Chapter 147 - The Degrees Of Handsomeness

Kieran had invited Zirui for a movie date. But nothing was going as planned. First, the show timings that he wanted were unavailable so that he could not get Zirui to come with him for dinner and they had to settle for a simple late night show. Then they had almost been late so that they were forced to line up separately as he collected the tickets while she went for popcorn and soda. 

Then the lights that were supposed to have been dim, were all bright so that Zirui met a few of her old school friends and he was forced to sit quietly. They were out on a date! Dam* it! According to him though! Zirui had simply been dragged to go to the movies to satisfy her grandparents and keep up the ruse that her and Kieran were really dating. 

Also, after their previous encounter, Zirui felt too shy to even look at the man and thanked her friends who had come to watch the movies at such short notice when she had asked them to. Even thought they were sitting further away, maybe their presence would make him keep his hands to himself. 

However, Kieran was not to be thwarted so easily. Seeing that Zirui was engrossed in her talks while the lights were slowly dimming, Kieran slowly pushed up the armrest between their seats so that he would be able to hold her hand easily. The movie was not very interesting and had garnered less than average reviews. The only reason that Kieran had booked this late night show was that he had hoped that the theater would be comparatively empty. But sigh! That was not the case. Since the other movie shows were all full, people had compromised and decided to watch the movie which resulted in another foiled plan for Kieran as the theater was full. He cursed at the people for spending their hard earned money on useless movies. He seemed to have forgotten that he was also one of those fools. 

A little way into the movie, when he had finally gathered the courage to place his arm around the girl, her phone started to ring and she excused herself. When she did not return for fifteen minutes straight, Kieran gave up the thought of watching the movie and decided to look for her.

A hot blaze of anger and jealousy shook him when he found her sitting on the stairs, messaging on the phone with a casual smile on her face. His parents had firmly grilled into him that unless the person was a doctor or public servant, they should not let their phones intrude on their personal time. He had not mentioned anything when she had excused herself because he had believed that she would have something urgent for letting a call interrupt their date. But now she was even texting.

Almost unable to control his jealousy and anger, he charged over to her and was even more stunned as he looked at the name of the person. She was actually chatting with a guy! And not just any guy. It was one that she had claimed was her best friend. 

In the past few days, he had come to understand that Yu Gyeom of SKY, the guy known to be every teenage girl's dream was her best friend. The fact that she had a male best friend did not bother him much but the same persons posters were also stuck all over her house when he had visited her last time! And now she was chatting with that same best friend in the middle of their date! How was he supposed to react to all this, he had no idea! 

Sighing deeply, he tried to control his anger and asked," Why are you sitting here and not watching the movie?"

Zirui looked up at him, gave him a nonchalant smile and then shrugged her shoulders, "Because the pop corn was finished and the movie was just too boring! The actor is not even handsome enough to look at! So it would be a waste! Gyeom has been working on a new tune and he texted it to me so I thought that I would listen to that first.."

Again Gyeom.. Kieran wondered if he had done something to harm the members of SKY in his previous re incarnation. These people were the bane of his existence! However, now was not the time to confront Zirui about her best friend. So he decided to divert the topic and asked," Well, I thought the actor was handsome.. so why did you think he wasn't? If a big screen actor is not good looking in your eyes then does that mean that you don't think me handsome?"

Zirui pretended to think it over and then answered seriously," You are handsome and so is the actor but both of you are not 'wow' handsome! The kind that would stun a woman, you know! Like Tom Cruise who looks hot even when he is as old as your father or Robert Pattinson that would make any girl kneel down and beg for a glance or even K whose mere glance can melt you into a hot puddle! You are just average handsome!"

Kieran did not know how to react to that! He had successfully attracted her attention to himself but had ended up being a bit looked down upon. Deciding to defend himself, he straightened his back, puffed up his chest and asked, "Hey! What do you mean by average handsome! Are you looking down on me? Let me tell you that there are many women who are willing to throw themselves at my feet and offer themselves!"

Zirui laughed loudly at that and placed her phone on the side ( making Kieran extremely happy) as she patted his cheek and said, "Yes ! Yes! I am sure there must be a few women out there who are visually impaired to think you so handsome! And let me tell you that you are a bit more handsome when you are concentrating on something or when you are smiling a bit. But to be called 'handsome handsome', you have to be good looking at all times and from all angles! Like I said, handsome all the time. You are handsome only some of the time.. Look at Gyeom for example,' He looks handsome when he is smiling, he looks handsome when he is stuffing himself like a pig! He even looks handsome when he is sweating!"

Kieran could almost feel the smoke rising from his ears thanks to the fire of jealousy burning in his heart. Well, how did the topic of him shift back to that guy?

Well, he needed to do something more. Seeing that she had grabbed her phone and was about to start texting again, he pulled her phone from her and caught her hand in his, slipping her phone into his pocket as he said, "Since you don't want to watch the movie, come with me and we will do something else. But your time for these two hours is mine and only mine. 

As Kieran held her hand in his, with their fingers intertwined, he walked forward, letting Zirui follow behind him. Because of this he missed the pleased smile on her face.

Unknown to him, this had been a test that Zirui had posed to him. Their relationship had moved too fast for her and Zirui was fearful of making a repeat mistake or even a new one. She had no idea if the man who had blinded her with lust and passion was a good man or someone with a bad temper. 

As a result of this, she had purposely acted like a brat today and waited for him to burst out at her. She had felt the waves of anger rolling off him when he had first exited the theater and expected him to come over and start a scene. But the man had remarkable self control and he was willing to even go that extra mile to be patient with her. 

In the long check list that she had created in her head, Zirui ticked off a few points and thought of ways to confirm the other things before he had taken her for a walk along the sea side and distracted her with all sorts of different topics that did not include discussing the degrees of handsomeness of men!

When he was finally able to have Zirui's attention solely to himself, Kieran was so pleased that he almost forgot about the other guy in her life and enjoyed the rest of the evening with her, as they are their ice creams like young high school students, holding each others hands. He could not have for the life of him guessed that he had just cleared a test with flying colours and there were more tests coming his way not just from the girl but also her family..

Sigh, if he had known, he would have at least tried to prepare himself. Whether he would clear all the obstacles thrown his way, was yet to be seen...