Taehyung boards the bus meant for the passengers and So-Hee gets on the car that takes her company members to the terminal.

'Will see you inside!' shouts So-Hee from the car, beaming, waving like a madwoman. To think that he's the reason behind So-Hee's happiness is strangely comforting and uplifting. Taehyung's phone is ringing continuously while he waits for So-Hee outside the airport, still trying to wrap his head around his spontaneous trip.

'Hi, Seok-Jin.'

'Where on earth are you?' bellows Seok-Jin.

 'I have been calling you for the past two hours, Taehyung. A college here in Daegu has asked for you and I'm quoting ₩807,687 for a two-hour performance. It's the day after tomorrow and you better be there.'

'Confirm the event. I will need the tickets to be booked from Seoul'

'Seoul? What Seoul? What are you doing there? Don't tell me you picked another manager. I will kill you—'

'Stop over-reacting! I'm here to meet a friend. Send me the ticket and any special requirements that the college has,' says Taehyung.

'You don't have to teach me that. Tell me something? Who's the friend? It's a girl, right? Who's it? Don't tell me it's Seo Ji-Hye! No, man. She's hideous.'

' She's not THAT bad-looking. And it's not her anyway.'

'Whatever. Just tell me who the girl is and I want details,' probes Seok-Jin.

'Shut up, Seok-Jin. I will call you later,' says Taehyung and disconnects the line. So-Hee's walking towards him and she has a shy, goofy smile on her face.

 'I still can't believe you're here. Are you? You are, right? I am not crazy and talking to thin air, right?' asks So-Hee.

'Well, I am here. And you should stop saying that.'

So-Hee shuts up, embarrassed.

'It's okay,' whispers Taehyung. 'Even I don't believe I'm here. So that makes two of us.'

They get into a cab. Taehyung's thinking of how to break it to So-Hee that he has about ninety thousand won and two days to spend in Seoul before he flies off back to Daegu and gets paid again. For all, he knows So-Hee will take him to an expensive hotel and get him to check in there. Though he loves hotels and he loves to see So-Hee in hotel towels more.

'Where are we going?' asks Taehyung.

' Home?'

'Home? What home?'

'My home. You need a place to stay, right? So stay at my place. I talked to my grandmother and she said you can stay over.'

'You spoke to your grandmother about me? What did you say? How did she allow you? Does she stay with you? Didn't you say you live with your father?'

'Too many questions,' snickers So-Hee. 

'She lives in Daegu and I told her that you need a place to stay. She's pretty chilled out. She will talk to Dad and tell him.'

'She didn't say a thing?'

'I would be lying if I said she didn't. She threw a big tantrum but then calmed down after I threw a bigger tantrum and blamed her for sending me to Seoul and not loving me enough! So she allowed me. She loves me a lot and it always works in my favor,' So-Hee chuckles.

'Can't I stay somewhere else?'

'Why would you do that?'

'Because I've known you only for a day and it will be mighty awkward to face your dad?'

'Join the club. Even I feel awkward in front of my dad.'

'But still! I'm very awkward around older people. I have nothing to say. Every conversation with my own relatives feels like a terrorist investigation.'So-Hee laughs at that.

 'It will be okay. My dad doesn't talk a lot. He spends hours inside his room working on some mathematics theorems and stuff. He won't ask you anything.'

'It still is very awkward.'

 So-Hee starts to laugh and Taehyung asks her what happened.

'You're cute, Taehyung. Like a pug or beagle! I could just keep you in my handbag and keep playing with you.'

'Okay, now you're emasculating me. Stop comparing me with puppies. Should I start doing deadlifts and pull-ups?'

So-Hee smiles.

'Now what!' snaps Taehyung.

'I just imagined a puppy doing pull-ups!'

'Uffo!' They both smile.

 The cab is stuck in traffic and Taehyung's quite happy about it.

 Meeting anyone's parents hasn't been his strongest point. Both Yoo-Jung's and Hyo-Joon's parents had looked at him like he was a parasite, a rat, a pest control problem their daughters should get rid of. 

Taehyung's now thinking of the last time he met his parents. It's been a couple of months already and he misses them. He thinks of how different life would have been without all the pressure he has put on himself to succeed in something it's very hard to succeed in. He could have been an engineering student, slogging every day, got himself a job, given his parents the pleasure of looking for a girl for him. And every time he thinks of them, he thinks he has been selfish to not give them that pleasure.

' I'm a pile of nerves. I can die right now,' says Taehyung when they reach her apartment building.

'You will be gone before my father even manages to string a single sentence. He'sconversationally challenged,' assures So-Hee.

They trudge up the stairs, and So-Hee jimmies a key into the lock and opens the door. Taehyung's thinking of whether he should greet So-Hee's father with a 'Hello(annyeong haseyo)' or go with a more acceptable 'Good day(annyeong hasimnikka).'

 He's quite nervous because strangely enough, he cares what So-Hee's father thinks of him.

'Where's he?' whispers Taehyung.

'I don't know. He's like a jack-in-the-box. You think he's not there but then he pops out from his room with ink-spot stains on his shirt and face.'

'Why do you say it like it's a bad thing? That's quite a cute definition for any dad.'

So-Hee doesn't respond and is surprised to realize that it's actually true. She shrugs it off.

