Hidden Clue
Entwined DestiniesEvery quiet step he took was a quiet tiptoe, barely audible, cautious, and careful. His back was bent and lowered, along with his knees as he crept through the lightless hallway, leading to an even darker room. It would now be his turn to shine, and he wasn't about to lose this chance to anyone. He was dressed completely in black, from head to toe, blending in with his dark and eerie surroundings. His face was completely covered apart from his brown eyes, which were deep and soulful, sharp and swift. He stepped deeper into the deserted building, where there was yet another soul to be seen. There were swaying shadows cast on the walls of the room, seemingly alive, purposely warning away any intruders who stepped into this place. The walls were filthy and dirty, coated with soot and ash, and the floor was completely demolished and torn away, leaving nothing but uneven earth to stand on. The cloaked man walked cautiously, when suddenly he heard a barely audible rustling of clothing behind him. He whirlled around rapidly, to see four more men behind him, with stances as if they were ready to strike at someone. They too were all in black the same way he was, and their faces were also covered in the same way. When they caught his eyes, they all nodded simultaneously and waited for him to move first. They were on his side.....for now. He held out a hand to stop them following him, as a sign to tell them he was going in first. His eyes were clear and demanding, and it was clear that there was going to be no argument at this point. They all nodded in uniform once again, and he raised his foot to step into the ominous room. This is it. And then he suddenly tripped over his own foot and landed flat on his face. Everyone standing behind him groaned in agony. "YAH, HYUNG! YOU CAN'T EVEN DO THAT PROPERLY?!" one of the men suddenly roared in anger as he straightened up from his awk- ward stance. He pulled on the black cloth covering his face harshly and tore it off and tucked it away into his outfit. He raised his head to reveal the face of none other than Key of SHINee. The remaining ones all followed Key's lead and pulled off the cloths one by one to unmask the handsome and flawless faces of Kim Jonghyun, Choi Minho and Lee Taemin, all looking quite annoyed and impatient. They all looked disdainfully down at the body that was sprawled awkwardly on the ground below them and looking up at them sheepishly through the eye crack in his mask. "It's just like you to plan all this out and be the first one to screw us up, hyung," Jonghyun sighed, as he flipped his hair. Onew groaned from the ground and pulled off his mask as well. He got up to his feet and brushed off all the dust on his legs. "Miahne, guys," Onew said as brushed the dirt out of his hair, and pulled off his mask. He suddenly brought his hands up to his eyes. "These contacts are bothering me a lot. I really prefer glasses....because cups are much too small." Everyone stared at Onew confused while he looked extremely proud of himself. "What the heck did he just say?" Key said without even bothering to whisper. "Whatever he does, it's Onew sangtae," Taemin sang quietly under his breath. "Guys!" Jonghyun suddenly jumped in. "We're still stuck in a creepy building in the middle of night with no real idea why we're here! Let's move!" The fivesome started shuffling awkwardly into the dark room, still poking and prodding at each other. "Come to think of it, why are we in the burnt down localgym anyways?" Taemin asked as he looked around. "This place is a mess." "I managed to find out that this was one of the last places our unnies and hyungs were before they either dissapeared mysteriously or got attacked," Minho spoke for the first time. He brushed off some dirt on a mirror and suddenly turned back charismatically to the group. "It is our mission to find any evidence we can in this place." His voice had a cliche-detective-movie-drama type tone to it. The remaining members all stared at him awkwardly for a moment at his sudden cheesy show of too much drama, until JongKey suddenly decided to clap. "DAEBAK, Minho!" Jonghyun used his fanboy voice. "NE! We should make you the leader instead!" Key cheered. "Minho jjang!" Taemin squealed out of nowhere. "YAH! YOU PUNKS!" Onew roared suddenly. But they were all still ignoring him and fanboying over the now very bigheaded Minho. Onew turned away dejectedly and started to search for any "evidence" in the seemingly empty and completely demolished room. "Yah, why are we wearing these weird outfits again?" Onew heard Taemin complained. "Who knows?" Jonghyun responded. "It was Onew hyung's idea," Key scoffed. "YAH! I don't see any of you