Chapter Twelve 

Finally. 

Dino had been planning this for weeks with her. After they had finally ended promotions, Dino was finally schedules-free, and so was she. So they agreed to meet on Friday afternoon, to spend time from noon to night. 

Any later and my dad would shave my head, Hyejin had said when Dino suggested watching a movie at eleven at night. She was still a minor, after all. It was understandable for him. 

Dino was putting everything aside today. He wasn't Dino, lead rapper, main dancer and maknae of rising K-pop boy group called SEVENTEEN. He was merely Lee Chan of South Korea. And he pushed aside the thought that Hyejin was the most talked about girl in South Korea. He reminded himself that she was just a normal girl—like he was. 

Dino was waiting with a mask—not the usual mask that he would wear when he walked around the airport, but a medical mask. It made him look like he was sick, but he didn't want to be too obvious. 

Dino chose a casual boyfriend-feel kind of fashion. Looking normal was the plan, but Dino couldn't help but make himself look even more presentable in front of Hyejin. He remembered Woozi wearing something similar when they were at the airport. 

Dino looked down at his sports shoes most of the time—he thought it was the most comfortable thing to wear since they'll be walking around a lot—while waiting for Hyejin. 

"Hey!" a voice called his attention. He recognized that voice anywhere. Ever since he heard her voice, he could point out which was her voice from a crowd of hundreds.

Dino looked up and saw Hyejin. She was also wearing a medical mask but even if it covered up half of their face, he could see it in her eyes. She was smiling and happy to see him, just as Dino was to see her. 

Her fashion today was simple but still so stylish on her. Or maybe that was because she was so beautiful?

"Hey," Dino greeted back, trying to keep it cool. Unconsciously, he patted her on the back, like giving her a friendly half hug. "What life are we exactly living, huh? Wearing masks on our date— I mean, hangout."

Dino heard her laughing under the mask and shook her head in agreement. "I totally agree with you. I guess it's the burden of being famous. People recognize you everywhere."

"That's true," Dino agreed, trying to smile but realizing she wouldn't be able to see it anyway. "You know, it'd be better if we watched a movie at eleven at night, you know? Less people will be there. We won't have to hide so much."

Hyejin's eyes carried a different emotion. Then, she started shaking her head. "No, Dino, I told you. My dad will kill me! Sorry, though."

"It's fine. I shouldn't push you to hangout with me until very late at night. That's not very gentleman-like of me," Dino quickly apologized. 

Hyejin patted his shoulder and Dino saw her smile through her eyes again. "It's okay. Maybe next time, when I'm a little older."

"That reminds me," Dino said as they began walking into E-Cube Mall. A place Hyejin suggested because she loved to frequent there. Also a place nearby Dino's entertainment so he could always wait there for his manager to pick him up whenever he was done. "Aren't you two years younger than me?"

"I am," she answered, nodding, "why?"

"You should be calling me oppa," Dino said. 

Hyejin stopped in her tracks, staring at Dino with a bewildered gaze. "Um, I somehow just can't do that, no matter how much I try."

Dino titled his head to the side, still holding her gaze. "And why's that?"

"You always act younger than me. That's a hard thing to do. Calling you oppa," she confessed, breaking their eye contact and looking elsewhere. 

Dino let out a hearty laugh. "Really? So what you're saying is that you're totally comfortable around me? That you don't have to call me oppa?"

Hyejin shyly nodded. 

"You just get cuter every time." Dino wanted to pinch her cheek, but he refrained from random skinships with her. It would obviously startle her. "Okay. Just call me by my name then. Lee Chan and not Dino. Today, we're normal people."

Hyejin giggled. "Only that my name is widely well-known."

Dino didn't think about that one. "Oh, right. Um, do you have any nicknames I could call you?"

"You can call me Ji when we're in public areas," she said with a friendly voice. 

