A New Start || Seventeen

Chapter 38

As the days got closer to Seventeen's comeback Daena saw and heard from Jeonghan less and less.

She had seen his schedule and it was absolutely packed with photoshoots and filming. But it hadn't worried her. She could see how much effort he was making to see her on the rare occasion he had any free time no matter how exhausted he was.

Jeonghan had confided in her about a week before the comeback that he had been secretly worried that this would be too much for her and push her away. Daena had reassured him that it would take a lot more than just him being busy with work for her to change her mind about him.

That was the strange thing about their short time together so far, Jeonghan often mentioned how difficult it was dating an idol and how he felt bad for not having time for her but she never felt that way. It was easy. Well easy might be too strong of a word. It had it moments and challenges but Daena still wouldn't change it for the world.

She still couldn't quite believe how thoughtful Jeonghan had been on her birthday. She couldn't have asked for a better present, a normal moment with him in a public place. As far as she knew had had kept his word and been careful with the picture he had taken and now he had plenty of others to accompany it, taking new ones at every opportunity.

Of course there were still moments where Daena would catch Joshua watching her and Jeonghan and she would be hit with a wave of guilt. She was starting to feel like maybe she had led him on but when she had mentioned it to him he had shut her down immediately. He reassured her at every opportunity that he was fine with this as long as she was happy.

Although she was pretty sure right now both Jeonghan and Joshua weren't exactly happy with her. In the weeks since her birthday and leading up to their comeback the pair of them had nagged her endlessly about how she needed to see Seventeen perform live and this comeback was the perfect opportunity. They had tried almost daily to persuade her to come to a recording for a music show even going as far as to get Hoshi involved in the nagging. But everytime they had brought it up Daena had shut it down.

The idea of going with them to one of the music shows terrified her. In front of all those people and their fans she knew she would likely make a mistake. It was too risky. The agency building was safe as it was all their own staff who would never say anything and couldn't even if they wanted to as they had likely all signed agreements.

So when they had suggested coming the idea had appealed to Daena until they mentioned the one rule of no touching in public. At that moment Daena knew she wouldn't be coming. But they hadn't dropped it and had insisted she could do it.

That was until yesterday when they had moaned that she had already missed two shows and should come to the next one and Daena had explained for what felt like the hundredth time that she knew she would make a mistake and they would have to deal with a scandal. During her explanation Jeonghan had slid an arm around her waist and pulled her against him tucking her into his side without much thought.

She had looked up at him and asked if he had noticed he had done that. The look of shock on his face when he had responded no would be something she may never forget and that had also been the end of their nagging. Jeonghan had agreed that it was so natural to him to reach for her that he also would probably forget and make a mistake. The compromise had been that the next time they did a tour Daena would come as it was a safer choice as the staff would be predominately their own.

So Daena had resorted to watching their music show performances from the comfort of her own home.

Which is exactly where she found herself now. Laying on the couch with her laptop balanced on her stomach she watched their most recent performance from earlier that day.