guys coming up with any ideas or doing anything productive!" Onew scolded, as he dug his way through a huge pile of dirt in the corner with no apparent objective whatsoever. "Araseo, araseo, we'll help out," Minho acknowledged him. They all obediently shuffled to assorted spots around the dance studio to search for anything that would help them out. Onew kept digging through his dirt pile of no return, Jonghyun was messing with the windows, Key was cleaning the mirrors, Minho was walking around aimlessly, and Taemin crawled around the dirt floor randomly. "Yah, Taeminnie!! Stop playing dirty!" Key yelled when he caught sight of Taemin practically sprawled on the dirt. He perked up immediately at the call of his Key hyung. "ME?!!" Taemin responded. "Tell that to Onew hyung!" Key looked over to where Onew was playing dog and realized that he was slowly making a pit in the ground, and was actually starting to crawl into it. Appalled by the sight, Key immediately made his way over to his hyung and grabbed him by the collar. "BUOYA?!" Onew yelled out suddenly, surprised by the sudden contact. He had been so into digging that he didn't hear anyone else. Almighty Key pulled his hyung into a standing position. "What exactly are you hoping to find down there?" Key nagged. "You look like a filthy mess now!" Key's voice dropped down to a whisper. "You're ruining the outfits that I specially prepared for this excursion!" he scolded. Onew stifled a laugh. "I knew it was you," he murmured. "Who else would put five perfectly folded outfits with completely matching colour accesories and shoes with a note saying: 'Wear this or else you're stupid!' next to it?" He shook his head in a politician-like manner. "Tsk, tsk. And yet you blame it on me Kim Kibum." "Well, what can I do? Yeob--I mean, Jonghyun said it was weird...?" Key muttered shamefully. "Kinchena," Onew laughed. "And by the way, look at this." He held up a long and white skinny looking stick like thing that could barely be seen in the darkness. "I found it while I was digging." Onew held it out to Key with a proud smirk on his face. Key eyed it suspiciously. "What could this be?" he spoke up, with the same slightly exagerrated detective air to his voice. "Could this be the weapon that caused this mess?! Or the remnants of something or someone?! Or perhaps even another kind of implied hint as to where the culprits are held?!" "Nah, it's just a chicken bone." Onew said casually as he brushed some dirt off of it. Key stared at his hyung with boggled eyes. "How did you--how can you even tell--why did--how could--" Key took a sigh of defeat of his hyung's lack of concentration for anything. He cleared his throat and changed his voice immediately. "Ooh, hyung! Lemme see! Lemme see!" he gawked. Onew brought it over hesitantly. "Sure, but be caref--" Key grabbed the bone and chucked it far far away from Onew, making it plummet into the darkness. "Stay focused!" he yelled. Onew looked upset, then terrified and then immediately nodded obediently and went back to searching for any clues. Key scoffed and went back to mess around with the mirrors. And so they turned the place inside out and searched every corner and inch and space of the gym for the hour or so, having no idea whatsoever what it was exactly they were looking for. Taemin even came across the burnt up box which he dumped the whole thing out only to find a bunch of burnt up cheerleader uniforms (Key suggested Taemin to try them on). They were slowly losing interest and perkiness as every minute passed by, and it finally came to the moment when they all ended sitting clumped together by a wall, exhausted and dazed. "I'm so tired," Taemin moaned, as he slumped his head over to lean on Minho's shoulder. Minho didn't move one bit and let his dongsaeng relax on his shoulder while he himself leaned on the crumbling wall behind him. "Everybody," Onew said, his hoarse voice barely a whisper. "Let's all sing a song..." he suggested. "Ne..." Minho agreed. "Whatever he does, it's Onew sangtae..." the others all moaned melodically in unison. Even Onew was too tired to bother retorting to his dongsaengs' disrespect. He simply let go of it all and tumbled face-first into the dirty "floor" and stayed there while the other four started singing the "Onew Sangtae" song to a trot tune. "Wae?! WAE?!! Can't you just appear before me?!! Whatever you are?!" Onew groaned in anger, as he lifted his head from the broken tile he was lying on. As he did so, his eyes caught sight of something. It was something black with a white edge sticking out of the floor, looking very abnormal near the corner. Realizing his dongsaengs weren't looking and were too busy with their chorus