chapter seventeen; 

                  night in

»  "Aish, I'm glad the school day is finally over." Doyoon yawns, stretching his back. I walk along side him, clinging onto the textbooks of the homework I had to do tonight. He glances over to be being wordless and pokes my sides. "Yah, what's wrong with you?"

I frown. "Nothing."

"You seem more quiet than you usually are."

I give him a meek smile. Lately, I had been staying up late to do homework. I barely got enough sleep. It didn't make any sense to me - didn't they all say sleep was very important? "Ani, you're just being delusional."

Thankfully, ending the subject, Doyoon squints into the distance. "Heeeeeeeey, what's that?"

I freeze in my spot. "What? What's what?"

He laughs. "You look like a deer in headlights." He holds onto my shoulders and turns me around, pointing at the fence that was hidden by some vines. "You see that?"

I make a face as others passed by us, making their way home. I knew I had to go home too. "Aish, what is there to look at, Doyoon?"

He grabs onto my hand. "Come on, let's check it out."

I sigh. "Ani, I have homework to do - "

"I just want to check it out for a second, okay?"

I stare at his hopeful face and sigh in defeat, letting him drag me across the field, past the tennis courts (where I often watched Doyoon practice), and to the fence. I nervously smiled at people who were giving us weird looks as Doyoon inspected the fence, pulling on vines and leaves.

"Doyoon-ah," I hissed. "What are you doing?"

He suddenly lets out a gasp, tugging on my arm to turn around. "Lisa, look," he whispered.

I sigh, turning around to see a tear in the fence. It didn't take long for Doyoon to crouch down and get halfway through the fence. God, Doyoon. I crouched down next to him and peeked through the fence, wondering what could be so interesting. I took a sharp intake of air when I saw what Doyoon had meant. Behind the fence was a field /full/ of white. The green land was covered with white daisies till every corner. It seemed as if the land was never-ending, continuing to the horizon. It was absolutely breath taking.

"I wonder how far it goes," Doyoon says, crawling through completely.

"Doyoon-ah," I whined. When he didn't reply, I knew I had to crawl through with him. I groaned, getting down on all fours and wedged myself through the small hole and stood up, dusting myself off as Doyoon studied the place.

"Maybe this is private property," I said worriedly, glancing around.

"I don't see a sign," Doyoon replied, ignoring my shouts of disagreement as he linked his hand through mine, running down the hill and through the daisies.

For a moment, I forget everything - the tired nights, the load of homework, the busy days. The wind ran through my hair, ruffled my dress as Doyoon pulled me further from the entrance and deeper into the field. As we ran, some petals fell free, dancing with us. We collapsed in the daisies, our backs to the ground. We were both breathless, laughing and try to catch our own breath. Doyoon's hand still hadn't left mine. "Maybe, we were put in each other lives to help each other. Me to take your mind off of school work and remind you to relax every now and then. You to encourage me to continue on." He shifts his head to face me. "It's you and me against the world, huh, Lisa?"

I took a deep breath, nodding. "Then…" I hesitate. "…this'll be our place, yeah?"

I looked over to see him look back, a sad kind of look in his eyes. I stared up the sky as clouds passed by in the clear sky. Things seemed perfect then. I closed my eyes, inhaling the sweet scent (and probably pollen which will possibly make me sneeze a lot later). I finally looked over to Doyoon again, open my eyes and smiled at him warmly, waiting for his response.

He finally nods. "Forever."

Only, I didn't know forever meant till the end of the day. Forever didn't mean one last Skype call, a letter and to never see each other again.

»  "Was it just me or did I see Doyoon in there?" I asked, sliding into the passenger seat of Bella's car. I was pretty sure it was him though! Same brown hair, same figure. (Same hairy legs. Yikes.) She starts the car ignition before giving me a look as she pulled out of the parking spot. "Didn't think so," I murmured, turning to look out the window.

"So, tell me, after all of that, how is your relationship going?" Bella asks, her eyes still on the road. She grips onto her steering wheel as she asks me this, her knuckles growing white.

I lean back in the seat, sighing. "You know, the usual. We're only a few days in the relationship. I don't expect much."

It's her turn to sigh, her hands relaxing against the wheel. "Good."

I make a face, laughing at her. "Good? What's that supposed to mean? Do you not like Doyoon either?"

She glances over quickly before diverting her attention back. "What? No, I'm just saying, keep your guards up, okay?"

I pause, staring at her. "Is there something I should know, Bella?"

She hesitates, then shakes her head. "No, there's nothing."

I roll my eyes, knowing that she wasn't 100% telling me the truth. "Bella, if you know something I don't - "

"Hey, your phone is ringing."

