If you were to tell a 20 year old Kim Jongdae he’d end up falling head over heels and marrying his first female duet partner, he’d mostly likely laugh at you while secretly judging you on the inside. This thought crosses his mind as he’s driving to his new apartment with the last of his belongings from the EXO dorm packed in two boxes and jammed into his trunk. It’s a sad thought knowing he’d never be able to live with his crazy brothers anymore, but Jongdae has worked hard to get to where he is now and surely, there are no regrets.

It’s not until he’s in his new apartment and placing the two boxes he stacked on top of each other on the ground does he realize that the door was wide open. With a slightly worried gaze, Jongdae quickly scans the living room to the kitchen with a frown.

“Liyin?”

There’s no response which doesn’t ease the worries growing inside his chest. Crazy thoughts and scenarios come to mind and even the craziest of the craziest don’t get ruled out since EXO has always had some of the most insane “fans” in the world.

A knock on the door startles him and he jumps as a deep voice fills the room.

“Jajangmyeon delivery is here!”

Jongdae is about to respond when he hears the bedroom door snap open before Liyin comes prancing out to greet the delivery guy. She completely ignores him while she places the bowls of food on the table beside him and it’s not until the delivery guy is paid and out the door before she turns to acknowledge him.

“Let’s eat!” She exclaims and although Jongdae should be upset over the fact that she left their door wide open and unintentionally charmed another guy with her gorgeous smile, he shrugs it off and grins before nodding.

“What were you doing?” Jongdae asks as they’re enjoying their first meal in their apartment. Liyin finishes slurping her noodles before turning to him and without even a second thought, he reaches out to wipe her lips with his thumb.

“I was skyping my mom. She wanted to see the apartment but there isn’t much to see yet, obviously.” She motions to their living room that’s filled with boxes and what not. Their TV isn’t even properly installed yet and instead leaning on the wall. “I just really hope she doesn’t end up re-decorating the whole entire place after the wedding.”

Jongdae chuckles while Liyin pouts. “I wouldn’t mind. I thought your apartment looked pretty cute with all the tassels and such.”

She throws him a glare and Jongdae laughs before pinching her cheek until she’s breaking out into cute chuckles. Unable to hold back any longer, he leans over to steal a kiss which makes her blush even after all these years of being together.

After they finish eating, they decide to start unpacking the boxes in the living room together Liyin was digging through a gigantic box when a photo album catches her eyes. Filled with sudden curiosity, she finds a spot on the ground between the other boxes before she begins to flip through the pages. The first few pictures are of her and Jongdae during their “Breath” promotions, the very promotions that brought them together. The awkwardness in the photos make her cringe but she finds their awkward stage very cute. Below each photo is a date and a description of the moment scribbled in Jongdae’s slightly childish handwriting. The distance between them gets closer and closer as she continues through the album and the descriptions become more intimate. Liyin didn’t know Jongdae had an album of them with it being so risky especially with their frequent fan break-ins at their many dorms.

“Whatcha doing?”

Glancing up from the album, she catches his eyes before they dart to the album in her lap. With a shy smile growing on his lips, Jongdae seats himself next to Liyin on the ground and pulls her closer to him before wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Mind telling me about this?” Liyin asks him gently with a soft smile. “I didn’t know you kept one.”

He shrugs with a cute pout. “At first they were just in a box stuffed under my bed. As we took more and more pictures and our relationship developed, I decided to start putting one together.”

Liyin smiles warmly with her hand gently a picture they had taken backstage at SMTOWN in Beijing.

“I’m curious,” Liyin begins and returns her gaze to Jongdae. “When did you realize you love me?”

The pout on his lips squirm cutely before it turns into a warm smile. “There were five times.”

She raises a brow and he drops a soft kiss on her lips.

first

It wasn’t love at first sight.

