Chapter 11:

            AeLin put on a strong face but tears came running down. “Who are you?” AeLin said. “Ha?” OkHyun replied harshly. “Who are you?! What have you done to my brother?!” AeLin continued. “OkHyun…just go out first. Please?” Megumi said. He was hesitant and wanted to talk back but Megumi gave him the stare which left him no choice. “AeLin…stay here okay?” Megumi said and followed OkHyun outside. She stayed there and wiped her tears. “OkHyun.” Megumi said. “Megumi…I don’t know what to do with her anymore.” OkHyun said. “OkHyun…just give her what she wants. Then all will be over.” Megumi said.

        “No, I can’t do that.” “What do you want from the girl OkHyun? She’s been trying hard to fit in. She learned to live independently; she tried her best and coped with all the hardships you made me give her. Isn’t that enough?” Megumi said. There was a moment of silence. Then OkHyun rushed back to where AeLin was without saying a word to Megumi. “OkHyun, what are you going to do?” Megumi chased him. He opened the door and found AeLin still in the room. He looked at her glaring eyes for a moment. “Okay AeLin. Promise me you’ll do well here. Once you do well you will be going back to Seoul.” OkHyun said.

So then there was that 2 years of doing well in Japan. But in the midst of those 2 years her brother forced her to say yes to Ray’s proposal for her to be his girlfriend. It was a tough decision. She knew she still loved TaeMin through those years. She had no choice. She had to do well and please her brother to convince him to go to Korea. So then AeLin became friendly and back to her old self after that.

            She became great friends with various people in Japan but behind her smiling face is the cold AeLin which SaeKo and the others at home feel. She would often daze around and sleep right away. She wouldn’t talk much and her optimistic feel was gone. She would only eat little and would always loose appetite. That’s the reason why she became paler and skinnier. She was happy on the outside but on the inside, she was hurting. So then for 2 years she was like that until the time that Megumi couldn’t take it anymore. She decided it was time for them to tell OkHyun to let her go back to Korea.

            “AeLin, you’re going back so Seoul.” Megumi said. AeLin, who was sitting on the couch dazed, was suddenly, after 2 years, got that alert. “What?” she said. Megumi smiled. “De. You’ll be going back next month.” Megumi said. It seemed like she got her energy back. “Really? But…oppa.” “I talked to him already. He said yes.” Megumi said. Finally after a long time Megumi saw her bountiful and soulful smile. “But, there was a condition.” Megumi said. “Condition?” AeLin replied. “We will go back to Seoul if you promise to not break up with Ray. If ever, OkHyun would force you back to Japan.” Megumi said. “Ray?” her happy face went back to her sad face.

            She sighed and went into deep thinking.

~End of Flashback~

            “But even though Ray was forced to date her she really felt happy. She doesn’t love Ray, TaeMin. She loves you still.” SaeKo said willing to convince him to not give up. “And she forgave you a long time ago and was willing to accept your explanation about ShinYe.” SaeKo has gone a long way for them to be back in Seoul. Truth is she knew that Megumi had no choice but to kneel before OkHyun just to let him agree of her plan of coming back. She didn’t want her efforts to go to waste since SaeKo and Megumi became such good friends the times she was in Japan.

            “It was all because of her oppa…” TaeMin said and was in deep thought. “She’s lying to herself in order to be with you guys here. I’m hoping you set her free of her suffering. Only you can do this.” SaeKo said. SaeKo then took a deep breathe. “It’s all up to you now.” SaeKo said and went outside the room. “This is all so confusing.” he thought. Then the rest of SHINee, besides MinHo, arrived. “Noona!” they said. “Ommo. My boys. How are you? Where’s Minho?” SaeKo said as she gave them a hug. “He’s still filming a movie and manager hyung is with him.” Key answered.

            “Noona, where’s TaeMin and AeLin?” Onew said. “Well, TaeMin is – What? AeLin is not here?” SaeKo said. “I thought they went on a date.” JongHyun said. “She was here when I arrived. She was watching a movie sitting on the couch.” SaeKo said. “Ommo.” she sat on the couch and sighed. “What’s wrong? What happened?” Key said. Then SaeKo told them about what happened earlier. So then they decided to not look for her instead to let her cool off a bit.

            “Come on let’s have lunch.” SaeKo said and went to the kitchen. Then it started to rain. Lunch has passed and it was already 4:30 PM. “She’s not back yet.” JongHyun said. “I need to go to TaeMin’s room to check on him.” Key stood up and went to TaeMin’s room. When he opened the door TaeMin appeared in front of him.

