While her unnies were busy gushing over Taemin and his corny stories of their supposed love life, Sulli gazed at the couple across the table from hers, the two being Kai and Krystal. She couldn't help but notice how genuinely happy he was with her, how his eyes sparkled whenever he would take notice of him. He had completely fallen for her best friend.

Sulli, what are you doing? Look away.. Sulli scolded herself and quickly glimpsed away after she had catched herself staring at the two longer than she should have. Nevertheless, her lips curled into a small smile once she found how happy she was about their relationship. Krystal had been unhappier than usual these days. She rarely stepped anywhere outside besides the practice room where she would over work herself for their group's comeback to the point that she would refuse to even sleep or eat. Sulli was worried about Krystal, so she felt pleased to know that Kai was treating her friend exceptionally well. Sulli realized that Krystal's contentment, given her circumstances, should be more important than her own, so, she was more than happy to give up the guy of her dreams for her friend.

"And that was how Jinri and I knew we were absolutely perfect for each other." Taemin concluded his story comprised of his own made up fantasies with a smug smile on his face.

Now to deal with this choding. Sulli rolled her eyes, laying her head back in misery while the girls began to gradually clap their hands in unison, all utterly awestruck by the delusional story Taemin had just told them. 

"Aww, I wonder in what century I can ever have the relationship like the one you have with Taemin, Sulli. Oh my god, you guys are so cute!" Tiffany squealed as she playfully rubbed Sulli's shoulders. 

"Yeaah we are." Sulli exclaimed sarcastically, giving Tiffany a strained smile while painfully cringing in the inside. Sulli was too entrenched in her own thoughts to have actually heard what ludicrousness had come out of Taemin's mouth, but she decided she'd rather not know for the sake of her own appetite. 

"Aigoo, my Jinri really is the cutest." Taemin continued to tease Sulli, smiling as he pinched her cheeks. Sulli had no choice but to contain herself from socking the guy in the jaw, especially in front of her sunbaes, so she could only force a smile as he did so. 

Lee Taemin, you're enjoying this aren't you? Sulli squinted her eyes at him.

Of course I am. Taemin responded with a cute smile to which Sulli scoffed in exasperation.

Taemin couldn't help but stifle a laugh while letting go of her cheeks. Unlike Sulli, Taemin was enjoying his unfair advantage. Of course he was. It's not every day that he could actually tease Sulli so easily without being physically abused afterwards. At this point, he figured he might as well get the best out of his own benefit or go home.

Their telepathic conversation was shortly interrupted with the approach of a young waitress holding a glass pitcher filled with water.

"May I help any of you with a refill?" The girl greeted their table with a curteous smile. Sulli hastily hid her face once she recognized the waitress. It was the same waitress that had eyed Sulli tauntingly along with her friend since her entrance. 

The waitress must have recognized Sulli as well as the girl scowled at her presence. 

"You?" She served Sulli with a scornful look.

"Thank you bu-" Before Sulli could have even given her an answer, the waitress's attitude made a 360 degree turn as she turned to face Taemin. 

"Taemin-oppa! Do you want me to refill your glass of water?" The girl exclaimed, her long eyelashes batting over her large eyes which apparently ogled Taemin. Noticing this, Sulli puffed her cheeks. Nevermind then. Sulli pursued her lips.

"No, but thanks anyway." Taemin thanked her with a polite grin. 

"Are you sure?" The waitress asked despairingly once again.

"Uh yeah, I don't think he needs a refill, but I think I might need one though. Thanks." Sooyoung smiled as she popped her head out to make herself visible besides Taemin, shaking her empty glass of water in the air. 

The girl's enthusiasm died once she realized her incapability of serving Taemin at the moment yet she couldn't keep her eyes off Sulli. A mischievious idea must have came upon her head while she glared at Sulli as a sly smile appeared on her face once again. "All right." 

As she came near Sooyoung, the girl deliberately hit her foot against a leg of Tiffany's chair, throwing herself forth with the pitcher that aimed for Sulli. The splash of water flying out of the pitcher abruptly poured against Sulli's face, causing her front to become completely drenched in the liquid.

