Narrator's POV

“Okay, now tell me,” Key demanded authoritatively. “And no excuses.”

He and Ha Neul were occupying the two middle seats of the van with Key sitting sideways on his seat, his legs and arms crossed and staring straight at Ha Neul. Jonghyun sat right behind her, cramped together on the backseat with Onew, Minho, and Taemin while manager Choi sat at the front, next to their driver. Even though the company had sent two vans to pick them up from the airport, no one wanted to board the van where there was no Hwang Ha Neul.

Embarrassed by Key’s interrogation, Ha Neul lowered her head and fiddled with the buttons of her coat. It suddenly felt way too warm inside the van. “Why are you asking me?” She finally said in a very small voice. “Shouldn’t you be asking him instead?” She nodded towards the seat behind her.

Key scoffed. “Believe me, I tried!” He exclaimed exasperated. “But he only replies with idiotic answers while smiling like some retard!”

“I’m sitting right here, you know?” Jonghyun hissed but except Ha Neul no one paid him any attention.

“So?” To Ha Neul’s dismay, Key didn’t look like he would give up anytime soon. And the others weren’t doing anything to stop him either. It was going to be a long two hours back from the airport to Seoul.

And faced with the more than uncomfortable prospect of being stared at like that by five pairs of eyes – although their manager was looking out the front window, Ha Neul was two hundred percent sure he was going to listen to every word she’d say – she decided to give in. “What do you want to know then?” She sighed.

“For starters, how did you get that?” Key suggested, and pointed at Ha Neul’s neck. Immediately, her hand flew to her neck and she turned beet-red. Looking into the mirror just after having gotten out of bead and seeing this very distinct purplish spot on her neck this morning, Ha Neul already had had an inkling that it would cause her the embarrassment of a lifetime. That’s why she had desperately tried to cover it up; first by applying make-up and then by trying to cover it with a scarf. In the end, she had almost missed the plane. But it seems it had been for naught anyway. The scarf had come loose along the way and before that it must have rubbed off the make-up, she figured. That didn’t keep her from trying to cover it again, though.

But it was already too late. Even if she had been fast enough to cover it up again before the others had leaned in to get a closer look, Key’s remark and her head that was resembling a giant tomato more and more had already made the situation more than clear. Pure chaos erupted in the van and the driver had his work cut out to keep the car in line.

“Oh my god, is that a kiss mark?!” Minho exclaimed.

“Whaa, I didn’t see it! Ha Neul, put the scarf down again!” The maknae whined while still trying to get a glimpse on the source of the entire commotion by twisting his body in all possible ways within the cramped car.

“Joghyun, you…” The leader gave his friend a dirty smirk and nudged him into the side.

“And don’t even try to brush it off as a mosquito bite!” Key added with a smirk and teasingly wiggled his index finger.

“Do I look like a mosquito to you?” Jonghyun retorted with pursed lips.

“Jonghyun!” Ha Neul cried in embarrassment.

For a moment is was dead silent, and then they took the screaming to a whole new level. Key and Taemin were screaming like crazy fangirls for reasons unfathomable to Ha Neul and Minho was trying to calm them down by shouting even louder.

“Lucky guy, you!” Onew said to Jonghyun.

“Yeah, he must have had one hell of a night!” Key added, still screaming, and Ha Neul’s embarrassment turned into mortification in an instant.

“We didn’t do anything!” She squeaked.

“You call that nothing?” Key smirked and gave a pointed nod at her neck again.

“No. I mean… We didn’t…”

“Yah! Stop teasing her!” Jonghyun finally interrupted, getting annoyed by how they were making Ha Neul uncomfortable. “Stop trying to imagine things that didn’t happen!”

“You guys already slept on the same bed even when there was really ‘nothing’. Say something that actually makes sense, please…” Teamin stated sarcastically.

“You’re the maknae. Stop saying things that will ruin your image”, Jonghyun retorted right away.

“Well, at least, I only say them. Unlike someone…”

Ha Neul buried her face in her hands. She wondered, if there had ever been a case of death by embarrassment. “Manager Choi-ssi, can you please just drop me off at the next bus stop? I’ll go home by myself”, she then said.

Seeing how Ha Neul really was embarrassed to death, the guys finally had mercy on her.

“Okay, okay, we’re sorry”, Key relented. “We’ll stop teasing you. You got bitten by a giant mosquito and you and Jonghyun spent last night playing cards.”

“Yeah”, the maknae quipped in again. “And aren’t you also still curious as to why I said you’d have a good effect on Jonghyun’s photo shoot that day?”

“Oh, that’s right!” Ha Neul perked up at the same time as Jonghyun tried to murder the annoying little blabbermouth at the other side of the car with his burning glare. “You said what?!” He hissed.

“Well, it’s not like I lied…” The maknae continued lightly and with a superior smirk playing around the corner of his lips. Jonghyun wished he could just somehow make that mouth shut up; even with force, if necessary. But being squished into the corners of the van with Onew and Minho in between them, there was just no space to move. And the maknae knew that perfectly. He gave Jonghyun a teasing smirk before focusing his attention back on Ha Neul.

Jonghyun’s eyes widened slightly. “Lee Taemin!” He hissed but he was ignored.

“You know, every year, we take Christmas pictures for our fans”, Taemin started explaining delightfully. “Usually it’s not that big of a deal; I mean, photo shoots are our everyday work.” He shot a smug side glance at Jonghyun. “But somehow, this year, hyung just couldn’t get into the right mood. Well, he had been walking around with a dark face ever since we left Seoul, to be honest. But after he’d made a call that day, it got even worse – he even smashed his phone and almost ran away from the shoot if not for Onew hyung stopping him!”

“Yeah”, Key agreed. “I had never seen hyung look that furious before. Seriously, who did you call that day?” He asked, turning to Jonghyun.

However, instead of answering, Jonhyun just stared into space; eyes hard, jaw set, and his hands balled into fists in his lap. With all the happy things that had happened, he had completely forgotten about that incident. But now that he remembered, he realised he still didn’t know where she had gone that day. And the uncertainty and what-ifs made him feel hurt and angry again. He would have to ask her sometime but he didn’t want to do it now and in front of everyone. Although he hated to admit it, he was somewhat scared of her answer. He had the unsettling feeling that he wasn’t going to like it, and he didn’t want to get hurt in front of everybody.

Seeing his expression, Key backpedalled again. “Uhh, nerver mind. Taemin, please continue…” He made a gesture towards the maknae.

“Okay… yeah… so, as I said before”, said maknae continued, though less enthusiastic as before. “Hyung was in a bad mood that day and because of that his pictures didn’t come out satisfactorily. But then you came and his mood took a 180 degree turn, so I figured if you were to be present at the second photo shoot, it would help.”

“Oh, I see”, Ha Neul said simply and for a moment it was silent after that.

“That’s it?” Key then asked confused.

“Yeah, that’s it”, Taemin answered shortly. Initially, he had wanted to elaborate the story way more, garnish it, and put a lot more focus on how Ha Neul’s arrival had instantly flipped around Jonghyun’s entire behaviour. But seeing his hyung’s expression, he no longer had had the heart to do it. He had only wanted to embarrass his hyung a bit, but instead he seemed to have touched a sensitive topic.

“Whaa, that’s such an anti-. You didn’t even mention how completely smitten he looked when he saw Ha Neul all dolled-up for the photo shoot”, Key grumbled disapprovingly. It wasn’t that he was being deliberately rude or insensitive, he was just a bit slow on things sometimes.

“He did?” The girl in question squeaked, a faint blush spreading on her cheeks again. “You did?” She repeated to Jonghyun with a giddy yet teasing smile, hoping to lift his mood somehow.

His eyes focused in on her face and his facial features softened; the corners of his lips turned upwards ever so slightly and the hard, icy look got replaced with gentleness. Her smile had actually done the trick. As simple as that.

Key threw another glance at the maknae. “See, that’s what I was talking about!” It seemed to say. But they were all glad, that the happy Jonghyun was back again.

Jonghyun looked at her teasingly. “Well, it was all make-up and clothes anyway…”

“Yah!” Ha Neul pouted.

“Don’t worry, dear, he’s just too embarrassed to admit it out loud”, Taemin reassured Ha Neul with another mocking side glance towards Jonghyun.

“I’m not!” The later promptly opposed.

“Prove it!” Ha Neul and all four SHINee member’s chorused with glinting eyes.

Jonghyun looked at them incredulously. “You’re ganging up on me now?”

But they just continued to look at him expectantly.

“Alright, fine. Ghosty looked especially beautiful in those clothes and I was…” He hesitated for a moment and Key raised his eyebrows. “…and I was smitten. God, the things you guys make me say!” He cringed. Then, he seemed to remember something. “Those clothes, by the way, how could that ing photographer let her wear those clothes? They were summer clothes!” He exclaimed. “Ghosty was freezing so much her lips were turning blue!”

The other SHINee members looked at each other and were suddenly very busy with very unimportant things.

“What?” Jonghyun frowned at them.

“Huh, didn’t you know?” Ha Neul asked confused. “Akiha-ssi told me it was my job to be cold that day…”

“WHAT? Jin hyung, what is that supposed to mean?” He demanded to their manager. “Is this true?”

“Uh… well… about that…” Said manager was suddenly in a bit of a bind.

“Hmm?”

“It’s, um… It’s true…”

“It’s true? Why?” He was seething. He somehow had an ugly suspicion but he needed confirmation so that he could kill that damn photographer.

“Well, to trigger your emotions, obviously!” Key provided oh-so-helpfully.

Jonghyun looked out the window and took a deep breath before turning towards manager Choi again. “Where does he live, that **** Akiha, huh?”

“Why? What are you going to do? Kill him?”

“No, short-circuit his heating system!”

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A/N: university life is crazy busy for me right now... thank god for easter holidays lol

Hope you enjoyed the update... XD