Jonghyun could now class Onew as one of his closest friends. The two males now spent a lot of their spare time (as intermittent and rare as that was) together, they often just drove around in Jinki’s car, going to random places and exploring new areas of the city or they would relax at Jonghyun’s apartment, watching bad TV and sneakily breaking Onew’s strict diet.

The two friends had to be careful going out in public, which was why so much of their time was spent driving. Jinki, as much as he didn’t appear that way to Jonghyun any longer, was still famous and if he went outside undisguised things could become chaotic rapidly.

In fact, their earliest meeting had been at a coffee shop and that had not gone as smoothly as either male had hoped.

Jonghyun had been a nervous wreck. He had arrived at the small coffee shop approximately half an hour early and spent that time sitting awkwardly in one of the corner booths trying to ignore the glares the barista sent him whenever she looked up from her phone. He had informed the young woman that he was waiting for a friend to arrive and she had been amicable at first, informing him to order at the counter when his friend arrived. However, as time passed and Jinki still hadn’t arrived – for good reason as it was still too early – her expression had started to sour.

Jonghyun pointedly ignored this, looking around the small shop in interest. The two men had decided to come to this café in particular as it was out of the way of the main thoroughfare and therefore, less populated by people who may recognise the singer. The main clientele of this place appeared to be older people and business men who were all highly unlikely to be followers of popular idols and thus unlikely to recognise Onew.

Initially, Jonghyun had considered bringing his friend to the café he used to work at. However, it was too risky. That café was a popular meeting spot for high school students and there was always the risk of the boss’ daughter being there. She knew all about SHINee and he was certain she would not be quiet in the presence of an idol. She was still at that age where celebrities were gods and unfortunately, her volume control appeared to be permanently on loud when they were brought up in conversation.

Shifting in his seat, Jonghyun adjusted his position so he was facing the door more directly and could see everyone who entered the store. It was the middle of the day on a Saturday, so the business crowd was predictably thin. However, there were a fair few older women coming in for a coffee and a chat with their friends and a few older men who looked like they’d rather be anywhere but here, their wives smiling obliviously next to them. It was after the fourth group entered, and three had left with their take-away coffees, that Onew came through the door.

At least, Jonghyun assumed it was Onew. He couldn’t see any other reason why someone would be wearing a face mask, hat and sunglasses in the current weather. When the male headed towards his table, Jonghyun was certain. Standing up to greet him, Jonghyun shifted embarrassed on his feet, his fingers picking at the inside of his hoodie’s sleeves. Onew had instructed him to wear a hooded jacket today, for disguise purposes and Jonghyun was almost glad for the fabric covering his head. It gave him a little protection from his friend’s eyes even if it did make him feel like a bit of a for wearing it up inside.

Onew smiled widely at the blonde, only evidenced by the slight shifting of the mask around his mouth. Pulling it down he gestured to the counter, “Should we order?”

Jonghyun nodded, “The barista might kill me if we don’t.”

The idol laughed his loud, exuberant laugh, drawing the attention of the few other patrons in the café. None seemed to recognise the singer, even with the mask off although a few did send disapproving looks in their direction.

Chuckling himself, Jonghyun grabbed his friends arm and steered him to the counter. All his previous nervousness at meeting the idol again had faded. The second the singer had walked through the door it had felt as if he was in the presence of his texting buddy. The person he sent inane comments to when he couldn’t sleep, the one who sent him bad selcas when he was bored at work and the one who talked to him whenever he had free time. Strangely, he didn’t feel like the idol Onew at all. It was like Jiwoong had said (as much as Jonghyun was loath to admit his roommate was right), Jonghyun had made friends with Jinki; the real Jinki, not his polished, stage persona, Onew.

 “You’re a dork,” Jonghyun bemoaned, as they approached the counter, “now what do you want?”

Onew looked at the blonde in confusion, “Flat white…”

“A flat white and long black.” Jonghyun ordered, the woman behind the counter mumbling what sounded like a ‘finally’ under her breath as she accepted his payment and moved to make the drinks.

“I could’ve ordered?” Onew said, looking at the blonde as he followed him to the payment counter.

