Double Date | Choi Soobin
Summary: After your friend tricks you into going on a last-minute double date with her, you find yourself enjoying yourself a lot more than originally anticipated.
word count: 3.2k
A few hours ago, my best friend Sage had frantically called me, asking that I come over urgently. Concerned by her tone of voice over the phone, I bolted out of my apartment and arrived at her place as fast as my feet could take me. However, to my surprise, when she opened the door, I wasn’t met with a distraught-looking Sage. No, I was met with Sage, standing at the front door with a beaming smile on her face! “Y/N, thank God you’re here! I need help picking out an outfit.” She said, pulling me deep into her apartment and toward her bedroom.
“An outfit for what?” I groaned, relaxing the trip down here was most likely all for nothing.
“My date, duh! It’s the same guy I was messaging all week from that dating app.” Sage stated, as if it were some obvious fact I should’ve already known. The last I had heard about the dating app guy was that he took too long to respond, so she had moved on. I guess there must’ve been some reconciliation I hadn’t known about. As we approached the tiny bedroom, I glanced around, noticing all of the clothes sprawled out on the floor, some on the bed, some on her desk chair. It looked like a crime scene.
“Sage, you called me over here for nothing…” I pouted as I sat on the edge of the bed. She went back to the closet, and the sound of hangers scraping against the rod filled the room as we both went quiet. I could’ve done without the involuntary marathon run I just endured, all for a date I wasn’t even going on.
“It’s not for nothing, it’s an emergency. I really want this to work out.” She said, pulling out three different dresses and throwing them on the bed, before turning back to face the closet again.
“I thought you stopped talking to this guy, like…a week ago. Now you’re going out with him?” I sighed, lying down and looking up at the ceiling, waiting for my next set of directions.
“Well, I did at one point. But then he reached back out and explained that he didn’t actually ghost me, he’s just really, really shy. I guess he got nervous.” Sage shrugged, throwing a white cami on top of my head. “Woops.” She called out, swiping the material off my face. I glared at her, but she didn’t even notice, her nose deep in her closet again, most likely looking for her pair of lucky jeans. The same ones she stole from me two years ago and swore she’d give back.
“That’s sort of sweet,” I responded. Sage hummed, glancing at me.
“What’s sweet?” She asked, taking another cami off the hanger and throwing it on the bed.
“That he’s shy, at least he was comfortable enough to share that with you. I mean, I get where he’s coming from, I’m kind of shy too,” I explained.
“Yeah, that’s true. You know what's funny? I mentioned you.” Sage giggled. “I told him that my best friend was really shy, so I could handle the whole ‘socially awkward’ thing.” My eyes went wide, and I covered my face with my hands.
“Sage, don’t tell random people that I’m socially awkward. That’s embarrassing.” I whined, throwing one of the shirts on her bed back at her, which she narrowly dodged.
“No, I’m glad I brought you up! He was telling me that he has a friend who’s even shyer than him, and we think you guys would make a perfect match!” Sage clapped her hands together excitedly.
Oh no… The realization hit me then and there. I wasn’t invited here to help her pick out an outfit; I was invited here for a setup. “Sage, please don’t tell me this is what I think it is…” I sat up hurriedly, my palms becoming sweaty.
“Y/N, you barely go out, let alone date. And if I had asked you, I know you wouldn’t have agreed.” Sage rushed over to me, grabbing my hands. But I was defiant. I kept on shaking my head.
“No. I am NOT going to go on a date with this guy’s awkward friend. If this is your first date, why are you trying to make me tag along?” I said.
“Because… I think it would make the guy I’m going out with feel a little better if he were able to bring his friend with him. But his friend can’t be the third wheel, so we had to find a date for him. I think you guys would be perfect for each other.” Sage tried to convince me. She searched my face for any sign of consideration for her plan, but found nothing but disinterest. Finally, she let go of my hands and let out a frustrated sigh. “Fine…If you go on this date for me, I’ll let you wear your lucky jeans that I stole, and you can take them back permanently when we’re done.” Now, at this suggestion, my ears perked up.
I looked at Sage, squinting, silently weighing my options in my head. If I go on this date, regardless of how good or bad it will be, I’m getting my jeans back regardless. So, technically, a few hours of torture would be worth it, right? “You’ve got yourself a deal,” I said. Sage shot up, jumping and cheering.
“Yay, quick, we only have like… twenty minutes before we have to head out. Let me get your jeans…” She said, checking her phone for the time before heading back into the closet and rummaging through another drawer. As I waited for her to hand me ½ of my outfit, I began to wonder about this mystery guy I’d be going out with tonight.
“Hey, so about this friend…Do you know his name?” I tried to make it sound like I wasn’t too interested in knowing anything about this guy. Judging by how socially awkward he sounded, I was under the impression this would be a ‘one and done’ type of situation. I didn’t expect to fall in love with him. I mean, an hour ago, I didn’t even know I was going on a date. Plus, there was always a chance that this guy was ugly.
