Eh Oh...Gecko

hope this makes up for the last chap!!!!

You pick yourself off the floor, wiping away your tears, the memory of that year still playing itself in your mind, but you knew you had to move on.

He must have thought I was so cruel, heartless. I hope he’s realized by now that it was all for the best. I hope he’s living a happy life now. Sang Hyun, you’ll still be my first love, I’ll never forget you.

“Never…”, you whisper aloud.

The last you had heard was that Sang Hyun had left Korea for the states to help his father expand his company. You hadn’t talked to him or seen him since the day you closed that door, which was for the better in a way. The temptation to try to make it work had been very strong and if you had given in to it, you knew you wouldn’t be as happy as you were now. You laugh slightly as you realize that neither of you had been able to accomplish your dreams, Sang Hyun had given up dancing, whereas here you tried desperately to still keep what you could of that dream alive.

Over the next month, you came to your studio everyday to dance and to look after it. Everyday when you closed up the studio for the day, you would see Taemin, but you brushed him off, ignoring his every attempt at conversation. You didn’t know his name and you didn’t want to, you wanted nothing to do with him.

A weekend not long after, you were sitting at home, watching the news as you ate your dinner, when a familiar face appeared on your screen. It was the face of that red haired man. You immediately sit up and wonder what he was doing on the TV and as the camera panned out, you could see that there were four other guys with him. They introduced themselves as SHINee and you gasped, suddenly realizing why you thought you knew who that mysterious man was. You run and grab the Hello album and you stare at the face of the brown haired man, realizing that yes indeed, the man who was constantly waiting for you was SHINee’s one and only dancing machine, Taemin.

You stare at the album in shock. What have I done? He was being sincere. I can’t believe myself. Sang Hyun had been right to say I was selfish. I never gave him a chance because he brought up too much pain, I brushed him off as casually as you would to lint that was on a sweater. I have to apologize. Oh this is going to be so hard, but what other choice do I have?

You went through the rest of the day in a daze and finally when the new day began, you walked out of your apartment, so nervous at what you were going to do when you saw him that it took you a good 5 minutes just to lock the door. You slowly made your way to Moving To The Rhythm, happy that you would at least have about another 8 hours before you faced him, but when you finally got to your studio, you stopped some distance away because there, in front of your eyes was Taemin, leaning against the window waiting for you.

Great. The one day I need time, he’s here early. You let out a sigh. Just my luck. Well, I might as well get it over with.

You began walking again, your steps very small and slow, and as if you had called out his name, he turned his head and saw you, immediately lifting himself away from the window. In no time it seemed, you were finally standing in front of him and instead of just going in as you would have done, you just look at him before giving him a bow.

“I’m sorry for my behaviour. I didn’t know you were being sincere when you said that you wanted to dance with me, I thought you were just trying to rub in the fact that I could no longer dance. I’m sorry for misunderstanding you.” Your eyes trained at the ground, you add, “Please forgive me.”

“Why are you apologizing? I understand how you feel, I might have done the same if I were in your shoes. I knew in time you would finally give up and talk to me.” He laughed slightly and when you lifted your eyes, you saw the compassion in his, realizing that it had always been there, but you had never bothered to care before.

You blush with embarrassment, “Still, it would make me feel much better if you accept my apology.”

He nodded and said, “If it’ll make you comfortable sure.” He smiled a bit and then asked, “But why the sudden change?”

Before answering, you walked past him and opened up the studio, holding the door so that Taemin could step inside too. You led him to your office and offered him a seat.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“No, I’m fine for now, but I would like to know why the change of heart”, he pressed.

“I saw you on the news last night”, you mumble, “I knew that Taemin was a really good dancer, but I didn’t know it was you until yesterday, which was when I realized that you hadn’t been making fun of me.”

“If experience has made you assume that without an explanation, the I feel sorry for you. You must have experienced a lot of pain, no wonder you tried to protect yourself.” He smiled sympathetically.

How can he be so kind to me despite how badly I misbehaved with him? It’s like he has a truly pure soul.

He continued, “If you don’t mind me asking, will you tell me what happened exactly and how you came to this position? I don’t know the specifics of what happened to you, but I feel like if I don’t know…I don’t know how to explain this urge.”

You look at him for awhile, eyes wide realizing that he was asking you to bare your heart and leave it vulnerable for him, but then you look at his eyes and realize that he was incapable of hurting you. So you nod and begin your story, starting from that day and continuing until you reached to present day.

“So you see, I couldn’t give up dancing. If I couldn’t live my dream, I thought why not help others attain it and that’s how I decided to open up this studio.”

All Taemin did, when you finally ended, was nod. He had a look of extreme concentration on his face as he absorbed everything that you had just told him. His eyebrows were pushed together slightly causing a small crease to form between them.

