(Asa) Operation: Kiss the Girl
Male reader x Enami Asa (Babymonster)
Includes: Crack, fluff
Synopsis: You have a crush on the hottest girl on campus. Then you find out she’s running the kissing booth. Time to kiss the girl! This fic is dedicated to the one and only @ducktoo. Thank you so much for writing that Karina fic. I hope you like this one, because I don't think I will be writing fluff again anytime soon after this cheeseball of a fic... Also, HUGE shoutout to @bunnsfw for creating the cover poster! Thank you so much for making my shitty draft a reality, and the poster looks so good!!!
~~~
There’s this girl on campus who’s had every fiber of your being in a vice grip ever since you laid eyes on her in freshman year of university. You see her, you freeze like a meerkat. You don’t see her, you go insane with worry. Maybe she’s avoiding you. Maybe she hates your guts. The spiral, as your bestie Yunjin dubs it, has you all zoned out in lectures, in photography club meetings, even on your bed as you lay with your worries about this one girl before ultimately succumbing to sleep.
That girl is none other than Enami Asa.
Voted the Campus Crush three times in a row, vice-president of the student association, and a perennial inhabitant of the dean’s list. Smart, ambitious, and jaw-droppingly hot, it makes complete sense that she has your mind by its brain-balls. Unfortunately, your crush on her is nothing special, since half the student body has the hots for her too. Understandable, though it has you tearing hair out of your head sometimes.
Especially right now. During lunch.
“What did you just say?” You sputter as you turn around to face Jaehyun, your other bestie. People in the surrounding tables turn to stare at your outburst, but you couldn’t care less about decorum right now.
“Umph, the new cafe on campush is running a two-for-one promoshion on drinksh?” he replies, mouth full of pizza.
“No, you idiot. The other thing!”
“You mean the—” Jaehyun, poor thing, doesn’t get to finish his sentence as the whirlwind that is Huh Yunjin descends on the two of you, arms slung over your necks as she lowers her voice in an attempt at a conspiratorial whisper (that could be heard by everyone in the cafeteria).
“DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE SUMMER FESTIVAL?” So much for whispering.
You and Jaehyun wince, clutching your ears. You shove Yunjin off but the redhead is unperturbed.
“How come everyone knows about it but me?” You whine, your voice coming out all shaky as Yunjin grabs your arm and bounces up and down in excitement.
“This is your chance bro! Buy a ticket and you get to kiss the Asa,” she urges.
Jaehyun scoffs at her and straightens his shirt. “Yeah, but Dookyoung will have to share her with like half the campus at the kissing booth.”
That’s you. Kang Dookyoung. Average grades, average at sports, and completely luckless in love. And now you have to share your crush with—
Wait, what? A kissing booth? Anyone who buys a ticket will get to kiss her. This is a disaster!
You groan, face in your hands. “There is no way I’m gonna let anyone else kiss Asa at the booth.” Yunjin and Jaehyun stare at you as if you grew a second head.
“How are you going to do that?” The two of them ask in unison. You open your mouth to reply but nothing comes out. They have a point. How do you stop anyone else from kissing Asa’s delectable lips? Those plump, glossy lips. Sigh.
Your mind drifts for a moment and you’re just about to enter another one of those spirals when you are literally knocked out of your thoughts by an elbow to the ribs.
“Psst. It’s her,” Yunjin hisses into your ear as she nods at the front of the cafeteria. You turn to look and there she is, the girl of your dreams, Enami Asa.
It’s almost as if she’s walking in slow motion, and you take in the sight — short black hair touching the nape of her neck ending with a slight curve, smokey eyes, a fitted shirt and cargo pants. What a dream.
Asa turns to look at your general direction and you see her face light up in recognition as she waves cheerily. Wait, there’s no way she’s waving at you, right? That would be crazy. Or she’s just being nice. Yeah. Asa’s the nicest person ever. So you wave back awkwardly, hand hanging in the air and your crush giggles before walking right past you. Another person rushes to catch up with Asa and you recognise her too — Pharita, your crush’s best friend and a member of the student association executive committee. Her eyes narrow at your raised hand, and you put it down quickly, cheeks burning red.
You turn back to your friends but it seems like they’ve shifted their attention to other things.
“Come on dude, gimme a slice!” Yunjin begs. Jaehyun shields the rest of his pizza (a 14-inch large pan pizza, mind you) from her with his arms, a dogged look on his face.
“Nuh uh. I paid for the whole pizza, no one elsh getsh to eat it.”
Oh.
Oh?
Oh.
The answer to your problem was right in front of you. If you hoard the kissing booth tickets, no one else can kiss Asa. So, just buy them all and monopolise her time, her attention, her lips.
Sounds easy enough. Right? Little did you know of the trials that await you.
***
You curse silently at the sun as it beams down hot hell from up high. The heat is especially unbearable because you’re stuck in a bulky mascot suit, making you look like a decidedly unseasonable snowman, complete with a snowcone perched on your head like a tall hat.