“Um, So…Se…Soo…I forget.” Sage said, pulling off her t-shirt and putting on the white cami from earlier. “All I know is that his name starts with an S.”
Well, that figures…I thought. I guess I was literally going out with a total stranger. I didn’t even know his name. I wonder if his friend had remembered to tell him mine? Or was he walking into this thing just as clueless as I was?
~
By the time we finished getting ready and rushed out, I could feel all sorts of knots forming in my stomach as we got closer and closer to the restaurant. Sage’s date plus ‘S’ friend still hadn’t arrived yet, but in their defence, the date wasn’t supposed to start until 7, and it was only 6:50. They had ten minutes to spare. As the hostess seated us in a booth toward the back of the restaurant, Sage wrestled me away from the seat facing the door. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I snarled in the queistest voice I could muster up in order not to cause a scene in the packed restaurant.
“You can’t sit by the door! Number one, you don’t even know what they look like.”
I rolled my eyes for the millionth time.
“Sage, you don’t even know the name of the guy you’re forcing me to go on a date with, yet I’m the one who’s causing the issue here?” I grumbled.
“Well, I at least know what MY date looks like.” She said smugly, as she pointed her finger toward herself. “Now, I’ll sit facing the door to keep a lookout for them. Besides, I want you to fully treat this as a blind date, Y/N. Like, try to keep the element of surprise going up until the very last minute.” Sage begged.
I groaned, already wanting to go home. My stomach felt tight, and my palms were all sweaty by this point due to my growing nerves. I had never been that successful with dating, and I especially loathed first dates. They feel more like job interviews than just two people connecting. You say one wrong thing, and you run the risk of scaring the other person off. Well, if it ends in failure, at least I wasn’t the one who arranged this so-called “date”.
After five minutes of small talk, Sage’s eyes went wide as she glanced toward the door. She stood up in a hurry, beginning to frantically flail her arms around, presumably trying to flag down her date, who must have just walked in. “Oh my god, that’s him.” She said more to herself than to me before running towards him and meeting him halfway in the restaurant. The guy was relatively tall, and just like all of Sage’s past boyfriends, he was incredibly handsome. Apparently, from what Sage was telling me on the way here, her date was really into music and was studying music composition at university. The two of the walked back toward the table hand in hand. They made a cute couple already, but to be honest, I wasn’t completely focused on the two of them. I found myself instead looking around confusedly, scanning the restaurant for another solo guy. You know, the one I was dragged out here to keep company for. When Sage and her date made it back to the table, the man quickly and warmly introduced himself to me. His name was Taehyun, and he gave me a kind, shy smile before slightly bowing her head. I introduced myself before shooting Sage an impressed look while Taehyun was looking at the ground. She pursed her lips together, poorly concealing her giddy expression. Taehyun suddenly looked back up from the ground, almost as if he had just remembered something extremely important.
“Oh, Y/N, don’t worry, my friend is here. He offered to park the car, but I don’t know what’s taking him so long.” Ah, so his friend is here, not M.I.A as I originally thought. I don’t know if I was feeling a sense of relief or dread. I guess I really had to go through with this date. I nodded my head in understanding, looking behind me toward the front door before scanning my head out toward the window. But it didn’t make much sense to look out of the window since it was almost dark out by now. I probably wouldn’t be catching a glimpse of him. I just had to wait and- “Oh, there you are!” Taehyun pulled me out of my thoughts. I turned my head toward the mysterious figure and…Holy shit.
There he stood, behind Taehyun, even though standing behind him didn't make him any less visible. He must’ve been over six feet tall by the looks of it. His eyes were big and avoidant. He made eye contact with me, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe for a few seconds. Almost as if someone hit pause. “Y/N, Sage, this is my best friend, Soobin.”
He gave me a small wave. He hadn’t even looked at Sage yet. His eyes kept darting from my own back to his shoes, and then the window behind me on repeat.
“Nice to meet you.” Sage acknowledged him with a tilt of her head. She slid into the seat right next to me, and the two guys slid in on the other side. Soobin sat opposite me, and Sage and Taehyun quickly fell into their own world. Again, Soobin’s eyes continued to move between mine and the menu placed in front of him on the table. He had on a sweatshirt, and his hands were placed in his pockets. I knew I had to come up with some sort of conversation starter, but I wasn’t sure of what to say. I suddenly felt self-conscious in front of him, even though it was quite obvious that he must’ve been just as nervous as I was. I just had to blurt something out and fast.
“So…when did you find out you were being dragged to this?” I piqued up after a few minutes of awkward silence. He glanced back up at me, looking surprised that I had spoken.
“Um…Last night.” He softly said with the tiniest hint of a smile peaking through.
