"These guys aren’t even trying to hide this stuff anymore," João thought as he looked at his sister and slowly shook his head with a smile. He had been glancing at them ever since Lukas stopped responding and only continued the conversation to keep Javi and Anne’s attention.
* * *
The elevator dinged, and they stepped out onto the sixth floor. Room 612, 614, and 616 — all lined up like they’d planned it months ago. Javi and Anne took the first one. João opened the door to the middle room with Lukas following right beside him. And in the last room, Joanna was already closing her door with her eyes glued to her phone.
Jo: "How tired are you right now?"
Lukas’s phone chid with a ssage from Joanna just as he sat down on one of the twin beds in the room he and João would be sharing for the night.
He replied imdiately, "Not much. You know I only played like 15 minutes. The adrenaline hasn’t worn off yet."
Jo: "Good. Be in front of my room in 30 minutes."
Luke: "Jo, that’s risky! Soone would notice."
Jo: "You don’t wanna co? That’s fine."
Luke: "...see ya in half an hour, boo."
Jo: "That’s what I thought."
"Let guess, Joanna wants to et you?" João asked as he peeked over Lukas’s shoulder to have a look at his phone.
"Ahem... What do you an? I don’t know what you’re talking about. We were just wishing each other goodnight."
"Yeah, right. Just rember, she’s my sister. She gets on my nerves all the ti, but she’s still my only sister."
"I know, João. And I’ll never do anything to hurt her."
"Yeah... I’d fold you in half if you did."
"I know that."
"And that is code for "I’m not letting you leave this room tonight." Hope you know that?"
Lukas sighed. "Yeah, I figured," he responded as he picked his phone back up.
Lukas: "Your brother has started to get very suspicious. Let’s et early tomorrow morning, okay?"
Jo: "But I wanna see you tonight, though (｡ŏ﹏ŏ)"
Lukas: "If I leave this room, he’s gonna co with , and he’s gonna find out. I promise I’ll be at your door first thing tomorrow morning, alright?"
Jo: "...okay... I’ll miss you..."
Lukas: "I’ll miss you too. But my room is literally five steps away from yours."
Jo: "That’s what makes it harder... You’re right there, but I can’t hold you."
Lukas: "Just give it a few more hours, alright?"
"All you had to do was tell her you couldn’t make it, why are you texting so much? Don’t tell you’re making more plans?" João asked as he tried to sneak up on Lukas again.
This ti Lukas caught on and closed his phone fast. "I was just wishing her goodnight."
"Hmm... That better be the case, bro. Don’t spoil my sister..."
"She’s older than , you rember that, right?"
"I don’t care. Anyway, how did you guys even start dating? When I caught on last week, it seed you were already dating."
"It wasn’t that long ago," Lukas smiled as he began recalling the night it all started — January 1st, 2025.
* * *
Lukas had just finished having a little gathering with Javi and Anne — who was spending more ti at the ho — to celebrate the new year and was now in his room. He had been thinking about his date with Joanna that night and after a lot of deliberation, he decided to make it sothing casual.
Instead of having dinners at high end restaurants — which would have been nigh impossible to book due to how short of a notice he got — he decided they’d take a walk at Rosenhöhe Park and then hang out in a café after that. There wasn’t much ti to plan sothing substantial. He also didn’t want to have to follow a rigid plan. He wanted to keep things flexible depending on what she liked and how the date went.
After a few more minutes of taking ntal notes, he looked at the ti on his phone.
12:07pm
"Ti sure goes slow when you’ve got a date planned."
About six hours later, Lukas was standing in front of the building where the Ginez’s lived.
The sun was already setting when Lukas arrived at Joanna’s — he walked there.
He was wearing a plain white t-shirt under a dark navy button-up jacket, which was lightweight and casual. His pants were light beige, straight-cut and slightly relaxed, with a small cuff at the bottom.
On his feet, he had clean white sneakers that matched the easygoing vibe of the outfit. He had one hand in his pocket, sunglasses on, and wireless earbuds in, giving off a simple, put-together look without trying too hard.
As he got to the front of the building, he brought out his phone and called her.
"Hey, Luke. Are you here?" Joanna’s soft voice ca through the phone. She answered before he even brought the phone to his ear — almost as if she had been waiting for his call.
"Hey, Jo. I’m right outside the building. Should I co in?"
"No need. I’ll be down in a sec," she responded as she ended the call imdiately.
Lukas waited by the entrance to the apartnt complex, checking his phone out of habit more than anything, when he heard the door open. He looked up, and there she was.
She had on a light brown, long-sleeved crop top, snug and ribbed, with a few small buttons near the neckline. Her pants caught his attention next. High-waisted and wide-legged, they were a deeper brown, kind of flowy but structured, with big side pockets that added a bit of edge. They made her look tall and effortlessly put together.
She had paired the whole thing with clean white sneakers, and a little brown knitted handbag, and it all just worked. Everything looked like she had put a great deal of thought into appearing as casual as possible while staying classy.
"You look really nice," he said, finally able to get the words out as she walked up. "Like... really nice."
She gave a small grin and nudged his arm. "Took you long enough to notice. So, what do you have planned? I hope I’m not dressed too casually for it?" She asked, a bit concerned.
"No, you’re dressed the perfect amount of casual for it."
It took a few minutes for them to arrive at the park, the sky was getting darker and the street lights were gradually coming on.
The moon was shining brightly, illuminating the park giving the area a sense of ambience and mystery as they walked. The Christmas decorations and lights still lit up so areas of the park giving it a celebratory atmosphere.
A few other couples or group of friends could be seen either walking, looking around, or just sitting sowhere talking, but it was a quiet environnt — perfect for an intimate conversation.
"How did you convince your parents to let you leave this late?" Lukas asked as they walked past a field of roses with the light from the moon seeming to alter the colors of the roses to sothing even more srizing.
Joanna was squatting down, patting a stalk of rose while Lukas stood beside her watching her light up with a smile just from slling the roses.
"I told them I was going to et a school friend and I’ll be back in a few hours. How about you? How did you convince Javi?"
"? I didn’t have to... I told him I was going on a date with you and he imdiately allowed to go."
"Really? You did? What did he say?" Joanna asked as she turned over to look at Lukas who was staring at her with his deep green eyes.
She looked away imdiately, blushing, without waiting for a response, the way he was looking at her made her feel like she was repeatedly being complinted even when he wasn’t saying anything.
"I think he already knew I had a crush on you for a while now... He didn’t even ask any questions. He just asked if I’d be back early for dinner — I said no."
"All that talk about dinner’s got hungry," Joanna said as she stood up from her crouching position.
"Great, let’s have sothing to eat. What do you want?"
"Hmm... I don’t know. What do you want."
"Let’s see... Pizza, Döner, Brotchen, or just so snacks. I could eat anything..."
"Pizza sounds nice. Let’s do that."
"Yeah? That’s great. There’s a place close by."
"I see you’ve been here a lot... You must have brought other people here, huh?"
"We live about a 15-minute walk away, Jo. It’d be weirder if I don’t know where the eateries around here are located."
"....."
"I’ve not been here with any other girl, Jo."
"Hmm... If you say so," she responding trying to hide her smile.
* * *
A/N: Today’s Chapter... Kinda slow one I know... Calma, it’s gonna pick up pace soon... Enjoy reading.
Have a beautiful day too.
Thanks for all the love.
-Writ.
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