"So you're saying that this girl in the photograph isn't your girlfriend?" the interviewer asked.

"That's correct" Chanyeol replied.

The interviewer and the rest of the EXO members gaped behind them where a large plasma screen had a photograph of Chanyeol and Suji in an embrace. They were at the talk show and, like most of the EXO members anticipated, the interviewer had asked about what happened yesterday. Chanyeol and Suji's scandal had spread like wildfire overnight.

"The fans say that the girl in this picture might be someone at SM Entertainment" the interviewer stated as he read off his cue cards. "Other fans say that she might be Lee Sooman's daughter, Lee Suji."

Chanyeol fought to keep his poker face on. "That's right, the woman in that picture is Lee Suji."

Suho glared at him. Chanyeol saw Suho and read his expression: What are you saying, Chanyeol?

He stared back at him: Trust me, he said with his eyes. "I had met coincidentally with Suji-ssi while I was, erm, running some errands." Again, Chanyeol mentally kicked himself for the lame excuse. "And I ran into some fans who recognised me. There was a large crowd of fans and I was afraid that Suji-ssi might get hurt so, I drew her closer to me. But the fans misinterpreted my intention. It's all just a big misunderstanding."

The interviewer nodded accordingly.

"Chanyeol is a very caring person" Suho interjected. "He's not the type to turn his back when someone is in trouble."

"That's true," Chen affirmed, backing Suho up. "He's always trying to help others even when we're practising or when we're struggling with something."

Chanyeol listened as the EXO members tried their best to reinforce Chanyeol's fabricated story. They needed to convince the media that Chanyeol was not in any relationship at all, especially not with Lee Suji. That would overcomplicate things not only for Chanyeol and his relationship with SM Entertainment but, for the rest of the EXO members too.

"Well, now that's been sorted out," said the interviewer as he moved on to the next topic, "can you tell us more about the concept of your new song? In particular, the fans would love to know more about your promotional material that has been recently released on social media." The interviewer navigated the plasma screen TV behind them to show photos from their photo shoot a few days back.

The EXO members were surprised to see how well they had turned out. The photos were on a slide show which showed each of their individual photos with Nami.

"It was quite the provocative shoot," the interviewer mentioned. "And there has been quite a stir amongst the fans. They'd love to know who the female model is."

The EXO members exchanged looks with each other. Suho answered, "I apologise but, we aren't allowed to disclose information on the model."

"Oh? And why not?" asked the interviewer curiously.

"We have to respect her privacy as she would like to keep her identity anonymous."

The interviewer was surprised, "Anonymous? That's quite a strange thing to say for a model. Surely if she modelled with worldwide stars like yourselves, she would like to be well-known?"

Suho rubbed his neck nervously. "That may be the case but, I guess she wants to stay in keeping with our concept."

"And what would that be?" the interviewer enquired.

"It's temptation," Xiumin replied. The interviewer turned to him. "Temptation can come in all forms: it's anonymous. That's why the model wears a black mask."

The interviewer turned around and watched as different photos of Nami appeared. In every single one of them, she was indeed wearing a mask. "How fascinating!" the interviewer exclaimed. "So you mean to say that the model wore a mask the whole time you were with her?"

The EXO members nodded.

"So you never even got to see what she looked like?" the interviewer pried.

Chen replied, "No. She was insistent that she keep her identity a secret."

"How peculiar! She must be quite the mystery woman, then."

The EXO members exchanged looks. Kai and Sehun sniggered under their breath.

"Speaking of mystery women, I guess we've come to the point in the show where we ask the EXO members about their ideal woman," announced the interviewer to the camera. "Let's start with you, Suho-ssi..."

Like the EXO members had practised, each EXO member gave an account of what they found attractive in a woman. Almost everyone's answer was identical to the one they had given to Nami when they practised before. All but, one of them. When it was Chanyeol's turn, Xiumin noticed that his answer had slightly changed.

"Physical looks don't really matter to me," Chanyeol responded, "what I like most in a woman is her unpredictability."

