Narrator’s POV

They are like that. They may be students of a university as renowned as Seoul University but in the face of good gossip, they show the same behaviour as everyone else. They’d agitatedly discuss the awesomeness of having the ‘fiancé of England’s crown prince’ attending the same university as them even though it was common knowledge that the current crown prince was already married. It seemed intelligence didn’t matter when it came to gossip. =.=

Hyo Rin stood in front of her best friend and eyed her through squinted eyes. They had decided to skip their lectures, obviously, and were now in a quiet corner of the University Park. Ha Neul was sitting on a bench with her legs pulled to her chest. She was chewing her lip, a sign that she was thinking hard, and avoiding Hyo Rin’s inquiring stare.

Just what had happened for this girl that had always avoided any kind of attention to suddenly be the centre of the university gossip? Hyo Rin wondered. What she’d gathered so far was that Ha Neul had been seen getting off a rather expensive car with tinted, very important: tinted!, windows. And now, everyone was speculating who had driven that car.

And since Hyo Rin was sure that it hadn’t been Ha Neul’s driver, she was even more curious to know.

“So~~? Care to tell your best friend what this is all about?” Hyo Rin asked in a demanding voice that allowed no backing out.

“Can’t tell,” Ha Neul nonetheless mumbled into her knees.

“Excuse me? You can’t tell me? Me, your best friend??” This was new. Since when did Ha Neul have things she couldn’t talk about with Hyo Rin? “Why?”

“Promised.”

“To whom?” Hyo Rin was starting to get worried. Knowing her BFF a promise equalled at least an impending disaster!

“Can’t tell.”

“Promises can be broken,” Hyo Rin suggested trying to figure out at least something about her friend’s situation. God knows, what she’d gotten herself into again now!

“Can’t…”

Hyo Rin gulped. This didn’t feel good, not good at all!

“Signed a contract…”

Hyo Rin took a step back in disbelieve before starting to shake her friend like mad and screaming her lungs out. “Signed a contract?! A contract?!!! Ha Neul!!!! MItchasso??!!!!! How can you sign a contract with a damn stranger??!!!!!!" It had to a stranger because Ha Neul only knew very few people.

"Hyo Rin, do me a favour and stop shouting!" Ha Neul pleaded and clutched her suffering head with both hands.

Hyo Rin stopped and looked at her friend worriedly. "What's wrong with your head?"

"I drank some alcohol last night..."

"You got drunk?!!" Hyo Rin gasped. Oh no, how many needed psychological treatment this time? "Alone?"

"No... So would you pretty, pretty please tell me what happened on my 18^th birthday??" Ha Neul flashed her eyelids pitifully at her friend. "'Cause really want to know what I did last night!"

Hyo Rin thought for a second then smiled triumphantly at Ha Neul. "Chowa, I'll tell you." Ha Neul immediately brightened. "But only if you tell me who you got drunk with!" Ha Neul's face fell again.

But to Hyo Rin's surprise she agreed. "Fine. So what do I do when I'm drunk?" She looked at her friend expectantly.

Hyo Rin gulped. Just remembering that night made her cringe!

"So?" Ha Neul pushed.

"Alright!" Hyo Rin cheered herself on and drew a deep breath. "At first, you behaved quite normal. Maybe you were a little tipsy and even clumsier than when you're sober (if that's even possible). But that's normal. But then, after your fourth or fifth glass, you started demanding me to give you little tasks to do. I don't know if you were trying to prove that you were still capable of completing them or what. If you know please enlighten me!" She threw Ha Neul a questioning look but she just shook her head. How would she know? When she doesn't remember at all?!

"Guess not," Hyo Rin nodded. "Anyway. Even that would have been okay. I mean everyone has their drinking habits. But. BUT! Then, you decided to go around the club and ask random people, you hear me, Ha Neul? Some ing STRANGERS! to give you tasks to do! And if they weren't at least embarrassing to the bones, you wouldn't do them and instead demand for another!! You know, I thought I knew what second-hand embarrassment was! With all those cheesy movies my mom always watches! But you... you defined a complete new level of it!!" Hyo Rin had to catch her breath because she'd gotten so worked up.

Ha Neul, on the other side, just sat there, her eyes wide as saucers and stared at her friend in horror. No WAY! Just what had she done then last night? "And what kind of tasks did I demand exactly?" She managed to ask weakly dreading the answer.

"I don't even want to remember!" Hyo Rin shuddered. "But I think you did a on a grandpa! A !!  How did you even learn to do that? You who can't even walk on a straight line?!"

"?!" Ha Neul shrieked in an unhealthily high voice. Did she also do a yesterday?!! God, the shame!!! She could never, NEVER meet them again!!

"So, who were you drinking with last night?" Hyo Rin asked for her part of the bargain when Ha Neul was unable to answer her other question.

Ha Neul looked up. "The same person who drove me here this morning?" She replied sheepishly.

"Hwang Ha Neul!!!" Hyo Rin yelled and resumed shaking her friend wildly.

"Owww, my head!" Ha Neul whined and Hyo Rin to stopped again.

"Tell me!" Hyo Rin commanded and glared at her friend in such a way that Ha Neul knew she had to come up with a solution for this and fast!

And there was only one she could think of. "Fine, I'll tell you," she resigned. "Just give me a week, okay?"

Hyo Rin eyed her sceptically. "What do you need a week for?"

