“Ya! I never did anything to you!” TaeMin said. “Oh yes you did! You’re just like my oppa; annoying and arrogant to me!” AeLin said. “Well, at least I get to be someone whom I admire.” TaeMin said. “Admire? You really must have something wrong with your head.” AeLin said. “Why you. You’re really gonna get it.” TaeMin said. “Then give it to me.” AeLin replied. They stood up as TaeMin was about to chase AeLin when Onew came in their way.

            “Now calm down the two of you, come and help us prepare.” Onew said. “Yeah! Let’s at least lessen the work of noona.” JongHyun said. “De…hyung.” TaeMin said and just followed. “I’ll help!” AeLin said and went with them. Later on SaeKo came and they all prepared the food. Soon the table was now full of food and dishes. They all sat down and was ready to eat. “Where’s your manager?” SaeKo said. “He’s coming I guess. He was on an errand to pick some things for us.” MinHo said.

            “Before we start let’s thank God for this wonderful feast he gave us; for the successful debut of AeLin, and for the new friend You gave us.” Onew said. “Well then, let’s eat!” Key said. Soon after SHINee’s manager YiBum came but said he wouldn’t eat because he said he was full. After eating YiBum and SaeKo were called again to SME for an emergency meeting. “AeLin ah, clean up for me okay?” Saeko said as she and YiBum got out of the dorm. “De.” she replied.

            She got to the kitchen counters and then gathered up the dishes. “I’ll help.” MinHo said and went to her. While they were washing the dishes AeLin and MinHo talked a lot. “AeLin sure is talking a lot with MinHo.” JongHyun said. “To be honest, I’ve never seen MinHo talk a lot like that before; well, that is…until we got busy.” Key said. “Tch. AeLin is just pure annoying.” TaeMin said. “TaeMin ah.” Onew said. “Well, good news is that AeLin got closer with our maknae faster than we expected.” Key said.

            “What? We’re not close and we’re not even friends!!” TaeMin said. “I couldn’t agree more.” Then AeLin came with MinHo. They just finished with the dishes. “You’re oppa was right. We do resemble each other. And that one thing that we most resemble in is that we both realize how annoying you are.” TaeMin said. “Agreed as well, you two sure are airheads.” AeLin added then sat down with them.

            She gave out a sigh and spaced out. “You really care about your oppa don’t you?” Onew said. “My oppa? No way!” AeLin replied but still had that tired face on. “Oh really?” JongHyun said. “You know what AeLin, here in SME we are forced to live in dorms. There’s a reason for that. Do you know what it is?” Key said.  Then she remembered what her parents said to her before.

~Flashback~

“…Because of work the two of us won’t always be here. Your oppa is busy too. Who’ll take care of you then?” her umma said.

“…With you in SME at least you’ll be in a dorm with other people who can surely take care of you.” AeEul added. “AeLin, do you understand?”

~End of Flashback~

            “Key.” Onew said. “No I need to say this now. She’s still 14, and we’re here to help her.” Key said. TaeMin showed a rather surprised expression. “We also went through this phase when we first debuted. It was really hard on us, being away from our families. We won’t be able to see them often because of our schedules. But we had each other so at least we had someone to be with.” Key said. AeLin was looking at the floor. TaeMin was teary eyed. It seems like what Key was talking about is really getting to him.

            “They said that they put me here because no one would be able to take care of me at home. My oppa lives far away because of work, my umma and appa will be away in trips as well. They sent me here so that at least SM or JYP would be able to take care of me.” She answered. They were silenced and listened carefully. “I’ve thought about that ever since I moved here and came to think that maybe because I’m in SME I would at least be able to see appa. But even in my position now I won’t be able to see any of them.” She said and she got all teary eyed too. “AeLin.” Onew comforted her.

“No, I’m okay.” She said as she wiped the slowly forming tears in her eyes. “But as you said, I do have someone to be here with me, so, thank you for being here.” AeLin said and gave them a warm smile. “This girl is really…” TaeMin said as he looked at her seriously. “And because our managers aren’t here yet let’s play games!!” AeLin stood up and said. She went to her room to get some things. “TaeMin, sorry.” Key said and went to him. “It’s okay hyung. It’s just that memories came back when we debuted.” TaeMin said and wiped off his tears.

            “That girl…” MinHo said. “She sure is something.” He added. “To be honest, I think SM let us stay together with her for a certain reason. I can feel an adventure coming up.” JongHyun said and gave off a grin. AeLin came back with a couple of things that they used to play. They had fun that night despite the schedules they had the next day.

