Attention, DOUBLE UPDATE! Please check, whether you have read the previous chapter before continuing! :)

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Ha Neul’s POV

I blinked. Several times. And swallowed. Hard.

Okay, self. Calm. Down. Breathe!

…

HE ASKED WHETHER I’D GOTTEN A SINGLE ROOM!!!

Omg, omma ottokae?!?

My room looks like a warzone right now! And I didn’t shave this morning!

And besides, I’m not ready for this yet!

I was having a major freak-out right there on the co-driver’s seat of his car. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to notice it.

“Well, not like I’m complaining,” he instead added and threw me his angelic killer-smile. Like my heart wasn’t already beating off the beat. Now, it was in complete disarray! I was THIS close from hyperventilating! And the fact that we now arrived at the hotel didn’t help either.

He turned off the engine, donned his disguise and got out of the car. I took several deep breaths and followed. On very wobbly legs, I should add.

I almost didn’t even notice the fans that were camping beside the entrance. The events from earlier replayed in my head and I swallowed. I kept my eyes fixed on the ground and slowed down to put as much distance between Jonghyun and me as possible. I was expecting an outbreak of rage any moment because I felt like the happenings of the past few hours could be read from my forehead. I guess this was how fearing for your dear life felt like…

Only after I’d stepped into the hotel’s lobby, I felt a bit securer. “Hi, my Ghosty,” someone whispered and took my hand as soon as I entered the elevator. My head shot up and I yanked my hand away, looking at him flabbergasted. Did he want to kill me?! Taking my hand here in public where everyone could be watching!

I frantically hit the button to close the elevator doors and looked around to check whether someone had seen us. Finally, the doors shut close and I slumped against the wall.

But then I heard him chuckling! I looked up again and threw him a glare. God, I just lost five years of my life and he finds it funny?!

“Not funny, cute,” he whispered and I silently cursed. This habit of mine to think out loud seriously had to stop! Who knew what other stupid stuff I might give away this way!

“But don’t worry, no one realised it was us. If they did, it would have been a lot noisier,” he then added and I threw him a sceptic look.

“Besides, it’s in the middle of the night, everyone’s sleeping right now.” He smiled at me winningly and I had nothing to retort anymore. Smiling like that was foul-play!

“Right, it’s in the middle of the night! So what were those parents doing letting their kids stay out this long?” I grumbled, referring to his fans outside.

Jonghyun chuckled again. “I don’t think their parents know about their kids’ camping trip. They probably told them they would sleep over at their friends.”

Oho? “You sound like you’ve got experience…” I smirked.

Now, his smile turned boyish. “We do that every time we want to get away from our manager…” He admits and I can’t resist but laugh out loud.

“Well, I guess you got lucky with your manager that he plays along every time. There’s no way he wouldn’t have caught on by now!”

“Right?” Jonghyung confirmed and we were both smiling at each other when the pinging sound signalled us that the elevator had reached our floor.

We showed the security guy on our floor our room cards and headed down the corridor. Of course, it didn’t go unnoticed by me that we were heading into the direction of MY room. And the closer we got, the more nervous I felt.

“Are you going to invite me in for a cup of tea?”

We were finally standing in front of the door to my room and all the improvement in my mental and physical condition that I’d gained in the last five minutes after getting out of the car had been lost again.

Invite him in?!

Omma, ottokae?! Someone please save me!

When I didn’t answer, he unleashed the entire power of his heavenly smile on me. “Ha Neu-ah?”

Goddamit! How am I supposed to refuse this?! This is foul-play! Foul-play!!

“Oh, come on in…” I surrendered and opened the door. It turns out I don’t stand a chance against that smile of his… Let’s not tell him that.

“Please sit down” I said just before I realised that the only free space to sit down was on the bed. The chair was covered by my clothes which I had hurriedly thrown there when I had checked-in this morning and even the bed was mostly occupied by my open suitcase…

My suitcase!

I dove for it and was just about to close it when a nicely tanned muscular arm appeared in my field of vision and fished out a bright red, lacy, and half see-through bra out of the depths of my suitcase. I blinked and stared at it dumbstruck.

“Hmm, nice…” I heard Jonghyun say and I didn’t have to look at him to know he was smirking. The shame! “I didn’t know you had this side to you, though…”

Neither did I! What the hell?! Since when did I possess such lingerie?!

I snatched it out of his hands, stuffed it back into my suitcase and slammed it shut. My face felt as if it was on fire!

“Aww, your face is bright red all the way to your ears,” he cooed. Curse you! I glared at him and he broke out laughing. What a gentleman!

“Weren’t you going to give me a cup of tea?” He asked with his smile as innocent as ever and I scoffed. But since drinking some tea didn’t seem like such a bad idea I still got up and put the kettle on.

And then I stood awkwardly next to cupboard, unsure of what to do next. I felt the sudden urge to run away and hide myself in the bathroom but of course I couldn’t do that. On the other hand, walking over to him was out of the question, too.

