I was standing at the main entrance of SM Entertainment building with Donghae beside me. We were about to walk out. I looked at him and smiled. Never before in my life had I been wearing a smile so wide on my face. I was not sure about him but I could tell never before in my life had I seen a smile more angelic on his face.

“Ready?” I extended my hand to him.

He nodded and grabbed my hand. The next minute we were running hand in hand out the building across the plaza in front of us.

“WE ARE GOING TO MAKE DEBUT!!”

“WE WILL BECOME SUPER STARS!!”

“EVERYONE IN KOREA WILL KNOW US!!”

“NOT ONLY KOREA!! EVERYONE IN THE WORLD WILL KNOW US!!”

“THEY WILL SEE US SING AND DANCE ON STAGE!!”

“WE WILL HAVE CONCERTS NON-STOP!!”

“WE WILL RELEASE ALBUMS NON-STOP!!”

“WE ARE SUPER JUNIOR!! SUPER JUNIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!!”

I thought at that time everyone in the plaza stopped to look at the 2 crazy young fellows yelling and running and jumping. Strictly speaking that should be the first show we made.

We just continued like that. Fortunately nobody called the police or security. Well maybe some tried but we were running away too fast.

The 2 crazy fellows didn’t go back to their dorm immediately. Instead they went up to the rooftop of the building.

Both of us rested our elbows on the fence and looked down from there. “Donghae see the people below? They will all be our audience!!”

“HEY THERE!! YOU ARE GOING TO BE MY FAN!!”

Obviously Donghae was still in his hyper mood.

“NO YOU ARE GOING TO BE MY FAN!! NOT HIS FAN!!”

I wanted to but regretted immediately. Donghae glared at me; wrapped me tight in his arms and started tickling me.

“No! Stop!” I tried to break free but he was determined to get revenge.

“What did you say? What did you just say?” With an evil smirk on his face, he covered my mouth with one hand while his other arm was still grabbing me tight.

“….no.. so..rr..y…yo..ur…fan… yo..ur…fa..n” I actually couldn’t speak. Both of us rolled down onto the floor while I kept struggling. We continued rolling and pushing and kicking and pulling. At the end both of us were chuckling.

Finally he released me. We lay there side by side, looking up at the sky. Neither of us could speak as we were panting hard.

That was really a beautiful day. The sun was setting and the clouds were all in pale orange glow with silver linings. Birds could be seen flying in the sky. I could feel mind-refreshing breeze gently touch my cheeks. Everything was there telling us how bright our days were going to be.

Donghae took my hand. “Hyukkie I’ve never been this happy. Actually I can’t be happier, knowing the dream has finally come true.”

“It’s more than happy. It’s…” I bit my lip as I couldn’t express the feelings in words. Hot tears started escaping my eyes while I closed them.

We had been trainees for 5-6 years. During that period we stayed in Seoul leaving our families. Every day we had classes, workshops, seminars, trainings… Every evening we worked on assignments, practices, preparations for tomorrow’s classes, workshops, seminars, trainings…

The phrase we heard almost every day was “YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH! YOU ARE FAR FROM BEING OK! YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN PERFORM ON STAGE LIKE THIS?!”

We tried hard, gave everything just to get reminded that we were not good enough. Countless times I questioned myself if I would really make it one day; or if I was just being naive. Countless times Donghae and I cried together in frustration, when the due date was tomorrow and we just couldn’t make the dance steps fluid; we just couldn’t fill in the right lyrics; we just couldn’t get the right emotions in the song… we just couldn’t escape from being reminded that we were not good enough the next day…

All we could do was to hold desperately onto our dream, our hope and belief. With those we stayed innocent enough to continue trying harder, giving even more (if that’s possible) while we were already totally exhausted. The dream that one day we would be able to perform on stage; to have people listen to our music; was just too precious to let go. Deep in our hearts we cautiously protected our faith that the day would come.

Impossible was made possible. With sweat and tears and blood, miracles were born.  Finally we thought the right melody; our hearts beat the right tempo; our muscles and joints became the dance; we breathed the right emotions.

And our debut day came.

Donghae looked at me and brushed away my tears with his fingers. I turned to look at him. He was smiling with teary eyes. Moments later teardrops slowly trickled down from the corner of his eyes.

Silence. Nevertheless a whole lot was spoken.

The teardrops told me Donghae understood each and every bit of my feelings, even though I couldn’t put them in words. Actually that’s not necessary. We were weeping the same tears. I realized at that moment Donghae was the only person on earth who could understand this precious part of my life. Because he was there the whole time. We had been through the whole journey together.

The smile on his face revealed to me that Donghae shared the same joy as me. We were equally grateful about the debut. What’s more grateful was that we were making debut together as a couple. What’s even more grateful was that we had each other. Honestly if there’s no Donghae I didn’t know how I could have endured the whole thing. We knew how blessed we were to have one another. And we knew we both treasured each other.

And there’s the truth in his eyes saying Donghae would never leave me. The upcoming journey would surely be more difficult. A lot more hardships and uncertainties were awaiting us. But it went without saying that we would fight together side by side. Therefore there’s nothing to fear. I promise I will never leave you. I promise I will always be there for you. I promise I will fight with you and never let go of you. And I will always love you.

Emotions were flipping inside me while I looked at him speechless. Moments later he came closer and rested his head on my chest. He closed his eyes and after a while he said. “God has not only granted me my dream. He has granted my birthday wish as well.”

Gently he hugged me tighter and continued. “My birthday wish was to make debut together with you Hyukkie. And that we will be in the same band group so that we will continue to stay together.”

I his hair with my hand. And God has granted me you…

Suddenly he jerked his head and looked at me with eyes wide open, wearing a surprised expression.

“What is it?” I looked at him concerned.

“I think I just heard your heart…” He whispered.

I couldn’t help but laughed at him being unpredictable and innocent. “How could that be possible Hae?”

“I heard it. I really heard it.” He pouted and rested his head on my chest again.

I smiled and closed my eyes. My hand continued to his hair. We continued lying there sharing the same dream and tranquility. That was so peaceful and calm…

Calm before the storms…

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A/N: To me this chapter is romantic. When you can understand each other without saying anything... that's just precious!! ^^

A//N2: Storms will come in the next chapter