Xiumin swallowed a lump before admitting that indeed Tao was right. The scarf was a gift from Dara noona.

He braces himself for their reaction. Expecting a violent one.

"I knew it! I was right!" Tao's squeal of triumph drowns Sehun's words.

Suho, Luhan and of course Chen, do not see it as weird. Not as much as Sehun does.

"Hyung, isn't it too early to receive a birthday present?" Sehun says, while observing the others' faces. He can't help but note their lack of reaction. Why does it seem like he's the only one left wondering? Before he can even delve deeper into this thought, Chen makes up something, for the meantime, to save Xiumin from further interrogation.

"Dara noona likes Xiumin's gift very much that she decides to give him something." 

"Really? How do you know?" Sehun asks, still suspicious.

"Duh, Dara noona said so!"

Let's just say Chen's acting is very believable. The maknae had no other choice but to believe him.

As for Luhan, Suho and Tao, they simply let Xiumin off the hook. For now.

Chen saved the day. Xiumin is tempted to tell him what he'd been dying to hear.

Rule number three says if one does not step forward, one will always be in the same place.

She does not want to remain passive in their relationship. She knows that eventually, they have to publicly make it known.

With this decision comes the realization that she may have to take back what she had said back in 2014. That she will keep her relationship a secret and will only let Blackjacks know when she will get married.

What's the use in having a relationship with someone, adoring him but can never ever express such feelings publicly?

She feels like a ticking time bomb sometimes. The feelings she have for him are piling up, in danger of being no longer repressed.

Thus, she decides to make every effort, little by little.

Like what she is doing now. It won't hurt if she goes to a jewelry shop to buy something, right? After all, she wants to give him something that will remind him of her. Even though he had told her last time they met that he's always thinking of her, which she had laughed at because that is impossible. He looked too serious when he said it and she felt a little guilty for laughing. It was just the only reaction she could muster. But deep down she was glad.

In order to go through with the risky plan and to ensure that it will arouse little suspicions from the netizens, Dara brings along Bom, who seems calmer.

It had been exactly an hour since Dara's confession.

Well, she had no choice but to tell Bom about Xiumin, about them, their secret relationship. Which by the way is no more a secret, thanks to Bom's nosiness.

Delighted screams had reverberated in the four corners of the condominium unit. Dara had felt a bit nervous at the possibility of their neighbors hearing Bom's shouts of joy.

But as the saying goes, there's no use in crying over spilled milk. Dara realized she needed Bom's help big time.

And now, she is staring closely at two designs of couple rings the saleslady is offering, being careful not to look very interested. 

It is supposed to be Bom's plan to buy a gift.

However, the desire to buy a gift for Minseok despite it being the cause of speculation and criticism is too strong. Besides, she wants to prove something to herself.

With uncontrollable excitement, she buys what she'd been eyeing for a long time.

Bom's eyes widening is a clear indication that Dara has done something worth speculating about.

"Go for it!" Bom cheers Dara on as she stands outside YG's office door.

Dara's hands are sweating. But there's no other time like today to drop the bomb.

There can only be two reactions. The good and the bad. Either way, what keeps Dara hopeful for the good reception is that Blackpink had recently debuted and is already doing well, getting a lot of praises. In short, he is definitely in a good mood. Why wouldn't he be?

Bom had convinced Dara to tell their boss about her relationship. CL and Minzy know nothing yet. 

"Once you get pass Ssajangnim, you're good." Bom had said on their way to YG building.

What she actually meant by that, CL and Minzy will understand why it took so long for Dara to tell them. 

But Dara isn't feeling good at all now. She feels like throwing up actually.

She turns one last time to Bom, pleading for company.

"You have to do it alone."

Dara understands why Bom doesn't want to go inside the office. Besides the fact that they both fear their Ssajangnim's reaction, Bom may end up breaking the news instead of Dara who'll most probably stay silent.

"Have you noticed something weird with Minseok hyung lately?"

"Like what?" Chen asks a little too quickly, maintaining a poker face which to him is a piece of cake. 

Sehun enumerates the reasons:

How he's always on the phone.

How he's always smiling while on the phone.

How he's always whispering while on the phone.

It's as if he had a relationship with his phone!

"Isn't that weird?"

"Ya! Suho hyung's like that too. You don't notice that at all?"

Suho's eyes widen as a reaction to Chen dragging his name into the weird conversation for no reason at all.

That last statement points to the fact that the leader was not only most of the time ignored. He was a scapegoat too.

"Well, Suho hyung is weird but not because of those reasons I have said earlier."

The maknae's response is worst than what Chen just did in Suho's ignored opinion. 

They really do ignore his feelings sometimes.

For what seems like forever, Bom quickly runs to Dara who bears the expression of both relief and uneasiness, if that's even possible. "How did it go?"

"Ssajangnim wants to know my plans specifically about when and how to make it public."

"Oh, as expected. But why do you look so nervous?"

"I don't know how and when are we going to do that."

"Ya. It's only normal to feel that way."

"Is there a right time to do it?"

"Don't ever wait for the right time. It'll come eventually so don't worry about it."

Despite Bom's encouraging words, Dara is feeling helpless and worried. To think she had vowed to share her happiness. The idea of receiving negative response scares her. It really does. 

Two days after Chen's generous save, Xiumin finally speaks up. Being in his room gives him the courage to confess.

"Im secretly dating," he says under his breath.

