arrow seventeen: in which donghae doesn't mind and krystal's going to get it

Donghae woke up feeling uneasy.

But of course, that was to be expected. He had a little shopping expedition with the girl that punched him in the stomach. With the same girl that he considers evil, the one and only person that is both an evil tigress and a goddess.

He was to take Jessica out to buy her a birthday present later that day.

Donghae wasn’t feeling uneasy because he had to take Jessica Jung (evil tigress extraordinaire!) out shopping; it was the fact that he wasn’t exactly dreading spending time outside of school (or Yoona lessons) with her.

“Why did I even offer?” he mumbled, thinking back to their conversation yesterday.

“You can’t back out after saying that you’ll take me shopping.” Jessica said this seriously, and Donghae knew that he would have to go through with this even if it killed him (because she would kill him anyway, if he flaked).

“I won’t back out!” he felt the urge to defend himself even as his mind realized that he should not have offered. “I mean…it’s for your birthday, after all.” Donghae smiled sheepishly at the end when Jessica stared at him like he was an alien sent to take over the world.

“Why, though?” Jessica asked, mostly curious and a little freaked out. She couldn’t help being suspicious of the whole offer.

“Why what?” responded Donghae, confused; he looked almost as confused as she looked curious.

“Why the need to buy me a birthday present?” demanded Jessica; she even put her hands on her hips as a way to say that she meant business; or, well, she wanted answers.

“Because…you’re helping me with Yoona…” he said this slowly and sheepishly, smiling at her slightly.

Jessica made a noise of understanding before frowning in displeasure. As to why she was displeased, she wouldn’t be able to say. But she said, “Let’s go to COEX Mall after the Aladdin practice.” She didn’t wait for a response; she just walked off, leaving Donghae alone and dumbfounded.

(If anyone were to look at Jessica while she was leaving, they would be able to see her little smirk. She did, after all, love shopping trips.)

Donghae groaned and fell back onto his bed in a confused heap. And then he looked to the side, seeing his clock. “Aw crap, I’m going to be late!” he whined, scrambling to get ready for school.

--

On the other hand, Jessica woke up that morning feeling quite content and happy. She was going shopping, after all.

At 7:05, Krystal walked into her older sister’s room, ready to wake her up and get their morning started.

Needless to say, Krystal was shocked into silence (with an ice bucket already in hand) when she saw Jessica already sitting up in her bed and looking completely serene. “Unnie?” she asked, putting the bucket onto the floor gently. She walked over with a concerned expression on her face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Soojungie~” said Jessica, clearly confused with her sister’s reaction. “Shouldn’t you be happy that I am up before 7:30?”

“I am happy that you’re up early for once, but it’s a little…weird…” explained Krystal, with a confused look still on her face. She then stood next to Jessica and put a hand to her forehead. “Are you sick, unnie?”

Jessica rolled her eyes and playfully swatted at Krystal’s hand. “Nope~” She then got up quickly, which made Krystal step back in shock.

“You’re getting out of bed now, too?” shocked Krystal.

Jessica cracked a little smile before playfully smacking Krystal’s , retorting with a, “Come on, let’s get ready for school~” The older Jung walked out of her room and started for the kitchen with the little smile still in place.

Krystal let out a scandalized, “Unnie!” before moving to follow her sister out the room. She took a moment to think about it, and then thought about what was the reason behind her sister’s strange behavior. “What is supposed to happen today?” she wondered. And then it suddenly hit her; her sister had a little shopping activity planned for today.

Krystal left the room with a smirk, having a little inkling as to why (and because of who) her sister was up on time and happy.

--

The whole school day for Donghae could be described as a blur; practice for the Aladdin play arrived way faster than he thought it would. And then, it was over. Way faster than it should have been.

And thus, it was time. “Man, I’m not ready yet!” Donghae whined, standing near the exit helplessly. He paced a little in front of the door, and happily moved away so that other people could leave. “But, how bad could it be, it’s just shopping?” mumbled Donghae, ready to go out. And then he stopped just at the door. “But it’s weird that I even offered in the first place!” he whined once more.

“What did you offer?” asked a voice.

Donghae knew that voice well; he knew it so well, in fact, that it made him freeze.

“Donghae oppa?” the voice called out to him.

And then he turned slowly, but not unwillingly, and was greeted by the smiling sight that was Im Yoona. “Y-yoona! Hi!” he said, smiling awkwardly.

“What did you offer?” Yoona repeated her question, still smiling. She thought Donghae was acting a little weird (even for him), and decided to investigate.

