December 7^th, 2014

Offerings needed to be made because her friend was a god. How her friend had these connections, she had no idea. What had she done to be graced with this sight before her, she had no clue. All she knows is the Kim Jongin, otherwise known as Exo’s Kai was standing before her as her date. One had to be dumb, deaf or blind to not know who this person was. Okay, maybe that was bit of an overstatement.

The whole time the student was marveling at the male before her, was opening and closing without and coherent words coming out. She didn’t believe this was real. Why would Kai agree to go on a blind date, especially with a high school student at that? But that would explain why he was late, right? He probably had a schedule beforehand. Even if he had a break from a schedule, wouldn’t he be practicing for other stages or resting rather than going on a date? Things just didn’t seem to add up.

“A-a-are you sure you’re my date for tonight?” the girl finally managed to choke out. The idol’s face was graced with a slight pout.

“Are you disappointed that it’s me?” his eyes were down casted but a faint blush was noticeable. The male was ready to cover his face from embarrassment.

“N-no! I’m actually glad it’s you!” the student used her hands to cover her face. Kai seemed to have regained confidence and grinned at her.

“Well, I’m glad then. How about we go to an arcade instead? It seems a bit crowded in here.”

“But what about dinner?” she glanced at the grill still occupied with samgyupsal but also noticed the people staring and starting to take their phones out.

“We could always order pizza or something later if you’re still hungry. Here, let’s finish this all and then go.”

Considering the way she was eating earlier, there wasn’t much meat left to finish. Jongin insisted on paying for the bill even though he wasn’t the one that ate the most. The student kept persisting that she paid since she ordered, but the taller kept the bill out of arm’s reach and they left with the shorter muttering ‘thank you’ and ‘you shouldn’t have done that.’ She buried her face into her scarf from the cold and hugged her coat for warmth. Unfortunately, the idol noticed.

“Are you cold?”

“Mm,” she hummed but didn’t want to bother him from complaining, “just a bit.”

“You shouldn’t be wearing that kind of attire in this weather. You could get sick. Wear clothes that are comfortable and keep you warm,” he practically scolded.

Though it came out a bit harsh, she smiled at his undertone of thoughtfulness. The frigid cold caused the air they breathed out to vaporize into clouds of smoke. A little long ways and they turned a corner to reveal an arcade. When Jongin came back with tokens, the both of them awkwardly approached the game section. They started with the basketball hoops, but it was mostly the male shooting baskets and the girl standing on the side to watch. Dance Dance Revolution was the same as Jongin nailed every step (of course,) and the other couldn’t keep track of the timing, missing steps and occasionally stomping on floor boards. However, when they passed by the air hockey table, she let her eyes linger on the table for a while.

She hadn’t noticed that she stopped walking to intently stare at the table. Not long after, she felt someone ghost over her shoulder and ask if she wanted to play. The student flinched and almost fell on the ground, face growing hot from embarrassment. Jongin snorted and asked if she was alright before helping her right herself. Not expecting much, he went easy on the other. That was, until she landed a point in her first shot with ease. He reset the puck and stated he wasn’t ready that time. From there, the matches were intense. They played with their backs hunched over the table and solely concentrated on beating the other. Likewise, the same went for skeeball as both had the deadly intent to win. Both times, the girl won and did a victory dance, but the idol kept insisting that he let her win on purpose. She rolled her eyes and carried on to the next game.

The awkward tension between the two dissipated with each game they played. The younger kept winning at most of the games while Jongin only won a few with barely any tickets in hand. When their dominant arms grew tired from the intense matches, they decided to settle down for pizza. As they sat at an unoccupied table a bit farther from others, Jongin took off his coat to place over the other’s knees (like the gentleman he was,) to cover what her skirt couldn’t. Her confidence began to fade and she shyly thanked him.

"U-uhm, I'm actually a fan of Exo," she stated to break the silence. The male seated across from her stiffened slightly with his brows furrowed, but then smiled. The small smile didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Well I'm glad to know you're a fan. I thought you didn't know about us at first since you didn't say anything about it."

