A/N: Sorry for the very long chapter. It may take me several days to update.

Recap Chapter 13: The bus ride to the train station became interesting with the Q&A Xiumin came up with. Unable to answer his last question, she will let him know about her ten to-do list once it’s completed. He failed to answer her last question, for the reason he had not done it yet. He gave a condition that she must persistently ask him about it, to her utter confusion. She started to think all he needed was an encouragement, which she has no problem giving. They sealed a deal (that he will let her know when he had finally done the brave thing) with a pinky promise, which was initiated by her.

After another half hour trip back, Dara finally arrives at the inn. Before going in, she takes off her sunglasses and jacket, feeling tired. She goes inside quietly to find Jisoo at the reception, busy on her phone---probably looking at photos of her most favorite person in the world.

She tiptoes toward the counter and takes a peek at what Jisoo’s looking at. Her assumption is confirmed. She slaps her hand on the counter to get her friend’s undivided attention. It is focused intently on a photo of her one and only ultimate bias.

“Omo!” Her hand flies to her chest in surprise. Realizing it’s only Dara, she scolds her for what she did last night.

“Mianhe Jisoo-ya. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” She raises her right hand. And then she remembers why she did not just ask Xiumin about his abs, after all they have been through, maybe he won’t mind answering her question. Aish! She could have offered that information as an apology to Jisoo so she will never have to think of another way to make up for the ‘waiting’ she put her friend through.

Next stop is her grandmother, who according to Jisoo is in the kitchen, since it’s almost brunch time. On the way, she passes by the upright piano. She stops for a second, realizing it’s never been played for so long. She wonders maybe she can learn at least one piece. She’ll include that in her to-do list. Speaking of which, she better do that today or she’ll forget again. Who knows when she needs to show that to Xiumin-ssi. She has less than three weeks and finally she’ll be back in Seoul. Aigo, her mother’s going to question her non-stop if she met anyone while on vacation.

She finds her grandmother, reading again almost the same way she is, when Dara arrived more than a week ago.

“Aigo, my granddaughter who forgets to let me know her whereabouts…” there is a hint of reprimand in that.

So Dara apologizes for making her worry. And to make up for it, she begins to tell her story, admitting that the friend she’s with is actually a young and tough guy. She certainly can’t keep secrets from her grandmother of all people.

She only mentions his name once and then gives him a code: ‘Minnie kid’ She likes the sound of it, Minnie in short for Minseok. She laughs and then stops abruptly when she sees her grandmother peering at her curiously.

She will tell everything, even her thoughts about him, she decides, to satisfy her grandmother’s curiosity.

After that draining Q&A and lunch---how thoughtful and sweet of them to wait for him so they can eat together---Xiumin can finally be excused to take a bath. He goes to the room he shares with Luhan and finds his bag on the top of his bed. He immediately digs for his phone and makes a call to manager-hyung --- there are a few missed calls from manager and Luhan.

When manager-hyung picks up, Xiumin apologizes incessantly for the inconvenience he had caused. He tells him the same story he told his friends earlier for the reason that he’s trying to protect Dara from being dragged into gossip. He’ll just figure out what to do when the time comes he can no longer keep the secret.

Before ending the call, he promises to never leave his phone again. The manager tells him to be careful next time and then at the last second, asks about how his ‘dating life’ is doing.

He’s taken aback, almost forgetting that his manager is surely interested to get an update on it once in a while.

He gives a vague answer: that he’s working on it. Aish. He hates what he’s doing now---keeping secrets. But he has no choice. He feels guilty but can do nothing about it.

Good thing he’s sitting on his bed or else he’ll fall---his knees weaken after the call. He sure can use some encouragement at the moment.

Encouragement… He recalls Dara noona’s act of support. And speaking of her, he immediately digs for the piece of paper and composes a message to her:

Hi Dara noona! This is Xiumin. I’m already here at Seoul, thanks to your HELP.

I haven’t said a word to my friends that we are together last night.

I guess I’ll just wait till you’re back in Seoul so I can pay what I owe you.

Thanks again. Hope you got home safe too   v ^___^v

He enters her number and then sends the message. He saves the number under ‘Dara noona.’ He’d very much like to leave out the ‘noona’ but he does not feel it’ll be right. He wonders if she’ll reply while he returns his phone along with the piece of paper inside his bag.

He takes his towel and a change of clothes, hoping a bath can chase away the worries temporarily. He goes to the bathroom, preoccupied by the fear of being discovered who he is with for a whole night. He mulls over the possibilities while taking a shower. He does it unhurriedly because he’s got a premonition someone’s waiting for him in the room to grill him once again.

In the comfort and privacy of her room, while she lies in bed, Dara hears her phone beep to signal a new message. She reaches for it on the bedside table.

Her brows shoot up when she realizes it’s from Xiumin-ssi. Omo. That kid did not forget. She types a reply, feeling relieved that he got home safely.

Hello kid! I mean Xiumin-ssi ke ke ke. I’m glad you got home safe; I did too.

That’s right~ see you when I get back.

Aigo. You must feel uncomfortable for keeping that from them.

But you told them my message right?    <^___^

After sending the message, she saves his number under the name ‘Minnie kid.’ He’ll never know that anyway.

Later that afternoon, Dara makes a call with the intention of telling Bom about the recent mixed up she’s been through.

“Dara-ya,” is the strange-sounding voice of her friend whom she misses so much.

“Have you been crying?” Her brows crease in worry. Bom’s voice sounded different, as if she’s been crying a lot.

“Mwo!?”

