—Onew’s POV—

“Hyung, wake up.” I felt myself being shaken by someone but I didn’t really want to get up. Last night, I was up all night trying to get some stuff done. If you ask me now, I’m not really sure what I had gotten done.

I groaned and flipped onto my right. Unexpectedly, there was no bed under me and I just fell off, hitting the floor loudly. I rubbed my eyes and opened them groggily, seeing a very worried Taeminnie standing above me.

“Hyung, are you alright?” he asked, pulling me up onto the bed.

“Yeah, I think so. Was that you trying to wake me up?” I asked. He nodded and grinned.

“Remember what you told me last week? We’re going to Yeowido! I already memorized the bus and train route to get there, so hurry, go and wash up!” he rushed me into the toilet and threw a set of clothes to me. Thankfully, I caught it and it didn’t drop onto the wet floor.

“Should I bathe?” Tae thought about the question for a moment and shrugged.

“If you want to, I guess. There’s no point since we’ll be getting wet while we’re there. I’m planning to bathe there,” Taeminnie told me. I raised a brow.

“But which toilet will you go to?” I asked. He pondered over this for a while.

“The female toilet, of course! Since it’s not an open shower, nobody will notice my lack of s and presence of a . It should be fine,” he smiled and me and shoved me back into the toilet. “Hurry!”

I never knew that a pregnant man could have so much strength in him. I could have fallen from his forceful shove. It was pretty strong, I’d have to admit.

I brushed my teeth, combed my hair into place and washed my face thoroughly. I also changed into the couple tee that Tae and I bought a year plus ago. It was the one with the picture of a chicken on it. He knows that this is my favourite couple tee.

After I changed, I stepped out of the toilet and realised that Taeminnie wasn’t in the room. He should be in the kitchen then. And of course, he was.

He was standing at the stove, frying an egg or something. I walked over to him and hugged him suddenly, surprising him – in a good way, anyway.

“Hyung, I don’t want to ruin the egg. Sit down and leave this to me,” he said confidently and continued making our breakfast, not even paying the slightest attention to me.

I sighed and shook my head, chuckling and sitting down at the dining table. I took a look at the wall clock which read ’10.43am’. It’s so late already?

I waited patiently for Tae to finish making our breakfast and started twiddling my fingers. I rested my chin on the table and watched Taeminnie’s back as he cooked. Even when he’s pregnant… he’s y.

He fried the last egg and put it on a plate before walking over to the table and putting it down. he went to the fridge and got his standard side dishes, taking some pickles as well.

“Erm, Tae? Pickles?” I looked at him like he was mad.

“Hey, I haven’t been having cravings for some time and I just happen to have cravings for pickles now. Anyway, this was bought by umma around two months ago,” he shrugged and opened the jar, picking a piece of pickle up and popping it into his mouth. He sighed in satisfaction and moved on to pouring his side dishes onto his plate and mixed everything.

Let’s see. Taeminnie fried two eggs for each of us, made some sandwiches that contained ham and cheese, and there’s a bowl of cereal as well.

“I don’t think I can eat the cereal,” I told him. He stared at me for a moment, pulling my bowl of cereal towards himself.

“More for me. Besides, I kind of expected that so I used banana milk~,” he sang and started feasting on the various foods that he had made.

“So how do we get to Yeowido?” I asked him while chewing on a bite of sandwich. He swallowed before explaining that we have to take the subway from Gyeonggi station. To get to the subway from my house, we’ll take a bus for about four stops. And then we’ll change subway lines somewhere and… I don’t know. I couldn’t absorb it well.

“I still won’t tell you which part of Yeowido we’re heading to. But since we haven’t taken the subway and bus in years, ever since around the end of 2009, why not? I miss the simple life. I mean not that I don’t enjoy being an idol, but…” he was going to keep blabbering, isn’t he? I decided to shush him by putting my finger on his lips.

“I get the point. It’s tiring to be an idol sometimes,” I finished. He smiled slightly and nodded.

“Yeah. Finish your food so that we can go already,” he quickly changed the topic and continued to munch on his sandwich, taking a scoop of cereal every now and then.

When we finished, I washed the dishes while Tae turned the TV on to watch some shows. I finished doing the dishes and plopped onto the couch beside Taeminnie.

