Key's POV

Luckily, we hadn’t arrived too late and the broadcast hadn’t started yet. Once we got there I was swept away in work, work, work, which I was oddly grateful for, as it took my mind off my worries. Though I was busy out of my mind, it seemed almost like a break.

       I had more fun than normal at the radio studio for no particular reason, and it really lifted my spirits. I was in a much better mood by the time we finished, and I had completely forgotten about my worries. It felt like a breath of fresh air, not having any worries, hearing everyone laughing together again. It felt like old times, the good times.

       After recording we were free, thanks to our one-hit schedule day. Manager hyung offered a ride back to the dorm, as he always did—but as we always did, we refused. After schedules we always went out together to relax, have fun, reward ourselves. Onew hyung was always treating us, and he was really big on taking breaks from work, even when we hadn’t done much. He was really a really caring leader.

       So we were off, though to where we hadn’t decided yet. We rarely walked together on the streets, as though we loved our fans, they could get annoying sometimes. But we were feeling carefree without an aim, and walking through the winter air of Seoul was one of my favorite things to do.

       I shuffled my feet, listening to the other SHINee members conversing about where to go and the most random things.

       I looked down at my feet, my scarf riding up to my nose. I looked up at Jonghyun, breathing out, and he caught my gaze. He smiled.

       I was surprised by the fact that… I was surprised. He hadn’t smiled at me for a while, I noticed, something I was unused to. Jonghyun was always so close to me, always laughing with me. I realized the last few days had been so awkward, with him ignoring me.

       I smiled back warmly, brightly. My heart lifted, happy he seemed okay again. In the last few days he had seemed angry, uncertain, indefinite. Now he seemed happy, and I had the feeling he had decided. Decided what though?

       I realized I was still looking at him, but now with a confused expression on my face. He returned the emotion, obviously puzzled on why I was looking at him that way. I smiled again finally, as did he.

       “Patbingsuuuu~” Taemin’s voice rang out, breaking my thoughts. “Key ummaaaaa, I want patbingsuuuuuuu!” He changed positions with Minho and was now next to me, shaking my arm.

       “It’s much too cold Minnie!” I said, squeezing him back. “Let’s have something warm.”

       “Hotteok!” Onew stopped, pointing at a street cart. “We haven’t had hotteok in a long time!” The sweet, warm scent of the tasty treat floated over, cutting through the cold air.

       I watched as Taemin’s eyes lit up and he ran over to the small stall. He bowed and said hello quickly, though eyeing the snacks the whole time. The whole stall was filled with nothing but hotteok. Waiting hotteok, preparing hotteok, frying hotteok. It all looked and smelled so good. We all surrounded the cart in awe, admiring the different kinds. My favorite was still the traditional brown sugar one, but the others liked different flavored ones.

       We paid the halmeonim for fresh hotteok and we enjoyed the snacks on a nearby bench. We were sitting in a park, mostly hidden behind a row of trees. I bit into mine—sweet, nutty, crunchy, soft, with a sense of cinnamon. It was still hot, and I nibbled at the edges. I bit into the middle and the sugar goodness spilled out. Yum. Carb heaven, something I didn’t eat often to save my shape. I guess tomorrow we would just have to go work out for a while~ It was worth the snack, in my opinion. It was quiet for a bit, everyone eating their own treats.

       It didn’t take long for us to finish off the delicious fried pancakes and soon we were up and moving again. We tried to talk, but were constantly cut off from fans, either screaming or shyly waving. We tried our best to be polite to all of them, but after a while it really got annoying.

       Driver and manager hyung were gone long ago and to avoid public, we all took a taxi. To spare the fare of a second one, we all squeezed into one.

       The taxi ride was oddly silent, everybody cramped together and awkward. We normally were never awkward, we were always like family. Taemin tried meekly to make conversation, though they didn’t work. I would have tried to, if I didn’t mind the silence.

       Jonghyun broke the silence at last, with a fakely cheerful “We’re here!” We all piled out of the car and Onew was about to pay for the taxi ride, but I offered to instead.

       “I’ll pay, to make up for being late this afternoon.” He nodded with a smile.

      “Okay!” He said, running away before I could back off on my offer. I yelled after him, laughing, and paid the driver with change as the tip. I thanked him with it, and he drove off into the evening.

       Everybody was already waiting for me in the elevator. “Hurry up Kibum!” Minho called.

       “I was paying!” I whined, and rushed into the small compartment a moment before Jonghyun let go of the button and the doors closed. “Thanks.” I said in a hopefully grateful tone and he pushed our floor number.

       Whoosh. We were taken up, up, up, back to our dorm.

       Onew punched in the lock code and we all spilled into the dorm, going different directions.

       Work for the day: done. 

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Hey guys... sorry for disappearing! So I had a massive writers block and I wrote, like, three different ways for this chapter and finally just used this one. Yeah, I know, not really impressive.

I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET THE CONFESSION TO WORK D: It'll be here soon, when the time is right~

haha, you can see my love for korean food in this chapter, due to the unnecessary detailed description of the hotteok. yummy! ^^

please excuse any mistakes with my korean spellings and stuff... yeah.