The interviewer was intrigued. "Unpredictability? Chanyeol-ssi, do you like girls who are exciting?"

Chanyeol smiled. "Yes, I like girls who will make every day interesting for me."

As the interviewer rounded off the show, Xiumin stared at Chanyeol from afar. There was something about Chanyeol's answer which irked him. Something about Chanyeol had changed but, he couldn't put his finger on it. And he was unsure of whether he should trust what his instincts were trying to tell him.

~*~

After visiting Baekhyun, the love doctor, in his room, D.O contemplated on what he could do to make Nami look his way. Do something rather than say something that would let her know that you care... Baekhyun's words echoed in his mind. But D.O didn't know what exactly that 'something' is.

He sighed as he paced around the living room, doing some light tidying, after a messy Baekhyun. As he picked up his snotty tissues with a gloved hand and a bin bag in the other, D.O spotted Nami's broken phone, lying forsaken, on top of the coffee table. He stopped what he was doing.

He remembered glancing over it last night and must have forgotten to give it back to her. D.O took off his rubber gloves and inspected Nami's phone once more. There was a crack on the screen and when he tried turning it on, the screen remained black. "She must have been devastated when this broke," he thought to himself. He remembered how she had fought to get her phone back from Chanyeol a while ago, and how she had floored him to do so. "It must be very important to her."

Suddenly, D.O had a eureka moment: do something rather than say something that would let her know that you care. He glanced down at the phone and knew what he had to do.

~*~

"Nami-ah! You shouldn't be up there!" D.O rushed to Nami's side to help her down the stool she was standing on. He had just returned from outdoors. "What were you trying to do? You could have fallen!"

"I was just trying to reach the pasta" she replied innocently. She held onto D.O's hand for support as she hopped off the stool. "You needn't worry, I was being careful."

D.O pouted, "That doesn't matter! Why were you trying to get the pasta in the first place?" He peered at the work surface next to them and saw that there was also a bottle of ready-made bolognese. "Are you trying to make spaghetti?"

Nami nodded. "I just felt like having some today."

D.O sighed. "Well if you are going to cook spaghetti, I might as well help you."

"Will you really?" D.O watched as Nami's face lit up and his heart stirred. Her smile always made him feel tingly inside.

"Y-yeah" he replied as he started taking out the necessary ingredients. "But why do you have a sudden craving for spaghetti?" he asked, trying to make small talk with her.

Nami helped him by preparing the hot water. "It's because I usually eat that or Japanese food during special occasions."

Special occasions? thought D.O to himself. "Oh? And what's the occasion?"

Nami replied casually, "It's my birthday today."

D.O stopped what he was doing and turned to face her. His eyes were as wide as saucers. "What? Today's your birthday?"

Nami smirked at D.O's reaction. "Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell us? We would have prepared something!" he felt a whirlwind of emotions.

Nami shrugged. "I guess after all the commotion yesterday, it just slipped my mind." She smiled at him, "But it's not a big deal. I don't normally do anything special on my birthday. I usually just celebrate by eating food."

D.O watched as Nami looked down as she put the pasta into the pot to boil. Somehow, she looked a little sad.

"Well, we can't let this day pass by without doing anything special," he told her firmly. Nami gazed up at him and he added, "we'll have a mini-celebration--here--in the dorm."

"D.O-ah, you really don't have to--"

But before Nami could finish what she was saying, D.O had run out of the kitchen. "Baekhyun-ah!" she heard him shout from the bottom of the stairs, "can you come down for a sec?"

Moments later, Nami heard the thumping of Baekhyun's feet as he climbed down the stairs with a heavy step. "What's up?" he asked, sleepily. He was rubbing his eye as he yawned.

"Today's Nami-ah's birthday."

Baekhyun's drowsiness disappeared instantly. "What? Today?"

"I need you to go and buy a cake and tell the others. We'll have a small party today!"

Baekhyun nodded. "I'll get on it."