“Heat got you down? Get a scoop at Cool Scoop!” You repeat the mantra with gritted teeth as you hand out flyers to passerbys. It’s boiling in the suit and you’ve half a mind to tear off the head to get some fresh air despite the strict warning from your boss. You’re not even pretending to stand upright, leaning on the wooden table beside you the whole time.
“Dookyoung? Is that you?” You recognise that voice anywhere. The shock makes you turn around almost immediately, but you forget that you’re in the thick mascot suit which makes your turn more of a panicked wobble as you fight against three inches of foam padding.
What ends up happening is that you trip on the suit’s comically large feet, the stack of flyers in your gloved hands spilling onto the ground as you come face to face with Asa who is looking at you with a bemused expression.
Behind her stands Pharita. The blonde fixes a judgemental stare on you. You swear the temperature in the suit dropped for a moment.
“Oh, uh, ye— yeah, it’s me…”
Asa, bless her soul, immediately gets on her knees to pick up the flyers.
“No, no, it’s my fault, I should—”
She giggles, a melody sweeter than anything you’ve ever heard. She has to be an angel.
“I can’t take you seriously with that headpiece. Why don’t you take it off?” Her hands mime a sphere over her head as she gives you a once over. You comply immediately (simp!), grateful for the relatively cool air on your face. Asa laughs gently, mouth covered as she points at your beet-red face — you’re pretty sure it’s not because of the heat.
Pharita, for her part, laughs along mechanically, and you wilt a little under her gaze.
Asa frowns at the sweat matting your hair, the frown deepening when she looks around you and at the table off to the side. “Are you doing okay in there? It's really hot today.”
Is she— is she worried about me? Your brain spirals at the thought. No. She's just nice. She's nice to everyone. This doesn't mean anything. This is a normal human interaction and you are a normal human who is not about to lose his mind in a snowman costume in this fucking heat because—
“Hello?” Asa waves a hand over your face. You blink rapidly.
“Sorry. I'm— yeah. It's fine. I'm fine.” You try to show her a thumbs up but the thick white mitts get in the way.
“That’s good to hear. But please take care of yourself. Take lots of breaks and don’t forget to hydrate!”
She places the pile of flyers onto the wooden table and turns back to you with a warm smile on her face. God, she really is an angel.
“Come on, we’ll be late for the student association meeting.” Pharita huffs and pulls at Asa’s arm, who is waving cheerily in your direction even as her friend commandeers her away from you.
You stare dumbstruck at her retreating figure, standing still like a statue for a while after. You don’t even notice when a large bottle of cold water makes its way beside the flyers on the table until much later.
***
“What do you mean I can’t buy all the tickets?” You wring your hands angrily at Miyawaki Sakura. It’s beyond frustrating that all the work you put into earning money for the tickets might be for nothing.
The president of the student association stares back at you with bloodshot eyes ringed in black.
“Because.”
“Because?”
“Because it goes against the spirit of the event!” It’s Sakura’s turn to throw her hands into the air, clearly not one to back down from a fight.
“And what the hell is the ‘spirit’ of the event? Throwing Asa to the wolves so perverts can kiss her?”
“Hey, she volunteered to run the kissing booth,” Sakura rubs the nape of her neck. “And she gets extra credits for this! Which is good for her.”
“You couldn’t find anyone else to do it?”
“Well, it was supposed to be Chaewon at first. But she pulled out after she found a boyfriend who, and I quote, ‘really likes her crying face’.”
You raise an eyebrow. “Dude sounds like a sick sonuvabitch.”
“That’s what I told her, but who am I to get in the way of love? Anyway, Asa is a great replacement. The hype surrounding the summer festival has never been higher,” Sakura says with a maniacal grin on her face. “If you want a ticket, you’ll have to stand in line to buy them just like everyone else, pervert.”
Sakura then shoves you out of the student association club room, leaving you with a massive headache.
***
Click, click, click.
“You look like shit dude,” Jaehyun remarks as you stare pointedly at the door to the classroom.
“Shut up. I need to lock in for this job.” Your eyes twitch as six—no, seven people walked into the classroom, so you click the tally counter in your hand accordingly.
Jaehyun leans back on the wall as he observes you. “This is what, the fifth part-time job you’ve been doing in the space of two weeks?”
“Six,” you correct him without looking away from the same spot.
“Damn dude, didn’t you tell me the other day that Sakura wouldn’t let you buy all the tickets? Why are you still trying to earn more money then?”
“I have, uh, a plan.” Click, click, click.
“Let me guess. You’re going to buy the tickets from everyone who got them during the sale.” Your silence is all the answer he needs. “Dookyoung, you need help.” Jaehyun shakes his head before walking away.
Click, click, click, click, cli—
Your head snaps up and you realise that a soft hand is resting on yours. In front of you is Asa, beautiful as always, though she’s looking at you with some concern.
“Hey.”
“Uh, umm, h–hi, Asa…”
“Another part-time job?”
“Y–yeah, just need the extra cash, you know,” you mumble, unable to look her in the eye.