of pain, Onew slowly crawled over to the weird looking object. As he got closer, he realized it was some sort of book. He awkwardly and tiredly reached out to grab it. As he gave it a tug, he realized it had been wedged firmly under a broken tile. He tried pulling it again, but it wouldn't budge. "Yah! You guys!" he called out suddenly. His dongsaengs immediately perked up and looked over at their leader who was sprawled on the floor looking very filthy and awkward. "Hyung....what're you doing...?" Jonghyun asked incredulously. Taemin stifled a laugh. "If only those girls at school could see you now," he smirked. "Their precious, shining leader crawling on the ground like that." Onew glared at him while Minho grabbed Taemin's arm impatiently and pulled him up to his feet. "Let's just go and see what it is," Minho said. The rest of them all got up and walked over to where Onew was. "Man, if it's another chicken bone, ima kill him..." Key grumbled, as he bent down beside the others. "Help me get it out," Onew commanded as he gave another tug on the wedged object. Immediately, they all saw what Onew was holding onto and their eyes brightened suddenly. "Eureka....we might've finally found something..." Key muttered as he immediately shoved Jonghyun aside to get a closer look. Jonghyun lost his balance and landed on his behind onto the dirt below. "Key, you jerk..." Jonghyun grumbled as he got to his feet again. "Miahne, yeobo, but Almighty Key is needed here," Key replied quickly as Jonghyun stood up and brushed off his pants. Key grabbed onto the thing and gave a mighty tug: it wouldn't budge. Frustrated, he gave more aggravated and aggresive pulls "WHY--WON'T--IT--COME--OUT?!" he said angrily, emphasizing every word with a tug. "COME--ON--YOU--STUBBORN--THING!" By now his arms were completely straightened and his face was very contorted. "HOW--DARE--YOU--RESIST--THE POWER--OF--THE ALMIGHTY KEEEEY!!" He gave one more mighty heave only to slip his gloved fingers off and went tumbling backwards, and landed into the non-tiled, dirty part of the floor. Jonghyun burst out in an obnoxious and unreserved laughter as he pointed his finger at Key's crippled self, lying on the floor and looking very sorry for himself. "Aigo! Kim Kibum, you massive failure!" Jonghyun cackled. "Some Almighty Key!" He was now holding his stomach and letting himself go completely while Key gave him a terrible and horrid death glare. "You guys! Concentrate!" Onew scolded. Minho stepped forward and bent to examine the book carefully. It seemed to be buried deep in the dirt, and wedged underneath a tile. "Hyung let me try," Minho offered. Onew nodded encoragingly as Jonghyun and Key both stopped what they were doing and rushed over to see how SHINee's most athletic member would do. Minho gripped tightly onto the corner of the book with both hands and plastered a very determined expression on his face. He pulled with everything he had. The book came out in a whoosh, pages flying everywhere. Onew and Taemin stood up and cheered while Jonghyun started laughing again at the now sulking Key. Jonghyun turned and gave Minho an enthusiastic hi-five. "Yah, yah, I loosened it for him," Key complained. But no one was listening to him anymore. They were all fanboying over Choi Minho, who was looking more and more enervingly proud of himself. Key crossed his arms with a huff and turned his back to them angrily. Minho passed the book over to Onew, who brushed off the cover eagerly, sending dust up all around them and allowing major coughing fits to take place. All of them immediately crowded around the now seemingly very thick book to see what it really was. As they each caught sight of cover, they all sighed in dismay. "It's just a math textbook," Onew frowned. "There's no way we went through all that work for nothing," Key growled as he grabbed the textbook right out of his hyung's hands. He brushed off the cover manicly as if hoping it would somehow magically change the title. When (apparently to his surprise) that didn't work, he scowled and chucked the textbook to the ground in anger, causing the already loose papers to explode right out of the cover and splay all over the ground. Taemin's eyes widened in horror and he ran over to collect any of the pages he could. "Key hyung, there could've been something useful in there," he moaned. He swiped fiercely at the floating pages around him, similar to the way a cat would. Key scoffed and expressed his concern for what Taemin had to say with his ugh-give-me-a-break-face. He raised his hand and turned his back on the rest of them, walking away. "Yah, Key, don't be like that," Jonghyun cried out as he ran after Key, trying to pull him back. "Let