After the situation with Jonghyun, things started to go back to normal. I’m glad everything got fixed because I hated how the tension felt in the air at the dorm, also it was great timing since SHINee then became very busy. SM was making the boys make Japanese versions of their singles from the past, Replay, Juliette, and Lucifer. This means they’re going to be traveling to Japan a lot soon to promote the songs. I hardly get to talk to them much because they’re busy recording, they get home late, and on days off, the guys study Japanese. Key is pretty good at Japanese so he doesn’t have to study as hard as the others, but he still does since he says that he’s still not fluent. Sadly, Minho and Taemin seem to be the worst at Japanese, so they have to study the most which means I barely talk to them. Still, no matter how busy they are, the guys make an effort to talk to me to see how I’m doing. Compared to them, I feel like I’m free all the time, but I still work hard.

Right now, I’m in the dance studio lying on the floor listening to some music. The current song playing on my iPod is Passion by Utada Hikaru and I’m singing along to it. Before Kpop, I was introduced to anime and Jpop in middle school. I find it easier learning Japanese lyrics than Korean lyrics, I think it has to do with the Japanese language being more phonetic or I’ve known Jpop longer. ‘It’s sad, I’ve listened to Japanese for so long, but never actually paid attention. If I did then I would probably be fluent in the language by now. Well, I’m happy I’m fluent in Korean because then I wouldn’t be in Korea debuting.’ I’m still singing along with my eyes closed until I feel one of my ear buds being pulled out. I sit up surprised to see who the culprit is and I turn around to see Minho squatting while holding my ear bud with a smirk on his face.

“What are you listening to?” He asks curiously while sticking the ear bud in his ear.

“Minho-oppa? What are you doing here?” I’m a little surprised to see him here since he should be busy recording right now.

It takes a few seconds until he pulls it out with a look of disgust, “It’s Japanese, I’ve heard enough of the language.”

I chuckle at his childish reaction, “I think you should listen to as much Japanese as possible since you’re still really bad at it.” He scrunches his nose handing me back the ear bud like it’s poisonous and then stands up. I also get on my feet facing him and attempt to ask the question again, “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in the recording studio?”

“Ne, but our manager gave us a ten minute break and I wanted to see you since I hardly get to.” Minho says smiling.

“Gomawo.” I smile and it’s the only thing I say because I’m still not used to him being so sweet, so I still get shy. Even though Minho and I confessed to each other, we haven’t been on an official date yet since SHINee has been so busy. We probably won’t have a date for a while since next week, second week of May, their first Japanese single Replay will be out and they’ll be flying over there to start promoting. ‘I won’t be seeing Minho for a long time.’

My smile falters and Minho takes notice assuming why, “Mianhae, I’ve hardly seen you these past weeks and I feel bad that I’m going to Japan next week.” He looks down at the ground frowning.

“Anio! Don’t feel bad! It’s what you have to do for the group and the fans. I’m a really patient person, so I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.” I rest my hand on his shoulder and give my best smile looking up at him. Reassuring him seems to have lifted his mood and Minho gives me a smile. “Anyway, you should get back before you get in trouble. I’ll see you back at the dorm.”

“Ne, but I didn’t do what I came here to do yet.” He now smirks at me. I tilt my head a little confused. Minho starts grinning, “I came here to tell you that before leaving for Japan I have a day off.”

I instantly get excited knowing what he means, “So that means…”

He chuckles seeing my excitement and nods, “Ne, we’re finally going to be able to go on a date.”

“Jinjja!?” I hop up and down not being able to contain my happiness while Minho continues to chuckle at my reaction. All of a sudden I stop jumping when I remember something and instantly frown, “…I don’t have off that day.” His smile is also wiped off his face hearing this news. ‘What if…’ “Well, what if I don’t come in for practice that day?”

“Yah, I don’t want you to get in trouble.” Minho says to me concerned.

“It actually was a day off for me, until Seunghye-ssi decided to add on another practice. It’s a short schedule anyway; I can just say I wasn’t feeling well.” I smirk thinking out the plan.

“Molla…” He still looks hesitant about me skipping for the date.

“Oppa, gwenchana.” I walk over to Minho and grab his hand smiling up at him, “I’ll take the risk since it’s a rare opportunity to hang out with you and it’s right before you leave.”

He finally sighs in defeat, “Arasseo, but this is the only time you skip your schedule.” I start becoming cheerful again nodding my head up and down.

“So what should we do for the date?” I ask to see if he has any ideas.

He pats my head, “I’ll let you know when it’s that day. I should go back before I’m late.” He starts walking towards the door.

“Yah! That’s not fair! Can’t you at least give me a hint?” I pout even though Minho’s back is facing me.

He turns around and smirks, “Ani.” With that said he waves goodbye before closing the door, leaving me to think as to where he would take me. It distracts me for the rest of the day and I even have trouble sleeping that night.

Two days pass and tomorrow is the date with Minho. I tried different ways to make Minho slip into telling me where we’re going. I even used Taemin once, but Minho’s smart enough to not tell him anything, so no luck. I’m on the couch in the dorm staring up at the ceiling while pondering different places Minho would take me. ‘Since he likes sports…would he take me to a game? Maybe we’ll play a game? Oh gosh, what if it’s soccer!? I’m so bad at soccer!’ I sit up quickly with that thought and I somehow slide off the couch causing a loud thud with my legs up in the air. Key happens to walk into the living room with grocery bags to see my situation.

“Ike mwoya?” He stares at me looking confused.

