Nicole told him the whole story, Donghae listening intently, asking occasional questions whenever he needed clarification or if there was an English he didn't know, such as a cuss word. It took about 15 minutes to tell the whole story, about 5 minutes total were used just so that Nicole could remember the details properly.

"Well, he's an . When was the last time you liked him?"

"After what happened on Christmas, any feelings besides for hatred just flew out the door. Up until now I still have trust issues with people I first meet. Because Kpop was not super popular when I was in high school, I could usually tell who would and wouldn't be a person I could potentially trust depending on how they reacted to knowing I liked Kpop. Very few people reacted in a way that wasn't either 'ew, asians' or 'what's kpop?' Whatever."

"Their loss."

Nicole put her hands on the table, showing off a ring that looked giant on her baby hands.

Donghae looked at and marveled.

"Where on earth did you get that?"

"What? My ring? I just got it off of Ebay. Don't worry. I'm single, no boyfriend gave me this. I don't think i have anything my ex's gave me." Donghae left out a shaky sigh of relief.

"Good. Didn't want to have to chase after you and have my hopes crushed." Nicole turned wide eyed. Never in a million years did she think she would hear Donghae say that to her.

"Yeah. No hopes crushed." She looked to the side and covered her blushing cheeks.

Th rest of the time was spent in silence. They finished eating and started heading back to SM so Chanyeol and D.O could finish practicing.

"Do you want to go home? I can tell Chanyeol you left." She shook her head.

"No thanks. I want to watch you guys practice the dance. Plus I think if I left early, Chanyeor might freak out until he got home."

"Ha! Okay. Let's hurry."

As they walked, Donghae grabbed Nicole's hand. She looked down, and tried to pull her hand, worried that fans might see them and go insane. His grip tightened when he felt her hand starting to slip out of his. He had a blank face while she was blushing and looking around making sure so no one was looking. She kept feeling worried.

"Don't worry. No one's looking. I've gotten too good at dressing in disguise."

That still didn't help her nerves, but she gave up on looking around. The walk back seemed a lot longer because they weren't talking about anything, simply holding hands.

As they got closer, Nicole saw a crowd of girls around the entrance like usual. She was about to fight her way through that crowd until she felt Donghae pulling her around the back. They went in through the back entrance that idols are encouraged to take so they don't get mobbed.

They detached hands as soon as they got in the view of the door in case Soo Man saw Nicole flirting with one of his idols. Although Donghae is free to date, Soo Man would still he rather focus on his career. Plus, Soo Man knows that Chanyeol and Nicole live together, so he might think that if she flirts with one idol, she would flirt with others. Chanyeol has a little bit of a more strict dating policy and Donghae didn't want Nicole to get in trouble.

They entered (again with Donghae holding the door) and walked to the practice room. When they walked in, everything got silent as compared to their usual laughter and loud talking.

"Hey guys. You ready for more practice?"

Chanyeol looked at Nicole with a mixed emotion in his eyes and went to practice.

this chapter . sorry. i had sooo many good ideas, but for some reason it was really hard to type. writers block is beginning. so sorry...but yay update!