“What’s this show?” I asked. I saw the words on the screen that read ‘Shut Up! Flower Boy Band’. I swear Myungsoo just popped out in the show, but that was only a brief moment.

“Oh, Myungsoo hyung acted in the show a while ago. They’ve played it quite a few times already, so I roughly know the entire story,” he explained. I was right? Wow. “Come on, let’s go!” he exclaimed and jumped up from the couch, switching the TV off and pulling me back into our room to get our stuff, such as my backpack and Taeminnie’s handbag.

I packed all the necessities into the bag and we set off for the bus stop which was a few minutes’ walk away from my house. When we got there, the bus just happened to be arriving. Yay for us! Of course, we boarded it and managed to get a seat.

“Taking a public bus reminds me of an episode of Sesame Player 2. Jongie was challenging Hoya hyung or Myungsoo hyung to tap their card in the funniest way. He jumped up and tried to tap his card – which was in his back pocket – while holding onto a pole. Sadly, it failed twice in a row and he just got off, super embarrassed. Ah, yes. It was Myungsoo hyung,” he grinned.

“When was that?” I asked.

“Around May or June last year,” he said and stopped abruptly. I caught the hint of sadness in his voice and wrapped my arm around his shoulder.

“Yah, it wasn’t your fault that I missed that event. Blame that idiot for telling on me,” I tried to phrase my words carefully so as to not arouse any suspicion.

Tae didn’t reply me, but instead looked out of the window. I think I saw a tear rolling down his cheek and I turned his face around gently.

“I told you, it wasn’t your fault. You’ve blamed yourself for over a year already. It’s time you start being selfish and admit that you were not the main cause of that incident,” I told him firmly and wiped the tear away.

Taeminnie sniffled a little and nodded, hugging me tightly.

“I’m sorry. I know it isn’t quite my fault, but I can’t help thinking that if I hadn’t run onto that road, nothing would have happened to you,” he said. Luckily the bus wasn’t too crowded or someone might think that I was bullying my ‘girlfriend’/wife.

“Shh, it’s ok. We’re going out today to help me remember more things, so you can just enjoy the trip and not think about what happened, arasso?” I looked him in the eye. They still reflected guilt and sadness but it was slowly disappearing.

“Ne,” he tried a small smile and I pecked his cheek.

“Omo! We’re supposed to get off now!” he suddenly exclaimed. I quickly got up and pressed the bell, waiting at the door for Tae before alighting the bus.

We went into the subway and bought our tickets, going down the escalator and sitting down while waiting for the train to come. It didn’t take too long, but it felt like forever without conversing. We finally got onto a train and a kindhearted schoolgirl gave her seat up to Taeminnie.

Before he decided to doze off for a while, Tae told me which stop we were supposed to get off at to change trains. Within seconds, he was asleep.

I woke him up a stop before the stop which we were getting off at. He was kind of groggy but stood up and waited for the train to reach the stop. We switched trains and were on our way to Yeowido Station in a minute.

“We’re here!”

The two of us were standing in front of a place called ‘Timeless’. There was a water park, a skateboarding park, and a mall. I saw people of all ages here, but most of the people were either couples or school cliques.

“Let’s go in,” Taeminnie nudged me and we went in. The first place he headed to was the karaoke, ‘Fairy tale’, which was managed by a girl called Hope. Well, that’s what I saw on her nametag.

“Hope, it’s me, Taemin,” Tae told her. She looked up from her book and her eyes widened before she grinned. She walked out from behind the counter and hugged Taeminnie.

“Hey Taemin unni, Onew oppa. The last time I saw you was about three months ago, wasn’t it, Taemin unni? How’ve you been?” she asked.

“Oh, you know Onew oppa woke up about a month ago and I’m here to help him remember more about our past. Anyway, I’ve been fine. I found out that I’m having triplets! Two girls and one boy,” Tae rubbed his stomach adoringly and smiled to himself.

“Congratulations! I’ve never been able to express how selfless you are, really. In fact, when you first told me that you were pregnant, I was kind of shocked. I knew that hermaphrodites, aka interual people, exist, but I never knew that you could be one of them. Furthermore, they were fathered by Minho. A mother’s love really is great,” she sighed in admiration.

“Yeah, well…” Taeminnie blushed from the praise. “Can you remember which room we took when we first came? I’d like to try and recreate the date as much as possible,” he explained.