him be," Minho spoke. "He's probably high-strung and short-tempered in such a dirty and disgusting place." Jonghyun chose to ignore Minho and kept dragging on Key's arm. "Here, Taeminnie, let me help you," Onew said, walking over to where Taemin was piling the loose pages covered in algebraic equations and graphs and things as such along with a nice layer of dirt on each one. Onew bent down and started gathering the ripped pages, slowly and without much eagerness. "Komawoyo, hyung," Taemin beamed gratefully at his hyung. As least someone's listening to me. Minho stood at the side and looked over, with an intense glare in his eyes, aimed right at Onew. He immediately rushed over and took his spot right beside Taemin, and also started gathering the papers at lightning speed. "You gotta' do it like this if you want to make progress," he said, moving his hands diligently and progressively. "Be careful! You're crumpling them!" Taemin yelled out in concern. He grabbed Minho's hand and stopped him. "Slow down!" Taemin dropped Minho's hand right after that and went back to sorting the pages. One would expect Minho to be mad or annoyed after Taemin bossed him around like that, but surprisingly he smiled satisfatorily to himself and quietly went back to hoarding the pages. Onew, who had been watching from the side, smiled to himself as he knew he'd just witnessed another fail. He grabbed another textbook page, this one with basic calculus on it. All of a sudden, something caught Onew's eyes. Lying beneath the page he'd just removed was a tiny white sheet of note paper, folded neatly in two. He moved towards it as if he was enchanted by it, his eyes memerized and unblinking as he moved slowly towards it. "Guys, guys! I think we have something!" he called out as he grabbed the paper. The SHINee members perked up immediately once again from whatever they were doing and rushed over to their faithful leader. "A piece of paper?" Key groaned. "It could be a very important clue," Onew replied, excitement obvious in his voice. "Daebak, Onew hyung," Minho applauded as he patted Onew on the back. "Leader always reliable," Jonghyun smiled. "What are you waiting for?!" Taemin screeched, unable to contain his expectancy any longer. "OPEN IT!" Obediently and immediately, Onew flipped open the piece of paper to reveal an elegant scrawl of writing inside. "Read it aloud!" Taemin urged. "Wuzzit say?! WUZZIT SAY?!" "Calm down," Onew smiled. He glanced down at the sheet of paper and read aloud the beautiful words written on it. "I've finally lost the chance to be with her, She's now in the arms of another, safe and sure. I thought she would eventually come to me, But she never did, leaving me here alone in misery. If time were not so unalterable, I would confess my heart. I would feel relieved and happy, even if she still does part. As long as she is smiling, I will weep sparkling tears of joy, As I am nothing more than another of Cupid's pitiful toys." As the last words left Onew's mouth, he realized how touching and sad the words to this poem were meant to be. He slowly touched the thin piece of paper gently, as if he was able to feel the emotions words laden so eloquently yet so simply, transforming something normal into a subtle work of art. "It's so....upsetting," Taemin whispered. Onew turned over to see that Taemin's eyes were watering for no apparent reason. Aigo, this kid, Onew smiled at his cute dongsaeng. Minho drew Taemin's head to his shoulder and punched Jonghyun in the arm with his other arm. "Yah, hyung, it's like the story of you and that Shin Se Kyung girl," Minho teased. Jonghyun looked completely offended. "It's NOTHING like that!" he argued. "I asked her out, you byaggukuyu! How is it 'I thought she would eventually come to me' if I was the one who asked her out?! And besides we both said it would be better to just be friends." "Ha, you probably said that after she said 'Jonghyun-ah, there's something I want to talk about...'" Minho laughed evilly. Jonghyun looked as if he was about to strangle Minho. "Araseo, it's a lovely poem...even though I could write better..." Key interuptted the mood suddenly. "But what does this have to do with finding our hyungs and unnies?" Onew stared at him as if he was crazy. "You don't know?" "Ne, hyung, what does this so-called extremely touching poem have anything to do with anything?" Jonghyun asked. Minho and Taemin looked at each other and both nodded and shrugged simultaneously at the exact same time. Onew stared deeper into then, as if trying to pierce the answers telepathetically into their minds. "Yah, hyung, you led us into a dead end again, didn't you," the Diva moaned. "You guys seriously can't tell