Seeing him sitting comfortably on my bed while still wearing his smoky stage clothes, which revealed an awful lot of his upper torso too, every single alarm bell in my head screamed “danger”!

And God, why was he looking at me like that?! I wasn’t some food or something…!

I almost jumped out of my skin when the kettle pinged and barely managed to hand him his tea without spilling it.

“Thank you,” he said and took a sip. “But are you going to keep standing over there?”

I choked on my tea. Seriously! Couldn’t he see that I was already feeling all jittery from head to toe as it was?!

“Omo, are you alright?” I heard him ask and next thing I knew I felt him patting my back. Naturally, my heart couldn’t just let the physical contact pass without skipping one or two beats, making me cough some more. And because of the hilarious irony of the situation I couldn’t help but laugh, which resulted in my coughing morphing into some uncontrolled mixture of both.

“Yah, Ghosty, calm down!” He now looked genuinely worried. Serves him right!

Finally, after some more coughing, I somehow managed to calm down again.

“Whoa, you’re really…” I huffed. “Giving both the curse and the cure. Seriously!”

“The curse?” He first looked at me confused but then his face lit up. “Wait. Don’t tell me you’re being shy here…?”

I glared at him before looking away. What! This was my first time being in such a situation, after all…!

“You’re so cute,” he chuckled. “Before, we even sleep on the same—“

“Before was—“

“Different?” He smiled at me.

“Oh,” I answered and bit my lip, looking down.

When I looked up again, Jonghyun’s smile literally melted my heart. For a moment, I was lost for words.

“What?” I finally asked softly.

His eyes turned crescent. “You’re so cute.”

I blushed. “I think I got your point…”

“I don’t think you did.”

Huh? But—

In one swift movement, he had pulled me by my waist and captured my lips. A wave of warmth spread through my body and his earthly scent wafted around me. It still amazed me how perfectly I fitted into his embrace and just how right it felt to be there. I felt his lips moving on mine and my world was drowned in pure bliss. It didn’t feel as urgent and raw like the kiss downstairs next to the entrance door had. Instead, it was slow and light. It felt almost unbearably sweet and left me smiling like an idiot when he pulled away again.

He studied my face for a moment as if he was contemplating something and then the corners of his lips twitched upwards into a teasing grin. “If I promise to behave myself, can I use your shower real’ quick?” He said and his eyes twinkled with amusement.

If he behaves himself?! Use my shower?! I stared at him wide-eyed, incredulity probably written all over my face. But then I realised that he was still wearing his stage attire and I felt a little guilty. That couldn’t be all that comfortable, right…?

I swallowed and concentrated on keeping the embarrassment out of my voice. “Sure…” I said while looking down. “Although I don’t have any spare clothes I could give you but I think I saw a bathrobe in the bathroom. You can use it if you want…” I trailed off, my mind producing unwanted images of my own suggestion.

It didn’t do the real thing any justice though, as I had to admit ten minutes later. Living in the same apartment for almost half a year now, it wasn’t that I’d never seen him fresh out of the shower. But somehow today was different. Entirely.

He was walking towards me while drying off his hair with a towel, demonstrating his perfect biceps in the process. Holy sh*t, how can a bathrobe look this y?

And when he climbed onto the bed next to me again, I smelled the peachy scent of my shampoo. “You used my shampoo?” I smiled at him.

“Of course, what else?”

“The samples provided by the hotel?”

“Guilty…” He smiled mischievously. “Well, I did tell you what kind of effect the scent of your shampoo has on me…” He added after a short pause.

Right… he did…

I looked into his eyes and he gently caressed my cheek.

Somewhere in my head the alarm bells were ringing again but I chose to ignore them. My entire body was tingling with anticipation as I continued to gaze into his beautiful pair of black orbs. It was as if they were emitting some powerful magnetic force on me. I leaned towards him until I could feel his hot breath on my lips and closed my eyes. When I felt his soft lips touch mine, another wave of tingles ran through my body and I shivered. My hands automatically found their way to his wet hair and played with it while our tongues danced in a slow yet sensual rhythm. I felt his arm wrapping around my waist pulling me closer and I willingly snuggled into his warm embrace. He quickened the pace of our tongues’ dance while his thumb drew circles on the small of my back. I felt myself getting out of breath but I didn’t want to stop.

Until I felt his hand sneak under my blouse and I froze. Jonghyun must have felt it because he stopped kissing me and opened his eyes to look at me. Without letting go of my lips, though. There was something in his eyes that sent shivers down my spine and made me feel like a rabbit in front of a lion. I swallowed and slowly scooted backwards a little, breaking our kiss.

“Didn’t you say you’d behave yourself…?” I asked in a quiet voice and looked at him from below my eyelashes.

