My "author's note" font has disappeared! Alas, now I have switched to Trebuchet MS. But that is off topic. What I want to say is, DON'T READ IF YOU HAVE LITTLE TIME: let's just say this chapter took up three and a half of my folder papers, front and back, while most of my chapters were written on at most two and a half.

In other words, long. VERY long. Or at least, longer than my average chapters. This is probably the longest chapter in this fanfic.

I warned you.

---

"Hyung," Taemin calls. "Another letter from that Sooyeon Jung. Is she your ex or something?"

"Think of her as a pen pal," Minho replies as he takes out his phone. "Yo, Taem, Ssul's coming. Clean the room, will you?"

"On it."

Minho look sup, surprised at the eager answer. Usually, Taemin does not like cleaning in any form. However, when the phone picks up, he forgets the surprising agreement.

"Ssul! Letter alert."

A sleepy voice answers from the other side of the line. "That sure took long enough. I had half the mind to give up."

"At least it came right?"

"Right. I'll be there. Ten minutes. See you."

"'Kay."

Minho hangs up and walks to his shared room. He peeks in, saying, "Done, Taem?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Taemin finishes smoothing down his blankets. "Neat, huh?" He looks around proudly.

Saying Minho is shocked is a huge understatement. The older roommate scans the room with his mouth wide. He can't stop gaping at the scene before him, and Taemin laughs at the expression.

"Surprised?" he teases.

"I wish you'd clean like this all the time," is the elder's only words.

Pride is evident in the sophomore's voice. "I told you I can do it if I set my mind to it."

"I'm here!" A cheerful voice cuts through the apartment. "Brother Minho! Sister Sulli is in the house!"

A pause.

"Well, the apartment, but you know what I mean. Oh, hi Jonghyun oppa! Where's Minho oppa?"

Brother Minho sticks his head back out the door and waves to Sister Sulli. He waves, Jonghyun points, and Sulli sees.

Alas, this is the moment in which multiple things occur at the same time in the same space.

Taemin slips out really fast, as if the room is on fire or something, and runs to the kitchen for some food from Key umma. Sulli sees him wand waves. Taemin notices, stumbles, and falls. Sulli covers in shock, gasps, and runs over. Jonghyun points again, but this time at the fallen Taemin. Minho sneaks up to Jonghyun, surprises him, and laughs together at the flustered two.

Sulli helps Taemin up, but in the process falls as well. Taemin helps Sulli up after getting up himself, and they both say sorry to each other for about a thousand times. They then stand there awkwardly until Sulli hears laughter and remembers the reason why she was here in the first place, and says a short 'bye' to Jonghyun and Taemin.

She drags the laughing Minho into the room and sits down huffily, annoyed that Minho is still having fits of laughter.

"Oppa! Letter?" she finally scolds. "Stop laughing and focus!"

"Fine, fine," Minho gasps. "But the look on you guys' faces!" Just as he is about to roll over the floor holding his stomach, screaming, he screams because Sulli used her Super Power Fingernail Pinch 'N Twist Painfully technique that comes out twice in a year.

"Okay, Ssul, no need for your Super Power Fingernail Pinch 'N Twist Painfully technique," he pouts. He turns his attention back to the letter at hand, and tries not to think of Sulli and Taemin.

Of course, that just reminds him of Sulli and Taemin's expressions, and he accidentally lets a snicker escape. This time, Sulli uses her Locate Strand Of Hair That Will Hurt The Most And Pull It Out Super Fast super power, which comes out once in five years.

Minho yells as a strand of his hair is yanked out super fast, and tears form as he rubs the spot. "You seriously should have kept that Locate Strand Of Hair That Will Hurt The Most And Pull It Out Super Fast super power for something else than my snickering."

"Well, I felt like it," his sister retorts. Because, you know, a girl's heart is something no boy will every understand, especially so for brothers. "Anyways, the letter is to be our prime focus from this moment on."

Immediately (because he really doesn't want her third super power, Spidery Finger Poke-Tickle, to come out. This power comes out thrice every eight years, so thankfully the the last one he had experienced had been three years ago), he clears his mind of every other thoughts and focuses entirely on the small white envelope. "Hopefully, it's longer than last time."

"Hopefully." Sulli sighs in relief at the change of subject (finally!), and also clears her mind of every other thoughts and focuses entirely on the small white envelope in Minho's hands.

The aforementioned takes a deep breath and opens the envelope quickly, with no hesitation. He reads everything on the page just as fast, to the disappointment of the siblings. "At least it's two sentences now. Our wishes have been granted. Hurray," he congratulates dryly.

"Read it," Sulli urges.

