A New Start || Seventeen

Chapter 33

It had been just over a month since Daena and Jeonghan had made things official between them and Daena couldn't remember a time in her life she had felt happier.

As a pair they were slowly becoming more and more comfortable around each other. They had found a rhythm and routine that worked for them around their schedules.

Daena had so far been impressed by just how much time Jeonghan was able to make for her. He visited at least three times a week and called everyday that he couldn't.

The only issue with this was it left her with very little time for Joshua and even Hoshi which was starting to make her feel guilty. As they were all members of the same group they had very similar schedules so when Jeonghan had freetime and chose to spend it with Daena that often meant that was the only time Joshua and the other members were also free.

In fact Daena hadn't seen any member other than Jeonghan since before the group had left for Japan. Of course she still communicated with them by phone but this was more often than not brief messages checking in with one another. She missed the members she was close to, especially Joshua.

Daena had not brought this up with Jeonghan. It did not seem like a conversation that would go well. She didn't know how to explain to him that she wanted to see the others as this would potentially mean seeing them instead of him and she wasn't sure how he would react to this. Especially as since they had started dating Daena had not visited the dorm or the agency. Whenever Jeonghan was free he would come to her rather than her meeting him wherever he was. She didn't even know if he had told the other members as neither Joshua or Hoshi had brought in up during their brief conversations.

Daena had been sat staring at her laptop screen for the last 5 minutes trying to work out if she should mention this to Jeonghan when he called later that afternoon.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of an incoming video call coming from her laptop.

The reason she had been sat at her laptop was her parents had promised to ring at midday. That meant it was late evening back home in LA.

Daena reached over and answered the call. The beaming faces of her parents peered back at her.

"Hello love" her parents said almost in unison, her mother waving frantically from beside her father.

"Hi, how are you both?" Daena asked.

She watched as her parents exchanged a strange look before her father answered. "We are well"

"Are you still feeling better sweethear Are you happy there?" Daena's mother asked. Daena knew her father hadn't shared her reason for her impromptu visit home with her mother as she had asked him not to and her mother was still concerned something was wrong.

"I am mom, I promise" She tried to reassure her mother but it was difficult without the context.

Her father hadn't asked what had happened when she had returned to Korea and Daena had chosen not to share. Introducing Jeonghan to her parents was something she planned on doing but it was still far to early for that.

"Do you have plans for today?" her mother asked.

Before Daena even had a chance to respond her mother fired another question at her. "When did you last see Joshua?"

Daena rolled her eyes. This was another reason she had chosen not to share her news about Jeonghan with her parents.

Her mother wanted or rather expected Joshua and Daena to end up together and had since they were children. She had not been pleased when Daena had brought home her college boyfriend and as a result Daena was unsure how she would take this news.

Daena deflected the question and spend the next 15 minutes chatting casually with her parents about things like what they had eaten and the weather.

Daena was telling her parents about her work and how Leah was when she was interrupted by her phone ringing from beside her on the couch.

She looked at the time. It was far too early for Jeonghan to be ringing. He had said he wouldn't be free to call until around 7pm.

"Do you need to get that?" Her father asked.

Daena shook her head and continued talking to her parents only to be interrupted by her phone again.

She flipped it over and saw it was Jeonghan ringing. She grinned stupidly at her phone.

"Sorry I have to get this" She said to her parents.

"Okay, okay, tell Joshua we said hi and we miss him" her mother said winking at her through the camera. Obviously assuming that was who was calling.

Daena brushed the comment off. "Speak to you soon, love you" She said before ending the call.

She quickly called Jeonghan back.

"Hey" came his voice through the phone. It sounded husky and deep. Which usually meant he had recently woken up.

"Hey, were you sleeping?" She asked.

"No, recording, I think I pushed myself too hard".

"Recording?" Daena asked.

"Ahh" Jeonghan paused before continuing. "I meant to tell you. We are starting to prepare for a comeback"

Daena knew what that meant. There would be even less time for them to see each other. But she knew what she was getting herself into when she said yes to this.

"Oh, that's exciting, I can't wait to see it" She replied trying to mask the concern in her voice.

"Maybe I'll let you have a sneak preview, it's still a couple of months away anyway, but there's lots of preparation to do"

"How are the others?" Daena asked.

"Good, Woozi made us all record some lines today though that we had already recorded weeks ago." Jeonghan sighed.

"He's a perfectionist" Daena chuckled.

Daena heard Jeonghan move the phone away and cover the receiver.

"Sorry" he said "Hoshi was talking to me"

"That's okay"

"He wants to know if you can start his lessons again"

"Oh" Daena said shocked. She had stopped teaching them both when Hoshi had asked her to stay out of the agency building. "Sure if it's okay with the management I don't mind starting your lessons up again" Daena was secretly pleased as this would give her more time to see Jeonghan as well.

"Umm, actually it would be just Hoshi" Jeonghan mumbled.

"Oh, oh thats okay too" Daena replied dejected.

"The managers moved my lessons back to my old teacher when you stopped coming by and I don't think they would be happy changing it again" Jeonghan explained.

"No, thats fine really, it will be good to see Hoshi, its been a long time"

Daena could heard the sound of Jeonghan cover the receiver again and then a muffled conversation.

After a moment Jeonghan spoke clearly again.

"You haven't seen everyone for a while, do you want to come to practice? You don't have to, I know it might be boring sitting there watching, it might be a long one as well" Jeonghan reeled off quickly.

Daena jumped at the opportunity to see all the members. "Yes, when?"

"Really you don't have to. I don't want you to be bored"

"No I want to, I'll bring something to do if I get bored. When?" Daena insisted.

"We are going to start at 2, so just before, you will have to be sworn to secrecy though it's new choreography for the new song" Jeonghan explained.

"That's even better" Daena exclaimed. "Can't wait, see you then"

"Okay, see you soon, love you" Jeonghan said excitedly before hanging up.

Daena stared at her phone in shock. Did Jeonghan just tell her he loved her for the first time.

She shook her head convinced she had misheard and went to go get ready.