whose writing this is?" Onew asked incredously. He held up the page again for everyone to see. They all stuck their heads in closely to look at the perfect handwriting on the paper. Respective "annyo's" came from each one of them, leaving Onew flabbergasted. "You seriously don't know?!" Onew gasped. He pointed to the paper again. "This is the writing of Lee Soo Man High's student body president and one of the best legendary leaders of all time ever seen at our school. A fluent communicator and a talented student in all areas of school, especially arts, with his flawless piano skills and songwriting skills, he really is one of the pride of our school. Haven't you seen this writing enough times?!" The others simply stared blankly at Onew, who by now had a brilliant smile plastered on his face. "Who the heck is he talking about?" Jonghyun whispered. "Who is our student body president?" Key muttered. At this moment, Onew looked as if he was about to go into an inner rage. "PARK JUNG SOO HYUNG!! LEETEUK HYUNG!!" Onew yelled. They all still stared blankly at him. "HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW OUR HYUNG'S THE PRESIDENT?!" "He's the president? I thought he was just a -up to all the teachers," Minho said bluntly. "I second that," Key groaned. "So that's why he sits in those fancy chairs and does all that paperwork and talks so much..." Jonghyun mused. Taemin clapped his hands in glee. "Ooh, Onew hyung is fanboying for Teukie hyung!" Onew reddened slightly but rolled his eyes and led their attention back to the piecce of paper? "Anyways, he's one of the hyungs who are involved in this incident, so this could mean something," Onew explained gruesomely. His dongsaengs all stifled laughs behind him. Onew looked more carefully at the writing, and flipped the paper all directions around, and finally backwards. "Yah, look! There's more writing!" Onew called out again suddenly. SHINee found themselves staring at the backside of the paper, with more cursive writing on the back. The style was obviously different, belonging to another writer, one who wrote with more delicacy and feminity in his or her writing. Even the ink colour was different, this one purple as opposed to the plain black of before. A closer look showed that it too was a poem, longer and packed with intricate words and descriptions. "Hyung! Read it out loud again!" Taemin requested. Onew nodded and cleared his throat to read the new poem out loud. "Vivid words and standard images of beauty meant nothing to me, But then you came, along your honest heart and generous smile. It was only then that the true meaning of beauty I could finally see. I felt like someone opening her eyes for the first time in a while You were my guardian angel, an image of perfection, inside and out. Your arousing and persuasive words controlled and made me mindless. And you always finished them with that modest smile of doubt. You shielded and protected me with your invisible wings of kindness. How could I resist your inhuman beauty and charm? You were the ideal I couldn't even imagine of on my own. My heart was already entirely yours, in danger of harm. But how could I let go? Even if I could end up alone. And then you finally confessed to another, like I'd feared. Your words were so sweet, and I wish they'd been mine. What could I do but clutch my stolen heart and dry my tears You are too great of a man for me, and all I can do is cry." Even though my body would never say it out loud, I won't ever let you go, No matter if this words stops turning, or if the sun stops shining. Even if you come back with a different appearance, I still won't say no. These frail and gentle arms will always be there for you, always finding." By now, Taemin looked as if he was about to bawl a huge puddle of tears and flood the entire place up with them. Sensing the danger, Minho immediately moved over again and cradled Taemin carefully with his left arm. "Are you kidding me?!" Key roared. "This is good literature to you people nowadays?" He threw his hands up in defeat and turned away in shame. Jonghyun caught his arm and whispered something into his ear. Key immediately brightened up, and they both snickered and turned away. "So how does this help us?" Minho asked. Onew shrugged. "A freebie for the next English assignment?" When the others did not appear amused, he immediately held up the paper and stuck it into their gaze. "There's a signature on it." Minho and Taemin ogled at the paper in order to see the scrawl of a name on the bottom right hand corner of the crumpled sheet of paper. ~김태연 "Well, well, well," Key's voiced appeared suddenly. He and Jonghyun had rejoined the conversation at some random point. "Who