"'It is, once again, not your business (nor mine) to know. I do not know anything regarding what you are asking, so I would appreciate it if you stopped contacting me. From, Sooyeon Jung."

The smaller girl listesn intently, then lapses into deep thinking. Minho follows her example and they both stay silent.

"She's opening up," Sulli finally declares after a long period of quiet. "We can't stop here."

"You're right," her brother agrees immediately. "All our work cannot go to waste!"

As a sign of not giving up, they both let out war cries. This causes the ones outside to let out half-hearted war cries as well, though they don't know what it's for. When the Choi siblings hear the war cry from outside, they burst out laughing.

The boys also follows this, which makes the two in the room to laugh even more.

This cycle continues until Onew (he had been in his room studying) comes out to shush them.

After they had all calmend down and discussed lengthily, Sulli and Minho decides to write back two senteces as well: I'm sorry, but Soojung is a dear friend, and we frankly cannot give up. Seeing that you are so defensive, we cannot help but wonder if you have something that you are hiding from us. From, the Choi siblings.

And once again, the satisfactory air returns with the proud smiles, and they go their separate ways happily.

A month passes after this without anything special going on. Krystal had opened up more and more up until this day, and now she freely laughs and smiles with her friends.

Of course, in front of strangers, she still is cold and quiet-- that much had not changed, and probably would never change.

As for the competition, they practice. Even without a name, the group of girls and boys practice singing, dancing, and rapping all on their own, especially Key and Amber. Though many times they spend hours on finding a good name, there are only mediocre names at best, such as:

Girls: Girls Got Game (from the manga, proposed by Amber, but decided as too long), Meow (from Victoria, but decided as too cute and unlike them), Coconuts (from Luna, when she was hungry, but decided too weird), Ice Queens (from Krystal, but decided only she was fit for this title as a whole), and Flower Girls (proposed by Sulli, but decided too... flowery).

Boys: Rulers (proposed by Onew, but sounds like the tool ruler, so no), Lovers Of Music or L.O.M (proposed by Jonghyun, but sounds lame according to Key, and secretly everyone else, so no), Winners (by Minho, but sounds arrogant, so no), We Will Win or W.W.W (proposed by Key to spite Amber, but sounds arrogant and like www from the web stuff, so no), and Generals (by Taemin, to sound tough, but too tough, so no).

So it is so that they are still not registered into the competition itself, though they are getting ready for it.

Also, Luna and Onew starts to talk and hang out more; likewise, Victoria spends more time with her not-a-boyfriend-boy-friend, Nickhun.

The other 'sisters' and 'brothers' beg to see him, but so far Victoria refuses to let it happen in case they scare him off.

 

 

•     •     •     •

 

"Please?"

The sound of begging echoes throughout the boy's apartment.

Key turns around from the kitchen (it is dinner time) just int time to see Onew coming out from his room, looking tired.

"Hyung, wait!" The muffled whining becomes clearer as Taemin follows Onew out.

"No," the leader ways firmly. He walks towards the dinner table with a rarely seen stern expression on his face. Key wonders for a few seconds if he should take a picture of Onew's stern face. "It's their pricate matter, and I will not be nosy and breach their area of privacy."

"But hyung, what if it's bad?" The whiner, also known as Taemin, trails behind the poor leader to the table. "They're always happy when they're done talking, and we hear weird sounds like laughter and war cries." He shivers exaggeratedly. "It provokes us to do it as well."

"Have faith in your fellow friends," lectures the eldest. "And I'm sure there are perfectly good reasons why they do that."

During this time, the two of interest are discussing seriously in the room, having another 'sibling meeting' about the latest letter from Sooyeon Jung (I do keep secrets; I barely know you. Also, it has nothing to do with the situation you are asking about. Soojung is completely capable of helping herself, so don't worry and keep your nose out. From, Sooyeon Jung), and how to answer it (You may not know us, but I'm surprised you think Soojung is that able. She is very able, but there are situations in which even the most able person cannot help him or herself effectively. I believe this is one of those cases, so we would greatly appreciate it if you at the least help us out in helping your own sister. From, the Choi siblings).

This is generally the reason why Taemin is so curious along with the rest of the boys, excluding the dear leader.

"Aren't  you even the slightest bit suspicious or worried?" the youngest one pesters.

The leader's only words are "Curiosity killed the poor cat."

"It's Minho hyung, and Sulli. I want to know!"

At the word 'Sulli', Onew stops and, with his back facing Taemin, grins evilly.

Key sees this and shudders at the sudden and scary face. He, again, wonders for a moment if he should take a picture of this scene. He decides not to, since he does not want to scar other people's minds.