"I can't hear you," Chen replies, busily tapping on his phone while lying comfortably on Luhan's be. He does not spare a glance at the hyung who's having difficulty confessing.

For all Xiumin knows, the troll is pretending not to hear what he just said. So he shots back louder, "I said, I'm secretly dating."

"Well now you aren't," he answers with a triumphant smile.

"Mwo!?"

"Well technically, you telling someone—me in particular—makes it no longer a secret..."

This causes Xiumin to sit upright and demand nervously, "Ya! Ya! Are you going to tell them?" 

"Nope. That's your responsibility. And besides, some of them already suspect you're dating."

"I'll tell them but I just can't find the right timing."

"If you say so," he resumes what he'd been doing, playing a game on his phone probably.

"That's it?"

Chen shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly.

"You're not even going to ask who I'm dating?" Xiumin whispers incredulously.

"Duh! It's Dara noona obviously! It's written all over your face!"

"Ya! Keep your voice down, will you," he hisses.

"So, when did she accept your feelings?" Now Chen's finally showing unrestrained interest. He puts away his phone, which makes Xiumin nervous.

"Uhm, sometime in November," he mumbles, suddenly regretting opening up to Chen.

"Is it on the 27th?"

"Not gonna tell."

"Fine."

"But definitely not 27th," he quickly says before Chen thinks it's the date.

"I know, I know. It's very thoughtful of you to think about what Chanyeol is going to feel when you're anniversary happens to fall on his birthday."

"You think he'll be hurt?"

"A little, maybe. We both know he's crazy about Dara noona."

A cloud of worry crosses over Xiumin's face.

"Don't worry. Chanyeol's more over her than you're going to be over with the task of telling everyone including our Manager and the Management about your relationship."

Chen's right. Xiumin should actually start thinking about how he's going to tell them the news.

"And besides, I actually know when it was. I'm just pretending not to know. It's very obvious. When you returned from your overnight somewhere, you look very happy as if you're going to burst from so much happiness."

Xiumin stares at Chen open-mouthed. The troll is psychic. He's ninety-nine percent sure of it.

"I think I'm going to be in a big trouble in a few minutes," Dara tells Bom during breakfast, phone in hand. Her resolve to do little things is getting harder. It seems for every little thing she wants to do, inevitably, it will cause something.

"Why? Did you commit a crime?" Bom asks skeptically while chewing a bite of the honey-dipped chicken.

"I followed Xiumin on Instagram."

"Congratulations!" Bom claps at her bravery.

"But I want to undo it."

"Ya! That will only get you into more trouble than what you're bound for."

"That's why I am going to unfollow him."

"DON'T."

Bom still doesn't seem to get the root of Dara's uneasiness.

"What will the haters say?"

"You know what you should do? Don't read comments. It's that simple."

"How can I avoid reading the comments? You know how curious I am."

"Aigo. Then you better start practicing how not to care."

Xiumin stares at his phone in disbelief when he saw the notification.

It was a notification that Dara followed him on Instagram.

"What's with that expression Minsoek-hyung?"

Chanyeol's deep voice is like a bucket of cold water being poured over Xiumin's lightheadedness.

He then realizes that he forgot where he is at the moment—the practice room at SM building—surrounded by his friends who are curiously looking at him now.

He might as well be honest. Surely, screenshots of her following him will later be posted online. "Uhm... Dara followed me—" he drops the 'noona' and nobody seems to notice.

"She did?!" Chen cuts him off with a knowing expression. And Xiumin prays he would not say a single thing that'll cause an uproar.

"What?!--

"Really?--

"Where?--

"Why?--

Almost simultaneously, the others ask in curiosity.

"Instagram." Chen says simply.

Xiumin now believes that Chen is a hundred percent psychic.

"For real?!" Chanyeol and Baekhyun exclaim in unison. They both turn their attention to their phones, scrolling and tapping as if wanting to confirm it themselves.

Sehun, who has been observing the oldest in the past few days takes note of how nervous he seems. He has been wondering ever since their vacation at Busan whether or not it is safe to follow Dara noona. The answer has always been a big no since they have all agreed to protect her from any violent reactions that'll be posted online. But now that Dara followed Minseok-hyung, maybe, just maybe, he can tap the follow button. Sure, there will be comments and reactions that are beyond reasonable and senseless but so what, Sehun has always wanted to follow her. Her posts had always been interesting. Not to mention how charming she is. It won't hurt to have Dara noona's posts on his feed right? Today seems to be the right time to do so. When everyone will be very busy wondering why she followed Minseok-hyung. Even Sehun is wondering why. 

With a clear mind and firm decision, Sehun taps the follow button.

It's either all of EXO—those who has an Instagram account—are in it together or not. This is what Sehun tells them when they ask him why he followed.

"Maybe I should create an account. What do you think?" Chen wonders out loud. 

"Then do it." Suho thinks he is trolling them again.

"Oh my God! Sehun followed me. What is happening?"

"Ya! You're friends with them remember? It's normal so don't freak out."

Half an hour later, Bom points out something Dara may have overlooked. "I think you should follow the others as well..."

"Waeyo?"

"To avoid people from thinking you have a special relationship with Xiumin."

Bom's right. But wouldn't it be a greater uproar if she followed back the others as well?

Anyway, the damage has been done. It's something that people will react to anyway either positively or negatively.

A/N: Thank you for reading ^_^