That saturday, Elena arrived at the spot she had written down in her letter to Huang Zitao fifteen minutes before the designated time. It was by a waterfall that was close to a lot of café’s and stores, a common meeting place for people. Elena was, to put it mildly, nervous. Her two best friends she had made since coming to Korea, Jiwoo and Min-ji, were hiding in a nearby shop, having promised to watch her for the whole date and take action if anything weird happened.

Still, that wasn’t really the reason Elena was nervous. Sure, she was still mildly worried that her mysterious bus admirer might be a creep, but mostly she was simply having first date jitters. She wasn’t even 100% sure he was going to show up. After all she had only handed him the letter yesterday and told him she’d be here at 11:30 if he was interested in having lunch. She hoped he would come though. She had even dressed up, making sure to wear her panda hat so he would recognize her.

Flicking through her phone, playing a game to pass the time, Elena ended up startled when he finally appeared right in front of her, also early.

“Hello?” His soft voice brought Elena back to the world. He was standing directly in front of her, stooping forwards a bit to look into her face, his head tilted slightly to one side. His dark eyes were looking straight at hers, barely visible concern deep within them.

This time it wasn’t a hoodie but a jacket with a hood, zipped all the way up with a collar that hid the bottom part of his face. Once again most of his face was hidden in shadows, yet somehow he looked cool rather than creepy. Besides, something about his eyes made Elena feel sure he was a good person.

“You came.” Elena realised she had spoken only after the words were out. He had greeted her in English but she replied in Korean. Somehow she felt that was more proper, he was more likely to understand that. “I mean… um… hi. I wasn’t sure you would come but… yeah.”

He looked a bit surprised at her being able to speak Korean so well, but quickly regained his composure. “Why wouldn’t I come?” he asked, “I was the one who asked you out, after all.” Elena felt her heart skip a beat. That soft voice sent shivers down her spine. It sounded so familiar, the chinese accent tugging at a memory. But it couldn’t be him. She’d prove that to herself once she got to see his face.

“Um… well, I mean I wasn’t sure if you would be busy at the time I gave or something…” She trailed off, hypnotized by those deep, dark eyes.

“I would rearrange my whole schedule to fit you in if I had to.” He mumbled, eyes downcast in shyness for a moment. Elena blushed.

“Ah, anyways, did you have a place in mind?” Elena shook her head.

“There are a lot of cafés and restaurants around here so I just figured we’d walk around and find something.” He nodded, accepting her plan, and the two of them began walking. There was a shy, slightly awkward silence between the two as they walked down a random street. Elena was just trying to think of something to say when Zitao beat her to it;

“Where are you from, Elena?” For a moment she wondered how he knew her name before remembering she had written it down in her letter. She had never been too fond of her name before but, somehow, coming from his mouth the word sounded beautiful, like a string of sounds to be savoured and treasured.

So began their small talk. She told him about her country and he in turn told her stories of where he grew up. The details tugged at connections in her brain but she shushed them down. After about ten minutes of walking they decided on a small, out of the way café. Sitting down at a table in the corner Elena felt her heart pick up speed once more. They were inside now, he would have to take off the jacket. She would finally get to see his face.

***

Sitting down at the table, Tao had come to the same conclusion. He had known she would find out who he was sooner or later, he just wished it could be later. Their short walk to the café had been so enjoyable, idle chit chat about their homes chasing away the nervousness he had felt at first. He wished they could simply go on talking like that, if only for a few more minutes. But the dream had to end.

Slowly, deliberately, Tao zipped down his jacket and pulled off the hood, revealing his face. He watched her eyes widen, saw open as a small gasp escaped her lips. There was no going back now.

For the longest time Elena said nothing, she simply stared at him. Tao tried his hardest to suppress a blush from taking over his cheeks, being scrutinized like that by his crush. If only he knew what she was thinking. Would she burst out in a squeal like most fangirls did when they spotted him? Would she hate him for not telling her straight away who he was? Whatever her reaction would be, he wished she would just hurry up and react.

At last, after what felt like an eternity to Tao, her voice sounded once more. “It really is you.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away,” he blurted, feeling the need to get the words off his chest, “I just... well I saw you listened to us and I was nervous you might just freak out or something and I wanted you to like me for me and not for being in a band and… I mean, if you want to end this date right now I’ll understand and…”

“End the date because you’re you?” Elena cut him off, eyes still wide from the shock. “I wouldn’t do that! I mean… oh gods, I don’t want to sound like some crazy fangirl, although I guess I kind of am, but seeing you’re you actually makes me really happy! I mean, you’re my favourite member from my favourite band, and all this stuff you were doing that sounded so much like you, well I guess it was because you are you, I was starting to think I was going nuts but… you’re you.” She finished lamely.

The truth was, Elena could hardly believe what was happening. All those things he had done that reminded her of Exo’s Tao, she had kept telling herself it was all a coincidence, that it couldn’t possibly be him. So when he pulled off his hood and she saw his face she had gone into a complete shock. It was like living a dream, or maybe a tv drama. Her mysterious bus admirer really was Huang Zitao of Exo, her major celebrity crush.

And now she had probably scared him off with her fangirling! He was just sitting there, his beautiful eyes staring at her. In an attempt to save the situation, she began rambling again; “I don’t want you to think I only like you because of that though! I mean, of course I know a lot more about you because of that, sort of like I already know you, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have accepted this date without all that! I guess I sort of did, seeing as how I didn’t know who you really were until just now, but even if you weren’t in Exo I know I would like you anyways. Unless your whole personality is fake in all your interviews and stuff, which I think would be super hard to do, then for sure I like you for your personality way more than anything else and…”

Elena’s wordflow was frozen mid sentence by the most wonderful laugh she had ever heard. Tao was laughing, his beautiful smile lighting up his whole face, eyes downcast as if though embarrassed and happy at the same time.