“Ah, ne. Right this way,” she turned her professional mode on and led us into the karaoke room. “I’ll get you guys some drinks and snacks,” she added and walked out.

Tae started to pick some songs while I just looked at the screen. The first song that came on was Infinite’s ‘Before the Dawn’.

“We sang this when we first came, too. Here,” Taeminnie passed me a mike and took one for himself, starting to sing the song. I shrugged and held the mike to my mouth, starting to sing along to the lyrics as well. As we sang, some memories came back to me:

Victoria noona forcing herself on me, making Tae run out of the room; Victoria noona looking all sad and everything; Taeminnie being awed by their dance; selecting the song twice just to watch the amazingly synchronized scorpion dance.

Now I know that most of the time during that date was spent on chasing after Tae since noona was still being a . Also, she was trying to make herself look pitiful in the hopes that I’d sympathise with her and eventually start having feelings for her. Um, reality check. No way.

Hope came back into the room just as we finished singing the song. The next song that came on was f(x)’s ‘Pinocchio’, but we missed the starting part of it while talking to Hope and letting her serve our snacks and drinks. Of course, she knew that Taeminnie loves banana milk so she gave him a bottle.

“I’ll see you guys later,” she said and waved before going back out.

“Any reason why she’s working here at such a young age?” I asked once Hope was out of earshot.

“She and four of her friends inherited this entire place from their fathers who were also good friends. I guess it can be stressful yet fulfilling to manage such a big place and earn your own money, especially since they’re still schooling,” Tae explained.

By the time Taeminnie finished talking, I was gaping at him.

“You can’t be serious,” I said.

“I am,” he repeated and I just deadpanned.

“How the hell can they manage this entire place with just five people?!” I shrieked, a little too loudly.

“Shh! Each of them is allocated an area of ‘Timeless’ to take care of and the workload is quite even, so it’s easier for them to manage their own areas,” he told me.

I shook my head in disbelief. “That’s still crazy,” I said and turned my focus back on the screen. The next song had already come on. It was ‘Fiction’ by B2ST.

We sang it again, laughing when I suddenly went off-pitch from the lack of practice. Then we just listened to Boyfriend’s ‘I’ll Be There’ while we ate and drank whatever Hope had served us.

For the next hour or so, Taeminnie and I sang to our hearts’ content and then we left for a proper lunch. Although I ate quite a lot for breakfast as compared to usual, the journey here took a lot of time and I’m starved. I wonder how Tae’s feeling now.

We bid Hope goodbye, promising to return soon. Then we headed to one of the two restaurants, the one that was meant for couples to go to. We were brought into the table that was furthest in, ordered our dishes and waited patiently.

“You did bring my side dishes, right?” he asked me suspiciously.

“Yes, I did,” I assured him and took the boxes out as proof.

He clapped happily and pulled the boxes to himself.

Our drinks arrived and I sipped on my iced lemon tea calmly while Taeminnie just started gulping his banana milk down. In no time at all, his drink was gone. I raised my hand to call for the waitress and asked for another bottle of banana milk. She bowed and left to get the drink.

As she came back with the banana milk, she brought our food along as well. At first, Tae wanted to drink all his banana milk again, but I stopped him.

“Eat first, ne? The kids can’t possibly get all the nutrients that they need from just banana milk,” I reminded him. He pouted but obliged and started chewing on his bibimbab. As for me, I had my ginseng chicken soup with rice! I haven’t eaten this in forever.

Once we finished eating, I paid for the meal and we left for the next place. Taeminnie didn’t want to tell me where we were headed – again – but I didn’t probe as I knew he wanted me to remember everything when we got there.

We were at the water park. I somehow expected this though. I don’t recall going to any of the other attractions the other time. Tae sat at the edge of the pool and dipped his feet into the water, gesturing for me to do so as well.

“I wanted to bring you to the ice-skating rink or the dance floor, but I can’t go to either one in my current condition. This is the other place that we can go to,” he told me.

“Oppa?” I heard a voice behind me. My head whipped around to be met by the sight of a teenage girl, probably around Taeminnie’s age.

“Miracle, hi! Long time no see, huh?” he asked and smiled.

“Ne! Oppa, when did you wake up?” she asked me.

“On Tae’s birthday,” I replied with a small smile.