"Ji?" Dino repeated. "Is there anything meaning behind that? I don't think I've heard about that in your talk shows? Oh, and you recently went to Kiss The Radio last week, didn't you? I stayed up to listen to it."

Hyejin was surprised at first before she shyly laughed. "The meaning behind Ji... There's not that much of a meaning, really. Dae Jung used to call me Ji a lot when we were in primary. He outgrew it, though. As for the radio show... wow, I never expected my idol to be my fan."

Dino let out a fleeting shrug. "I never expected my fan to be my idol. And for the record, we're just normal people today."

"Sorry," she apologized. "I'm just not used to hanging out with my bias from SEVENTEEN. Like, who would have known, right?

"Aw, because you're so cute, I'll let you fan girl all you want right now," Dino said, grinning. He was really getting tired of the medical mask he was wearing. 

"Want to grab something to eat?" Hyejin suggested, pointing at a store five meters away from them. It was a restaurant that served anything, mostly sandwiches but there were other dishes too. 

"Sure. I'm starving," said Dino, patting his hungry stomach. As the two were walking side by side in silence, Dino couldn't help but feel uneasy while he was next to her. It was a weird feeling, but he was enjoying ever second spent right next to her. He couldn't be anymore happy than he already was. 

Once inside, they were guided to their tables. This restaurant had two floors and Dino thought about how cool it would be to sit in the second floor, where you could overlook the first floor since there was an opening in the middle of it. 

They were seated next to the metal railings and were handed menus. Dino felt like he had the need to lead the hangout today so he politely told the waiter that they'd order later after checking through the menus. 

"Are you enjoying so far?" Dino asked her, looking up from the menu which was longer than his face. 

"We haven't even done much," she knowingly told him. 

"Wait, I just realized something..." Dino didn't mean to purposely change the subject because he was slightly embarrass—at least, that wasn't the entire case. "Does that mean we'll have to remove our masks? Won't people recognize us?"

"You're right." Hyejin looked like she was filled with regret as she said, "I should have brought my cap. That would at least hide me a little better."

Luckily, Dino was there to save the day. He packed an extra hat in his black backpack, thinking that the current hat he was wearing would somehow get drenched or lost. He pulled it out and handed it to Hyejin. "Here, wear my hat. At least, we can conceal ourselves."

"Thank you," she said, taking it from his hands. "Should we order now?"

"Are you done ordering already?" Dino asked, surprised. 

Hyejin nodded as she flipped her menu closed and neatly placed it on the table. "Order when you're ready."

Dino felt pressured all of a sudden. He scanned through the entire menu and finally decided. After he was done, he called the waiter over. 

"Yes, sir?" the waiter politely asked. 

"One order of ice tea and Japanese curry. I'd like pork," Hyejin told the waiter. 

Wow, there's Japanese curry? This restaurant sure has a bunch of cuisines. No wonder it's called Tri-Taste. They served Western, Korean and Japanese, Dino randomly thought as he turned to the waiter. 

 "I'd like Cola and fish and chips," Dino said to the waiter. 

The waiter jotted it down and repeated, "So that's one ice tea, one Cola, one Japanese curry and one fish and chips. Okay, your order will be served shortly."

"Okay," the two replied. 

The waiter took the menus and walked away with their orders. 

"How are you?" Dino asked all of a sudden. The silence was just about to take over and Dino felt the need to start up a conversation, for some odd reason. "How are you adjusting to the famous life?"

Hyejin pulled out a smile after she had removed her mask and placed it neatly on the table. "I'm doing fine. The famous life... there are some things I don't know if I can get used to, though. How do you live with this type of lifestyle?"

"Practice," Dino replied, lightly chuckling. "What are you not used to?"

"The pictures," Hyejin answered. 

"The pictures?" 

Hyejin nodded. "You know, when you have pictures and your fans use it as their screen locks or just whatever. It's weird seeing my face everywhere on someone else's profile picture."