"Guys," Nami called out to them from the kitchen entrance, "you don't have to trouble yourselves."

But as she said this, D.O and Baekhyun exchanged looks and grinned at her.

"We're not troubling ourselves," D.O told her.

"It's what we do for every member" Baekhyun added.

Nami was still unsure. "But I'm not a member."

"Yes, you are" Baekhyun replied.

D.O smiled at her warmly. "You're an EXO family member."

~*~

When Chanyeol and the rest of the EXO members arrived at the dorm, they all saw that the common area had undergone a small but, noticeable transformation.

"Wow! Someone bought balloons!" Kai said in awe, as he walked in. He sniffed the air, "And I smell chicken too!"

"Hold your horses, Kai" Suho ordered, "we should all greet the birthday girl first."

"There you are!" Baekhyun said as the rest of the EXO members joined them on the dining table. "We were starting to wonder whether to start eating without you."

"Not if I can help it!" Kai replied as he eyed the fried chicken hungrily.

"Happy birthday, Nami-ah" Xiumin greeted her as soon as he came in. "I wish you had told us sooner so that we had time to prepare something for you."

"Yeah" Sehun agreed, "three hours' notice isn't enough for a party."

As the rest of the EXO members sat down in their seats, they all took in turns to greet Nami happy birthday. Nami beamed at them all.

"Did you prepare the food yourself?" asked Chen nervously. Everyone gulped as they waited for Nami's answer.

"D.O-ah helped me cook the spaghetti" she replied, oblivious to everyone's worries.

"It's safe to eat" D.O mouthed when Nami wasn't looking.

The EXO members breathed a sigh of relief.

After they had finished their meal, Suho started the gift exchange by handing Nami his present. Nami opened it eagerly.

"We didn't have much time to buy anything expensive but I hope you'll find it useful," he said as Nami took out a thick book that resembled a manual. "It's an adult colouring book. The felt-tip pens are inside" he added, pointing to a small selection of colouring pens.

Nami chuckled, "Thank you, Suho-oppa."

"Why would you buy her a colouring book?" Chen asked Suho curiously. "I know Nami-ah's the youngest out of all of us but, she isn't a kid."

Suho glared at Chen. "I heard it's good for relieving stress."

"Maybe you should have bought one for yourself" muttered Chanyeol under his breath.

"Yah!" Suho called out to Chanyeol, "I heard that!"

"Open ours next, Little Umma" Kai and Sehun said in unison. They gave her a paper bag that was stapled at the top. She opened it carefully.

"'Happy birthday, Little Umma'" Nami read out the small card inside, "'we didn't want to burden you by the price so, we bought you things that you'll feel comfortable with.'" Nami peered into the bag and pulled out a packet of cotton earbuds; pink washing-up gloves and something else that made her blush. Nami looked at the pair who were sniggering at her.

"Seriously?" she said, her eyebrow raised.

"What else did they get you?" Baekhyun asked. Everyone else was just as interested.

Nami exhaled as she revealed a packet of sanitary pads. The maknaes exploded with laughter as everyone else averted their gaze.

"Yah, why the hell would you buy her that as a present?" asked Suho, his cheeks turning pink.

"Why not? It's not like she doesn't need them" Kai replied with a smile.

"And it's the extra absorbent kind too" Sehun giggled, "with wings."

"You just did the same thing to Nami-ah as you did on my birthday!" Chanyeol complained.

"Nah-uh" Kai grunted, "we spent more this time."

"Yeah, at least five-thousand won more" Sehun added.

"Let's just move on from this" Suho said wearily, "who's next?"

Xiumin came forward. "I also bought a joint present with Chen and Baekhyun" he offered a neatly wrapped parcel. Nami took it from him thankfully. It was the most neatly wrapped gift she had ever seen. She opened it carefully and saw three hair scrunchies inside.

"We all bought one for you" Xiumin explained as she inspected them. He picked up the plain red one, "this is the one I chose."

"Mine is the green one," Chen said, pointing to the one to her right.