“That is so cool! I’m sure unni was really glad for that, am I right?” she looked over at Taeminnie.

“Of course! I’ve been waiting for that day for ages. I’m still staying at oppa’s house and we’re just here to help oppa remember more about the date here,” Tae explained.

“Arasso. I’ll leave you two alone, but if you need any help, you know my number,” Miracle winked and waved before returning to her ‘post’.

Taeminnie turned back to face the pool, a smile still plastered onto his face.

“Tae, how’d you get so chummy with all these girls?” I asked, feeling a little jealous.

“Ah, when you were in a coma, I came here quite often to sort my thoughts out. Probably monthly or so,” he told me. I nodded in understanding.

“Now you have me,” I pressed my lips onto his forehead. Then I stood up and held my hand out for him to take. “Let’s play, shall we?”

His eyes lit up instantaneously and he nodded, taking the offered hand before I pulled him up. We went into the part of the pool that reached till our thighs and Taeminnie had to keep holding his dress so that it wouldn’t start floating on the water. On the other hand, I made use of the opportunity to splash water at Tae quickly.

“Yah, oppa!” he yelled and started retaliating. It looked pretty funny since one hand was holding his dress while the other was scooping water up from the pool.

We just continued our war when Taeminnie suddenly stopped, his expression changing from joy to pain. I stopped immediately and helped him back to a bench.

“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly.

“One, the triplets kicked me. Two, my left leg’s cramping,” he told me and he winced. I helped him to massage the tension out of his muscles until he told me that his leg was fine. Then I bent down to his belly.

“Kids, don’t bully your umma ok? She’s going through a lot to carry you three,” I chided. I heard Tae chuckling and assumed that he was fine.

“Are you ok now?” I asked, sitting down beside him. He grinned and nodded, giving me a kiss on the cheek as a reward.

“Thanks oppa,” he said and sighed, leaning against me. “It’s so tiring sometimes,” he mumbled, starting to doze off already.

“But you know it’s worth it, right?” I asked, not turning to look at him. I felt him nod slightly and then he started snoring away. As for me, I’ll lend him my shoulder until he decides to wake up.

About an hour later, my shoulder was feeling rather sore but I still tried not to move. For the past hour, I had taken seven pictures, played five games, and almost fell asleep three times. Taeminnie suddenly woke up, yawning and getting off my shoulder to stretch.

I wanted to sigh in relief, but I didn’t want to make it look as if Tae had been causing my any trouble. He looked at me and blinked cutely.

“How long was I asleep?”

“About an hour or so. What else do you want to do?” I asked, smiling.

“Well, there isn’t much more. I say we go home now. But can we take a cab this time?” he asked, completely giving up on taking public transport. I nodded and we both stood up, heading towards the taxi booth and queuing up. We didn’t quite have to bathe, since we had dried in the one hour when Taeminnie was asleep. Anyway, neither Tae nor I had remembered about bathing until we were at the taxi stand.

When it was our turn, we got onto the cab and started our journey home.

Taeminnie took his phone out, presumably to tell the five girls that we had left.

As the cab neared my house, I think I spotted Minho. He was just two houses away from mine, and he was staring at our cab.

“Ahjusshi, can you turn right there? Ne, kamsa,” I told him. Tae looked at me quizzically but I shook my head, wanting to talk after getting off the cab.

I paid and we got off, hiding in the alley behind two rows of houses.

“I saw Minho. He might have seen us in that cab,” I whispered. Taeminnie’s eyes widened in shock.

“No way. He can’t possibly know that I’m staying here,” Tae muttered, shaking his head in denial.

“Well, apparently he does. Come on, we’ll enter through the back,” I told him and led him to the back of my house, getting in through the back door. Luckily, I had brought all my keys or we’d have to confront him.

I locked the back door and heaved a huge sigh of relief, heading into the house behind Taeminnie and closing all the curtains and windows. As for the front door, I closed it as well. We just wanted to hide in here until that idiot goes away.

I suddenly remembered something.

“Do you think he might approach umma and appa?” Tae asked me, as if reading my mind.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking. I’ll call appa, you call umma,” I instructed and took my phone out to dial the familiar number.

“Yeoboseyo? This is Jinki, appa. When do you think you’ll be back? Well, if you happen to see Minho lingering outside the house, don’t tell him anything about our whereabouts. And please don’t ever let him in. Thanks appa. Hwaiting!” I cheered and ended the call.

