Author’s POV

RING RING

The bell rang for the end of school. Students jumped out of their seats and ran out of the classroom shouting words like, “Freedom!” and “Yes! Finally!”

Yoojin was one of the few students who stayed to copy down the rest of the notes off the board. When she finished, she packed up her pencil case and books and headed towards the door. Key had also just packed up and was heading outside as well.

He greeted Yoojin when they both stepped out of the classroom, “See you tomorrow, Yoojin.”

Yoojin, however, either didn’t hear him or pretended not to, probably the latter. Sighing, Key wondered why she always seemed so distant from him. But maybe that was a good thing, as she wasn’t like those girls who would always pay attention to everything he does. He shuddered as he thought of earlier in the day when a mob of girls almost squashed him into a pancake.

Turning around, he saw Jonghyun waiting for him with a sly grin on his face.

“Ooo. Is Key having a crush on Yoojin?” he teased.

“No I’m not!” Key answered back quickly, a bit flustered.

“Sure… Then why is your face all red?” Jonghyun questioned him in a teasing manner.

“Cause… I… It’s hot in here. Phew. I can’t wait to get outside,” he said while fanning himself. Jonghyun seemed unconvinced but shrugged it off.

“Oh never mind. You probably wouldn’t even be able to get close to her. She’s always distant from guys,” Jonghyun said as they were walking.

“Why is she like that?” Key asked curiously.

“Who knows? She wasn’t always like that. I remember we used to talk a lot until around the middle of last year until she suddenly stopped talking to people, mostly guys. I also heard she broke up with her boyfriend the day before so maybe that has something to do with it?” he said.

“Oh.”

They walked in silence until they reached the school gates and Jonghyun spoke up, “Ah, I forgot to tell you something. SHINee has a dance practice today. You don’t have to come right now, but it would be really great if you could. It won’t take long, just about an hour.”

“Yeah, it’s okay. I can go now,” Key said.

“Cool! Let’s head over to the practice room. It’s not that far from here.”

---

The streets of Seoul were filled with people all doing their own things. Key looked around, recognising most of the places and feeling a bit nostalgic. It’s been a while since he’d last been to Seoul. They reached a small, rundown building that was squeezed in between two large shops.

“Here we are. It used to be a small shop but no one owns it now. I know it’s a bit worn out but we renovated the inside to be a practice room,” Jonghyun explained. “The others should already be there.”

As soon as they stepped inside, the OCD part of Key’s brain screamed in disgust. The practice room was set out well, with a large mirror covering one wall, but what horrified him was the amount of mess in the room. Especially in the corner where there was a large couch with a table and a few chairs. Rubbish was scattered on the floor and all over the couch and table. The trashcan next to the table was overflowing with rubbish. There were lolly wrappers, soft drink cans, chip packets, chicken bones, and a whole lot of empty banana milk cartons that could’ve filled a store if they were still full.

The rest of SHINee were practicing, stepping on the pieces of rubbish as if they weren’t there. They stopped as soon as they heard someone coming inside.

“Jjong hyung! You’re here! And you’ve brought Key as well!” Taemin exclaimed enthusiastically.

“Okay, since you’re here, let’s start again,” announced Onew.

Jonghyun ran up to join his friends on the messy dance floor. However, Key was gawking in the doorway with his mouth hanging open. The others stared at him expectantly but he didn’t budge so they went up to him.

“Hello? Key?” Jonghyun waved his hand in front of Key’s face. Key still didn’t move. “C’mon Key. You’re keeping us all waiting.”

When Jonghyun started to pull him into the room, Key snapped back to reality and immediately jumped back in terror.

“I am NOT going in there. Look at how much rubbish there is! These are my favourite pair of shoes you know?” he shrieked.

“Well, get used to it. We practice here all the time,” Minho sighed.

“No! I am not going inside until you clean up this mess,” Key humphed and crossed his arms. “Now clean it up!”

“Aww. Hyung, can’t we do it tomorrow?” Taemin pouted.

“The amount bacteria’s going to grow by tomorrow so it’s best to clean as soon as possible. You know there could be insects hiding in those piles of trash? And what if you slip on something? Blah blah blah.” The other boys drowned out Key’s ranting.

Minho finally had enough, “Okay, okay! We’ll clean it but you have to help as well.”

“Yay! Of course I’ll help,” Key started with a happy grin. “I’ll tell you what to do.”

*30 minutes later*

The boys were cleaning the room while Key stood at the doorway, bossing them around. They were nowhere near done.

Jonghyun complained, “Key, can we start practicing now? We’re wasting valuable time.”

The other three boys looked up hopefully.

“You’re not wasting time. You’re using your time wisely by cleaning out this pig sty,” he replied and started to dust his clothes.

*Two hours later*

The boys groaned and laid down right where they were standing. Cleaning was much more tiring than dancing.