“Ah…I fell off the couch sitting up too quickly…” I fix myself sitting properly with pretzel legs and look up at Key with a cheesy grin. He rolls his eyes like he’s used to seeing something like this, which he is. He turns around walking over to the kitchen putting the grocery bags on the table and begins to put everything away. “Why are you here?”

He glances over to me and turns to put eggs into the refrigerator, “I got to leave early since today was mainly Japanese lessons and they said I didn’t have to stay since my Japanese is good enough. I would have stayed anyway, but I haven’t made dinner for everyone in a while, so I went shopping and decided to cook dinner tonight.”

“Ah…” Is the only response that comes out of my mouth. ‘Wow, Key is really good with languages. He’s basically fluent in English and now he’s almost fluent in Japanese.’

Key starts to cook once he finishes putting everything away, “So why exactly did you sit up quickly that caused you to fall off the couch?”

Instead of responding, I walk over to the kitchen and hop on the counter far enough that I’m not in his way, “Key-eomma?” All he says is “Mm” as a response while he concentrates cutting vegetables. “Do you know what Minho-oppa has planned for tomorrow?”

Key stops cutting and looks over at me confused, “Mwo?”

“Remember? Minho and I are going on a date tomorrow. He hasn’t told me where we’re going.” I say trying to jog his memory.

I can tell it clicks in his head from his expression and he goes back to cutting, “Ah, molla.” I slouch hearing his response. He then speaks up again without removing his eyes from the vegetables, “Why can’t you just wait until tomorrow to find out?”

“Alla, I’m just excited and want to know now. Plus, I don’t know what to wear since I don’t know where we’re going.” I pout saying this which just makes Key chuckle.

“Dress nicely, but I would recommend wearing comfortable shoes.” He says nonchalantly.

My mouth slightly opens when hearing this, “Yah! You know where he’s taking me!?” His response is another “Mm” with a head nod. “Tell me! Jebal, Key-eomma.” I try to ask him using aegyo.

“Ani.” He says straightforwardly.

“Wae!?”

“Like I said, just wait until tomorrow. I’m not going to spoil the surprise because you’re impatient.” Key says this while putting the cut vegetables to the side. I sigh in defeat because I know I won’t get any information out of him. He now starts to put rice into the rice cooker that’s on the other side of me so I scoot over a little. While focusing on how much rice to put in, he says something I don’t expect, “I think you should talk to Krystal-ah before going on the date tomorrow.”

“Mwo?” I’m honestly confused as to why he brought up Krystal. Once Key finishes with the rice, he looks straight at me giving me a serious expression, “Don’t you think you should? Krystal-ah was in a relationship with Minho-ah before you and he dumped her for you. Don’t you think you should make sure there are no hard feelings between you and her?”

“I honestly never thought about it since I was so focused on Jonghyun-oppa at that time.” I put my head down thinking about it and I start feeling guilty. ‘She probably feels hurt like Jonghyun did.’

“Get up early tomorrow and talk to her before going on the date.” Key now walks over to the sink to rinse the meat off.

“Do you really think it’s a good idea? I mean…wouldn’t I be in the same position as Minho-oppa was with Jonghyun-oppa?” I ask him a little worried.

“Ne, which is why you need to clear the air.” I stay silent wondering how I should talk to Krystal about it. Key then speaks again breaking me from my train of thought, “She’s going to be in the dance studio early tomorrow. You probably shouldn’t tell Minho-ah that you’re going to talk to Krystal-ah.”

“Mwo!? Wae?”

He sighs like the answer is so obvious and turns to me again, “Don’t you think he’ll stop you from talking to her?”

“…I guess.”

“Besides, it’s between you and her now. Minho-ah did his part with talking to her, but you still haven’t.” He now starts cooking the meat and vegetables.

I hop off the counter walking over to him at the stove, “You made your point. I’ll wake up early and meet with Krystal-ah.” I tiptoe looking over Key’s shoulder now curious about what he’s been cooking the whole time we were talking. “What are you making?”

He simply states, “Bibimbap.”

“Ah! My favorite!” I get excited and start to feel my stomach growl. I then get an idea, “Um…tomorrow, for my date…is it possible for me to make lunch?”

Key’s focusing on not burning anything so he doesn’t hear me, “Mwo?”

“Do you think it’s possible for me to make lunch for my date tomorrow or am I going somewhere to eat?” I ask him differently this time.

“I told you that you have to wait and see what you’re going to do.” He’s done cooking and starts preparing the dishes. I decide to help by setting up the table, “Ani, I’m not asking what we’re doing…I just want to make lunch for Minho-oppa and I, but I don’t want to make it if part of the date is eating somewhere.”

I look over to Key and see him contemplate on how to answer, “Whether you make the lunch or not, it’ll be fine.”

“So…that means I can?” He gives me a nod and I smile until I ask him another question, “Um, do you think you can help me a little with making it?”

Key walks over with the food placing the bowels on the table and chuckles, “Keurochi! If you want to make it a surprise, that means we’ll do it after everyone has gone to sleep.”

I sigh hearing this, “I’m not going to get much sleep am I?”

“It’s the price you pay for love.” Key smirks and pinches my cheek.

I blush slightly pulling away from Key’s hand and rubbing my cheek, “Y-Yah!” As soon as the table and dinner are all done, I hear the door open to the dorm and footsteps. I turn my head to Key, “You have great timing.” All he does is smirk and takes his seat at the table. Everyone walks in and instantly sits down at the table to eat the dinner Key prepared, which is of course delicious.