“Well, yes.” Jonghyun said, “I never doubted that. It’s just easier to do it in a single transaction.” Seeing Onew’s look, he clarified, “I always hated keying the drinks into the tills as separate orders, always took forever. So why not combine, since we’re here together?”

“I guess…” Onew said, still not looking convinced.

“Did I undermine your masculinity?” Jonghyun joked, teasing the singer like he would over text. It was still a little awkward in person but he was sure the idol would accept the teasing graciously and probably shoot back with his own response.

“Nope.” Onew retorted, popping the p obnoxiously, “I was merely allowing you to build some up. Heaven knows you need it.” The brunette looked his friend up and down in a pointed manner before raising one eyebrow.

“You calling me short?!” Jonghyun questioned, shocked and appalled. He couldn’t believe his friend had gone there. It wasn’t like mentioning his height was offensive to the composer, sure it had annoyed him in the past but he had grown to accept it. However, it just seemed like a cheap shot.

“Yep.” Onew smirked.

“You sir,” Jonghyun pouted, “appear to have run out of insults.”

“Or that one was just too easy.” Onew countered.

“My point exactly.” Jonghyun agreed, taking the drinks the barista was offering him with a muttered thanks and ignoring the pointed look she shot him as he walked away. She clearly still wasn’t impressed by him, even now he had purchased a drink.

Walking over to the table he had claimed earlier, the male sat himself down comfortably, sliding the other drink to the opposite side, where Onew was taking a seat. Jonghyun scanned the café once more, quickly observing everyone in there; he was amused to note that the surly barista had already returned to her phone. Otherwise the small place was mostly empty, only a single table was occupied with a pair of older women chatting over tea and biscuits and there was a lone man leaning against the wall, as if waiting for someone.

As Jonghyun was doing this, Onew was removing his disguise, just a little. The hood stayed up, a move he was sure would offend his mother horribly, but Jonghyun wasn’t one to talk, his hood was still firmly in place too. However, the sunglasses were removed and the mask was pushed further down around the singer’s neck. He still looked a little out of place in the small café, his oversized hoodie and comfortable jeans failing to completely hide the idol-ness that seemed to ooze off of him. However, he looked more ordinary than Jonghyun had ever seen him.

Sodam had looked at Jonghyun like he was insane when he had mentioned the aura idols seemed to have. She thought he was insane. To him, it made perfect sense. Somehow, even when in full disguise, with only slivers of skin showing, hundreds of fans were able to identify idols. There had to be something else that was tipping them off. He had mentioned it on the forums once and he and the other fans had come to a unanimous conclusion that it must be an aura. Not in the mystical, magical sense, but more in the sense that idols moved and just generally were in a different way to the average person. Those skills they were taught for public appearances, control yourself, don’t say too much, be the idol you are, seemed to blend into their daily life and made them stand out.

Jonghyun sipped his drink contentedly, placing it down quickly when he realised it was still slightly too hot. Looking at the singer sat opposite him. Looking at him now, as he cupped his warm drink in order to remove the coldness from his fingers, that idol aura was as present as always, if a little muted by the locale.

“How have you been? I haven’t talked to you in a few days.” The blonde asked, looking at his friend expectantly.

“Yeah,” Onew agreed, scrubbing a hand through his hair, under his hood, pulling a few strands in front of his eyes. “Things got busy. We have a performance next week, so intense practices.” He sighed, “This is my only day off.”

“And you chose to spend it with me?” Jonghyun asked, his tone joking. Internally, he was actually very happy. The fact that his friend considered him important enough to see on his only free time felt good.

“I missed talking to you.” Onew shrugged, “Our manager yells at me whenever I pull out my phone, so…” He shrugged apologetically.

“It’s cool,” Jonghyun said, “you’re busy, I get that. Not everyone can have no life like me.” The composer winked, taking a sip of his drink, which was still hot but wasn’t the coffee equivalent of lava any longer.

Onew actually snorted at that. “No life? You work as hard as I do. Who blew off who the other day?”