“You need to rest. Please?” Unable to summon the will to resist, you nod lamely and pocket the clicker. Asa smiles and hands you a rice ball. “I know you haven’t been eating right either.”
She doesn’t leave until you finish every bit of the rice ball. You pick up your bag and turn to head back to your dorm room, except Jaehyun is leaning against the wall with a smirk on his face.
You squint at your best friend. “Why are you still here?”
“I'm just enjoying watching you simp.”
This is simply a small detour, you think to yourself as you walk back with Jaehyun. No one, not even Asa can stop you from carrying out your plan.
***
You pull the hood of your jacket up as you trail the girl walking across the quad. Her shoulders stiffen as she senses your presence. She picks up her pace before launching into a full-on run.
Too bad for her, you’re fuelled by your hopeless crush on Asa and three cans of Red Bull. But endurance is only half the battle.
After a whole two minutes of strategic corralling, the girl finds herself trapped between you and a dead end. She turns around with her shoulders squared but loosens up when she recognises your face.
“Dookyoung? What are you—”
“Jung Ahyeon. Student association treasurer.”
“We know each other, weirdo.” Ahyeon folds her arms.
You push on. “You’re the treasurer. Which means you know who bought the tickets for the kissing booth.”
Her mouth forms an o-shape as she realises what you want. Though nothing could have prepared her for what you were going to do next. You leap to the ground knees first, ignoring the way your kneecaps crunch against the gravel. Head and palms follow suit — a perfect dogeza, if you say so yourself.
“Ahyeon, pleasepleaseplease tell me who bought the tickets!”
She steps backwards, clearly taken aback. “What the fuck.”
“I’ll buy you all the meatball skewers you want for a week,” you plead, looking up at her with (what you assume to be) puppy eyes.
“Make it a month, oh and chicken wings too.” You wince at the counter-offer.
“Two weeks of all-you-can-eat skewers and wings?”
“Deal,” Ahyeon answers without missing a beat. She drags you up by your arm, which you’re grateful for because the impact of your knees hitting the ground made your legs go numb for a bit. She pulls out her phone and swipes around for a bit before letting out a cute “aha!” and showing you the screen.
So here’s the situation according to Ahyeon. The student association sold a hundred tickets.
You bought twenty of them, the maximum Sakura would allow per person.
Twenty tickets went to Park Wonbin — voted the Campus Prince three times in a row, the guy any mother-in-law would be happy with, and a top student. Popular, charismatic, and smart.
Another twenty went to Nakamura Kazuha — voted the Campus Fuckboy three times in a row (there’s a theme here), the girl no mother-in-law would be happy with, and despite skipping most of her tutorials she’s also a dean's lister. Popular, notorious, and also smart.
Yet another twenty went to some guy named Woonhak. You have no idea who he is, so no comment.
You squint at the screen because the numbers don't add up. “Wait, who has the final twenty tickets?”
“Not a clue,” Ahyeon replies. You frown at the reply, but you could hardly muster the strength to ask any more questions. Huh, all that running must have taken more out of you. Of course, you pointedly ignore the fact that you’ve been spending almost every waking hour that’s not school on part-time work.
For a moment, your vision doubles. Ahyeon moves towards you, concern etched on her face, but you wave her off. “I’m fine. And thanks for the info. Don’t worry, I’ll get you those skewers and wings.”
She watches as you walk away unsteadily. After waiting for a few minutes, Ahyeon calls a certain number.
“Dookyoung asked about the tickets. No, I didn’t tell him about you. Yes, you owe me meatball skewers for a whole week.”
Ahyeon grins. Life is good.
***
You blink tiredly at the situation unfolding in front of you. You’re not sure which step you’re on in your grand plan to get all the kissing booth tickets. What you do know is that you’re currently stuck in a weird stalker chain. In the library of all places.
Here’s what’s going on:
That no-name guy Ahyeon mentioned? You asked your two best friends and by some stroke of luck, both of them know him: Kim Woonhak, first-year.
According to Yunjin, he’s an up-and-coming rookie in the basketball club and an all-around team player. Jaehyun also has nothing but nice things to say about him, having mentored him last semester for the Red Cross society.
So he’s a nice person, this Woonhak. You’re not so nice though, especially when Asa’s lips are on the line. Which is why you’ve staked out the library on a Friday afternoon, hoping to catch the fresh-faced rookie unawares and give him an offer he can’t refuse.
Except the situation is a little bit more complicated than you expected. For one, Woonhak himself is tailing another person, who so happens to be Wonbin, the thrice-crowned Campus Prince. Said prince is typing away on his laptop while Woonhak loiters nearby, acting like he belongs in the paleontology section (which is not nearly as convincing as he thinks it is given he’s a sport science major) while he casts yearning looks not-so-discreetly at the older boy — he’s painfully unaware that Wonbin realises his presence.
It’s certainly nice that you have two of your targets in one place, but you have no idea why Woonhak is creeping on Wonbin.
