December 27th. Dinner number two... Italiano.

"THIRTY MINUTES!"

"Okay, okay..." Heechul mumbled as he walked in.

I wore a short white dress today and protected myself from the cold with the black pea-coat that Siwon gave me for Christmas. And I was sporting the bright red lipstick on my lips.

"Dinner again?" Donghae questioned.

"Yup."

"Where are you planning to go today?" Eunhyuk asked.

"Maybe somewhere for Italian."

"You really like Italian food, don't you?" Heechul walked out from the hallway. He was wearing a pale pink button-down shirt with black pants today. I have to admit, pink is a nice color on him...

"I do," I smiled.

He fixed his hair in the reflection of his phone.

"You know what... I think I want some of that FANCY pasta," I smirked.

* * *

This is the same place we went to last time. I remember the outrageous numbers on the menu the first time I went there.

"Benvenuto! Welcome! Table for two?"

"Yes sir," Heechul replied.

"Ah, is this beautiful young lady your significant other? We have a special discount for couples this evening!"

His eyes lit up at the word "discount".

"N-"

"Why YES, this is my beautiful significant other!" Heechul grinned, grabbing me by my arm and yanking me by his side.

"Wai-"

Heechul shoved my face against his collar, preventing me from saying anything.

"Great! Right this way!" the waiter led us to a table.

"Hey!" I removed myself from his grasp.

"Shush," he snickered.

"But I'm not your significant other!"

"So?"

"So why'd you tell him that I was your significant other?!"

"So I could get the discount, duh."

"This only means that you owe me a second serving of desserts," I pouted at him.

"Whatever you want, honey," he smiled in a disgustingly cute manner.

"Only Zhou Mi gets to call me Honey..."

"Alright, potato head."

Sigh... Again with potato head.

We both ordered the fancy pasta like we did last time, along with a bottle of wine. Fancy dinners aren't fancy without wine.

"You remember when we came here last time and the guys were here?" I brought up.

"Oh, yeah. And they didn't invite us."

"Right."

"You remember when you were afraid of the prices here?" he said.

"Of course," I laughed.

"What happened to that?"

"I decided to be a little mean to your wallet," I smirked.

"You didn't have to be this mean..."

"Oh, but you got me dinner yourself the last time we were here. I didn't even ask for anything. I only ordered water."

"Whatever, honey..."

"What did I tell you abo-"

"Your pasta is here!" the waiter came over cheerfully. "Since you both ordered the same thing, we thought it would be nice if we just put it on one big plate!"

He set the plate down on the table. The pasta filled the circle of the plate and tomato sauce was poured over it in a heart shape. The pesto was also shook onto the tomato sauce in a heart shape. It was actually really cute.

BUT WAIT.

"We... Have to share this," I furrowed my brows.

We looked at each other and blinked for a second. Obviously without thinking, Heechul took a forkful of the pasta and attempted to feed me.

"No," I turned my head away from his fork.

"Come on, babe!"

"Don't even go there," I glared at him.

"You're supposed to be my girlfriend."

"Who ever said THAT?"

"I just said it."

"But who ever agreed to it?"

"The waiter."

"Be quiet and eat your food," I ended our argument. I was getting hungry.

"Just one..." Heechul held his fork of pasta out at me.

"Will you stop bothering me after one?"

"Maybe."

I let him feed me JUST ONE forkful of pasta. Just one.

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?" Heechul asked out of the blue.

"Not really... I mean I've had like two, but those weren't really relationships."

"So you've never been in a real relationship?"

"Basically," I replied. "Have you ever had a girlfriend?" Well that was kind of a stupid question... Of course he has had a girlfriend before. Probably like seven. He's a superstar.

"I'm the same as you. I've never been in a real relationship. They were either with me for the money, the fame, or just to cross it off of their bucket list."

"Oh..." Aw, I felt kinda bad for him.

"I guess it's hard to find someone when you're a celebrity," he shrugged.

"Doesn't SM Entertainment have a rule against dating too?"

"Oh yeah, and that. If a scandal breaks out, it'll only cause more trouble for the company. That's why we're not allowed to date," he explained.

"I didn't think that dating was completely illegal. I just thought that you guys couldn't let the public know."

"Nope, it's not allowed."

"Then what about that girl, Jessica? She practically tries to get with any and every guy in SM. Like when I first came to stay at the dorms, she came over and tried to get with Kyuhyun."

"Jessica likes to do her own thing... She just tries to get with anyone famous to boost her popularity. But what she doesn't realize is that getting with a male celebrity will only get her more anti-fans."

Anti-fans... Oh boy, I've had a really bad experience with those guys.

How'd we go from relationships to Jessica? I hate talking about Jessica. Not wanting to continue the conversation, I finished my pasta in silence.

It was kinda creepy, but I watched Heechul eat. He ate quite elegantly. Stars gotta know proper etiquette, right?

"Oh, you have something on your collar," I pointed out.

"What is it?" he pulled out his phone and checked the reflection.

"Errr... Lipstick?"

"Lipstick?" he raised an eyebrow. "YOUR lipstick?"

"I didn't do anything! You grabbed me and put my face there!"

"You naughty, naughty," Heechul waved a finger at me teasingly.

"But I didn't do anythingggggg," I flushed.

"You have something right there," he pointed. He took a napkin and shoved it against my lips. "Oh, it's just your lipstick," he laughed.

"Hey, that wasn't funny!"

"Did I ask for your opinion?"

I crossed my arms and just sat there, pouting.

"Aigo, you're such a baby," he attempted to pinch my cheeks.

I smacked his hand away.

I'm gonna make sure our dinner tomorrow is extra expensive.

* * * * * *

December 28th. Dinner number three... Seafood. The expensive kind of seafood.

"THIRTY MINUTES!"

"I know."

*Okay, why don't we fast-forward to the good part?*

"You got this?" Heechul laughed.

"I got this!" I squeezed on the lobster cracker with both hands. "Why isn't it cracking??"

"Because you obviously don't got this. Give me that," he took it from me. Crack! "See?"

"HOW?"

"You're just weak."

"Am not!" I retorted. "Sir, may I order a small plate of shrimp?" I asked as our waiter passed by.

"Settling for shrimp because you can't crack a lobster shell?" Heechul teased.

"No, I just prefer shrimp over lobster."

"You're lying to yourself. This big juicy lobster is ten times better than those scrawny little shrimps."

Lemme just take a moment to cry to myself...

"Here," Heechul gave me the claw that he cracked for me.

It looked so good, but what dignity would I have left if I accepted it?

"Take it," he said.

I just stared at him.

"If you're not taking it, I'm gonna eat it."

My hand never shot across the table any faster than just now.

"Thanks," I murmured.

I came here expecting to spend a whole lot of money. But what money am I spending if I can't even crack a lobster open myself?

Sigh... FAIL.

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CHAPTER 43 PREVIEW:

"A scandal?"

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These dinner seem like filler chapters... But notice how Mina and Heechul are getting closer? ^_^ (What ever happened to Yesung?)

This chapter's question!

Who do you ship? MiSung (Mina and Yesung) or MiChul (Mina and Heechul)?

It'd be quite interesting if you guys shipped MiSung before but switched over to MiChul after these past few chapters haha!

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to vote, subscribe, and answer the question down below!