Locked in her own room and sitting cross legged on her bed, Suzy could barely contain her inner fangirl self any longer. There in front of her was the box that she had been dying to get her hands on ever since she saw the preview of the 2012 calendar that was going to be on sale. Yet, buying this calendar was a challenge to her. She couldn’t simply walk into the stores and buy it off the counter like any other average fangirl because everyone knew she was Suzy Bae, member of miss A and artist under JYP entertainment. Suzy was not gloating about her popularity, no, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. It was part of being an idol, rule number one, always remember that there are watchful eyes everywhere. She just had to be careful about everything she did in the public’s eyes. So obviously, it wasn’t appropriate in any way to be spotted buying a 2012 calendar that was produced by an entertainment company which she didn’t belong to. Especially since said calendar she wanted to get was SHINee’s 2012 calendar.

‘Suzy Bae of Miss A seen with a SHINee calendar!’

Now wouldn’t that just be the perfect material for gossip? Well, if you’re nodding your head, you’re mirroring what Suzy did when she answered this question herself. Gossip particularly was something she didn’t need, especially when she had to keep her relationship with one certain member of SHINee under wraps.

With the help of her close friend from school, it took 3 months for her to finally receive the calendar after all the hype had died down and it was safe (well, safer) to purchase it. Suzy wasn’t complaining though since it was definitely worth the wait. The maknae of Miss A was practically grinning from ear to ear as she carefully opened the cardboard box as though she was holding tofu in her hands. And when she saw the actual calendar lying prettily in the box, Suzy squealed out loud, unable to contain her excitement anymore. It almost seemed like the calendar was glowing when she took it out of the box and held it gently in her hands.

“I’ve waited so long for you!” Suzy said excitedly, not caring at all if she seemed crazy that she was talking to a non-living thing. Besides, she was safely locked in her room. No one but herself would be able to hear her.

Suzy was going to slowly enjoy this unboxing experience, relish the moment when she was nothing more than a fangirl, or to be more specific, a shawol. She had waited for this moment since she knew the 2012 calendar was going to be on sale and nothing was going to stop her. Nothing… even the sound of the doorbell and then footsteps hurrying to answer the door, and the commotion that followed outside her room couldn’t tear her attention away from the precious thing in her hands. Who cares about what was going on outside in the common area of Miss A’s dorm? Suzy was going to leave that to her unnies, Fei and Jia, to handle. Tonight was her night off, she was free from schedules and she was going to make the best out of it.

Suzy had just finished pulling the calendar out of the plastic wrap that protected it when she heard a solid knock on her door.

“I’m busy, unnie!” Suzy exclaimed without hesitating, not even caring one bit about who was outside her door and just sticking with the generic term.

“Sooji!” Suzy recognised that it was her Jia unnie that was outside her door. “You have a guest!”

Guest? Now that was something that caught her attention. How could she have a guest when Miss A’s dorm rarely had anyone over? The only people that came to her dorm were her manager and her parents but Jia would certainly not call them guests. So who had come to pay her a visit? More interestingly, who was this special person that Jia and Fei actually allowed to step into their dorm? This successfully distracted Suzy enough to place her beloved calendar back into the box and hop off her bed.

When Suzy opened the door, her breath caught in . There, standing awkwardly together with Jia, was the boy in the calendar she was admiring not too long ago, the one and only boy who went by the name of Lee Taemin. Suzy knew her jaw had dropped and her eyes were wide as saucers so she quickly rearranged her facial expression. Still, it felt like she was caught red-handed so the next thing that she did was shut the door literally on their faces. She leaned against her door and scanned her room. It was then she knew she was doomed. Her room was a cluttered mess, she didn’t make her bed, and her stuff was everywhere. No way was it fit for the boy she loved to enter! Suzy could only be thankful that at least she looked presentable, wearing a graphic white tee with denim shorts, her hair casually let down. Suzy took in a deep breath to calm her racing heart. She didn’t forget that Taemin was stuck outside with Jia. Since she was running against time, she decided not to care about the state of her room. Suzy’s number one priority now was hiding the SHINee calendar somewhere safe. No way did she want Taemin to know about its existence…

Pushing herself off her room door, Suzy rushed forward to her bed and picked up the box that held the calendar.

“Where should I hide this… where?” Suzy anxiously surveyed her room for a place where she could keep her calendar away from the eyes of Taemin.

“Hide what?”

Speak of the devil.  

At the sound of Taemin’s voice, Suzy instantly turned around, hiding the calendar behind her back in the process, and smiled angelically at her boyfriend who had bowed in thanks to Jia before setting foot in her room. At the same time, she scolded herself in her mind for not remembering to lock the door. But there was nothing Suzy could do now.

“Noth- nothing…” Suzy gulped as Taemin closed the door behind him and walked towards her. “What… what are you doing here, oppa?”

“I wanted to give you a surprise… and I’m pretty sure it was a success.” Taemin smirked.

“Were you careful on your way here? Did anyone see you? Does your manager know you’re here?” In a bid to distract Taemin, Suzy decided to question her boyfriend and also make sure he didn’t have too hard a time making his way to her dorm.

“I was careful, no one saw me cause I waited until the coast was clear, and manager hyung is in a meeting with the higher ups about our comeback so I sneaked out of the dorm.” Making sure that he answered all of Suzy’s questions, Taemin flashed a reassuring smile and then placed his hands on Suzy’s shoulders. “Look at what I’m wearing Sooji, I’m practically dressed like a ninja, I think I disguised myself well enough.”

Suzy giggled at Taemin’s words. Little did she know that Taemin was out to distract her as well! Now that his tactic to get Suzy’s attention had worked, Taemin caught his girlfriend off guard as he reached behind her back to snatch away what she was hiding from him in one swift action. Touché!

“Hey!” Suzy cried out, trying to catch Taemin’s hands to snatch the box back. “That’s not fair, oppa! You can’t just-“

It was too late. Taemin had already seen what Suzy was hiding from him.

“Why do you need to hide my calendar from me?” Taemin questioned with an amused expression on his face. Although Suzy was considered tall for a girl, Taemin still had an upper hand against her and it was easy to keep the box out of her reach. The strategy was actually very simple. Every time Suzy moved left, Taemin just had to bring the box to the right and when Suzy tried to snatch it from the right, he simply moved his hands to the left.

Eventually, Suzy gave up battling with Taemin and fell with a huff on her bed.

“Oppa! I thought you’re here to surprise me and not to irritate me?” Suzy crossed her arms in a pout, unhappy that Taemin was having the time of his life playing with her.

Taemin hid a laugh behind his hand, settling next to Suzy on her bed like he had done this a million times (in actual fact, it was only his second time taking the risk to visit Suzy in her dorm. The first time was when he had to win the hearts of Jia, Fei and Min to be able to successfully date Suzy but that’s another story.).

“You gave me a surprise too.” Taemin placed the box on his lap and opened it to take the calendar out. “It’s a nice set of photos, isn’t it?”

Suzy couldn’t stop herself from agreeing as she nodded along, much to Taemin’s satisfaction. And when she saw how Taemin was trying so hard not to beam victoriously, Suzy regretted agreeing too easily.

“How do you think I looked?” Taemin casually asked while he flipped through the months of their 2012 calendar. He had already reached the month of September but Suzy still hadn’t replied him. Something was odd. Putting the calendar away for the time being, Taemin shifted his focus and glanced over at Suzy. He was a little shocked to see his girlfriend as still as a statue, looking down with her head hung low and her hair falling to cover the sides of her face. It eerily reminded him of Sadako and Taemin shivered at that image and how strikingly similar Suzy resembled her.

“Sooji?” Taemin attempted to lift Suzy’s chin up but failed when Suzy was quick to shun away from his touch.

“Is something wrong?” The dancer frowned, unable to figure out why Suzy had suddenly gone all silent.

“Oppa…” Suzy cleared , her back now facing Taemin. “I’m not going to look at you for the next few minutes but don’t worry, we can still spend time together.”

“What?” Taemin couldn’t help but laugh at Suzy’s weird suggestion. “Why can’t you look at me?”

“Don’t ask, please.” Suzy mumbled, fidgeting on her bed to find the best position to hide her face from Taemin. “When I’m ready, I’ll look at you.”

Taemin shook his head, his face wrinkled in a silent laugh. “Are we playing some sort of game that I should know of?”

Suzy shook her head.

“Suzy…” Taemin tried his best to coax Suzy to look at him.

Suzy refused to budge.

Taemin let out a breath. He didn’t want to waste any precious time staying in this absurd situation with Suzy and so, the maknae of SHINee did the first thing his mind told him to do.

Like how he could execute a dance move so smoothly and perfectly, Taemin grabbed Suzy gently but firmly on her shoulders and effortlessly pushed her down on her bed in one slick movement. Everything happened too quickly for Suzy to react. Her body remained stiff from Taemin’s touch, her lips tightly shut, but her hair was now splayed out on the mattress making her face visible for Taemin to see. Suzy could only blink at Taemin who was now above her as he held her securely on the bed so she couldn’t get up from lying down.