Cue the final piece in this tangled web. You can’t help but notice the two girls standing right beside you, whispering giddily about your targets.
“Oh my gosh, Woonie is sooo cute! I want to squish his cheeks,” Rei mutters.
“Yes! And Wonbinnie is such a dreamboat,” Liz sighs in agreement.
“Um, not to harsh on the vibes here, but I’m kind of in the middle of something.” You try to shoo them away but they turn around to face you, an unimpressed look on their faces.
“What business do you have with our two cuties?” Our two cuties?
“Actually…” You have nothing to lose at this point. So you tell them about the kissing booth and how you want to get all of the tickets. The two girls gasp when you tell them that their objects of affection have purchased a number of tickets themselves.
“Well, we can’t have our two cuties kissing some girl now can we?” Rei spits in disgust. Which is odd, given that she too is a girl. What’s even more confusing is how Liz nods her head in agreement, a peculiar kind of fire burning in her eyes. You remind yourself never to get on their bad side, not that you plan on ever speaking to them again after this.
So the three of you hatch a plan to get their tickets. And that’s how you end up cornering Woonhak at the end of the paleontology aisle while Liz and Rei distract Wonbin by the desk.
“Woonhak, is it?” you whisper casually, one arm resting on the wall right beside his head.
“That’s me!” he replies, voice a little bit too chipper for someone who’s trapped at the end of a library aisle.
“I’ll be frank — a little birdie,” read: Rei and Liz, “told me that you have the hots for our dear Prince over there,” you gesture over at Wonbin who is having an animated conversation with the two girls. Woonhak casts a forlorn gaze over at the older boy before sighing.
“It’s true,” Woonhak sighs again. “But I don’t know if he feels the same way.”
Huh. “So why did you buy the tickets for the kissing booth?”
Woonhak blinks rapidly as he processes your question. “Isn’t Wonbin the one volunteering for the booth?”
You’re at a loss for words. You pull out your phone and find the pdf of the summer festival poster before showing him the screen. Front and center in the poster is a headshot of none other than Enami Asa, cool gaze and pouty lips and all (props for guessing who’s idea it was to feature Asa prominently in the poster!). Woonhak sputters as he takes in this new information.
“Shit,” the boy sighs, looking down at his shoes. “I think I was too sleepy after watching Wonbin fancams all night and saw his face when it was actually Asa on the poster.”
“There are fancams of him? Isn’t Wonbin just a university student?”
“Yeah! Wanna see—”
“Nope. So, tickets? I’ll pay you sticker price for the whole lot.” Woonhak nods and you receive the twenty tickets in exchange for a tidy sum of money. Good thing you took those eight part-time jobs. Now for the second part of this make-shift scheme.
“Earlier you said that you’re not sure if your crush likes you back.” You raise your eyebrows suggestively at Woonhak. “Wanna find out?”
He nods, and that’s all the signal you need. You look behind and nod at Rei and Liz who just finished their conversation with target number two before grabbing Woonhak firmly by the shoulders. The freshman has no time to react before you swing him around and shove him.
Woonhak flails as he careens backwards, almost tripping over until he falls…into the strong arms of Park Wonbin. The younger boy looks up into the concerned eyes of the campus prince. It’s like a scene straight out of a K-drama. Which you promptly ignore because, priorities.
Rei sidles up to you and hands you another twenty tickets. “He only bought them to keep up appearances. I knew our prince is for the boys,” she breathes a little bit too happily for your liking.
You back away slowly, pocketing the tickets as the two girls swoon and squeal at the sight of Wonbin and Woonhak in a warm embrace that’s surely lasting a bit longer than is actually necessary.
Leaving the library turned out to be a whole lot more tiring than entering it. For some reason, each step feels like you’re fighting your way through a pool of freezing sludge about waist-high, and your brain starts pounding viciously against your skull. Maybe all that adrenaline from the library shenanigans has worn off.
The last thing you remember before passing out was a loud shriek, some hurried footsteps, and a warm pair of hands shaking you.
***
Maybe it’s karma. Or maybe it’s the accumulated fatigue of taking on eight part-time jobs on top of juggling classes, assignments, and club activities. Oh, and sleeping a total of ten hours in a span of two weeks. You expected this moment to arrive, but you thought you could at least tough it out until the summer festival.
Can’t die before kissing Asa, after all.
You force your heavy eyes open when you finally come to. Only to realise that you’re warm, laying on your bed in the dorm, underneath freshly clean sheets and blankets.
A sneeze shakes your entire body and you feel the way your body aches all over, as if you’ve been running all day and exercising non-stop. You must have fallen sick from the lack of sleep and pushing your body like a machine ever since you heard about the kissing booth. Worth it though. But the job is not yet done.
So you try to get on your feet, but you only manage to slightly lift your head before a warm pair of hands gently lowers your head back onto the fluffy pillow. You tried to push them off but you’re so weak it’s not even a fight.