“Aww, come on.” Jonghyun whined, though he would deny to anyone that he ever let such a sound leave his mouth, “I had a deadline.”

Onew coughed obnoxiously, “Workaholic.”

Jonghyun mimicked him, exaggeratedly, “Arse.”

“I’m sure you love my arse.” The singer joked.

Jonghyun flushed instantly, looking down at the table, pink spreading rapidly across his face. “No.” He stuttered, totally unconvincingly, “No one could love that.”

The idol either didn’t realise the effect he had had on his friend or he chose to ignore it and sniffed in mock sadness, “Forever alone because no one likes my arse. It’s tragic.”

“Whatever, loser.” Jonghyun mocked, after mentally shaking himself out of his thoughts. They were heading into directions he didn’t want them to, especially in front of the man in queetion. “You’re just jealous you don’t look this good.” He gestured at himself, ending with a flourish.

Onew actually laughed, drawing an affronted look from his blonde friend who had chosen that moment to take a sip of his drink. Taking his chance, speaking before the blonde had fully swallowed, he mocked, “What, short?”

“Will you stop that?!” Jonghyun protested the insult. His bottom lip jutted out in a – totally manly – pout and placing his coffee cup in front of him. He leant forward across the table, leaning close to the singer’s face. He ignored the puff of air that hit his cheek as the male exhaled – he was so close – and spoke lowly “I know things about you, Lee Jinki. Things you don’t want brought up and I will not hesitate to humiliate you.” His piece said, he leant back in his seat, smiling triumphantly.

Hi smile faltered a little when the singer laughed loudly, drawing the attention of the ladies at table seven who merely huffed at their actions before turning back to their own conversation, “It’s so much more fun to talk in person than over text.” Onew laughed, brushing a tear of mirth from his eye. “I always imagined your reactions to what I say but this is so much better.”

“I prefer meeting in person too,” Jonghyun said, all previous annoyance, although it was mostly fabricated, forgotten.

Onew went to say something else however, what he wanted to say was cut off by a high pitched scream from outside. Looking up in shock, the singer cursed under his breath and grabbed his confused friend by the arm.

“What’s happening?” Jonghyun asked as he was dragged through the shop by Onew.

Onew didn’t answer as he was too busy pulling his mask back up and slotting his glasses back over his eyes. However, he didn’t really need to as the small crowd of teenage girls outside the window were pretty self-explanatory. Onew pushed open the café door and strode past the group, hoping against hope that they would be too nervous to approach him allowing him to just get out of there before more people turned up.

“Oppa,” He cursed mentally, before turning with a smile on his face, releasing Jonghyun’s arm as he did so. “Can you sign this?”

“Of course,” He smiled. However, Jonghyun could see that the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Jonghyun stood to one side, completely ignored by the crowd of girls, as Onew signed multiple autographs and posed for photos. Then, as soon as the last girl had had their photo taken he took his cue. Onew had been sending him looks that were clearly translates as SOS for the past five minutes and Jonghyun sort of understood why. In the SNS generation, these girls would have informed the world about Onew’s current whereabouts. In fact, the source of this crowd was likely due to the same reason. The barista had shot the pair some weird looks before returning to her phone and, in retrospect she was probably trying to identify Onew accurately around his disguise.

“I’m sorry ladies,” Jonghyun apologised, “We have an appointment now.”

The girls groaned in response and several pulled out their phones and started typing rapidly. Onew shot the blonde a thankful look as he gave one last girl his signature.

Bowing at the assembled crowd, the singer smiled a soft smile. “Thank you for supporting me,” he said, “and I hope you continue to support SHINee.”

This caused the gathered girls to erupt in a chorus of whispers and quiet squeals and one girl even appeared a little faint, clutching on to her friend happily. Onew grabbed Jonghyun’s arm and, under the guise of walking casually, steered the blonde away from the café and towards where the car was parked.

“There are more coming,” he hissed under his breath. “We need to get out of here before they arrive.”

Jonghyun nodded in agreement and the two began to walk faster down the road. They ignored the squealing crowd following them as they ducked into a side street and through a side entrance to a multi-story car park. Once out of sight of the girls, Onew grabbed Jonghyun’s hand and ran, full pelt towards his car.

