Recap Chapter 2: At a café, Dara mused about her current predicament--- lack of love life which worsened when her mother pointed it out. Rumor with regard two EXO members kissing started to circulate.

Phone in hand, Chanyeol barges through Xiumin and Luhan’s room without knocking. The two oldest stirred at the intrusion. Said intruder sits on the bed and shakes Xiumin’s shoulder to wake him so he can show what’s currently trending.

Luhan gives Chanyeol a curious glance and peeks over the rapper’s shoulder to look at the phone. Their eyes widen simultaneously and Xiumin’s face lost all trace of drowsiness when understanding dawns on him.

That’s how Xiumin finds out about the rumor.

“Where’s Baekhyun?” He asks where the instigator of the pepero kiss is now probably hiding.

It was Baekhyun’s fault there is a dating scandal. Well partly; it was his idea to play that game.

According to the news, most comments of the netizens assume the possibility of them dating. He looks at Luhan, who doesn’t seem to be bothered by it.

Just then, his phone vibrates. He fumbles for it on the bedside table. An incoming call from their Manager. He has an idea what the call is all about.

“Yeoboseyo?” he answers, while Chanyeol leaves and Luhan listens on.

“What happened?” is the manager’s inquiry.

“It’s not true. It wasn’t even a kiss,” he explains, hoping that no damage control will have to be done in the next days. “What should we do?” he can’t help but worry a little.

“Give it less than a week. Maybe it’ll completely blow over by then,” says their manager. “But the management will have to release a statement about it.” A week seems like a long time.

“If it comes up in an interview, I should just answer, right?” He is asking for consent; wondering what the manager considers better: to answer or not give any comment?

“Yes. It’s probably some rumor spread by an anti-fan. We’ll see.” There’s no hint of worry in his voice. It somehow makes Xiumin feel at ease. “Be ready in an hour and a half,” the manager reminds before ending the call. They have to film a CF for an energy drink.

Xiumin puts his phone on the bed and turns to Luhan, who looks back at him expectantly. He tells him what the manager said about how to deal with the rumor. “We better get ready. Manager’s picking us up in an hour and a half.” He wonders if all the members are already awake.

“I’ll go check on them. You can go ahead and take a bath,” Luhan offers, already halfway out the room.

Xiumin takes a change of clothes and towel. It’s not like he’s never heard questions pertaining to him and Luhan having a ‘relationship.’ The questions are never directed at them, but it’s a topic in social networks. They would just laugh it off. But this time, it seems different. He really hopes the issue will die soon. And that it will not be brought up in any of their upcoming interviews.

Dara opens her eyes and throws back the covers towards the end of her bed using her legs. She reaches for the pony-tail on her bedside table and ties her hair making sure there are no stray strands but it’s impossible. She wakes before her alarm went off. It is strange that this happens very often lately. She pulls the yoga mat from under the bed and set it on the floor.

On her back, she raises her legs and begins to do the bicycle exercise in order to ease the tight muscles. The cracks she heard satisfies her when she stretches her arms and legs. Stretching has been one of her must-do activities after waking up. It has become a habit she immensely enjoys.

After a couple of minutes, she organizes her bed, making sure her plain royal blue comforter is set without a crease. And then she does some more stretching: toe touching and arm circling, front lunges. She did some jumps using her almost worn-out jumping rope. She needs to buy a new one.

It is a good thing her room has enough space for such activities. Ever since she had been able to develop her abs, she has been working out continuously in moderation to maintain it. At one point, she entertained the idea of buying a treadmill. But she realized her room will definitely get crowded, so she didn’t. She just had to be perseverant in visiting the gym at YG building twice a week.

She feels the sweat on her forehead, an indication she had exercised enough. The clock on her bedside table shows it’s only six-thirty. Breakfast is at eight and she’s not too eager to face her mother.

Last night when she got home, she was relieved to find the house empty. Based on the note she found on the kitchen table, her mother and two siblings went out to dinner. It didn’t surprise her that they went out; they enjoy dining out once in a while. She informed her mother earlier that she won’t be home until after dinner time. She locked herself in her room, not feeling hungry since she already ate jjajangmyeon while wearing her sunglasses even though it’s night and the moon was so full. She had a hoodie on to help hide her identity.

She was already tired since she did a few shopping the whole afternoon, alone. She bought three pairs of shoes (all sneakers). She’s most comfortable wearing that kind of shoes instead of high heels. Though fleeting, shopping gave her the feeling of calmness and happiness. She also bought three men’s t-shirt in different colors and style. She likes black, gray and white these days. She wondered why.

If her mother finds out, she might scold Dara for spending more time on shopping than mingling with the opposite .

She realizes she left the paper bags in plain sight near her closet door. She hurriedly gathers the paper bags in both hands and hides it in the furthest back of the closet. She quietly closes it for fear her mother will show-up and catch her red-handed. She steps backwards and drops on her bed, arms spread and her feet touching the floor. She stares at the ceiling, unthinking. She doesn’t want to think about how breakfast is inevitable and how she needs a good enough reason to get out of the house again. Her mother’s prying does not irritate her. It’s just because she can’t deal with the fact that her mother indeed has a point.

If she can avoid the topic being brought up again, especially this early in the morning with her siblings as listeners, she will at all cost.

She can already feel the stress of what she'll have to go through just so she can change her status of single to in a relationship.

Where have all the good boys gone?

Or better yet, what have she been doing wrongly, besides not having the time that she end up single for too long?

She has received confessions in the past but then the timing isn’t right. Now, of all those confessions, oddly, no one stuck around. Maybe it’s not odd at all. And lately, there have been none. She can only sigh, not interested to know what went wrong.

She gets distracted by her phone. There’s a message from Bom based on the alert tone---a recorded cute voice of Bom saying her famous dialogue of 'Don't touch my things... this and that.'  She fumbles for the phone, hoping her best friend will save her from another of one her mother’s many discourses.

She lets out a sigh of relief when Bom’s me