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The two idols decided not to bother their driver any longer and took Donghae’s own car instead. Sehun was again like a small child in the fancy car, pointing at everything like he would see a car for the first time. Donghae smiled at his dongsaeng, shaking his head at his cuteness.

It was nearly 1am when they finally entered the ramen bar. As expected, the whole staff recognised Donghae and Sehun and there was no end for the “can I take one picture for my granddaughter” and “can you please sign this for my dog’s girlfriend”. Finally, they were left alone in the quiet dark corner with two bowls of hot spicy ramen.

“Hey, you had something to tell me?” Donghae asked suddenly, wiping his face with a tissue and smiling at his young companion. Sehun almost choked in his ramen. “What? Did I?” “Today, when you rushed into our dressing room? I thought you had something to say?” Donghae explained with the same warm smile that hadn’t left his face for even once during the night. Sehun tried to chew the ramen in his mouth as quickly as possible so to answer the man, realising he wasn’t probably looking really attractive. He twiddled his hand nervously to indicate he was about to start speaking.

“Oh…m-wait…that…it was nothing. I just thought I’d wish you a good gig like you always come and wish me.” Donghae turned into one big smile. “Aww. You’re so sweet, Sehun.” Sehun blushed. “I’m not.”  

After finishing the second bowls of ramen (Donghae made a remark of Sehun’s skinniness and insisted on ordering him another round) their conversation started slipping into random directions. Sehun was surprised how easily they really got along: of course he had chatted with the older idol many times before but going out like this was a completely different thing. But Donghae was someone he found easy to be with: he kept on smiling and laughing, making the younger boy feel much more comfortable than he usually felt with people he didn’t know that well.

“Err…hyung, when you and other Super Junior members were younger, you did share a dorm like we do?” Sehun asked curiously, his thoughts constantly wandering back to the luxury building Donghae was living in.

“Yes we did. And you can stop talking to me formally, Sehun. You know me well enough, don’t you think?” Donghae suddenly blurted out, Sehun nodding quickly. He was never keen on referring to his hyungs formally but in case of Donghae he had never wanted to appear rude. But now the man was asking for it himself.

Sehun caught eyes with Donghae for a second. He was smiling at him, Sehun trying to return the smile as naturally as possible. He shyly hid his face back into the ramen bowl.

“About our dorm. Was there something you wanted to ask before I interrupted you?” Donghae continued, stretching his arms and leaning his elbows against the table. Sehun gulped and tried to gather his wandering thoughts together. “I was just…when you shared a dorm…what kind of rules did you have? Or I mean, did you party a lot or anything? Go out?” Sehun asked, realising his question was actually pretty weird but he really wanted to know whether their group was the only one living in such restrictions.

Donghae laughed by himself for a moment, shaking his head wistfully. ”Oh, those old good times…well, if you mean did we have any hardcore party boys – yes we did. But not all of us. There were basically two types of members: the other half barely left the dorm while the other half barely visited it.” He explained, smiling at Sehun who kept on nodding. I wonder which group Donghae belonged to, Sehun thought.

“But I know it’s not the same thing anymore.” Donghae sighed and continued, giving a quick smile for the waitress passing by their table. “When we were at your age there weren’t so many sasaengs and well - we weren’t as famous as you are. I’ve heard how restricted it is with you nowadays. It’s a shame you, 12 – I mean 11 - young men, have to live like you do. Sneak out in ripped jeans.” Donghae added the last comment with a playful wink. The younger boy smirked wittily. “Ha-ha.” He said lamely, making Donghae laugh. “It was a joke.” “I know.”

The two idols soon found themselves discussing EXO’s situation. Sehun felt really relieving to talk about these things with someone who wasn’t in his group: but someone who still understood it all.

“I just think it’s weird that the only one of us actually leaving the dorm is Baekhyun hyung…and this is only because he is the only one of us dating.” Sehun sighed, sipping his cola through the straw.

“The only one? What do you think you’re doing right now?” Donghae suddenly added with a witty smile. “Yes, well, but…” Sehun shut up when he realised the topic was approaching their relationship. Did the man seriously mean…they were on a date? What was wrong with this man?

Donghae realised his comment had made Sehun uncomfortable and hurried to fix the situation. ”I mean, I’ve noticed you and Tao go out a lot.” Sehun’s eyes almost popped out his head. “Yes, we do shopping. We shop together.” Sehun added quickly. He didn’t want that Donghae, if there was any chance for him to be interested in him, would think Sehun had something to do with Tao. Well, he had a lot to do with Tao but it wasn’t related to this.

“Hey, now when we’re talking about it, is it seriously true that only Baekhyun is dating out of you eleven? I can’t believe it’s true!” Donghae suddenly asked. Something in his inquisitive expression made Sehun feel slightly uncomfortable. He wiped his fringe from his face nervously before answering.

“It’s true. Chanyeol hyung used to date this girl but they broke up. It’s weird, I know.” Sehun said with a shy smile, pretending to be intensively staring his bowl instead of the handsome man sitting opposite to him.

“What about boyfriends?” Donghae suddenly asked. B-boyfriends? Sehun thought in panic. The discussion was seriously going into dangerous direction.  