Jongdae remembers formally meeting Liyin for the first time in an oversized meeting room with all white furniture. It was early in the morning and his Americano hadn’t quite kicked in yet. He knew of her of course but their meetings had always been short greetings backstage and basically nothing more. Jongdae remains composed and positive when he realizes he’s getting paired with her for the new S.M. The Ballad promotions and it sort of blows his mind at first because one, Jongdae isn’t Chinese nor is he fluent in Mandarin and two, Zhou Mi is sitting right next to him. Wouldn’t it make more sense to pair the two Chinese members up instead? Nevertheless, he’s grateful for the opportunity because singing in a language he’s still unfamiliar with is better than not being able to sing at all. And with that, Jongdae turns to Liyin, meets her eyes for the first time and introduces himself with a smile.

“I’m Chen, please treat me well, Sunbae-nim.”

Besides the occasional playing of her songs in the company, Jongdae had never paid any attention to Liyin’s songs before. Jongdae believes the first time was when he heard her sing in the recording room. Maybe it wasn’t exactly love yet but when he heard her voice, it shook his heart and the passion that eluded with every note captivated every bit of Jongdae. He wondered why S.M would hold such a strong and passionate singer back for all these years when she could probably outsing every artist under the company. There are too many “singers” now who saturate the industry with no real passion which is upsetting when right here, in front of his eyes, there is a beautiful woman who isn’t given clearly enough chances to show the world her talent. Jongdae finds her admirable and so far, he still only knows her name.

“It’s the third tone,” Liyin corrects warmly as she circles the pinyin on Jongdae’s sheet. It’s filled with pencil marks, roughly written side notes and references to other sounds as Jongdae tries his best to correctly learn the words without the usual help of his band members. They’ve been at it for almost three hours now but Liyin hasn’t even once shown a bit of annoyance towards him which surprises Jongdae. The fact that she herself is sitting here voluntarily to teach him is a shock already since she is a great senior in the industry and company.  

Jongdae tries pronouncing the word once more with the correct tone and she breaks out into a proud smile with her brown eyes sparkling at him in the slightly dim light. Like how her voice shook his heart in an unexpected way, her smile does the same.

***

“What?” Jongdae frowns as Liyin shoots him a taunting look. “What’s with that face?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she shakes her head. “That was the first time?”

He nods innocently. “Hey, mind you that I was twenty one when we first met.”

She sighs. “Okay, carry on.”

second

The second time he believed he fell in love with her was during their first stage. Jongdae remembers her petite figure pacing back and forth in the waiting room with an anxious smile. This would mark her unofficial return in three years so she has every bit and right to be nervous.

“Noona,” he calls and she turns to him with eyes a bit too wide and shocked. With a warm smile, Jongdae hands out the cup of water in his hands to her. “You’ll do fine. Drink this.”

Her eyes lower to the cup in his hands before her soft smile returns although her eyes still line with nerves.

“Thanks,” she says and takes the cup silently before taking a small sip.

They stand silently in the corridor for a few seconds before Jongdae speaks up.

“You must be really nervous,” he says, knowingly and she nods with a small chuckle.

“It’s been three years,” she mumbles softly. “I don’t even know if people know me anymore.”

Jongdae shakes his head. “I’m sure they do, you’re thee Zhang Liyin.”

She chuckles and this time it sounds lighter.

“And even if they did,” he adds in a small shrug. “Make them remember and this time, do it so they’ll never forget.”

She nods quietly with a warm smile.

“Besides,” he says, pointing to her shoes that gives her another half a foot in height. “I don’t think a pair of nervous trembling legs goes well with those shoes.”

Liyin chuckles as she throws them a glance. “Yeah, another one added to the list of worries. They’ll definitely remember me after I trip and fall on my face.”

Sighing, Jongdae places a hand on her shoulder with an encouraging smile. “I know there’s about five of us going out there but tonight is all about your return. Plus,” he shrugs. “If you fall, I’m here to catch.”

A chuckle escapes her lips as her eyes crease into beautiful slits and he smiles wider seeing the nerves evaporate from her eyes.

