Never before in Jaeho’s life was he as anxious as he was at that moment. Not during his first job interview, not during his first dual photoshoot with a female model, not even when he lost his ity.

               “Hello,” he said, greeting Irene’s manager, entering the vehicle from the random, designated pick-up location Irene had texted him—this time being the VIP parking lot of a high-end restaurant.

               “Hello,” was the warm reply that was usually given, Jaeho placing his bag of groceries on the seat next to him. They didn’t converse much, but Jaeho made sure to always express his gratitude towards Irene’s manager for going through all this trouble just for their weekly get-together.

               While it was pretty obvious that the best work-around for not getting caught in public was to always meet at Irene’s private apartment, the question then became how Jaeho could discretely arrive at the private, celebrity-dominated apartment building every Friday without drawing suspicion from paparazzi. The answer Irene arrived at was this: to send Jaeho a random, private, secure location every Thursday and have her manager pick him up. This was the seventh time Jaeho was visiting Irene’s apartment and the sixth time he was being picked up by Irene’s manager.

               Jaeho usually tried to fill the silence with bits and pieces of friendly conversation, but this time the car ride’s silence was uninterrupted.

               “Oh, I’d love to meet your members,” was Jaeho’s reply to Irene’s inquiry last week, and it was true: it was only natural for someone to want to meet his favorite idols, even if it wouldn’t be his first time doing so. However, what Jaeho didn’t expect was Irene to arrange a meeting the very next week. Which was to say, Jaeho would be meeting them that day.

               One aspect of his panicking was how unexpectedly quickly they were to meet. Irene said that she would arrange for all of them to arrive at the apartment after Jaeho so he had some time to prepare himself, but he wasn’t sure if that would even help. The other aspect of his panicking was meeting the idol group themselves: at the time, he figured meeting them in person would just be like a fan-meeting and shouldn’t be something to stress over, but after rationalizing that since Irene acts differently inside this apartment than at the fan-meeting he attended a few weeks prior, that the other four would be similarly different, he started to worry. How could he put on a good face for them so that they would approve of him? What would they be like? Would they be much different than what he expected? What if they didn’t like him? What if he hit it off poorly with one of her members, or accidentally did something to give them a bad impression of him?

               In the end, he decided to try his best to not worry about such things and just enjoy his time with Irene’s best friends. As always, he thanked Irene’s manager when they arrived, then proceeded to attempt to calm himself down on the elevator ride up. When he arrived at Irene’s floor and realized he still wasn’t mentally prepared, he hesitated for a brief second before remembering that he still had some time to settle down before he had to meet the rest of Red Velvet.

               So, Jaeho picked up his bags of groceries from the floor of the elevator, walked up to Irene’s apartment with confidence and rang the doorbell.

               “Jaeho?”

               Irene’s gentle voice came from the other side of the door, something that never failed to put a smile on his face and a kickstart to his heart. Seeing the beautiful idol in videos and on TV was one thing, but even if this was the eighth or ninth time seeing her in person, her beauty never failed to amaze him.

               “Hey, I brought dinner again,” Jaeho said, bringing the plastic bag in his hands up to the peephole.

               “Oh, did you?” she smiled, the door swinging open. “It’s a shame, so did I.”

               He nearly fell over when the door fully opened, revealing a clamoring group of four cheerful girls at the doorway.

               “Wh—”

               “Ah, so you’re Joohyun’s boyfriend! It’s nice to see you again!”

               “Nice to meet you again, Joohyun’s boyfriend,” Joy cheekily repeated after Yeri, bowing alongside her.

               Irene smacked Joy. “He’s not my boyfriend!”

               Jaeho chuckled, feeling my face flush at all the sudden attention he was getting.

               “Ah! He’s turning red, are you sure?” Seulgi noted, smiling mischievously to their leader.

               “He’s quite handsome,” Yeri noted as Jaeho stepped into the apartment, closing the door behind him.

               “He looks really nice too; how did you two meet?”

               “Stop teasing him and let him inside, I’ll tell you all later,” Irene scolded them, pulling the three girls back and laying his slippers at his feet. “Sorry about this, they were so restless that they decided to come early despite my protests.”

               “N-No, it’s fine,” he said, accidentally dropping the groceries as he knelt down to grab his slippers. Before the contents could spill out of the bag, Jaeho quickly grabbed the bag off the floor, slipping on the footwear before placing it on the counter of the kitchen.

               He wasn’t usually this clumsy, why did he have to be like this in front of Irene’s groupmates? This wasn’t their first interaction, technically, but it in a private setting, it was. “Should I get started on dinner?”

               “No, let’s make dinner together,” Irene suggested, helping him take the groceries out of their bags.

               “They’re so cute together,” Wendy not-so-discretely whispered to Seulgi, to which she excitedly nodded.

               Irene half-scoffed, half-laughed. “We can hear you, you know.”

               “Oh, are we finally getting started on cooking? I want to help!” Yeri announced, excitement exuding from her voice as she entered the kitchen.

               “No, it’s ok, you can relax,” Irene replied, leaving Jaeho’s side and grabbing Yeri’s hand, trying to lead the struggling woman out.

               “Whyy?”

               “I don’t want Jaeho to end up eating anything weird because of you.”

               Hearing that, Yeri immediately obeyed, a grin on her face. “Ah, so you care about him so much that you want him to—” Irene cut her off and went to push her, Yeri skillfully slipping out of Irene’s grasp, scampering off, giggling while Irene stopped short a few steps out of the kitchen.

