“Aish! What’s wrong with the traffic today?” Jiwon complained from the backseat of his van.

His manager, Simon, scratched his head from the driver’s seat. “I have no idea. It’s usually not that crowded in this area at this time of day.”

Jiwon unconsciously began shaking his feet in agitation, as the frown on his face deepened. At this rate, he’s going to be late. Which was probably expected of him.

But still there was this nagging feeling that he needed to do something. His fingers hovered over his phone. What should he do? Should he text her? What should he say?

He sighed, and finally pressed the call button. He’s not good at texting anyway.

From the other end of the phone, a bright voice said, “Yeoboseyo?”

Jiwon can’t help but smile at the cheery tone, “Hi. Is this Dara?”

“Yes. Annyeonghaseyo~” Dara said, her voice rising up in pitch.

Jiwon said, “I’m gonna be a bit late. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no worries. See you soon!”

“Yeah. I’ll see you soon.” Jiwon hung up the phone.

For some reason he couldn’t pinpoint, he couldn’t stop feeling jittery. He chalked it up to the fact that it had been so long since he had done something like this, going on a ‘date’ with a woman.

It wasn’t a real date, he told himself. It was just for Youtube. He should chill out. For God’s sake, his eighteen-year-old self would definitely have more game than this and be so utterly embarrassed of his 41-year-old self.

But still, the butterflies in his stomach refused to settle and kept flying back and forth, all the way until he reached the tteokbokki restaurant.

That night, Jiwon laid in his bed in deep silence. Beside him, his phone lit up on the bedside table, with a notification sound of a new message.

“Thanks for today, Oppa. It was very nice to talk to you. I had lots of fun.” the message said.

Reading it, Jiwon’s lips curled into a smile. “I had fun too. Thank you,” he wrote. And it was the truth. He really had a lot of fun. They ate one of his favorite food, and went to an old arcade game that brought lots of delights to a die-hard gamer such as himself.

And there was also Dara. Jiwon has been a 2NE1 fanboy since their debut. He loved how charismatic and cool they were when performing on stage with great vocals and dances. But he was still quite taken aback by her charm. Dara was adorable. Her jokes were a bit on the wild side, but in a cute way. Once he managed to coax her out of her shell, she was honest with him about her struggles, making it easy and comfortable for him to open up and share his advice to her as well. Their conversation flowed so smoothly that he lost track of time while talking to her. It felt that they understood each other well.

Jiwon was also aware of how attractive Dara was, having seen her up-close at several music shows he was hosting back when 2NE1 were still active, and from the gushing from almost every male in his vicinity about her beauty. But there was one particular moment where her beauty stood out to him. She had wanted to play whack-a-mole in the arcade, and so he helped her out by hitting the moles on the left side with his fist. After the round was over, the machine lit up with happy beeps and noises, announcing that they had broken the high score (which, to be fair, they kind of cheated a bit by having two people whacking at the same time. But details, details.) Dara turned at him, smiling so hard that her two eyes turned into crescent moons. “Oppa, we did it!” she said excitedly.

It felt like being hit by a gut punch. It was like his brain had stopped working for that moment, and nothing else was registered in it except for that smile, and his mind thinking, “Oh, she’s beautiful.”

It wasn’t that he fell in love at that single moment, or felt she would be the mother of his kids, or something like that. Jiwon internally scoffed. It’s not that dramatic. If he was asked to pick a name for that feeling, he would say it was more like a hunch. That this could become something more.

But who was he kidding? It was only for YouTube. It meant nothing. She’s the Sandara Park. She could get any man she wanted, any man who are way better than him. Surely, she only invited him to the date because she liked him as a fan.

Another message popped up in his phone, “Good night, Oppa!”

Jiwon couldn't help but grin. Whatever it was, it was a good night indeed.

Dara stared at her phone as a message popped in.

“Rest well.” Jiwon had replied to her last message wishing him a good night.

Well, that’s not going to happen, Dara thought. And it’s all totally the fault of this man who just sent her the text message.

She had been a Sechskies fan since they debuted, and in some ways, Eun Jiwon was her first teenage crush. 13-year-old Dara had blushed like mad in front of her TV screen when she saw him rap and dance on music shows, much to the teasing of her younger siblings. When Sechskies announced their disbandment, She was so sad that she had cried her eyes out thousands of miles from Seoul in Manila. Then, she had faithfully followed his career, as he tried to break into the hip-hop scene while facing much prejudice and resistance, as he built up his career in variety shows. She had seen many sides of him. She’s aware of his many different charms. She has heard of how sweet and gentle he is, despite his rough appearance, the tsundere charm that attracted her to him in the first place. But it was an entirely different thing to be at the receiving end of it.

From the beginning, Dara couldn’t hide her shyness to him, but he made it comfortable enough for her to open up to him. He cracked jokes to make her smile, he listened carefully to her concerns and gave her thoughtful advice. At the arcade, he patiently taught her how to play the games, gently when she lost and cheered for her when she won.

She could almost feel the blush rising to her cheeks when she recalled the sweet encouragements he gave to her. She pulled her pillow to her face to muffle the giddy scream that was about to come out.

It felt like she was seeing him in a new light, not the fierce Sechskies leader Eun Emperor, or the childish Eun Choding, but just as himself, the sweet and kind Jiwon Oppa. And if she’s honest with herself, then she would have to admit that she liked this side of Jiwon the most.

Dara wondered what would happen if she could travel through time and tell her 13-year-old self that she would one day get to spend a date with Eun Jiwon. Her 13-year-old self would probably not even believe the news. Not when they were separated by an ocean and more than a thousand miles. Not when he was a celebrity, a superstar, and she was only a Korean teenager struggling to adapt to her new home. Not when Jiwon was so unreachable.

But now, Jiwon isn’t so unreachable anymore, is he?