“Key~ Can we go home now?” they implored.

“No, but there’s only a bit left. You should be able to get it all cleaned up in another half an hour,” he said.

They groaned again as the insatiable Key continued to give them orders. He had finally stepped into the practice room and was lounging comfortably on the couch. The rest of SHINee looked at him with envy.

“Onew hyung, why did you leave your chicken bones everywhere? Now we all had to clean them up,” Taemin complained.

“What about you, Taemin? Who was it that left all those banana milk cartons lying everywhere?” Onew argued back.

Minho, who was forced to wipe the highest parts of the mirror since he was the tallest, sighed tiredly. “Just get cleaning you two, I want to go home already.”

Key yawned. It was hard work giving orders around. He went over today’s events and remembered when he was first introduced to SHINee. He learnt a lot about them during lunch and they were very fun people to joke around with. Maybe he’d been too hard on them? He sat up and looked around the room. Jonghyun and Minho were leaning against the walls while Taemin and Onew laid on the ground. They weren’t cleaning and that angered Key again.

“Oi! Why aren’t you cleaning? I don’t want to stay here the whole night.”

“Aren’t you being too hard on us, Key?” Onew reasoned with him.

Key thought about it. Hmm… Maybe he had been a bit too bossy, but that was just because he was a neat freak. And it was kind of unfair of him to force the other boys to do all the cleaning, since he would also be using this practice room in the future…

“You’re right. I’m sorry I’ve been so hard on you,” he sighed. After making up his mind he said, “I’ll finish this off. You guys should go and have a rest.”

The boys, who were exhausted after all that cleaning, cheered and thanked him. They jumped onto the couch and got their greatly deserved rest.

While Key swept up the rest of the rubbish, his mind drifted to Yoojin. He remembered seeing her smile and laugh today and that warm feeling that burst in his heart. He really hoped she would smile at him like that one day. It seems as though that fuzzy feeling came up whenever he looked at her. No, correction, whenever he thought of her. Even the way she regards him coldly manages to warm his heart. He didn’t know why. Maybe it was because he was so used to girls flocking towards him instead of keeping their distance and she was different. After all, humans crave change. Or maybe it was because he was curious of her. He wanted to know why she always kept her distance. Why she looked at him with those cold eyes when he could see that underneath, she didn’t actually hate him. He unconsciously smiled.

“Why are you smiling, Key hyung? Do you love cleaning that much?” Taemin asked.

Before Key could answer, Jonghyun spoke up, “I bet you’re thinking of Yoojin right now.”

Key was startled at how he guessed so accurately and turned red. “N-no. I was thinking of…”

Seeing how he couldn’t answer, Jonghyun cheered, “Yes! I’m right aren’t I? You were thinking of Yoojin! So you do like her~”

“Hey! I never said that!” Key shouted back.

The other three members became interested. “Who’s Yoojin?” they asked.

“She’s a girl in our class who Key always gets ignored by. He kept staring at her today at lunch,” Jonghyun said excitedly, wanting to embarrass Key after he put him through all that torture.

“What? No I didn’t!” Key lied.

“Yes. You were. Stop denying it,” said Jonghyun.

“Oh, so that’s why you kept looking at the table in the corner,” said Taemin.

“Yeah and she wouldn’t even talk to him. This afternoon when Key said bye to her…” Jonghyun continued to tell the boys about Key and Yoojin as they all laughed together. Key decided to busy himself with cleaning, while keeping his head down to hide his flushed face.

‘Well, I guess they got their revenge…’  he thought.

---

When they had finished cleaning and rested for a bit, the boys decided to head home. After all, they still had homework to do and they were very tired. They said their goodbyes and headed in different directions, with Onew, Minho and Taemin going one way, and Jonghyun and Key going the other.

On the way home, Jonghyun and Key got to learn more about each other. Key learnt that Jonghyun was a really good singer and liked to write songs and Jonghyun learnt that Key was actually quite a diva and liked to carry a makeup bag everywhere he goes. Key didn’t actually tell him that though. He sneaked behind him and peaked inside his bag when Key was buying a snack from a stall. Jonghyun also enjoyed teasing Key about Yoojin and watching him get all flustered. Nevertheless, the two boys became best friends in one day.

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Finally finished writing this! I also added a bit of JongKey in this story because I love how they are so close XD

Thank you to MissLocket, ShawolFlamerForever, feIicity, KimSunA, klapaucius17joy, desiery, and AlwaysAnElf for subscribing. And everyone who has read this story. Here’s a virtual cookie \(^o^)/o

I’m sorry I’m such a bad author and I never update in ages and when I do it’s so short OTL I’ll try harder but it’ll really help if I get some feedback from people to keep me motivated ^^

Oh and I have a poll for you guys.

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the story so far~