“You sound different. What’s wrong?” Did Bom and Dong Wook-ssi have a fight? That guy! She’ll make him pay big time. She’s thinking this while pacing her room, already plotting something.

“Aniyo. It’s not what you’re thinking okay? We did not fight.”

“Then why did you cry?”

Dara can’t believe Bom cried only because she watched the drama Scent of a Woman.

“How does it feel to watch one of your boyfriend’s dramas?” Dara teases, her worry and upset mood disappearing.

“I love him more…” Dara hears a happy sigh on the other end of the line.

“Aigo. Emotional and sentimental Bom; I didn’t know you have in you.”

“Ya! Try watching it and let’s see if you won’t shed a tear.” Bom challenges and Dara accepts.

Later that night, she watches the drama online. She becomes more engrossed at episode three wherein Yeon-jae and Ji-wook has to share a room.

Dara is involuntarily taken back in time---that time she and Xiumin-ssi shared a room. She blushes madly while watching the scene of the girl being caught staring by the guy. That’s a heart fluttering scene. She can tell the girl likes the guy, or attracted to him at least.

She wonders what’s wrong with her while she slaps her cheeks lightly to get rid of the blushing. Is she turning into some emotional and sentimental person like Bom?

It’s a relief she did not tell Bom about what happened. She might get an earful of teasing.

Once she’s back in Seoul, she will definitely have to tell her friend, regardless of what the reaction will be.

He finally feels the tiredness take its toll. After a bath and quick drying of his hair, he takes a nap, thankful that Luhan is not in the room to quiz him as he have assumed earlier. He’s too tired to even check his phone if Dara noona replied.

After Xiumin’s much needed nap, which lasted for only two hours, he slowly sits upright and crosses his legs, still a little drowsy. He sees Luhan on the bed, busy watching drama on his laptop.

But it seems he’s not that busy for he turns to Xiumin. “Why do I feel like you’re not telling everything?” he begins, his eyes narrowed at Xiumin’s expression---an expression of trying very hard not to show any emotion but fails miserably. He ends up covering his face with both hands and then lies on his bed facedown, unmoving.

“Ya! I knew it,” Luhan says accusingly while rushing towards the frozen baozi. He playfully wrestles him, shakes his shoulders to get his attention and make him say everything he’s keeping in.

How dare he keep a secret from him? “So, what really happened?” He sits on the baozi’s bed, waiting to be enlightened.

“Before I tell you anything, let me just check my phone,” he replies while rummaging in his bag for it. There is a message from Dara noona---his spirits lift up in anticipation, not minding if Luhan will notice.

Luhan simply observes his friend’s facial expression---how it turns from sleepy to instant wakefulness. He is curious as to what can cause such change that he is almost tempted to take a peek but stops himself.

Xiumin recalls how he sounded indecisive when Dara noona asked him if he’d tell anybody about what happened, of them being together, ending up in a place where the situation has become awkward but they got over it gradually.

He realizes the need to share his thoughts at least with a close friend. Luhan is trustworthy, that’s already been proven. And maybe he can get some useful advice. He messed up about the message she wanted him to tell the others.

Xiumin has not yet finished his first sentence when Luhan’s eyes start to widen and his jaw drops---well actually, when ‘accidentally running into Dara noona’ is mentioned, that resulted in the deer’s shocked reaction.

This is how he lays out the details:

1. I accidentally run into Dara noona in a café---well more like she followed me. We talked for a while. She wanted me to relay her congratulations to everyone for a very great performance---(he trails off because he made a mistake of omitting that earlier when he gave an account to his friends about what happened to him last).

2. Once outside the café, when we are about to part ways, fans recognized me, and started to rush to me---in my panic-stricken mind, I grabbed her wrist and we ran. We hid in a boat and end up in another place more or less thirty minutes away from the fish port.

3. She lends me her phone, which I used to call you.

4. We slept in the same room because the couple thought we are lovers, but they did not recognize that we are idols.

4. We watched the sunrise before going back to the fish port.

5. We rode a bus to the train station; she says she needs to buy a ticket because in three weeks she’ll head back to Seoul. To pass the time, I suggested we have some Q&A and I--- uh--- answered the last question with a condition that she must ask me about it persistently because I have not done the brave thing yet.

6. She lends me cash to buy the first class train ticket and gives me her phone number so I can inform her of when I can pay her back.

All Luhan can articulate is a mixture of ‘Whoa’ ‘Wow’ and ‘Really?’ at every new detail Xiumin reveals.

When Luhan finally calms down, Xiumin talks again. “What am I supposed to do?” He is referring to Dara’s message to the other members because he realizes how he completely forgot about it. He asks Luhan for help how to fix the oversight. In his attempt to not get her associated with him, it slipped his mind. He knows how important it is that he conveys her message. She even reminds him in her reply.

Luhan ponders for a while and then advices Xiumin to better mention it at dinnertime.

“What excuse should I make?” They’ll probably ask why he didn’t mention it earlier when he arrived.

“They’ll understand; you’re too tired that you forgot to mention it. You’ve been through a lot.” Luhan teases him by emphasizing the word ‘lot’ but Xiumin chooses to ignore it.

“What I’m very worried about now is, what if someone saw us together and…” he trails off, feeling his stomach lurch at the endless possibility; what kinds of speculation might result from that accidental get-together if it’s caught on cam.

“The worst that can happen is that people will assume you are dating.” Luhan points out the most obvious outcome. “But that is a baseless assumption since you’re not really dating. At least not yet,” he adds meaningfully