Chapter 2: Hi, my name is Taemin

The first thing I saw...was that stupid smirk...

“Long time no see, PARK. Ji. YOUNG.”     

GAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There he was, with perfect brown strands of hair, tilting his head as he looked at me.

OH MY GOD.

“Mocking me, huh? I guess you never changed after almost...eleven? Twelve years?” he sat up properly and smirked at me. He let down his hoody and propped his hand to support his chin.

“Y-Y...You! What are you doing here!?!?!?!” I stuttered.

Before answering, he looked around and stretched. “Well, I sneaked out of our dorm,”

“Sneaked out of your dorm? Why is that?” Shiina asked with a curious tone.

Taemin smiled at her. I saw Shiina blush. Oh my gosh!! Shiina!! I told you already, you can’t fall for that stupid Taemin!!

“Hi! My name’s Lee Taemin, nice to meet you. Are you Jiyoung-noona’s friend?”

WHAT!? NOONA!?!?!?!??!

“My name’s Mihashi Shiina...yes I’m Jiyoung’s friend, pleased to meet you, Lee Taemin,” she introduced herself.

“You seem nicer than my old friend here! Are you my noona too?” Taemin shook Shiina’s hand.

Whatever! I will ignore you Lee Taemin!!!

“You can continue this chitchat of yours, Shiina. I wish you luck!” I told her and furiously grabbed my backpack and rushed out the door. There was no point in listening to their conversation. Taemin was obviously doing it to annoy me!

The nerve!!!

“Yah, Jiyoung~ah!” I heard Shiina call me.

Taemin’s Point of View

“You seem nicer than my old friend here! Are you my noona too?” I smiled at the girl with the spectacles on. She was pretty cute. I took her hand and shook it to show some kind of respect.

Suddenly, Jiyoung~noona stood up and grabbed her stuff. “You can continue this chitchat of yours, Shiina. I wish you luck!” she told Shiina with a serious tone. She seemed annoyed. I wonder why?

Is it because of me?

But I was only trying to be friendly!!! -,-

I smiled one last smile at Shiina~noona (though I didn’t know if she really was a noona) and skipped my way to follow Jiyoung. She had stormed out of the room and she was furiously slamming the lockers with her hand.

Gee. Jiyoung really has changed over the years. I wonder what she’s like now?

“Yah, Jiyoung~ah!” I heard Shiina call beside me. She looked worried.

“Taemin~ah, would you please go talk to her? I think she’s in a bad mood,” she suggested, moving her specs.

“Huh? But why me?” I pointed at myself.

She just smiled at me. “Trust me; you’re the only person who could talk to her right now,”

Nobody’s Point of View

Yes, like what Taemin said, he followed Jiyoung around; to the cafeteria at lunch, to her afternoon classes, to the school quadrangle, and even now, to the girls’ comfort room. Nobody even realized he was a guy, since his brown hair was so long that it covered half of his face and he was too skinny.

The last girl powdered her face with too much make up, and Taemin thought she almost looked like a clown; the only thing missing was a baggy costume and a funny multi-colored hat.

He was outside Jiyoung’s cubicle where she just entered, and he was pretending to be waiting in line.

He covered his face with his hoody and waited for Jiyoung to come out.

Jeez, I wonder what Jiyoung is doing in there right now...he thought. In a split of a second, the door to Jiyoung’s cubicle suddenly slammed open, and Taemin was surprised like heck.

“WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING IN HERE, TAEMIN!?!?!” Jiyoung furiously roared, glaring at him like she was almost going to kill him.

“I was following you!” Taemin replied proudly, not realizing how awkward the situation was. Jiyoung’s jaw fell wide open because of his answer.

“Following me?! Why are you following me!?!” Jiyoung pointed at him and looked at him like he was insane.

“Well, you seemed angry earlier, so I came to talk to you!” Taemin grinned.

Jiyoung slapped her forehead. “Are you serious? I mean, look around you Taemin! This is the girls’ comfort room! Do you realize that if someone saw you here, they’d yell at you and scream that you’re a ert!?” Jiyoung exclaimed.

Taemin looked confused and he pointed his forefinger at himself. “Me? A ert? But you didn’t scream and call me a ert, Jiyoung,” he told her nonchalantly.