               Jaeho genuinely didn’t know how to react. He figured they would be more protective of their precious leader and he would have to convince them that he was good enough for Irene, but from what he gathered so far, the girls of Red Velvet just seemed relieved that their leader had shown interest in someone.

               “Your groupmates are really fun, aren’t they?” Jaeho noted as Irene walked back into the kitchen.

               She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, a smile still on her face. “If that’s what you call ‘fun’, then yeah.”

               While Jaeho wanted to ask about how the four were able to recognize him from the fan-meeting a few weeks ago, he refrained for fear of coming off as narcissistic. It wasn’t until they had started eating was the question answered.

               “Ooh wow, all of this looks so good,” Yeri commented as Jaeho handed her a bowl of the kimchi stew Wendy, Seulgi, and Joy made. While Jaeho knew of Yeri’s peculiar cooking methods, he wouldn’t have guessed that it bled so much into reality—when Yeri re-entered the kitchen, the three kept Yeri at an arm’s length while Irene helped Jaeho with the food he was making.

               The dishes Jaeho and Irene made were two Chinese dishes that caught his fancy on the web last week: a tofu stir-fry dish with celery and pork, and a tomato and eggs dish. Even though he already practiced making the dishes a few times, he was quite proud of them—not only did they have a nice aroma, they were also pleasantly colorful. Still, he was unsure if the others would like the Chinese-style food, so hearing Yeri’s compliment gave him a burst of confidence.

               “…and here’s Irene’s,” Jaeho filled the bowl with the stew and placed it in front of the seat next to his.

               “Wait,” Yeri piped up, looking at Irene’s bowl, “Why does Joohyun’s bowl have more than everyone else’s?”

               “Does it?” Jaeho replied innocently, “I didn’t realize.”

               “Wait, yeah, Yeri’s right,” Seulgi added, looking between all the bowls, “When you look at it, it’s really obvious.”

               Jaeho could tell there was a teasing edge to their voices, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to enable the four to tease their eldest. Then again, he figured, it might be fun to see Irene flustered. “Well, I just figured that Irene needed to eat the most, given how skinny she is,” he reasoned, an outburst pouring out from the four shortly afterwards.

               “Aw, that’s so cute!” Seulgi gushed, a smile blossoming on her face.

               “Wow, good job Jaeho~” Yeri complimented him.

               “As expected of Joohyun’s boyfriend,” Joy added, nodding with content.

               “Ah—you, really,” Irene replied in an exasperated voice, laughing nonetheless.

               “That was really sweet of him though,” Wendy said, smiling with the other four.

               Jaeho couldn’t help but smile at the younger four bickering with their leader; of all the things he prepared for meeting them, he never would’ve thought that they would be so accepting of him. Was Irene really that lonely all this time? Or maybe it was just a of luck or good fortune that they just happened to all like him?

               “Well at least we know it goes both ways,” Yeri noted. Jaeho made a confused face, to which Yeri immediately picked up and continued, “Joohyun made sure to point you out to each of us when you came to that fan-meeting at least, like, three times.”

               “More like five times,” Joy added.

               “Ah is that so?” Jaeho laughed, looking over at the fuming Irene, who was shooting daggers from her eyes at the youngest two, both of whom were avidly avoiding her gaze. “Anyway, let’s start eating. Thank you for the meal!” Jaeho said, setting a bowl of their kimchi stew in front of himself.

               “Yes, let’s,” Irene said, evidently relieved of Jaeho’s intervention, “Thank you for the meal!”

               “Thank you for the meal,” the other four repeated after her before they dug in.

               As the night grew, so did Jaeho’s comfort around the four idols. He would be lying if he claimed that he felt completely acquainted with the lovely ladies of Red Velvet, but it was certainly a step or two above where they were at the beginning of the night. If Jaeho were to capture the essence of the group in one event, it would be when Yeri fell asleep in the middle of a movie they had decided to watch.

               “Look,” Irene whispered to Jaeho. He peeled his eyes away from the screen, following the direction of Irene’s gaze to Yeri, who had her eyes closed in a serene sleeping expression, her head resting against her arm that was splayed on the arm of the couch she was slumped across. Her already small frame was compressed into a comfy-looking ball, her small face made even smaller pressed against the bend of her arms. A smile blossomed on his face from the adorable sight.

               This caught the attention of the other three, who started giggling at the sight of the sleepy youngest member. “Aw, our baby is tired,” Seulgi, who was seated next to her, said. She reached out to pat her head but was stopped short by Joy.

               “Wait, don’t wake her up yet,” she insisted, keeping her voice soft enough to not wake Yeri up but loud enough to be heard and pulling her phone out. The lights in the apartment were dimmed so the light from Joy’s phone stuck out like a sore thumb and might have woken Yeri up if Joy was not seated opposite the sleeping girl.

               “What are you doing? Recording her?” Wendy, who was seated next to Joy, whispered.

               “Yeah,” she replied giddily, getting out of the seat and sneaking closer to her.

               “Let her sleep,” Irene scolded Joy quietly as the younger woman sneakily moved closer to the couch Yeri was seated on.

               “She must be tired from her schedules,” Jaeho commented before realizing Irene was probably just as busy as Yeri, if not more so, “how are you doing?” Jaeho turned towards the woman seated next to her.

               “I’m ok, I’m not that tired.”

               “Can you two be quiet? Now I have to delete that video because Jaeho’s voice was in that video,” Joy whispered, a playful agitation in her voice.

               “What did you just say?”

               Before Joy could respond, Yeri began shifting in her seat, shortly afterwards groaning and lifting her head, looking around sheepishly.

               Joy, in response to this, scampered back to her seat, but not before Yeri noticed her. “Were you trying to take a video of me sleeping?” Yeri, sleepiness still in her voice, asked.

