Author’s POV

“Please, sir, she needs protection. This is my fault I know but-” The CEO held up his hand to interrupt Donghae mid-sentence. He closed his mouth in pure respect for the man who sat behind the large desk. Kayla gently took Donghae’s hand in hers, making him focus his attention to her for a bit. She smiled to assure him that everything was fine, but Donghae sighed, he knew that he had lost the argument. The CEO, not even meeting their eyes, finished scribbling down some more words on a document and then looked up at the couple.

“Miss, would you mind stepping out and let me have a word with Mr. Lee alone?” the CEO spoke with a tone of polite, though it remained accurate.

“Of course, sir.” Kayla made a bow and kissed Donghae’s cheek before she walked out of the office, closing the door behind her. She sighed and sat down on a bench to wait for her boyfriend to come out.

“Let me guess. He said no, right?” She looked up and saw Leeteuk approach her, eventually sitting down beside her. She half smiled.

“Yep. He wanted to talk to Hae alone… I wonder what he’s telling him,” said the girl, turning back to the door with a frown on her forehead. Leeteuk smiled comfortingly, her back as to assure her nothing was wrong.

“Whatever he says, it won’t change anything about Donghae. That I can promise you.” Kayla smiled a little wider, thankfully leaning on Leeteuk’s shoulder. She knew she could trust the leader’s words, he was almost always correct and very wise. They waited for a rather long time, in silence as none of them felt the need to begin a conversation. It took another half hour before the door opened and out stormed Donghae, having his fists clenched. Kayla sat up immediately, taken back by the angered expression on her love’s face.

“Donghae? What-?” She didn’t have time to say more until Donghae had walked passed them. Kayla and Leeteuk exchanged looks and Leeteuk gave Kayla a short nod, indicating that she would go after him. She rose from the bench then hurried down the hall to go after Donghae. “Donghae, wait!” she told him, trying to catch up with his pace. He continued walking fast forward, like a mad man without zero idea of where he was heading. “Donghae, stop!” Finally, he listened to her. He took several breaths to calm himself, since he hated being angry in front of Kayla. She caught up with him and stood in front of him, having a heavy breath in her chest, after all, she had run. She sought answers to her questions in Donghae’s face but she could read nothing. His expression had no real further depth in it, other than showing anger. She took a step closer to him, trying to pierce him with her eyes. She wanted him to give up the battle of not telling her what was going on, she knew him too well to know exactly how upset he was and she needed to know why. Donghae set his jaw and bobbed his head to the side, letting out an annoyed sigh. Kayla refused to give in. She crossed her arms over her chest, stretching her back a little to make herself slightly taller to meet Donghae’s height better.

“Fine.” Donghae started, looking over Kayla’s head because he didn’t dare meet her eyes. “The CEO basically said ‘I told you so’ and began ranting about how much of a mistake I’ve made when I decided to get together with you. Then he said that I should’ve thought about the consequences, not only for me but for you too, once the word got out that we are a couple. It’s not like I’m not fully ing aware of the fact that this is my ing fault and that you now are in danger thanks to my ing job! I hate hearing it Kayla.” He looked down at her. In his eyes, Kayla saw the hurt, anger and guilt. “Why can’t just everyone speak their bloody mind and just tell me that they want us to break up? It’s not like we don’t get that. I just wish that for one day people around here would actually be happy for us. Without spreading rumours, misunderstand or be jealous.” Donghae sighed again, rubbing his eyes with both his hands. He was so frustrated about all this and even though just talking to Kayla had helped, he felt that he was being very unfair to her. He got that she never would agree to that last statement, yet he, himself, couldn’t fully grasp how she could be so fine with all of this or if she was a great actress who managed to cover all her emotions and struggles around this to herself, for his sake. When he took away his hands he felt the tender, similarly sized lips press onto his own.