“Hey, don’t get up. Go back to sleep and let your body heal.” You recognise that voice anywhere, a soothing sound like warm honey splashing into your ears. But it can’t be her. Why would she be taking care of you in your own room? How did you even get here in the first place? And why is it getting colder?
Denial and embarrassment has you acting up like a brat, so you struggle weakly to sit upright even as you shiver like a leaf in the wind, but the definitely-not-Asa sits on the bed and forces you back down. They don’t relent until you give up moving, nodding with satisfaction and gesturing to the bedside table.
“I got you some saltine crackers and water. Eat as much as you can without throwing up.” You feel the bed dip back up as the person stands and you whine at the loss of warmth, making grabby hands at the retreating figure. You resolve to believe that this is simply a dream and you let down your inhibitions.
It’s not fair, always seeing you go. Please stay?
You must have spoken your thoughts out loud, because the figure hesitates for a moment and turns back to look at you. Your vision is still hazy, but you can make out shoulder-length black hair. The figure almost moves to approach you again but squares their shoulders and leaves the room. Not before whispering something so softly you’re not sure what you heard.
But you did. Then you sank back right after. Yeah, definitely a dream. You remember little else about this period of time besides dipping in and out of sleep at irregular intervals to munch tiredly on some crackers and water or to wash up. And in no time, you’re back in the game.
Forty more tickets to go.
***
The whole thing with Woonhak and Wonbin at the library turned out great, but you know you can’t rely on your luck moving forward. But getting information about Kazuha turns out to be slightly more complicated than you expected. It starts with Yunjin who knows a guy from the basketball team who points you to Sakura, who dated Kazuha briefly in her first year. Sakura gives you Jiwoo’s number with a sympathetic look on her face, but Jiwoo takes one look at you and says “you did not get this from me” before giving you the names Ruka and Moka, two of Kazuha’s past flings.
They turn out to be a package deal. They are also, as far as you can tell, still slightly in love with Kazuha despite hating her guts. This made the interview process both more productive and significantly more annoying to sit through.
“She has this thing she does,” Ruka begins.
“When she looks at you,” Moka continues.
“Like you’re the only person in the room. Ugh!” The girls say in unison, turning to each other and blanching.
“Okay,” you cut in. “I just need dirt on her. Anything she’d want to keep quiet about.” They exchange a look before telling you everything, which turns out to be a list of all the women on campus Kazuha has ever slept with, updated as of three months ago. It’s a long list and it barely fits in the A4-sized paper note folded and neatly tucked into your pocket, and you walk away from the conversation with a nagging feeling that you’ve done something that might be crossing a line.
You shake it off. Gotta get those tickets.
Kazuha turned out to be in an alleyway behind the only cafe on campus, sipping on a mango iced tea while another cup is slowly dripping beads of condensation beside her. This is not where you expected to find the thrice-crowned Campus Fuckboy. You expected somewhere with an audience, like the campus quad with her arm slung over a new playtoy.
Not this, crouched behind the recycling bins, making clicking sounds with her tongue at something hiding inside a bush. A small orange cat pokes its head out of said bush, leering at the crouched girl, before retreating.
“Come on,” Kazuha says gently. “I know you’re hungry. I got you your favourite.” She hasn’t noticed you yet. She’s holding a handful of dry kibble in her outstretched palm and her whole demeanour is drastically different from every photo you’ve seen of her. No steely gaze, no striking pose. She’s certainly dressed for the part with a red leather jacket and black jean trousers. The whiplash is momentarily disarming.
“Hey.” She turns around at your voice and gets on her feet. Nakamura Kazuha is tall, for one, taller than you. And it’s almost like she’s a different person from the cat lady you observed earlier. She looks at you the way Ruka and Moka described, with such intensity and focus that you feel yourself getting hot under the collar.
“You’re…Dookie? Duckyoung?”
“Dookyoung. Appreciate it if you don’t mess up my name, thanks.”
“I’ve been wondering when you’d show up. She turns back to the bush and clicks her tongue again, getting down on her knees. “Get down if you're going to talk. You're scaring Paneity.”
You look around as you crouch to look at Kazuha on eye level. “Who?”
“The cat,” Kazuha replies as if it’s the most normal name in the world for a cat. “I name them after the letter ‘P’. There’s also Panacea, Proximity, Parity, Part and Parcel…” She says all of this with complete sincerity, and surely enough, five more cats emerge from said bush, meowing at the two of you.
You have so many follow-up questions and zero time for any of them, so instead you lay out your case the way you rehearsed it on the walk over. Names according to the timeline Ruka and Moka furnished you with, as well as some extra spicy details. To sweeten the pot, of course.
Kazuha doesn’t interrupt you during the spiel. She keeps her eyes on the bush and the one shy cat that is slow inching toward the kibble in her outstretched hand. Paneity (what a dumb name for a cat) takes a single piece of kibble into its mouth and disappears back into the bush.
“Okay,” Kazuha says once you’re done, sipping on her iced tea.
“Okay?” you repeat.
“Okay, you have dirt on me.” She turns around to look at you again. “And?”