Following Taeyeon and Jonghyun’s Korean version, Liyin and Jongdae take the stage after with the Mandarin version. Despite it being the same song, the emotions and feelings were totally different being Liyin and Jongdae’s voices were much more powerful than Taeyeon and Jonghyun’s put together. He remembers the lights slowly lighting up around him with fake fog veiling over his ankles and feet. He starts the song smoothly yet nervously as his head pinpoints the tones and sounds he’s worked so hard to memorize. It isn’t until he turns to Liyin that he finds himself unable to meet her eyes. His legs suddenly feel like they’re turning into a pile of goo and butterflies flap feverishly in his belly an attempt to escape. Her eyes were captivating and for a split second, he almost lost his breath—no pun intended. At that moment, Jongdae was sure that he found her the mostly lovely when she was in her element, which was singing.

Zhang Liyin was born to sing.

***

“I would’ve never known,” Liyin says with an amused expression while Jongdae looks away shyly.

“You know,” he sighs and chuckles. “I didn’t think I was the type to like hardcore crush on someone like that. Looking back at it now, I probably followed you around like a lost puppy.”

“And I was probably something along the lines of an oblvious and spaced out Noona during this whole thing,” Liyin raises a brow at him and he slightly nods. “And let me guess the next one, the time you confessed?”

Dropping a soft kiss on her lips, Jongdae smiles. “Correct.”

“Oh gosh,” she chortles in his embrace. “You really were the typical head over heels twenty year old.”

Jongdae nods shamelessly with his cute puppy eyes. “So do I still have to tell you?”

As expected, Liyin nods.

third

After about eight months of Jongdae hinting at his growing affections towards Liyin, he decided he was going to finally confess. They text each other everyday and even occasionally fall asleep on the phone together whenever the time and scheduled allowed. Knowing that Liyin is a simple girl that doesn’t like to be burden by luxurious things, Jongdae wanted to confess in a simple yet meaningful way so she could get a glimpse of how captivated he was by her. He wanted to show her that despite him being younger, he was capable of protecting her and loving her as much or even more than any other man can. Jongdae wanted Liyin to know that he was serious about wanting to make their relationship official.

EXO, F(x) and Liyin were in Shanghai for an event and Jongdae felt this would be the best time to do it since Liyin has been busy with her upcoming album release. After the concert ended and everyone was shipped back off to the hotel, Jongdae decided to start his little plan. It took some time and a pair of the newest Jordans but Jongdae managed to convince his manager to help him get access to the hotel rooftop. It wasn’t hard, perks of being an EXO member.

Liying was surprised to get a text from Jongdae when he’d been ignoring her all day. She was starting to think something was up and this short text asking to meet at the rooftop wasn’t releasing any of her anxiety either. The corridor is quiet when she exits her room to a bunch of the typical body guards standing guard throughout the hall. Liyin takes a moment to contemplate asking one of the guards for help when a door snaps open and closed down the hall. A second later and Yixing emerges with his eyes set on Liyin and she takes it as her cue to follow him. Usually the security guards would say something but as she and Yixing silently leave towards the elevator, nobody attempts to stop them.

“How’d you know where I was going?” She asks in the elevator.

Yixing gives her a slight shrug with a small smile. “He asked me to take you.”

Liyin a brow and crosses her arms at Yixing who’s leaning against the wall. “What’s going on here?”

“Ask your boyfriend,” Yixing teases and she gasps before slapping him across the arm.

“He is not my boyfriend,” Liyin retorts as Yixing’s unique chuckles fill the elevator. “I don’t even know why you would even think that.”

He snorts. “Mind you that I share a room with Jongdae and that there is no such thing as privacy in the dorm. I’m also not that deep of a sleeper either.”

Liyin feels her body betrayer her as she cheeks begin to burn from embarrassment. Thankfully the elevator door dings open with her literally hopping out before turning back to scowl at the younger Zhang.“Call him my boyfriend one more time and I’ll kill you.”

Yixing dismisses her threat with a shrug and instead flashes her a sweet smile. “Take the stairs at the end of the hall. Good night, Jie.”

Sighing, Liyin sends him off with a smile and a wave until the elevator doors come to a close. Alone in the hall now, Liyin starts towards the door at the end of the hall and up the two short flight of stairs. When she reaches the top of the stairs, a door awaits her which leads to the rooftop. Without much thought, her hand reaches out to handle and with a small push, the windy Shanghai night breeze greets her. The first thing she sees is the amazing skyline before a lighted pathway of candles leading