“Yeoboseyo?” Onew said into the phone, rubbing his eyes wearily as he woke up.

“Onew-ah? Did I wake you up? Mianhae, I just wanted to remind you of our visit to Taemin today, alright?” Victoria’s voice came through the speaker, and Onew thought he could hear a smirk in her voice.

“Ne, Victoria noona. But I have practice till noon today, so is it alright if we go in the afternoon? We can have lunch together if you want,” Onew suggested, but he immediately regretted it as he was still trying to avoid her. *Aish… Why suggest lunch?! I don’t even have practice today, just to avoid her… I guess I’ll have to go… But I really hope she declines the offer…* Onew thought, mentally reprimanding himself for being so stupid, while keeping his fingers crossed at the same time.

“Oh! That’s a great idea! I’ll see you in the practice room at 12pm then. I guess I should go practice for my comeback too… Bye, Onew!” Victoria exclaimed as she hung up. Onew sighed and went to wake the other members up.

“Key! Jonghyun! Minho! Tae-” Onew shouted, trailing off in the end. *I forgot… Taemin’s in the hospital now… I’ll have to get used to life without him around me for now…* Onew thought sadly when he heard footsteps.

“Yah! Hyung, we were already awake half an hour ago… Didn’t you hear us making breakfast?” Key asked worriedly.

“I was sleeping till… about 10 mintues ago?” Onew told Key, walking to the toilet to brush up.

“Aish… We’ll be done with breakfast by the time you’re out, then we’ll visit Taemin, arasso?” Key asked his leader.

“I’ll be practicing, so just go without me,” Onew replied without looking back.

“You can’t avoid Taemin forever, hyung!” Key shouted as Onew ran to the toilet. *Sometimes I really don’t know who’s the oldest one here… He can’t keep running away from his problems…* Key thought to himself, sighing at his hyung’s immaturity.

When Onew came out of the toilet, he just went to the table and started eating. Throughout breakfast, none of the members talked. It was as if without Taemin, they just didn’t know what to say to each other.

After the meal, Onew just stood up, washed his utensils and went to change. As he came out, he saw that the other members were still eating silently. “I’m off to practice now. See you guys at the hospital later! I’ll be going with Victoria noona! Bye!” Onew said cheerfully and waved at the members who just nodded at him.

When Onew was out of earshot, the members started talking. “Hyung can’t keep avoiding Taemin forever, and you know that. It’s obvious that he loves Taemin a lot, but he can’t let go…” Key said, trailing off as Jonghyun opened his mouth to speak.

“I have to agree with you, Kibum. But what can we do? He doesn’t want to face Taemin’s disappointment… I think that Onew hyung is hurting more than Taemin right now…” Jonghyun said, looking at the other two who looked at him, nodding their heads in agreement.

“Jonghyun hyung’s right… Onew hyung has to face Taemin’s sadness, and handle Victoria, acting like he loves her when in fact, he really hates her a lot…” Minho added in quietly.

“Since we can’t be of any help, let’s just let things go by their natural course, arasso?” Key suggested, looking sadly at the other members.

“Ne,” they both replied.

“Let’s go to the hospital already. Taemin must be expecting us by now,” Jonghyun said, and they left for the hospital.

Meanwhile, in the f(x) dorm, Luna had overheard Victoria’s conversation with Onew, and was telling the other members about it.

“We have about… 1pm to tell Taemin oppa of Onew oppa’s plan, but just in case, I think we should leave by 12pm, ok?” Luna asked quietly, afraid to be heard by Victoria.

“Ne. Let’s go out and tell Victoria unni that we’re going out. Hwaiting!” Krystal said, pumping her fist in the air to cheer them on.

They walked to the kitchen where Victoria was happily humming to herself. “Victoria unni?” Sulli said, getting her attention.

“Ne?” Victoria replied. *What could these girls be up to now?* Victoria thought curiously. *Forget it, I’ll wash my hands off them for now. They can do whatever they want to* Victoria said to herself.