               “… No…” Joy replied innocently, smiling.

               “You—” Yeri started, sitting upright in her seat, drowned out by a sudden swelling of sound from the movie. Everyone’s attention turned back to the movie with Jaeho and Irene grinning at each other, an action that didn’t go past Seulgi and Yeri.

               “They’re so cute,” Seulgi whispered, to which Yeri nodded. Irene, noticing that the two were talking to each other but not having picked up their words, shot them a quizzical expression, only to be met with an innocent shrug from the excited pair. While Irene suspected that something was off, she decided not to sit on the topic for too long and turned back to the TV screen.

               “Wait, you didn’t delete the video yet, did you?” Wendy whispered to Joy a little while later, after the movie quieted down a little.

               “Why, do you want it?”

               It was at this point that Jaeho noticed their interaction, Irene turning her head in response to Jaeho turning his.

               “Oh, do you want it too?” Joy asked Irene quietly, motioning to her to convey the question through actions as she discretely pulled out her phone.

               “Stop it,” Irene whispered to them in a scolding manner, “Focus on the movie.” Joy hesitated, a knowing look in her eyes visible to Jaeho even despite the darkness, followed shortly by, “But make sure to send it to me later.”

               “Wait, are you talking about the video Joy took of me sleeping?” Yeri asked, indignant.

               “Oh, can I have it too?” Seulgi asked with an innocent excitement, only to be hit by the youngest member sitting next to her, exploding into a fit of giggles in response.

               “Hey! It’s embarrassing, delete it already!” Yeri whined, getting out of her seat.

               “I don’t wanna,” she said, sticking out her tongue at the shorter woman in a teasing manner, hiding her phone in between her body and the sofa cushion.

               “Shh, pay attention to the movie,” Irene told her, motioning her to sit down. “Talk after it’s done.”

               That was all Yeri needed to hear to obediently sit back in her chair, and Jaeho took a brief second to admire the authority she commanded over her members.

               When the movie ended, it was decided that they should return to their dorm as it was getting late. Joy ended up getting to keep the video, although Jaeho was unsure if it actually got distributed among the other three. After a short ride to a private parking space away from the apartment, Jaeho separated from the rest of the girls, but not before Irene took some time to thank him. She was cut short by her members’ teasing, to which Jaeho couldn’t help but smile at, and walked home happier and more content than his anxiety would have imagined.

               In the following weeks, their weekly get-togethers grew fewer and far between; Red Velvet were preparing for a brief Japanese tour, and Irene began to run out of excuses to keep her Fridays clear, in her own words. Learning this made Jaeho feel unexpectedly uneasy; while he was honored that Irene would go through such lengths just to see him on a weekly basis, was it worth interfering with her career?

               After deep consideration, he decided that Irene was her own woman, and he shouldn’t worry about her decisions; if she had decided to spend her time as she had, then he should take advantage of the blessing she bestowed upon him. This train of thought inevitably fell upon the very topic that entered his mind every time they met but one he dared not approach for fear of reality: what was all this leading up to? Knowing each other for three months certainly wasn’t a long time, but the opportunity slipping away from him started to feel like a potential reality. Jaeho was usually more persistent than this: once he set his eyes on a woman, he usually confessed to her within a month or two. The woman being Irene, a member of one of Korea’s most popular girl groups as well as having that ever-present mystical, almost goddess-like aura about her, was certainly a factor in this delay, but another was Jaeho himself.

               What would it be like dating an idol? He definitely would have to adjust his expectations from his past relationships, but how much? How hard would keeping the secret be?

               All the doubts vanished upon hearing a passing comment Irene made the last time the two got together before their short trip to Japan.

               “I can’t wait to go to Japan, but I also can’t wait to come back.”

               Jaeho half-chuckled at that, adding on quizzically, “What? What do you mean? You haven’t even left yet.”

               “I know,” Irene replied, “but … I don’t know. I want to see our Japanese fans, but I also really like it here. Something like that.” She smiled warmly at Jaeho as she said that, and although nothing particular was explicitly spoken, he felt something in that moment. It was like a sudden explosion of warmth in his chest, that feeling bubbling in his chest boiling over like a full kettle on a burning stove, the very thing he had been groping with in his contemplation regarding his and Irene’s future: hope, a positive empowering feeling that erupted from just those few words, not just from the words themselves but the smile that followed, and a determination behind that hope.

               In that moment, Jaeho decided: if Irene was excited to come back from the tour, he should give her additional reason to love being ‘here’. After they parted ways that night, he started planning, an event two weeks in the making that involved him, many trips to various flower and event-decoration shops, and the shared, private apartment.

               As anxious as he was, he made sure to not jump the gun too early; the flowers had to be fresh, and the decorations should appear new and vibrant. Like a madman, he rehearsed the event over and over in his head, spending more money in the span of two weeks than any other two-week span in his life, the anxiety steadily growing inside him like a balloon stretched to its max, aching to pop.

               When the day finally came, Jaeho double, triple, quadruple, quintuple-checked that he had everything and that every piece of decoration was in its place. When he was finally satisfied, he sat in the bedroom, his nerves on his sleeves and his heart jumping out of his chest.

               All of the tension inside him, that was building for two weeks, burst when he heard the faint noise of Irene opening the door.

               The other side of the door of the ordinary apartment Irene had come to know and love had been completely transformed, and it was apparent right away.