Right when everyone is tired and decides to go to bed, Key and I prepare to make the lunch for tomorrow. During the process of Key teaching me how to cook rice and meat properly, I realize that Key would be the teacher that students hate. He is very strict and wants to make sure how I do it is perfect, but it’s not that bad since I want the lunch to be amazing for Minho. Once the lunch is nicely put in the boxes for it, I take a look at what time it is. ‘Oh wow, it’s 1am!? It actually two hours? I guess it would since I did burn a few things.’ When I notice the time I can feel tiredness overcome me. It’s the same for Key so we quickly clean the kitchen and then head for bed. Sadly, I have to wake up at around 6am, maybe earlier, since I have to meet with Krystal before I go on my date with Minho. ‘He said that we’re going to leave for the date at 11am so I think 6am will be fine. Ugh, I’m a person who loves to sleep and I’m only going to have five hours to sleep. I wake up early enough for my schedules, but love to sleep in on my days off...it’s worth it though since tomorrow isn’t a normal day off.’ Before sleeping, I set my alarm and then quickly drift off in my dream world.

The next thing I know, my alarm goes off and it’s 6am, yet it feels like I just closed my eyes. It takes me a good ten minutes to drag myself off my bed. Since I don’t have to look nice yet, I take my shower and then put on sweats with a shirt. I grab my jacket and head for the building. As I get closer to the building, my nerves start to grow thinking about how the conversation will be with Krystal. After thirty minutes I arrive at the SM building, ‘Key said that she’s going to be in the dance studio.’ I enter and slowly walk towards the room. Before entering I take a deep breath and then I knock. I hear someone tell me to come in and when I do, f(x) is sitting on the floor most likely taking a break.

The first one to get up and walk over is Amber, “Kate! Hey, what’s up? I haven’t seen you since the photo shoot.” Amber says this to me in English while giving me a quick hug.

I reply back to her in English, “Hey, I’ve been good. It really has been a long time since I’ve seen you all. We should hang out when we’re both free.” Amber smiles and gives me a nod. I then say hi to the others who were still sitting.

“So, what brings you here?” The voice this time is Luna who’s now getting up to walk over while taking a sip from her water bottle.

Almost forgetting the purpose of my visit I feel my nerves come back, “Ah!” I turn my head towards Krystal who’s still sitting, “Krystal-ah, can I talk to you for moment?”

The girls look confused and turn their heads towards Krystal while she stands up, “Sure.” She starts walking over and then we exit out of the room a little way down the hall to get some privacy. Before I speak, she does, “What do you want to talk to me about?” I don’t notice until now that she has had a straight face since I came into the room.

“Um, well…you see…” I avoid her eyes unsure how to start. ‘I forgot to ask Key if she even knows that I’m now dating Minho! I think Minho only broke up with her, but didn’t say anything about dating me!’

“Is it about Minho-oppa?” Krystal says so straightforward. I look up at her surprised which confirms her question. She does a small smile, “So I was right about the girl being you.” It’s said quietly like she meant to say it to herself, but I hear it.

“Mwo?” I look at her curiously.

“When Minho-oppa ended it with me, he said it was because he loves someone. I assumed it was you.” Her smile doesn’t falter when explaining it to me.

“Ah…I see.” I start to feel the guilt, “Krystal-ah, mianhae. Jangmal mianhae.” I apologize to Krystal hoping she will be ok and not hold a grudge against me.

What I don’t expect from her is chuckling, “Anio, gwenchana. You don’t have to apologize because Minho-oppa and I weren’t really a couple.”

My mouth drops hearing this and I’m taken by surprise, “Mwo!? Jinjja!?”

“Ne, it was something the company wanted for publicity, so what Minho-oppa ended was the act of being a couple.” She chuckles once again from my reaction.

“H-Hajiman…it looked so real! All the hugging, holding hands…and kissing!? All of it was fake!?” I really can’t believe what I’m hearing.

She nods her head and then says something that takes me off guard again, “Even though we personally ended it, the company doesn’t know and the public still thinks we’re a couple. This means we still have to pretend in front of all of them since I’m guessing you want the relationship with him to be a secret right?” I can feel my head spinning obtaining all this new information and I hold my head trying to process what is going on. “I thought since you two are now together, Minho-oppa told you all this. I guess you guys should talk about this.” I’m so buried in my own thoughts, but I’m snapped out of them when she says that. “Anyway, I need to go back to the dance studio and practice more. Annyeong, Eonni. I hope you and Minho-oppa are happy together. I’m sure you both will work things out.” She says this hugging me and then she quickly walks back to the dance studio leaving me standing in the middle of the hallway stunned.

On my way back to the dorm, my head is filled with thoughts as to why Minho didn’t tell me anything about this. ‘Maybe since we just got together, he didn’t want me to worry about it right now. Then when would he have told me? After they got back doing promotions in Japan? Does he even know that he still needs to act like a couple with Krystal? Has he still been acting like a couple with Krystal?’ My mind then goes to the conversation with Krystal. ‘She seemed ok with it, which is good. Since it was a fake relationship, there are no hurt feelings. Still, something feels off about it…like maybe she’s too ok with it? No, I’m probably over-thinking things like I always do; I just didn’t expect that reaction.’ By the time I snap out of my thoughts, I’m at the dorm. ‘Well, I’m going to forget about it today since I don’t want to ruin our first date. I’m probably making a big deal out of nothing.’ I walk upstairs to the dorm and when entering I see all the guys except for Minho, eating breakfast. They turn to me when they hear me come in.

