12

THE TWINS HOUSE

 

After crying almost 15 minutes, and Hyori unnie kept telling me to tell Jonghyun the truth, she finally snapped and gushes about being late and we’d dressed in a hurry.

(What were you guys have been doing since half an hour ago?” Leena nags as I put my blushes on)

Right after I put my lip gloss on and was checking myself on the mirror, I heard Onew shouts to the whole house, “WHO’S READY TO EAT?!”

“Louder Onew... Jamaica didn’t hear you...” I said sarcastically as I walked down the stairs.

“Omma! Appa! We’re leaving!” Leena shouts.

“Okay! Have a good time!” Omma shouts back.

“Like you never shouts in front of my house before...” Onew said, raising his eyebrow as Leena close the door.

“When did I ever?” I asked.

“Um... Onew oppa? That was me...” Leena said as we’re walking toward him and the car.

Whoa...

A BMW and well... I don’t know exactly what kind of another car it is but Taemin is in it, tuning in his choice of station radio.

“Ah... Jinjja?” Onew said blurly.

“Hey guys...” Key suddenly called. “Let’s just eat here...”

“Why do want to eat here?” Hyori unnie asked.

Key was leaning against the unknown car.

Jonghyun and Minho both were in the BMW.

Jonghyun is the one at the driver’s seat.

Guess he’ll be the driver tonight.

“Because we’re already late anyway...” Key told us before opening the unknown car door and stepped on it.

“You get it?” Leena whispered to me.

“No... You?” I asked.

“Not at all...” she answered as she walked toward the BMW.

“What type of car is that, anyway?” I asked out of curiosity.

“What? This?” Onew said, his left foot was already in the car.

I nod once.

“This is Camry...” Onew smiled.

“I don’t wanna know more...” I said, walked toward the BMW.

 

THE DINING

 

When we arrived, after checking the menu and all, it is ALL chicken.

Chicken!

“CHICKEN AGAIN?!” all except Onew shouts.

“Yup,” Onew said, with a big fat smile on his face.

“Don’t you ever get tired of chicken already?” Leena complained.

Minho, Key and Jonghyun all look at him with disbelief.

Taemin was popping like he has no interest whatsoever.

“Didn’t we eat chicken like, JUST NOW?!” Hyori unnie told her boyfriend.

“Hey Onew, have you ever heard the word ‘MEAT’ or ‘BEEF’ before?” I asked sarcastically.

“Nope... I would never get tired with chicken. Hyori... That was in the afternoon. This is night... Luvly, I’ve heard that... ‘Thank you’ for asking. But people... This is chicken!” he whines.

“That’s it... Who wanna eat somewhere else?” Jonghyun asked.

All except Onew raised their hands.

Minho and Key actually raised BOTH of their hands.

“Ahhhhhhhh...” he whines again.

“Majority rules... Let’s move, move, move!” Taemin said excitedly at the thought of meat.

In the end, Onew followed us with a gloomy face.

After about 5 minutes of walking, we’ve found a spot to eat both meat and chicken.

(“Yay! There’s chicken!” Onew said excitedly)

We went inside hurriedly to avoid the cold.

The waitress led us to the table near the kitchen so that we can see they cooked for us.

Jonghyun, Key, Taemin and I sat in one row while Leena, Minho, Hyori unnie and Onew in another row in front of us.

While we’re waiting to be served, Jonghyun suddenly said, “Someone is being extremely happy...”

I looked at Minho and Leena who were all over each other before Minho glared at Jonghyun and said, “You’re just being jealous.”

“Why would I want to be jealous if the person that I love is sitting right next to me?” Jonghyun asked, his arm resting on my shoulders.

I can sense Taemin’s faces changes.

He was sitting at my left side.

“You know what I mean... Heechul and Yesung were checking Luvly out...” Minho told him.

Leena chuckled a little at Minho words.

Key laughed all of a sudden.

Hyori unnie grinned at Jonghyun expressions.

Onew was still checking the menu, in case if there are other chicken dishes that he didn’t notice.

“Well, they can roth in hell,” Jonghyun replied, kissing my forehead.

I smiled at his action, grateful that someone like him is in my life.

“What is so funny?” Minho asked Key who was laughing endlessly.

“It just that it reminded me of this afternoon,” Key replied, still laughing.

