Nine pairs of eyes sat wearily in a circle as they contemplated over what to do. The choice should have been simple, but Chanyeol called an emergency meeting after discovering that he had been given Dara's phone number the night before.

His fingers rubbed against the fabric of his jeans as if that would be of aid to his dilemma. He thought of all of the times he had imagined actually befriending Dara.  At the time, it was only illogical fanboy daydreaming, but now it had become a reality, and he didn't know what to do. 

The silence in the room was deafening, and one member had had enough. "Just hurry up and text her or something! You're making no sense," Baekhyun exploded with sheer annoyance as he stood up from his spot next to the trembling Chanyeol. 

"If you won't contact her, I definitely will," said a joyful voice reaching for the card with quick hands. Chanyeol quickly swatted the hands away. "This isn't the time for your trolling, Jongdae." This warning only left Jongdae snickering happily.

Chanyeol tuned out Sehun as he began to suggest a strategy. Sehun may think he's philosophical, but he was far from it. He was so busy ignoring him that he hadn't even noticed that he had left and returned with a notepad and his nerd glasses. What a tool, Chanyeol thought. 

"Obviously calling this meeting was a mistake. Maybe I should call Tao and he'll give me some decent advice," Chanyeol finally voiced out. But then again, Tao was still young, and he wasn't really thinking about relationships, so what would he know? 

With a sigh, Chanyeol decided to toughen up and give her a call.

-----------------------

"Did you see the way Chanyeol was eyeing our Sandara??" Minzy, Bom, and CL giggled amongst each other. They found their hubae simply adorable. 

Dara smiled shyly as she reminisced over the boy. He was quite tall, and his booming voice was in stark contrast to his young face. He had been pretty flustered when she attempted to make conversation with him, which she found to be extremely cute. 

"He should be contacting her soon," snickered Bom as she delved into her corn on the cob. Dara's sweet memories were abandoned as she slowly turned to Bom. "You did not..," she skeptically began to ask. 

"Oh, but I did! I even added a lovely signature. 'Dobi-Doodoong!' You said his ears reminded you of Dobi," Bom exclaimed. She was excited about her attempt at matchmaking.

"No! I-," Dara couldn't process her speech. She was worried. She didn't want to come off as weird. He may not even want to get to know her like that. Dara didn't even know if she wanted to get to know him. Sure, his fanboying around her was cute and all, but he was even younger than Sanghyun. 

"How do you know he wasn't offended by being called Dobi? And how could you give out my information without telling me first?" Dara jumped up and down like a kid having a tantrum, only leading to laughter erupting in the room.

"Calm down, unnie! It's only a harmless crush. Just go along with it," CL encouraged. Dara couldn't believe her ears.

At that moment, her cell phone began to ring. Without looking at the caller ID, she answered the phone. 

"Hello?" 

Her eyes widened as she registered the deep voice. Moving the phone away from her, she frantically mouthed to the girls that it was Chanyeol. Bom rushed to the phone and put it on speakerphone. Chanyeol was timidly introducing himself. 

"Hello, Dara-sunbaenim. This is EXO's Chanyeol. I-um, I got your number in my bouquet from yesterday." 

Dara was only silent before the girls beckoned her to respond. "Um, yeah. Sorry about that. I hope it didn't make you uncomfortable. It's nice to meet you." 

Dara heard a sharp inhale, which left her wondering what was wrong. What she didn't know was that Chanyeol was trying his very hardest to control his inner-daraling. Her voice was still just as melodious through the phone, and he wasn't sure if he could survive any more of it. 

"Um, are you okay, Chanyeol-ssi?" With an awkward cough, he finally replied that he was fine. This was followed by an awfully long moment of silence. 

"Ask him to meet up later for dinner," Minzy whispered. 

"What? We can barely hold a conversation over the phone. How could this possibly fare in real life??" Dara was appalled that she would even suggest something like that, but here came the backup singers edging her on. 

"Do it, Dara!"

"It'll be fun!"

With a grumble, she proposed that her and Chanyeol meet up, to which Chanyeol surprisingly quickly agreed. 

"Okay, I'll text you the details."

As Dara hung up, the three girls released the squeals they'd been holding in for the past few minutes, and even though Dara tried to hold her glare, she couldn't help laughing with them.

----------------------------

Kyungsoo and Jongin watched clothing item after clothing item be thrown into the air as Chanyeol rummaged for something to wear. It was quite an astonishing site. They'd never seen him act this way over a girl before. They would be sure to about it in the future. 

"Should I go for cool-guy-but-I'm-a-romantic or sophisticated-yet-swaggerific," Chanyeol questioned as he looked over two outfits he'd managed to throw together. 

"Hyung, did you really just say swaggerific," Kai laughed. "Just wear what you usually wear everyday. There's no need to dress up. It's your personality you should be worried about."

Chanyeol had a way with words. Sometimes he tends to speak to someone without taking into account the other's feelings. There is no animosity behind his words, but they can come off quite strong at times. His level of maturity is still far from where it needs to be, so it's something he will have to work on. 

"It's not just his personality. It's his whole being. From his head to his toes," Kyungsoo dully added. Chanyeol listened to the jabs being thrown left and right. 

"Ya. Enough with the jokes, alright? I'm about to go on a date with my future wife and I need to look ultra handsome. Even more handsome than I usually do." Chanyeol winked at himself in the mirror as Jongin and Kyungsoo blankly stared at him, Jongin adding sound effects as he smacked himself on the forehead from secondhand embarrassment. 

Chanyeol couldn't be more excited for their lovely "date". They only agreed to hang out, but of course he thought of it as more. This was his only chance, and he wasn't keen on screwing it up. After an hour of ripping apart his closet, he finally settled on all-black attire accompanied with his favorite snapback. Once he had emerged from the shower, the boys gawked at him. 

"You just tore apart the entire closet to go with the cliche not-gonna-get-seen attire?" Mama Suho was furious as he nagged at the younger guy. Chanyeol only awkwardly laughed as he mumbled a soft 'sorry' as he slipped out of the dorm, smile in tow. 

Park Yura had agreed to drop him off since the fans didn't know what car she drove. "Thank you, noona!" Chanyeol exclaimed as he hopped into the passenger seat. He half-listened as Yura lectured him on how he should and shouldn't behave while on a date. Chanyeol respected his sister a lot, but he wasn't fond of being told how to act around Dara. He knew how precious she was, and he was not about to mess this up, even if the sky decided to produce global-wide meteor showers. "I know, Noona. I know," he would blankly say occasionally so she would know he was at least listening to some of her speech. 

After a 25-minute drive, they had finally arrived at their destination. "Alright, you're walking from here, kiddo. Have fun and be nice!" Chanyeol leaned over and placed a kiss happily on his sister's cheek, thanking her once more before getting out of the car and waving at her as she left. He began walking down the dimly lit alley before he came to a small restaurant. 

She said she'd be waiting in the booth in the back of the restaurant where no one would see, so he began to make his way there. 

He stopped in his tracks when he saw the back of her head. He admired the way her hair fell around her shoulders, the way her fingernails tapped against the table in time with the music. Here goes nothing, Chanyeol thought. He walked up to the booth before bowing 90 degrees for Dara. She was taken aback to say the least. "Oh, you surprised me!" Dara said as she placed her hand over her heart, leading Chanyeol into a frantic string of apologies. 

"It's okay.  You don't have to do that every time you see me, you know," she blushed at the way he never fails to bow when he sees her. 

"Oh, um, okay," Chanyeol shyly replied. He asked her if she had been waiting a while, but she'd only arrived a few minutes before Chanyeol. He can see why she decided to meet here. The restaurant was small and secluded, yet extremely cozy. 

"A friend of mine works here. Don't worry about getting noticed," Dara suddenly said as she took note of his wandering eyes. 

"Oh, I was just admiring the place. It's cute," Chanyeol replied with a small smile. But not nearly as cute as you, he thought. "So, what will you be ordering?"

Chanyeol found it hard not to stare at the beautiful woman across the table from him as she deliciously feasted on their meal. The noodles slid easily through her peach-pink lips as she expressed sounds of satisfaction. He was fully attentive as she told him about her, and she was fully interested as he told her about him. Chanyeol carefully analyzed every smile, every laugh, and every expression. The way her eyes averted, her laugh quieted, and her smile softened when she was shy. The way her eyes glistened, her laugh echoed, and her smile brightened when she was excited. He felt like he was watching a motion picture film, and he could watch this film for the rest of his life. 

Chanyeol glanced at his clock and was shocked to see that it was already approaching 3 a.m. Time really does fly when you're having fun. He never knew that he could sit in once place for four hours and not get bored. I guess that's the power of Dara, Chanyeol thought. 

"Valentine's Day Every Day

Even Cupid Falls In Love With Me"

Dara gasped before laughing when she heard her voice as Chanyeol's ringtone. "So, you like Crush?" Her smile was radiant and Chanyeol could not help but return it. He nodded before silencing the call. It was only Baekhyun, probably wanting to be nosy. 

"Wah, it's getting pretty late! Well, early," Dara giggled before continuing. "It was nice hanging out with you, Chanyeol. I think we'll be great friends." 

Chanyeol tried his hardest to maintain his smile as he felt his heart crack a little. Friends...right, Chanyeol thought. He couldn't bare the thought of being friend-zoned. Especially after the first date. He thought back on his actions and wondered if he was being too friendly or too brother-like. He wondering if his age was the problem. 

As they walked down the alley together, Chanyeol noticed her eyeing his ears, and he began to feel self conscious. He readjusted his hat subconsciously. "I know my ears are pretty eye-catching, huh?" The color of his cheeks slowly began to change to a light shade of pink. 

"Yeah. I like them. You remind me of Dobi." Chanyeol winced at the word Dobi, but he couldn't help noticing how cute she sounded when she said it. He wasn't really fond of being compared to Harry Potter characters, but things were different with Dara. He truly didn't mind. 

"Thank you, sunbaenim," Chanyeol replied as her manager pulled up to pick her up. He pondered over whether or not he should hug her.  As if his quandaries were answered, Dara leaned in for an embrace. She fit perfectly in his arms, and he wrapped perfectly around her small frame. Chanyeol tightened his grasp, hoping the moment wouldn't end before she broke away a bit too soon for his taste, smiling and waving as she got in the car. 

She left Chanyeol cold from the lack of her warmth. She left Chanyeol wondering if she knew what kind of feelings he harbored for her. He saw what he thought was the lingering want to not leave in her eyes, and he would hold onto this until he gets a chance to see her again.

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hey, guys! I hope this update was satisfactory. It took a bit to update due to school and wanting to make sure it wasn't too short, but I will try to update more frequently. Thank you to those of you who have subscribed! Make sure to leave feedback so I can adjust my writing! :)