The night before Lisa would meet with Jungkook, she let the Pinks know of her plans. They had already known about her budding friendship with the BTS golden maknae, but they hadn't thought it had progressed to meeting up (Lisa had conveniently omitted when they had met up at the dorms before her comeback, and the other time at the boxing gym).
"Like a date?" Jennie said, wagging her eyebrows up and down suggestively.
Lisa blushed at the thought. "It's not a date! I just want to pay him back for his kindness."
"Sounds like a date to me," Jisoo said with a sly smile.
"Not you too, unnie."
"You've invited him round, you showered, you did your make up, and you're even cooking for him!" Rosé spelt out Lisa's plans to her plain and clear, and still Lisa had a confused look on her face.
"So? We're friends."
"You don't even know how to cook, Lisa!"
Rosé had a point there, Lisa was a terrible cook. She wasn't sure why she had come up with the idea as opposed to just getting take out, but she wanted to make the night extra memorable for him.
"Ok, let me ask you this," Jennie began diplomatically. "Would you do all this for Bambam?"
Lisa gave an unimpressed face. "Of course I wouldn't."
"But Bambam is also a friend that has shown you kindness," Jennie said, rolling her eyes. "It's a date, Lisa." She looked impressed with her rational thinking and smugly crossed her arms to hear how Lisa would try to object.
Instead, Lisa was quiet for a while, thinking of so what if this was a date. It wouldn't change anything.
"Okay, whatever," Lisa quickly dismissed, not wanting to linger too long on the fact she just agreed with them. "Either way, I need your help."
Jisoo patted the maknae's head fondly. "Lali is growing up," she smiled. "Of course, we'll do whatever we can!"
"Thanks, unnies and Chaeyoung." Lisa smiled innocently up at her three members. "Could you even make a dinner and dessert for me?"
Jennie, Jisoo and Rosé simultaneously facepalmed and cried out exasperatedly. Of course only Lisa would come up with the idea of cooking for Jungkook when she couldn't even cook herself, and then ask her members to do all the hard work.
"For you, just this once, we'll do this," they agreed.
They each assigned tasks to help Lisa on her important date (they were all calling it this now, apart from Lisa who was still pretending they were only friends). Jisoo would cook them dinner, preparing an easy Korean noodle dish that would taste delicious and homely. Jennie was preparing a dessert that they could keep in the fridge until after they had eaten dinner. And Rosé had decided to help Lisa find something suitable to wear, as she insisted she couldn't stay in her sweat pants and hoodie.
"What about this? He won't be able to keep his eyes off you," Rosé giggled, as she held up a little black dress, that was tight and sleeveless.
"Too much!" Lisa vetoed immediately.
"What about a cute skirt with a blouse, and add this beret?" Rosé proceeded to hold up an outfit that looked like it came straight from her own wardrobe.
"I wouldn't normally wear that," Lisa said with a frown. "I don't want to look like I'm making too much of an effort."
"Okay, okay," she replied back, undeterred in her mission. "This dress would be perfect." She pulled out a black long-sleeved dress with a sweet heart neckline and a polka-dot pattern on it. "What do you think?"
Lisa admired the dress before nodding her head enthusiastically. "Good eye," she complimented, taking the dress from Rosé to change in the bathroom.
When she returned, Rosé also helped her neaten her make-up, adding a subdued coral lipstick and more of a winged eyeliner. She also tied back Lisa's reddish-brown locks into a low knot at the base of her neck, letting a few strands free to frame her face.
When the Pinks had finished their preparation for Lisa's date, they grabbed their coats and bags, intending to leave for their own dinner out to give the two maknae's some privacy.
"Text us when you're done. And don't get up to too much mischief," Jennie advised with a playful wink.
"Thanks, girls, I really appreciate it." She had repaid them by giving them some cash to pay for their fancy steak dinner tonight.
"Enjoy your night, Lali."
"Text us if you need anything!" Jisoo and Rosé called on the way out.
She had texted Jungkook earlier to come to her place at 7pm and to dress up a little.
He arrived exactly on the dot, dressed in suit pants and a button-down shirt.
As she opened the door to him, she gave him an appreciative once-over. It looked like he was gaining some muscle in his arms if his shirt straining around his shoulders and biceps was anything to go by. His hair was getting long and was growing over his eyes and his usual bunny smile was in place as his eyes also roved over her form.
"Wow, you look good," he said abashedly, his hand running through the back of his hair.
"Thanks, you don't look too bad yourself, for a guy that just got off a plane a couple of hours ago."
"Is this okay?" he asked unsurely, referring to his outfit. "I wasn't too sure what you meant by dressing up."
"Yeah sorry about that, I wouldn't have minded eating in our sweats like last time but my members insisted that I should put in a bit more effort."
His expression changed when she mentioned the last time he had been to her dorms, his eyes diverting to the floor. "Ah, about last time..."
The kiss suddenly flashed through Lisa's mind when she was reminded about it. She had done a good job of not thinking about it throughout the day, but it seemed to haunt her the most when she was just lying in bed trying to get to sleep. She would scream into her pillow and kick her legs up and down whenever she thought about it, so glad that no one else would have to witness her intense blush that that moment brought on.
Jungkook nervously flitted his eyes up to hers to gauge her reaction at his next words. "To be honest, I was getting a little nervous when you didn't message me much after what happened last time and thought that I might have done something wrong...?"
