Narrator’s POV

It was morning at 10:30, their flight was departing at half past one, which was in three hours, and there was still no Jonghyun in sight. To say, manager Choi Jin was a bit nervous, was an understatement. He was pacing back and forth in the living room of the suite while the rest of SHINee was sitting on the couches looking at each other. They also didn’t know where Jonghyun went. Well, it wasn’t difficult to know where he was, the problem was that they didn’t know where that place he went to was. Because the hotel staff wouldn’t tell them; privacy reasons. And giving a call back to Seoul to ask for Ha Neul’s room number would have prompted all the questions they absolutely wanted to avoid.

Manager Choi Jin was already opting to go and knock on every single door of the hotel to find his missing protégé, when suddenly the door opened. In strode the very person, proudly wearing nothing but a navy-blue bathrobe, which became him very handsomely though, and looking very self-satisfied.

Choi Jin didn’t know whether to feel relieved that he was finally back or to feel angry at him for having the nerves to stroll in here as if he didn’t have a care in the world, and after walking around the hotel in “clothes” like that on top of it. “Jonghyun!” He thus only managed.

“Good morning,” Jonghyun replied cheerily. “I’ll just go change my clothes real’ quick.”

The people present were too stupefied by his chirpy attitude to say anything against it and when he – now wearing more appropriate clothes – came back into the living room, one expectant and slightly scolding and four simply very expectant faces were still waiting for him.

“What?” Jonghyun asked, playing innocent.

“’What’?!” Key exclaimed. “You just stayed out the entire night and came back wearing nothing but a friggin’ bath robe and all you say is ‘what’?!”

Jonghyun shrugged his shoulders, but his lips were twitching and his eyes sparkling.

Key scoffed. “Don’t ever walk the streets looking like this. The media would have a field day!”

Feeling caught, Jonghyun couldn’t help but blush. And his manager groaned. “Oh, god…” He racked his hair.  “Lee Sajang-nim will have my head!”

For a second, a twinge of guilt crossed Jonghyun’s face but right after his confident countenance was back. “Don’t worry, he wouldn’t dare,” he said but Choi Jin just gave him a sceptical glare.

“Because you’re the only one who can handle this rowdy bunch that is us.” Jonghyun added with a grin.

“That’s because I’m way too lenient with you guys,” the manager grumbled. But Jonghyun knew he had already won. They all knew Manager Jin treated them as if they were his own sons, even though he was only about ten years older than them. So, it wasn’t that Jin was unhappy about Jonghyun finding his special someone, quite the opposite actually. Jin new how hard it was to find someone who would see you as yourself in this business and he was really happy Jonghyun seemed to have found her nonetheless. But he just as well knew what dating a non-celebrity in this industry entailed. It wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. He had seen it many times. And every time he had hoped that he could spared his kids all that heartbreak.

----

Jin looked at the boys sitting in the waiting lounge, his pensive gaze laced with care and tenderness. After the first hysteria of Jonghyun’s return to their hotel suite had died down again, manager Jin had, without further delay, commanded his crew to their van and straight to the airport. But because they had already missed the boarding time window for the VIP passengers, they now had to wait in the lounge until all other passengers were seated.

They had gotten used to the processes of airplane rides a long time ago and everyone had found their own way of passing the waiting time. Most of them had their earphones plugged in listening to music or as in Minho’s case watching a football game on his tablet. Key was reading the fashion magazine he had bought just now and Taemin had his eyes closed, his feet whipping rhythmically to the beat of the music. Likewise, Onew had his eyes closed, however, every now and then his head would jerk up only to slowly tilt to the side again – he was trying to get his daily ten hours of sleep. Okay, that was an exaggeration.

Jin’s eyes trailed over to his currently biggest source of worry. Jonghyun had his eyes glued to the screen of his cell phone and was impatiently tapping on the table with his fingers. He was obviously waiting for a certain someone’s reply. The manager sighed and threw a glance down the hallway towards the direction of the security control. There was one piece of information he hadn’t disclosed to the other’s yet. When the VIP manager of the airport had welcomed them, she had asked him where the seventh passenger by the name of Hwang Ha Neul was. So apparently, she was supposed to take the same flight back to Seoul as them. Looking at Jonghyun, Jin had the slight suspicion that he already knew of that fact, though, since he kept glancing towards the entrance direction every other second.