“And I want the tickets, all twenty you bought for the kissing booth.” You feel like you’re losing this argument but you don’t know why.
“Or what? Or you tell everyone that I’m a slut? Breaking news, I’m sure.”
You open your mouth but the words die in your throat as you realise the problem.
“I’m the Campus Fuckboy, three years in a row. People have been trying to cancel me ever since I stepped foot in here. I was once featured on the university’s Instagram page and the comments were vile.” Kazuha grabs more kibble from a paper bag, and the other cats eagerly feast out of her palm. “Whatever Ruka and Moka told you, I promise it’s already circulating somewhere. You’re not the first person to have reached out to them for gossip.”
“So you’re saying the blackmail is—”
“Useless, yeah.” You sit with her reply for a moment. Then you shift so you’re crouched right beside her, staring into the same bush.
“Fine. So why did you buy the tickets?”
“Same reason as you. More or less.”
You turn to look at her. “I seriously doubt that.”
“You’ve gone through all the trouble to dig up dirt on me, and not to mention you’re the one going around getting all the kissing booth tickets. It’s for love, isn’t it?”
Her words unsettle you, but you try your best to hide it from her. “What are you—”
“I've slept with twenty people since I started school here,” Kazuha says plainly. “Not because I wanted to. I mean—” she pauses, reconsidering, “I wanted to. But that's not why I kept going. I kept going because I'm looking for something. One specific thing.” She picks up the now-empty kibble bag and folds it neatly. “Some people search carefully. I search widely. Different methods. Same end goal, you and I. We’re the same like that.”
Nothing could have prepared you to be psychoanalysed to this extent. Who would have guessed it would come from Nakamura Kazuha of all people, perceiving you so deeply?
“So, those tickets,” she continues, “I bought them because I wanted a shot at Asa. But honestly? I knew she wasn’t going to be the one.”
“Because she doesn’t like girls?”
Kazuha gives you a look. “Because she already likes someone else. Anyone with a functioning pair of eyes can see it.” She doesn’t elaborate and you are too unsettled to ask. “Oh and I also chose her because of her name. There’s Ruka, Moka, Stella, Yuha, Sakura,” Kazuha counts with her fingers, and the pattern clicks in your head.
You run through the list in your hand. “They all end in—”
“Yeah,” Kazuha replies with a cheeky grin. “Sun Tzu says, know your enemy and know yourself and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. I know what I like, and I’m on twenty right now, but it doesn’t hurt to follow the trend.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“You know what you want. You know what you’re willing to do for it. That’s more than most people.” Kazuha looks at you with an approving nod. “It’s ridiculous, but you’re honest about it. That makes it respectable.”
The conversation is going on for longer than you thought, and your knees are screaming at you. “Look man, I just want the tickets.”
“I know.” She reaches into her jacket pocket and produces the twenty tickets. She holds it out and you swipe it from her hand. “Consider it a professional courtesy.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
You push yourself onto your feet, dusting off the gravel stuck to your pants. You really want to just leave this alleyway and never look back, but something inside you makes you say the next few words. “You’re wrong about one thing. We’re not the same.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Kazuha replies with a wide grin on her face. “Oh and if you ever need advice about love, you know where to find me, Duckyoung.” You can’t tell if she’s joking or making a genuine request, maybe she meant it both ways. Definitely.
“It’s Dookyoung. And, uh, sure,” you say, because what else do you say to that?
***
The summer festival is everything you would expect a summer festival to be. Loud, lots of stalls selling carnival food, and people. So many people. It also has a kissing booth, currently attended to by Asa, who is lounging around with a bored look on her face. You’ve been walking in circles for the past forty minutes, give or take, pointedly ignoring the kissing booth. A plastic tray of takoyaki sits in your hand, the result of trying to find something to do while fretting.
Eighty tickets sit heavy in your pocket. That and the bile creeping up your throat with the awareness that someone has the remaining twenty tickets. Someone who will get to taste Enami Asa. Someone that isn’t you. You have no idea who they are, no leads, no leverage, nothing. You take a bite of the takoyaki, relishing the way it burns the roof of your mouth.
“Kang Dookyoung.” A hand clamps on your wrist and you are steered to the back of the storage tent at the edge of the festival grounds. Your eyes blink at the contrast between the sweltering bright sun and the shade offered by the storage tent.
Pharita looks at you with folded arms. She’s shorter than you, which means squat when she fixes the most angry look in your direction, making you shrink into yourself. What is Asa’s best friend doing here?
“Let me make this clear: I know everything. I know you’re looking for the kissing booth tickets.” She states it calmly as if reading the news. Your eyes widen in surprise. “Ahyeon told me, and I’ve been keeping tabs on you ever since.”
You slowly chew the takoyaki in your mouth, letting the remainder cool off in its plastic tray as you stare dumbfounded at her.
