A/N: Annyeong !! And really sorry for taking a long time to update ! I've been really busy with work and stuff. This is the soonest I could update so...please understand :x Sorry for this rather short chapter and I promise I'll try to make it up for the next update ! Meanwhile, hope you enjoy this chapter. Do read, comment and subscribe if you haven't ! Thank you readers ! I'd really appreciate it even if it's a short comment :B Here goes ! 

RAISE YOUR HANDS IF YOU LIKE SHORT BLACK HAIRED DONGHAE :3

A week has passed since the Strong Heart recording and everything has more or less been back to normal. Donghae had been out since early in the morning together with half of the members of the group, leaving ___ home alone with the others. For the past week, Donghae’s schedules has been more packed since he previously had a leeway during the period of time when he wanted to stay home and take care of ___. Now that she has made great progress, his schedules were packed and he usually left early when ___ was still asleep and came back when she was preparing to go to bed. Although he was a bit disappointed since he had no time to accompany her, he didn’t complain since he knew he had to make up for all the times s replaced him for schedules.

The relationship between him and ___ has also become a lot better, although they were still at the ‘holding hands’ stage. ___ has also started talking to the members bit by bit. They were still careful around each other, though sometimes the situation led to awkwardness as if time had gone back to the time they all first met.

___ had just stepped out of the shower and was walking towards the living room to join Siwon who was currently watching television. She took a seat on the couch two seats away and stared at her phone. No calls, no messages. She sighed. She hadn’t really seen Donghae around for 3 days in a row and today was the 4^th day that she woke up to see that he had already left for work.

“What do you guys want for lunch today ?” Ryeowook asked from the kitchen, causing ___ to look up.

“…Anything Asian !” Siwon replied a little late. He was too caught up with the drama that was currently airing on television.

Hearing no more replies, ___ could hear Ryeowook groan in the kitchen and she got up from the couch and headed to the kitchen in attempt to help him.

“Aish, what kind of answer is that…” Ryeowook mumbled to himself.

“Ryeowook oppa ?” ___ called for him as she stepped in. “Can I help with cooking today ? I’m…abit bored.”

“Sure of course, but first we have to figure out what to cook…” Ryeowook said with a sulk.

“Hmm,” ___ thought aloud. She didn’t have any appetite to eat anyway. As she stared at the stew recipe on the page of a recipe book opened in front of her, an idea hatched in her mind. “Oh Ryeowook oppa ! Let’s make stew and rice, and just some kimchi will do. It’s Donghae oppa’s favourite, and I was thinking of bringing some to him…”

Ryeowook then agreed on the idea, chuckling at how she lits up immediately upon mentioning Donghae. The two then started cooking, with Ryeowook doing most of the work while ___ scraped past Ryeowook’s high standards of the preparation of the ingredients. Though she got to try cooking for a bit, she often had to hand it over to Ryeowook in fear she would ruin the dish. About half an hour passed and they were finally done cooking lunch, and the hungry members dashed to the dining table since they all woke up late and skipped breakfast. While they were eating though, ___ was busy in the kitchen trying to pack Donghae’s share of the food neatly into tupperwares.

“___-ah ! Be good and eat your lunch first, then I’ll send you to KBS building to look for Donghae alright ?” Sungmin exclaimed from the dining table.

“Ne ! When I’m done with this !” she replied.

After making sure that everything was packed neatly and practically gobbling her food down, she was on the road together with Sungmin as he drove her to look for Donghae.

“If you need me to pick you up, just call me okay ? I’ll head home first… Oh, and tell Donghae I said hi !” Sungmin said as he dropped her off at the carpark and waved goodbye.

“Araso. Komawo, Sungmin oppa !” She chirped and headed towards the lift lobby.

After which, she dialed for their manager to find out where Donghae would be and made her way to the waiting room Donghae was in according to the directions given. She knocked on the door gently and opened it quietly, taking a peek inside. There, she saw Donghae sleeping on the couch with his mouth opened and his earphones in his ear. In the same room were his manager, stylist and coordinator.

___ bowed and greeted them politely before handing out some extra food that she had packed for them before sitting beside Donghae. She gently removed his earphones, trying her utmost best not to wake him up. However, he started to stir in his sleep and his eyes fluttered.

Smelling the aroma of the food that the staff and his manager was eating, Donghae murmured with his eyes still closed, “Hyung…I’m hungry too…”

His manager laughed, before telling him, “Then wake up first, and there’ll be food ready.”

Groaning and yawning, he sat up from the couch and rubbed his eyes. Blinking his eyes a few times, his eyes widened slightly upon seeing that ___ was just beside him, smiling and tidying his bed hair for him.

“___ ? What brings you here ?” Donghae asked with a smile creeping on his lips.

“I came here to bring you lunch,” she said with a smile after she was done brushing his fringe to the side.

“Aigo, you didn’t have to, manager hyung could have got me some,” he said and her cheek, making her blush since they weren’t the only ones in the room.

“Well, it’s not good to be eating takeaways so often. Besides, there was nothing to do at home and I missed you…” she sulked.

He chuckled, before starting to eat whilst engaging in a small chat. The two hadn’t been able to spend time like this for the past few days. After a while, their manager came back into the room, handing Donghae a document.

“There you go, schedule for this week,” he said before leaving the room again to let them have some time to themselves.

Donghae scanned through the document before cheering, “Schedule ends at 4pm tmr !!”