"So mine's the blue one?" Baekhyun asked.

Nami picked up each and every one of them. They were made of the softest material-- almost like chiffon. "They're really pretty," she said, trying their elasticity with her hand.

"It's meant to represent our CBX album colours" Chen informed her.

Nami chuckled, "I see." She pulled out the hair tie she had on so that her long hair fell to her shoulders. "I'll wear one of them now." She picked Xiumin's red scrunchie and proceeded to tie her hair with it. "How does it look?" she asked, once she had finished putting her hair into a ponytail.

Xiumin smiled. "It suits you."

Nami blushed.

"What did you get Little Umma, Chanyeol-ah?" Baekhyun asked.

Chanyeol shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. After seeing what Xiumin had bought her, he suddenly felt insecure about his gift. He hadn't really given it much thought since they didn't have time to go to the department stores. How he wished that he had gone with something better. Chanyeol revealed what he had been holding under the table. It was a small bottle of their favourite vitamin drink.

"I got you this because you were sick yesterday" he addressed Nami as he pushed the vitamin drink across the table so that it could reach her.

Nami observed Chanyeol's humble present. It wasn't extravagant but, it was thoughtful. She gave him a small smile. "Thanks, Chanyeol. I'll drink it after we have cake."

Chanyeol returned her smile. At least Nami wasn't disappointed with it.

"So the last one is D.O-hyung" Sehun declared as everyone turned towards D.O.

Baekhyun spoke up for him, "D.O-ah doesn't have a present because he was at the house all day preparing the food."

Suho responded, "Oh, then in that case--"

"No. I have something for Nami-ah" D.O interrupted Suho. He walked over to her as he pulled out something from his pocket. "I wanted to get you something that you can use every day" he grinned as Nami opened the hastily wrapped present.

She gasped when she saw what it was.

Inside, was her phone with its screen repaired. There was even a new glass protector on top of it. D.O smiled proudly as he said, "I even did the glass screen protector myself."

The EXO members gathered around Nami as they observed D.O's handy-work.

"It looks like brand new!" Nami exclaimed happily as she inspected her phone. "Thank you, D.O-ah!"

"Trust D.O-ah to come up with something like that!" exclaimed Kai.

"You should really start charging for this service, D.O-ah. You can make loads of money from this" Chen muttered, as he observed how the glass protector was smoothly put on.

Nami pressed the power button and was delighted to see her phone come to life. "It's so good to finally have my phone back!"

"Now that your phone is repaired," Suho addressed her, "we should probably start by exchanging numbers."

"That's true! Last time we couldn't contact you because we didn't have your number" Sehun chipped in.

While the EXO members exchanged numbers with Nami, Chanyeol frowned. He knew that he didn't put as much effort and thought into Nami's gift like D.O had but, he couldn't help feeling his gift was the most lacking. Even Suho's gift was slightly better. Once Nami drinks up the vitamin drink, she'll throw away the bottle and that's the end of it. He wanted to give her something to remember him by. After all, he knew that Nami was only going to stay with them for a year so, this birthday celebration will be the first and last. He got up and slipped out of the dining table unnoticed.

"What's this?" Xiumin asked as he pointed to an application on Nami's phone. He had been typing his phone number when he had accidentally closed the window.

"Ah, that's the Find My Phone App" Nami explained. "It helps you track your phone when it goes missing."

Xiumin sounded impressed, "So does it track your phone using GPS?"

Nami nodded. "I think so. But apparently, you can link it to another phone or electronic device so that you can track its whereabouts. I'm not really sure how it works."

Xiumin nodded. "I think I might download it too."

Once the EXO members had finally finished exchanging numbers with Nami, Baekhyun came in with the cake. It was a chocolate gateau. On top, he had placed a single lit candle that flickered as he set it in front of Nami.

"Let's sing the birthday song!" he announced.

All EXO members engaged in sing-song as they sang to Nami 'Happy Birthday' in Korean. Nami couldn't stop smiling as, even though it was just a simple song, EXO had harmonised it beautifully. And why wouldn't they? They were all singers, after all.