“Uh…well…” he stammered, tone awkward. He couldn’t very well tell Yoona that he was about to go on a shopping trip with Jessica for her birthday present because she was helping him with getting her.

Nope. He definitely could not tell her that.

“Oppa?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. And she couldn’t very well leave anyway, seeing as how he was blocking the exit.

It was at that moment that Jessica walked up to them, smiling contently.

“Hi unnie~” Yoona greeted, giving the older girl a hug.

“I-I just need to go somewhere with Jessica!” Donghae blurted this out, happy that Jessica was next to him and able to be used as an excuse. (Of course, it wasn’t really an excuse. It was the truth.)

“Yup~ we need to go somewhere~” smiled Jessica. “Bye Yoong!” the older girl waved at her dongsaeng happily before dragging Donghae off.

“Jessica unnie and Donghae oppa have been getting really close lately…” Yoona said, mumbling softly. Donghae had indirectly blown her off by disregarding her question. He had never done that before.

And now Yoona was suspicious.

“What was that?” Changmin walked up next to her, as he heard her talk to herself.

Yoona pursed her lips, making an unhappy, straight line. Her co-star noticed her change of mood immediately; Changmin has never seen Yoona look anything other than happy, which is why he couldn’t help but ask, “What’s up with you, Yoona?”

“Oppa, I think I’m jealous.” said Yoona, staring intently at both Jessica and Donghae as her Jessica unnie practically dragged Donghae out the door.

(“Wait! Jessica! I’m not ready yet!”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be that bad!”

“But that’s what they all saaaay!”)

Changmin said nothing.

He should have known.

--

Junsu sighed unhappily as his phone went off, signaling that he had a new text from someone.

1 New Text Message From Taengoo

He pursed his lips and sighed; he was happy that she was texting him. He did, undoubtedly and sincerely, like her, after all. And because of the sincere affection he had for her, he was always happy to interact with her, whether it be via mail, text, phone, or seeing her in person.

But he still felt guilt, since thinking about her or seeing her reminded him of the hyung that adored her just about as much as he did. (He wouldn’t (couldn’t) say that his hyung adored her more; he had his own pride, his own affections for her.)

It was safe to say that Junsu felt pretty nervous; he was after all, starting his college life! He imagined the heavy workload, the ty teachers, and the partying. He was looking forward to the change college would bring to him; the free thinking, the new people, all the new experiences.

While he wasn’t exactly a partier, he was still excited for the college life.

But he should have known to not get too excited.

“W-what do you mean?”

Junsu was called up to the registration’s office, only to hear the worst news of the year. “I’m sorry, but your papers approving of your soccer scholarship to the school cannot be found.”

He seriously felt like crying. They couldn’t find his papers? What was he going to do, he had everything riding on this school!

“A-are you sure?” he heard himself ask. Yup, he was definitely about to cry, if his voice was any indication.

“We already looked into it.” said the registration lady, sounding impatient.

“Look into it more then.” said a foreign voice. Junsu looked to the side and saw that a guy stepped up next to him. His voice was gentle, but still commanding. He gave Junsu a supportive smile while the lady scurried off to find the needed papers.

Junsu didn’t know if it was because he looked like he was ready to cry or not, but he was happy for the help.

“Don’t worry about it too much. This school is kind of infamous for losing important papers.” the guy explained. (A/N: JUST LIKE OUR SCHOOL, HANNIE UNNIE.) “In fact, they called me up last week and told me they couldn’t find my registration papers.” he chucked slightly, as if remembering a good memory.

Junsu was sure that he did the same thing last week, and somehow managed to make them find those papers.

He didn’t know who this person was, but he had some type of power that made people listen to him.

“Who are you?” asked Junsu, curious more than anything.

The guy smiled widely, showing his dimples. “You can call me Leeteuk.”

The registration lady returned, looking mildly flustered, with papers in her hand. “There seems to have been some sort of mix up, but…” she looked at Leeteuk and then to Junsu. “Mr. Kim Junsu, it seems that you’ll be able to go to this school on your scholarship.”

Junsu looked at the lady in disbelief (and wondered just how terrible their paper system was) but smiled nonetheless.

Leeteuk laughed lightly before saying, “For such a famous school, you’d think that they would be organized.”

Junsu looked at the guy next to him in pure disbelief. “Thanks.” was all he could say.

In an indirect way, that person was the reason he got to go to school. (Junsu would later realize why the guy had such a natural charisma that made people listen to him and want to follow his words: he was the senator’s son. He was the “wingless angel” as quoted by his fans.)

One year later, he met up with the hyung that saved him once more.