“Donghae. Listen to me now. You need to clear your head. Go do something that will give you calm. Like dance or sing or even write a song! I have to go have that meeting with my boss now and then I’m meeting Hyeorin to explain to her what’s happening. After that I’ll go home to the dorms. Until then, try to not think about anything that’s troubling us right now, alright? Then later tonight it’ll be just you and me, no one else. You shouldn’t let others affect you like this, Hae. You’re better than that. And you’re happy right?” She waited for him to nod, which he did. “Good. I’ll call you later. I love you.” She kissed him again and then swung her heel around, not letting him say another word that could possibly make him blur out more things that would sadden her.

Kayla walked out of SM and successfully made it to her café, without any disturbance or interruption on the way. She went inside the café, seeing her boss about to close for the day. She smiled when she saw Kayla coming in.

“Good afternoon, dear,” she greeted. Kayla bowed.

“Good afternoon. Thank you for giving me the time to talk to you today, sunbaenim. I really appreciate it.” Kayla followed her boss inside the office and sat down on the chair.

“Not at all, dear. Now tell me what this is all about. Why do you suddenly want to quit?” Her boss handed her a cup of coffee, then sat down across from her. Kayla took a quick sip of the warming coffee.

“It’s not that I want to quit. I have to. You see, I don’t know if you know what exactly is going on but I’m dating one of Korea’s biggest K-pop stars, Lee Donghae. And until yesterday our relationship was secret. We believe someone at the company where he works leaked the information. That was why the crack in the door was there when you arrived this morning. I’m so sorry for that. Donghae said he’ll pay for a new door. He believes it’s his fault…” She paused to take another sip of coffee, as well as a deep breath. “Either way, there are some fans who doesn’t agree with our relationship. It’s not that they want to personally harm me but they think I am the direct link to Donghae who they adore. I’m afraid that from now on they won’t leave me alone. I did go to several lessons to be able to handle fans coming to the café and wanting to invade on my private life, plus my relation to Donghae. But the reason I’m quitting is because I would hate for the café and you and Hyeorin to get involved. Han Jan is a calm, relaxing and harmonic café with a lovely atmosphere. The fans would only mess up that feel of the whole café, in case they would get here. That’s why I’m resigning from my work here. Even if it saddens me a little.” Kayla smiled to her boss.

“That’s very noble of you Kayla. I admire your honesty and love for your boyfriend. I hope he makes you very happy. I guess there’s nothing I can do to make you change your mind.” She shook her head politely. Her boss nodded. “Well then, it has been a pleasure to have you on board Kayla. It’s going to be hard to find such a sweet, hard-working, smart girl like you. I wish you all the best and feel free to visit any time, alright?” Her boss stood up and gave her a bone-breaking hug. Kayla nodded again.

“Of course. Thank you for everything,” she said. They bid each other goodbye and Kayla left the café to go meet her friend, who also was in need of an explanation. Although, Hyeorin probably knew about it all already, she still demanded Kayla’s version.

The welcoming warmth and scent from old-fashioned cooked Korean food hit Kayla as she stepped inside the restaurant where she would have dinner with Hyeorin. The girl, wearing a blue tank top, a pink skirt and more make-up than Kayla used in a whole year, sat by a table in a corner far into the restaurant. Wow, first time Hyeorin understands that some things should be discussed in private. The more casual girl slumped down in front of her friend, wearing a sweet smile. The friend smiled back, showing off her newly-whitened teeth. It did not take long for Hyeorin to spill out all sorts of questions. Everything from ‘why did you keep this from me, your best friend?’ to ‘how is he in bed?’ and ‘does he have a six-pack?!’. After each answer Kayla wanted to burst in both laugh and tears. She could not understand how her friend could be so blunt, careless and overly interested in her life. At least Donghae and I will have something to laugh about later tonight…

Four hours later and more than 300 questions later Kayla was on her way home. It was now past eleven in the evening, which wasn’t particularly late, however, Hyeorin had given her a lot to deal with throughout the evening, hence to why Kayla had problems keeping her eyes open. She arrived safely to the building, heading up to the dorms. She opened the door, using her own key that the manager had given her earlier that morning. Her shoes were thrown off her feet and she proceeded in to Donghae’s room, of course not without greeting the members on the way. The door opened easily when Kayla pressed down the handle, meaning that Donghae had expected her to come in at any second. She locked the door as she closed it then dropped down on Donghae’s bed, heaving out a deep sigh. Donghae, who sat by his piano, swung around on his chair. He let out a chuckle.