               The lights in the apartment were off, lavender-scented candles providing a dim lighting to the residence, its flickering light dancing along the walls of the quaint enclosure. Irene inadvertently gasped, quickly stepping in and closing the door behind her. The beautiful purple candles lined the hallway of the apartment, creating a path between the living room and kitchen, each room with their own decorations: the living room softly playing the movie her group members had watched with him, the sofa scattered with purple petals, the kitchen table set up with the first meal Jaeho cooked for her, the plates flanked on either side by two taller, brighter candles, the flickering flame reflecting off a vase placed next to the kitchen sink.

                She followed the pathway that led to the bedroom, her heart bursting at the seams. This was her first time experiencing something like this and was admittedly jealous when she watched that episode of ‘We Got Married’ in which her younger member Joy encountered a similar situation. Now that it was her turn though, she felt at a complete lost for words. Tears start b her eyes, her hands clasped over in an attempt to prevent herself from outright crying. When she stepped through the door of the bedroom, in the middle of the room stood Jaeho in the outfit he wore the first night of their meeting, strikingly handsome as ever, a chaste grin appearing on his face and a beautiful bouquet of purple and white flowers in his hands. They stood in each other’s presence for a few seconds, Jaeho taking in the breathtaking sight of the luminescent diamonds trapped in liquid form threatening to pour out from Irene’s eyes. In that moment, Irene appeared no less than an angel.

               Jaeho took in one last breath before opening his mouth. “In my 29 years of living, I’ve never experienced the things I’ve experienced the last few months. Happiness, joy, and excitement have become such a normal part of my life that I started to feel guilty for feeling positive thoughts so often, wondering if it was selfish of me to indulge like this or if I was taking advantage of you, an idol with a very hectic schedule.” Irene remained silent while Jaeho took a short pause, starting to slowly approach her, bouquet still in hand. “But if I’ve ever learned anything in my life, it’s to seize the moment, to reach for every opportunity. Being a single thirty-years-old man, the thought of marriage, much less a relationship, seemed like a far-off dream, but when you entered my life, I started to see it differently.” When Jaeho reached Irene, he offered the flowers to her, who had to remove her hands from to receive. Tears were streaming down her face to the wide smile on her lips.

               “They’re so beautiful,” Irene said in admiration, softly gazing at the explosion of color and beauty that was in her hands.

               “Do you recognize these flowers?” Jaeho asked.

               Irene shook her head, redirecting her gaze to the man in front of her, just barely able to respond with, “No.”

               “The purple ones are called Blue Violets and the white ones are Jasmines. They represent the feelings I discovered I harbored for you: love.”

               Although Irene could tell this was where everything was heading, it was a completely different matter to hear it. Just hearing those words in person caused her leg muscles to momentarily stop functioning, leading her to nearly tumble, Jaeho managing to catch her in the nick of time.

               Jaeho stared down at the beautiful idol in disbelief. He had never been so anxious to confess to someone as this was the first time he truly felt the woman he was confessing to was out of his league, but to see such a reaction baffled him somewhat. Was this real life? He understood that Irene was humble, but surely she should be able to recognize that any man on the planet would love to be in his position.

               It was only when Irene stammered out a, “Th-Thanks,” that Jaeho realized the awkward position they were in. He helped Irene stand back up straight and returned to his position in front of Irene.

               “Irene—Bae Joohyun,” he started, quickly correcting himself, remembering his promise from a few weeks ago. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

               Irene brought her hands, which were still holding the flowers, to as she let out something between a loud gasp and a cry, a noise he had never heard her make in the few months that they had known each other. The gorgeous group of flowers were full on display right next to Irene’s face, but even as it was shimmering with tears, her beauty outshone nature’s best.

               “Yes, of course,” she managed to choke out after finally regaining her voice a few seconds later. “I would love to be your girlfriend.”

               She quickly set the bouquet on the nightstand next to her and jumped into Jaeho’s open arms, a man who was masking his dumbfounded reaction towards Irene’s extreme reaction to his confession. Things didn’t play out this well even in his head, and Jaeho liked to believe he had a pretty good imagination. However, when Irene wrapped his arms around him and buried her head in his neck, all those feelings went away. It was like a tsunami of warmth washed over him, a smile pulling the corner of his lips apart—the soft sniffling coming from her, the mixed aroma of her shampoo and her lightly applied perfume, the softness of her arms and hands as they tightly gripped him, his senses were filled with Irene, Irene, and nothing but Irene. His heart swelled to the point of bursting, his cheek muscles working overtime to preserve the smile overtaking his mouth, his heartrate shot through the roof but the rest of his body relaxed as he secured his embrace around the small idol: at that moment, it felt like it would be no exaggeration to state that he was the happiest man in the world.

               “Thank you,” Jaeho whispered, enjoying the warm feeling of Irene’s embrace.

               “Stupid, I should be the one thanking you,” Irene replied quietly, her head still pressed against Jaeho’s warm nape. Irene had always secretly wondered what it was like, seeing as Jaeho had such a fit body, and it was every bit as fantastic as she imagined—not that she fantasized about it much or anything. “You’re setting a pretty high bar to overcome when you propose to me.”

               Jaeho chuckled. “You’re already thinking about that?”

               “You started it,” she replied, unable to wipe the dumb smile off her face.

               “Oh, by the way,” Jaeho noted, releasing their embrace, much to the reluctance of Jaeho and the disappointment of Irene, “we should put those flowers in a vase.”

               “Yeah, we should,” she replied, unable to keep the tint of disappointment out of her voice. Jaeho, noticing this, chuckled to himself and led Irene, who grabbed the bouquet next to her, and into the kitchen.

               “Here,” Jaeho motioned towards the vase placed next to the sink, already filled with water. “Now you have a reason to come here frequently,” he added, grinning.