All of sudden, all except Leena, Hyori unnie and me laugh along with Key.

Hyori unnie and Leena looked bewildered.

“What is so funny?!” I asked.

“Well, you three were at front. It was before Onew and Yesung hyungs turn,” Key explained, trying hard to keep a straight face. “Yesung hyung was provoking Heechul hyung-”

“Like this,” Minho interrupted. “Jonghyun hyung, provoke me...”

“Okay... Ehem... Ehem...” Jonghyun cleared his throat. “You do know that Luvly is straight right? She doesn’t like someone who is the same as her,” Jonghun said, imitating Yesung.

“I do know that... Thank you for ‘asking’... And you do know that she doesn’t like someone who is a freak?” Minho said, imitating gentle side of Heechul.

“What do you mean by freak?!” Jjong said, pretending to be angry.

“You know... I mean, you like to smell people scent. In other word, a FREAK...” Minho said.

“Then they fought. When we asked Leeteuk Hyung what the hell is happening, he said that Heechul and Yesung hyungs were fighting over you...” Key told us.

“Imagine that... They were fighting in front of me,” Jjong said. “The girl’s boyfriend... They were fighting over my girlfriend... You...”

“The funny part is when Jonghyun hyung attacked them by telling them to stop fighting about his girlfriend. Man, you gotta see it,” Minho said, laughing.

They were all laughing.

Of course, Onew’s the hardest.

But we the girls all look at each other with our eyebrows rose.

“Well, it much funnier when you’re watching it rather than hearing it,” Key said, noticing our expressions.

We still stare at them all.

Not long after that, the dishes came.

Taemin hurriedly get his hand on the meats.

*I don’t know if they were eating pork or just meats seeing as I never eat one. I’m not comfortable talking about pork, so I’ll just address it as meat... ^^*

But there is something not quite right...

He looked rather tense and not like himself.

“Luvly...” Jonghyun called me.

I turned to him and saw his right hand was holding the chopsticks that hold the onions. His left hand was holding the wrapper.

*Again... I don’t know what they use to wrap the onions and the meat*

“Yes?” I replied, a little bit late.

“How do you like your wrapper? More onions less meat, or the other way around?” Jonghyun asked.

I watched others around me and saw Leena and Minho were feeding each other.

Key and Taemin were watching over the meats.

Onew and Hyori unnie were talking to each other seriously.

“Less onions more meats,” I answered, taking a sip of my hot bubbletea.

Jonghyun nod once and put one slice of onion and 2 big of meat and wrap it all together.

Then he turned to me and said, “Ah... Open your mouth...”

Suddenly I felt embarrased.

So I said, “I’ll eat it on my own...” and tried to take the meat from Jonghyun’s hand.

But he said, “Aniyo... Let me feed you... Ah...” He opened his own mouth.

Suddenly I feel angry and I said, “NO! Are you deaf or something?! I can eat it by my own!”

All look at me with surprised especially Jonghyun.

“Sorry, I don’t know what had got into me just now... Mianei oppa...” I said, feeling guilty.

Jonghyun gave me a sweet smile before said, “That’s okay... Here, eat this,” He gave me a few wrappers that he’d made specially just for me.

Onew and Hyori unnie returned back to their conversation.

Taemin and Key returned back to the meats.

Leena glare at me before giving Minho her wrapper.

I look at Jonghyun who was eating his meat, still looking shocked.

Mianei oppa...

I’m really sorry.

To grab his attention back, I made him a wrapper.

He looked rather surprised but he took it anyway.

After we stuffed ourselves with meats, onions and rice and chicken (in Onew’s case), Taemin suggested that we play games.

“What games?” Minho asked.

“You know... Like swapping ages... Or swapping ages...” Taemin said innocently.

“You looked like you’re trying to lead us into playing that,” Jonghyun said.

“Come on... It’ll be fun...” Taemin said.

Then it just hit me.

“Wait, does that mean I’ll be older than Jonghyun?” I asked.

“Does that make any difference to you? You don’t even call him oppa,” Taemin said, sarcastically.

“I don’t even call you oppa when we were dating... And by the way, I did call him oppa... Sometimes...” I said.

“See... You only call him oppa when you think it’s necessary,” Taemin said.

“Lets play truth or dare,” Leena suddenly said, cutting my little argument with Taemin.

