“Oh my god, I knew it,” Hyeri says, gasping, even though I have confirmed nothing whatsoever. “Look how long she’s taking to answer.”

I laugh. “No, no, there isn’t something. But then again, I guess there isn’t nothing…”

“Okay, spill,” Juhyun says. She grabs her cocktail from the bar. “Tell us everything.”

I order a grapefruit Paloma and we squeeze into a corner windowsill, where we can actually vaguely hear each other over the din of the crowd. I start from the beginning, relaying our first encounter on the MRT and then our coffee date at Petal. Juhyun and Hyeri are the perfect audience, gasping and squealing at all the right spots, and I can’t help but feel giddy. Even just talking about Alex sends happy flutters through my stomach.

“We’ve been texting pretty much every day for the past month,” I say, squeezing my lime, then taking another sip. “And you’ll never believe it, but he sent me this.” I get out my phone and pull up a photo of the Balenciaga.

Hyeri gives me a playful poke. “He like-likes you!” she says with childlike glee.

“The boy’s got good taste,” Juhyun says, nodding in approval.

“Are you referring to me or the bag?” I ask with an eyebrow raised, the tequila in this Paloma already making me feel a little bolder and sassier.

“He should have good fashion taste,” Hyeri says, ignoring my cheeky aside. “He handles investments for a bunch of fashion houses. I’m sure he’s picked up a thing or two over the years.”

“He what?” I say, my eyes growing wide. How did I not know that? I mean, I knew from our conversations that he worked in investment, but I had no idea he was involved in the fashion world.

“You don’t know?” Juhyun says. “He’s kind of a wunderkind. He worked for a big investment bank for like two seconds after school and then immediately launched his own investment fund. He’s super successful, Rach! I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone so driven.”

“Wow.” I’m at a loss for words. I think back to that day in Singapore when we were looking at the Balenciaga bag from outside the shop window. All this time he’s been teasingly playing along, pretending to be clueless just to drive me crazy.

“Babes,” Juhyun says, a mischievous twinkle in her eye as she sips her Mai Tai. “We have to call him.”

“Already on it,” Hyeri says, whipping out her phone and dialing Alex on FaceTime.

“Hyeri, no!” Flustered, I grab for her phone.

Alex and I may spend a lot of time texting, but video calls are a whole other territory. What if we’re so used to texting now that talking face-to-face ends up being awkward?