16. Naeun (1/2)

(OST- Perfectly by Chelsea Lee and Jason Reeves)

They were in disbelief.  Hayoung and Namjoo were the first to respond.“You aren’t serious unnie!”

I nodded, “yes I am.”

Chorong unnie glanced at Eunji unnie who had a rather ambivalent expression on her face. “You knew about this didn’t you?”

It didn’t take long for her to cave and then Bomi unnie and Chorong unnie were on her case.  Hayoung and Namjoo joined in for a little bit before looking at me again.“You are serious aren’t you?” As though the first time wasn’t enough proof.Eunji unnie jumped in. “Yes she’s serious she told me herself way before anyone else knew.”

“You traitor,” Bomi unnie joked with her and then proceeded to attack Eunji with pokes.  After the initial reaction the attention went back to me. They all watched me, some of their expressions almost smiles.“Naeun,” Chorong sounded as though she was about to begin a serious talk. “We’ll support you and Taemin whatever the case. However—“

“—just be careful,” Hayoung said. “You know that’s he’s hurt you before.”

“He could do it again.”They were right. All of them were right. Considering their words I silently absorbed them. “I understand and I appreciate how you are all looking out for me. I’m being careful.”

“It’s not just him that you need to be careful of.” Bomi unnie said. “His fans… You remember better than us about what they can be like.”

I wished she hadn’t reminded me. It had taken a few weeks for me to get over that incident. That incident when we had our second date on the show in school uniforms…Ω

5 years agoSitting on the bus we seemed like an ordinary high school couple, in our uniforms, in one of the back seats.

“What did you usually do after class?”

He could probably laugh at my answer. “I went to the academy immediately after.”“So you went to an academy?” He checked before adding in his usual fashion. “Then you wouldn’t have had time to play.” Somehow the topic changed to something rather similar. “When I was young I frequently went to playgrounds.”

I surprised him by saying. “I went to playgrounds frequently too.”

“I was really the master of the playgrounds,” he said with a large smirk, “master.”

It’s nice to be able to agree on the same thing as the other person. “I totally had fun at playgrounds.”

“Until what age did you go to playground?”

“Until the 6th grade,” he gasped. I only managed to look at him but even then it was through the corner of my eyes.

“That’s similar to me.”

Indeed it must have been fate to have allowed us to meet and talk in that manner. We were probably the only couple on the show who talked about playgrounds and school.As we got closer I finally knew what the MD stood for. We were going to be out in the open eye on a public date. The more he told me about it the more I liked the idea.The moment we stepped into Myeongdong we drew a lot of attention. IPads, iPhones and cameras were all aimed at us. We stopped at a stand that was selling those glasses without the proper lens. They are just used for fashion.

I put on a pair of orange red ones. “You look like a model student,” Taemin oppa commented grinning. This was a lot of fun. After that we bought drinks and then his eye caught glimpse of food at a stall.“It’s the egg bread,” he pointed to it excitedly and we were soon munching on a piece each.Someone in the background caught my eye. “Who’s that?” I pointed to the cardboard cut-out.

“I don’t know let’s go,” oppa joked.

“Who is it?” I asked again wanting to see what he would say.“He’s just really average.”