"What? No, it - " I pause and hear my ringtone playing loudly in the car and frown at her before picking it out of my pocket. The ID flashed on the screen and already, my heart skipped a beat. "Yeboseyo?"

"Lisa?"

A smile breaks out on my face. "Hey, Doyoon, I was just talking about you."

He laughs. It’s a small quiet one, as if he was nervous somehow. "About what?"

"Uh..." I glance over Bella quickly before looking back out the window. I'm pretty sure Doyoon didn't need to know that Bella has some doubts of him. "Ah, nothing important. Why'd you call? Aren't you at practice right now?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, but uh, I just missed you and all." He clears his throat, letting out a small cough. My frown deepens. God, why was everyone acting so weird today? Was there a joke that I wasn't in on? Jordan was acting strange from the start and now, even Bella had hopped on the weirdville train and so had Doyoon. Did I miss something? "I missed hearing your voice. Is that weird? I know we just were together yesterday, but, uh, yeah. Sorry, to um, ruin your personal day."

"That's sweet, Doyoon. But, uh, no. You didn't." I frown. "Is something wrong? Everyone's acting strange today." I let out a shy laugh, playing with the string from my shorts.

"No! No, nothing's wrong. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang tomorrow night. I don't know, maybe just rent a movie. Spend the night indoors. Have one of those classic dates, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah, that sounds great. My parents won't be home tomorrow anyways. They're both taking their vacations together which means Jamie's in charge." I rolled my eyes even though I knew he couldn't see. "What time?"

"Um, around 7:30?"

"Perfect. Jamie's gonna be at work and Sabrina will be at her friend's house so we'll have my house to ourselves."

"Naughty kids," Bella says and I punch her on her on her left arm.

"Great!" Doyoon exclaims. "I'll pick up a movie and go to your around then, alright?"

"Yep, sounds great!" I nodded. We said our goodbyes and hung up. Bella scoffs, smirking at me and I punched her lightly again. "Stop it, we're gonna watch a movie."

"Sure, it starts like that, tell me how it ends," Bella says in a sing song voice. I glare at her before turning out the window. Bella never lived far from me, just a few blocks away, so my house was always in sight but this time, my house seemed…crowded. "Since when is your house so busy? Are your parents having a bon voyage party?"

I frown, squinting my eyes. "Bells, my parents left for the airport this morning. I came over after they left."

She drives past her house and continues on driving towards my house. There's several vans, cars and SUVs parked in front of my house with several people holding cameras, microphones and notepads. What was going on…?

"Are those…photographers?" Bella makes a face. "Quick, get down." She gestures for me to bend down so I do as so. She throws her sweater on my back so I'm unseen and I hear her bring her car to a halt, rolling the window down. There's the sound of people hurrying to the car and several voices speak, asking her if they know where the girl living in the house was, or who I was.

"Do you know where the girl who lives here is?"

"Ah, I'm a friend of hers. What's going on?" Bella asks, tapping the side of her car.

Ignoring Bella's question, the people break out in more questions. "Is she friends with Doyoon?" "Rumor is Doyoon from Seventeen is dating the girl in this house!" "What's the name of your friend?" "Do you know Doyoon as well?" "Are you all friends?" "Have you seen your friend since yesterday?" "Did you know your friend is dating Doyoon?" "Are you happy?" "Is your friend a scammer?"

I grimaced at all the questions being asked. Was all this about Doyoon? How'd they find out? God, I didn't like all the attention. I groaned quietly under the sweater, holding my head in my hands. Well, it's not like I didn't see this coming. Anyone would have seen this coming. I was dating an idol after all. Isn't that some sort of scandal in the business?

"Ah, yeah, well, no, I came by to look for her. Guess she isn't here!" Bella exclaims, rolling up her window. "Bye bye, now." She lets a low whistle, driving the car down the street again. "Looks like you're the new story."

I wait a few minutes before lifting my head, fixing my hair and sighing. "I don’t want to be the new story."

She smirks. "Doesn’t look like they need your permission to."

»  Click. Click. Click.

I flick through the channels on the TV, growing tired of the same faces appears. Weekly Idol had EXO appearing, Hello Counselor with f(x) as guests, MTV Diaries re-runs with Hello Venus and some ad about squid noodles. Bella had dropped me off at my house and I had got home through the back. This was insane! I wasn't an idol, why did I have to deal with it? I sighed, glancing at the clock. 7:32. Sabrina had left for her play date two hours ago (she was having a sleep over) and Jamie had left for work minutes ago. Doyoon would be here any -

Ring ring.

I reach over for my phone, reading Doyoon's ID flash across the screen and bring it to my ear. "Hey, where ya at?" I asked, holding the phone with one ear and continuing to flick through the channels with another hand.