“I know about the part-time jobs because Yunjin works with me for the basketball team’s funding. I know about Woonhak and Wonbin in the library because Rei helps out with the student association. And I know about Kazuha because—,” Pharita blushes, something you didn’t know she was capable of, but recovers quickly. “You know what, skip that last bit. What I’m saying is that I know what you’re doing.”
“And what am I doing?” You bring another takoyaki into your mouth.
“You have this super intense crush on Asa and you’re treating her like some kind of prize. You’re treating this like a mission, something to be completed.” Pharita picks up steam, clearly getting more agitated. “Asa is my best friend, and you are nothing but a pervert who has spent the last three weeks scheming to hoard all of her kisses for yourself.”
Pharita’s words hang in the air. Accusations, really. Pervert. Schemer. Nothing you haven’t heard, but somehow it feels worse hearing it from her. Pharita produces an envelope and opens it, revealing a stack of tickets — the very same ones you’ve been scouring all over to collect. Twenty of them.
She holds the tickets with a firm grip, clearly not intending to give them away. “What do you actually know about her? Not her grades, her achievements, her titles. What do you know about Asa?”
You can barely hear her words from how loud your heart beats at this very moment. The thick stack of tickets in your pocket is bending from how hard your hand is gripping them. Then the words come out.
“Asa is the nicest person I know. She has such a big and generous heart. She cares about everyone, sometimes a little bit too much. She studies super hard so she can get a good job and support her family, but it’s not just them. Everyone’s problem is hers. That’s why she’s the vice-president of the student association. Sometimes, I want to be by her side so I can advise her to slow down and take care of herself.” You swallow, ignoring the shock in Pharita’s face as you go on. “But knowing Asa, she’d be so stubborn that she’ll do it anyways. So I want to be by her side to carry that burden.”
Pharita takes a step back, the grip on her envelope wavering.
“I know that she cares so much for others but doesn’t care enough for herself. But I don’t know everything about her.” You blink back the stinging sensation in your eyes. “Because I love her, but I don’t know if she feels the same way. So this is my way of finding out.”
In the ensuing silence, you become painfully aware of the fact that you’re standing in a storage tent at a university summer festival holding a tray of half-eaten takoyaki, telling a virtual stranger more truthful things about your feelings than you have told your two best friends combined. Which is really more an indictment of your character than any defect on the part of Yunjin and Jaehyun.
The blonde looks at you with a fresh pair of eyes, clearly impressed by your words.
“You’re the only other person I know who noticed these things about her.” Pharita looks at you for a long moment. Then she thrusts the envelope forward. You take it with a steady hand.
“Don’t make me regret this,” she says.
“I won’t.” Pharita nods and jerks her head to the general direction of the kissing booth.
“Go. You’ve kept her waiting long enough.”
***
The booth (which is less of a booth and more of an elaborate stage with a roof, curtains, and two chairs) is situated right in the middle of the summer festival grounds. Which makes sense because the idea was for the kissing booth to be the main attraction. What the student association would never have foreseen was for one person to secure all the tickets, despite the best efforts of Sakura to ‘uphold the spirit of the event’.
So when you hurry over to the booth, it seems deserted. Because of course it is — the only person who has any of the tickets is you. Kang Dookyoung. Here to collect your prize. The girl who’s currently sitting at the booth looking bored out of her mind. It’s a sad sight and you can’t help but think that you’re the cause of it.
You swallow before approaching her. “Ahem.”
Her face brightens when she hears your voice. “Finally, someone’s here. And it’s you,” Asa says with a twinkle in her eye.
“Heh, here I am,” you reply lamely, rubbing the nape of your neck as you avert your gaze.
“Here you are indeed.” She gestures to the chair across from her. You sit, butt resting awkwardly at the lip of the chair as you tremble slightly, unable to contain the anticipation building inside you. Being so close to your long-time crush, especially considering all the effort you put into setting up this opportunity, yeah that would make anyone slightly antsy. You’re also thankful that there’s no one around to see what a nervous wreck you are in this moment.
“...Dookyoung?” Asa’s voice cuts through the silence and you realise you must have been caught up in your thoughts again.
“Sorry, did you say something?”
“I said, I've been waiting to say this all day,” she grins teasingly, rubbing her hands together. “Ticket, please.” You reach into your pocket and riffle your fingers through the stack, settling on five tickets and placing them on the table.
Asa raises an eyebrow. “Wow, big spender huh?”
If only you knew.
She grasps the tickets and puts them in a neat pile on her side of the table. You looked around the stage, anywhere really to calm your rapidly beating heart. Luckily, Asa doesn’t seem to mind your very obvious attempt to draw out the moment. She sits still on the chair opposite you, hands folded neatly on her thighs and head cocked to one side as she tries to read your thoughts.
“So, uh, the kissing booth. How did you all get the campus admin to approve of it? With real kissing? Wait, there is real kissing, right…?” Your voice trails off towards the end, eliciting a small laugh from your crush.
“Our student council president can be very persuasive. And she came up with a brilliant idea for the hygiene concerns.” Asa reaches under the table and lifts up a long roll of cellophane. “A plastic barrier, so there’s no direct contact!”