            “TaeMin ah, are you okay?” Key said. TaeMin just stood there looking pale and stared at him. “TaeMin?” Key went closer to him enough to catch his fall. He fainted. “TaeMin!” Key yelled. The other SHINee members went to the door. “What’s wrong?” Onew said. “He’s got high fever.” Key carried him to his bed. “How could he have a fever?” Onew said as they got to where he was. “The window is opened. The cold air from the rain must’ve come in.” SaeKo said and headed for the window and closed it.

            “I think it’s better for him to sleep here so that he can’t contaminate us.” Key said. “Yeah I guess so.” JongHyun said. “Why in the world would he keep that open though.” Onew said. “We won’t know unless he tells us.” Key said. “What’ll we do now? We need to go soon to rehearse.” JongHyun said. “Don’t worry, AeLin will be here. I’m certain.” Key said as he read the text message that MinHo sent him. “I hope MinHo is right with this.” JongHyun said. “If only I had the time to stay here.” SaeKo said. “It’s okay noona. We’ll just leave him medicines for him to take when he wakes up.” Onew said and they left.

            TaeMin was still unconscious. They left his medicine and some water on the desk beside TaeMin’s bed and note about when to take the medicine.

            Meanwhile at the Tan (Ray) residence…

            “AeLin, are you sure you’re not going back to the dorm?” Ray said. AeLin didn’t reply. “You’ve been here 2 hours ago and I still don’t know what’s happening. Tell me what happened so that I can help you. Did something happen in the dorm?” Ray sat beside her and started to wrap his arms around her. She got away from his arms and stood up. “I didn’t come here. You saw me earlier walking on the streets and dragged me to your house. And it’s still raining. I might as well stay here for a while before going back.” She said facing away from him. But then he knew something was up because earlier SHINee members have been calling if he saw AeLin.

            Soon it had to be dinner time. Ray and AeLin were at the dining table just the two of them eating. “Is something wrong?” Ray said upon noticing how her expression became an uneasy one. She didn’t reply immediately. “Something’s wrong.” She said. “Hm? Come again?” Ray said after swallowing a spoonful. “Something’s definitely wrong. I can feel it.” She then stood up and headed for the door. “AeLin! Where are you going?” Ray said rather confused. “I’m going back to the dorm. Thank you for keeping me company!” she said then got out of the house. Ray sighed.

            It was a 10 minute drive from Ray’s house to SHINee’s apartment. Because of her rush she didn’t bother riding a taxi and just ran to the apartment. After 20 minutes she came. She was standing, or rather panting, at the front of SHINee’s apartments’ door. She opened the door and found no one inside. “Ahh, well I guess I was wrong.” Then she got in the dorm and sat at the couch to catch her breath. Then moments later she walked to the kitchen to get some water.

            Just when she was about to take a pale of water she heard a loud thump coming from TaeMin’s bedroom. “A thief?” she thought. Then she slowly walked to the front of the door. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for a fight. She opened the door slowly and peeked through the room. What she saw made her heart race. She saw TaeMin on the floor, very pale, and he is so catching his breath. “TaeMin ah!” she rushed to him. She got him up and back to her bed.

            When he was finally settled on the bed she got her hand over his forehead. “So hot! You have a high fever!” AeLin said. Then he went to the outside to get a bowl then went to the bathroom to get some water. Then he got a small towel from the desk and dipped it in water. “TaeMin ah, you’re clothes are already wet. You need to get changed.” AeLin said. TaeMin was half conscious. She got from a sleeveless shirt from the dress room and went to let him sit up.

            “Come on TaeMin. Let’s change your upper clothes at least.” AeLin said. TaeMin was hesitant but he was too weak to oppose her. He just groaned. “You can thank me when you get better.” AeLin said and smiled at him. After changing she started to wipe the wet small towel to his arms, legs, back and stomach. “There we go.” She finished wiping his body. She took his temperature and saw a shocking 41 degrees.

            “Ommo.” she said. Then she finally noticed the medicine on the desk. “TaeMin, good thing you woke up. We needed to go to the rehearsals. Here’s some medicine we left you with. Take it after eating.” AeLin read the memo along with the medicine. “Ah! These SHINee members really!” AeLin said. “Did you eat already?” she asked. TaeMin shook his head. “Really oppas. What do you want? Soup? Rice? Anything?” she said. He didn’t reply. “I guess soup is better.” She went out of the room and left the door open. She cooked some soup and served it to him.