"Oh, sorry. It was an accident." The waitress apologized to Sulli tartly with a mocking smirk. 

The girls covered their gaping mouths in shock as they waited for Sulli's reaction. What the hell was that? Taemin's eyes widened as he glanced at the waitress's foot, then back at Sulli. He wasn't foolish to think that the incident was actually an 'accident' as he had caught the whole scene. He scowled at the waitress, knowing her full intention.

Sulli froze in her seat at the sudden, cold impact against her skin. Soaked in her seat, her cheeks burned and her palms began to sweat from embarrassment. She glanced at everyone in the table who stared at her back in astonishment, then at Taemin who gazed back at her with a frown. She clenched the edges of her seat, not really knowing how to react. All she knew was that she just wanted to go home now. 

"Sulli, are you okay?" Tiffany asked her with uneasiness.

"Yeah, I'm fine! I just have to go to the restroom.." Sulli faked a smile and nodded as she stood up and left the table, silently passing the waitress who acted innocently as she kindly refilled Sooyoung's glass of water.

While the whole table nodded back at her as she left and went back to their casual discourse, Taemin furrowed his eyebrows in puzzlement as he watched Sulli disappear out the room through the doorway. He had expected her to possibly scream at the girl, but she had done the exact opposite. Where is she going?

The sky dimmed, indicating that night had finally arrived in Seoul.

Halfway out of the restaurant's exit, Sulli tightly crossed her arms over her chest and clenched her jaws from the cold temperature of the outside. Out of all nights, she chose not to bring a sweater to comfort her over her dress. She cursed under her breath at her dumb decision with the addition of the fact that half of her body was drenching wet. She looked back at the restaurant, tempted to return to its pleasant warmth. But, she shook her head in refusal as she continued walking. The restaurant was just too suffocating for her at the moment and she was sure she didn't want to go back now.

With only a few steps made forward, an annoyingly familiar voice was heard shouting Sulli's name. Finally catching her attention, Sulli turned her body to see the voice's owner.

"YAH, JINRI!" Taemin shouted again after completely stepping out of the exit, waving his arms at her as he began jogging after her. 

Oh god, not him. Sulli grumbled as she quickened her pace towards the parking lot, trying to hide herself from Taemin whose pace happened to accelerate as well. She yearned to be alone and to avoid everyone, especially Taemin, so this wasn't such a good timing for her. Unfortunately for Sulli, her legs weren't quick enough as Taemin caught her by the shoulders once he passed her. . Sulli heaved a sigh of vexation.

"Silly, If you wanted to get rid of me, you should've ran faster." He laughed while turning his body to face hers, walking backwards as they talked. He glanced around the parking lot and pouted. "This isn't the lady's restroom.."

Sulli sighed and stopped in her tracks.

"I just wanted some fresh air.. leave me alone." She gave him a cold stare, then walked pass him, pushing him by shoulders. Ignoring the message, Taemin tilted his head and continued to walk behind her.

"Out of all nights, you're wearing a short sleeved dress. What happened to covering yourself with the unlimited layers of cloth? Aren't you cold? I can practically see goosebumps all over your arms from here." 

Sulli glimpsed at her arms and bit her lips. Taemin was right. She was freezing cold. Taemin smiled as he put his hand on her shoulder.

"Here, take it." 

Sulli looked back to find that the jacket Taemin previously worn was now in his hands and held out to her. She hesitantly shook her head and proceeded her walk. "No, thanks." 

Taemin scoffed at her response. Is she crazy?

While she walked, Sulli flinched as she unexpectedly felt the heavy jacket drape over her shoulders. 

"Stubborn." Taemin chuckled as he patted the cloth onto her shoulders. Oh my god.. Sulli felt herself blush at his gesture.

"Why are you out here anyways?" Taemin asked her.

"I told you I wanted some fresh air. Can't you just leave me alone?" Sulli retorted in annoyance. Taemin pouted.

"You want to be alone?" He stopped to fumble in his pockets to search for something. Sulli lifted an eyebrow as he took out a bundle of keys, grinning as he jingled the car key in front of her.

"Aren't those Jonghyun's car keys?" Sulli eyed the key suspiciously.

