4 weeks later (following the events from Chapter 7)

From Oppa: Make sure to always wear at least two sweaters

To Oppa: yes, oppa

From Oppa: take the medicine I sent to you

To Oppa: I’m taking some right now

From Oppa: Also, please get plenty of rest. I made soup, I’ll have my manager drop it off later.

To Oppa: Oppa! I’ll be fine! I’m not dying…

From Oppa: I just want to make sure you get better soon… you’re my girlfriend so of course I’m like this

          Reading that message as I lie sick in my bed made me start to feel a little better. Kyungsoo was so sweet and checked up on me with every break he got. I don’t even know how he found out about me getting sick. Jihye probably told him while I was stuck at the dorms.

          So for the past three days, I stayed in bed with a horrible cold that took a lot of my energy. I did go to the hospital for medicine but Kyungsoo still went and got me more. Later that day Jongdae texted me – almost like a warning but in a jokingly way – that this is what I signed up for when I started dating Kyungsoo. I thought he was exaggerating but almost immediately, he would spit fire texts to my phone. He usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes to write a response, but now I can get them every 5 minutes. It may seem overboard to others, but it was the sweetest thing to me. Hopefully I can return the favor later on.

          Not that I want for him to get sick though.

          My eyes were getting heavier and as I laid down to get sleep as told to, my phone rings.

From Youngie: NOONA, ARE YOU SICK

          Now Jimin definitely told Youngjae. I really want some sleep right now. The last thing I need at this moment is an over-worrying dongsaeng.

To Youngie: noona is going to rest, we’ll talk later.

          I set my phone on silent and fall into the best sleep a sick person could have.

          After just two days, I was back up on my feet and with Europa to get started on preparations for not only our comeback, but also a special Christmas album with all of the SM artists. Most are American classics but there are some originals. There were no final decisions made other than one member from each group and BoA participating in singing Winter Wonderland. But at the moment, I mainly focused on our comeback concept.

          At first, the CEO wanted to go with a school uniform concept since school was going to start up for some, but decided that it’s too cliché and just decided to do a cute and casual one. Save the uniforms for later, he told our manager. The assigned song writer for Europa came up with an upbeat song that blended our different styles perfectly.

          Nana and Chung Ae, our main dancer, was with our dance instructor trying to come up a choreography for it. It was much easier than what it definitely looked with all of the leg movements that had to be in sync with our arms and torso. So much had to be done and it excited me. Soon enough, we all had to go in to the stylists department and were seated 2 at a time to change our hair styles.

          One of the stylists were new and was close to cutting my hair too short. My length was to my upper mid back, and I was not ready to have it shorter. She understood where I was coming from, so she just gave my hair a proper trim. I hopped in another stylists chair to get my hair dyed.

          “Before I begin, have you ever used color on your hair,” she asked me.

          “Oh, no I haven’t unni. This is my first time.”

          “Alright, you’re going to feel a burning and itchy sensation but don’t touch it. And it might smell. Just thought I’d let you know,” she smiled at me in the mirror. In this concept, I’m going from my natural dark chocolate hair to light brown. I was pretty nervous on how it might turn out. Will I look terrible? It repeated in my head for a while.

          A few hours later, my hair was a dried and no longer a from such chemicals. I stared at my reflection in awe. The golden brown color on my head and how it accented my dark brown eyes. “Wow, I love the color,” Jimin came from behind, “it really looks good on your skin. I can’t wait for my turn. I think they told me it was going to be a kind of deep violet.” Almost in seconds, they called for her. I gave her a thumbs up before she left.

          Next to me was Byul sitting in a chair looking on her phone. It had me pulling out my own and deciding if I should text Kyungsoo. Should I take a picture of my dyed hair and send it to him? Is that too much? We’ve only been dating for a few months. I poked Byul’s arm to get her attention to which she responded to with “Mmm?”

          I whispered to her, “Would it be cheesy if I sent Kyungsoo-oppa a picture of my dyed hair?” Without hesitation she said also quietly, “Yes.” I slightly pouted at the answer. I decided on showing Youngjae only to get this response:

From Youngie: it looks nice but why are you showing me this though, noona? Go ask your boyfriend.

To Youngie: I was thinking about it but my members think it’s a bit weird to.

To Youngie: ….

To Youngie: wait, I didn’t tell you that I had a boyfriend.

From Youngie: …..what

To Youngie: Did Jimin tell you!?

From Youngie: you know, I’m offended that you never told me. Noona, I thought we were best friends

To Youngie: do you know who it is?

From Youngie: are you going to tell me?

To Youngie: maybe

          I was mad for a few minutes but later had a pang of relief that she only told Youngjae and she obviously didn’t tell him who it was I was dating. It’s not that I don’t trust him. Nor is it that he’ll become jealous. I’m just not ready to tell anyone out of my group. The time to tell him would soon come eventually.