One year and a day later, he met the girl that would later make his hyung hate him. He met the girl that would completely and utterly fall for him.

She was Kim Taeyeon.

And luck would have it that he would fall just as hard for her as she did for him.

Even if his hyung, his savior, was already half in love with her.

Junsu picked up his phone and instead of replying to the text, he pressed the call button.

“Hey Taeng, are you busy?”

--

Jessica and Donghae were silently sitting in Jessica’s car as she drove to the COEX Mall. She couldn’t take the silence anymore though, and decided to make some small talk. “So how did you even know that it my birthday is coming up?”

“Your little sister told me.” Donghae let this slip before even thinking about it.

“Ah, I’m going to get her.” muttered Jessica. It was at this time that they arrived, and Jessica parked. They started walking inside. "Krystal is so going to get it~"

“What are you going to do to her?” asked Donghae, purely curious. He knew that she was violent, but she wouldn’t hit her own sister…would she? He had a shocked expression on his face, looking completely fearful.

“Stop looking at me like that!” said Jessica, poking him lightly. “It’s not like I’m going to do anything bad~ I’ll probably just do what she did.”

“You’re going to tell someone that her birthday is coming up and then have that person take her shopping?” asked Donghae stupidly, looking confused. They reached the inside of the mall.

Jessica ended up flicking his forehead and rolling her eyes.

“Abuse!” he whined, pressing a hand to his “injured” forehead.

“No, silly. I’m going to set her up though, preferably with Minho.” she said, tone thoughtful. Before Donghae could properly reply (and say how he thought that Krystal was already dating the other boy that she’s always seen with), Jessica saw something that caught her eyes.

A clothing boutique.

And before Donghae knew it, he was being dragged along by a squealing Jessica. “Oh my god, look at that!”

All Donghae could do, while being dragged, was scream, “I’m being kidnapped!”

No one came to help Donghae. (No one believed him either.)

And for the next half an hour, Donghae was used as a clothes rack. “Are you done yet?” he complained; his arms were getting a little tired of holding everything.

“Almost.” was the absentminded reply as Jessica continued to sift through a clothes rack.

“You know I can’t afford all of this, right?” He said this seriously because, well, it was true. He looked at the heap of clothes in his arms pitifully.

She rolled her eyes but continued searching for clothes. “It’s not like I would ask you to buy all of that anyway. I need to sift through them later.”

He said nothing, and resigned himself as being a clothes rack; he was no longer human. He was used just to hold clothes.

When he told Jessica as such, she poked him playfully again and told him, quite nicely, to “Shut up.”

After about 10 more minutes, Jessica smiled happily, done searching the entire store. “Ah, that was fun~” She had gotten no response. “Wasn’t it?” she asked, turning to face Donghae.

Except, she couldn’t really see him.

His face, and most of his body, was covered by a huge mound of clothes.

“Huh. I didn’t think I picked up that much.” said Jessica, tone thoughtful as she pushed him near the fitting rooms.

Jessica heaved the whole pile off of Donghae and pushed it all into one dressing room. She gave a sweet smile to the worker in charge of the fitting rooms, who had gaped at the amount of clothes Jessica brought into the room.

“Wait here.” she commanded, pointing to a nearby chair that Donghae was to sit on.

He obliged begrudgingly, making quite a show of walking with exaggerated and pained movements.

(The fitting room worker had to ask, “Sir, are you alright?” three times.)

He planted his rear end in the chair with a huff.

“How does this look on me?” Jessica came out of the dressing room wearing a classy and cute dress.

He gave her a listless thumbs up while pouting, to which she rolled her eyes at.

She disappeared back into the fitting room, only to come out a couple minutes later wearing designer jeans and a graphic tee that he was sure cost more than a lot of the things in his room. “What about this?”

“Yeah, looks great~” he said, bothering to talk this time around. He still didn’t look happy with the whole situation though.

Jessica pursed her lips and disappeared back into the room; she poked her head out thirty seconds later.

“Thank you for doing this.” she said this quietly but sincerely, smiling nicely at him.

He blinked in shock at the thank you and coughed awkwardly, moving about in his chair. “It’s no problem.” he mumbled. (Except, he really hated shopping, but it was now no longer a problem since she said thank you.)

Jessica’s smile grew (which made him subconsciously want to smile back) and disappeared again.

He thought that it would be okay now.

Sadly, after five more “how does this look on me?”, he was proven wrong.

“How does this look on me?” asked Jessica, twirling around in a flower-patterned summer dress.

Donghae was starting to get a little irritated and tired of waiting, so he couldn’t really help it that he snapped at her. “Does it even matter if you try it on? You look pretty in anything anyway!” he huffed.