"Oh, yeah. I borrowed them." Taemin smiled, blinking innocently as he began pushing her towards Jonghyun's car.

Key glared at the two empty seats of the table across them and poked Onew from the sides. Onew laughed, mistaking the touch as tickling.

"What?" Onew answered Key, still laughing. Key pointed to the seats and frowned.

"Where'd those two go? They've been gone for a while now and I can't find them anywhere here." Onew glanced back at the seats, around the room, then back at Key with a straight face.

"I don't know." Onew said bluntly and went back to his dinner. Key scowled at Onew as he took him by the arms and stood up.

"Yah, let's go ask them." He gestured at the SNSD members who were busy chattering to themselves.

"Fine." Onew sigh, giving in.

"Have you guys seen Taemin and Sulli?" Key asked as he approached the girls' table along with Onew.

"No.. the last time I saw Sulli, she said she was going to the restroom. As for Taemin, he just went to talk to the restaurant's manager for a while, then left." Tiffany explained to the boys with a pout.

"Wait, why would he be talking to the manager?" Key knitted his eyebrows in confusion. The girls shrugged.

In the middle of their questioning, Jonghyun followed the members to the table with a perplexed look on his face.

"Have you guys seen my keys? I think they magically disappeared from my pockets or something. I can't find them anywhere." He whimpered as he patted his pockets.

"No.." Onew and Key shook their heads slowly. Suddenly, Key gaped as he lifted his finger.

"Taemin must have stolen them and drove off with Sulli somewhere with your car." 

Jonghyun groaned and scratched his head in frustration. "Aw, not again." 

"Should we go after them then?" Key suggested. With another idea in his mind, Onew stuck out his bottom lip.

".. After dinner?" Onew raised his eyebrows suggestively with Jonghyun who nodded in agreement. Being the odd one out, Key unwillingly gave into his suggestion.

"Fine." Key groaned, slumping his shoulders as they all went back to their seats.

A beam of bright yellow light shoned against Taemin and Sulli's skin, the lamp posts around Jonghyun's car were their only source of light in the dark of this night. The car was completely silently with the exception of Taemin and his whistling to the tune of SHINee's Hello. He curiously looked over at Sulli who had been surprisingly quiet the whole time.Taemin cleared his throat after deciding to break the awkward tension between them.

"If you want anything to talk about you can talk to me, you know that, right? You can talk to me about anything, actually. Hmm.. you want to talk about the weather.. movies.. pokemon.. shopping.. drama.."  He stopped to suggestively lift an eyebrow at her, giving her a playful smirk as he said the word, ".. boys?" 

Sulli let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry."

Taemin lifted his head up, surprised, his eyes grew big hearing those words coming from Sulli's mouth."What?"

Taemin didn't know whether his ears were deceiving him or that he was making up illusions at the moment. Maybe both. But, he knew for a fact that those two words had never been directed to him before in his life, well, only particularly from Sulli's mouth.  

"For what?" He asked her suspiciously. 

"I blamed you at first for all this, so I thought I did nothing wrong when I decided that I was furious at you, but I realized it was all senseless of me to really think that way. If I wasn't stupid enough to get myself drunk that night, this wouldn't have all happened. Wow.. I'm so sorry that I brought you into this." 

Taemin looked at her solemnly and noticed the sincerity in her eyes though she avoided his glance. Feeling slightly uneasy, he avoid her glance as well and ended the silence by snickering to himeself instead. WIth Taemin's unforeseen response, Sulli lost all her earnest feelings in an instant and sneered at him.

"Yah.. dummy, why are you laughing?" Sulli scrunched her nose irratedly as she started to feel regret about her own apology to the idiot.

"Ah, sorry. It's just that I'm not used to you talking to me this way. This is so touching to me." He sniffed and chuckled, but his smile soon faltered once he saw her frustration and the expression on his face became serious. "Hey, don't worry about me. I'm fine, really, so don't. Right now, I only want you to worry about yourself, alright?" 

Taemin smiled at her, but she was only silent. So, he resolved to change the subject.

"You're still wet." 

"No ." Sulli muttered. Taemin chuckled at her small rejoinder and pulled his right sleeve over his hand.