Jiyoung sighed. “Yeah, but you see I know you. Wait, what the heck am I saying!? Of course everybody here knows you, because you’re an idol! But if somebody sees an idol in a girls’ comfort room, they’d think he’s a ert! And then rumors are gonna spread! And Shinee is going to disband! Then...Minho won’t have a job...what the!!! Taemin must not be seen in here!!!” Jiyoung explained, but she ended up talking to herself.

Taemin grinned at how stressed Jiyoung looked.

She looked so cute to him.

“Anyway, what are you doing here? Why are you following me? Are you some type of stalker or something?” Jiyoung asked him, irritated.

Taemin let down his hoody and arranged his hair with his fingers. “Didn’t I tell you already? I came to talk to you. You seemed so angry earlier,” he replied, before smiling at her.

“Urgh, do not smile at me, Lee Taemin. It annoys me to the bone,”

“Huh? Waeyo?”

“Why would I be angry, huh? What are you saying? You don’t talk to me. You’ve never even talked to me before. You don’t even care about me, I don’t care about you, what’s up all of a sudden?!” Jiyoung rambled.

“Uhhh...you said too much...well, you seemed angry earlier because I was ignoring you and was talking to your friend, Shiina!” Taemin replied, a little smug.

“Of course I was angry! I don’t want you anywhere near Shiina!” Jiyoung went to the sink and opened the faucet. She washed her hands and turned it off afterwards.

“Oh, really?” Taemin chuckled. Jiyoung looked at him.

I knew it! This guy is a player!!! she thought.

“It seems you’re jealous, Jiyoung,” Taemin smirked. Jiyoung looked back at him, agape.

“Don’t try to flatter yourself, Taemin. I don’t like you, so don’t think stuff like that,” Jiyoung replied coldly. It was true. It’s been twelve years, but she couldn’t forget what rudeness Taemin had shown her. She tried to move on, but she couldn’t. It always bugged her everytime she would see a little boy like Taemin.

After that, Taemin grew quiet. It was too quiet that the silence was beginning to become awkward. Jiyoung sighed and decided to break it.

“Don’t you have classes or something? If you’ve been following me all day, doesn’t that seem like you were skipping? That’s bad for an idol’s image, you know,” she spoke a little calmer than before.

She looked back at Taemin and he looked a little depressed. “It’s alright, it wouldn’t be safe if I was in class anyway.” he replied glumly.

“Not safe?” Jiyoung repeated, but before Taemin could answer, they heard some heels clacking on the floor, and girls’ voices laughing and chatting getting louder.

“What are you doing?” Taemin whispered. Jiyoung covered his mouth with both of her hands and gestured him to keep quiet.

“Did you hear? Lee Taemin has gone missing all day!” a girl said. It grabbed both Taemin and Jiyoung’s attention.

“Oh? Where did he go?”

“Nobody knows, but the Shinee members are still looking for him, until now,”

“Is he still here in school?”

“Nobody knows, but it seems nobody has seen him all day!”

“They said there’s a reward if someone finds him,”

“Are you kidding me? There’s a reward!?”

The girls sounded like there were four or five of them, and they kept talking about Taemin. Jiyoung glared at Taemin. She knew why he was gone all day. He was following her.

“Seems like they’re looking for you,” she muttered softly, frowning at Taemin. “Why didn’t you just go to class?”

“I told you, it wouldn’t be safe!” Taemin replied.

Jiyoung sighed. “What jibberish are you muttering about...anyway we have to get out of here soon,” she mumbled. They were inside one of the cubicles, and they were crouching on the toilet bowl together, trying not to make a sound. They were already limping but they were still trying to endure the pain they were experiencing. Suddenly, Taemin slipped and let out a yelp.

“Huh!? What was that!?”

Jiyoung panicked and grabbed Taemin, covering his mouth with her hands. Her arms were around him and she held him a little closer. Taemin held her arm and he tried not to make a sound.

“Is somebody inside of the cubicles? I thought we were the only ones here,” another girl asked.

Jiyoung looked at Taemin, and he looked back at her. He nodded and eyed her, hoping that she would understand what he meant.

“Uhh—uhm, yeah! I’m...I’m inside!” she stuttered nervously.

“Oh, so someone is inside of there!”

“Are you okay? What’s taking you in there so long?”