               “As if I didn’t already.” She found herself unable to anything else; it was like the corners of her lips were being held in place by some invisible force. To her, at that moment, it felt like it was no exaggeration to state that she was the happiest woman in the world.

               “Are you hungry? I cooked some stuff not too long ago, so it should still be warm,” Jaeho suggested, pulling out a chair at the dining table.

               That night, Irene was too preoccupied by the moment and her joy that she completely forgot that she was an idol. It wasn’t until after their meal that she finally remembered: her having a boyfriend could be detrimental to her career.

               “So, in terms of our relationship to the public,” Jaeho said as they were sat on the couch in the living room, looking for a movie to watch on the TV after they finished their meal and a massage from Jaeho for Irene. “Is there anything particular I have to be careful of? Do you have any tips?”

               Jaeho could tell that being brought back to reality saddened Irene and he felt guilty for being the one to cause it, but he wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t feel it was important.

               “Um, I don’t know…” the soft honey-like quality of her voice expressed just how much she was enjoying the massage, barely able to focus on the albeit serios topic Jaeho brought up. “Since you aren’t an idol, maybe it won’t be as hard?”

               Jaeho nodded, sighing. “I hope so; I don’t want to be the cause for people writing negative comments about you.”

               “Don’t worry about that. I’ll protect you.”

               Jaeho couldn’t help but laugh in response. “You’re so cute.” Now there was a thought he felt like he would never get used to: Irene, probably considered the most beautiful woman in Korea by many Koreans … the gentle, kind, charming, caring Irene was his girlfriend. “It’s my job, as your boyfriend, to worry about you though, isn’t it?”

               Irene opened her eyes to look at the man sitting on the couch next to her, meeting his slight pout with a warm, reassuring smile. “Well, it’s my job as an idol to worry about public perception of me.”

               Jaeho conceded with a nod, not particularly feeling like talking about that much more. “Is there anyone you plan on telling?”

               She pondered the question for a moment, still attached to his arm. “My members, for sure,” she answered, something that Jaeho wasn’t surprised by in the slightest, “I might tell some of my other close friends if it comes up, but that’s pretty much it.”

               “So you aren’t going to tell your staff?”

               Irene pursed her lips in response. “I think it would be best to not tell them because I don’t want my company to find out.” Even though Jaeho knew Irene’s intentions were good, he couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated by those words. It was perhaps a stupid thought and a stupid inclination to feel, but it was there nonetheless: frustration, not towards Irene, but towards the company, towards the lifestyle idols are forced to live because of the general public’s refusal to let their precious idols live normal lives. “Since you aren’t a celebrity, people might take the news more easily, but I still don’t want to risk anything. Is that ok with you?”

               All the frustration he felt melted away from the absolutely adorable set of puppy-dog eyes Irene shot at Jaeho. “Well, if you look at me like that, then I can’t say no can I?”

               “Ah, is that so?” Irene laughed in response. “No, but really, are you ok with that?”

               Jaeho nodded, reestablishing eye contact with Irene, another smile appearing on his face. He wondered if there ever would come a time where the simple act of looking at Irene wouldn’t cause him to smile. Honestly, he hoped that time would never come. “Yeah, of course. I knew what I was signing up for when I was planning all of this.”

               “Thank you, both for being okay with our situation and for all of this,” she said, removing herself from him to motion to the apartment as a whole.

               “Did you like it?”

               Irene nodded. “I really, really love it. It’s so pretty, especially these,” Irene noted, picking up a flower petal with her two longest fingers. “I really want to take a picture of us and all of this, can I?”

               The question put Jaeho at an impasse. His personal policy towards pictures told him to say ‘no’, but the fact that it was his girlfriend asking told him to just say ‘yes’, if not for this one instance. They just became a couple after all, why couldn’t he acquiesce for this one picture? In the end, his logic prevailed: if this moment was so precious, then it was even more important to live the moment, to not spoil the memory by relying on digital or hard copies of the event. “Well, do you really want to rely on a picture to remember all of this?”

               Irene pouted, which admittedly was almost enough to break his will at that moment. “Just one, please?”

               Where the first and second displays of cuteness failed, the third one succeeded. Jaeho complied, saying, “Ok, fine. What do you want in the picture?”

               “Yay!” she exclaimed with an innocent, child-like excitement, motioning for him to come over. He obeyed, scooting closer to her. “I want to include some of these petals, but I also want to include the candles,” she informed him, maneuvering the two around until she found the optimal angle. Jaeho, being the one with longer arms, offered to take the photo; even though it was understood that this photo wouldn’t make it to any other phone, he still made sure to position himself in front of Irene as common courtesy.

               The rest of the night went by in a flash, and when Jaeho woke up the next morning, he was reassured that the previous night did in fact happen when he unlocked his phone and saw a ‘good morning’ text from Irene. Another smile popped up on his face as he replied in a similar fashion. Later that day, when Irene was back in her dorm, she video called him. Jaeho, unsure of what to expect, picked up her call.

               “Hi Jaeho,” Irene said, smiling into the camera. Jaeho took a moment to marvel at the fact that Red Velvet’s Bae Joohyun was in a personal video call with him, as his girlfriend.

               “Hey,” he replied, a smile creeping onto his face. “Busy day?”

               “Today wasn’t that bad actually,” Irene answered, settling down onto her bed. “Thinking about you gave me strength.”

               Laughter erupted from Jaeho, and consequently, Irene as well. “Wow, that was so cheesy.”

               Irene’s eyes disappeared into black, upside-down crescents as she laughed. This was a sight that was never going to get old to Jaeho. “It was, wasn’t it?”