Upon finally seeing Suzy’s face, Taemin’s lips parted in amazement. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. Suzy closed her eyes in defeat. What she was trying so hard to avoid was now inescapable. She knew exactly what was about to come and decided to wait for Taemin to break the silence.

With his eyes locked on Suzy’s, Taemin reached out to touch her cheek, his lips nervously as he prepared himself to confess what he was thinking at that exact moment.

“I really… feel like biting you.”

“Ex- excuse me?” Suzy gasped, in total shock at her boyfriend’s honest confession.

“I can’t help it!” Taemin explained himself. “You look so much like a cherry tomato!”

To make the impossible possible, Suzy blushed even harder. That was the last thing she wanted to happen to her! When Taemin had asked her for her opinion on his photos, the images of him in his ed white shirt, exposing his nicely defined collarbone and a considerable large portion of his chest along with his hair messily styled up, staring ily at the camera, flashed in Suzy’s mind and her face started heating up. What would Taemin think of her if he were to see the blush on her cheeks? It would be utterly embarrassing for Suzy if her boyfriend knew what she was thinking! And so, she had every intention to hide her blush from Taemin until she knew it went away and she was calm enough to face him, without having any indecent thoughts about him. Little did she expect Taemin to push her on the bed and make her even more embarrassed than she already was…

“Taemin oppa…” Suzy swallowed nervously.

Taemin couldn’t hold back his laughter anymore. He clutched his stomach as he rolled onto his back and lay beside Suzy, their arms touching each other.

Once his laughter died down, Taemin kept his eyes focused on the ceiling and searched for Suzy’s hand. Upon finding it, he held her hand tightly in his and asked, “Suzy, what are we going to do about the blush on your face now?”

“I knew you would tease me! That’s why I wanted to hide from you!” Suzy squeezed Taemin’s hand hard enough for her boyfriend to wince.  “And it doesn’t help that you took those photos that made every fangirl go crazy and-”

“Do I drive you crazy?” Taemin interrupted Suzy before she could ramble on.

“Well, of course you do!” Suzy immediately answered with a huff. “You drive me so crazy that I- wait a minute.”

Suzy turned to look at Taemin and found him looking innocently at her. “Yes baby?”

If Suzy didn’t stare at Taemin, she would have missed that mischievous glint in his eyes and that’s when she knew… her boyfriend was playing with her again.

“Lee Taemin!” Suzy’s face was red once more. “Why’d you have to-“

“Because I love seeing this side of you that no one else can see… that only I can see.”

Taemin’s voice was sincere and Suzy knew that he meant everything he said.

“And I also love the effect I have on you… because that means I’m special to you.” Taemin brought Suzy’s hand to his chest and placed it over his heart. “Like how you’re special to me.”

And Suzy knew she was blushing again.

“You’re saying all this on purpose…” Suzy mumbled, her eyes focused on the ceiling although she knew Taemin had turned his face to look at her.

“Maybe I am…” Taemin smiled. “But you do look really pretty when you blush.”

“Oppaaaaa…” Suzy groaned, hoping Taemin would stop with his sweet nothings.

Taemin propped his upper body up on one elbow and twisted his body towards Suzy, looking directly down into her eyes. “I mean it, Sooji.”

With that, Taemin closed the distance between their faces and pressed a light kiss on Suzy’s cherry lips. Just as their lips parted, a knock sounded against Suzy’s door, instantly shattering the moment between the young couple. Suzy quickly pushed Taemin away so she could sit upright on the edge of the bed and collect herself.

Now that she was looking all prim and proper, Suzy glanced at Taemin to check he was good before taking in a deep breath, clearing to answer the door.

“Yes unnie?”

The door opened immediately to reveal Jia looking rather apologetically at the two of them.

“Sorry kids, just remembered, gotta keep the door open so you two don’t do anything that you’re not supposed to do at your young age…”

Suzy and Taemin shared a look with each other. And as their eyes met, Suzy felt like she was on the top of the world, as pleased and satisfied as can be, just knowing that she wasn’t the only one doing all the blushing anymore.

At the end of it all, the shades of red that appeared on Taemin’s face were all Suzy needed for her to regret nothing.

Author's Note: it's weird how this turned out nothing like how i initially wanted to write this, it was supposed to be a drabble of Suzy staring at Taemin and Taemin trying to figure out why she kept staring at him and blushing for no apparent reason. So how i ended up writing Shades of Red this way instead is a mystery to me. hahaha. still, i hope you enjoyed the story! thank you for reading! would love to receive comments. ;) now excuse me while i die of excitement from SHINee's comeback stage this evening. ^^