“We heard from SuJu sunbaes that Taemin oppa was injured, so we were wondering if we could visit him?” Sulli asked. “We’ll be back by 1pm, arasso? Please?” Sulli asked, pouting slightly at Victoria.

“Sure, whatever. But remember to practice when you get back, ok? And by the way, me and Onew are together now, in case you didn’t know,” Victoria said matter-of-factly, smiling sweetly at them.

*Unni was never like this when she was single… For some reason I wish that Onew oppa would stay with her… NO! How could I even think of something like that when unni has caused Taemin oppa so much pain?* Sulli thought, frustrated at herself for being so selfish. “Kamsa hamnida, unni. Let’s go!” Sulli said enthusiastically, pulling the other members out of the dorm, waving goodbye to Victoria.

Arriving at the hospital, the f(x) members asked the nurse for Taemin’s room number, which she gladly gave to them. Arriving outside the room, Krystal knocked and poked her head around the door.

“Krystal? Oh, the other f(x) members are here too. Annyeong,” Taemin greeted them quietly. As they went in to the room, the f(x) members saw that Key was asleep on the side of Taemin’s hospital bed, while Minho and Jonghyun were sleeping on the sofa. “Key hyung,” Taemin said, shaking Key awake.

Rubbing his eyes, Key stared at the f(x) members in the room. “Ah… Luna, Krystal, Amber and Sulli, what brings you here?” Key asked wearily.

“Key oppa, we have to tell Taemin oppa something imporatant. Alone. Please?” Sulli asked, praying that Key would bring the other two out of the room.

“Aish… Ok, fine,” Key replied, too tired to argue.

“Can you bring Minho and Jonghyun oppa out, too? And don’t eavesdrop…” Luna asked. After all, Key was famous for being a busybody.

Nodding at them, Key walked to the sofa. “Yah. Minho. Jonghyun. Let’s go out. Hurry…” Key said emotionlessly, proof of how tired he was.

“I bet they’re too tired to even think about eavesdropping… Why are they so tired anyway?” Amber asked, raising a questioning brow at Taemin.

Scratching the back of his head shyly, Taemin looked at them, obviously embarrassed. “Well… It’s my fault. I made them stay with me till I fell asleep at about 3am last night. I bet they slept only at about 4am… Then, this morning, they came here again to visit me, but they fell asleep in about 5 minutes. In fact, they only came half an hour before you. I guess they’re really tired…” Taemin explained. “So what did you want to tell me?” Taemin asked curiously.

“First of all, what is your relationship with Onew oppa?” Amber asked bluntly, raising an eyebrow as Taemin blushed a little.

“W-well… He’s m-my hyung and m-my leader and…” Taemin listed, stuttering out of nervousness.

“Cut the crap, oppa. I meant apart from all that, seriously…” Amber said, still being rude.

“Yah, don’t talk to your sunbae like that…” Taemin said as Amber smirked at him. Sighing a little, Taemin decided to reveal the truth. *What could happen? I’m already injured, and maybe I’ll be exposed. No big deal anyway, since OnTae is already over…* Taemin thought sadly as tears started to well up in his eyes. “We’re a couple, alright? We were… until two days ago…” Taemin said, trailing of as he saw the f(x) members nod in understanding. “Wait… You knew?! How?!” Taemin demanded, a little panicked.

“We overheard Onew oppa and Victoria unni talking. Actually, we were eavesdropping… Hehe… Frankly speaking, this is what we came to talk to you about,” Sulli said.

“You were… WHAT?! ONEW HYUNG AND VICTORIA NOONA WERE TALKING TO EACH OTHER?! WHEN? WHY? WHAT? WHERE? HOW?” Taemin screamed as he started hyperventilating. *This can’t be true… Please just let it all be a dream…* Taemin thought as he broke down, crying.

