They were sitting at a small table in the back of the hall. The place was noisy, and the poor waiter was darting back and forth like a bullet, unable to keep up with all the customers. Their order hadn't arrived yet, but Suho felt like their clothes had already absorbed the smell of meat.
When Choi had invited Jia to dinner, he hadn't expected her to choose a place like this. Her image fit perfectly in an expensive restaurant with three-course meals, not in some hole-in-the-wall near the university that could barely be called a proper bar. Suho had gotten used to places like this during his time on the basketball team, but Jia…
Suho was worried that because of the atmosphere here, Jia might get the wrong impression about their first dinner together.
He kept stealing glances at her, trying to spot any signs of discomfort.
"Sunbae, do you want beer or soju?" Jia had rolled up her jacket sleeves and was setting out the order the waiter had brought.
She looked relaxed, completely ignoring the drunken shouts from the next table. It seemed like Suho was the only one worried.
"What do you want?" Suho asked, noticing that Jia had ordered quite a bit of alcohol.
"Hmm," Jia mused thoughtfully. "Soju? Actually, I'd like to try everything."
"Try everything?" Suho repeated.
Jia shrugged casually.
"I've never had the chance to eat in this kind of atmosphere before."
Suho looked around the place with a skeptical expression and raised an eyebrow, which made Jia laugh.
"Youth and energy, remember, sunbae? I mentioned it at the interview." She picked up a spoon meant for sauce and tried to open the bottle.
"Is this what she imagined?"
"Let me," Suho offered, worried that without the right technique, Jia might end up hitting herself in the eye with the cap.
Yoon quickly handed him the bottle.
"Sunbae, how old are you?" she asked, watching as Suho popped the cap off with one precise motion.
"Twenty-four."
"Oh!" Jia clapped her hand on the table in excitement. "So we're the same age!"
"You're twenty-four too?" Suho asked, surprised.
Honestly, he hadn't really thought about how old Jia was before. For some reason, Choi had assumed she was younger. Though, now that he thought about it, Yoon didn't really look like a high schooler.
"A high schooler couldn't look this sexy in that damn tracksuit."
Suho could feel his thoughts veering in a dangerously inappropriate direction.
"Yes, yes," Jia nodded, examining the food on her plate with interest. She picked up a piece of meat and, chewing, asked: "We can speak informally when we're not at the university, right?"
Suho didn't miss the way her ear, peeking through her hair, turned red.
"What are you doing to me, Yoon Jia?"
"Sure, no problem, Jia," Suho said with a small smile, saying her name out loud for the first time — the name that had been lodged in his thoughts all week.
Jia's face lit up as she raised her shot glass.
"Perfect, Suho!"
Suho couldn't suppress an internal surge of joy.
They clinked glasses, and Jia downed hers in one go while Suho only took a couple of slow sips.
"Try to avoid alcohol during your therapy. It won't cause any side effects, but it might significantly reduce the effectiveness of the active ingredients," the woman had said, looking at him softly like she was talking to a child.
"Of course, Dr. Min," Suho had answered seriously, fully intending not to touch alcohol for the next two months.
Suho silently apologized to his doctor. Turning down an evening with Jia in a rundown bar was beyond his power.
After the first shot came a second, the food on their plates slowly disappeared, and the conversation flowed smoothly from one topic to another.
Once Suho was sure Jia was comfortable, he gradually relaxed too. Still, he kept an eye on anyone who got too close to her. Jia, absorbed in telling him about her new student life, didn't notice anything going on around her.
She looked genuinely excited.
"… It's hard to imagine how you managed to balance studying and training for two years," Jia said, looking at Suho with undisguised interest.
They'd already talked about how Choi had enlisted in the military after his first year, how he'd returned two years later, and how he'd almost immediately been made team captain.
"I developed that skill back in high school," Suho shrugged. "Plus, the teachers turned a blind eye to a lot if the team brought home trophies. High school was even harder — I had to prepare for entrance exams at the same time."
"Ahh," Jia said, looking impressed, her expression so cute that Suho had to grip his chopsticks tighter. "Since you took first place, the teachers must have passed you without exams, right?"
Suho chuckled.
"They weren't that lenient! I honestly earned my way to fourth year!"
"I believe you, I believe you!" Jia raised her hands in surrender, laughing.
Suho caught himself feeling calm talking to Jia about basketball. Since the accident, he'd tried to avoid that topic, only opening up to his old teammates. The fact that he was so willing to let a stranger in made him think even harder about what he actually felt for Yoon Jia.
"Did you…" Jia suddenly hesitated, touching the zipper on her jacket with her left hand. "Did you really mean it when you said you'd help me with the athlete concept?"
"Of course," Suho replied. "I don't know much about photoshoots, but if you tell me how I can help, we'll figure something out."
"Great! Then I'll tell my manager to start looking into options. Actually… It's because of you that the agency came up with this idea in the first place."
"Because of me?"
Jia nodded, a few strands of hair coming loose from her ponytail.
"Actually," she tucked them behind her ear, "I don't run my official Instagram account myself. Someone from the PR department noticed you liking my old posts. They even asked if we were friends," Jia giggled, hiding behind her shot glass. "Then they looked at your profile and suggested I try a basketball player concept."
Suho wanted to bury his face in his hands. He'd been so naive thinking his fanboy spree would go unnoticed.
"What do you think of the idea yourself?" Suho asked after a few seconds, bravely pushing past his embarrassment. "Judging from your photos, the sports theme isn't really popular in the modeling world, is it?"
Jia laughed, throwing her head back. Suho sighed. With that comment, he'd just confirmed that he'd spent more than one evening on her page, looking at her posts.
"An expert opinion?" Jia teased through her laughter. Then, more calmly, she added, "All those photos are just work. Right now, the agency wants to try something new. It'll probably attract a wider audience. But there's one problem — I've never played basketball before." Jia shrugged. "So if you're willing to coach me, I'm counting on you!"
Suho nodded confidently.