Recap Chapter 26: Chen caught on Xiumin's feelings for Dara. How he ship them both big time. He promised to do everything just so the ship will sail.

Tao, Baekhyun and Sehun got a dose of Dara's caring side.

It wasn't only Chen who noticed Xiumin and Dara's closeness— Suho did too.

Thanks to Chen, Xiumin and Dara were bound to see each other again.

Suho sits on his bed while pondering about the scene he saw earlier between Xiumin and Chen. He is not entirely sure but his instincts tell him there's something fishy going on. 

What he finds very interesting is Xiumin's reaction after being informed that he and Chen will be guesting at Sukira Kiss the Radio.

As the group leader, he is deeply concerned. Maybe it's time he have a little talk with Kim Jongdae.

In their text messages exchange, Dara has not brought up about the sweater. She fears that after handing it to Xiumin, they may not see each other again. 

It makes her feel secure somehow—the thought that the sweater is still in her possession. But such is false security because she has to give it to him soon anyway.

Bored of the way things are, Dara asks Minzy if she's not busy that day. The maknae replies with a yes and asks what it is Dara wants to do since it's been so long since they've last hung out with each other.

When Dara told Minzy that she wants to knit a scarf and hopefully finish it before the first snow falls, the maknae is more than willing to teach her. Before lunch, they meet at Minzy's favorite yarn store so Dara can get all the things she needs. 

She picks gray, pale yellow and royal blue yarns, already imagining in her head how lovely the scarf will be with such combination of colors.

Fans spotted them and soon enough, there are accounts about them seen shopping together.

After having lunch and talking about random things, they head back to Bom's unit. That afternoon, Minzy spends her time teaching the very eager unnie. The maknae only leaves when Dara gets the hang of it.

Later that night, Bom, who's unaware of Dara and Minzy's date earlier at the yarn store (since she rarely checks her phone whenever she's with Dong Wook) arrives from her date to find Dara knitting. Her eyebrows knitted at the sight. Now what has gotten into her friend? She somehow looks like a spinster or something.

Bom plops down on the couch while eyeing her serious friend. "Yah Dara, is it safe to assume that what you're making is for your future boyfriend or special friend?"

She freezes and looks at Bom with a reddening face. "Y-Yah!! Where did you get that idea? This is— it's for nobody okay?" she reasons out before going back to knitting. "I just needed to have a new hobby and since winter is coming, I realized it's better that I learn something new— to pass the time..."

"Pass the time huh... Wae? So that you won't have to think about your love-life or about that boy who's driving you crazy lately?"

Dara heaves a sigh. Aigo. It's no use denying what Bom already knows. "Fine fine fine, maybe this is for someone special." She does not dare look at Bom whose probably triumphant at being right.

Bom knows when to stop teasing so she changes the subject. She asks Dara about the boys' cute IG posts— apple hairs in particular. "Why don't you follow them back?" 

"That's not a good idea." 

"Tch. Just because it's not good doesn't mean it's bad," she argues.

Bom does have a point. But not enough to convince Dara.

Absentmindedly, Dara mentions to Bom what she ended up telling her mother a couple of weeks ago— that she's seeing someone and THE SOMEONE resembles Xiumin.

"Oh. My. God! Poor boy doesn't have the slightest idea that you're already dating for what, more than a month now?!"

"Yah! Stop teasing me," Dara can't help but exclaim in mild frustration. Telling Bom about that slip of hers is clearly a bad idea.

In the living room, Xiumin is quietly contemplating about what Manager hyung said earlier. Rest days are supposed to be relaxing, but what causes him to be so restless is the call he received minutes ago.

Manager-hyung asked about his dating progress. It caught him off-guard for he hadn't actually thought of that these past few days. Another matter that was brought up is the radio program guesting. Moreover, he casually suggested that it would be better if Xiumin will admit that he already likes someone. That made the oldest member sweat and be nervous just at the thought of it.

How could Xiumin announce something like that? The question keeps making his mind spin; he feels like throwing up.

One by one, the boys arrive, oblivious to the hyung's bewildered state. Their loudness is not enough to pull Xiumin out of his deep reverie.

Chen immediately plops down on the couch, next to the spacing-out hyung.

"Ya Sehun! Where's that bubble tea you owe me?"

The maknae sighs for here comes another round of Tao pestering him about it.

"Ya! Didn't I already say I owe you nothing? Since you owe me one."

"You did?" Tao looks at him cluelessly. Sehun nods, getting tired of talking with the relentless panda.