Everyone is agreed with her.

Onew starts spinning the bottle the empty bottle and it shot at Minho.

“Truth or dare?” Minho asked, grinning.

The rest of us watched Onew and Minho excitedly.

“Hm... Dare...” Onew said, after a quick thought.

“Okay...” Minho replied.

“Shout as loud as you can, say that you love Leena...” Onew said.

Leena shot Onew a sharp glance that makes me and Jonghyun bursts to laugh.

“Okay... Ehem... Ehem...” Minho cleared his throat before said out loud, “I LOVE SHIN HYE WON!!!”

Half of the customers shot us a quick sharp glance before continued their dinner.

Leena smack him a little.

The rest of us laugh at Minho’s expressions and Leena’s action.

“My turn,” Minho said, spinning the bottle and it landed on Key.

Key expressed his feeling of defeat through his expressions.

“Hm, I only wanted the truth from you,” Minho said, even before Key said anything.

“Whatever,” Key said.

“Who is your girlfriend, and why we’ve never meet her?” Minho shot his question.

“Wait, what?! You have a girlfriend and you never told us?!” Leena and I said at the same time.

Jonghyun and Taemin laughed.

“Well, you never asked... And anyway, my girlfriend’s name is Justine, and she lives in Malaysia,” Key replied calmly. “You’ve never met her because she’s never come here before. We met when Jonghyun hyung and I visited our dad there...”

Minho nod once and smile, feeling satisfied.

“My turn,” Key said happily, spinning the bottle which technically shot at Jonghyun.

“Who? Me, or Luvly?” Jonghyun asked.

“I think it’s you...” Key said after checking the angle.

“Okay then... Truth or-“

“Truth!” Key said, cutting Jonghyun’s sentence.

Jonghyun look a little taken aback but recovered.

“What makes you attracted to Luvly at the first place?” Key said, attacking his own brother.

Taemin who was drinking at the moment, chocked a little but recovered.

Jonghyun looked at me while answering Key, “I don’t know really... When you love someone, you don’t know... But you can feel... And the first time I met her is right in front of my favorite shop, the music store. She was checking the latest from some German rock group called Tokio Hotel. She looked so cute with her yellow top and blue jacket and her long hair which she tied it into two. It was almost a year ago. Ironicly, it was on Feb 14... Valentine’s day...”

He...

He remembered it all?

Even I don’t remember him.

“I really wanted to give her something so I bought her half of dozen red roses and I asked for some random kid to give it to her...”

“Wait, that was you?” I said, surprised.

“You’re the one who give that flower to her?” Leena asked, shocked.

Jonghyun nodded.

“Okay... I think I’ve heard enough...” Key said.

Minho, Leena, Onew and Hyori unnie laughed at Key.

I stared at Jonghyun as he spins the bottle which shot at Taemin who was looking gloomy a second before but finally smiled, feeling defeated.

All of sudden, nature called me.

And so, I asked Leena who grunted at me, accompany me toward the toilet.

Hyori unnie followed us as nature called her too.

 

*JONGHYUN POV

 

Luvly asked Leena to accompany her toward the restroom.

Hyori followed them.

Taemin smiled at me after they left.

“I want the truth from you...” I said seriously.

That washed away smiles from their faces.

“Okay...” Taemin said, raising his eyebrow.

Minho, Key and Onew hyung all look at me suspiciously.

“Do you still love Luvly?” I asked.

“No... What makes you say that?” Taemin asked me back, looking rather annoyed.

“You’re lying...” I said.

“Kim Jonghyun...” Onew hyung sounded firm.

“Even if I am, do you have proof?” he asked me.

Minho and Key both had their eyebrows raised.

“Lee Taemin, I’m asking you, do you love her?!” I repeated, pissed off.

Like I didn’t notice he always stared at Luvly whenever he thinks people are not looking.

Well, he was wrong for one thing.

I noticed.

Taemin clenced his jaw before answered, “No...”

Behind Key, I saw Luvly, Leena and Hyori were coming back from the restroom.

Luvly and Leena were laughing at something rather amusing.

Quickly I whispered to Taemin, “Then I challenge you to take that TAEMIN bracelet back.”

He startled a little.

 

*LUVLY POV

 

Leena, Hyori unnie and I walked back to SHINee after done the nature calls.