He looks so cute like that. Wait, what? Cute? You shake your head slightly. What am I doing? No, get yourself together, you can’t afford another heartbreak. Your eyes widen at this. What heartbreak? I don’t like him, what am I talking about? I strip myself of all the barriers around me and all of a sudden I start thinking about loving someone else? Good thing I haven’t done it before then….

“Why’d you name the studio Moving To The Rhythm? It’s a bit long for a name don’t you think?”

“Oh, well because when you dance you move to the rhythm of the song. It’s as simple as that.”

“I don’t think so, I think there’s another reason you named it this, but I can’t figure out what it is.” He pressed.

You sigh. “You’re right. I named it because for me, life is like a song, and just like the rhythm does in a song, life goes up and down and changes in a beat. I guess life is like dancing, you have to move to its rhythm if you want to be happy, if you try to do your own thing, disaster occurs.”

Once again, you manage to reveal something you’ve kept secret to him. What is he doing to me? Why am I suddenly telling him everything?

You just look at each other in silence, not awkward, but not totally comfortable, when all of a sudden, a ring breaks through it.

“I’m sorry”, Taemin says as he looks down at the ID, “I’ve got to take this. Please excuse me.”

He walked out the room and the moment he disappeared from your line of sight, you slump into your chair. You shake your head, nothing was making sense to you at this moment. When you hear his footsteps near, you quickly sit up.

He walked into the room, but rather than sitting down again, he gave you a bow. “I’m sorry to leave so suddenly, but I forgot I had a schedule today.” He looked up and gave a crooked smile. “Maybe we can continue this later today?”

You nod and he leaves the room, only to return the next second. “Sorry, but I didn’t get your name. Mine’s Taemin.”

You smile, “Yeah, I already know.” You both laugh awkwardly at that. “My name’s ____.”

He gives you a smile before turning and leaving again.

The rest of the day you remain in your office, going over the whole meeting over and over again, trying to figure out why all you could see was his smile as he left. Soon it was night and Taemin still hadn’t come back. You decide to leave, shrugging it off saying that he’ll be back tomorrow. You leave the studio and were locking the door when you hear your name. Startled, you turn and you see Taemin stepping out of a car and running toward you.

“Sorry for making you wait! The interview lasted longer than we thought.” He panted as he grabbed his knees trying to catch his breath.

Not wanting him to have the power of knowledge that you had indeed waited for him, you casually shrug your shoulders and say, “Oh don’t worry. I just had some extra stuff to do that’s why I’m late in closing up. I actually totally forgot you were supposed to drop by again.” You cross your fingers hoping that he wouldn’t call you out on your lie and thankfully he didn’t, but did you see hurt flash in his eyes?

I’m dreaming. Why would he be hurt by that. I am dreaming right?

“Oh, I see. Well, maybe we’ll talk tomorrow then.”

He turned to leave, but all of a sudden, you didn’t want him to go. “Well, you’re already here, we might as well talk. My apartment’s not that far from here if you want to continue.”

He looked up, his eyes dancing with delight, but there you go again, making things up.

Stop ____! You’re going to drive yourself crazy!

Taemin’s POV

The entire day all he could think about was your story and the pain he felt when he heard you talk about it. And the jealousy he felt when you talked about Sang Hyun. He had an urge to yell at you to stop talking about him, but he knew that it was rude, and because there was no reason for her to stop, was there? He remained distracted during the day and on various occasions, his hyung’s had to shake him to make him pay attention.

“Pay attention Taeminnie!” Onew hissed at him softly. “The reporter’s going to wonder why you’re acting so strange.”

When he finally finished his schedule, realizing how late it was and wanting to catch you before you left the studio, he asked his manager hyung to quickly bring him to the studio. On the way there, his heart began to beat faster with excitement at seeing you. He was also strangely happily at your opening up to him, even though there was nothing happy about what you went through.

Why am I feeling these things? I can’t make sense of this.

“Hyung?” He asks.

“Hmm Taemin?” The manager asks, distracted a bit as he tried to focus on his driving.

“What does it mean when your heart beats faster at the thought of seeing someone?” He pauses slightly before continuing, “And why is it that you can feel happy at someone telling you their story even though there is nothing to be happy about? Oh, and you can’t stop thinking about this person either, though you have no relation to them. What is this feeling?”

His manager just laughs and shakes his head, before sighing and saying, “It’s called love Taeminnie. Aigoo, our innocent little maknae.” He laughs again, “Not even knowing what love is.”

Love? How is that possible? I just got to know her today. Then he thinks about the last month and how he still waited for you everyday, knowing that you were most likely going to just ignore him. Why was I so determined to get her to talk to me? Is it love… As he puts the evidence together, his heart drops a little. I am in love. I’m in love with a girl who is still in love with her ex. What have I done?