'Let me get you to your room.'

'Aren't we rushing into this too soon? My own room? Have you strewn flower petals all over the bed as well?' Taehyung winks.

'Very funny.'

The guest room is spanking clean but it smells of abandonment. It's sparsely furnished but it's much better than what Taehyung would have got in the money he has. And that So-Hee would be in the adjoining room was a big bonus.

'You can change,' says So-Hee. 'I will be back in ten?'

'Sure,' says Taehyung and tries not to imagine So-Hee, too, changing. Taehyung lies on the bed for a few minutes, closes his eyes. 

For a moment he's thinking of what to wear and that's when it hits him that he doesn't have clothes and he has been in the same T-shirt for over forty-eight hours now. He sniffs his armpits and a part of him dies. He smells rotten. The washroom has a new shaving kit, packed toothbrush, a tiny tube of toothpaste, shower gel, and a clean towel. He bathes thoroughly to beat the ungodly smell of his T-shirt.

He's drying himself when he hears music and running water from the other side of the wall. A little later, he hears So-Hee humming the songs as well. God! She can sing! Taehyung foams his two-day-old stubble, slowly and deliberately, trying hard not to imagine So-Hee in a bathtub, or shower, naked. She does look like a bathtub person, like a movie star, pretty even without make-up and with wet, clumpy hair. Taehyung stands there, betting against himself, whether she's in a bathtub or a shower, and the Taehyung who's betting on the bathtub is winning.

 And then just like that, he says out loud, 'I can hear you from here.' There's silence from the other side. The music stops.

'Umm . . . hi!'

'Hi,' says Taehyung. And just to make sure the conversation is not about whether she's in a bathtub or a shower, he adds, 'I don't have a clean T-shirt to wear. Think we should go shopping after this?'

'Sure,' says So-Hee. 'Or I will get you one of my father's T-shirts if he has one in his cupboard. Though I'm not promising you anything. I have only seen him in dull oversized shirts.'

All of this is not weird at all, Taehyung tells himself. It's a natural progression in a story where a girl meets a boy in a bar in Daegu, they spend the night in a hotel room, and find themselves in the girl's house in a different city where the boy is wearing the girl's father's T-shirt.

'Sure,' mumbles Taehyung as if wearing her father's T-shirts is perfectly ordinary.

 Taehyung can't help but think of her in the bathtub, lined with lit candles, her body submerged in foamy water, her legs propped up on the edges. In the image, he's there, sitting on the toilet seat with the lid down, talking to her.

 Just to push that image out of his head, he says, 'I'm done. I will see you outside.'

There's no answer from the other side of the wall for a few seconds. Taehyung wonders if he should barge in through her door with the excuse that he thought she might be drowning.

'Sure. You could have come over and we could have talked but as with most things, I'm sure this will sound flirtatious and you will come and expect something and be disappointed when nothing happens,' rues So-Hee.

'Why do you think I would come over thinking that something would happen? I'm a perfectly decent boy. And I didn't imagine you in a bathtub at all,' says Taehyung.

' I'm sure you didn't,' chuckles So-Hee. There's silence again after which, So-Hee says, in a voice softer than usual. 'Come over.'

'Okay,' says Taehyung. 

'But only if you promise not to flash or try to do anything dirty with me.'

'Whatever.'

'Give me a minute.'He leaves the washroom, already sweating and nervous.

 What if she's looking absolutely devastatingly hot? What if he's staring at all the wrong places? What if it affects him physiologically? What if she notices? Taehyung psyches himself up, tells himself that she will be covered in foam from head to toe, and that's equivalent to a girl in a towel or something. And also it's totally harmless; people do this all the time! Taehyung tells himself that and enters So-Hee's room, which seems to have undergone a little explosion of clothes and make-up stuff. 

Taehyung's palms are sweaty and the bathroom door is slightly ajar. A part of him, a huge chunk, doesn't want to enter, rather wants to stay out, run to his own room and later tell So-Hee he got caught up. She's going to be naked. Like naked.Not even a towel. But naked! Stop saying that word! Taehyung walks in and tries not to look directly at her, instead of looking around the bathroom and into his phone.

'You can sit there,' says So-Hee and points to a small stool that's a little too pretty to be in the washroom. The washroom, itself, is too pretty to be a washroom. So-Hee's covered in foam alright, just like he had imagined. He can see two little bumps that are her knees. But he's imagining much more. Maybe he shouldn't have taken up on the offer. This is torture.

'You look pretty,' says Taehyung.

 'Fresh.' So-Hee blushes. 

The mirror in the bathroom has fogged up and the room is perfectly warm.

'I have this thing of bathing in very hot water. I heard somewhere it's good for the skin,' says So-Hee.

'If that's true, you must have been born in a hot water spring,' says Taehyung, his tongue failing him a little.

 'Sorry for that cheesy line. I couldn't come up with anything better.'

He can't help but notice the wet strands of hair that are stuck to her skin, and every time she moves her legs inside the water, something flutters inside him. He stares at his phone, locks and unlocks it.

'When does your father come in? I mean I don't want him to walk in on us and see us like this. That wouldn't be so great, I am thinking?' asks Taehyung.

'He won't. And why are you so concerned about my father. He barely talks, Taehyung.'

'I think I'm just a little nervous. I just want him to like me.'

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