No response. It’s been about five days and still Jonghyun hasn’t said a word to me or Minho. Three days ago there was an argument between Minho and Jonghyun which almost ended in fighting if the others didn’t stop them. None of them told me about it, but I overheard them talking about it when they thought I was in my room. Minho and I haven’t been on a date yet because of the situation, it just wouldn’t feel right. We have been hanging more though just talking or playing some video games. I can tell he’s trying to get my mind off it and make me stop feeling bad.

I’m right now taking a break, looking up at the ceiling of the dance studio while lying down.  My head turns to the left to observe myself in the mirror. The person I see is someone who is a sweaty mess with her hair tied in a ponytail, wearing plaid sweatpants with a plain V-neck shirt, and she looks completely exhausted. The sight makes me have a giant sigh, ‘Why would they fight over this girl?’ My head then slowly moves to the right to view the traditional sky background. No one can tell from the videos online that they’re a little old looking. Seeing them brings back memories when I first saw them in SHINee’s practice video for Lucifer. I used to watch the video constantly to learn the dance for fun, but as time went by, I learned it for my audition. I’ve always wanted to see and be in the sky room and now here I am lying on the floor staring straight at them. ‘It feels like such a long time ago.’ I sit up feeling a surge of determination. ‘I’ve come this far and I won’t let anything ruin this opportunity.’ Right as I’m about to turn on the music to practice again, I hear a knock on the door and then it opens. The person at the door is Taemin and I instantly smile. Sadly, I haven’t hung out with Taemin that much these past few days and I missed him.

He comes over and gives me a hug, “Noona, jal jinesseoyo?”

I return his gesture, “Mm, gwenchana.”

He looks around seeing I’m alone in the room then takes a look at my sweaty state, “Did I interrupt you?”

“Ani, I’m taking a quick break, but I can make it longer. Wae? Want to talk to me about something?”

“Well, we haven’t really talked in a while and today my schedule ended early so I wanted to see how you are. Bogoshipeoyo, Noona.” He gives me his signature angelic smile and instantly makes me smile too.

I grab his wrist and walk over to where I put my bag which is against the mirror in the corner, to sit him down, “Nado.” He leans against the mirror making himself comfortable while I sit to the left of him against the wall. “So what did you want to talk about?”

Taemin frowns a little looking down away from me, “I kind of wanted to see how you’re feeling about this whole thing with Jonghyun-hyung.”

“Ah, I see.” Is all I can say as a reply, “Well,” Taemin now turns to me, “Honestly, I’m doing ok. I’ve just been focusing on my debut, so you guys don’t have to worry about me.” I give him a smile which is a little forced. In actuality, it’s been on my mind constantly and has been distracting me a lot. My mind keeps thinking about how Jonghyun is because even though what I see is his anger, I know it’s a way to mask that he’s actually really hurt. I really want him to talk to me, but he’s so stubborn that he won’t even acknowledge me and if he does, just gives me a piercing gaze then walks away.

Taemin studies my face with a concern stare, “You don’t have to pretend in front of me.”

“Mwo? What are you talking about?” I say putting on a puzzling expression like I don’t know what he’s talking about.

He looks me in the eyes and gives me a tiny smile, “I think I know you well enough to know when you’re upset about something.” I sigh not even trying to argue with him since I know I would lose.

“Fine, you win. I’m not even going to try because you cheated using that innocent smile of yours. I mean, how can someone lie when you give that kind of expression?” I bring my knees up to my face hugging my legs. “I hurt Jonghyun-oppa, how can I get over that easily?” Bringing my eyes up to watch Taemin’s face, it’s full of concern for me. I continue to talk, “I’m not hurt because he’s ignoring me and Minho-oppa. I’m just worried about him, since I know he’s really upset.” I give a little shrug, “I think anger is the only way he can deal with it.” Then I sigh, “I just wish he would at least give me a chance to actually talk to him.”

“Ne, I think Jonghyun-hyung is being unfair.” He nods his head while saying.

“Taemin-ah...”

“Mm?”

“Mianhae.” I say to him sadly with my eyes going down to stare at my knees.

“Mwo? Wae?” He sounds a little confused from the tone of his voice.

“It’s because of me that your group hasn’t been doing well lately. I never wanted to cause trouble between you guys, but I did.”

“Anio! You didn’t hurt the group! Jonghyun-hyung is just being stubborn and that’s why we’re not really that good.” Taemin says trying to make me feel better.

“Yea, but I’m the reason why he’s being stubborn in the first place.” Taemin looks like he’s going to protest again, but then backs down staying silent which means I’m right. “Seriously, I don’t even know why he’s making such a big deal out of me or why Minho-oppa actually likes me. I mean, I’m not that special that it should cause a fight.” I say sighing and shrugging my shoulders.

