She woke up with the birds and rubbed her eyes. The room was brightly lit and the sky was blue outside. She blinked slowly to dissipate the sleep. The cotton candy clouds made her smile. Her small smile dropped into a frown. It was such a nice morning. Did she dream about them all coming last night? All five there at the same time for the first time since they had first taken her here? She could only hope it was a dream. A knock on the door. Her slouched posture straightened.
“Nuna, did you want anything for breakfast?”

She heard Kibum’s voice. Of course he would know she was awake now. She wasn’t really hungry, but she didn't want them to worry about her. If they thought her sick or something, they would probably make sure somebody was watching over her every second of the day. With such a nice clear morning, the fear was pushed down, repressed. Now, there was just frustration. Plus, these guys were much more frightening when it was dark. She shook off the impending shivers. “Sure. I’ll be down soon.” She heard his footsteps tread away from her room.

“Why…?” A few weeks ago, she had kept asking herself and them that. A few weeks ago, her eyes always shown with tears as she asked that one word question. Now, her eyes were dry.

She dressed in a long-sleeved white and gray zebra print shirt with a short-sleeved black pullover hoodie over it that was as long as a dress. Underneath her pajama shorts, she put on dark gray leggings. Because the hoodie was so long, you couldn’t see her shorts. She still had her socks on and just stuck them into house slippers before walking out of the room, brushing her hair with her fingers. She paused as crimson red and black butterfly fluttered past her. It would have been so pretty if it didn’t remind her of a certain someone.

When she entered the big, clean kitchen, she only saw Minho and Kibum. Minho poured a glass of orange juice for himself but upon seeing her, he set the glass down on the counter in front of an empty stool. Assuming that was her spot, she sat there and put her hands around the cold glass.

“Good morning,” said Minho. He squeezed her shoulder gently as he passed by and sat down on the stool next to hers. She looked around the kitchen. Kibum made the assumption that she was looking for someone. “Jinki-hyung is still asleep. I sent Jonghyun-hyung out food shopping. Taemin is taking care of his animals.”

“Ah…,” she said just to let the guy know that she was listening.

Kibum turned off the stove, and SHINee’s diva boy presented a plate of food to the girl in flourish. “Tada!” He set it down.

“Thanks…”

Kibum’s cell phone rang and he walked off to the side to answer it.

“What’s the matter? Not hungry?” Minho asked the quiet female.

“No. I’m fine,” she replied while poking the rice with her chopsticks.

“Come on. Let’s go do something fun!” Minho took her hand, not registering her slight recoil and dragged her away from the room.

Kibum hung up and frowned at the empty kitchen. “Yah! You could have at least let her finish eating! Or cleaned up!” He saved the food for later and then left to go help Jonghyun with the food shopping wherever the blond boy was. Apparently Bling Bling Jonghyun forgot the shopping list at home and also conveniently forgot his wallet.

In the Flaming Charisma’s room upstairs, the girl sat on the bed with the boy’s comforter wrapped around her. It wasn’t that she was very cold, she just felt more comfortable that way. The guy was currently playing Wii Sports. She would normally play too but had declined Minho’s offer. She just wasn’t that competitive, and truthfully, she was afraid to be Minho’s opponent. Some time ago, she had witnessed Minho’s real competitiveness.

Minho and Jonghyun were in one of the big room’s in the basement and she was pretty much dragged along too. Jinki and Kibum were away, fulfilling their schedules. Taemin sat next to her but his attention was on his laptop. This was her first time down in the lower levels of the mansion. The room looked like a bar almost. There was a counter with bottles of liquor behind it and glasses hanging from the ceiling. There was a pool table, a few dart boards, a flat screen TV hung up on the wall and lots of stools and couches. She leaned towards Taemin and whispered, “Hey…when do you think I can go home?” The youngest’s cuteness worked to his advantage because she still felt the most comfortable around him, which actually wasn’t saying much.

“I don’t know.” He shrugged and continued to browse the search engines.

“Why am I here?” she tried asking. She got no response from him.

Minho and Jonghyun were playing pool. “You can’t do that!” Minho was amazed at Jonghyun’s obvious bending of the rules.

“I made up a new rule!” Jonghyun defended himself. Minho narrowed his eyes and asked Jonghyun what his rules were. He listened to his hyung and continued the game without much fight.

“Oh my god! What’s that?!” Minho, who was just about to hit a ball, turned around and Jonghyun made his move. When the younger guy turned back, he automatically noticed the obvious difference of the position of the balls on the table. “Hyung….” He warned.

“What???” Jonghyun laughed silently.

They continued to play.

“That’s it! That’s breaking the rules that YOU made up!” Minho shouted. He slammed the stick on the table and actually broke it.

“Yo! That was MINE, PABO!” Jonghyun threw a dart at Minho on impulse, and Minho dodged it, surprised that his hyung would do that so suddenly.

Jonghyun was internally surprised at himself too. “Yo man, I’m sor-“ The blond’s apology was cut short as a cue ball came flying at his head. He threw a flame at Minho in retaliation to the attack. Minho jumped out of the way and threw half the broken pool stick at the older member, except this time the projectile was frozen solid and leaving sparkles of ice crystals in the air as it flew past so quickly.

The girl jumped as the pool stick shattered into tiny bits against the stone wall behind Jonghyun. Jonghyun’s fists were covered in yellow-orange flames and his sleeves blackened as some of the shirt’s length burned away. The girl shook Taemin’s shoulder, “Shouldn’t we stop them?! Stop it guys!”

