DAY 04 – HOT & COLD

Late last night, Bom was inviting the group for dinner tonight. Everybody responded except for Dara and Donghae. At breakfast, Donghae asked Dara about it. “Are you coming to tonight’s dinner?”

“Yeah, Bommie doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, remember?”

“Okay then, I’ll pick you up after work.”

Dara just smiled and the early morning banter between Dara and her dad started. Her dad has recently made it a habit to ask and pester her dating life, even encourages Donghae to “move quickly” since they’re both not getting any younger, according to her dad. She just rolled her eyes and just let her old man speak, after all she won’t be hearing from him for long once they go to their Asian cruise.

While in the car, Donghae received a call from Top, “Top’s calling.”

“Answer it, put it on loudspeaker mode”, Dara replied.

Donghae answered his phone, “Yeah?”

“You’re going to tonight’s dinner?” Top asked.

“Yep, we’ll be there.”

Dara glared at him at his sudden slip.

“We? You’re bringing someone?” Top sounded surprised.

“N-no! I meant, I’ll be there. Sorry, I just feel a little bit groggy”.

“Oh, I thought we’ll finally meet the girl you’re seeing.”

“Hah! Since when did you become so nosey?”

“Blame my girlfriend.”

He chuckled. Suddenly Dara’s phone rang. It was Bom.

She was startled then she quickly put her phone on silent mode but her phone chose the perfect timing to act up, it just won’t cooperate. After a couple of rings, finally she was able to put it on silent mode.

“You’re with someone?”

“N-no, that was my other phone. Company phone, probably someone from work. It can wait, I’ll just call them back”, again he tried denying it.

“Oh, I see. Anyways, can you call Dara? Bom’s trying to reach her but she didn’t pick up.”

“Okay, I’ll try to call her when I get to the office.”

“Alright, see you guys later”, Top hanged up.

Both released a sigh of relief.

“Remind me again why we have to keep our situation from them?” he asked Dara.

“They’ll tease us if they find out.”

“They’ve been doing that since they realized we’re the only two who’s not dating anyone, what’s new?”

“Look if we tell them, they’d ask for details. Especially the girls. They’ll ask where’d you taken me, and what we did and most of all they’d ask if we’ve already –“she suddenly stopped. Aish your mouth, Dara!

Donghae instantly knew what she’s about to say, then he found the perfect opportunity to about it. “If we’ve already…” he tried to keep the last word hanging, he smiled and leaned to her meeting her eye “kissed?”

Dara’s face flushed out of embarrassment. Dara you should get your act together! You can’t just keep on mentioning that you haven’t kissed each other yet! He might think you’ve been anticipating it. She avoided Donghae’s eyes. “Yeah! Then they’ll tease us the way my dad does!”

He let out a light laugh, “aww, you look really cute when you blush”.

“I am not blushing!”

“Then what do you call that? All your blood came rushing to your cheeks? Do I have that effect on you?” he continued joshing her.

“There goes the conceited Lee Donghae!” you wanna play this game huh? Fine. “Yes, Donghae you really have that effect on me. You’re making me blush whenever you give me that look, so better stop doing that I might kiss you at this very instant”, she leaned in as close to Donghae’s cheeks as possible.

Donghae was taken aback by what she did. He fell silent, not knowing how to react.

Dara was holding back her laughter seeing Donghae’s surprised reaction. “What’s wrong Donghae? Cat got your toungue?”

He knew it, she was playing him at his own game. Woman! You’re making me mad!

Bom tried to call her again when she arrived inside her office.

She immediately answered her phone.

“Dara! Why’d you hang up on me awhile ago?” Bom asked her.

“Sorry! I was brushing my teeth”, what a lame excuse.

“You spoke to Donghae?”

“H-huh? About what?”

“Top called Donghae and told him to call you to confirm if you’re going at tonight’s dinner.”

“Oh that, yeah I’ll be there.”

“Good, Chaerin told me to tell you to wear something nice and look pretty.”

“And why is that?”

“Dunno. I was just asked to deliver a message.”

“What are you two up to, this time?”

“I’ve no idea. I swear”, Bom sounded defensive.

“I can smell something fishy, Bommie. You better tell me now.”

“I’ll call you back later, my clients are here! See you later at dinner!” Bom hanged up.

 “Aish! Now, what’re they up to?” she remembered the last time these two were up to something when they asked her to join them for lunch as it turned out they’d set her up on a blind date.

She shrugged off the idea. She just continued to work on her presentation when her boss suddenly came in. “Hey, I’ve seen your design proposals it was actually quite good but something’s lacking. I cannot pinpoint it out yet though. Can you work on it more?”

“Yeah, sure. It was just a couple of drafts, I’m sure I could think of something more interesting.”

“Cool, how’s the New York project?”

“They haven’t called yet, but I tried to follow them up. They said they’d come up with a decision within Friday to Monday, so let’s just expect a call within those days.”

“Great! I knew I could count on you. Don’t forget to update me.”

“I will.”

“Thanks!” her boss left her office.

She smiled, she can smell her promotion right around the corner.

Donghae picked up Dara after work, they went together to where they’re having dinner. They arrived earlier than their agreed time, that way their friends won’t notice that they arrived together.

Minutes later, the others showed up. Seungri arrived together with Chaerin.

“Oh? You guys are early”, Seungri noticed.

“I got off work early, so I just decided to go here and wait for you guys”, Donghae said.

“And you? Surprisingly you’re early today, Dara. You’re usually the last one to arrive”, Chaerin gave her the suspicious look.

 “By any chance, did you two came here together?” Seungri asked.

“NO!” Donghae and Dara chorused.

Both Seungri and Chaerin threw them a suspicious glance, “by the way Dara, I’m introducing you to someone”, Chaerin mentioned.

“Huh? To who?”

“Someone from work, he’ll be here any minute.”

“Woman, what’re you trying to do?”

“Since you’re currently not dating anyone, I thought I might introduce you to one of my cute workmates. He’s also from our company’s art department”

“And how sure are you that I’m not dating anyone?”

Chaerin suddenly reacted, “Oh my gosh, are you?”

She threw a glance at Donghae, he was talking to Seungri. She shook her head, “no, just a hypothetical question.”

Chaerin’s phone beeped, “Wait, he’s here”, she stood up and waved at someone near the entrance.

The guy near the entrance approached them and greeted Chaerin. Chaerin introduced him to them, “Dara, meet Chanyeol, he’s one of our company’s junior artists”, “Chanyeol, this is Dara, one of the best people here on earth”.

Dara and Chanyeol shook each other’s hands. “Hi”, Chanyeol briefly greeted her.

“And over here is Lee Donghae and of course you met Seungri too many times I really don’t have to introduce you two.”

Donghae just gave Chanyeol a quick but firm handshake.

Minzy and Kai arrived f