“Yah! What are you talking about! You’re definitely worth a fight!” I chuckle from his unusual comment and he pauses thinking over what he just said, “What I mean is, Kate-noona is a special person.” I stay silent staring at my knees. From the corner of my eye, I see Taemin shift over to sit next to me on my right side causing me to turn my head towards him while still resting my head on my knees. “Do I have to list reasons why you’re special?” His face is serious saying this and I just shrug as a response. “Arasseo. Noona is a very caring person to everyone and thinks about others before herself, she’s fun to be with and always knows how to make me smile or laugh, she works very hard and it makes me more determined to try harder, she’s really smart knowing how to solve problems and gives great advice, she is a great friend to all of the SHINee members and it wouldn’t be the same without her, and last but not least, Noona is very pretty to me and so many others.” As Taemin listed each reason his smile grows and so does mine. He randomly sings the line “Noona neomu yeppeo” which makes me laugh at how dorky he can be sometimes.

“Gomawo, Taemin-ah.” I give him a big nudge as my way of giving him a hug. Pulling away, I sniff a little because I’m tearing up slightly. I smile to not let Taemin notice them and then give him another nudge, but bigger this time. “So enough about me and my current drama…give me an update on how it’s going with Krystal!”

“Mwo!?” Taemin is caught off guard with the sudden topic.

I chuckle from his shocked face and push him to tell me something, “Come on! I know you’ve done something after Minho-oppa and her split up. I think it’s been enough time for you to at least talk to her.” He just stares at the empty dance studio in front of him not saying a word and it looks like he’s thinking. I get closer to his face to try and read his expression, “So? Tell me.” Taemin finally comes back to reality finally looks at me to realize that I’ve gotten closer to him and he jumps a little quickly turning his head as far away from me as possible. I can’t see his face at all and I’m curious as to why he suddenly turned away from me. I lean further putting my hand on his shoulder to try to see what’s going on, “Taemin-ah, what’s wrong?”

Taemin clears his throat a little before talking, “Nothing’s wrong.” It’s completely obvious that he’s lying and since he’s not budging, I decide to go on the other side of him. As soon as I do it, Taemin gets a little surprised and quickly turns his head again, but before that I get a glimpse of his face. ‘Is he blushing? Why is he blushing? Is it something I said?’

Then it clicks and I grow a huge grin, “Something did happen between you and Krystal-ah!”

From my sudden outburst, Taemin snaps his head towards me, “Mwo!? A-Anio!”

“Yay! You have to tell me what happened, Taemin-ah!” I kneel in front of him grinning like an idiot shaking his shoulders. “Unless…” I stop shaking his shoulders. My expression changes to my eyes wide open staring at the confused and slightly scared guy in front of me, “…it’s too private and intimate to talk about?”

“M-Mwo!?” Taemin’s eyes grow bigger than mine and his face is getting redder by the second.

My big smile returns, “Omo! My little Taemin-ah is growing up! He’s becoming so manly!”

“Yah! Noona!” I laugh at how embarrassed he is and I finally stop teasing him.

I go back to sitting in my original spot, “Arasseo, arasseo. I’ll stop now.” I hear him do a sigh from relief. I pinch his cheek, “I’m just happy that things seem to be going well with you and I’ll keep cheering you on.”

He puffs his cheek so I let go and then he rubs it, “Ne. Gomawo, Noona.”

“Munje obsseo. I mean, you helped me with Minho-oppa and I want us to both be happy with the person we want to be with.” I give him a smile and he returns it, but it seems like it didn’t go to his eyes. Before I start staring, I change the topic, “Taemin-ah, have you been working on any new dance moves?”

I see his face brighten up completely, “Ne! Do you want to see them?” I can’t help but chuckle from how excited he looks and then I nod my head. He jumps up and goes over to plug his iPod into the speakers choosing the song. I also get up so I’m closer to the middle of where he’s going to dance and lean against the mirror with my legs in a pretzel. He stands a few feet away from me and the mirror getting into position. As soon as the music starts up, Taemin goes into his performance mode putting on a serious face looking in the mirror. No matter how many times I watch Taemin dance, it still amazes me. Even before coming to SM, I always admired his dancing and wished that I could be as good as him. Being so close witnessing his dancing, it looks so fluent and he makes seem effortless.

He finishes dancing standing tall with a serious face and breathing heavily looking in the mirror. I look at him from head to toe. Taemin is wearing a black wife-beater and gray sweatpants that are now soaked with sweat. I then notice that his build has gotten bigger and he was muscles that are visible now. Finally, my gaze falls on his face that still has a serious expression. Some of his bangs are hiding one eye and slightly sticking to his face from the sweat. Even though I was just joking before, I just realized, ‘Taemin really is becoming manlier.’ I must have got lost in my thoughts and stared off into space because next thing I know, I see a hand being waved in front of my face.

I jump slightly finally snapping out of it to look up and see Taemin crouched next to me. “Noona? You there?”

“Ah, mianhae! I must have spaced out a little, but I saw your dancing. You never disappoint me Taemin-ah!” I’m back to my cheerfulness.

“Chincha?” He looks down at the floor and rubs the back of his head.

“Ne!” I stand up and he follows along, “I’m your number one fan! Taemin-ah neun neomu daebak!” I put my two thumbs up in front of me with a cheesy grin.

