BGM: Super Junior - Angela

While on the way to the bubble tea shop the next morning, you decided to stop by a convenience store to get yourself some ice cream. You've been craving for some since you woke up, but your mother told you that there weren't any pistachio-flavored ice cream left in the freezer because your father finished everything last night. 

"Isn't it a bit too early for ice cream?"

You were taking your sweet time choosing a flavor from the wide assortment of ice cream when you suddenly heard Joonmyun's voice. Scooting closer, he took a peek at the huge freezer to confirm whether or not you were really contemplating which ice cream flavor to pick.

credit to teremyblog

"It's never too early for ice cream," you replied, still wondering which flavor of Melona to get. "You can even have it for breakfast if you like," you added.

Joonmyun then headed to the nearby shelves to check out the available canned beverages in the convenience store. "What brings you here, anyway? Don't you have the weekends off?" he questioned.

"Yeonhee unnie asked me to fill in for her this morning. Something apparently came up and she needs to attend to it immediately. University stuff, I assume," you explained, sliding the freezer open to pick two packs of Melona ice cream bar: one honeydew melon-flavored and the other, red bean-flavored.

When you saw Joonmyun comparing the nutritional information of two variants of ready-to-drink iced coffee, you rolled your eyes. "Of course, you're getting coffee," you observed.

"It's not like they offer bottled bubble tea here," he responded, putting back the cappuccino-flavored can of Maxwell House iced coffee on the shelves, eventually deciding to get the original variant instead.

"Even if they did, it's not like you're going to buy one," you retorted.

Joonmyun just shrugged.

As you made your way towards the cashier, Joonmyun reached for the two packs of Melona ice cream bar you had in your hands, offering to pay for them you. "I really appreciate it, but no thanks. I can pay for them myself," you refused.

Instead of starting one of those "I'll pay - No, I'll pay" tug-o-wars with you, Joonmyun insisted on paying for your ice cream by directly asking the female shop attendant to include your purchases with his; quickly handing her several thousand wons before you even managed to retrieve your wallet from your bag.

"I didn't know that being friends with boys will get me free stuff all the time," you commented as you walked towards the front door. Joonmyun, who also insisted in carrying the 7-11 plastic bag containing your purchases, was trailing behind you. When you exited, however, the two of you were stopped in your tracks as a white idol van suddenly pulled over in front of the convenience store.

And it looks just like the one you saw during your picnic by the Han River.

Half-expecting to see Taeyeon alight the white idol van, you were totally shocked went a blond-haired Leeteuk opened the car door of the passenger side instead.

As soon as the Super Junior leader stepped on the curb, Joonmyun, like the polite hoobae he has always been, suddenly did a 90-degree bow and greeted his sunbae. In response, Leeteuk, dressed all in white and a pair of dark sunglasses, just gave him a slight nod and headed inside the convenience store without uttering a single word.

"Well, that was-"

Whatever you were going to say at that moment, you completely forgot it when the darkly-tinted window of the van was partly slid open to reveal the pretty face of another idol group leader: Kim Taeyeon of So Nyeo Si Dae.

"JOONMYUN-AH!" she called out, the huge smile on her face instantly returned by the boy standing beside you.

"Noona," he smiled, his reply sounding more like a whisper than a response. Almost immediately after he acknowledged Taeyeon's presence, Joonmyun's smile faded, his face quickly shifting from glad to worried. "Noona, don't poke your head out! Someone might see you!" he warned, his eyes quickly scanning through the area for any sign of sasaeng fans.

Taeyeon, who doesn't seem bothered about being spotted by the public, just giggled. "It's the first time we see each other in months and you're already nagging me," she chuckled softly. "Aren't you supposed to introduce me to your friend first?"  she added, tilting her head.

"Oh, yeah. This is Jaemi," Joonmyun introduced. "Jaemi, Taeyeon noona,"

Bowing your head a bit, you greeted Taeyeon by saying 'Annyeonghaseyo', and she, in turn, did the same thing to acknowledge you. "Annyeonghaseyo, Jaemi!" she said, even adding a bright smile and a little wave to emphasize how pleased she was to meet you.

"Ya~ Joonmyun-ah, does Sunyoung know you have a cute friend?" she teased, and when you looked at the boy beside you, you suddenly wondered what happened to your friend because the Kim Joonmyun you know certainly does not smile and blush that.

Joonmyun wasn't able to answer Taeyeon's question, though. When Leeteuk finally exited the convenience store, Taeyeon quickly bid the two of you farewell by piping a very rushed "Joonmyun-ah! Jaemi-ah! Annyeong!" before closing the window as fast as she could.