The eldest clears his face of any emotions and faces Taemin. "Why are you so curious?" he asks innocently. "Is it because of Sulli?"

At first, Taemin looks back blankly, then color creeps up his neck and unto his face. With his face on fire, he shouts, "No!" and stomps off towards his room. Then he remembers who is in there, and so he huffs out an agry breath and goes into Key and Jonghyun's room.

Before all this, Jonghyun had been playing his air guitar peacefully, rocking off an especially beautiful and silent piece. Then Taemin barges in, and Jonghyun somehow ends up outside.

The moment Taemin slams the door shut is the moment Onew cracks up. Jonghyun joins Key still watching as the leader crazily laughs.

Key, at that moment, decides he should carry around a camera at all times.

As they wonder if Onew is crazy, and discusses how he had become crazy, the doorbell rings. Jonghyun gets it to find Krystal.

"Krystal?"

"Hi, oppa," she greets with a slight smile. Yep, she defintiely had loosened up considerably during the past few months. She is no Sulli, bright and cheerful, but she's also no longer the ice princess. "I'm looking for Sulli and Taemin?"

The oppa welcomes her in. "Taemin's acting weird and Sulli's having a sibling meeting with Minho."

"Oh," she says thoughtfully as they walk more into the living room. "So that's where she goes. What do they--" She stops when she fully sees Onew, rolling around still laughin. "Is he... okay?"

Jonghyun shrugs. "I don't know. Key thinks he's been abducted by aliens and sent by a crazy replica, but I think it's all that senior stress. Maybe it's getting to him."

"What should we do?"

"Just leave him alone. He'll probably stop sometime, right?"

The two sits at the dinner table and tries to talk over the loud laughter with Key. Onew does stop eventually, but only when Taemin comes out. It's not the dying laughter thing, but an arupt stop the moment the door handle moves. He just sits on the ground as if that's the most natural thing ever.

He goes into this room quietly, and closes the door. Needless to say, if one listens very carefully, muffled laughter can be heard.

 

 

•     •     •     •

 

"Yay! Shopping time!" Sulli cheers.

The day Krystal had come over and Onew had laughed into his sleep, the three maknaes had planned a day out together. Minho had been invited as well, and so he is also there.

"Come on, Krys, I heard a new store opened up. It's supposed to be cute gothic or something weird like that. Let's go!"

The girls drag the poor boys everywhere, buying this, trying on that, taking pictures, making the boys wear stuff too, taking pictures, buying those, taking pictures, trying on weird things, taking pictures, making the boys take pictures and carry stuff, and buying other things.

After two hours, the shopaholics are happy while the boys are moping around, tired to the core.

Taemin mutters, "Why did we agree to this?"

"You know how effective their pursuasion skills are," his hyung mutters back.

"True. It's also the reason why you're here too, not only me."

"Nah, that was just plain threatening, I tell you. Plain threatening, just covered up in sweet words. That danger was still there."

"I saw it, too."

Mutually, the roommates shudder at the thought of the glint of evil in the girl's eyes, as well as the sinister smile hidden under a thin layer of sweet eyesmiles.

Fortunately for the boys, Krystal notices their moping and whispers to her best friend. Sulli listens, nods, says a few words back, and turns to the boys with a bright smile.

"Men," she addresses them importantly. "We have dragged you here and there for two hours. We believe we have overworked you. Now, we will give you two hours each to do whatever you want without us girls complaining."

Immediately, Taemin and Minho brightens up. Apparently, the two girls are now very much the most non-evil girls in the world. They smile ate ach other, drops all those bags (to the horror of the non-evilest girls in the world), and turns away from the distressed two to discuss.

Unbeknownst to Minho and Krystal, both Taemin and Sulli ships MinStal. And so, Taemin suggests splitting up into twos.

Unbeknownst to her friends, Krystal also has her own ideas about Taemin and Sulli. And of course, Minho ships TaeLli too with the proud title of First TaeLli Shipper Ever. This is why he agrees.

Thus, it is mutual a mutual shipping going around in this group of four.

They turn back to the girls, and Taemin announces the decision.

"I choose Krystal," Minho says, feeling very much like a PokeMon trainer. He wants TaeLli together.

"I choose Sulli," Taemin says, feeling very much like Minho is feeling. He wants MinStal together.

And so it was that they split up and went their separate ways.

 

•     •     •     •

 

 

Minho takes Krystal to the movie theatre, since an action movie he really had wanted to watch is showing. He rambles on and on about how excited he is.

"I saw the trailer and whoa, perfect movie for me, right? Did you see it? All my classmates watched it, you know? And they all told me I'd really like it, so--"

"You want Taemin and Sulli together, don't you?" Krystal cuts in.

