Operation: Kiss the Girl

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.