“Kate-ah? Where did you go out to?” Onew says while still having food in his mouth.

There was no need to lie where I was, “Oh, I went to SM to talk to Krystal-ah.”

They look a little surprised and Jonghyun speaks up with curiosity, “How did it go?”

I don’t really want to tell them everything now, “It surprisingly went well.”

“Hm, so someone who is younger than you actually talked to the other person and took it well.” I think everyone in the room knows who Key is addressing and the atmosphere becomes a little awkward, but quickly fades when Jonghyun just sticks his tongue out at him. Key then turns to me, “It must have been a long talk.”

“Wae?” I turn to look at what time it is and the clock reads 9am. ‘I only have two hours to get ready!?’ I then remember the person I’m supposed to go out with today, “Minho-oppa neun eodisseo?”

“He’s still sleeping.” Key responds flatly. I give him a look of disbelief and he sighs, “I thought you would like to have the honor of waking him up.” I just glare at him before I also sigh and walk towards the guys’ room. ‘I don’t know what made them bestow the honor of me waking him up when he’s the hardest one to get up. Of course they had to do something to tease me about our date.’ I open the door and my eyes immediately go to Minho’s bed which is the bottom of the right bunk bed. I can definitely see a body under the comforter sleeping peacefully and I walk over climbing onto the middle bed between the two sets of bunk beds which happens to be Onew’s bed.

While crawling on Onew’s bed getting closer to Minho’s head I whisper, “Minho-oppa illeona.” I’m about to shake his shoulder, but I stop when I finally look at his face. It’s only the second time I’m seeing Minho sleep and I can now see why the guys left it up to me to wake him up. ‘He looks so peaceful and sweet like a child.’ What makes the scene of him sleeping better is the little bit of sunlight hitting his face through the window near him and it makes Minho appear angelic. Instead of waking him up, I quickly and quietly crawl off Onew’s bed running to my room. I search through my room for the object I’m looking for, but I haven’t used it in so long. Finally, I find it and run back to the sleeping Minho once again crawling on Onew’s bed to him. I sit myself pretzel-legged facing him and pull out my sketchbook, ‘I can give up thirty minutes of getting ready for this.’

Twenty minutes pass by and I’m almost done drawing Minho. I’m lucky that Minho hasn’t moved from the position he’s sleeping in and the drawing is actually pretty good. I could have just taken a picture, but I haven’t felt inspiration to sketch in a long time and Minho brought the spark back. Plus, it gave me a good reason to stare at his angelic sleeping face. I put the last few touches on the drawing where I just fix the shading a little and I don’t have to look at Minho. Ten minutes of editing and I’m finished feeling satisfied. My eyes go to Minho to compare the drawing just in case I need any changes, but when I do, I see him looking straight at me with a smile.

This makes me jump almost having a heart attack, “Y-Yah! When did you wake up!?”

Minho lifts his head propping it with his right hand, “Ten minutes ago, but I didn’t say anything because you looked so into drawing and didn’t want to disturb you.” I feel a blush creep up on my face now knowing that Minho was watching me sketch him for ten minutes. I’m so spaced out in my own embarrassment that I don’t notice him sit up and about to grab my sketchbook. I try to quickly get it but, Minho already has it in his grasp.

“Ani! Don’t look at it!” I try to reach for it, but he holds it away chuckling.

“This is really good! I didn’t know you can draw like this, Kate-ah!” He says this while viewing the sketch, but it’s quickly interrupted when I lean over reaching for it making me fall on Minho causing him to fall backwards. The sketchbook completely left my focus when I realize I’m completely on top of Minho and my face is now just a few centimeters away from his. We stay frozen both looking at each other with surprised expressions. I can feel his breath on me and I also notice Minho’s cheeks tinted a little with red, so I know I’m definitely blushing. We’re snapped out of the moment when we hear the door to the bedroom open.

“Yah! What are you guys doing!?” Both of our heads turn towards the door to see a shocked Key and the other guys behind him with the same expression. Once again we both don’t move just staring at the guys at the door. “At least wait until the end of the date and don’t do it in broad daylight!” Minho and I quickly get up from the bed standing up feeling embarrassed.

“It’s not what you think! I drew Minho-oppa and when he took my sketchbook, I tried getting it back which resulted in me falling on him!” I try to explain the situation to all of them who are now giving me skeptical looks. Minho agrees with me telling them it’s true, but Key still gives us an eyebrow raise. Onew is trying not to laugh, Jonghyun has a look of disbelief, and Taemin is straight-faced but I have a feeling he’s freaking out on the inside.

“I’m watching you two.” Key says before walking out and the others follow leaving the both of us. We look at each other in silence, and then all of a sudden we break out laughing. Even though it was embarrassing, the situation was still funny.

When the laughter is settled down into chuckles, Minho pats my head smiling, “We should get ready for our date.”

“Arasseo! I’ll see you in the living room at 11am!” I get excited knowing that today is the day I go on an official date with Minho.

Walking towards the door to exit, I’m stopped by Minho, “Kate-ah, don’t forget your sketchbook.” He walks over to me and hands it back. “It really is a good drawing.” Taking it back, I say thank you and then leave the room to go to mine. As soon as I close my door, I’m in preparation mode, ‘I have an hour and a half to get ready…challenge accepted.’ This causes me to immediately pull out clothes from my closet tossing some on the floor I don’t like and throwing potential outfits on my bed. Once I go through the closet I look at the clothes on the bed, ‘Key said to look nice, but wear comfortable shoes. So…I guess it’s nothing active.’