Dino was smiling back at her, finding her simply adorable. The way she spoke. The fact she wasn't used to the life as an idol or someone famous. "I'm used to it by now. You should see the usernames I've encountered on Twitter. There are quite a few that says Dino's wife. I don't even have a girlfriend yet, when did I have a wife?"

Hyejin tried not to laugh, but a small noise escaped from her lips anyway. It made her look cute. "Should I congratulate you on a wedding you've never had?"

"Yah, I know you've done the same at least one time," Dino said. 

"And how would you know that? Did you stalk me?" Hyejin asked, obviously teasing him. But Dino was found guilty because he usually stalked her on Wattpad. 

"No," he stuttered, looking away. He found the fork on the table a good excuse to distract himself and he further examined the silverware. "Wow, this is really shiny."

"I could write a scene in a further book with this experience," said Hyejin. 

Dino stopped playing with the fork and looked at her, tilting his head to the side. "What? Write a scene like this?"

Hyejin slowly lifted her head—but not too much to risk someone realizing who she was—and slowly looked around the first floor of the restaurant. "You know, in my future fanfiction. A Wonwoo fanfiction would be nice with this scene."

Dino felt sour all of a sudden. The fact that Hyejin wanted to write a fanfiction of another SEVENTEEN member with the scene that she was experiencing with him made him want to furrow his eyebrows, but he held himself back. 

"But... I don't know for sure," Hyejin said in return, her eyes traveling back to meet Dino's face. "But this is nice. I always imagined hanging out with my idol. Now that it's actually happening, I don't even know what to say."

"I'm guessing you dream a lot about me?" Dino teased, putting the sour feeling behind him. 

Hyejin's cheeks started showing colour as her head lowered down a little. Shyly, she answered, "A few times."

Dino leaned closer to the table. He placed his elbows on it and grinned at Hyejin. "Tell me about your dreams."

When Hyejin heard that, her head immediately shot up as she eyed him with shock. "What? Why? No! It would be very embarrassing if you heard what I have dreamed of."

"What's wrong with knowing? It isn't like you have another chance to tell me in person, right? Unless you want to hangout again?" Dino asked with hopefulness. 

Hyejin shrugged, obviously flustered by the question. "I don't know... Maybe? But in case we can't hangout again, I'll just tell you about my dreams. Let me warn you, it's totally unbelievable because I know it'll never happen, and that it's only a dream."

Well, I can make them reality, if they're doable, Dino thought in his mind, smiling as he waited for her to begin. 

She started, "There was this one dream where we sat under the stars. I was resting on your shoulder while I started to get sleepy. In the dream. Which is honestly really weird. I don't remember much of what happened but I think I got really tired in the dream and it switched over to something else."

Sitting under the stars? Could happen in the future. I'll need to remember every one of her dreams. 

"The next is—" Hyejin stopped, her hand quickly covering her mouth. From what it looked like, Hyejin looked too shy to tell him about it. "I can't believe I'm telling you about my dreams. This is crazy."

"It's okay," Dino assured with a smile. "Just tell me. I'm no one special right now. I'm just a guy who lives in South Korea."

"Someone among the 50.22 million people living in South Korea?" she suggested. 

Dino was surprised to hear her go specific, but nodded anyway. "Yes, someone among the 50.22 million people living in South Korea."

She smiled and finally continued, "Well... it's quite blurry, but I remember we were playing at the playground near my apartment. We were the only ones there and we were playing a challenge from Running Man. Ripping the tags off our backs. Are you familiar with that?"

Dino nodded. "Of course! Why would you think I wouldn't know that?"

"You know, just in case an idol is too busy with their idol life to even watch TV," she said in return, throwing a shrug. Then, she continued, "We were playing, like I said. And you attacked me by running forward and reaching for my back to grab the name tag. It felt like a hug and we both collapsed on the floor. When we got back up, that was when you gave me a proper hug."

