Chapter 28:

            As soon as the van started to move the others flocked on him. “Oi. Did you ask her to be your girlfriend?” Key said. “Did you?” Onew added. TaeMin kept his mouth shut for a while and looked at his hyungs. “No.” he answered. “YES! He asked her….wait, no?! WHY?!” JongHyun said. “I didn’t want to, and I know she didn’t want to as well.” TaeMin said. “Is it because you’re leaving?” MinHo said. TaeMin just nodded. “It’d be useless anyways right? It would just cause some complications in our relationship if ever. We agreed to wait though.” TaeMin said. There was silence in the van. “I’m so proud of you TaeMin.” Key said and hugged him. “TaeMin ah.” They all cuddled up on him.

“AeLin, AeLin open your eyes.” There was a familiar voice ringing through her ears. She slowly started to wake up and found herself in the middle of a familiar field. “Where am I?” she said. “AeLin.” Then she turned to where the voice was coming from. “Umma! Appa!” she yelled and went to hug them. Her umma and appa were in all white and was smiling brightly to see her once more. “Wait…am I dead?” she broke the hug and looked puzzled. “No AeLin. You’re just dreaming. But, do you want to be?” Her appa giggled. “No! Well, it’s not that I don’t want to be with you guys.” She took a deep breath. “I missed you.” She hugged them once again.

            “We missed you too. You’ve grown up a lot my daughter.” AeEul said. “Yeah I have…uhm…why are you speaking so fomally?” AeLin said. “Your umma has been hanging out with the old Chinese ones in this world so she became like that.” OkRyo said. “Shut your mouth OkRyo, even in the other world you’re still acting stupid.” AeEul smacked him on the head. AeLin was amused and laughed. “Anyways, AeLin ah. We’ve been watching you from here. You have gone through a lot of things ever since we left.” Her umma said. “You have done a lot of right and wrong choices through the years and we appear before you because we want to give you our blessings.” OkRyo said.

            Simultaniously TaeMin was also dreaming the same thing. AeLin’s parents were also talking to him. “Blessings? For what?” AeLin said. “Dear, we want to bless you with something that’s going to come up next in the future. We’re seeing great things lying ahead of you.” OkRyo said. “OkRyo! You weren’t supposed to say anything about the future!” AeEul said. “Sorry.” OkRyo said to prevent him from being smacked again. “You already received our graces. You don’t need to worry about your brother. We appeared in his dream last night and told him to approve of the two of you as well.” AeEul said. “Us two? Who us? Me and oppa?” AeLin said condused. “Well, we need to go now. Goodbye AeLin! Stay safe always!” AeLin gave them one last big hug and her parents then walked away and faded away.

            She woke up after that. “What time is it?” she said and looked at the clock. “It’s 3 in the morning and it’s still dark.” AeLin said and sighed. “I won’t be able to go back to sleep like this.” AeLin said and got out of bed. She the lights of the whole apartment and started to eat. “My trainer won’t be happy with this. Good thing my manager isn’t here.” She said in between bites. She also watched TV to pass the time. She also went online after 2 months of not visiting the internet. She went to the International forums dedicated to her and to the forums that she was involved in.

            There was one thread in Lintastic International and TaeLin International that were of the same subject. “Lin and SHINee’s TaeMin are really going out!” the title of the thread went. She clicked on the link and read the thread. The acticle was from Naver.com and was posted later the day before.

“News really spreads this quick. But we’re not going out. We just confessed.” AeLin said and added a reply. She sighed and continued to surf the internet. When the sun finally raised SHINee headed for AeLin’s apartment to pick her up. They planned to go there earlier so that they may spend more time together before they leave but because of their driver not being there and they had no money on them, they waited until 6 a.m. They didn’t ring the doorbell and just opened the door. They know the combination to the dorm anyways and they wanted to surprise her while she was sleeping. They creeped into the dorm and saw the lights open.

“Is she awake?”JongHyun whispered. When they reached the living room they saw her sleeping on the couch in such a weird position and with her laptop on her stomach. “What the? What was she doing?” Onew said and they went to her. MinHo took the laptop off of her stomach and put it on the floor. While doing it he happened to read the article about TaeMin and AeLin. “Ah! Ya! Guys, look at this.” MinHo said. Since the International Forums were in English he went to the actual article from Naver.com. “It seems like we weren’t the only ones in the rain.” MinHo added and showed them the article.