After fifteen minutes of contemplating, I finally decide on an outfit I’m satisfied with. I choose a long-sleeve sweater dress down to the knee that has a thick red and white horizontal stripped pattern. Since it’s still a little chilly outside, I wear black tights and to top it off, flat black ankle boots that are by the door of the dorm. ‘This is stylish and the boots are comfortable, so this is good.’ For accessories, I put on medium-sized silver hoops and a long chain necklace with an owl at the bottom that has black jewels for eyes. I look in the mirror satisfied until I notice my bed hair, ‘Did my hair look like this in front of Minho!?’ The wave of embarrassment passes when I notice I only have a half hour before it’s 11am. My hair is naturally curly, but luckily it’s just a little wavy right now so I straighten it in fifteen minutes and I just part it to the right leaving it down as the style. For make-up, since I’m not a huge fan, I put on BB cream, eyeliner and a little bit of lip gloss. For the finishing touch, I’ll put on my brown leather jacket, which is also by the entrance of the dorm, to complete the outfit. When fixing my hair in the mirror, I hear a knock on my door, ‘Probably Key to judge my outfit.’ I call for the person to come in and I’m a little surprised to see Jonghyun.

He walks in closing the door smiling and walking over to me, “Kate-ah, neomu yeppeo.”

“Gomawo, Jonghyun-oppa.” I blush a little averting my eyes to the floor, but then when I look up at Jonghyun again, I notice his smile isn’t completely genuine. “Gwenchana?”

His eyes widen a little, but quickly go back to normal smiling bigger, “Ne, keurochi.” I walk over to Jonghyun putting my hand on his shoulder and he sighs, “It’s just that…I’m still a little upset, but don’t worry. I’ll get over you eventually, so don’t feel guilty and enjoy the date with Minho-ah.”

My hand drops from his shoulder and I hug him, “Gomawo.” He returns the hug and after I part, I get a random idea, “What if I know someone you might like?”

“Mwo?” Jonghyun now is giving me a questioning look.

I explain, “Well when I first met you, you reminded me of one of my friends back in New York. I have a feeling you two would get along.”

“M-Molla.” He rubs the back of his neck looking unsure.

“Well, not right away, when you feel better.” I give him a reassuring smile, “Trust me.”

Jonghyun sighs and then smiles back, “Arasseo, I’ll let you know.”

“Joah!” I get excited until I remember one crucial detail and I look at him seriously, “Jonghyun-oppa, you really need to work on your English.”

“Mwo? Why bring that up?”

I look away from him, “Well, one of the reasons why you reminded me of my friend is…you both are really bad at languages. She doesn’t know that much Korean, but she’s practicing and you’re really bad at English, so you should start practicing more.”

“Aigo! Yah! Kate-ah!” Jonghyun seems a little frustrated now.

I laugh at his reaction, “Mwo? Afraid of English? I’m not going to be a third-wheel translating for you two when you guys meet!” He mumbles something I can’t hear and folds his arms. “Don’t worry; I’ll be your tutor. It will be good to learn English anyway for your career.”

After some more thinking he sighs, “Arasseo, arasseo.” I give him another hug before I head towards my door, “Kate-ah.” I turn around to see Jonghyun grinning, “Have fun.” I give him a thumbs up and then exit heading for the living room. When walking down the hallway I feel as light as a feather feeling really happy things are working out for everyone. As I turn the corner, I see everyone patiently waiting sitting on the couch. My eyes go to Minho who’s sitting on a chair at the table staring down and his legging shaking, ‘Is he nervous?’

I chuckle which draws Onew’s attention, “Kate-ah, you’re ready.” Everyone turns their heads towards me standing up and I’m already starting to feel the embarrassment.

Key of course walks over looking me up and down, “Hm, you did what I suggested, stylish, but comfortable. Joah!” Since he’s the fashionista of the group, it makes me happy knowing he approves.

“Noona, you look really nice.” Taemin speaks now and next to him is Onew who nods with two thumbs up agreeing with what he said.

“Gomawo!” I smile sheepishly at them. Jonghyun now enters the living room walking past me towards Minho.

He pats his back grinning, “Yah! She’s your date! You should be complimenting her!” My eyes now fall on Minho and he looks a little stunned. My eyes then scan at what he’s wearing, which is a dark blue plaid dress shirt and it’s tucked into his jeans. The dress shirt is ed a little and the sleeves are rolled up to his elbow. ‘He looks so handsome.’ I’m snapped out of my trance when Minho starts walking towards me.

My eyes don’t leave his and once he’s right in front of me, a small smile graces his lips, “You look beautiful.”

I can’t even hold a smile back and grin, “Gomawo. Oppa, neo-neun meoshisseo.” He chuckles and says thank you to me too.

“Aish! You guys are so shy with each other!” Key breaks the moment we were having. Minho then reminds us all why he’s called the flaming charisma when he glares at him. Key just scoffs and mumbles something about how he rather us be how we were on the bed which earns a blush from me. Minho also hears it and shoves him in the shoulder a little.

“Ready to go?” Minho’s attention goes back to me.

“Ne!” I can’t hide my excitement and I don’t even care. We start walking over to the door. I put on my brown leather jacket and black ankle boots. Minho puts on a black leather jacket, black sneakers and also brings a dark brown backpack. Of course, he also puts on his black cap and aviators to make sure no one recognizes him.

