted me after i left. they were too busy believing the shit she spewed, as if they didn't know me for almost a decade of their lives."
her fingers drum against the table as she looks at him, feeling the blood in her veins boil with anger towards his stupid first girlfriend ─ she can only imagine how frustrating this must be for him & how much it must've hurt to lose his lifelong friends over silly rumors, to be betrayed by the kids he were hanging out with for the most part of his life.
silence settles between the two, that the song of the crickets coming from outside & the chattering of the other customers would break.
heeseung takes a fry from his plate, dips it in mayo and bites on it, only for his face to twist in disgust. after all that talking, they've gone cold and it's like he's chewing on plastic that then melts like paper and leaves a not so pleasant taste and texture behind.
"let's go on a date."
his eyes grow wide at ella's proposal, jaw dropping as he stumbles upon his words, his response coming out in a stuttering mess. "w─what?"
"i know that we don't have the time or place to get all dolled up, and i barely have any money on me to take you on a lavish restaurant, but we can go to a club or... a pub? and just... have fun."
heeseung stares at her for a couple moments, before he lets out a sharp laugh. "okay, let's go. but you're not paying."
"i am." she presses with a small smirk on her lips. "i asked you out."
"but it's not okay. you're the woman and─" she cuts him off with a flick of her wrist and a whine of protest.
"as much of a hopeless romantic as i am, i won't accept that old school shit. i'm paying and it's final." she slams a hand on the table and smiles at him, and the drowsiness must be getting to him already, or maybe drinking beer all day wasn't a good idea after all, but heeseung can't deny the fact that his heart gallops like a wild horse at ella's playful grin, tinted cheeks and slightly disheveled hair.
"alright." he shrugs, knocking on the table once. "who am i to turn down free alcohol?"
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