"Fine! Let's just go out then. I want to buy a lot of soap, the lemon-scented one. You know, the same as what Dara noona uses."

At the mention of Dara's name, Xiumin miraculously snaps out of his trance. 

Chen can't help but smile widely. The signs are clear. Minseok is in love with the pretty noona. Maybe there's no longer a need to hear the admission from him since his facial expression says it all.

"Why don't you just use what she gave you?" Sehun is not in the mood to go out but if Tao will buy him bubble tea, then he'll probably change his mind.

"I'm keeping it as a remembrance."

Sehun shakes his head at Tao's sappiness.

The next day, at the cloud room after they had their lunch, the boys are enjoying their break. Practice will resume in one hour which means there's plenty of time to mess around or simply laze around and check what's up in the SNS world (aka Twitter and IG).

Chanyeol is busily scrolling on his phone when he suddenly lets out a deafening shout. "WAAAAAAHHH!!"

The boys who are now used to him doing that suspects it has something to do with Dara noona again. What could it be this time? While they all wonder the same thing, Xiumin is very nervous about the report the rapper is about to announce. He couldn't even bring himself to check his phone for the latest news.

"Noona posted a photo with a male actor," he informs them, not fully disclosing who it is.

Seriously, Chanyeol and his love for suspense is getting old.

Chen, who's sitting beside the giant, leans closer to see what's the rapper looking at. Uh-oh. A possible competition? He is staring at a photo captioned: It's so nice to see you again Il Woo >_<  I hope to see you around more often~ thank you for the delicious lunch and belated happy birthday again ^^,

Most of the boys check their phones and a little later, their comments start to pour. But one remark makes them look swiftly at the commentator.

"They look good together," Chen says matter-of-factly before subtly throwing a quick glance at Minseok who's now busily looking at his phone, probably checking it out. A slight frown crosses over the hyung's face; if it's due to the remark or the photo, Chen can't tell. But one thing's for sure, Minseok is slightly bothered no matter how hard he tries to hide it.

"Do you think he's a fanboy?" Chanyeol asks to no one in particular while staring at the photo with wonder.

"Who knows? Maybe they're already dating." Baekhyun's statement causes Tao to object with a childish "No way!" 

The wannabe dongsaeng is already thinking if maybe he can make Dara noona promise that she'll let him know if she's already dating. What are dongsaeng's for? They are suppose to make sure their noona will date a nice guy right? He has already accepted the fact that sooner or later, Dara noona will find her special someone. All he hopes is to be close to her and be one of the precious dongsaengs that she cares for. She is really a caring and warm-hearted person.

During dinner, Luhan's fear finally catches up with him. It all starts with Sehun casually disclosing how he caught Tao reading a survey regarding how to know if a girl is interested in a guy. We all know what's running through the panda's head; he did it to know if his Dara noona is interested in someone—not even romantically but plain and simple interest—is enough to drive the curious panda to resort to such measures.

After the discussion on that, Sehun mentions about the survey he saw Luhan is reading several weeks ago. He even details that it's a survey on how to determine if one is interested in someone romantically.

"It's not mine," Luhan unthinkingly blurts out, bent on escaping the members' teasing.

Unknowingly, he put Xiumin in trouble. It's too late to take back now since the boys are starting to theorize that it probably belongs to Luhan's roommate.

"It's Umin-hyung's?" Baekhyun is the one who asks, accompanied by the widening of his eyes.

Xiumin realizes the only way to pacify them is to admit the truth. Fine, he gives up. "Yes."

The boys' mouths hang open, except for Luhan, Chen and Suho. The three of them very well know who he is interested in.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun suddenly cheers and remarks that their hyung is finally going to start dating anytime soon— they act as if that survey signals the beginning of Xiumin's romantic life.

Xiumin can only put a hand over his face, willing it not to turn red in embarrassment.

What happens next makes Xiumin want to disappear. They started talking about who he is possibly interested in as if he is not there. But they can't come up with that many names since it is still obvious he doesn't have that many girl friends. He silently prays Dara's name won't come up.

Chen becomes a surprising help by diverting the topic somewhere else. Xiumin owes him one.

He's going to strangle Luhan later. On second thought, maybe he should deal with Sehun and Tao first. All that survey talk led to this humiliating event.

Bom's perseverance in making her friend talk and spill everything that's bothering her, finally pays-off one night after they had eaten dinner. They're at the living room watching M Tunes.

"Ya! Sandara Park!" she calls out the third time when the petite girl remains unresponsive. Aigo, she's got it bad for that ice boy. It's obvious how deep she's fallen in.  