Hearing this piece of news, ___ grinned. “Really ?”

“Mmhm ! I can finally spend some time with you !” He smiled, and after some thinking, he continued, “Hmm, do you want to…go on a date tmr ?”

“Date ?” She asked and cocked her head to a side.

“Yup, let’s go on a proper date. Just you and me, and we can watch movies and have dinner. How’s that ?” Donghae asked excitedly.

“That’d be really nice !” ___ replied with much enthusiasm, smiling adorably.

Donghae smiled seeing how happy ___ was at the mentioning of a date. He had been feeling a little guilty for a while now since she hadn’t got to experience going on a date ever since they started dating.

The next day,

“___-ah, it’s me ! I’m on the way home to pick you up, I’ll be there in about 15 minutes ! Oh, remember to dress warmly, it’s cold outside today,” Donghae told her through the phone.

“Ne, araso oppa ! Seeyou soon,” she replied before they hung up.

Very soon, ___ was dressed in a pair of skinnies and a polo tee with a winter coat over it accompanied with a pair of cute furry boots. Then, she made her way downstairs to the carpark to wait for Donghae’s arrival.

A few minutes later, a white Audi stopped in front of ___, causing her to look up from her phone screen to observe the unfamiliar vehicle.

“Hey beautiful,” Donghae said and smiled sweetly once he wined down the car window.

“Annyeong,” she replied and hopped on. “Who’s car did you borrow ?”

“Only Leeteuk hyung trusts me with his car, so…yeah,” Donghae said, making her giggle.

“By the way, you look great today. Nice hair,” he said and messed her bangs up for a bit before driving off.

After a while, while Donghae was reversing the car into a parking lot, ___ was staring out of the window in a daze.

“Okay let’s go !” Donghae called when he was done reversing the car, “…___ ?”

“O-oh…hmm ?” She turned to look at Donghae, seemingly distracted.

“Ya, what were you thinking about ?” He asked as he took her hands in his.

“Nothing much…” she replied.

Hearing this, he said, “Tell me about it.”

“I was thinking…” she said with much thought. “Won’t you get into trouble ? I mean, won’t a lot of people be looking ? What about your fans ? …maybe we should just go home or something…”

Donghae sighed, “Why would we go home after I drove all the way here, hun ? I know you’re concerned but…we’re dating and I think it’s perfectly fine that we go out like normal couples. Besides, I haven’t got a chance to really walk on the streets and watch a movie. So don’t worry about it, let’s just have fun, oppa will take care of you today, araso ?”

___ smiled, “Araso.”

DONGHAE’S POV

As expected, once we stepped into the mall, people slowly started to recognize us…or me, and were looking towards our direction. I felt ___’s grip get tighter on my hand and her palm getting clammy.

“It’s okay, they’re looking at you ‘cos you’re pretty today,” I said before rubbing her arm, trying to get her to relax since I felt her tense up.

We then decided to walk around the mall first before heading upstairs to the theatre. Meanwhile, several fans started following us from behind as we did our window-shopping.

“If you like something or want to take a look just tell me, okay ? Don’t have to be shy,” I told her.

It seemed to me that she was uncomfortable with the crowd, constantly holding onto my hand tighter and looking away. I sighed, this wasn’t how our date was supposed to be.

“Oppa, can I have your autograph ?” A fan from behind asked me, leaving me with no choice but to turn around since ignoring it would only cause the fans to be unhappy. Besides, ___ was with me. What if they hurt her out of anger ?

I tried to put on the best smile I have, before signing my name on her iPad. Then, the rest of the fangirls started requesting for my signature, causing me to turn towards ___ for help.

“Aniyo, it’s okay, I’ll wait for you…” ___ said with a small smile before continuing to look at the displays of the nearby shops.

There were quite a number of fans, and more seemed to be joining in by the minute. I could see ___ occasionally peeping at me from the corner of my eye, probably wondering if I was done signing.

“Ya ! Just because Donghae oppa is an idol, don’t you go around making him spend his hard earned money on you !” I heard a fan shout behind me, obviously to ___ who was simply taking a look at the Tiffany and Co. displays.

Yes, though she was a fan, I was angry, angry at her for treating ___ this way. I finished off signing the album that was in my hand and returned it to the fan before walking towards ___.

“We’re going on a date now, I’d really appreciate if you would give her some space and not shout at her like that. She didn’t do anything wrong to you, so if you’re unhappy you can come talk to me about it,” I said, sounding stern yet controlling my volume. Then, I turned towards ___ and whispered, “Don’t mind them, we can go in and take a look if you like anything, alright hun ?”

However, ___ still looked seemingly shocked and afraid as she continued looking at the pairs of accusing eyes looking at her. Then, without any warning, she simply ran away towards the nearby stairs that led to the car park. I chased after her, calling for her name and asking her to stop, but she simply chose to ignore it.

I could hear her footsteps as she ran down the stairs, fast and light. “___ ! WAIT, STOP RUNNING !” I called out.

Skipping steps, I continued running after her, but the chase didn’t seem to end. It was then when she turned to the left, and ran out of the door towards the car park.

“HEY WAIT ___, IT’S DANGEROUS !” I warned.

I followed closely behind her, and grabbed the door handle to pull it open before it closed behind ___, to see her dash into the way of an incoming high-speed vehicle.

The loud horn of the car was heard and she stood rooted to the ground, blinded by the headlights in shock…