"S-sorry for the random outburst but I just wanted you to know I am a fan. I really admire you," the student looked down at the table to avoid looking at the dancer seated across from her.

"It's alright, I'm glad to know. Feel free to ask me anything, but I guess you know a lot about me already."

"W-well, your work and your personal life are different, so I guess I shouldn’t be talking about your work. Besides, you shouldn’t have to put up a stage personality when you should be relaxing in your free time that you have." Jongin relaxed his tense shoulders.

"You think my on-stage personality is different from my off-stage one?" He teased.

"I don't know you that well personally to be the judge of that, but I don’t think you can slay ladies all the time," she challenged, seeing Jongin's rigid figure going back to being slouched when he snickered - a sign that he was comfortable again. She inwardly sighed in relief when the pizza arrived, not having to calculate what to say next. There were boundaries between them and she had to careful of where she crosses. She only wanted him to relax in his respite after all.

After finishing their pizza with cokes, the two battled each other in shooting and bike racing games. She let him win at the games (and kept denying that she was actually really bad at the non-classical arcade games.) With all of the tickets they garnered, the only affordable prizes were slap-on bracelets and cheap candy, so they got just that. The idol insisted on getting matching bracelets and they walked out, chewing on taffy.

Walking on the cold street, Jongin offered to buy hot chocolate to warm them up, but the female declined, saying he had already spent more than enough money on her. To prevent him from spending more money on her, (her parents always taught her to decline offers for people to spend money on her,) she made for the excuse of needing to go home. He offered to at least walk her to the bus stop before leaving and she couldn't refuse more than she already had. The bus was due to arrive in less than ten minutes, giving them time to talk under the awning.

"T-thank you for today. I really had fun," she looked up to the taller one's eyes for only the second time that day.

"I'm glad you had fun then," his lips turned up gently.

"We probably won't ever meet again, so thank you for everything. I'll keep supporting you as a fan, so work hard, but don't overwork yourself. Take good care of yourself," she finished and turned towards the snow-covered road.

"What makes you say we won't meet again?"

"We probably won't ever meet face to face again. Our relationship is only meant to be fan and idol," her gaze softened to a sad one. He was only trying to give her false hope of meeting again. Idols had that role: to give people hope to give them strength. But idols were also humans. His real thoughts and intentions were those of a stranger's to her. No matter what the media released, she would never know him personally. The ‘date’ was probably just a boring time for Jongin just to appease her.

She returned her eyes back to the road for the coming bus. The statement from the idol made her eyes widen.

"Give me your phone number." The student whipped her head back to the speaking figure.

"What? Why?"

"To make sure that I could see you in person again. And I think you are a nice person to be friends with," he gave a look of finality which gave the shorter no choice. She hesitantly annunciated each digit of her cell phone number, but wondered if he would even message at all. This gesture could've just been done as fan service, but even idols wouldn't go as far as asking for a fan's phone number. He couldn't have been doing this out of genuine interest for her. She didn't have anything going for her in her mind.

"Oh, I never asked for your name at all today even though I introduced myself. What's your name?" He looked up from his phone.

"My name is Park Sunhi."

***

December 6th 2027

"Did you change your name or something?!" Jongin craned his neck to face the typing author. He yawned shortly afterwards.

"Let's just go with the 'or something' for now. I'll tell you another time. It's getting late, we should go to bed," Yerin stretched her arms and moved to tidy her work area.

"But now you got me curious. Why did you change your name?" The male protruded his lips to almost pout as he spoke. The wife noiselessly laughed at her husband's expression.

"I said I'd tell you at a later time. Maybe tomorrow. You're already tired and we both need to rest," she finished typing before saving her work and exiting out of the browsers. Snapping the laptop shut indicated no more further conversation. Jongin unwillingly sauntered back to the guest room, catching a glimpse of the female walk into the bathroom with a bucket of shower supplies. Plopping down onto the guest bed, he eventually found fitful sleep through the fragment of the past retold to him and the swirling of unanswered questions.