She taps her zombie-like friend on the shoulder who turns to her without a word.

Bom starts the interrogation by bringing up about the IG post with Lee Joon. The photo was taken before Dara returned to Seoul. She simply wished Lee Joon good luck on his movie filming, captioning it: Joon-ah, Goodluck and Fighting! on filming ~younger man—older woman romance movie >_<

Dara posted it the day she arrived at Bom's condominium.

"So, what kind of movie is Joon filming again?" Bom asks innocently.

"He didn't tell me any details except that it's a younger man—older woman romance," she replies disinterestedly, while watching M tunes, Winner's Empty playing.

"Ooh. Interesting. Just like what you and Xiumin will have in the future." Then she giggles at her own wild imagination.

"Ya!" She turns sideways, a bit scandalized by the latter's remark.

"In case you're not aware, I have observed you these past few days, moping around here and there, clearly missing someone. I even caught you looking at the boy's poster for goodness' sake!" Bom's voice is an octave higher when she said the last sentence.

Dara's eyes widens with shock and embarrassment at being caught. "I-I wasn't." She only peeked at the poster quickly.

"You're stammering, which means you're hiding something."

"..."

"Come on, tell me. Maybe I can help." Bom faces her, bringing up her legs to sit cross-legged while hugging the fluffy square pillow as though they're about to have a serious girl-talk.

Dara heaves a deep sigh and finally faces Bom. A clear indication she's going to spill everything.

More or less fifteen minutes later of uninterrupted unloading of thoughts and feelings, Dara awaits what Bom has to say besides "OH. MY. GOD!!!" followed by a squeal to when Dara admitted that she likes Xiumin and possibly more.

Bom better come up with a helpful advise. It's strange that her friend doesn't seem very surprised at her confession.

"Invite him over for dinner. Here. I want to talk to him."

"Mwo?!"

"What?" she snaps back.

"Are you serious?"

"Ya! You're the one I should ask that. I mean seriously, you can't tell if a guy likes you? Not at all? Whatever happened to women's intuition?"

"..." Dara can only cringe while Bom continuously fires away her questions. What can she do, she's just so clueless when it comes to perceiving or sensing if a guy is interested in her.

"Were you sleeping when it rained intuition? If you can't sense it, maybe I can. So invite him. I want to see your interaction." She winks at Dara teasingly. "Since we already know what you feel, we must find out about what he feels."

Dara clasps and unclasps her hands. The thought of Bom watching her and Xiumin talk makes her want to throw up due to nervousness.

"Or if you don't like the idea, then try to sense it yourself. I'll give you some useful pointers on how to do it. You said you have his sweater right? Meet up with him. Besides, you miss him already." Bom's voice softens. She can understand how hard it is to miss someone.

Dara is reluctant. "I'll think about—"

"Ya! ACT ON IT NOW," Bom demands.

"Alright. Alright. You didn't have to shout." With a trembling hand, Dara takes her phone to compose a message. What if the kid is busy? Last time they exchanged texts was two days ago, where she learned that they only have one rest day which is every Wednesday. That is really tiring; she doesn't want to be a bother even to his one day of rest in a week.

Before laser beams come out of Bom's eyes, Dara sends the message. She simply asks him when they can meet so he can get the sweater.

Her friend's attention diverts to the television. Bigbang's Bae Bae MV is playing. 

Xiumin is at the living room, since sleep doesn't seem to be paying him an early visit tonight and in the past few days as well. He had replied to Dara's message that he'll let her know when they can meet up. The first few weeks of practice tends to be the busiest. She replied with understanding, bid him goodnight and reminded him to not stay up late. He told her that he won't sleep late. 

As much as he wants to sleep, it's no use. Thus, he opts to pass the time at the living room. He is almost thankful that he has the place all to himself but then an unwanted presence hovers over him. He chooses to ignore the known presence and pretends to be immersed in reading the book. Not Suho's book but some random book he found lying around.

"Umin-hyung, want to hear something interesting?" he says while plopping down on the couch.

"..." 

"LOVE, EVEN IF YOU DON’T SAY IT, IT WILL FIND A WAY TO BE KNOWN."

What's the use of asking for approval when Chen goes ahead and starts talking? Xiumin finally closes the book and looks at the troll. 

"Unless she's insensitive," Chen says with a frown. His expression suggests he's trying to figure out Dara noona. Who else is he talking about? "Or you're just too good at not expressing it."