“Rough day?” he asked.

“Mm… Are you feeling better now?” she answered, adding a question herself. Donghae stood up and walked over to the bed, leaning over her body, having his weight on his hands that were placed on the sides of her head. Kayla opened her eyes to stare into her prince’s brown core, getting in by them.

“Yeah. Thanks baby. I really needed exactly what you told me. I’ve been composing music since that meeting with the CEO. I think I have a good start to a song. Thanks to you.” He bent down to peck her lips. And in no time one peck became several kisses.

“I wanna hear it,” Kayla mumbled through the kisses.

“Mm…” Donghae mumbled back, not breaking the kiss or making any sort of attempt to get back up. Eventually, Kayla placed her hands on his chest and used all of her strength to push him off of her, only to get dragged up by him on the way. She giggled and tried to hinder Donghae from continue the kisses by pulling her head away.

“Yah, go play the piano!” she demanded, giggling at Donghae’s adorable pout. “I’ll give you as many kisses as you want if you let me hear the song first,” she said, smirking because she knew he had to obey her now.

“Fine then.” He stole another kiss then sat down by the piano. He stretched his fingers before placing them on the keys, playing a soft melody. Kayla stood behind him and listened, really enjoying the laidback feel of the melody. When Donghae came to a halt she wrapped her arms around his neck, letting out a long ‘aw’.

“That was beautiful my prince!” she exclaimed, burying her face in his neck and kissing the exposed skin a few times. Donghae felt his heart flatter and acted quick to pull Kayla down in his lap, capturing her lips at the same time. They stayed like that, engulfed into the kisses and each other’s presence. It wasn’t until they both run out of air that they pulled apart, both panting from the lack of breath.

“Wanna sleep my princess? Or cuddle?” he wondered while using his thumb to wipe away some of his own saliva from the girl’s lip. She pecked his thumb.

“I’d love that,” she replied. They both got up and started preparing to go to bed. And about twenty minutes later they lay cuddled up next to each other in Donghae’s bed. To change it up a bit, the prince rested his head on the princess’ chest this night and she played with his hair, making him unbelievably calm, like a puppy who has been running around all day and then realised that it’s extremely tired so it simply collapses from weariness. Kayla hummed on a light tone, feeling a little weary herself. She rested her cheek against Donghae’s soft hair.

“Hm. I think I know what I want to call my new song.” Donghae’s mumble was barely audible due to the fact that he basically was talking into the fabric of her shirt. Nonetheless, Kayla managed to make out two words: ‘song and call’.

“Tell me.”

“It’s going to be called: ‘What I need’.” Kayla took a deep breath, considering the suggestion.

“Nah, you should call it… ‘Love that I need’. It sounds…” she let out a big yawn then added: “nicer. Good night.” She fell asleep with that said. Donghae made a small, tired nod.

“Mm, it sounded nicer,” he agreed. “Good night princess.” He hugged her waist tighter, falling asleep too. Of course, both of them wore silly wide grins on their faces.

Hello!!! I managed to make another chapter quite fast, right? Yay! I'm so happy! Thank you again for the comments and the subscriptions! I have a good idea of where this story is heading now, which by the wat feels awesome, and I think I'll be able to put up the next chapter quite soon because of that! I'm already half through the next one. Please stay anticipated for the upcoming chapters and again, don't hesitate to tell me when you have an opinion about my way of writing or a question or a suggestion. It could be anything! Like "Don't make the story go so fast, slow down please."... That reminds me. Is the pace good? Or is it going too fast? Tell me what you think!

Anyway, hope you enjoy the rest of the story! Feel free to also check my other stories! I have 18 of them so yeah... Hope you've got lots of time on your hands there xD Haha! See you around! Love you~<3