          In the third week of our preparations, I got a text from Kyungsoo to meet in the usual dance studio at the usual hour. My body was sore from dance practice and all I wanted to do was sleep, but I also wanted to see him. I grabbed a black sweater and tied my mess-of-a-hair up in a bun before leaving. I kept my running shorts on since the weather is still warm at night.

          I made it to the SM building and saw Kyungsoo inside the studio with two cups on a small table. He gave me a warm smile as soon as he saw me to which I smiled back. Every time I saw him smile, it made my heart jump, as cheesy as that was. He walked towards me with the cups in hand. I stretched the sleeves of my sweater to cover my hands as I grabbed it from him.

          “It’s herbal tea with honey. So you don’t get sick,” he said.

          “Because god forbid if I get sick again,” I joked as I was bringing the cup close to my mouth. We laughed. It felt nice to be with him like this. I sat next to him against the mirror wall as we talked about the upcoming plans in SM. Mostly, I was talking about Europa’s upcoming comeback. I was so excited and Kyungsoo listened to me as I rambled off for probably 30 minutes. In the middle of a sentence, I awkwardly chuckled, “I’m talking too much, aren’t I?”

          “No, its fine,” he waved his hand at me, “I like hearing you talk. It’s good that you’re having fun with the comeback.” He smiled at me. My own smile got a little bigger. With my finger, I played with some loose strands of my hair. I honestly did it to see if he noticed the difference in the color even though it’s highly obvious.

          He chuckled, probably knowing what I was doing and placed a hand on top of my head. “You look pretty. I like this color.” My nerves kicked in and decided to play with him a little bit. “Oppa, are you saying that I wasn’t pretty before?” His face became red and stammering sounds came from his mouth. I started laughing at him and his face froze in surprise. He started laughing too, eventually.

          Seconds passed by as our laughter started fading. We looked into each other’s eyes not saying anything. Distracting myself with the almost cold tea, I look away and take a sip. Kyungsoo lets out a sigh and pushes a strand of hair behind my ear. I grabbed the clip holding my hair together off and just let the golden locks fall on my shoulders. Not to show off but so much was falling out of the bun.

          He continued to play with my hair, though. It is soft, I have to admit.

          I turned my face to look at him. He had a small and gentle smile as did I. I set my cup to the side then grabbed his hand. “You’re always pretty,” Kyungsoo let out. He looked up and down from my lips to eyes. We slowly lean into each other. The closer I got, the better I got to smell him. He definitely smelled like shampoo and it was nice. While he wasn’t looking my eyes trailed around the room to make sure no one would come in even though the door is locked.

          Kyungsoo placed a soft kiss on my lips. Butterflies were flying about frantically in my stomach. I started off shy, but soon gave into my emotions and myself more towards him. It was short lived as we pulled away before it escalated to something more. We smiled at each other and I rested my head on his shoulder.

          The tea had made me sleepy and I felt myself wanting to doze off. I look up at him and see that he’s already sleeping. He must also be tired. I stared at his face for a while before drifting off.

          I was the first to wake up. My back was a bit more uncomfortable from sleeping up right. Next to me is a still-sleeping Kyungsoo. I check my phone for the time. 7:00 am. I have to head back to the dorm and change for dance practice. I should also wake him up too in case he has any activities.

          “Oppa, wake up,” I pat his shoulders. No response. “Oppa.” Still nothing. I lightly shake him. Suddenly, his arm is wrapped around my neck and pulls me close to him again. “Just five more minutes.”

          “But what about your members? Or Junmyeon-sunbaenim? Won’t he nag you?”

          “I can deal with that later,” he tells me. After trying to get away from his grip on me, he holds me tighter with every pull. I giggled and gave into him, embracing him back. Moments like this was nice. I didn’t see Kyungsoo a lot due to the recent comeback and it meant so much that he always tries to meet with me.

          I’m really lucky to have him.

          “Where were you this morning?” Miyoung asked me. I can tell that she was trying to make it sound casual, but her scolding voice was still audible. “At a practice room.” It may have not been the whole truth, but she didn’t really need to know that I was with Kyungsoo. She looked at me with her signature I-know-you’re-hiding-something-so-tell-me-now look at was mostly used on Nana and Minah a lot. Finally, she came out with, “Okey.” Miyoung walked to the other side of the vocal studio and grabbed her water bottle.

          It seemed that Jihye overheard our conversation since she stepped beside me as whispered, “Were you with a certain someone~?” I glared at her and commented how manner less she was to ask her unni that. She snickered at me and said that I sounded ridiculous. “Unni, you’ve become so different since you started dating Kyungsoo-sunbaenim.”

          “Is… is that a bad thing?” Jihye was the first to tell me such a thing.

          “No, unni. It’s actually really good. You seem happy. Even when you’re scolding me, you look happier.” My heart became warmer from Jihye’s comment. Did I really look happier? I can admit to noticing that my moods are better, even though I was never the type to get angry easily anyway.

          Besides work, I thought about that for the whole day. About how much happier Kyungsoo had obviously made me appear. Happier for some of my members to say something. Just thinking about him makes my heart flutter. I really am lucky.