We’re about to leave until it clicks I’m missing something obvious, “Ah! I forgot my bag!” ‘How could I forget it!?’

I’m about to walk to my room when Key pops up with my black leather shoulder bag, “Yeogi. I manage to put in what we worked on last night too.” ‘How could I forget about the lunch I worked on late last night too!?’ I say thank you and then we say our last goodbyes exiting the dorm.

As soon as we do exit, I notice Minho hold my hand, “Excited?”

“Keurochi! I’ve been trying to think where you’re taking me, but I still have no idea. I’ll finally be able to find out.” He chuckles at my response and I stick my tongue out at him. ‘I have a feeling this is going to be a great date.’ We get into the van driving us and the anticipation is growing in me the closer we get to the destination. The car starts to slow down and then comes to a stop meaning we’ve arrived.

I’m about to jump out of the car until Minho grabs my wrist, “Ani, you have to put this on first.”

In his hand he’s holding a blindfold and I pout, “Wae?”

“You waited this long, can’t you wait a few more seconds? I want it to be a surprise.” Minho gives me a look that I can’t say no to so I sigh and put the blindfold on. He puts his hands on my shoulders guiding me and I try to listen to the sounds around me. ‘There are definitely a lot of people. Is it ok to be in such a public area? What if Minho gets recognized?’ He stops me and says I can take it off now which is exactly what I do. What I see in front of me is the entrance to the zoo.

“Omo! The zoo!?” I feel the inner kid in me emerging and I grin like an idiot. 

He chuckles at my excitement, “Do you like it?”

My response is turning and giving him a giant hug, “I love it!”

He grabs my hand, “Kaja!” We enter the zoo and he gets a map so we can see where everything is. “Where do you want to go first?”

“It doesn’t matter to me; let’s try to see as much as we can.” I’m right now too hyper to choose anything.

“Arasseo, but I think we should go over there before we see anything.” My eyes follow to where Minho is pointing and I see the zoo gift shop. Before I can say anything he pulls me over to it going straight to the headband section and I already know what he’s going to do. ‘I only thought this happened in dramas!’ He looks at me and then scans the headbands. Finally he picks up a panda ear headband putting it on my head making sure it’s on straight.

“Gwiyeopda.” He says to me looking at me straight in the eye smiling. I blush from how close his face is and what he said.

My eyes drift over to the headbands and I spot one I like, “I think you should have one too.” I grab a cheetah ear headband and even though I tiptoe, I can’t reach Minho’s head. He laughs at this and then bends down a little so I can put it on over his hat. “Since it’s basically black, it blends in with your hat.” We both look in the mirror and now we’re ready to travel through the zoo. He buys both of the headbands and we set out to see what animal we run into first. The first animals we see are pandas, which happen to be my favorite.

“Omo! Pandas!” I run over to get a closer look and Minho follows right behind me. “Ah! Neomu gwiyeopda!” I take out the camera that I brought with me from my bag and take a few pictures of them.

“I made the right decision of choosing panda ears for you.” After Minho says that, one of the pandas look over in our direction. “See? They think you’re one of them!” We both laugh and I wave to the panda, but it just turns around continuing to eat bamboo.

When walking to the next animal I ask Minho a question, “Why did you choose the panda ears for me?”

He looks up in thought, “Hmm, well I remember when I won you the panda stuffed animal at the amusement park, you looked so happy when I gave it you. So I thought you really liked them.”

I’m surprised he remembers that, “Well, your guess was right because they’re my favorite animal, but you’re partly wrong to why I was so happy that day.”

“Wae?”

I blush a little, “I was mostly happy because you were the one who won it for me.” I feel him pinch my cheek and I just blush more. While walking around, we see lions, giraffes, monkeys and a few other animals. I made sure to take a few pictures of each animal we see.  We now happen to walk into the bird section and the first thing we spot is a parrot. There are kids trying to make it repeat what they’re saying and what impresses me is that the parrot is speaking Korean.

Once it clears out, Minho leans over and tries, “Annyeong!”

“Annyeong!” The parrot repeats what he said.

“Omo! That’s crazy!” I’m speechless at this point.

Minho looks over to me, “Wae? You never heard a parrot do this before?”

“Ani! I have, but only in English. I never heard a parrot speak a different language!” I explain my astonishment to him while staring at the bird.

Once again, Minho laughs at my reaction, “Well, the parrots here were raised in Korea their whole lives, but they should be able to repeat anything. Try talking to it in English.”

I bend over to get closer to the parrot, “Hello!” The parrot remains silent, “Hello!” The parrot still doesn’t repeat me, but I try one more time, “Hello!”

“Hello!” Finally after the third try, it speaks. I turn around to Minho happy I succeeded and I see him secretly doing the dance move to SHINee’s song, “Hello.”

“Y-Yah! You shouldn’t do that here. You might get recognized.” I walk over whispering to him.

He stops realizing that he’s still in disguise, “Mianhae.”

I can tell I ruined the mood and I try to change the subject, “Gwenchana. How about we find a bench and take a break?” We go through the bird section taking a few moments at birds we find interesting and then we search for a bench to sit at. We decide to sit at a bench where it’s somewhat secluded under a tree so Minho can relax a little.

“Mianhae, I should really know better by now and not do something like that. I guess I just forgot that I’m in disguise since I’m having fun with you.” He apologizes again about before once sitting on my right.