Once he realized what he said, he covered his face in embarrassment and shyly corrected himself. “I mean…you look nice.”

Jessica stared at him, slightly bewildered, before smiling awkwardly and going back into the dressing room. “I look pretty in anything, huh?” she mumbled, her cheeks turning a light pink.

Donghae groaned in embarrassment, right before Jessica walked out of the room with the clothes that she wanted in a basket. (The fitting room worker sighed as she looked at the clothes Jessica left in the fitting room. It would be a pain to re-organize it all.) She walked up to him, and they started at each other awkwardly before Donghae could no longer take it.

He grabbed the basket for her and announced, “I’ll be back after I pay for these things.” He walked away in a rush towards the nearest cashier.

“Hi.” he greeted, placing the basket on the desk none too gently.

The cashier, who looked to be around the same age, smiled at him. “That’s one pretty girl you there.” He nonchalantly nodded his head towards Jessica’s direction. (Jessica was too busy looking at the shoes section to notice though.)

“W-wait, we’re not together though!” stammered Donghae, not even bothering to look at where he nodded. He already knew, anyway.

The cashier grinned at that moment. “Really? Then would you mind giving me her number so I can get at her?”

Donghae suddenly frowned and picked up the basket of clothes. “…I mind.” said Donghae, walking away and going to another cashier. After successfully paying (as quickly as possible) and then leaving the area (also as quickly as possible), he face palmed.

“Why did I say that I minded?” Donghae pouted. “Wait, why do I mind?” he wondered, starting to pace around the entrance of the store. “I couldn’t possibly…” he started to pace even faster and busy himself with his thoughts, so much that he didn’t realize that Jessica was right next to him.

“There you are! Why did you run out of the store like that?” she poked his shoulder.

He stopped at the touch of the poke.

He looked her straight in the face.

And then he turned and started running away and screaming, “Noooo!” He ran away with Jessica’s bags still in hand.

“Yah! Lee Donghae!” Jessica pouted as she saw Donghae gaining distance from her. “At least give me my bags before running off!”

He didn’t turn back.

“Lee Donghae!”

--chapter end.

Hi ;D Look forward to some TaeSu and MinStal (+Taem, because, well…I like TaeStal xD) and some more HaeSica! :o And Yoong! <3

I AM ENTERING MY HALFWAY MARK FOR THIS STORY SOON. Omg. So much slow progression. Hehe. I can't do fast and dramatic scenes. I just can't. -_____-''

Oh, oh, and look forward to Jaejoong (and possibly Tiffany) reappearing soon! ;D

Ah, the main point for this author’s note though. I am entering college (whoo~?) soon, so I don’t know how frequent my updates will be. This is actually my last update before formally entering my college :3 I’ll try to stick to the “at least once a month!” thing, but I can’t promise that anymore. ;( BUT I’LL STILL TRY TO GET IT DONE FOR YOU LOVELIES. <3

Ah, and I have my biases for pairings…and I kind of already know what to do with pairings…But…I need to set up a poll just so I know how many people will like the outcome for certain pairings. Hehe.

;D

COMMENT REPLIES:

KaiserKawaii: ;D <3 thank you for commenting!

shineemimi: Did you like the little bits of gradual HaeSica that I put in this chapter? >< haha. I hope you liked this chapter. ;D thanks for commenting, sweetie!

babyloveeex3: Ah, fellow TaeSu warrior! <3 hello there~~ haha. I love Cupid Krystal~ Thank you for commenting, bby!

FolderName: I love all the TaeMinStal relations too <3 I really could see them skipping away like that haha. Poor Teukie indeed ;( but thank you for commenting! <3

xQueenHanniex: Hi Hannie unnie ;D I love Yoong <3 and I don't think it would go well if she put that she can trick police officers on her resume LOL. Dude, it wouldn't be fun if Leeteuk did things in a legal manner; there would be no "Adventures of the Dolphin and the Deer" if all the things he did were legal! xD (But I agree, Yoona is amazing.) Omg. You make Myung sound so creepy! >< But at least they're both funny ;D and now you can never get the thought of Changmin as Aladdin out of your mind~~ haha. If they cast Changmin as Aladdin, they must cast Yoona as Jasmine~~ No matter what you say to Hae, I think he'll still choose Yoona over Changmin. LOL. But yay, HaeSica bonding time happened! ;D

Oh, a question to the lovelies that leave comments. Would you rather I leave a reply in the next chapter or leave a reply on your wall? :o

Well then...please vote in the polls (and comment~? <3)~~ until next time, you lovelies! ;D