Leena and I were laughing at Hyori unnie.

She told us that after graduation, she and Onew were planning on travelling around the world to do some research about Logo.

Leena and I were like, is there anyone in this whole world that thinks the same as theirs?

Most importantly, Logo?

Really?

Do you have to?

There are a lot more things that you can actually do other than research on other than toys.

Like chocolate, for instance!

I sat back at my place next to Jonghyun before realising that the atmosphere was extremely tense.

Too tense that I’m actually scares to move.

Jonghyun and Taemin both were clenching their jaws.

Onew was glaring at Jonghyun.

Key exchanged glances with Minho too often that make me think something is not quite right.

“Hey, what’s wrong? What happen?” Hyori unnie asked, breaking the unusual silent.

After a quite long pause, Taemin called my name,” Shin Hyo Young.”

Okay...

This is unusual...

Never once in my life he addressed my full name.

Hm... I think...

“What?” I asked.

“Give me my bracelet back,” he said calmly.

Huh?

What?!

“What bracelet?” I asked.

“The TAEMIN bracelet that I gave you...” he answered, still calmly.

The rest watched us with their eyebrows raised.

“Wae? You already gave it to me. So it’s mine,” I said, defending myself.

“Yes... It used to be yours. I gave it to you when we were dating. And now that we’re no longer together, I would like to have it back,” he said.

“Again, wae?!” I said, unsatisfied with his reasons.

But he make me flinched when he said with a loud voice, “JUST GIVE ME THE DAMN BRACELET ALREADY!”

Again, half of the the customers shot an angry glance at us.

I hold back my tears, acting tough, reattached the bracelet and give it to- no... Throw it back to Taemin.

“Here, your damn precious bracelet...” I said, leaving the restaurant feeling angry and embarrased.

 

*TAEMIN POV

 

“Here, your damn precious bracelet...” Luvly shot me her final angry glare before left the place.

She looks so angry and pissed off that her white eyes had a slightly red in it.

But I know here too well to say that angry is not the only thing she felt at the moment.

She felt betrayed too.

I am so sorry Luvly...

You deserve better than me.

I’m a coward.

Denying my own feelings for you...

Saranghaeyo, Shin Hyo Young...

 

*LUVLY POV

 

ARGH!!!!!!

How could you, LEE TAEMIN!!!

I hold back my tears and tried to look like I couldn’t care less even if he did took the most precious thing in my life.

Jonghyun followed me outside.

“Kwenchana?” he asked.

“Neh... I just felt pissed off...” I said, feeling angry all of sudden.

“Wae?”

“He’d shouted at me... He’d just shouted at me! Who does he think he is?!” I said loud and clear as I saw SHINee, Leena and Hyori unnie exited the dining.

Taemin look at me like he was sympathized with me.

I just glare at him before I stepped into Jonghyun’s car.

 

*TAEMIN POV

 

When we exited the dining, Luvly look so pissed at me.

It hurts me to see her so miserable.

Don’t Hyo Young...

Saranghaeyo...

If only you know...

If only you can understand...

Onew hyung pushed me to walk forward, headed to our car.

In the car when we’re sending Hyori noona and Key hyung home, I just shut myself, my mind lingering somewhere else.

Right after Key hyung stepped out of the car, as Onew hyung drove us back home, he break the quietness that have been in the car ever since we left the dining.

“You love her still didn’t you?”

“Hm... mwo?” my voice croaked a little.

“Luvly... You still love her don’t you?” Onew hyung repeated.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about...” I said, staring back outside.

“Yah, Lee Taemin... I’m your brother... I can tell that you still love her. I know... I have been living with you for 16 years,” Onew hyung said.

I couldn’t lie to Onew hyung.

The truth is, I couldn’t lie to anyone but I don’t know...

I don’t know what the hell had happen to me that made me lie to Jonghyun hyung.

Is it because I’m coward?

Maybe...

Is it because Jonghyun hyung always the one who get attention from girls? (Apart from Minho hyung)

Maybe...

Is it because I’m still in love with Luvly?

Yes...

I didn’t answer Onew hyung question until we arrived home about 10 minutes later that I opened my mouth, “Even if I do love her, it’s no use. She’s with someone else now...”

The TAEMIN bracelet held tight in my hand as I entered the front door of our house.