“Minho-oppa, gwenchana. You were having fun; you shouldn’t apologize for having fun.” I rest my hand on his to make him feel better.

“Ne, but if I was recognized, it would have been really bad for both of us.” He’s still upset about his mistake. ‘I wish he wouldn’t beat himself up so much.’

I then think of a great way to cheer him up, “Oppa, Baekopa?” I pull the lunchboxes I made out of my bag, “I made lunch for both of us!”

He turns to me holding the boxes and smiles, “Omo! You really made all this?” He opens one of the boxes and it has rice with beef in it.

“Well, I did have help from Key-oppa.” I open the other box and it has kimichi with a few other side foods. 

I hand him chopsticks and takes a bite of the meat, “Neomu mada!” He then grabs a spoon and eats some rice.

“Jinjja!?” It’s such a good feeling seeing him enjoy the food I prepared. He nods with a full mouth and I laugh.

He notices I haven’t taken a bite yet and grabs a piece of meat, “Eat. Remember you need to eat too.” I hear the concern in his voice which makes me think he’s remembering what happened to me back at the hospital.

“Ne, don’t worry I will.” Minho feeds me the piece of meat and then does the same with the rice. “Oh wow! This is good!” It’s funny that I’m surprised by my own cooking. We then both consume both boxes of food and we’re so full that we decide to sit for a while to digest. We remain in silence for a few minutes, but I start to feel a little anxious. ‘What should I talk about with him? I’m usually fine talking with Minho, but I guess I’m nervous since it’s my first date with him.’

My mind is blank on topics, but Minho saves me by talking first, “Kate-ah, how did you learn to draw like that?”

“Mwo?” It’s a topic I didn’t think he would talk about.

I turn my head to him and he’s looking at me, “I’m talking about the drawing you did of me this morning.”

“A-Ah.” The embarrassment from this morning returns and I look down at my hands while explaining, “Well, I’ve been drawing since I was really young and it’s fun for me, so I took art classes in high school and then decided to be an art major when I entered college. I was going to specialize in 3D animation.”

“Omo! That’s really awesome!” When I see Minho’s face, from what I can see behind his sunglasses, he looks impressed.

I chuckle at his child-like behavior, “Jinjja? I guess it’s kind of cool. Truthfully, the sketch I did this morning was the first one I did in a long time.”

“Wae? You said that you like to draw.” He asks me now curious.

I just sigh, “Well, at first, I did it for fun, but as soon as I decided to do it for a career in the future, my feelings towards art changed. When I took classes, I was then graded for how creative I was, how neat the artwork was, and other things I was judged on. It was hard for me to do assignments because I needed to force an idea out of myself. I started feeling restricted, pressured, and I lost the inspiration to draw or do any type of art.”

It was silent for a moment until Minho speaks up, “Then how did you get into singing?”

From this question, I smile, “When I started to draw at an early age, I also started to sing. Singing was another passion of mine; it was my first choice as a career. I chose art because I knew it would be almost impossible for me to do a singing career. I went to auditions as a hobby, but also I still had that tiny bit of hope that maybe, out of everyone who wanted a singing a career, I was the exception. When my passion for art faded in high school, that’s when I was introduced to k-pop and I knew right away I wanted to do it. I knew it would be hard, but I trained myself for a long time and between that I went to any k-pop auditions that came to New York.”

“How many auditions did you go to?” I glance over and see that Minho is totally absorbed in my story.

I count in my head how many auditions, “Hm…around seven and two were SM auditions, not counting the audition I succeeded at.” I glance again at him and he looks a little surprised which I chuckle at, “Ne, I thought after the fifth time I was rejected, I would give up, but surprisingly I just wanted to improve myself more. I could never make that little bit of hope fade away, there was something in my gut telling me to keep going. I guess eight is the magic number for me since, well…here I am in Korea and I’m going to debut.” I get a little teary-eyed thinking back to all the hard work I did, but I try to recover before Minho sees me become emotional.

I don’t succeed in hiding it and I get a surprise hug from Minho all of a sudden, “I’m glad you didn’t lose hope. You became the exception.” After he says that it’s hard to keep myself from crying, but I smile and hug him back staying composed. When we pull away from the hug he grins showing all his teeth and then ruffles my hair a little. His face then changes like he has another question, “Ah, how was your family through all of this?”

I decide to answer the question quickly, “My brother supported me and my parents would help me sometimes with auditions. I didn’t want to burden them so I would keep the difficulties to myself. My friends were the ones I went to when I was upset and they really helped me out.” Minho’s happy with my response and then I talk again putting the attention on him, “Yah! It’s been all about me! We should also talk about you.”

“Arasseo, arasseo. What do you want to ask me?” He looks at me with an amused expression. I start thinking about something I want to know about him, but my mind is blank once again. Minho notices how long it’s taking me to think of a question and he smirks, “How big a fan are you of SHINee that you can’t think of something? Do you really know that much about me?”

I’m taken off-guard by the questions that I blush a noticeable red and Minho laughs, “Y-Yah! It’s my turn to ask a question!” He then stifles his laughter and gestures me to continue thinking. I do have a question in my head, ‘I want to know the situation I talked about with Krystal. Does he know? I shouldn’t ask now.’ Instead since he asked me before, I take his idea, “I don’t know much about you and your family.”

He thinks for a moment before responding with another smirk plastered on his face, “I should take you to meet them if you want to know.”

I start to freak out, “Ani! Minho-oppa it’s way too early for me to meet your family!”

