“Hey guys, the manager said we have three hours free before we fly to Japan,” Leeteuk announced as soon as he entered the dorm.

“Jinjja, hyung??” Donghae voiced out the thoughts of the members who were staring at their leader with goggled eyes. The leader nodded cheerfully with an ear-to-ear smile. The members cheered and got up quickly. Some of them made calls to their friends, some called their ‘close friends’, and some just wanted to spend the leisure time alone. Donghae and Ryeowook were those ones.

Ryeowook chose to go shopping by himself, while Donghae went to play pool. It had been a while since he played billiard, he kind of missed it. He changed his jacket into a bigger one to cover his body from fans’ eyes. He wore a cap and sunglasses as a cover, and went out the dorm.

After 15 minutes of driving, he reached his favourite billiard place which he hadn’t got the chance to visit lately. He entered and was greeted right away by the owner. He seemed missing his used-to-be-frequent customer. Donghae greeted him back warmly, and apologized for not being able to pay him a visit. Merely one minute after, Donghae already got himself a table, a stick, and three opponents. They shook their hands before starting the eight-ball game.

They played well and Donghae enjoyed it very much that he forgot the time. They were in the middle of the fourth set when he realized he only had 30 minutes left to get back to the dorm.

“Guys, I’m very sorry but I need to go. I’m almost late, I have a flight within 2 hours. We’ll play again next time, okay?” Donghae quickly bid himself farewell. The other three understandingly let him off. Donghae greeted the owner before he went out.

Donghae was shocked as soon as he exited the place. A dozen teenage girls were screaming right when he appeared. Donghae was dumbfounded for a second, as he was very sure no one knew he was there. He didn’t tell a single person! How could they know? But he didn’t freeze for another second as their screams were more than enough to keep his sanity. In just one look at them, he knew they were stalkers. People who claimed themselves as fans, wandering around their lives, creepily. He sprang away when one of them tried to throw herself to him. He ran as fast as he could, but they were fast, too.

“Aish!” Donghae cursed. He was just about to catch a breath, but the girls already found him standing and ran even wilder towards him. Donghae continued to run, even though his legs were sore and his chest felt like burning. He went in and out from one alley to the other, trying to lose them.

He stopped on an alley where he had already lost the count. He was panting hard, and sweats ran down his perfectly sculptured face. His t-shirt was all wet. He took off the jacket as he walked on. Thirst started burning his throat even though the weather was cool. He turned his head from side to side, looking as far as he could to find a restaurant, mini market, or anything that sold drinks. He shook his head in disbelief as he found none. Not a single one.

Being hopeless, Donghae carried on and tried to find out where on earth he was through his GPS. He was looking for his cell phone in the pocket of his jacket when he realized someone was standing in front of him—for quite a while already, apparently. He jolted as he was startled. That someone was a girl. A beautiful one, his thought voiced in his head. She had a long black hair, which turned out it was blue-black when the sunlight fell on her hair. She wore a striped cotton mini dress with a longer black coat and grey boots. A bag was draped on her left shoulder. Donghae was captivated by her right on that second, but thanks to those crazy ‘fan’ girls, he couldn’t help not to suspect her. His back stiffened and his feet were on ready-to-flee mode, just in case he would need to.

But it seemed he wouldn’t have to, because the girl only stood there and looked at him worriedly, also in confusion. Without him realizing, his body turned relax as soon as he captured her worried eyes. She took two awkward steps forward while her hands diving in her bag.

She was only a hand away when she handed him a bottle of mineral water. He was surprised as he looked at the bottle, and then looked at her again. “Here, drink some,” she finally made a sound. Donghae liked the sound of her voice.

He didn’t move, so she said, “You just ran a lot, didn’t you? You need some water.”