They went back to the bench under the lamp post she was sleeping on earlier and Jungkook quickly placed a scarf on her seat.

"Why are you alone, anyway? Where are your friends?" Jungkook turned to face Aera, pulling up one leg under him. He was nonchalantly eating his ice cream, biting chunks of it off than licking it.

"I don't know. I'm always at home at this time anyway.." Aera trailed off and looked away, not wanting to see his reaction to what she said. She focused on her ice cream instead and tried it. It was better than expected -- it tasted like milk rather than candy, though it really was sweet enough to make Aera regret buying it.

"Really?! Why is that? There's so much to see and so many places to go to, why do you stay at home?"

"I have a daily schedule and I really hate breaking it so I don't go out much on weekdays.."

"And what made this day so special that you broke it? You love ice cream that much?" Jungkook, unfazed by Aera's answer, kept asking her questions as if he really was curious about her.

"No, I hate sweets actually." Aera answered automatically, highly aware that she was avoiding his question about breaking her routine. It was weird that she hated sweets and she broke her routine for it, but another reason for staying was because of her intrigue and curiosity about the man beside her. He was spontaneous to the extent that she envied him for it - how he seemed to do anything he wanted when and where he felt like it. Like letting her know about her ice cream when he could've just turned a blind eye and left her sleeping. Or leaving instead of inviting her to sit for a while.

"Huh. Interesting. So why the ice cream and the breaking of your uptight routine and all that?"

Aera was about to answer, but nothing came out of her mouth. Truthfully, she never once thought that she was so uptight until Jungkook mentioned it. And the events of the day came rushing back to her, reminding her that the reason she lined up for the ice cream shop in the first place was because she let herself be swayed by momentary wants. It had been a long and difficult day, and Aera gave in to her impulses. She shivered slightly, the ice cream too cold in her freezing hands.

"I- I've had a really bad day, okay. I hate ice cream but I bought it because I felt like it. And now I can't even eat it. I'm so tired from today that I can't even think straight and remember what I should be doing right now. All day, I've been out of schedule and I've been so out of it for some reason and I- I sent ten freaking flavored types of coffee to a compan-" Aera, realizing that she was ranting, suddenly stopped in the middle of her sentence and apologized.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be telling you all these things when we just met. How about you, it seems like you have a lot of friends so why are you alone?"

To her relief, Jungkook went along with the flow of their conversation and didn't probe any further about her day.

"Do I look like someone who has a lot of friends?" Jungkook smirked and looked uncomfortable for a bit, but chuckled as he answered, "I usually have fun by myself when my friends aren't around."

"Oh, so you're just passing time right now?" Aera asked, feeling a bit disappointed that he didn't approach her just because he wanted to, but because he was passing time. She must have looked like she was interesting to talk to, a girl who slept while standing in the middle of a crowded place.

"Yeah, you could say that." He answered with a small smile, "but you know what?"

"What?"

Jungkook suddenly leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I also thought that you were pretty cute, sleeping while standing. I was just going to buy some ice cream and go but seeing you made me want to take care of you."

He then leaned back, casually biting through  his ice cream as Aera sat back so fast, she lost her balance and just barely caught herself by holding on to Jungkook's arm. Still flustered, she let go of his arm quickly. Her focus momentarily sidetracked, she almost applauded herself for keeping her ice cream intact despite almost falling over.

"Umm, I- I should go." Aera stuttered, looking at her ice cream and at anything but the face of the guy beside her.

She moved to stand and gather her things, but Jungkook stopped her with a hand on her wrist. He looked up at her with an apologetic face.

"Stay, Aera-ssi. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to flirt with you or anything, I just wanted to tell you."

Aera, still halfway between standing and being seated, looked at Jungkook. She was starting to realize how absurdly she was acting. "I'm- I really should go home. I shouldn't be doing this with a stranger."

"Please stay?"