Jiyoung panicked again. She placed her feet on the ground and eyed Taemin to place his feet on the toilet. “Uh-m..well...you see,”

“Yeah? Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Well, it’s kind of embarrassing...but, could you girls hand me the tissue?” Jiyoung said, pretending to be sick.

“Oh! Alright! Nana, give her the tissue~!”

“Here you go,” a hand holding a roll of tissue appeared on the lower part of the door. Since Jiyoung was covering Taemin’s mouth with both of her hands, Taemin reached for the tissue.

“Ahh, gomawo!” Jiyoung cheerfully said.

“Anieyo!” the girl cheerfully replied back.

“Uhm...” Jiyoung looked at Taemin.

“Anything else?”

“It’s kinda...well you know, gonna be stinky, so, can you girls, leave? If that’s okay...” Jiyoung said. That was embarrassing.

“Ohhh...” the girls giggled a little and hurriedly went out of the room.

Jiyoung and Taemin waited for a while and they listened to the sounds.

“Thny mwfd akkfawudy...” Taemin said through Jiyoung’s hands.

“Yeah, it seems so,” she eyed the small gaps of the doors and looked, not realizing she was leaning a little closer to Taemin.

Suddenly, Taemin held her hand with his, and it made Jiyoung blush. She loosened her hands and let Taemin remove them. “It’s okay, you can remove your hands now,” he said.

“S-Sorry,” she murmured.

“Come on, let’s get out of here before anyone sees us,” he suggested.

“Finally, something sensible out of Taemin,” she told herself and followed him to the door.

Taemin opened the door and went out; Jiyoung was following him.

What they saw next, was something they never really expected.

The girls Jiyoung had asked to leave earlier were there outside, waiting.

“It’s....it’s Lee Taemin!!!” a girl pointed at Taemin.

Taemin’s eyes widened, and he hurriedly covered himself with a hoody.

“That girl! Huh!? Why did they come out of the bathroom together!?!?!”

“Don’t tell me you guys were...!”

“N-No! No! Aniyo! Aniyo!! We weren’t doing anything wrong in there!” Jiyoung defended herself.

“Then what were you doing in there!?”

“We were...he was...I was...it’s hard to explain!”

“Lee Taemin is making out with a girl in the girls’ bathroom!!!” a girl screamed.

“No! No! Please, it’s not true!!!” Jiyoung yelled.

“No, we weren’t...” Taemin tried to help her, but in less than ten seconds, more than fifty teenagers gathered around them, taking pictures and videos of them.

“No! Don’t take pictures of us!” Jiyoung furiously said to someone whose camera flashed.

---*

“Hey, what’s going on over there?” Onew looked at the crowd gathering near the girls’ bathroom.

“Hm?” Jonghyun stretched his neck to see the two people at the middle of the ruckus.

“Hey, that looks like Taemin!” Key exclaimed.

“Isn’t that Jiyoung with him?” Minho asked.

“Oh my God! It’s Taemin! We found Taemin!!!” Key hurriedly rushed to the crowd while the others followed.

Onew stayed and continued eating his chicken.

“Urgh, come on,” Jonghyun came back and grabbed him by his collar, dragging him to the crowd.

“Chicken, stay there!! I’ll be back!” Onew exclaimed positively, as if the chicken was listening to him.

“What’s the ruckus about?” Minho asked, seeing the panicking Jiyoung and the odd Taemin in the middle of the commotion.

“Some girls said they saw Taemin come out from the girls’ bathroom with that girl!” someone answered.

“Huh!? Don’t tell me Taemin was making out with that girl!” Key exclaimed, suddenly hyperventilating.

“Calm down, we don’t know the whole story yet, let’s go get Taemin!” Jonghyun patted Key’s back and pulled the other guys to get to Taemin.

Just as they were about to pull him out of the scene, Taemin removed his hood and pulled Jiyoung close to him.

“What the-!?!” Jiyoung blurted out, surprised.

The teenagers suddenly kept quiet and waited for Taemin to speak.

“Taemin?” Minho called.

Taemin looked up, his eyes sharp and his smirk shaping his lips; his hair was his Lucifer hair and he pulled Jiyoung a little closer to him.

“What are you doing Taemin!? Don’t do anything stupid!” she whispered.

“Please; help me.” he whispered, his voice somewhat piercing Jiyoung. Her eyes widened when he suddenly kissed her forehead, and she quickly felt her cheeks burn.