His voice was surprisingly deep and didn’t match his face. He had one of those sweet-looking faces, yet his voice made him sound so intimidating. I hated to admit it, since I technically didn't even want to be here, but with each passing second, I was growing more and more intrigued by him. I knew whoever he was or ended up looking like, I was 99.9% positive that the guy wouldn’t be ugly, but I hadn't expected him to be this handsome, and that was without him even saying more than five words. But of course, there was always the chance that he had the personality of a wet blanket, so…
“Oh, you’re lucky, I found out I was going on this date two hours ago.” He raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“What, why wouldn’t she have told you last night? That’s when they made the plans, supposedly?” He asked curiously, almost seeming offended that Sage told me about this at the last minute.
“She assumed if I had a choice, I would’ve turned it down, which, you know what…was probably the truth.” I shrugged. He nodded his head in understanding.
“Yeah, I tried to get out of it too,” Soobin replied, now fully looking at me without feeling the need to glance down at the menu every three seconds. “But, uh, I don’t know, I’m sort of glad I decided to come now.” He said, his eyes locked on mine. My heart was racing, and my throat felt dry. Okay, so not only is he hot, but he definitely has a personality opposite of a wet blanket. Shit, now I was fully invested. I didn’t even try to hide the red creeping onto my cheeks. As we continued to talk, I learned that he was in college too. Studying to be a teacher. He began to swipe through different photos on his phone from his semester as a student teacher. He apparently really loved the class he taught and grew attached to them. As he added in more and more detail about his life, I felt those dormant butterflies begin to flutter again after such a long time. I learned that he had met Taehyun through school and that they had been friends for a few years now. As the conversation became deeper, I completely forgot about the original description I was given about Soobin. He didn’t seem shy at all. If anything, he seemed to be so kind and funny, and he had all of these interesting stories. He was just so fascinating to listen to. Eventually, he turned all of the questions onto me. Asking what I was studying, what I did in my free time, and where we both discovered that we loved reading and most of the same video games.
Apparently, we had been visiting the same few bookstores and library branches for months and hadn’t crossed paths yet. Eventually, we forgot that Sage and Taehyun were sitting right next to us. It wasn't until Sage tapped on my shoulder that I finally turned my attention away from Soobin momentarily. “Hey, we’re gonna go get coffee, if you guys want to come,” Sage suggested as she and Taehyun slid out and up from the booth.
“Uh…” I looked at Soobin, scanning his expression of disinterest, and it seemed that since he had an audience of people looking at him, he somewhat reverted to his shy exterior from when we first met. “I think we’ll catch up with you guys later.”
“Are you sure?” Taehyun asked. We both nodded, and after leaving money for their half of the bill, they were off, and Soobin and I were left alone again. He quickly snapped back to that friendly side of his personality as we began to speak again.
“I don’t know about coffee, but do you maybe wanna get out of here and find somewhere else to go?” Soobin offered after a few more minutes of banter. I eagerly agreed and followed him out after we paid. We made it back to his car before getting in and quickly turning the heat on as the cold air was making our noses turn red.
“So, where are we going to go? You have anywhere in mind?” I asked Soobin excitedly. He smiled at me before letting out a laugh and looking away. “What?” I giggled.
“I lied, I have no idea where we could go…Maybe a different coffee shop. I just want to get to spend time with you without our friends. When I agreed to come last night, I did it as a way to help my friend out since he was really nervous. I didn’t really view it as a date. But then I saw you and now we’re talking, and I didn’t expect to have so much in common with you and…I don’t know, now I want to take you on a proper date.” I felt like doing backflips out of pure excitement at his words.
“I feel the same way. I didn’t want to come to this, but now that I met you, I’m so glad I did.” I said shyly, suddenly embarrassed to make eye contact with him.
“Maybe next time you’re free, I can take you on a proper date?” He tilted his head slightly, his hand now on top of mine as we continued to face each other, as the heat from the car vents blasted hot air in our faces. Maybe it was the car temperature that made me feel so hot, or the sound of his deep voice asking me out on another date, but I suddenly felt the urge to lean forward and kiss him. But just before I could even make a move, Soobin was already one step ahead of me. All of a sudden, his fingers were holding my chin in place, and his soft lips were molded against my own. We continued to kiss, barely coming up for air. My hands in his hair, almost completely sitting on top of him. I was making out with a guy I met an hour ago in his car, or at least I think this was his car. I didn’t even have his phone number yet. The only thing that made us stop was the sound of approaching familiar voices. I quickly rolled off of him and back into the passenger's seat just as our friends approached the car. Soobin still kept his hand on top of mine as Taehyun appeared outside of the driver’s side window.
“Hey! There you are. Why didn’t you guys come in for coffee?” Soobin and I shot each other a knowing glance before bursting out laughing.
After everyone said goodbye, while Sage and Taehyun were talking, Soobin pulled me aside.
“So…when can we schedule that proper date we were talking about earlier?” He said with his arm around my shoulder.
“After you get my number,” I smirked, feeling confident all of a sudden. He frantically reached for his phone in his pocket, ready for the digits.
Maybe not all double dates are bad?
{A/N: Started this a month ago, but I finally finished it on my birthday! I don't have much to write in this note other than that I hope you all enjoy🩵 . As always, have a great day/night,, and I love you, mwahhh💋💋💋💋}
