Our Little Dorm Mother

Chapter 23- Missed Opportunity

The following few weeks had been hectic as the EXO members rehearsed tirelessly for the upcoming Gayo Daejun Concert. It was only a week away and even though D.O knew that he had learned the choreography and the lyrics by heart, he couldn't remove the anxiousness which swirled around in the pit of his gut. Why did he always have to get so nervous?

As he climbed down the stairs to fetch some water, late in the evening, he spotted that the light in the kitchen was on. From the bottom of the stairs, he could see someone busy working away as their casted shadow danced on the tiled floor of the common area. D.O took a peek from the edge of the door frame.

Inside he saw Nami, wearing her red apron, making some sort of snack with her deft fingers. Her face was screwed up in concentration with the tip of her tongue just barely visible from the corner of her mouth. D.O watched as she carefully sliced what looked like a sushi roll into equal pieces. She smiled at what she had accomplished.

"Why are you still up, Nami-ah?" D.O asked and Nami jumped.

"You scared me!" she shouted as she clutched her heart. "You need to stop doing that, D.O-ah. I could have dropped this knife!"

D.O gave her a weak smile as he apologised. He walked over to the workstation and found that Nami had made sushi as well as other snacks. He looked at her curiously. "What's with all the food?"

Nami replied shyly, "I wanted to surprise everyone by bringing snacks over tomorrow while you practised" she scratched her head, "but I guess you found out."

D.O smiled at her. Why was Nami always doing things that made his heart beat fast? He glanced at the food and saw that they were poorly done but was filled with thought. Nami saw his expression and quickly said, "I know they don't look good but I'm pretty sure they taste fine" she picked up a small piece of sushi with chopsticks and offered it to him, "do you want to try one?"

Nami hovered the sushi piece in front of D.O's face. It had a lot of rice and barely anything else. He knew that Nami wasn't good at cooking so if he ate this now, who knows what he'd be feeling the next day. But, with the image of Nami offering to feed him and her almond eyes shining, he couldn't refuse opening his mouth to take a bite. At least he would die a happy man.

D.O chewed on the sushi and forced himself to smile. "It's...good," he said forcibly.

Nami could tell that D.O was faking it. She set down her chopsticks and sighed. "I'm so hopeless, D.O-ah."

D.O quickly swallowed the sushi and replied, "You shouldn't get so down, I'm sure the members will appreciate your hard work into making these snacks for us."

"How can I serve this to them if it tastes bad?" she asked despondently.

D.O met her eyes and reassured her, "I can help you practise."

Nami's spirits lifted. "You would do that?"

D.O saw how Nami's eyes glittered with hope. If it's one way of getting close to you, I would do anything, he thought inwardly. "Of course."

Nami's mouth stretched into a smile that showed her dimples. D.O had to remind himself to breathe whenever she did that. "Thank you, D.O-ah! You're the best!" she cleared away the workstation so that she could start again.

D.O watched a happy Nami get back to work. He liked the way she was so cheerfully motivated and how she didn't hide her flaws. He had decided long ago that, even though she was a reporter, he would disregard that fact and accept her as herself. Surely, she wasn't faking her sincerity in making snacks for them? Why would she go through all the trouble of practising how to make sushi if she didn't care about them at all?