"I just got off the bus," he replies. "I know I'm a little late but - "

"Shh, it's okay. But there's a crowd of photographers outside my house and - "

A curse word slips out under his tongue. "Sorry, are they really? How many?"

"Uh…" I get up from the couch and peek out the window. There were still several vans and people waiting for me. I groan, headed back to the coach as I brought the phone back to my ear. "There's like twelve of them. I suggest you sneak in through the back."

"Got it. I'll try not to scare you," he says as I laugh. "Okay, I'll see you soon."

We hang up and five minutes later, there's a quiet tapping on the back door. I get up from the couch and peek through the curtains to see Doyoon's smiling face. He brings up a bag of takeout food next to his face and waves a DVD in his other hand. I unlock the back door and let him in as he places the things down on the table before running a hand through his hair.

"God, you weren't kidding. There really are photographers on your front lawn."

I nodded, giving him an annoyed look. "What's Jamie gonna say when she gets home? What are my parents gonna say?" I sit back down on the couch, frowning. "Is this what its gonna be like from now on?"

He grimaces, shrugging. "Hopefully not." He opens the white plastic bag and takes out two bowls. "I got some black bean noodles for the movie," he says, smiling at me meekly.

I smile gratefully at him. "That's great. What movie did you get?"

He holds up the DVD and grins cheekily at me. "Don't Cry Mommy. It's pretty old but I heard it's good. Those U-Kiss members are in it." He throws the DVD at me which I (luckily) manage to catch.

I study the cover before flipping it over to the back."Don't Cry Mommy is a crime drama film directed by Kim Yong-han. The story is about a mother's revenge against her daughters rapists." I pause and glance up at Doyoon who looks over as he sets out the bowls of noodles. "Rapists?"

He grins. "Keep going."

"Recently divorced, Yoo-lim now lives with her only daughter, Eun-ah. Upon arriving at her new school, Eun-ah is frequently picked on, though she has feelings for classmate Jo-han."

"That's the U-Kiss member!" Doyoon pips up, placing the chopsticks next to the bowls before walking over to me and sitting next to me.

I shake my head in disbelief, continuing to read as he slings his right arm over my shoulder. "One day she is brutally by Jo-han…" I look over to Doyoon and make a face in which he gestures to continue reading. "…and his friends who threaten to upload the footage of the online to keep her quiet…god, what kind of movie is this?"

"Shh, shh, this is where the main plot comes in." Doyoon nods at the DVD again and I sigh, continuing to read.

"Unable to cope with the trauma she was forced to endure, Eun-ah takes her own life. OH MY GOD, DOYOON. WHAT KIND OF - "

Ignoring my complaints, he snatches the DVD from me and continues reading himself. "As all the boys involved in the are still minors, the law is helpless to prosecute them to the fullest extent possible, and they walk away with a little more than a slap on the wrist. Filled with frustration and anger, Yoo-lim sets out to make the boys' lives a living hell. As Yoo-lim animosity and exasperation is transformed into ever more brutal acts of revenge, she is brought closer and closer to the edge of insanity!" He finishes the summary by tapping the DVD cover and grinning at my mortified face. "Doesn't it sound exciting? So much drama."

"Are we really watching this?"

He shrugs. "If you want. But, since I wasn't sure if you were up for it so I also got Dancing Queen," he replies in defeat, holding up a DVD from behind his back.

I grin, hugging him tightly before taking the DVD from him. "You're an angel." I get up from the coach and place the film into the DVD player before retreating back to Doyoon. He pulls me close and I enjoy his comfort as the intro plays but he makes me nervous, and because of this, I shoot up, bending forward to reach for the noodles. "We should eat this before it gets cold."

He stares at me for a moment before shaking his head, smiling. I hand him a bowl and give him a small smile as he takes the chopsticks from me. "You know, there aren't any photographers in the house, Lisa. You don't have to be so paranoid."

I sigh. "Will they go away though?"

He shrugs. "Sooner or later." He picks up a few noodles with his chopsticks and puts them in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "Don't worry though. We'll pull through."

I really hope he was right.

 AUTHOR'S NOTES 

whey hey we reached 50 subscribers so cheers to that! you're all lovely people, thank ya so much!!

but aLSO LAST WEEK OF 17TV?????? IDK WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO NOW ITS DEF NOT SCHOOL >:( when do you all start school i'm starting sept 3rd [sobs]

ALSO ALSO you guys should reaLLY leave ur opnion on the seungcheol or wonwoo fic??? im really conflicted and need your help! please give me your input, its greatly appreciated!! ((or dont and just comment on the story, thats cool too))

THANKS AGAIN FOR THE 50 SUBS YOU GUYS ARE GREAT