"Getting permission from that person..." Ha Neul answered darkly. It was going to be a hard piece of work if not impossible. *sighs heavily*

"Why do you need to ask that person for permission?!"

"'Cause that person will be the one to receive your hysteric fit once I tell you..."

"I'm going to throw a hysteric fit?" Hyo Rin was getting more and more confused. Just who was this person???

"At least!" Ha Neul laughed.

Hyo Rin pursed her lips. "Alright, I guess I can wait a week..."

"Rinnnnnn! Thank youuuuuuu!!" Ha Neul jumped up from the bench and gave her best friend a relieved hug.

---

Since Jonghyun had arrived the atmosphere in SHINee's practice room had become tense. The moment he'd opened the door they all knew that there would be no practice today. Key, Minho, and Taemin sat on the chairs and the couch watching their hyungs apprehensively. Jonghyun's desolate figure lay on the couch and the leader was crouching in front of him.

“Jonghyun, you’ve got to stop this already,” Onew said softly. “Tell her once and for all. That she should stop meddling in your life and live her own. It’s better that way. For everyone involved.”

“Hyung, we both know I can’t do that…” Jonghyun whispered in a resigned voice. “I just can’t bring myself to do this to her! She’s my—“

“We know, Jonghyun! We know!” Onew exclaimed exasperated. “But it’s destroying you! Can’t you see? Look at you! One call and you’re like this again! Do you know how long it took you to recover last time?!”

“Hyung—“

“Look here,” Onew made one last effort. “She’s still the same as she was back then. She hasn’t changed one bit. She’d make the same decision again, if she had to.” Onew struggled with his words as he saw the hurt on his friend’s face. But he forced himself to continue. “She still loves that man. Things will never return to how they have been, Jonghyun. No matter how long you wait or how many times she apologises and says she did wrong! In the end, she’ll always return to that man’s side.”

It nearly crushed him to see the pain his words caused his friend. But at the same time Onew knew that things couldn’t continue like that. That’s why he said those words. As much as they might hurt.

“Jonghyun...” Onew called out.

“Let’s go drink.” Jonghyun's voice lacked any emotion. He didn't care that his head was still hurting from last night.

“Jonghyun, it won’t solve anyth—“

“Please. Let’s go drink?” He was almost begging.

“Arasso,” Key got up from his chair. He couldn’t watch anymore. He pulled Jonghyun up and motioned him towards the door. He signalled the others with his head to come as well and they slowly followed.

---

When they left the bar, they were the last ones and the owner was ushering them out so he could clean up. Jonghyun was out cold. He really was going to get alcohol poisoning someday if things stayed this way.

They agreed that the young ones, meaning Taemin and Minho would bring Jonghyun home because Onew and Key had an early schedule the next morning and badly needed some sleep.

The two laid their hyung onto the backseat of Minho’s car and drove off. When they arrived at his apartment, they fished his key out of his pocket to open the door. They obliviously passed the female shoes in the entrance and gently tucked him under. They closed the door to his bedroom silently and almost ran over the cat that had sneaked behind them.

“Omo, Shil Hye!” Minho whispered and crouched down to pet her head. “Let me give you something to eat. Hyung probably forgot...” He headed to the kitchen with Shil Hye and Taemin tagging along.

But when he turned around the counter he was surprised to find Shil Hye’s bowl already filled with cat food. “Omo, he really fed you?” His eyes wandered over to the pack of carton on the kitchen table. It was a pack of instant noodles. “And he bought instant noodles? The Kim Jonghyun who hates any food that’s not homemade got instant noodles??” It almost seemed as if their hyung had a secret they hadn’t discovered during last night’s secret-time…

But Minho wasn’t the type to put his nose into other people’s business. If it was something he should know, Jonghyun would come and tell him by himself anyway. So he just smiled to himself and told the maknae it was time to leave. Maybe this time things would go differently.

---

It had been a more than exhausting day with all those rumours and when Ha Neul reached Jonghyun's apartment she just left her shoes in the entrance, threw her stuff somewhere and went to bed. But in the middle of the night she was startled awake by a loud thudding sound, like something big had fallen to the ground. Fearing it might be a robber she grabbed the lamp from her bedside table and cautiously opened her door.

After looking to both sides she stepped out holding the lamp protectively in front of her like a sword. She slowly advanced to the living room hastily glancing at all sides. There was nothing that seemed out of place though. She lowered the lamp hesitantly and took a step towards the entrance to give it a last check before returning to bed. But she didn't get that far.

Suddenly, two arms wrapped around her waist from behind. She let out a small scream and tried turning around to put her weapon to use. But her move was thwarted as she felt herself being crushed to a warm torso so hard she was gasping for air. She kept struggling until a familiar scent filled her nose; a scent she would recognise anywhere... for a reason she could not fathom but she just would... The scent from that day on the university floor... Terrorist Kiddy... Kim Jonghyun...

But why was he—

"Don't go!" He desperately whispered into her ear. "Please! Don't leave me!"

---------------------------

Hey guys, here's the update!! Sorry, I don't have much time, need to watch MAMA!! >< <3333333

BTW: I was wondering, do guys call each other with the ending -ah? Like Onew calling Jonghyun Jonghyun-ah? Or would that indicate that they're going out? ^^

Please subscribe and comment!! <3 I really appreciate them!!!