Sulli could feel her heart skip a beat as Taemin leaned over and gently dabbed her cheeks. She looked down on her hands, avoiding his eyes. Taemin smiled as he continued wiping the water drops that dripped down from her tousled bangs and onto her cheeks. The cloth of his sleeve was soaking wet now, but surprisingly, he didn't mind. Once he had finally caught her eyes, he noticed tears welling up in them. Taemin frowned as he realized that she had been crying.

"Why are you crying?" Taemin creased his forehead, then grinned. "I once knew a peculiar girl in middle school. She came to the school known as the precious 'child actress'. Every girl in school envied her while all the guys loved gushing over her. I, for one, despised her. But, she became admirable to me the more I came to know her." He stuck out his bottom lip and cocked his head to the side. "When everyone taunted her out of mere jealousy, telling her that she would not make it any further in this world. So, she auditioned to become a singer and debuted as a member of girl group belonging to one of Korea's top entertainment agencies. Hell, she even came to put up with a guy like Lee Taemin."

She lifted her head up and gazed at him intently as he laughed. It was quite obvious that the girl he was talking about was her, but she couldn't help but blush at the thought that he had actually admired her. Lee Taemin, her own worst nemesis, had admired her.

"That's right, I've admired you for a long time, so don't disappoint me." Taemin grinned, teasing her.

Sulli felt her cheeks burning into a severe red with the tender touch of Taemin's fingertips as he carefully caressed the remaining teardrop away from her cheek. She couldn't resist herself from staring at him as he casually smiled at her, though in confusion. At that moment, she found him inscrutable. How he would endlessly without even a hint of sympathy as he did so and, how at moments like this, he would oppose to those harsh treatments and treated her so well. 

Suddenly, in the midst of her thoughts, Sulli was inconveniently roused by the sound of Taemin's obnoxious laughter.

"Wow, I am totally going to win this bet." Taemin boasted loudly as his lips formed a wide, smug smile. Sulli frowned.

"What bet?" Taemin looked at her with a straight face.

"The bet on which one of us will fall for each other first. I'm pretty sure I'm winning though, you make it so obvious that you're falling for me." He snickered. Sulli scoffed.

"No I'm not!.. How do you know that I'm falling for you anyway? You never even explained the rules to me anyway." Sulli retorted in her defense. Taemin stuck out his bottom lip and shrugged.

"It's simple. Whoever falls for the other first, loses. It is prohibited that any one can hide their feelings, so that person will be punished if they get caught. As for the winner, that person will get the right to hold the loser as their own possession for a whole month. But, if both of neither of us fall for each other within those ninety-nine days, we both win."

A MONTH? Sulli shivered from the thought of the likelihood that Taemin have the chance of owning her for a whole thirty days. She grimaced at the uncomfortably potential orders that Taemin would possibly make her follow.

"What? Are you afraid that you're going to lose to me?" Taemin's lips curled into a mischievious smirk.

"No!" Sulli quickly shouted back. "But.. what if both of us fall for each other?"

Taemin pondered about that idea for a while. To be frank, he had never thought about that possibility.

"Then.." He pretended to make a gun with his hand, aiming it towards the middle of Sulli's chest. "BANG. We both lose." Taemin chuckled as he released the bullet of his imaginary gun. Sulli laughed at this.

"This game seems so childish already. Do I really have to play this?" Sulli murmured. Taemin looked at her in complete disbelief.

"Of course! We need a way to pass the time, don't we?"  Sulli groaned. Taemin grinned at her, but his smile shortly disappeared as he noticed the time brightly displayed next to them in the front seat.

"It's getting late. Should we get back? Everyone's probably wondering where we are. Besides, they're supposed to be serving desserts around this time." 

"You go on ahead." Sulli sighed. Taemin pouted, but smiled as an idea came upon his mind. 

"Then, let's have dessert on our own!" Taemin exclaimed as he held out two brand new Snicker bars in his hands. Sulli couldn't help but giggle as he handed her one bar before frantically opening the wrapper of his own.

Lee Taemin is indeed a very inscrutable guy.

you , I would very much appreciate it if you leave a comment below~ ^^ Thank you everyone in advance!