               “But for me, it was the same. Honestly, it still feels amazing that you’re my girlfriend,” Jaeho admitted.

               “Aww, really?”

               As Irene said those words, another voice came in from the background, which Jaeho instantly recognized as Yeri’s. “Ah, Joohyun’s smiling at her phone, she must be video-calling Jaeho,” the youngest teased.

               “Is that really the only explanation?” Irene responded, turning around yell back at the excited Yeri.

               “Are you video-calling him?” this time, it was Seulgi, who shortly after appeared on the camera behind Irene. “Oh, you are! Hi, Jaeho!”

               “Hi Seulgi,” Jaeho laughed, waving into the camera.

               “Ooh, no wonder she’s been happy all day today; she must have been looking forward to this,” Joy said, appearing next to Seulgi in the background. “Hi Jaeho!”

               “Hey Joy,” Jaeho greeted her next, Yeri and Wendy being the next ones to appear. “Don’t tease your leader too much, ok?”

               “Aw, he’s looking out for you,” Wendy commented, causing Irene to give her a look of disbelief.

               “Wendy, I thought you were the only one I could count on to not join in on the teasing!”

               “Sorry, you two are just too cute,” the Korean-Canadian replied.

               “Oh, did you tell them yet?”

               That instantly got the attention of all four of them. “Tell us what?” Yeri instantly responded with a question.

               A look of confusion promptly followed by one of guilt overtook Jaeho’s face. “Ah, I was going to tell them now that we were in a video call, actually,” Irene said, quelling Jaeho’s fears that he had jumped the gun on the news.

               “Oh,” he said, mostly in relief.

               “That way, you can share the embarrassment of their reaction with me,” she finished, smiling mischievously through the screen at him.

               “Ah, is that so?” he laughed, observing that the other four members were basically screaming with a mixture of delight and excitement.

               “Anyway—kids, be quiet,” Irene demanded, to which the other four instantly obeyed. “Jaeho and I started dating as of yesterday.”

               With that simple sentence, all hell broke loose.

               “Oh my god really!?”

               “Congratulations!”

               “Wow, I can’t believe it, you two really finally got together…”

               “I know, isn’t it so cute?”

               “Did you get any pictures?”

               “When’s your first date going to be?”

               “Do you have nicknames for each other?”

               “When’s the next fanmeeting Jaeho’s coming to?”

               “Yah, everyone, quiet down,” Irene demanded again. This time, the command was substantially less effective. “Our neighbors are going to hear if you keep on shouting like this.” When that didn’t do the trick, she took her phone in her hands and, after a moment, said, “Will you quiet down if I show you the picture of yesterday?” The four rowdy Red Velvet members quieted down immediately after the words left . “Here it is,” she said, handing the phone over to Joy, the other members gathering around her.

               “Aw, that’s so cute!”

               “Oh my gosh that’s so romantic!”

               “That’s so adorable!”

               “Aw, I wish I could’ve been there! That’s so adorable!”

               “OK, now that I’ve told you all the news, Jaeho and I are going to talk for a bit ok? Go away,” Irene said, retrieving her phone.

               “Wow, getting a boyfriend really changed you…”

               “Yeah, how could you be so mean to your members…”

               “I get that you want to be all lovey-dovey with your boyfriend, but we’ve still known you for longer…”

               “Yah, you two,” Irene scolded the two youngest of the group, “stop that, you’ll make Jaeho feel bad. Apologize to him.”

               “It’s OK—” before Jaeho could say those words fully, the two already interjected.

               “We’re sorry,” the two obediently said upon Irene’s request, bowing as the phone was turned to them.

               “You two are cute,” he chuckled.

               “Do you have any date ideas? Do you want us to help?” Yeri excitedly asked, shortly afterwards the phone was turned back to Irene. “Next time you come to a fanmeeting, I’ll give you my phone number and we can discuss.”

               “Did you just tell my boyfriend that you’d give him your number in front of me?”

               “Ah, Joohyun’s jealous~”

               “Thanks for your thoughtfulness Yeri, but I got this,” Jaeho replied.

               “Hey, I video-called you to talk to me, why have you talked to my members more?”

               Before Jaeho could apologize, Yeri piped up in the background, “I’ll get a movie you two can watch next time you get together.”

               “Yah, get going already!” she said, turning around and shooing them away, laughing nonetheless. “They’ve been bothering me the whole day because apparently, I look like I’ve been ‘glowing’ or something.”

               “Ah, really? I couldn’t really tell because you’re always glowing to me.”

               “Yah, you—” the two erupted in laughter again, both in embarrassment. “You said I was cheesy.”

               “Well, you’re the one who said ‘yes’,” Jaeho said, “It’s too late to take it back now.”

               “Are you sure?” Whereas before, Jaeho might have felt insecure about her saying those words, now, Jaeho could take one look at the smile in her eyes and the laughter in her voice to know that she was kidding.

               “Ok, give me one more chance then. When are you next free?”

               Irene thought about it for a bit before saying, “I think I can make myself free this Friday.”

               Here, those thoughts Jaeho had about wasting her time crept up again. He didn’t want to take away from her career or from the rest of her fans, nor did he want to get her in trouble with upper management or labelmates. He knew that he should count on Irene to make smart decisions regarding balancing her career and her relationship with him, but he also figured that if he was in Irene’s position, he might not make the wisest decisions. “Are you sure?” Jaeho ended up saying, “I don’t want you to get in trouble or skip anything for me.”

               “Yeah, I was just trying to remember my schedule this week, don’t worry.” Jaeho wanted to take her words as they were, but he also detected a twinge of guilt in her expression.