            The next day AeLin was woken up by SaeKo. She had a show to guest in with SHINee. “What kind of show is it unnie?” AeLin said as she got dressed up in the bathroom. “It’s a show called Pops in Seoul.” SaeKo, who was leaning against the bathroom door holding some of her clothes, answered. “Eh? I don’t know that show.” AeLin said as she opened the door. SaeKo fell back for a little but she took control of herself.

            “Ya don’t open the door like that.” SaeKo said who was kind of embarrassed. “Oh, mianhe yo.” AeLin said. “You’ll be having your make-up done soon. We’ll wait for SHINee’s van to arrive.” SaeKo said as she did some other things. Soon SHINee’s van arrived. “They’re here.” SaeKo said after peeking out the window. “Let’s go.” She added. The two of them went down and rode with the SHINee members. As they got in AeLin and MinHo who was sitting together went to talk about a lot of things again.

            “MinHo.” Key interrupted. “Hm?” he replied. “You’ve been talking a lot lately.” He said. “Huh?” MinHo replied. “Like I told you. AeLin is just being annoying again.” TaeMin said. “You!” AeLin replied. “Now now…” JongHyun said. “We’re here.” YiBum said. They got into the building and got ready before they started filming.

            Meanwhile, at the Sha household…

            “OkRyo!” AeEul called. “What is it?” OkHyun came out of their room with a messy hair. “OkRyo, are you going to be with AeLin today?” AeEul said. “Mianhe AeEul but no. I’ve been assigned to go with Super Junior this week.” OkRyo replied. “Oh is that so. I knew she should’ve been in JYPE.” AeEul said. “Oi oi, SME is equally good. She’ll be fine in SME even without us. JYPE’s training sessions are like hell. Remember 2PM and 2AM? When they went through Hot Blood? You were there too.” OkRyo said.

           “Putting our daughter into that kind of training, it’d be hard to watch.” He added. “OkRyo, it’s AeLin we’re talking about. She’s a red belter already. TaeKwonDo is as equally harsh as that training, but even so she’s a girl. I doubt she’ll be put in that kind of training.” AeEul said. “Okay now, stop arguing with me and go take a bath woman!” OkRyo said. “Aww come one. I’m just reliving the old times when we used to argue about a lot of silly stuff together.” AeEul said. “Yeah, I didn’t even expect that we’ll end up together.” OkRyo said. “Well, that’s how destiny runs.”

            “And I guess this ends this episode with the newly debuted Lin along with SHINee.” The VJ of Pops In Seoul, Isak, said. They were talking in English since it was an international channel that they were in. But of course they also spoke Korean for the sake of those that weren’t quite familiar of haven’t mastered English yet. “Lin ssi.” Isak said. “Sunabae, just call me AeLin, I’m more comfortable with that.” AeLin said. “Hm, you’re really cute.” Isak said. Isak was also under SM Entertainment and so they were label mates.

            “You’re really lucky and very talented! I just want to let  you know that in this journey of yours, a lot of people would be there to support you and you can bet that a girl who looks like me and talks like me would be one of them.” Isak added. AeLin just bowed in embarrassment. “SHINee hoobaes, take care of her okay?” Isak said. “De unnie.” They replied. Soon they went back to their dressing room and they started to prepare to leave. AeLin and MinHo were outside sitting on a bench on the hallway.

            They were apparently done with their things and were just waiting for the others to come out. It really took a long time for the other to finish so in no time they got bored. AeLin, to pass her time, kept on thinking of ways to entertain herself. She looked around and there were few people to begin with. After some silence between the two, AeLin goofed off to occupy her time. She started beat boxing. MinHo just looked at her without her noticing. Then she did some funny faces. It was clear that she was bored.

            “AeLin.” MinHo said. “Hm?” “Let’s do something.” “What is it?” AeLin replied. “Come on.” MinHo grabbed her hand as they went out of they stood up. As they were about to leave TaeMin got out of the room. He saw the two go off. “Hm? Where could they be going?” TaeMin thought. MinHo and AeLin went to a room close by the dressing room where it looked like an amphitheatre. “I’ve been to this set before. I found this area by accident.” MinHo said. Then they went backstage and saw a flight of stairs that were unnoticeable at first.

            “We’ll go up?” she said. “Yeah.” MinHo then got her and helped her up the stairs. They got into this area above the stage. It was like a terrace. Probably where staff do some works. You could see the whole set from above. “Woah, it looks so big from up here.” AeLin said as she went closer to the rails. “Be careful.” MinHo said as he looked at her. He watched her for a while. “I feel really easy when you’re around. What’s your purpose in my life?” he thought and then went to her.