would've thought this little missy had it so back for Mr. Park?" "Opposites attract, I guess," Jonghyun muttered. "Then again, in many ways they're actually pretty similar.......they're both old." Key snorted at his blunt comment. "Still, how does this help us?" Minho grumbled impatiently. "Even though if they did have some sort of complicated relationship in the past it's not like it has anything to do with why everyone was kidnapped." "Or maybe it does..." Taemin annouced out of nowhere. He stood up triumphantly and brushed the dirt off his black pants. He made a fist with both hands and bent his knees in order to pull off what he thought would be a charismatic and powerful stance. "Maybe their love was forbidden for some reason, and...and....their parents were against it! Maybe, they tried to sneak away with each other, but then their parents found them and forced them apart...and..." "And beat the crap out of them and kidnapped their friends?" Minho asked. He shook his head. "I don't think so, Taeminnie." Taemin pouted and slowly sank back down to his former position, similar to a deflated balloon. "Whatever, either way, this is probably the best thing we can find here," Onew said, as he got to his feet. "We should get out and start searching somewhere else. Maybe there's a chance the police are gone from the house now." The others nodded in agreement with a little dissapointment in them, and also scrambled to their feet. They all started walking towards the exit dejectedly and tiredly. As they rounded the corner, Onew suddenly caught a glance of a dark shadow looming on the wall. And it wasn't a common shadow of a tree of building. It was the shadow of a human. The owner of the shadow seemed to notice that someone had caught sight of his shadow, and the shadow immediately dissapeared along with the resonating sound of scampering footsteps. "JAMKAN MANYO!" Onew yelled suddenly, startling his fellow members. He immediately booked into a sprint and ran after the person who'd been watching them from behind the corner seconds ago. The bewildered members had no idea what was going on and just ran after their leader. "Hyung, why are we running?!" Taemin yelled, while speeding up beside his Onew. "Someone's been spying on us!" Onew replied loudly so everyone else could hear. He pointed as quickly as he could towards the same human shadow that was now dissapearing around another corner. The members immediately sensed the danger, and the look of determination crossed their faces as they continued running. Onew nodded as a signal, and the members simultaneously split up into two groups. Minho and Taemin rushed ahead of the pack with the lightning fast speeds and turned in the same direction that shadow seemed to have dissapeared towards while Onew, Key and Jonghyun turned in the opposite direction. Immediately right after they turned, Minho and Taemin saw the dark silhouette of a person running away frantically a distance ahead of them. The distance wasn't far, but it was far enough that the both of them could never catch up to him in time before he found the exit. The both of them gritted their teeth and did their best to rush after the person, who was now getting closer and closer to the end of the hallway, which led to the exit doors and his freedom. "HEY YOU! STOP!" Minho bellowed loudly as his legs moved faster and faster. The person made no hesitation or move to stop whatsoever, making him even more furious. His long legs suddenly gave a speed boost, and he ran ahead of Taemin and closer and closer towards the mysterious person. He could sense the sudden desparation and worry arise in the person, and as he expected the person suddenly took a turn as opposed to keep running straight towards the door. Bingo. As soon as Minho turned the corner, he saw the person being held tightly by Key and Jonghyun, with Onew standing next to time. Shortly after, Taemin joined behind him, breathing heavily. "Who...is...he...?" Minho asked. Onew's face clearly reflected his look of shock, while Key and Jonghyun didn't look too good themselves either. "Hyung?" Taemin said. He walked closer and closer to the group and finally realized why his hyungs were in such shock. The moonlight was revealed at that very moment and shone brightly on the face of Kim Kibum. I can't say much I apologize because I'm in a little hurry right now. First of all, thank you and sorry for not updating in so long. Second of all, expect the next chapter to be more informative than this one. Finally, RANDOM PICTURE TIME!!! (I'm sorry, no sidestory this time, but if you want, check back later, and I may update it) SHINee Side Story: OnKey & JongKey
ONEW: GO ALMIGHTY HORSIE! GO!!!
Comments