“Oppa…” Krystal said, patting Taemin’s back softly as he sobbed. “Let us explain first, please?” she pleaded, smiling when she saw Taemin nod. “First, can you stop crying?” Krystal asked, worried about her sunbae. Wiping his tears away, Taemin looked at f(x), turning his full attention to them.

“Firstly, Onew oppa is doing all of this for YOU,” Luna said, stressing the last word.

“M-mwoh?” Taemin asked, confused.

“You see, the breakup was all a lie. He broke up with you to make sure unni stays away from you,” Krystal said.

“And him getting together with unni? It’s also fake. At least to Onew oppa. It’s to buy him time for some plan of his, got it?” Sulli asked.

“You mean ‘to buy THEM time’…” Taemin murmured to himself.

“HUH?!” the four members asked in unison.

“SHINee, SuJu, SNSD and SM were supposed to think of a plan to get rid of Victoria… on the day of… my accident… I’m SO STUPID!” Taemin screamed, more to himself, as he started to whimper. *I should’ve known that hyung would never really leave me… I should’ve believed in our love… Mianhae, hyung…* Taemin thought to himself as he continued whimpering.

“Oppa?” Sulli asked. “Are you alright?”

Nodding, Taemin stopped whimpering. “N-ne… Mianhae, please c-continue…” Taemin said, tripping over his words.

“Later, at noon, Onew oppa and Victoria unni are coming to announce their relationship. When they do, act like you don’t know about it, but remember that it’s all a lie, ok?” Luna asked as Taemin nodded.

“Wait… SM was discussing this plan with the sunbaes? That means he know about you relationship with Onew oppa?!” Krystal asked, dumbfounded.

“Well, yeah… We told him on the day we got together… I guess I should’ve told you about that, huh?” Taemin said.

“Yeah, you should have! But Victoria unni doesn’t know that. She threatened Onew oppa that she would tell SM about your relationship… Huh, guess that was useless… Oh, yeah, Onew oppa asked unni for two days off from their ‘everyday going out’ thing. On 19^th January and Valentines’ Day. He said that he was shopping with Key oppa on the 19^th, and that SHINee was having a day out on Valentines’ Day?” Amber asked as Taemin burst into tears once again.

“On-new hyung w-wouldn’t go shop-ping with Key h-hyung for h-his life… 19^th January is our one y-year anniv-versary… And S-SHINee will nev-ver have a d-day out on V-valentines’ Day…” Taemin said between hiccups. *I really misjudged hyung… He’s doing so much for me, while all i’m doing is crying…* Taemin said to himself, disappointed at how weak he was, and what an idiot he was.

“So that’s why…” Krystal said, looking at Taemin sympathetically.

“Taemin oppa, don’t cry… Onew oppa is doing all this for you, so shouldn’t you appreciate his efforts by being stronger?” Luna said, trying to reassure Taemin as he kept crying.

“And don’t tell your hyungs about what we told you, or that we even wanted to tell you ‘something important’, arasso?” Sulli asked, while all Taemin did was nod at her.

“Oh crap! It’s already 11.30am! We have to go! Bye, Taemin oppa!” Amber shouted as she dragged the others out, waving goodbye to Taemin. Taemin waved at them, having stopped crying by now.

Outside, they saw that the three SHINee members were sleeping. “Key oppa, wake up,” Krystal said, shaking Key lightly.

“Oh, you’re done? I guess we should go back in… Jjong! Minho! Wake UP!” Key screamed at them, startling them. With the two of them in tow, Key went back into the room. “Bye!” Key shouted to f(x), waving at them.

“Bye! See you again soon!” the f(x) members replied, waving goodbye as they went back to the dorm to continue practicing for their comeback.

Hope you liked part 1 of this chapter:D part 2 coming up in about an hour or so? remember, comments are well loved~ :)) and the next part is about OnToria's visit, so look forward to it!! XD