Taemin looked up, closed his laptop and pulled the girl a little farther away from the fight. “Don’t worry about it. This isn’t really so bad.” Taemin wasn’t going to get between fire and ice if he could help it. Plus, it was fun to watch them go at each other. “Look. They aren’t even mad at each other anymore.” It was true. The angry glares that fueled the beginnings of the fight turned into wide grins. Now they were just playing who could beat the other. “Who do you think will win? My bet is on Minho this time.” Two knives, one aglow with flames and the other encased in crystal ice, from opposite ends of the room struck each other. The fire melted the ice but the melted water put out the other knife’s flames. The two pieces of metal fell to the floor but two bodies came ramming into each other. Minho, who had more mass behind him, knocked Jonghyun back and the two guys wrestled on the ground.

“Stop it,” she whispered, as she saw glass stick to their bodies and clothes as they rolled around on the debris-laden floor. Jonghyun’s shirt caught on the end of a broken stool leg and tore across his back, leaving a red jagged line of blood on his skin to match the path of the rip. Minho was sweating from the heat that Jonghyun was releasing but the fire boy was breathing hard too.

“Stop it,” she tried saying a little louder. They bumped into the counter in their struggles, and Jonghyun grabbed a bottle of wine. The girl gasped as the boy broke the bottle against Minho’s head and the smell of alcohol mixed with blood reached her. Minho tossed Jonghyun over the bar’s counter and shook his head, shaking some red frozen droplets of wine and blood from his hair. “Stop it!” Taemin held her hand tightly to keep her from moving anywhere that might put her in danger. As much as he enjoyed the violence and blood, he decided that maybe they really should stop before the girl became more hysterical. “Hey Hyung…”

Minho jumped over the counter and aimed a ice encrusted fist at Jonghyun’s face. Jonghyun put his heated hands up in warning. “Alcohol. Highly flammable,” he grinned. There were a good number of bottles of vintage as well as new wines, whiskeys, and the like right behind him, on the floor and of course on the two guys’ bodies. Minho’s hand stopped beside Jonghyun’s head. “Of course,” said Minho seriously. “Highly flammable liquid in a sealed glass bottle.” Jonghyun thought he had won but soon had to cover his face as the bottle closest to his face shattered. Even Jonghyun had to protect his vulnerable eyes. “STOP IT!” Minho had cooled the full bottle of liquid so that it expanded, and way too quickly for the bottle to contain. Jonghyun flinched as the sharp, jagged edges of a broken bottle were held against his neck, drawing blood. “I give! I give! Sorry.”

Minho grinned and laughed. He suddenly turned around and caught a cue ball, froze it, and turned it to powdered snow as he crushed it with his hand. “Taemin, you want a go at me too?” Minho was still high off his fight and win.

“No. I was just trying to get your attention, Hyung.”

The girl next to the maknae looked horrified as she took in the whole scene. Broken glass, wood, and metal scattered everywhere. Streaks of blood against the walls. Jonghyun was examining his bloody neck in a piece of mirror that he picked up off the ground. Minho looked like a wild man standing over Jonghyun, beaming in victory. “I want to go home right now! NOW!” she stomped her foot to emphasize the now. “Why do you keep me here?! Why do you fight?! Why do I have to be here?!” Her eyes started tearing up.

He jogged over to the girl and took her hand, pulling her towards the stairs. “Come on. I’ll let you treat my wounds!” Minho calmed down, but the girl wanted to take her hand back. Minho’s hand was cold and slick with blood. However, the boy held tightly to her hand and led her back to the upper levels without answering her pleas.

“Bastard,” sighed Jonghyun. “I would have totally beat him if I didn’t have to work so hard at keeping the heat down.”

“That’s why I bet on Minho-hyung. Now where’s my money, Hyung?” Taemin held his hand out towards him in expectation.

Jonghyun looked at the younger boy in disbelief. “Who said I had to pay you, Pabo!”

And now, she sat and watched Minho hit imaginary tennis balls. Pausing his play, he asked her again, “Are you sure, Nuna?”

She nodded dully while looking at the stitches of the comforter.

“Why do you have to be like that?” Minho said in frustration as he dropped the remote and walked over to her. She flinched when he reached for her face to turn up her head. His hand grabbed onto air and he withdrew it. “I’m going to go shower. Wait here okay?” He pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it into the corner to vent a little bit of his irritation. He looked at her one more time, but she didn’t look up. He sighed, looked at her again, and then left the room.

A few minutes later, the girl finally lifted her head and looked around the room. Minho must have finally been starting to get annoyed with her lack of enthusiasm. He was always so patient with her but she guessed he was starting to reach his limit. She tiredly picked herself up, settled the comforter neatly on the bed, and walked over to the corner, picking up his discarded shirt. Her hands moved to fold the garment while her eyes gazed out the window. Minho was showering now. Jonghyun and Kibum were out and occupied. Taemin’s many pets would take hours to check up on after he had been gone so long. She glanced at the clock. Would Jinki be awake by now? After placing the shirt on top of the dresser, her fingers traced the outline of the window. She knew it wouldn’t open if she tried. Plus, it wasn’t like it wasn’t a good drop to the ground.

Blatantly ignoring Minho’s request to stay in the room, she walked out. As she walked down the hall, Minho watched her back move away from his room. His normally charismatic eyes turned cold and the droplets of water falling from his hair became solid in mid air as they fell. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. She was human and she was young. He couldn’t fault her for that.

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THEA's Corner <3

I LIVE! This story on the other hand... It's hanging on by a thread. Writer's block is killing it. Seriously. I wanted to give up. I know where I want to get (since I already wrote up future chapters) but I don't know how to get there! I am not satisfied with this chapter at all. But I felt like I needed to get something posted or I wouldn't post anything anymore. I really should be studying for my exam instead... >.< *sighs* I'll see what I can do...
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Posted: 2010 March 16 (Winglin)
Posted: 19 July 2010 (Asianfanfics)
About 4 pages out of 50.6 written in total for this fic