Dino was staring at her with amusement. The way she was telling him the story of her dreams, he noticed how cute she looked. 

"Then we were walking around. Still, we were the only two people around there and it was night time. It was then I asked you what you thought about me." Hyejin's lips curled up into a smile as her head lowered down, probably to stare at her thighs. "You told me you liked me as a friend, and more."

Dino's smile slowly lowered as he heard his heart going out of rhythm once again. It made him wary of everything around him and he felt like he couldn't act normal again. 

It was then Dino started thinking. Dreams are usually a form of imagination. A bunch of scenes generated by your mind while you're sleeping. Yet, for some odd reason, some dreams can help tell the future. Like, something you dream of suddenly happened in reality and it was as if you've dreamed of the future. 

Right at that moment, Dino wondered if all the dreams Hyejin were telling him were part of the first step. The first step into a reality she might have dreamed of, like it was her predicting the future. 

+ + + 

The cinema was packed around the time of six in the evening, and that gave both Dino and Hyejin no freedom to take off their masks in the dark. They didn't want to risk getting spotted by the strangers that would sit beside them. If ever a nasty article of them ever arose, Dino wouldn't know how to protect Hyejin by then. 

Just before the lights went out, Hyejin said, "This is my favourite moment. Just before the lights would go out and the movie would play."

Dino found it really hard to eat popcorn while his mask was still on and trying hard not to get spotted in anyway. "Why?"

Hyejin leaned in closer, making Dino freeze in his seat. Luckily for him, she didn't see him widen his eyes by the sudden movement of hers. "It's because it reminds me of something. You know when you're going through a hard time? There's still light out right now, which represents the originality of life. When the lights go off, it then represents the time when everything is hard and it's impossible to see the light you were in before."

"Then what about the movie? It gives out light during the dark too." Dino was doing better with being around her. He easily regained composure. 

"That's the inspirational part," Hyejin said, looking like she was grinning but Dino wasn't sure. After all, she was still wearing a mask. "When you're in the dark, there's always going to be that one light that will guide you. Even when it gets too dark and you feel like there's no light at all, there is. And that light is what you need to follow when in darkness. It's your hope. It's your guide. And before you know it, the lights come back on and you're out of the darkness."

Dino felt his heart doing that out of beat rhythm once again. "You're clearly an author. Everything you say screams author."

Hyejin stopped staring ahead of them—probably at the big screen in front of them—to turn her head around and meet Dino's eyes. Both of them held their gaze for a while before Hyejin broke it off, awkwardly laughing. "Is that so? Hmm, maybe I've finally found my talent."

"Maybe you have," Dino said, trying not to stutter so much. The eye contact made him feel all warm inside that it was hard to act like himself. 

The lights finally went out and the movie started rolling. Dino wasn't sure if he was just being wistful, but he sensed that at some point during the movie, Hyejin wanted to lean on his shoulder and simply stay there until the movie ended. But she didn't. Much to Dino's disappointment. 

When the movie had ended and the credits started rolling, Dino realized it was their last stop for the day before Hyejin went home. He sent her off with a goodbye before he had to walk to the entertainment on his own. So far, he still hadn't been spotted and his hangout with Hyejin was an absolute success. 

But a thought at the back of his head made him wonder what exactly did he see Hyejin as. His idol? Or... something else. The thought made him smile and it made him aware of how exactly a fan girl's mind work. Because he, himself, started to imagine his own fanfiction moments with Hyejin. 

~Author's Notes~ 

Thank you lovely Kimichies for the 2K views already and surpassing 300 votes! You guys are forever lovely, I hope you know that <3 

And I can't believe I only have five more days until I'm sixteen! Wew, it's crazy. I can't believe I'll actually be turning sixteen. Then again, age is only a number, right? ;)

As usual, I also fangirled when writing out this chapter. Hehe! Expect more fluffy scenes in the future! <3 See you in the next update, lovely Kimichies! <3