               “Ok; I value our time together, but don’t give up your career for me,” Jaeho reiterated.

               “Aw, that’s so sweet!”

               “Yah, Seulgi, what are you still doing here?” Irene turned to the side, presumably to where Seulgi was standing off-camera.

               “What? I live here too,” Seulgi whined in protest.

               “This is my bedroom though,” Irene replied, leaving her phone propped up on her bed and getting up. “I’ll join you guys after I’m done, OK?”

               “Are you talking about plans for your next date?”

               “Yah, just get out already,” Irene repeated, making a shooing motion to her, chuckling in bewilderment at the laughing Seulgi.

               “You should take Yeri’s suggestion and watch the movie she’s planning for you.”

               “Alright, I got it, we’ll do it ok?” she eventually agreed, which evidently was Seulgi’s cue to leave. “Sorry about that,” Irene said when she returned.

               “No problem,” Jaeho replied, chuckling slightly. “So we’re gonna watch that movie this Friday at the apartment?”

               “Yep, sounds like it.”

               When that date arrived, the couple sat down in front of the TV in their private, shared apartment and watched the movie that Yeri suggested—a movie called ‘Along with the Gods-The Two Worlds’. When the movie hit the , Jaeho found inadvertently himself welling up with tears at the scene of the protagonist apologizing profusely to his late mother; Jaeho lived most of his life without a mother or a maternal figure in his life, and although he couldn’t relate exactly to the protagonist’s troubles, he still felt the impact of them. Jaeho was very much like Irene in that he wasn’t one to share his troubles with others much, which meant that he very rarely showed this kind of emotion to Irene, despite the amount of movies they’ve watched on the very couch they were sitting on.

               So, to see Jaeho tearing up to the extent of nearly sobbing was a very startling—although not unwelcome—thing to Irene.

               “Jaeho?”

               He shook his head. “I’m—I’m sorry, I’ll be ok in a bit.”

               Irene placed a careful hand on his shoulder, rubbing it soothingly.

               “Thanks,” he said, wiping his tears with his sleeve.

               Irene, looking around and noticing that the nearest tissue box was in the kitchen, sat next to him in an uncomfortable dilemma. Jaeho, noticing that this was the case, attempted to excuse himself but was stopped by Irene.

               “I’ll get it,” she offered, pulling him back down. Jaeho, caught off guard, allowed himself to be pulled back onto the couch, and was caught even further off guard when Irene returned and, after giving Jaeho some time to wipe his tears, pulled his head onto her shoulder. Whether it was that he was touched by the action, comforted by it, or a combination of the two, his crying evolved into sobbing. Irene sat in silence, his back in a comforting manner. When Jaeho finally calmed down, he removed himself from Irene’s embrace.

               “Sorry, I just ruined your shirt.”

               “It’s ok, it’s nothing a good wash can’t fix,” she replied. Irene herself was teary-eyed but nowhere near the state Jaeho was in. Noticing Irene’s quizzical expression, Jaeho felt as though he owed Irene an explanation, as this was something that he kept to himself not because he needed to keep this fact about himself a secret, but because he never felt the need to bring it up.

               After the movie concluded, Jaeho took a deep breath before turning to Irene. “You were probably wondering why I reacted so strongly to that scene, right?” He could see the answer in her eyes and appreciated that Irene didn’t try to wave it off in a polite gesture. “My mom passed away when I was young, so those kinds of scenes usually have had a big impact on me.”

               “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, not hesitating this time to pull Jaeho into another hug. Despite himself and the situation he was in, he couldn’t help but smile at the ridiculous thought of this being one of the only upsides of his mother’s early passing. “How are you now?”

               “Much better,” he replied, surprising even himself in the amount of energy that was in his voice. “Thanks, Joohyun.”

               Even though she was his girlfriend, Jaeho felt indebted to Irene; he knew that she wouldn’t stand for it if he voiced out his feelings, so it wasn’t until their next get-together that he was able to repay his debts.

               “I promise, it’s not like that,” Jaeho repeated, leading Irene to the bedroom in the apartment.

               She eyed him suspiciously in turn, half-joking half-serious—it wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, it was that she was unclear were his intentions lie.

               “Here, now lie down.”

               Irene laughed. “You really aren’t helping your case when you say, ‘it’s not like that’, you know,” she said, obeying nonetheless.

               “Trust me, trust me,” he said as he got on the bed as well. Irene turned her head around in curiosity, unable to help but feel a little heat on her face. “You’ll like this a lot. Just relax, ok? Let me do the work for you.”

               With that, hovering over the small frame of the idol that was his girlfriend, he began the message, first starting with the shoulders.

               “Aah—aaah…” Without the proper context, Jaeho felt that this whole situation could definitely be interpreted differently.

               “What do you think? It feels good, right?”

               Irene nodded, her eyes gently shut and her facial muscles relaxed. “Yeah, it does,” she replied, blissfully unaware of Jaeho’s far-from-innocent thought.

               Jaeho stayed on her shoulders for a few more minutes before moving to her back. “How was the photoshoot today?”

               “It…it was good,” she muttered in between sighs of pleasure. “You know, people are still saying that I’m ‘glowing’ or something, and I swear, it feels like our secret is in danger every time one of my members hears it.”

               “Oh really?” Jaeho chuckled, imagining a giggling Yeri or Joy in the background after being given the compliment by a staff member. “That’s cute.”

               A brief silence befell on the two, Jaeho moving onto Irene’s lower back a couple of seconds later. “You’re always saying that about my members, but you never say it about me.”