‘What a relief!’ Tao thought. At first he had been frozen by her words. He was her favourite member of Exo? And Exo was her favourite band? That pretty much made him her favourite of everyone, didn’t it? His heart had skipped a beat when she said it and he had found himself unable to respond once the first part of her speech finished. Now that she had started up again and the information finally processed, he couldn’t help but laugh with relief. He was her favourite! And, more than that, she hadn’t been angry with him for hiding who he was or squeaked and asked for an autograph and a photo or anything fangirls usually did when they met him. In fact, she sounded just as nervous as he was! And she liked him!

Tao beamed at Elena’s bemused face before calming down from the high her words had brought on him. “So, how about we forget that, then?” He suggested, the blush forcing it’s way back onto his face. “Just… let’s just have a normal date, like normal people. Could we do that?” He hoped the suggestion wasn’t too much.

“Of course!” Elena replied at once, trying to calm her own blush down a bit. She was more than happy to oblige, that was exactly what she wanted from this date now.

The two of them were still smiling at each other when Elena noticed Jiwoo and Min-ji. They were sitting down at a table by the door, both staring at her and Tao.

‘Oh, right,’ she thought. She had completely forgotten about asking the two to follow her on her date to make sure everything was alright. How could she signal for them to leave, that it was alright? Oh dear, what if they saw Tao’s face? His back was turned to the door just then but what if he happened to look to the side? With his hood off he was easily recognizable. Min-ji happened to also be an Exo fan. Not as big as Elena but enough to know Tao and, probably, to freak out. Here she was, on a date with her crush, and she was not about to let it be ruined by her friend scaring him off.

“Are you alright?” Tao’s voice brought Elena’s attention back to him. He looked concerned again and Elena realised she had been frowning.

“I’m fine!” She said quickly, “It’s just… I just…” She thought frantically for an excuse. “I just felt my phone vibrate is all. I was thinking what an inconvenient time it was.” She let out a nervous laugh at the ridiculous lie but Tao visibly relaxed.

“You can check it, if you’d like.” He offered. Elena didn’t really want to be that rude but then she got an idea. She could just text Min-ji!

“Sorry,” Elena apologized quietly as she pulled out her phone. She made sure to keep the screen turned towards her, suddenly remembering that her screensaver was a picture of Tao. Hurriedly she typed in: ‘It’s okay now, he’s not a creep. You guys can go. Sorry for the trouble.’ and hit send.

A waitress came over to take their order and Elena used that time to look over and see Min-ji take out her phone and her and Jiwoo read the text. The two looked at her, Jiwoo’s eyebrow arched in a silent question. ‘Are you sure?’

Elena nodded slightly before turning to the waitress and ordering a pasta plate. She hoped Tao hadn’t seen any of that. To her great relief Min-ji and Jiwoo stood up and, with a small thumbs up from Min-ji, they left the café.

Tao was watching her again. He wasn’t sure why she had suddenly looked so nervous but now he saw a bit of tension leave her features. Probably, he thought, it was just the shock still. At least she had relaxed now. He hoped she would stay relaxed. He really wanted to go back to chatting with her, to find out more about his beautiful panda hat girl.

Said panda hat was now lying on the side of the table. Amazing how such a simple object could have brought them together, he thought to himself with a smile.

“So you like pasta as well?” Elena’s voice broke into his thought flow.

“Oh, well, it’s not my favourite. But I sometimes like it.”

“Me too. It’s not the best but it can be very good though. What is your favourite food?”

Tao was surprised again by how easy it was to talk to her. Despite both of them clearly being nervous it somehow melted away when they talked. Tao hadn’t felt this connected to anyone so quickly before. Their meals arrived and both of them ate slowly, chatting the whole time.

Tao found himself telling her things he didn’t really talk about with most people, such as how much he sometimes missed home and some of the silly things he did with the guys. In retrospect, talking about the Exo members might get him in trouble if someone found out, but for some reason he trusted Elena to not tell anyone the story of when Luhan sleepwalked into the kitchen and said he wanted to bake a cake or the time Yixing and Jongin had a dance off. Besides, his stories made her laugh and he wanted more than anything to see her smile.

Elena also told him silly stories of her own, stories of her friends back home and the things she had done with them. She told him of her studies and her dream of moving to Korea one day and in return he shared with her his wish to try his hand at acting.

Before they knew it it was 2 o’clock and Tao’s phone rang, his manager on the line asking where he was, he was supposed to be at the studio in ten minutes. Tao gasped at the realization of how late it was and hastily scrambled to pay for their food, insisting when Elena protested that she could pay for her half.

“I’m sorry I have to run,” He said once they exited the café. His jacket was back on, half his face hidden behind the large collar. Elena now wondered how she could have thought he was someone else. Even looking like that there was no mistaking those panda eyes.

“It’s okay, we’ve been here a long time anyways.”

“I’m still sorry,” And he genuinely was, “Today was really fun. I’d really like to meet you again, if that’s alright?” Elena nodded, feeling warm and fuzzy inside. “Here, what’s your phone number?” The two of them quickly exchanged numbers before Tao set off on a jog towards the train station.

“Have fun at your practice!” Elena called after him, unable to stop the biggest grin from spreading on her face as she thought back on the past two and a half hours.

“I’ll see you on the bus.”

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a/n: Sorry if that took a while, school's been keeping me busy (plus writing the reveal part was super hard x.x). Anyways, hope you enjoyed it and look forwards to the next update!