Pokes in the face awoke Jongin the next morning. He groaned in annoyance, hoping the person would get the idea to stop. The pokes continued even when he turned his body the other direction to avoid more attacks. Feeling the bed dip with another added weight, the dancer had the slight premonition that another onslaught of attacks would come, but weariness lulled him back to sleep. What he didn’t expect was for a tickle attack to ensue. Hands traveled to his most sensitive spots and his feet kicked about in response. Blankets soon ended up on the floor with laughter filling up the guest room. The former idol kept patting the mattress in surrender before the hands finally disappeared from his sensitive stomach. He let out pants of exhaustion, trying to regain his breath back now that he was awake. Directing a pointed gaze towards the yet again bed intruder, he demanded an explanation. Normal people didn’t wake up others with tickle attacks, especially at five in the morning. The author lifted up the message she prepared before the attack.

You have a photo shoot to go to.

Yerin attempted to hide her smirk behind the board. Jongin groaned into the blanket, not enjoying being bullied into working at such an ungodly hour. In the back of his head, he remembered Kyungsoo’s voice reminding him to cancel future appointments with his current condition. The dancer folded back the blanket to reveal a pout gracing his handsome face.

“Can’t I just cancel? My memory loss might affect my work,” he whined, batting his eyelashes to be more convincing.

The director of the shoot is for the brand you usually model for…so I guess it’s risky for you to go.

Jongin inwardly lauded his persuasion skills.

But he expects you to be there any time now…

As if on cue, the former idol’s phone rang. Both the wife and the husband widened their eyes and the latter shot up from his laying position. He directed his surprised gaze towards the author; mouthing ‘Is that him?’ as if afraid the director might hear him, though highly unlikely. Yerin merely shrugged, possessing the same amount of fear as her husband. Jongin stumbled for the cell phone on the dresser, but didn’t know what to do with it afterwards. Furrowing his eyebrows, he let out a strangled ‘ottoke’, looking back at Yerin for help. She made a grab for the dry erase marker and undid the cap with her teeth. Her handwriting became messy with the urgency to scribble a response.

Tell them you’re sick!

About to swipe the button to answer, but stopped when Yerin erased the board to hurriedly write another message.

WAIT, DON’T SAY THAT. You saw them two days ago, so that’d be suspicious.

“Then what am I supposed to say!” Jongin raised his voice in panic.

Say that I got sick and you’re taking care of me.

Before the last ring, the model slid to answer the call and coughed into his fist to clear his voice.

“H-hello, director-nim?”

“Jongin, will you be here soon? Everything is almost in place,” a middle-aged man replied in a stern manner. The tanned male’s gulped in apprehension.

“E-erm, I’m sorry sir. I don’t think I can make it. My w-wife got sick and I want to take care of her…” he bit his bottom lip. A light-hearted chuckle came from the elder man, contrasting his stern voice from before.

“That’s very like you, to always care for your wife! She’s very lucky to have you as her husband. Well take good care of her in this cold season! And send her my regards! We can always reschedule for another day.”

Jaw gone slack, Jongin stuttered to answer. “T-thank you, director-nim! I’ll send my wife your regards and I’ll get back to you for when we can reschedule!”

After the call ended, the husband and wife both breathed out sigh of relief simultaneously. With the appointment out of the way, Jongin was ready to go back to dream land. Before he could pull up the blanket to cover his now cold body, a board was shoved in front of his face.

Since you don’t have anything else to do for the rest of the day, do you want to go on an outing later?

_____________________

A/N: Happy New Years!!! I hope everyone will have a great 2015!! I finally updated for those that have been waiting~ This chapter wasn't one of my best, but hey, new plot twist~ Again, sorry for any mistakes! >.<

~Audrey

P.S. - Hope our EXO boys have a great 2015 too since 2014 was a rough year! Let's support them together! (Not my photo)