Meet Up
❒ pairing - anna x joshua
❒ word count - 1.9K
❒ synopsis - with the help of hoshi, anna and joshua finally meet up
❒ time - late 2019
🏷️ taglist - @justmochi @ateezjuliet @itzy-eve @seolboba @mingis-wrld @smh-anon @kmgfeels @enhacolor @alixnsuperstxr
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“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Jihyo was pressing her elbow into the center console as she spoke out of the passenger window. She squinted her eyes at Anna when the girl didn’t respond, waiting for an answer from her, “I’ll sit at another table and if he tries anything I’ll jump him. I’m serious.”
Anna was quick to shake her head, pulling the strap of her purse up higher on her shoulder, “Nono please don’t do that. I’ll be okay, we’re just meeting this time so I can properly apologize.” Her eyes seemed to drift away as she rushed out the words, Jihyo’s curious eyes seeming like they were burning a hole into her. The incident backstage played on a continuous, haunting loop in her head, like a bug that won’t leave you alone, and she hasn’t stopped feeling bad ever since.
“Hey, call me when you’re done and I’ll come get you,” Jihyo pouted in defeat, making sure she had Anna’s attention before putting the car in drive and smiling at her, waving out the window as she pulled away.
Anna swallowed thickly as she watched the car drive down the street, tucking a fallen lock of hair back behind her ear. Part of her wished she said yes for Jihyo to stay. At least it would’ve killed a little of the awkwardness that was for sure going to happen. But she was a big girl and could do this herself. She took a deep breath in as she turned on her heels, pulling the door to the small café open.
A faint blush dusted her cheeks when she did a quick scan of the room, eyes falling directly onto the man she had come to see. He was sitting in the back corner of the room, elbow pressed firmly on the table as he scrolled through his phone. She nibbled on the inside of her cheek as she held onto the strap of her purse and let her feet guide her over to his table.
“Oh, Youngmi!” Joshua snapped his eyes over to her as she approached the table, shutting his phone off and standing up from the chair to greet her properly.
“Hi there,” She smiled at him and internally cringed at the awkward wave of her hand, “I hope I’m not late. I-I got a little lost along the way and I just-.”
“Huh? Lost?”
She pinched her eyebrows together in confusion as she swallowed down the lump quickly building in the back of her throat again, shuffling her feet from side to side.
“I-uh was meeting Hoshi here but I don’t know where he is. He was supposed to be here by now,” Joshua rubbed at the back of his neck as the tips of his ears pricked with redness.
“You’re meeting Hoshi here? He texted me and said yesterday that you had wanted to meet me here today?”
She was just as confused as he was. She pulled out her phone and brought up the text message sent to her last night to confirm for herself that she wasn’t going crazy before turning her phone towards Joshua.
His eyes scanned over the messages between the two, his lips forming a frown as he tapped on his own phone to see the illuminated twelve o’clock displayed across his lockscreen.
“That little-,” He let out a sigh, closing his eyes briefly before his face softened and grinned at her, “I’m assuming this is our lunch meeting.”
“I guess it is,” The awkwardness seemed to fizzle out as she smiled and nodded her head, tucking her phone away and loosening the grip she had on her bag strap. She reached her hand out to pull out the back of the chair but was stopped almost instantly by a much larger hand grazing hers.
“Wait, let me get that for you,” He was quick to move around the table, gripping the metal rung and scooting the chair backwards. Anna’s cheeks redden at his actions, thanking him quickly before shouldering off her purse and sitting down into the chair, hanging her purse off of the empty seat beside her.
“This place is actually really nice.” She looked around the café with bright eyes. It was a little on the rustic side, shades of brown complimented each other with random pops of greenery scattered around accenting everything together, “I’m loving the cozy vibe.”
Joshua dipped his head down in a laugh, rubbing the back of his neck out of shyness, “Yeah, I heard about this place from Hoshi actually.”
“He seems to have orchestrated everything,” Anna could feel herself grinning as she thanked Joshua when he handed her the tabletop menu to have a look at.
“Yeah, yeah he definitely has his nose everywhere.” He agreed with an echoed laugh.
She took her bottom lip between her teeth, biting down gently as she studied over the menu. Everything looked and sounded delicious, it was hard to choose.
“Well, what are you thinking of getting? It might make this decision a little easier to pick something-,” Anna did another quick sweep over the menu before pulling her eyes away looking up, her cheeks instantly heating up when she had caught sight of Joshua’s eye’s lingering on her and the faintest smile on his lips, “What is it?”
“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare, I was just...um-,” His cheeks mimicked her redness as he licked his lips and looked away quickly.