"Make a wish!" urged Xiumin.

Nami closed her eyes as she made her wish. Once she was done, she blew the candle out and the EXO members cheered and clapped.

"What did you wish for, Little Umma?" Kai asked curiously.

Nami tapped the side of her nose. "It's a secret."

As D.O helped Nami divide the cake equally with a knife, Sehun suddenly asked, "Yah, where's Chanyeol-hyung?"

The others looked around and noticed that Chanyeol was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe he went to the bathroom?" Chen suggested.

Baekhyun chuckled devilishly, "Maybe he's doing a number two."

Baekhyun felt a slap on the back of his head as Chanyeol appeared with his acoustic guitar. "Pabo, Baekhyun-ah. I wasn't doing a number two!"

"Aish! That hurt!" he moaned as he rubbed the back of his head gingerly.

Nami eyed Chanyeol expectantly, "Why do you have your guitar with you?"

"You missed the birthday song already, hyung," Sehun told him as he took a bite of his cake.

Chanyeol sat down comfortably as he got ready to play. "I'm not going to play the birthday song," he told Sehun. He looked up at Nami, "I want to give you the second part of my birthday present."

"You're gonna play a song?" Suho asked.

Chanyeol nodded, "It's a little rough around the edges since I didn't have much time to learn it but," he looked up at Nami, "I hope you like it."

"This ought to be good!" Chen mused.

Nami turned around attentively. What could this song be? she wondered. Was it one of BTS' songs?

Chanyeol propped up his guitar and started strumming the strings. Nami listened carefully as Chanyeol picked the strings to play a harmonious melody that strangely enough, sounded very familiar to her. She had heard this song on Spotify many times before. And as soon as Chanyeol started the first verse, she immediately recognised what song it was.

It was 'Perfect' by Ed Sheeran.

Nami was mesmerised as Chanyeol continued to strum the strings to the song, even singing the lyrics in English. The EXO members were surprised to hear Chanyeol suddenly speaking a different language. Nami watched as Chanyeol had his brows furrowed as he concentrated hard on both playing and singing at the same time. She was in awe of his skill and his talent and she couldn't help smiling at his cute accent.

Something in Nami's heart fluttered at the sound of Chanyeol singing her favourite song. And unperceived by the rest of the EXO members, something between Chanyeol and Nami transpired. It was like a secret that they both shared; a message from him to her that both of them couldn't say in words but instead, expressed through song. It was their song. His secret serenade to her.

When Chanyeol finished, everyone applauded him. Nami, most of all.

"That was amazing, Chanyeol-ah!" Baekhyun complimented. "But why did you sing in English?"

Chanyeol met eyes with Nami briefly, "I just felt like it" he replied casually. Nami tried her best to hide her smile.

"I've never heard that song before" D.O mentioned. "Was it one of John Legend's?"

Chanyeol shook his head. "Er, no. It was someone else."

"You guys should do a duet next time" Xiumin suggested to both D.O and Chanyeol.

Chanyeol smiled. "Maybe we should. One day." He looked at Nami, "What did you think, Nami-ah?" he asked, looking at her expectantly, "did you like it?"

Nami smiled. He already knew the answer without asking.

"I did," she said simply.

But her words conveyed more meaning to him than he originally anticipated.

~*~

Author's Note:

Hi reader! Thanks for reading chapter 21 of Our Little Dorm Mother.

So... yeah, I couldn't help adding Ed Sheeran into this story. I'm a massive fan of his and 'Perfect' is one of my favourite songs :)

If only Chanyeol would sing one of his songs! I would be sooo happy!

But anyway, what did you all think of this chapter? Do you think there's a chance that Mirei might be falling for Chanyeol? Or will Chanyeol be the one to fall for her first?

Stick around to find out what happens next. Hehe, I'm so excited for what's coming up next!

Make sure to vote, comment and share. A little bit of love goes a long way~

So, next time...