Honestly, why can’t this guy just let go? Why does he insist on sticking to Taeminnie like glue? It’s obvious that my fiancée has no feelings for him, so can’t he just stop trying? Seriously, he has to figure out the fact that Tae will only love me, and vice versa.

“Bye umma!” Taeminnie exclaimed, bringing me back to reality.

“What’d she say?”

“She’s coming back soon and she’ll help us to get rid of Minho. Till then, we should go and bathe,” he told me. “I don’t want either of us falling sick tomorrow,” he said and headed to our room to get a fresh set of clothes and a towel. I followed behind him and took the same things, both of us going into the shower together. Since Tae was starting to have some difficulties washing his legs and back, I decided to help him.

We took a nice, warm shower before stepping out and drying ourselves. Again, I helped Taeminnie to dry his body and hair. Only after I was done drying him did I start drying myself. By the time Tae was dressed, I had just finished drying myself.

We went back down to throw the laundry into the laundry basket and sat back down at the couch. I went to check if Minho was still there, from our room window. Quite sadly, he still was. I returned downstairs and plopped onto the couch, defeated.

“He’s still here?” Tae asked in disbelief. I nodded and sighed.

“Let’s hope umma will be able to help,” I said and just gave up.

“Let’s hope so,” Taeminnie agreed and leaned against me.

Umma’s angry voice was what woke me up from my slumber. I had somehow fallen asleep for quite some time and was finally awake again. Beside me, Tae jolted awake as well.

“Is that…?” he asked unsurely. I nodded and brought him to our room and opened the window so that we could hear their conversation.

“But Lee umma, I’m sure that Taemin’s here!” Minho shouted.

“I swear I’ll kill you with my butchering knife if you don’t scram, Minho. I’ve told you time and again; TAEMIN IS NOT HERE. Neither is Jinki, just for your info. Go!” umma yelled.

“Is there something wrong, Mrs. Lee?” it seemed to be one of our neighbours, Mrs. Jung.

“Ne, Yesun. You know that my son is Jinki, or Onew, of SHINee, right? This is his band mate who insists that Jinki and Taemin are here,” umma said in exasperation. I took a small peep out and saw umma wink to Mrs. Jung.

“Well I haven’t seen them around. If they’re staying here, I would have seen them at least once. But that hasn’t happened.  I suggest you go home, young man,” Mrs. Jung said.

Suddenly, another booming voice came into the conversation.

“Minho, you heard my wife and neighbour. My son and Taemin aren’t here,” appa said.

“But-” Minho was cut short.

“Either you go or I’ll call the police,” appa warned. “I’ll give you three seconds. One. Two…”

“Fine, I’ll go. Just you wait, Lee Jinki. I’ll get Taemin from you!” he shouted up towards my room. Did he see me just now?

“Thanks for the help, Mrs. Jung,” umma thanked.

“No problem. Just let me know if you have any other problems with him, ne?” she asked.

“Arasso. Let’s go,” umma said and came into the house with appa.

“Kids, it’s fine now!” umma shouted. I looked at Taeminnie who heaved a sigh of relief and we both went down to the living room.

“If Minho harasses you again, just call the police,” appa suggested.

“Ne, appa. We will,” I replied. “Thanks,” I hugged both of them gratefully.

“It’s no big deal. I’d do that again anytime. Have you had dinner?” umma asked. Tae’s stomach growled, making all of us burst into laughter. Umma started to prepare dinner while appa went to bathe. As for Taeminnie and I, we were seated at the couch watching TV. Tae had dug out a packet of wheat crackers and was currently munching on them.

After dinner, umma bathed and I washed the dishes with appa. We stayed up for a while more, until 10pm, to chat with my parents. Then the two of us retired to our rooms to get more rest. Today has been pretty eventful.

“Night hyung,” Taeminnie told me.

“Night Tae,” I replied and gave him a chaste kiss before letting myself fall asleep.

I sure hope Minho doesn’t come back.

Honestly speaking, I don’t really want Minho to come into the story yet, but I have to. I’ll see how I can bring him in slowly, so maybe the next chapter will contain more conflict between OnTae and Minho ^^

I hope you guys enjoyed this and please look forward to the next chappie!

I’ll see you guys again next week then! Annyeong! :)