London Bridge would be green with envy if it sees the way your face crumbles at that moment. “So I came all the way here to kiss cling film?”
“Officially that’s how we should do it,” she whispers as she looks around surreptitiously. “I might be willing to make an exception for you.” The rollercoaster high of anticipation before plunging briefly into despair and launching back up is taking a toll on you, and Asa seems to notice.
“Are you doing okay?” she asks, brows knitted as her eyes search your face and body for more signs of tiredness.
“I–I’m fine,” you stutter, doing a really bad job of allaying her suspicions.
“You look tired,” she states in such a straightforward way. “Are you sleeping properly? Are you eating?”
“I'm fine, really, it doesn't matter.”
“It matters to me. Especially because you’ve been running yourself ragged these past few weeks,” she pushes back, folding her arms. “Not to mention you fainted—”
Asa covers her mouth at that last bit, and the pieces fall into place in your head. You stand up, pushing the chair back as you reach for her hands.
“So it wasn’t a dream. You did take care of me back then!” She blushes and you realise that you might’ve been gripping her hands a little bit too tightly, so you let go hastily. “Shoot, sorry about that.”
“No, that’s okay,” Asa mutters as she takes your hands back into hers, squeezing them gently. Holy shit this must be a dream.
“I like you, Dookyoung. Why do you think I did all of those things for you?”
Your face scrunches up as you try to think of a reason. “But you’re nice to everyone…”
“I look out for everyone, but I don’t take care of them like I do with you.” Asa breathes deeply before continuing. “I’ve been paying attention to you for a very long time. Specifically you. That’s not something I do for just anyone.”
You’re floored. Never in a million years would you think this was how it was going to play out. Your crush, the Campus Crush, confessing her feelings to you first. Granted, the two of you are in a kissing booth in the middle of a festival, but still!
“I like you too.” The words come tumbling out of your mouth. You want to say more, but a pair of soft lips press against yours. You pull back first, admiring the sight of Asa’s beautiful face only inches away from yours, smokey eyes half-lidded as she stares back at you. Then she lets go of your hands only to wrap hers around your neck, pulling you in for another kiss. Again, and again, and again. You feel your soul slowly ascend to heaven with each smooch. Any worry you had about being a bad kisser evaporates as you notice the way she breathes slightly more heavily each time — clearly she’s enjoying it.
Asa leans back, biting her lips as she stares ruefully at the five tickets on the table. “That’s it then. If only you had more tickets…”
Before she could say anything else, you produce a sixth ticket.
“Oh, one more time?” You walk around so there’s no more table separating you and Asa. Finally taking the initiative, you cup her cheeks and capture her lips in another soft kiss. This time, she tilts her head to one side and you take the hint, lips parting slightly to allow her tongue access. You register nothing but the taste of wet sweetness, and Asa surely does too because she chases after your lips when you inevitably pull back for air.
Then you place a seventh ticket on the table. Asa picks it up, looks at it for a moment before regarding you with a frown.
“Dookyoung.” It’s your turn to silence her with a kiss.
She finally gets a word in after the tenth ticket, both of you panting slightly. “How many tickets do you—” At that moment, the two of you finally notice the audience building up at the foot of the stage, their murmurs getting louder by the second. Both of you step away from each other slightly, faces flushed and lips swollen, no way of hiding. Though you realise that Asa is gripping your hand tightly. You squeeze her hand and she smiles at you.
As if on cue, Pharita turns up out of nowhere and stands between the stage and the crowd. What you didn’t expect was Kazuha to be by her side, hands on her hips in a mirror image of the blonde’s pose.
“Alright folks, show’s over. Nothing to see here!” As Pharita bellows, Kazuha pulls at the rope securing the stage curtains, steadily drawing them close. The raven-haired girl winks at you, and you notice hickey marks on her neck as she bends down to pull the curtains closed completely.
The curtains rustle as Pharita pokes her head through. “Everything good here?” Asa gives her a shaky thumbs up and her best friend smiles broadly. You can’t help but notice the hickeys on her neck — no prizes for guessing what (and who) she’s been up to since she gave you her tickets.
After she’s gone, Asa turns around and regards you with a look of mock anger. “You.”
“Me.” You remove the remaining ninety tickets from your pocket, placing the sizable stack on the table. It lands with a satisfying thump, and Asa’s manicured eyebrows climb to the top of her head.
“You bought all of the tickets.” “Nope.”
Her eyes narrow. “So how—”
“It’s a long story,” you cut her off, closing the gap between the two of you once again with an apologetic look on your face. “Promise I’ll tell you everything.”
Your crush — no, not a crush anymore, because she likes you too — laughs, unreservedly this time, clutching her stomach as she wipes her eyes.
“Okay,” she says. “We have plenty of time.” Asa pushes you onto a chair and you grunt as she hops onto your lap, making herself comfortable.
“Ninety tickets’ worth of time.” You swallow nervously as Asa slowly leans into you.
Life is good.
-END-
