The entire time during their impromptu second class together Lolly didn’t feel any pain at all. In fact, it was probably the easiest class she had ever done, because she was on cloud nine over the whole “seat-cute meet-cute” situation. And as fate would have it, Steven had just recovered from a particularly epic coke bender a few days prior and had decided to chill with the drugs for a bit and start taking better care of himself. The timing was perfect all the way around. Steven was good at excess, but not with excess free time, and so he asked Lolly if she wanted to see a movie that weekend. Lolly knew this was her best shot at Steven, and she took it with gusto. Every time Lolly saw Steven over the next month, she spent at least ninety minutes getting ready, sometimes a full two hours. She had already read every fashion magazine, but during that time she stepped up her already high-maintenance beauty routine. She watched every contouring tutorial on YouTube and agonized over each and every outfit she wore in front of him. And all her efforts paid off beautifully, because Steven, witnessing her transformation, found Lolly to be better and better looking each time he took her out, which tricked him into believing that this was a result of his growing feelings for her.

Steven told her that Korean women who lived in Seoul would spend hours getting ready before going to the supermarket, and that outward appearances were of paramount importance. He worked hard to keep his body in top form and dressed impeccably, and Lolly felt it was only fair of him to expect the same of his girlfriend. When Steven told Lolly she was practically Korean in her hard-core type-A diligence when it came to her looks, it was the highest compliment he had ever paid her and he meant it. Lolly adored how often Steven told her she was beautiful, but she fell in love with him because he was honest enough to tell her when he thought she had made a misstep with her outfit or hair. Her best friends, Miley and Hannah, thought this made Steven an asshole, but Lolly defended him and fully admitted that every single time he said something like this he had been right. Lolly was proud of Steven’s eye for fashion and for being a stickler when it came to details. He could even tell the difference between when Lolly had synthetic eyelash extensions versus when she splurged and got the mink ones. It had taken Lolly three months of backbreaking work, but when Steven K. finally asked her to be his girlfriend, it was the proudest moment of her life.