Jonghyun allowed himself to be dragged along, feeling a little shocked at this turn of events and trying to control his feelings and his breathing simultaneously. He had not sprinted for a while and he clearly needed to focus on those muscles more when he worked out. Running like this was going to make him sore tomorrow.

Halting in front of the car, Onew directed Jonghyun to get in quickly with a hand gesture and hopped into the driver’s side himself. The car was already pulling away as Jonghyun closed the door and by the time he had gathered his wits enough to buckle his seat belt, the car was already out of the car park and heading down the road.

The blonde was glad the windows were tinted as they drove towards the group of girls. There were more now, than there had been initially. The new additions looked upset or angry and he was pretty sure the girl with the long pigtails had just stomped her foot like a child. Pulling down his hood for the first time that afternoon, Jonghyun turned to look at the group as they drove past, chuckling at their response to meeting an idol. He knew he couldn’t judge them for their reactions. His reactions to meeting his idols were equally as cringe worthy. However, it was an amusing sight from an observer’s point of view.

"Damn it,” Onew cursed ten minutes later as the car cruised down the road, “I didn’t get to finish my coffee.”

Jonghyun laughed, doubling over in his seat, one hand clutching the dashboard. “Next time we’ll go somewhere less public and you can have all the coffee you like.”

Onew smiled at him, looking away from the road momentarily, “Sounds good. Got anywhere in mind.”

Jonghyun faltered, he hadn’t really considered that. Thinking hard, he came up with an idea, though it might be ridiculous. “We could,” He said, looking at the singer from under his fringe, “my apartment is available. I’m sure Jiwoong won’t mind.”

“Jiwoong is the roommate, correct?” Onew asked, a strange note in his voice that Jonghyun wasn’t able to identify.

“Yep,” Jonghyun agreed, still a little nervous as the singer hadn’t yet agreed to his suggestion. “He’s not bad, except for all the paintbrushes he leaves around and he’s super loud when he actually manages to get a woman to meet him.” He spoke, rambling a little, a habit he had come to associate with his nerves.

Onew smiled, the previous strange tension seemingly dissipating a little for reasons Jonghyun couldn’t identify. “Your apartment sounds great,” turning from the road once more to shoot the composer a smile that made Jonghyun's stomach erupt in butterflies, “let’s do that next time.” 

The first visit to Jonghyun’s apartment had been a nightmare. Jonghyun had been twitchy and nervous all day; his nervous energy had even forced him into cleaning the apartment meticulously. The kitchen had never been cleaner but, annoyingly, that hadn’t helped his nerves at all. Luckily, Onew was able to read the situation and had acted in such a way that Jonghyun, over the course of the day had calmed down. Thankfully, as with the texting situation, Jonghyun had felt more at ease each subsequent visit and eventually the singer was almost at home in Jonghyun’s apartment as he was in his own dorm.

Jiwoong wasn’t impressed but he never openly told Jonghyun not to invite the male round. Jonghyun knew him having his friend round limited Jiwoong’s social interactions, as he couldn’t bring friends to the apartment without the obvious ‘what’s an idol doing here?’ questions coming up. However, the male seemed happy for Jonghyun and therefore, dealt with any annoyances he may have. In fact, much of the time, he just left the apartment for a few hours, giving Jonghyun and Jinki a little time to themselves to hang out and for that Jonghyun was thankful. Not that he’d tell his roommate that directly – he’d be mocked mercilessly if he did – but he showed his thanks in other ways. The blonde knew the artist had appreciated the new paintbrush set, even if he hadn’t said so, and he definitely enjoyed the food Jonghyun prepared on the days Jinki visited.

It wasn’t like the visits were too regular anyway. The idol was busy, as was Jonghyun, so their schedules were a little erratic. Usually they at least managed to meet up once a fortnight however, occasionally it was far more or less. They still kept up an almost continuous stream of texts even in the more sparse visiting periods. The only exception was when Onew went abroad for SHINee commitments.

 

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CHAPTER NOTES: 20 chapters. That's like a milestone or something.