“Wow. But their not yet a couple, but let’s leave this be. Keke~” Key said. “AeLin ah, wake up.” TaeMin was waking her up. AeLin slowly opened her eyes and looked at him confused. “Am I in hell?” AeLin said upon seeing him. “Ya! Just because you saw me you’re assuming you’re in hell.” TaeMin gave her a smack on the head as a wake up call. “Ow…” AeLin said while holding her head. “Come on guys let’s get ready. AeLin go on and prepare. We’ll be facing a lot of questions later.” Key said. “I’m going to get you for that TaeMin. It really hurts.” AeLin stood up and went to the bedroom. “Blah blah blah. Stop talking and start moving.” TaeMin replied.

“Come on you two stop arguing.” MinHo said. Soon AeLin was done taking a bath and changing clothes. “We only have hours till it’s finally over guys. Let’s make it last.” Onew said. “SHINee fighting!” AeLin yelled. The others followed. Then the 6 headed off to Ray’s restaurant to eat breakfast. They also called Ray earlier to join them in their breakfast. When they arrived at the restaurant they Ray was already there waiting for them. “Good morning!” Ray said as they got out of the van. “Good morning Ray!” the SHINee members gave him high-fives as AeLin gave him a hug. “You look lovely AeLin.” Ray said. “Kamsa hamnida.” she replied.

They went inside the restaurant and ordered their breakfast. “I heard the two of you were dating already. Congratulations. I give you my blessings.” Ray said. “Who told you that?” AeLin said. “We’re not going out. We’re not even a couple!” TaeMin said. “Huh? Why? Didn’t you confess to her?” Ray said. TaeMin was surprised that he knew. “That part is true. But they’re not going out.” Onew said. Then Key whispered something to him. “Well…if that’s the case you better take care of her TaeMin at least. I’m wishing both of you happiness.” Ray added. “So then, I guess this is the last day you’ll be together huh?” Ray said. “Well, yeah. We figured in the last hours of us being together we visit our friends in our showbiz life.” Key said. “What are you guys going to do after the break-up?” Ray said.

“Well…I’ll be going to L.A and maybe live there permanently as well.” Key answered. “Hollywood is where me and JongHyun are going. But we’ll still be back in Seoul every after 6 months.” Onew said. “I’ll still be in Seoul working on my acting.” MinHo replied. TaeMin didn’t answer and just nodded. “And you TaeMin?” Ray said. “Me? I’ll be living in Seattle and work there with my hyung and JaeBeom hyung.” TaeMin answered. “You’ll be leaving? When?” Ray said. “Later this night.” TaeMin answered. “But -” “It’s okay.” AeLin said. “I’ll adjust.” She said and smiled. “You’re really mature now AeLin. TaeMin is lucky to have you.” Ray said.

When breakfast was finally served they talked a bit more. When it was time for them to go SHINee thanked Ray for the friendship they had and for the bond that was formed in between. Then SHINee and Lin went to SME and formed there with the other groups. Members of disbanded group SNSD, SuJu, and DBSK made efforts to come to SHINee’s last day and wish them their last goodbyes. “You have grown a lot SHINee. Now it’s time for you to part I wish you all the luck you can get and be successful in every way.” Tiffany said. “We will miss you very much.” Krystal said. “SHINee. This day your contract finally expires and you are now on your own. Thank you for being a part of SMTown and you do know that you’ll still be part of SMTown wherever your paths may take you.” YunHo said.

“De hyung, noona.” Onew replied. Finally JeungKuk came into the room and looked at them. “SHINee.” He started. “25 minutes from now your contract in SME will finally be done. Let’s take this moment to remember all the things that happened in the past from when you auditioned and to when you debuted. You had epic moments together. And now it’s time for you to finally leave and go your own ways.” He continued. There was a moment of silence in the room. “SHINee, even though you’re not together anymore the name SHINee would always circulate around your personality because SHINee will stay inside you and inside all of us. Always remember that you’re always welcome to come back here at SME because SHINee will always be a part of SME.” SM said. “De. We will always remember that.” Onew said.

“To our sunbaes and donsaengs, thank you for supporting us from the time of our debut until now. We wouldn’t have made it to this point without your support as well.” Key said. “SHINee, your contract would be officially expired in 3, 2, 1.” SM said. Then there and then SHINee was finally free. After a little more chat AeLin and SHINee went out of the building. They decided they wanted to roam around Seoul for the first time without their manager, no disguises, no rules to follow, and just them as normal people. They were in the middle of Seoul now.