“No it’s okay!” She smiled at him as she laid the menu down on the table. Joshua turned back towards her and the butterflies in her stomach fluttered as he swiped a hand through his hair out of nervousness. She wasn’t going to mention to him that she had found it endearing.
“I was thinking of maybe getting this breakfast sandwich,” He drew her attention down towards one of the many pictures scattered across the menu showing the top rated foods, “If it’s anything like the picture, then I’m sure it’s gonna taste incredible.”
“It’s decided! Let’s make it two then!”
As they waited for their order to be called, her eyes dropped down to his phone set off on the side of the table, focusing her attention on the crack at the top of the screen, “Was that from me? I swear I’ll pay to have it fixed!”
His eyes widened as he took a sip from his coffee, shaking his head rapidly when her finger grazed over the obvious crack. He swallowed down his coffee, giving her a warm smile, “Anna, you’re gonna worry yourself crazy. I promise, don’t worry about it.”
His hand laid gently on top of hers, pulling her attention up towards him instead of on his phone after noticing her eyes not leaving the device. Her lips curled upwards into a small smile as she nodded her head, “You’re right, sorry- I mean, sorry-.” Anna closed her eyes in defeat, a sharp grin forming on her mouth knowing she wasn’t ever going to win the battle.
Joshua brought his hand up to shield his laugh away the best he could, tilting his head backwards on the chair.
Containing themselves together, Joshua’s hands clasped together as he rested his elbows on the table. In an attempt to calm her nerves down again, she copied his stance on the table, the two of them grinning back and forth at each other.
“Right, let’s play twenty questions. I’d ask where you were from but your accent kinda gives it away.”
“Is it really that noticeable?” Anna’s eyes crinkled as she joked back, scrunching her nose up into a laugh when Joshua pulled his thumb and pointer finger together to indicate a small amount, “Okay my turn, I actually don’t know this but I’ll ask it, where are you from? It’s so boring I know.”
“Hey, it’s still a question! And Los Angeles, born and raised. I moved here when I was seventeen? Eighteen? I honestly can’t remember anymore.”
Anna’s eyes perked up when he mentioned LA, with some of her relatives living there, she used to frequent visiting as often as she could, “I’ve always loved LA. I can’t really say it’s much different to Sydney though.”
“Hmm let me think,” Joshua rested his palms on the table as he leaned back in his seat, “Favorite childhood memory?”
“Ooo okay!” Anna grabbed her phone and went to the pictures app, opening up a folder containing pictures of her and her family, scrolling through until she found the ones that she needed to go along with the story. She flipped the phone around for Joshua to view them better, letting him flip through the pictures.
“So my dad works at a wildlife rescue and there were always a few animals that unfortunately couldn’t be released back into the wild for whatever the reason, so they housed and took care of them at the rescue,” Joshua looked up at Anna with a warm gaze, letting her know that he was listening, “Sometimes when I would come after school, my dad would let me hold the orphaned baby animals and I’d get to help feed them and play with them.”
“Look at you!” Joshua turned the phone around and showed the image of Anna sitting on the floor playing around with a baby kangaroo, “That’s so neat! I bet you were popular in school!”
“Everyone definitely wanted to be my friend after knowing I got to play with the animals.” She smiled at the memory as he continued to flip through the pictures.
He handed Anna back her phone after he was finished and without even skipping a beat, “Next time I visit, I’ll take you with me and we can go visit my dad!”
Anna’s eyes widened when she realized what she had said, her cheeks blushing a shade of light crimson, “O-Only if you’d want to that is!”
“Are you kidding? That would be an amazing experience.”
Anna cleared her throat as she smiled back at him, “Okay your turn, favorite childhood memory?”
Before he even had the chance to respond back, their order number was called from the front counter, pulling them both back into reality of where they were and what they were actually doing.
After leaving the café, the two of them had exchanged numbers and continued their game of twenty questions which in turn became forty questions the entire way home, going back and forth between the two of them.
“I guess Hoshi knew what he was doing,” Anna smiled down at her lap as another text message from Joshua came through.
‘Had a nice time today! :)
Would love to do it again sometime!
Get home safely!’
“Hmm, Soonyoung?” Jihyo’s puzzled face went unnoticed by Anna as she was too busy texting a message back to Joshua. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she went back and forth on what to text back, deciding on something short and sweet.
‘Sure will! :) & I would like that very much!’
Anna leaned her head back against the headrest as she stared out of the window, a smile plastered to lips as she clutched her phone between her fingers, watching the trees and buildings pass by in a blink of an eye, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly.