Right click and play: https://soundcloud.com/k2nblog19/exo-tender-love

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*Ahhh, this feels great!* I stretched my arms as I felt the sun’s warmth against my skin. I pulled open the curtains more to let the sun bathe my room in it’s warmth, as I checked my phone it started to ring *Mm? Mum?*

“Hello Mum!”
“Hi, sweetie! How are you?”

She was too enthusiastic.

“Good...what’s up?”
“Oh nothing, just checking up on my favourite daughter!”
I laughed, “Mum, I’m your only daughter”
“Oh that is very true---“
“What’s going on mum?”

There was a brief pause

“Look, I know you’re sick with all these dates I’ve been putting you on but please trust me on this one, go on this blind date, please?”

*Not again….* I sighed, for so long my mum had been trying to get me to go on blind dates, but whether I was too honest or too loud, or the guy was just a jerk, it always ended badly.

“I already told you, Mum! No! It never ends well!”
“I know, I know, but just one more, please! This will be the last one, I promise!”
“Last one? Promise?”
“Promise! Scout’s honour. So….is that a yes?”

Another sigh escaped, “Fine, yes, but this is the last!”
“Yes! Yes, this is the last! I’ll message you the details when I’ve finalised them. Love you!”
“Love you too, bye!”

*Just got to get this one over and done with and no more blind dates!*  

I wanted to clear my head of all this blind date nonsense so I headed out to the local park. I always enjoyed walking through here, the atmosphere was just what I needed; happy and carefree, it was always the cure to making me stress-less about the situations that have me stressed in the first place.

A poodle stopped me in my tracks
*Oh my god, dog, hello*

“Hi~, aren’t you the cutest!”

The brown poodle’s tail started wagging as I began giving him a good cuddle.

“Where’s your dad, huh? Where did you come from?”

The poodle tilted his head slightly as he continued to bury himself into me.

“Aw, you are just adorable!”

I heard a shout just a few metres away from us

“Yah! Monggu!” Monggu’s owner started running towards us.
“Is that your dad?” I whispered to Monggu before standing up. *He’s cute*

He approached us huffing and puffing

“Monggu, what did I say about going off like that? You need to stick with me!”
“Uh...hi, I’m guessing you are Monggu’s dad?”
“Oh hi, yes, thanks for stopping Monggu, appreciate it.”
“Oh no, I didn’t do anything, Monggu stopped me. Didn’t you Monggu, didn’t you?”

I gave Monggu another good scratch as he jumped at me.

“But still, thanks, Monggu could’ve gotten lost but thankfully he didn’t. I just took him off the leash for a little bit, but I didn’t even think that he would run off like that.”
“Ah no, that’s alright, dogs will be dogs.” I gave a small laugh

He gave a small laugh back

“Yeah...hey did you want to play catch with Monggu and I? I know Monggu would love it.”
“Oh sure, of course, I would love to, thanks!”

A few hours went by before we realised and we were all starting to tire out from laughing and running. We decided to sit down for a bit and began chatting away, before long it was already night time.

*beep beep* I checked my phone; it was a text from my mum with the details of the blind date.

From: Mum

“Alright, tomorrow at noon, we’ve chosen that cafe you always go to because you guys actually live so close to each other! If that’s not fate I don’t know what is!  His name is Jong In, be nice, be kind, you better be there and be prepared for it already! Love you xx” I sighed.

“Everything alright?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, just a text from my mum but I’ve got to go now, thank you so much for letting me play catch with you guys.”
“No that’s alright, at least I shared the tiredness with someone instead of just myself.” He scratched the back of his head as he gave a small smile.
I chuckled, “No problem!”
“Hey, let me walk you home, it’s the least I can do after today.”
“Are you sure? I don’t live that far from here though...”
“No, I insist! Come on, Monggu, let’s go!”

As he accompanied me back home, I realised that I started to walk a bit slower on the way home because of the conversations that we were having, I didn’t want the night to end. Sadly, however, we reached my house before I had even realised.

“Well, this is me!”
“Oh right, well...we had a great time today, thanks for that.”
“No, thank you for keeping me occupied! I’m ---------- by the way, nice to meet you! And you are?” I stuck my hand out.

He looked surprised before reaching out to shake my hand, “Kai, nice to meet you too!”

Monggu barked, “And it was very nice to meet you too, Monggu!” I gave him a big hug. “I’ll see you guys around again, hopefully.” I smiled as I turned around to go inside.

Kai turned around and made his way back, he couldn’t help but have a big smile on his face *She doesn’t know who I am*

I was on the phone to my best friend Eunji.

“Oh my god, I can’t wait to hear everything about your blind date.”
“That’s because you enjoy my sadness and pain, you evil person!”
“Oh sue me, you don’t even bother with the dating scene anymore, I’m really glad your mum is still trying to get you out on blind dates, very sad that she promised you that it’s the last one though.”
“Yeah well, I mean she’s put me through so many and they never worked out, like I’m not even going to be surprised if tomorrow is a bust as well.”
“Can you stop being such a negative Nancy?”
I laughed, “Alright, alright, what did you get up today?”
“Nothing....except trying to find EXO’s new album! I cannot for the life of me find it in any store, why does this happen to me, WHY?”

Eunji was a your typical fangirl, she always tried to get me into it but I just never bothered, she was always talking about EXO this, EXO that but whenever that happens I just instinctively zone out to the point where Eunji would have to pinch me to get me back. She’s already given up and hardly ever goes into details about them anymore when she’s with me which I’m not complaining about.

“Maybe because you stay up so late watching their performances and never wake up in time for it?”
“Yeah but, they’re so good though! Anyways, enough about my life, what about you? Did you meet a guy? Did you kiss him?” I heard her laugh on the other end
“Hey, not funny, and actually, yes I did meet someone but no I did not kiss.”
“Oooh, details please.”

I started from the beginning to end and to my surprise, Eunji was really into it.

“So?! What’s this mystery man’s name?”
“His name is Kai, bit of a weird name but I ---“
“WHAT, WHAT, WAIT, WHAT”
“I said it was a weird nam---“
“NO THE OTHER THING HIS NAME, WHAT WAS HIS NAME?!”

Eunji was starting to freak me out
“Kai...”
“DUDE, WHAT OH MY GOD, DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO HE IS?!”
“Eunji, I’m not going to continue this conversation with you being like this!”
“BUT YOU DON’T UNDER---- but you don’t understand who you just met, WHO YOU JUST MET.”
“Um, a random dog owner...?”
“WHAT NO, oh my god, ----------, this is Kai, Kai from EXO, FROM FREAKING EXO, E TO THE XO.”
“How is that even possible? Aren’t they busy with like promotions or whatever?”
“No not yet, they just released an album and they’re promoting it in 2 weeks, oh my god, you need to take me to this park, SHOW ME THE WAY!”
“No stop it, I’m not going to show you anything, it could have been another Kai..”
“PSSH yeah okay, because Kai is such a popular name.”
“Woah, you need to take down that tone, you have no chill.”
“I’m sorry, seriously though this is like every girls’ dream, do you realise how lucky you are?!”
“Yeah but it’s probably not him, look I have to go now, I have to get ready for tomorrow’s, ugh, blind date, I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”
“No we are not ending this conversation just yet, you need to ditch this blind date and find Kai again.”
“Yes this conversation is over for tonight!”
“No, we still have so much to tal---“
“Okay, love you, bye!” I quickly hung up.

*Kai, EXO’s Kai, is that why he looked so surprised when I asked him for his name?*

The dreaded day arrived and I started getting ready wearing a white dress with embroidered flowers at the hemline. I looked at the clock; it was almost noon so I decided to make my way to the cafe. Thankfully as I got to the cafe there weren’t so many people and I found a nice spot at the back where I started to flip through the magazines they provided. A few minutes into reading, loud screams were heard just down the road *What is going on? And where is Jong In?*

The bell at the entrance rang and caused the screams to be even louder, I looked up and saw a guy with sunglasses waving at the fangirls, who were swooning at each wave *Must be someone popular...* I looked back at the magazine and continued with the article I was just about to read.

“----------?” *Jong In?*

I looked up and realised it was the guy that just came in, he took off his sunglasses and the crowd screamed even louder, it was Kai.

“Oh, Kai, hi! How are you?”
“I’m good thanks!” He sat down beside me. I could feel the hate from the fangirls firing at me. “So I guess they’re all here for you?” I sheepishly laughed as I pointed to the fangirls.
“Heh, yeah, I guess I should explain...”
“No, no, you don’t have to, it’s alright, my friend informed me about you after I told her about yesterday. I had no clue, I’m sorry. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I just didn’t want to make it a big deal out of nothing.”
“Oh fair enough!”
“That’s it? You’re not going to press me for more information?”
“Nope, it’s your life, you can say what you want to say, I’m not fussed, don’t worry about it.”

I could see his shoulders relax.

I hesitantly asked, “Um, I don’t want to seem rude or anything but I’m here on a blind date.” *And I want the fangirls’ hate stares to stop*

Kai raised an eyebrow, “Oh really?”
“Yeah, he should be here any minute actually...” I looked at my imaginary watch.
“Is his name, Jong In?”
“Yea-, wait, how do you know that...?”
“Because I’m Jong In”
“No you’re not, don’t lie.”

At this moment another customer comes into the cafe leaving the fangirls a small timeframe to shout whatever they wanted to Kai before the door shuts.

“JONG IN OPPA, I LOVE YOU!”

Kai turned to the fangirls to wave back, “See I told you.”

My mum had set me up on a blind date with Jong In, Jong In who is Kai, Kai who is from EXO, and EXO -from what Eunji has told me- is the hottest group in the country.  I was gobsmacked, who knew that his blind date would end up being something as big as this.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do this...”

His face dropped, “What? Why not?”
“Jong In, I’m sorry, I don’t want to upset your fans, and I can already feel their stares without even having to look at them.”

I started to gather my things together before I could leave, Jong In grabbed my hand. The fangirls outside squealed.

“Forget about them, ignore them, pretend they’re not even there.”
“How can I? You’re used to it, I’m a nobody that no one knows about, I can’t.”

Before Jong In could say anything, I quickly went through the exit and pushed through the fangirls. Before I knew it, someone pulled at my hair and another pushed me out, I looked back and could see the hatred spewing from everyone in front of me, I needed to get out before it got messy. Just as I was about to turn, I felt something hit me, it was a raw egg, “Stay away from our Oppa, you psycho!”

I was shocked, too shocked to move; I had already become the subject of their hatred. Another egg was coming my way; I prepared myself for the impact and closed my eyes, gasps filled the air as I opened my eyes, I locked eye contact with Jong In. He had shielded me, he protected me.

“Are you alright?”

I was silent; I didn’t know what to say. The fangirls were both remorseful and excited to see Jong In right there in front of them, before any of them could react, Jong In quickly grabbed my hand and starting running. The fangirls followed straight after, I held onto Jong In’s hand tightly making sure I don’t lose my grip as he manoeuvred through the small streets and alleyways, we turned a corner and quickly hid in a small entrance out of sight from the fangirls. I held my breath as we waited for them to run past, once I was sure they were all gone, I let out a sigh of relief.

Jong In began taking the remaining egg shells out of my hair.

“Thanks.” I tirelessly said
“Anytime.”

An awkward silence filled the space between us.

“Look I really want to give us a go,”

I silently listened.

“You are the first person to not know who I am, the first girl for that matter, and, I don’t know, it makes me feel special if you can believe it. You treat me like I’m not famous. When we talked about everything on your way home yesterday we had so much in common and it was the best feeling in the world. I know it sounds a little cliché right now but I want to do everything with you because it’s you...it’s you who I want to be with.”

I was speechless, did Jong In just confess to me?

“Please say something; I don’t even know if I’m doing this correctly, I’ve never done this before.”

I couldn’t help but let out a smile when I saw how hard he was trying with this. Jong In saw me and smiled, but he still looked unsure.

“Alright.”
“What?”
“Alright, let’s try this out”
“Really? Are you serious?!”
I laughed, “Yes!”

He started jumping around displaying his happiness.

“Only one condition though...”

He looked concerned, “What?”

“I get to see Monggu as much as I want,” I gave a cheesy smile.

Jong In laughed, “Deal.”

He pulled me in for warm hug, and I smiled as I felt his heartbeat.

*Thanks Mum*