Minho falls back in laughter at my panicked reaction, “Don’t worry, I’m only teasing you!”

When he sits up I just shove him making him fall sideways again, “Aigo! Why do you guys like to tease me so much!?”

After recovering from his fit of laughter he ruffles my hair once again, “Jaemisseo.” I pout at his reply while blushing a little. He then reaches over me and I see him grab my camera, “You’ve only taken pictures of the animals. We should take some photos together.” He wraps his arm around my shoulders and brings his face close to mine, cheek to cheek. I’m a little shocked from the sudden closeness, but recover quickly. He takes off his sunglasses and holds the camera up, “Smile! Hana, deul, set!” We take a few with different expressions and poses. After, Minho puts his sunglasses back on and I scroll through them, “I think this one is my favorite.” Minho points to the picture where he’s holding a peace sign with a photogenic smile while I’m making an ugly face sticking my tongue out. I shove him a little and he laughs, “Arasseo, no more teasing.” He takes a hold of my camera scanning the photos, “This is the one I like the most.” Minho hands it over to me and it’s the one where we both made half hearts with our hands connecting them while smiling.

“Ne, I like this one too. I’ll print these pictures on my next day off.” I say to him cheerfully.

Minho checks his phone to see what time it is, “It’s already four, we should start walking around more before it gets dark if we want to see more animals.”

I nod agreeing, “Kaja.” As soon as we start walking he takes hold of my hand. ‘No matter how many times he does it, I still get this warm feeling when he does this.’ We walk around to the areas we haven’t been to yet and we run into polar bears first, then we see penguins. Past that it’s the aquarium and whenever people look at fish, they can’t help but do the fish face at them, which is exactly what Minho and I do. I look around and I notice there are more teens than kids which makes me get a little nervous. It doesn’t last when the next animals we run into are river otters and I can’t help but gush at how cute they are. Like a little kid, I press myself up to the glass and Minho follows behind me.

“Eomma! Look at those two!” The voice I hear is coming from a little girl pointing towards the otters. I look towards the direction she’s pointing to and see two otters floating on their backs sleeping. What the little girl is talking about though is that the otters are holding hands while sleeping.

“Oppa! Look!” I copy the little girl showing Minho the otters. “I remember reading that otters hold hands while sleeping so they don’t drift away from each other. Ah, gwiyeopda!”

Of course, from seeing this, Minho then holds my hand again, “We shouldn’t drift apart either.”

“Oppa…that was a little cheesy.” I scrunch my nose at him trying to be romantic.

“True…but I still mean it!” He tries to recover and I laugh at him being flustered. Once he’s back to himself, he checks the time again, “Ah, it’s five-thirty, I think we should get going now.”

“Arasseo, let me just take a picture of the otters.” I take my camera out so I can take the picture of the otter couple. Once I do, Minho again grabs it from me and I look up at him questioningly.

“We should take one more photo of us.” He grins holding up the camera.

I look around the area again feeling my nerves come back, “Are you sure it’s a good idea?”

He takes a look around us and turns back to me, “If we take a quick one, we should be fine.” We turn around putting our backs to the glass. Minho takes his sunglasses off, we hold up our linked hands near our faces, and take a picture of us with the couple otter in the background. He quickly puts his sunglasses back on and I sigh from relief of him not being recognized.

We start heading towards the exit of the section until what I feared happens, “Omo! SHINee’s Choi Minho!”

We both stop suddenly from shock and the next thing I know, girls start coming towards our direction holding cameras. I’m not sure what to do, but I feel myself being pulled into a direction and I get scared thinking it’s a fan, but look over in some relief to see it’s Minho. He keeps a firm hold on my wrist while we try to get away from the fans running. Minho stops suddenly looking around to where we can go and points to the gift shop. We both run towards it and he opens a door in the back entering the room with me. It’s a medium-sized room with boxes so I’m guessing it’s a storage room. All of a sudden we hear banging at the door and many girl voices calling for Minho. He makes sure it’s locked and is leaning against the door with his back making sure no one can get in. Minho looks over to me with his face worried, concerned, and a little panicked. I’m frozen, fear overtaking me and my legs give out sinking to the floor, ‘What are we going to do!?’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Learn some Korean~!

Alla - I know (Add "yo" at the end to make it formal)

Illeona - Get up / Stand up / Wake up (Add "yo" at the end to make it formal)

Oppa, neo-neun meoshisseo - Oppa, you are/look handsome (Add "yo" at the end to make it formal)

Jaemiseo - It's fun (Add to the end "yo" to make it formal)

*Gasp* Surprised I updated so soon? Yep...I missed writing so I'm going to try to update once a week. I hope you guys had an awesome Thanksgiving! Did you guys stuff your faces until you were too full to move? Keke :P What do you think of my drawing of Minho? Ok so, I have two new ideas for stories in my head and I plan on writing them after this one (don't worry this one won't end yet), BUT I also have an idea for a sequel to this one. What do you guys think? Well, that's if you want to read a different fanfic of mine lol. Guys, please don't become silent readers! I really miss your comments and it motivates me to write. I really like hearing what you have to say. Ah another question: What kind of genres do you like? Fluff? Angst? Comedy?...? ;P Just wondering to see if I should add to my story in the future. 

Ah! Before I forget...here is the playlist to all the Big Bang fancams I took:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0qtL3xWWx6VL4CmSvp2Qt_HX3O65ZVS7

Okie, can't wait to see what you guys have to say! See you next chapter~^^