Lisa's eyes widened, before softening into a smile. She had put Jungkook through a lot by not messaging him as frequently. Instead of replying with words, she found the best thing to do was to apologise with actions. She took a step closer to him and reached up on her toes to give him a short and sweet peck on the lips.
"You're so cute when you get all worried like that," she said, poking a finger into his cheek.
The blush that crept up his neck to the tips of his ears made Lisa laugh. She revelled in finally making him blush, instead of the other way around.
"I see what you did there," Jungkook said. Before she could gloat too much, Jungkook had wrapped a secure arm around her waist and pulled her into his chest. He smiled down at her before inching his face closer and closer to hers. Finally their lips touched in a soft but electric kiss.
When they pulled apart, they were both smiling dazedly.
Lisa pulled away and couldn't make eye contact with him, although he wasn't much better either.
"Let's eat," she suggested with a small laugh, to get the evening moving along.
Jisoo had left a lid over the meal she had cooked and so all Lisa had to do was to serve it onto plates. They borrowed some wine that her members had left in the fridge, even though Jungkook wasn't strictly legal yet.
"Mmm, I've missed Korean food so much," Jungkook sighed out as he took his first bite. "This is delicious."
"I actually can't take any of the credit," Lisa admitted with a guilty wince. "My unnies really saved my butt back there. Jisoo-unnie made this dish, and Jennie-unnie made us some dessert. I can barely even cook ramyeon."
Jungkook laughed. "I'm very grateful to your members. Please thank them for me. I'm pretty glad you didn't attempt to cook - Jisoo-noona might have mentioned a chapagetti incident at one point during karaoke..."
Lisa's eyes widened. "Oh no, I'll need to kill her for revealing that."
They both laughed and chatted some more about the food, but eventually the topic moved on to everything they had missed in each other's lives while they had both been busy, and also about their upcoming schedules. BTS were touring for the rest of the year, and Blackpink were preparing for their Japanese debut.
"Did I tell you that my mom and aunt went to your show in Bangkok?"
"Really!? What did they think?"
"They loved it. My mom called me after the show to tell me all about it. I wish I could have gone as well!"
"Why don't you come to one of our Seoul dates? I think we're playing 3 nights at the start of December."
"You'll get me in?" Lisa asked excitedly.
"Of course, we'll get you and your members VIP access."
She thanked him formally with a mock bow. "I'll repay the favour one day and invite you to Blackpink's concert."
When they had finished with their mains, Lisa brought out the apple crumble sundae that Jennie had whipped up in individual shallow champagne glasses.
"It's really crazy how you guys are taking over the world right now. I was so proud when you won that Billboard award and your faces were all over the front pages," Lisa said genuinely. "You guys are going to rise to meteoritic heights, you know that, right?"
Jungkook scratched the back of his head with a small smile on his lips. "It's exciting... I believe in Namjoon-hyung and his path for BTS. I think it's just the start for us."
Lisa was excited for them too and nodded in agreement. "Ahh, I hope Blackpink sees just as much success."
"You girls definitely will. Even as rookies, you were impressive as hell."
Lisa grinned. "I can't wait for what the future has in store for both of us..."
They talked more about their plans and aspirations for the future over dessert and before they knew it, it was approaching the end of the night.
"Ah, before I forget, I got you something. Wait here!" She sprinted back to her bedroom and came back out with a shopping bag. "It's just something small." She held out the bag to him and he took it with a shocked look on his face.
"Eh? You really didn't have to get me anything."
"It's not much, really. It's only because you do so much for me."
He took it appreciatively, before pulling out the gift. It was a sweatshirt in Lisa's favourite colour - yellow.
He chuckled when he saw it. "Is this because I don't own anything that's not black?" he asked, thinking back on the conversation they had had in the karaoke room.
She nodded eagerly. "Whenever you feel down about anything, wear this and the yellow will both cheer you up and remind you of me." She winked at him.
"You put up a compelling case for the colour yellow," he said with a grin. As thanks, he pulled her in for a hug, and then couldn't resist kissing her on the lips before he let her go.
Lisa offhandedly thought that her heart wouldn't be able to take him surprising her with another kiss again. Her cheeks warmed up involuntarily, which he still found great pleasure in.
"This has been a really fun evening," Jungkook said, more subdued now that it was coming to an end.
She nodded in agreement and untangled herself from his arms. She kept her hand wrapped around his forearm though, barely even realising that she just didn't want to let him go. 
"Can we do it again?" he asked, his free hand resting protectively at her waist. "But maybe next time, we can meet as girlfriend and boyfriend?"
Lisa's eyes widened before they narrowed teasingly. "Are you calling me your girlfriend, Jeon Jungkook?" 
He grinned and tried to act confident, but his cheeks and the tips of his ears reddened knowingly. "What do you say?"
A warmth spread throughout her body. She stared at him directly in the eye to ensure she didn't sense any hint of a joke, but she only saw a sincerity and intensity there, hiding his true feelings of fear at her rejection.
"I say..." She paused for dramatic effect. "...I would have never kissed you like that if I wasn't going to become your girlfriend, dummy," she scolded, tightening the hand held around his arm. 
Jungkook barely felt the pain, as his eyes lit up and his grin intensified. Her frown transformed into a matching smile. 
He laughed and pulled her for another crushing hug, his arms wrapping around her shoulders. "You're such a tease, honestly."
She winked up at him. "Now I'm your tease."