Xiumin turns a deaf ear to the last one and ignores the 'insensitive' part. Dara is after all not insensitive. She simply wants to hear love explicitly expressed. "WHERE in the world did you STEAL that from?"

Instead of getting a logical and decent answer, Chen continues to spew quotes Xiumin has never heard before.

"IT’S A TERRIBLE THING, I THINK, IN LIFE TO WAIT UNTIL YOU’RE READY. I HAVE THIS FEELING NOW THAT ACTUALLY NO ONE IS EVER READY TO DO ANYTHING. THERE IS ALMOST NO SUCH THING AS READY. THERE IS ONLY NOW. AND YOU MAY AS WELL DO IT NOW. GENERALLY SPEAKING, NOW IS AS GOOD A TIME AS ANY."

That's Chen trying to convince Xiumin to confess to Dara as soon as possible.

"Ya! What nonsense are you talking about?" Xiumin hisses out of fear that someone might overhear. He must admit though, Chen has a point. But all these quotes has to stop.

"I THINK ONE OF THE GREATEST FEELINGS IN THE WORLD IS WHEN SOMEONE OPENLY TELLS YOU HOW MUCH YOU MEAN TO THEM. STUFF LIKE THAT IS SO RARE."

"Are you not going to stop or am I going to walk out?"

"Aigo. Fine, I'll stop. But aren't you threatened by what's happening lately?"

Xiumin does not answer. But his expression is enough for Chen to deduce what he feels.

Yes, Xiumin is indeed threatened. Her IG posts lately is what makes him nervous to question whether or not she is going on dates secretly. Recently she has posted photos with YG K+ models. Even though it is work-related, he can't help but be a little pressured. And maybe that is a not a bad thing. It's definitely better if he'd be very pressured so he could confess sooner.

Friday afternoon, Xiumin sends her a message. Their practice ended early so he's back in the dorm with the rest of the boys.

Do you want to have coffee with me? ^_^

Dara just woke up from her afternoon nap so she still feels a little disoriented. Not bothering to get up from bed, she read the message twice or thrice or maybe more because she can't quite wrap her mind around it.

Is it a date? 

Just as the notion crossed her mind, she brushes it off, feeling embarrassed for assuming such thing.

Before her thoughts can get any crazier, she must ask him why but another message arrives.

It's about the sweater ^^, practice ended early

Oh. 

Right. 

About that. 

What else could there be, right? 

So silly of her to think there's more to it.

With a small smile, she composes a reply.

Sure. Let's meet later kid ^__^ Where?

Xiumin's heart is pounding against his chest after realizing how his text message seemed like an invite for a date! So he hurriedly composes another message to tell her it's about the sweater. 

He sighs in relief when she replies with a yes. And she's calling him kid again.

He'd been curious about her address so he asks if is it possible to meet somewhere near where she lives.

She replies that it's fine by her, there's a nearby park where they can meet up.

Dara is hoping Bom won't notice her on the way out but unfortunately, her friend is at the living room.

"Where are you going?"

"Uhm, out," she answers while holding the paper bag that contains the sweater out of Bom's sight. She can't handle another round of teasing honestly so she decided earlier that she won't tell Bom she's heading out to meet Xiumin.

Before Bom can pitch any more questions, Dara quickly heads to the door. "Got to go. I'll have dinner out so don't wait for me."

She heaves a relieved sigh once outside. That went easy.

Bom finding out that she's meeting secretly with Xiumin isn't the reason why she's nervous. Meeting him again after more than a month, she does not know what to expect. Will there be awkwardness again? Only one way to find out. 

She only starts to wear the scarf and hoodie on her way to the elevator. She pockets her mask which she will use as a last resort in case the scarf won't be able to hide her identity well. The last thing she needs is anyone recognizing her resulting to the meet-up's postponement.

Earlier, she said she'll wear a forest green scarf so that he can easily spot her, and for the sake of both their safety, she'd be making sure no one will recognize her. Though both are aware of the situation, neither of them talked about the possibility of being recognized. It's as if they are already used to it even though it's the first time they'll be meeting in public.

Xiumin was able to sneak out of the dorm unnoticed. s will think he's simply out having coffee. Well he is, except he's with a girl which makes a very big difference. If they find out, it'll be chaos and nonstop teasing. Anyway, he has already texted Suho that he'll be back a bit late.

He glances at his watch again, trying to calm himself even though he knows it's impossible. He's too excited. To see her again is what he'd been hoping for since he and the boys returned from Busan.

He looks at the only possible way she'll be coming from and there she is,