----

With an exhausted sigh, Manager Choi Jin dropped himself into his first-class airplane seat. After having had to quite literally drag a certain idol onto the plane because another certain someone had still not yet arrived at the gate, he felt like he had lost yet another ten years of his life.

He glanced over his protégés once again, checking if everyone was still where they were supposed to be. His eyes came to linger on Jonghyun, who was holding his cell phone to his ear, obviously impatiently waiting for his call to go through. He looked like he would jump up and run off the plane any second and Choi Jin got ready to throw himself into the way of the impending disaster.

However, none such drastic measures were necessary, as all of a sudden, Jonghyun’s face lit up and then he fell back into his seat with a relieved sigh. Apparently, Ha Neul had finally picked up the phone.

“Yah! Where are you?” Jonghyun yelled into the phone, successfully attracting the attention of the entire cabin. The other SHINee members exchanged smirks and meaningful glances while mouthing Ha Neul’s name at each other. And the other passengers were eying them curiously.

Not like Jonghyun noticed, anyway. He was currently preoccupied with more pressing matters. “Where on earth are you?” He repeated. “The plane is about to depart!”

“Huh? I’m on the plane…?” Ha Neul replied confused, the frown audible in her voice. “Why do you a—”

“You’re already on board?” Jonghyun shot before she could even finish her sentence. Sitting up straight, he looked around. “But I don’t see you anywhere!”

Ha Neul chuckled. “I’m guessing you guys are flying business-class or up. Normal employees don’t get such exclusive treatment, you know…”

“Sajang-nim only gave you an economy class ticket?” Jonghyun scowled and got up from his seat.

“And don’t you even dare think about coming back here!” Ha Neul’s warning tone let him freeze in his steps. He hung his head low and sighed. He wasn’t stupid.

“I’ll just take a little peak to check whether you’re really there,” he bargained.

“I dare you. If I see as much as a strand of your horrible bleached hair, then I’m going to cuddle with Shil Hye instead for the next week!”

Jonghyun swallowed dryly. Confronted with such a dreadful prospect, he had no choice but to grudgingly trudge back to his seat. And as he sat back down, five other people followed suit, relieved that Jonghyun seemed to be the only one who had lost his wits over the last night. The scene of his manager and group members restraining an idol never made good headlines…

“Heartless…” Jonghyun grumbled. “What’s wrong with my hair colour, though?”

“It ruins your hair,” Ha Neul said and Jonghyun smiled unconsciously.

“Anyway,” She continued. “I need to hang up now. We’re about to take of so we need to turn of our phones. See you in Seoul!”

And with that the connection was gone. Jonghyun stared at his phone absentmindedly before he wistfully gazed towards the closed curtains, which divided the business class from the economy class.

She was so close, just a few steps away, and yet he couldn’t even see her, let alone go to her.

But he would have to get used to this. He hadn’t really thought about it up until now. Maybe because she lived at his place and he knew, he’d get to see here in the evening anyways. Or maybe because he had been too swept up in all those happy emotions. But now, it hit him like a block of wood. This was what their relationship would be like. Running, hiding, with lots of self-restraint and always, always anxious to be non-existent to the public eye.

He sighed and closed his eyes. Ha Neul deserved more than this. She deserved more than some broken little kid who was afraid to love and who, even if he wanted to, couldn’t show his care openly.

He clenched his teeth and slowly opened his eyes again. But it was too late now. He couldn’t turn back anymore. Maybe he would get punished someday for being this selfish, but he would willingly take that punishment. And until then, he decided, he would do his utmost to become someone that was worthy of standing at Ha Neul’s side.

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A/N: Lol, Jonghyun striding in like that while wearing nothing but a bath robe... kekeke
ugh, somehow this turned out to be just a filler chapter with a bit of fluff... sorry XD

Whaa, it was so nice to see that some of my old friends are still here and still curious about this story and supporting it! I was so touched! <3
And welcome to the new readers! XDD