“Err…what boyfriends? Like friends or…?” “Like boyfriends. If they don’t have girlfriends, are they dating guys?” Donghae asked with a patient smile, Sehun accidentally meeting his eager eyes for a second. The younger boy was about to open his mouth when…

Their conversation was interrupted by an unexpected yet familiar voice.

“Sehun-ah oppa!” The girl who had visited the backstage earlier tonight, the sasaeng girl: she was standing right there next to the table. She was staring at Sehun in a way that made the boy immediately uncomfortable.

“It’s a late night, oppa…why are you eating ramen…with Donghae oppa?” The girl said, glancing Donghae disapprovingly.

“Err…I was hungry” was all Sehun could come up. He had been taught not to be rude to fans, even though they would be a bit hardcore, but while knowing this girl and her background it was pretty hard to be nice. “Hungry? Doesn’t SM give you any food? Or did Donghae oppa kidnap you, Sehun-ah?” The girl said, trying to act cute but not succeeding in it.  

“Err…sorry, do you want to have a picture or something?” Sehun said awkwardly, looking around the small restaurant and realised everyone was silent and listening to their conversation. The girl sighed in frustration, leaning his hands against the table. “Oppa, don’t pretend, you know who I am! I know everything about you, I don’t need pictures!”

Sehun glanced at Donghae, his eyes literally begging for help. Donghae couldn’t watch Sehun being uncomfortable anymore and stood up. “Excuse me, but if you don’t have anything else to say could you leave us to finish our ramen, please? Thank you and good night.” Donghae smiled at the girl, bowing politely and sitting down again.

But the girl kept on laughing creepily, wiping her long fringe from her face. “You have already finished your ramen, I saw it, are you going to order third bowls or what? Don’t think I’m that stupid!” Sehun cleared his throat, changing his position uncomfortably. This was the exact reason why Joonmyun had warned them.

Donghae’s smile was now gone. He saw how useless his young companion was with sasaeng fans and decided to handle the situation for him. “We would like to spend some time as friends together, so could you please excuse us? You are such a dedicated fan that you must know we have tight schedules. I think it’s fair for us to have some time to relax as well.” Donghae stated politely, bowing at the girl again. But it had no effect. “Oppa…this is a public place. Why are you shewing me away like this? I must hurry tell all my friends Sehun and Donghae oppas are dating.” The girl laughed, raising her mobile phone to take a picture.

“No!” Sehun sighed out, glancing Donghae helplessly. He saw Joonmyun’s worried face in front of him: “Let’s not make scandals” and felt a slight panic beginning to rise inside of him. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all. Maybe he should’ve just stayed in his comfortable bed. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea at all. Maybe he should’ve listened to Joonmyun. Maybe he…

Sehun was raised from the depths of guilt by Donghae’s warm hand on his own. “Hey, let’s go, this is starting to be a bit uncomfortable.” The man said calmly, grabbing Sehun’s palm into his own one.  Sehun nodded quickly, letting the older idol pull him out of the restaurant.

“Seriously, do you think you can just hide from us? We’ll always be there where you are – and I promise to keep an eye on you two! Gays!” The girl screamed after them like a madman, everyone in the restaurant staring at her judgingly for chasing out their special guests.

The street on which the ramen shop was located was suddenly full of sasaengs, screaming and taking pictures. The girl had seemingly alerted her friends. All the people started paying attention to the chaos forming in front of the restaurant, causing even a bigger chaos to form. Donghae pushed their way through the crowd, trying to be as polite and gentle as ever possible but never letting go of Sehun’s hand.

The man literally pushed the younger boy in his car, struggling to close the door without breaking anyone’s arms. “Are you okay?” Donghae panted when he was finally sitting on the driver’s seat, all doors safely locked. He gave Sehun a worried glance but smiled when seeing the boy was smiling.

“Yeah. I actually knew her. She’s like one of the worst.” Sehun said with a sad laughter. Donghae looked disgusted while starting the car and watching the chaos around them slowly diffusing away. “Aish, I can’t understand them. Like, seriously, aish…the word fan in sasaeng fan is so misleading.”

Sehun nodded, sighing out of relief when the car escaped from the crowded street. He was lucky to have Donghae with him: if he would’ve been alone, nobody knows what could have happened.

“Where should I drive?” Donghae suddenly asked. “There is one sasaeng taxi after us. If we still want to go somewhere we need to get rid of it first. Unless you want to go back to your dorm?” Sehun glanced the older idol confusedly: he had somehow assumed the man to be driving him back to his dorm. He suddenly remembered the awkward discussion they were having just before the fan broke in…was he sure he wanted to continue from where they left?

“N-no…let’s go somewhere. Unless you want to…get rid of me…” “Why would I?” “Or…go to sleep…or…” Sehun lisped, struggling with his words.

“Are you tired, Sehun?” Donghae smiled empathetically. He glanced the embarrassed boy from the corner of his eye. “No!” “Let’s not forget the fact I basically stole you from your bed.” Donghae chuckled, Sehun smirking bravely. “Sleep is for the weak.”

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