A cascade of emotion flickered through his eyes but so fast that I wasn’t able to catch them all. He hung his head low for a moment before looking at me again with a resigned expression but smiled. “I did, didn’t I…” He sighed and added something under his breath that I couldn’t decipher. Then he looked at me again for a few moments before surprising me with a short peck and rolling over until he lay on his back next to me and stared at the ceiling.

I bit my lip and hesitated for a moment but then I reached out to hold his hand. Embarrassing as it was, I actually missed his touch. And the moment I felt his strong hand wrap around mine, this familiar warmth flooding my system, I let myself sink back into the cushions. I turned my head to look at him only to find him also gazing down at me.

“Can I rest my head on your shoulder?” I heard myself ask. There goes my credibility…!

But Jonghyun only chuckled and nodded. “Please be my guest.”

His muscular shoulder and chest felt just as comfortable as I remembered and I snuggled into his embrace with a contented sigh. I took a deep breath of his earthy-sweet scent and closed my eyes. I guess this was what heaven must feel like…

“Oi, are you falling asleep on me right now?” Jonghyun accused me playfully and I looked up at him with a sheepish smile. Well, who could blame me with this kind of circumstances?

“What kind of circumstances?”

Yeah, yeah, since I haven’t had my share of embarrassment for today yet, this must be it…

“Those were supposed to be my personal thoughts; can’t you just pretend you never heard them?” I tried to put on my most pitiful look.

“No can do.” Okay, let’s just ignore him.

“What kind of circumstances?” The fact that he tightened his grip on my waist and brought his face way too close to mine didn’t make answering his question any easier… I averted my eyes.

“Hmmm?” Our faces were now so close I could feel the warmth radiating from his skin. Oh, god!

“Don’t you have to go back? Everyone is probably looking for you…” This must be the most awkward attempt to change the conversation topic in human history…!

“Do you want me to leave?” He shouldn’t talk while being this close to me. It did funny things to my body. Especially when asking a question like that…

“See, you don’t.”

I said, don’t talk to me in this kind of position, don’t breathe, and don’t look at me like that! It’s making me want to do embarrassing things…!

He closed his eyes and puckered his lips.

I frowned at him. “What are you doing?”

“Waiting for you to do embarrassing things…” He replied playfully in his y husky voice and I groaned. For various reasons…

“Soo… what were you wanting to do again…?” He continued with his eyes still closed and his breath caressing my lips with every word he spoke. It was driving me crazy and he knew it!

“Hmmm…?” He drawled and slightly opened his eyelids to look at me with those dark beautiful eyes of his. I swallowed and liked my lips.

No-no-no! I remember there was an important reason why I was supposed to resist these stupid temptations of his! Just what was it agai—

Right then he bit the left part of his lower lip and pulled the other corner of his lips into a lopsided smile. My insides did a backflip and any kind of logical thinking in my brain ceased to exist. I tilted my head upwards, bridged the anyway almost non-existent distance between us, and pressed my lips on his before replacing his teeth with mine in biting his lower lip. Hard. He yelped and I smirked triumphantly. That’s what he got for teasing me like that!

However, I had forgotten one tiny detail. To anticipate the consequences of my actions.

Before I could even move back an inch, Jonghyun had turned the tide and had captured my lips instead. I felt his tongue my upper lip, searching its way towards my own. He turned his body towards me, wrapped both arms around me, and pulled me against his half- chest. The bathrobe had slid open and I couldn’t resist running my hands across the firm planes of his upper torso feeling the muscles ripple at my touch. I blame the scent of my shampoo mixed with his own that was clouding my mind. Still, not getting enough of the sensation I repeated my movements until Jonghyun suddenly broke out of our kiss and gripped my wrists. Panting heavily, he looked at me with dark hungry eyes.

“Damnit, woman!” He growled. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing right now?”

I stared at him through hazy eyes. God, even his growl sounded y…

For the second time today he hung his head and groaned. Then, he gave me a quick peck and carefully covered me with the blanket before turning away from me and siting onto the edge of the bed with his head in his hands.

Okay, what did I miss just now?

Frowning, I propped myself up on my elbows. “Jonghyun?” I asked tentatively. I wanted to reach out to him but before I could even do so he got up and grinned down at me over his shoulder. “Alright, it’s late already, so little girls should go to bed.”

Eh, what?

“And you?” I looked at him confused.

“I’m going to take a cold shower first.” And with that he disappeared into the bathroom.

For a moment, I stared at the now closed bathroom door before I shook my head. Huh, what was that? “Little girl”? And why did he go take a shower again? And a cold one at that?

…

… shower…

… a cold shower…

…

Two minutes and one recollection of a specific Daragon fic chapter later I was silently screaming into the cushion and dying out of embarrassment.

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For those who can't come up with a daragon fic where cold showers are needed, the one I had in mind was one of the daragon fics by our awesome huntress unni. I can't remember anymore which one it was exactly, but I have this feeling that probably in all of them the cold shower was mentioned at least once lol