               Another smile erupted onto Jaeho’s face. “To me, you’ll always be the cutest one,” he answered, cupping her face with his hands. Irene, initially surprised at the sudden skinship, jumped a bit before realizing what was happening, closing her eyes again and covering Jaeho’s hand with her own.

               “Even though I’m the oldest?”

               “What do you mean by that? It’s only an eight-year ,” Jaeho replied.

               “Aah, you smooth talker. I bet that’s how you get all the ladies; after all, you like older women, don’t you?”

               “That again?” Jaeho laughed retrieving his hand and patting the top of her head before resuming his massage.

               “Well you haven’t presented any evidence on the contrary, so until you do, I’m going to assume it’s true.”

               Jaeho was always hesitant to talk about ex-girlfriends, not only in front of Irene but in front of any of his past girlfriends. However, now that the situation presented itself, he felt like avoiding the topic any further might end up drawing suspicion. “You’re the first one I’ve dated who’s older than me, although it sometimes doesn’t feel like that.”

               “You—you’re really good at that, aren’t you?” Irene said, laughing.

               “At what? Speaking my thoughts?” he replied cheekily.

               “You—oh, wow that feels really nice,” Irene cut herself off as Jaeho transitioned his massage to Irene’s legs. “You have to teach this to me sometime,” she noted, letting out a soft moan of satisfaction. “My parents would love this too.”

               “…It was you who said it, not me.”

               “What do you mean?” she turned her head back to look at Jaeho, confused. “What did I do?”

               “Compare yourself to the previous generation…”

               Jaeho immediately jumped off the bed when Irene turned around to hit him. “Get back here,” she insisted, Jaeho backing up, laughing.

               “Hey, it was you who said it, not me,” he repeated, dodging another swipe from Irene. “Are you going to let me finish the massage?”

               “I’ll give you a massage,” Irene playfully threatened, chasing him out of the room. “Come here, let me give you a nice massage.”

               “It wasn’t me, I just pointed it out!” he said, Irene finally cornering him in the living room. When Jaeho realized this, he started laughing nervously as Irene approached him slowly. He spoke the thought that was on his mind, hoping for an interesting response: “You’ll have to initiate skinship first to ‘give me a massage’.”

               That thought, which hadn’t even occurred to Irene until he had said it, gave her pause.

               Jaeho, taking advantage of this pause, backed up as far as he could on the couch and continued, “Your fans have also noticed this, but they haven’t really started suspecting something because of your reputation of being cold to men, right? You couldn’t possibly—”

               “That’s not going to work on me,” she said, smiling; whether it was Jaeho’s intention or not, his egging on was the catalyst that convinced Irene to stop being so hesitant with skinship. It was true that she was always hesitant to do so with the opposite , especially if it wasn’t for a camera, but this was her boyfriend she was talking about. Why should she be hesitant touching her boyfriend?

               “Wait—ow—ow!” Jaeho flinched as Irene grabbed his hand and hit the back of it twice.

               And as Irene had suspected, the purpose behind Jaeho’s actions were twofold: at first, he was just trying to defend himself, but as he kept talking, he realized that if he could use that opportunity to help Irene with casually initiating skinship, it would increase her confidence and push ahead on their relationship.

               With this advancement, Jaeho created another goal in his mind: to get to the point in which Irene would casually reach over, without his asking, and fix something on his face like she did for her members. His expectation was that it would take a few months, but a combination of the unexpectedly frequent amount of dates they had along with the unexpectedly fast pace Irene progressed meant that in just two, the goal was met.

               “Good job, Jaeho,” Irene said, both of them taking a seat on the couch to catch their breaths. What was intended to be a game night turned into Irene teaching Jaeho some Red Velvet dances, an offer Jaeho couldn’t bring himself to turn down given how excited Irene looked at the prospect of him dancing to their music. “You’re a pretty good dancer.”

               “No, I—” Jaeho stopped himself short, unsure if he wanted to reveal the actual reason why the session went so well. However, one look at Irene’s adorably curious expression was all the begging he needed to explain himself, “I tried to learn them by myself for fun a few years ago.”

               “Ah, really?” she answered, smiling while carefully dabbing her face with her towel. Jaeho, despite having been Irene’s boyfriend for over a month, still found Irene’s beauty mesmerizing; every single date with her somehow made him fall deeper in love with her.

               “It was—” he was interrupted when Irene lifted her towel but brought it to his face; the action jump-started his heart, escalating even further when Irene wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead. Jaeho suddenly lost functionality of his mouth, realizing that the goal he had been so adamantly working towards was achieved so easily, and so quickly.

               “It was?” Irene attempted to get Jaeho to finish his sentence.

               “Oh, sorry,” Jaeho said, gathering his thoughts, “it was one of my friends that got me to do it.”

               “What, did I startle you?” Irene laughed, setting the towel down on the couch.

               “No, it’s just—I had this goal for myself to get you to feel comfortable enough around me that you do what you just did casually, but I didn’t expect to reach it so quickly.”

               Unfortunately, that wasn’t the last of the surprises Jaeho was to receive; just one week later, he woke up to a very jarring and frankly terrifying news article:

‘[BREAKING!] Red Velvet’s Irene Spotted with Her Boyfriend?’

:0 Oh no! Did the two get busted already? What do you think the reactions of Irene and Jaeho will be? Let me know in the comments below!

I'm going to be honest, this type of chapter isn't exactly up my alley, but I hope you all enjoyed nevertheless! If you enjoyed this chapter, make sure to subscribe (if you haven't already), and if you really liked it, giving this story an upvote would be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading, and see you all next week!