The older boy stops and takes a few moments to adjust to this random change of subject. "Huh, yeah, how'd you know?"

"Because I ship them too."

At the nonchalant answer, Minho blinks and takes another few moments to adjust to this new information. When he finally realizes what had been said, he does a double-take. Krystal ships TaeLli? "You ship TaeLli?"

"TaeLli? Is that they're official ship name?"

Minho nods, still dumbfounded.

"Then yes I do. After all, I'm their best friend, and they're my best friends, right?"

They high-five, and share their feels together, like a fanboy and fangirl.

After thirty minutes of continuous talking about various subjects, they go into the theatre to watch the movie.

During the movie, there is a heavey kissing scene. Both boy and girl watching shifts uncomfortably while this scene goes on. They look everyone but the screen, since they're not ones for romance. As they look around, they accidentally catch each others eyes for a second.

For some reason unkown for the two, this makes them even more uncomfortable and awkward and feeling weird.

 

 

•     •     •     •

 

 

"That was awesome!" Minho whoops. "Best movie of the year!"

"Perhaps," Krystal acknowledges with a slight indifferent tone. But her eyes tell another story, what with its sparkling and dancing around happily. Minho notices this, of course.

"Oh, come on, Krys. It wouldn't kill you to admit you really liked it too, would it? I know you do, don't deny it, because when you're happy, your eyes are all twinkly and more beaut--" Minho stops, thinking over what had almost come out of his own mouth. Twinkling and more beautiful than it normally is? Little golden specks seemingly appears? Shines so brightly, it's almost blinding and overdazzles me? Had he almost really said all that? Especially to Krystal?

He wonders why he unconsciously thought this. He knows that Krystal is attractive, but hey, he doesn't have a crush on her to notice all these things, right? He shakes his head mentally and clears his throat. "'Twinkling beautifully'," he covers up. "Like what Jason said in the movie."

Fortunately, it really had been a line Jason had said in the movie. Unfortunately, that line had come right after that deep kissing scene, when the girl pretends not to like it.

This reminds Minho and Krystal effectively of that very scene, and both starts to shift uncomfortably again.

Minho awkwardly laughs. "We should go find Ssul and Taem now. It's almost the end of the two hours."

Krystal smiles and awkward smile in return. "Yeah, we should."

They walk to the food court (natural instinct) in awkward silence with the occasional awkward small talk. Right when they find the two, relief is flooded into the atmosphere, which had been suffering because of the overload of awkward.

Minho spots them first, at the food court claw machines, focusing greatly. "Taem, Ssul, over here!" he calls out.

So great is their concentration, however, they do not hear his call. The formerly awkward two becomes just as engrossed as Taemin and Sulli, and cheers together when Sulli finally gets a bear.

Taemin and Sulli are still completely unaware that the other two are here, so when they turn around to find Minho and Krystal, they scream.

"Calm down, it's us," Minho chuckles. "Come on, let's go back home now. It's getting late."

On the way home, Minho and Krystal manages to maintain the awkward aura towards each other. Unfortunately for the two, Taemin notices. Gasp.

With a sly smile, he nudges Sulli to notify her as well. After sharing an evil grin, they put on poker faces.

"Hyung, Krys," Taemin addresses them casually. "What's up? Did something happen?"

Sulli nods. She puts on her innocent face at the top level, used only at emergency situations, and asks, "Yeah, why so awkward? Did you guys accidentally kiss or something?"

The world 'kiss' makes the targeted two to blush again. When the TaeLli couple sees this, they scream happily.

"You guys kissed?" the evil girl shrieks with an evil glint.

Krystal looks up, alarmed. "No, that's not it! We watched a movie--"

"And kissed!" the evil boy cuts in with an evil smile.

"Yes!" Minho answers triumphantly. Then he realizes what he said. "Wait, no! Don't misunderstand!"

But it was too late. All throughout the walk home, Minho and Krystal frantically tries to clear the confusion as Taemin and Sulli refuses to be convinces, and instead teases them even more.

---

Hello, long time, no see. Sorry about that. We moved, that's why, and I was busy. Final exams were the same week as well. But anyways, hope the length of this chapter is enough for all of you! I hope it's also not too long or something. So, some promised Minstal here, some awkward Taelli there. Next chapter will probably not be as long as this one, and more plot will get moving. This chapter was more filler than plot, in a way. Also, I am trying to get a review or something as well as a graphic, so yeah, expect that. Thanks to all subscribers, commenters, and silent readers. I really appreciate you guys. That's all, I guess. See you next update.