Azalea

So Azalea calls me during lunch on Friday - she's not mad at me anymore, obviously, and we've been talking a lot more - and asks me what I'm doing that night, which is what I'm doing most nights - nothing. She tells me that her friend, Jenny, broke up with her boyfriend three weeks ago and still wasn't over the breakup. Then she tells me that I need to find a nice guy to come out to dinner with us tonight. (Because we had dinner plans, all of a sudden.)

"Tonight?"

"Yes! I know it's really short notice, but she's really taking the breakup to heart. I don't know. I just hate seeing her like this, you know? She's so sad." She paused. "Please come tonight. And don't bring anybody stupid like Rooney either."

"I won't. I'll see what I can do." Jinki sits down next to me, shaking his salad and glancing at his phone. I smile a little.

"I'll see you guys at eight. Wear something nice, okay? The place is pretty fancy."

"I always wear something nice. What are you trying to say?" I smile a little and she laughs.

"You know what I mean. Bye, I have to go."

"Bye."

Jinki agreed to come on one condition - the girl had to not be weird. Apparently, he had some pretty bad experiences with blind dates and he didn't want to spend the night hiding from his date the way I hid from Hope. Jenny seemed pretty normal, aside from her whole I'm watchin' you thing.

So we get to the restaurant first, but that was because Jinki had this weird thing with time and being on time to everything. While we're sitting there, we order some drinks, and Jinki is freaking out. I roll my eyes and sink further into my seat.

But then Azalea sits down - I didn't even hear her come in - and I have bigger things to think about than about Jinki potentially not liking Jenny. She sat down by herself, flipping some of her hair over her shoulder.

"Hey." She squeezed my hand and smiled brightly. "Jenny's just touching up her makeup in the bathroom. She'll be out in a minute." She wriggled her eyebrows at Jinki, then grinned at me. "Good job, Kibum." As if on cue, Jenny sat down, glancing over at me boredly. She narrowed her green eyes, making a small face.

"It's you again." Azalea nudged her with a frown.

"Have you met Jinki?" Jinki smiled nervously and waved. And then Jenny's frown softened into a semblance of a smile and she batted her eyelashes as she laughed.

"Hi. I'm Jenny."

Jinki wasn't better off either. He almost choked on his water, holding out a timid hand he introduced himself to her. Azalea wriggled her eyebrows at me.

Dinner seemed to fly by after that. I don't know. It's probably because I couldn't stop looking at Azalea or something, but I couldn't help it. She just looked really nice, even if she didn't like to wear any other color but black. And then Jenny says that we should go out for drinks, because it's still pretty early and it's Friday night.

We go clubbing.

It's New York City, after all.

Jenny and Jinki disappear as soon as we arrive, leaving Azalea and I to our own devices. We get drinks because Azalea insists she's not much of a dancer - but I've seen her dance so I don't know why she doesn't want to now, but it's okay, because somehow sitting with her in a corner with a whiskey sour feels a lot more intimate than having her body pressed to mine as she follows the beat of whatever song plays. We dance, once or twice, but that's after she's had three or four drinks.

Azalea isn't drunk, and neither am I, but I think we should take a cab home or maybe the subway. She's starting to slur and smile dazedly and hang off my shoulder, pressing sloppy kisses to my cheek. I'm trying to find Jinki and Jenny, so we can at least carpool. But since he's busy doing body shots off Jenny, I decide to leave him be. They seem to have hit it off pretty well.

We're sitting on a bench in a nearby subway tunnel - she doesn't like cabs - cracking up at nothing at all. I'm sure people who are walking by think we're crazy.

"Kibum!" she giggles, kissing me sloppily. "When'd you get so cute?"

"I dunno," I laugh, just because she is. "It just happened."

"You know..." she trails off, digging her keys out of her purse. "Tae's like gone for the weekend."

"Yeah?"

"And I can't stay by myself in that big lonely apartment."

"Of course not," I say as we board the still packed train - it's a Friday night. There's a pair of empty seats near the back, so we sit down. She rests her head on my shoulder.

"Need someone big and strong."

"Because Tae's obviously built."

Azalea snickers, leaning forward a little.

"But you are." She grins, winking. "It's not like I haven't seen you mostly naked. You're probably like the strongest guy I know." I beam and she giggles. "But it's not like I know very many guys."