And as you watched the white idol van drive away, you noticed that the smile that you seldom see in Kim Joonmyun's face has also vanished.

"I still can't believe TaeTeuk is real!"

About four shops away from the convenience store, you decided that you just couldn't hold it in anymore, so you blurted out what has been bugging you since the moment you saw Taeyeon's face peek through that partly-opened window of the white idol van.

"They're not real," Joonmyun refuted.

"But I saw them, Rich Kid! I saw them with my two eyes!" you reasoned.

Joonmyun cast you a look. "Saw them doing what? Riding a white van together? Jaemi, just because they were in the same van, it doesn't mean they're dating. It's like assuming two idols are sleeping together just because they own the same phone accessory,"

What Joonmyun said made a lot of sense. You know that you shouldn't jump into conclusions, but...

"But I saw them kissing! In Hangang Park! Last summer!" you blurted out, covering your mouth with your hands almost immediately, realizing that you just broke your promise to Yixing of not mentioning that particular scenario to Joonmyun.

"You saw them kissing?" he calmly asked.

Taking a deep sigh, you cast Joonmyun a 'Sorry-I-mentioned-that' look. "Oh no! Yixing's going to kill me for this-"

Joonmyun interrupted you. "Don't worry about him. Yixing is just overprotective of our feelings. It's funny how he sometimes forgets that we're old enough to deal with such things ourselves," he chuckled, shaking his head softly. "So, you were saying?"

"Remember when we had a picnic at Hangang Park? Well, when Yixing and I were taking a walk, we accidentally saw Taeyeon unnie- wait, is it okay that I call her unnie? Oh, nevermind - anyway, we saw her come out of a white van, then she transferred to this super-cool black car that looks like a Batmobile, you know, the one whose doors open upwards? Well, yeah, she got into that car and while the car door was slowly closing down, we caught her kissing this blond-haired guy wearing a pair of sunglasses,"

After your long account of how you witnessed Taeyeon kissing Leeteuk, Joonmyun just responded with another question. "Are you sure it was Leeteuk sunbaenim?"

"Well, I wasn't able to see his face clearly because it was quite far, but he got the blond hair and sunglasses thing spot on," you said.

"Here you go again. You're always assuming things," Joonmyun pointed out.

Your current discussion about TaeTeuk was briefly interrupted when you finally reached The Happy Bubble Tea Shop. When you noticed that the shutter door was still rolled down, you silently went into a state of panic because you have no idea how to open that kind of door. With the set of keys Yeonhee gave you the day before, you stood in front of the shop, furrowed your eyebrows, and tried to figure out how you're supposed to roll it open. 

"Just give me the keys," Joonmyun ordered.

Relieved that you were suddenly freed from the task of opening the metal shutter door, you immediately handed it to him, flashed him a grateful smile, and moved out of the way, so Joonmyun could start working on the locks.

As soon as you stepped aside, Joonmyun squatted down and e of the keys into the padlock. When he removed the padlock's shackle from the metal loop, the shutter automatically rolled upwards, finally freeing the bubble tea shop from its first line of protection. Since the keys were already in his hands, Joonmyun decided to open the front door of the shop as well.

"Thank you," you smiled.

With Joonmyun's help, you were able to finish every item in your task-list this morning without much difficulty. In fact, he even volunteered to arrange all the tables and the chairs while you were busy preparing the first batch of tapioca pearls for today. Once you were done with your respective tasks, Joonmyun sat on one of the stools on the other side of the counter and the two of you resumed your earlier conversation about Taeyeon and Leeteuk.

"If TaeTuek isn't real, then why were they together?" you asked.

"It's actually a strategy," he revealed, pulling the stay-on-tab from his can of Maxwell House iced coffee. "They try to cover up the real relationship by making the public believe that they're dating other people. Take them, for example. A lot of fans believe that Leeteuk sunbaenim and Taeyeon noona are dating, but the truth is, it's just a ploy to steer the rumors away from her relationship with Junsu sunbaenim."

"JUNSU OPPA?!?" you exclaimed.

Joonmyun took a gulp of iced coffee before continuing. "Yeah. This is how it works: Leeteuk sunbaenim picks up Taeyeon noona from the So Nyeo Si Dae dorm or the company building. He then drives her to a secret location where she reunites with Junsu sunbaenim," he explained, placing his can of iced coffee on top of the counter.

"So, that blonde guy we saw in Hangang Park was actually Junsu oppa?"

"Yeah, that black luxury car you described earlier seems like Junsu sunbaenim's Mercedes Benz SLS AMG to me," he said, carefully looking at your