Throughout the whole journey, an awkward silence hung in the air, almost suffocating the members. Onew thought about trying to start a conversation to break the tension, but didn't want to risk Key's anger again so he instead turned to gaze out of the window, letting his mind wander over the events of the previous day. Taemin's chest clenched when he saw his leader's sad expression, knowing that they were the cause of it, but he likewise couldn't forget that Onew was the one abandoning them. He tried to shake of the bad feeling and let his fingers intertwine and play with Minho's own as he carried on ignoring their confused and hurt leader.

When the van pulled up to the location for the interview, Key, Jonghyun, Minho and Taemin all jumped out and quickly made their way inside together, leaving Onew to trail behind them like a lost puppy. However, as soon as he was inside the building and felt people's eyes on him as they watched the group's arrival, Onew immediately pulled on his mask again along with his goofy smile and was ready to film, ignoring the sadness that was still gnawing at his heart. He knew he needed to find out what he had done wrong so he can apologise and fix it, and do it soon. The problem was he still didn't have the slightest clue what it was.

It quickly grew closer to the time of their interview and after bowing to the interviewers and all the crew, they took their places in front of the camera. From the moment the camera's were rolling, the members were decidedly cooler to their leader who found himself being shunned to the side. He wound up having to take the furthest chair from the interviewers and every time he would open his mouth to say something, either one of the others would cut him off or their faces turned sour as he made his limited contribution. They tried to keep their happy personas on throughout the ordeal but at times when they knew they weren't the focus of being filmed, the three eldest couldn't help sending small glares in his direction - all of them except Taemin. Taemin watched what was going on but despite catching eye of Key once or twice in the act, he couldn't bring himself to actively glare at his eldest Hyung. Instead, he just ignored him every time his leader tried to communicate with him in any way, turning his attention instead towards the interviewers or would suddenly start talking to Minho.

During the filming the interviewers started to become a bit suspicious when they noticed how quiet Onew had been but they past it off as tiredness because the knew they would have very heavy schedules on the lead up to their comeback. When it was finally over all 5 members sighed with relief, they stood from the stools they were using and exited the filming studio. They were about to ask where they were going for lunch as it was always pre-prepared for them, little did they know it was Onew who prepared it, but when he came over to them as he usually would, they turned away from him. He sighed in defeat, he could see they wanted nothing to do with him right now so after finding a piece of paper and a pen, he jotted down something, folded it over and gave it to the Noona next to him,

“Can you give this to Taemin and the others over there, please? I have to go.” she nodded and went over and handed the note to Taemin who thanked her and she walked away. The others crowded round him as he unfolded the paper,

“It's from Onew” he said as he quickly recognised the handwriting. It said,

Hi Guys, I know you really don't want me around right now so I have left to give you space and because I also have something else to do. What I wanted to say just now is that you are eating at the Chinese restaurant down the street, take your bags so you can leave as soon as you get back, there is a table booked if you tell them you are from SHINee, eat whatever you like. From your leader,

Onew.

“So that was what he wanted to say.” Taemin said, feeling bad about who cold they had just been to their leader.

“I wonder who told him about the restaurant and the booking name? Do you think he will eat wherever he is going?” Key asked, slightly going into Umma mode despite trying to stay cold. Jonghyun still shrugged him off,

“I don't know or care what he does. I bet the “something else to do” is sort out his arrangements for leaving when our contracts end... which is in 3 weeks.” he said firmly and sadly when he remembered their deadline.

“Alright lets forget about that for now and go and eat some Chinese.” Minho finished and they all left to eat.

They had a really nice meal and the staff were really good to them but when they went to pay, the waitress said,

“Oh no, don't worry your bill has already been taken care of.” the others were surprised,

“How?” they asked

“Well the person who booked the table left their credit card number and said to automatically take of whatever you wanted to eat, but unfortunately I cannot tell you the name of that person for security reasons.” the other four members nodded gratefully and left the restaurant, bowing respectfully to the staff.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter