11: A SHINee Day

Have you ever had one of those days where you're really excited yet you feel sick at the same time?

You're so pumped that you feel like your floating in midair? But because of that, you feel light-headed and dizzy at the same time? You feel like screaming in anticipation but you fear that by opening your mouth, you'll throw up your lunch? The day seems bright and cheerful but your mood is continually going downhill?

Well today, Kim Kibum and Lee Taemin were having one of those days.

The moment Key woke up, he just felt out of it. His head wasn't in the game, he was feeling under the weather, and he did wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

Or rather, he woke up on a bed that was not his.

And that bed turned out to be Kim Jonghyun's.

Which was the exact reason why he felt this rotten so early in the morning.

“Taemin! Come and eat breakfast, NOW!” Key yelled, flipping his hair out of his face. Didn't do much use since most of the strands clung to his forehead due to his sweat.

Taemin stomped out of the hallway, his backpack hanging off his tiny shoulders. “I'm coming, I'm coming!”

The maknae felt exhausted.

No, not because of the repetitive dance practices which made him smirk at it's simplicity, not because of his roommate whose behavior towards him hadn't gotten better (if not worse), and not even because of the fact that Key refused to go out to restock the fridge of banana milk because he claimed the maknae was addicted!

It was all because of the dreams.

No, they weren't nightmares and he had not gone crazy.

Taemin had been seeing visions of a boy who groomed him, pampered him, and spoiled him. Some people would say that they were good dreams. But they frightened SHINee's Maknae. Because whenever he went to sleep, that face was the first and last thing he saw. But when we woke up, he couldn't come up with his name or his face.

He remembered everything that happened (and after waking up, he usually did) except him. And Taemin felt horrible about it. The guilt gnawed at his heart and he didn't even understand why...

And the young Taemin knew that his fantasies felt much too real to be a dream. They felt like memories... Like these visions were from his past.

Yet, that wasn't possible. Or else he would have remembered them. Wouldn't he?

“Taemin, you're going to be late,” Minho's soft prodding snapped the Maknae out of his previous thoughts.

“I'm leaving now, Hyung,” Taemin sighed as he stuffed the rest of the half-eaten waffle in his mouth and ran out the dorm house door.

No matter how many times he struggled to focus that day, the young idol couldn't get his head together. His thoughts were always on that one person.

“Taemin,” the teacher called him out in class, again. “When are you going to stop staring into space and focus on the lesson?”

Before Taemin could reply or his teacher could issue a detention, the bell rung and he was free. He had done his cleaning duties yesterday and had no reason to stay in a place where the teachers would only scold him.

The Maknae felt the vibration in his uniform pocket and dug into his sides to find his phone.

“Umma?” Taemin smiled as he heard the relieved voice of his mother.

“Taemin, we haven't talked to you in so long!” Mrs. Lee spoke happily.

“I just saw you last week, Umma,” Taemin chuckled as he neared SHINee's dormhouse.

“Really? Oh yeah, I remember now,” Taemin knew that his mom had a bad memory, but even so, he decided to ask her the question that had boggled his mind.

“Umma, do you remember any of my close friends from when I was a baby?” Taemin couldn't believe how nervous he sounded.

“Sure,” she replied quickly. “Esther just came back from a visit to America, I spoke to her parents and they are just as-”

“W-Wasn't there somebody else?” Taemin dug deeper, struggling to find out if his dreams weren't just what they appeared to be.

“Ah, Eunhye! I still keep in touch with her mother. Such a nice family...”

“I remember her, but wasn't there someone other than those two?” Taemin asked, exasperated. “A... Boy?”

Silence came from the other line and Taemin was surprised that his mother had nothing to say.

“... I-I don't believe so, Honey,” his mom's voice was rigid and it seemed like there was something else on her mind. “I didn't think that you would-”

Instead of continuing her sentence, she cut herself off. “You know Honey, I'm sort of busy, do you think I can call you back?”

“But what was it you were going to say-”

“Sorry, Hon! Bye~” the line disconnected all of a sudden.

Taemin glared at his phone, his mood grim.

His mother was obviously hiding something from him. Taemin had never seen her act that way before.

All his suspicions were intensifying as he thought over his mother's reaction.

And by the time he entered the dorm house, he was sure about only one thing.

There was something he had forgotten and his family didn't want him to remember.