He laughs shyly and playfully shoves me on the shoulder, “Gomawo.” As soon as we finish the little conversation, the door opens to reveal Minho. He looks at both of us while walking over and it seems like his smile falters a little.

“Annyeong.” He gives me a hug and then kisses me on the cheek which makes my smile bigger. He gives Taemin a nod with a smile before turning back to me, “Are you finished with practice?”

“Ne, Taemin-ah and I were just talking a little and then he showed me some of his new dance moves! Have you seen them? It was so good!” I happily say to him.

“Ah, anio, I’ll see them some other time I guess.” He replies and then turns his attention back to Taemin who walked over to the speakers to retrieve his iPod, “Taemin-ah, you should leave and get ready for tomorrow.” Taemin nods with a sad expression, waves bye to me and then walks out the door.

“What’s tomorrow?” I ask out of curiosity.

Minho’s face changes into a worrisome expression, “Taemin-ah and the others are taking out Jonghyun-hyung to dinner tomorrow.”

“Wae?”

“It’s for his birthday.” My expression instantly falls hearing those words. ‘How could I forget his birthday!?’ Minho can sense what I’m feeling and puts his arm around my shoulders to comfort me. “Yah, don’t worry about it.”

I pull away from his grasp on me to face him straight on, “How can I not!? I feel so bad that I forgot about his birthday! To top it off I hurt him so close to his birthday. I basically just said to him “I’m going to stomp on your heart as a gift to you.”” I only realized I was pacing back and forth while talking when Minho stops me by grabbing my shoulders.

“Calm down, jagiya. The guys are going to take him out to dinner and celebrate to get his mind off of things. Just leave it to them and don’t stress yourself out.” Minho speaks to me softly and it helps me calm down a little. I give him a nod and smile to let him know I’m better. “Let’s go back to the dorm now.” He walks over to grab my back and then starts heading for the door with me following from behind.

When walking down the hallway towards the exit, something just clicked in my head and I stop walking, “Oppa.”

“Mm?” Minho also stops turning towards me.

“You’re not going with them out to eat…are you?” I ask him with sadness in my voice since I know how much he cares for s, but has to keep his distance from Jonghyun.

Despite Minho feeling upset about it, he gives me a smile, “Ne.”

“Mianhae.” I say to him looking down feeling guilty. I hear his footsteps coming towards me and then feel his hand grab mine. I look back up at him to see the smile still on his face.

“Gwenchana, we’ll do something together while they’re out.” My mood is lifted a bit at the thought of spending time with Minho, “Kaja.” Once again we start walking outside to where the van is to drive us back to the dorms. I get lost in my thoughts thinking of some way to solve everything, ‘There has to be something I can do so I can talk to Jonghyun and make things go back to normal. I don’t want his birthday to be ruined and I want Minho to be able to spend time with everyone again.’

“Jamkkanman!” For the second time I stop but this time I let go of Minho’s hand and jump in front of him almost making him fall backwards. He just stares at me in confusion waiting for me to speak, “I think I have an idea to make everything go back to normal.”

“What do you mean?” He asks with curiosity in his voice.

I smirk, “I have a plan where I’ll be able to talk to Jonghyun-oppa and hopefully it’ll go well where things will be okay.” I then go into detail about what my plan is and the whole time, Minho is giving me a look with his eyebrow raised like he’s asking “Are you sure this will work?” I sigh, “Well, this will only work if the timing is correct. I need everyone’s help for it to work. Are you in?”

While he’s contemplating about it, I give him a pout and eventually he gives in with a sigh, “I guess it’s worth a try.”

I smile and give him a hug, “Gomawo, oppa!” After the quick hug, I get serious again, “We need to talk to the others right away.”

“Arasseo.” Minho gets out his phone and calls one of them saying that there’s something important to discuss when he and I get to the dorms. After the call, we get in the van and head back. Once we arrive, we see Onew, Taemin, and Key in the living room hanging out.

Onew is the first person to recognize we’re here, “Ah, you’re here!” Key and Taemin both turn to the entrance of the living room spotting us.

Key walks up to us with his arms crossed looking towards Minho, “So what’s so important that you couldn’t tell me over the phone.” Instead of Minho replying, he just raises his arm and points next to him which moves Key’s gaze to me.

“Before I start, where’s Jonghyun-oppa?” I look around noticing he’s not in the living room.

Taemin finally speaks up, “Hyung said he was tired and went to sleep early.”

“Ah joahyo!” I exclaim happy that I don’t have to worry about Jonghyun accidentally listening.

“So it was something to do with Jonghyun-hyung?” Key asks. I nod my head and walk over to the couch to where Taemin is sitting. Minho on the other hand goes to the kitchen to get a drink, but since he knows the plan, there’s no need for him to pay attention.

“I have a plan for Jonghyun-oppa to talk to me and get everything back to normal, but I need all of your help.” I explain my plan to all three of them like I did with Minho earlier and they’re all listening intently. When I finish, there’s a moment of silence because they’re all pondering about it.

Taemin is the first one to speak up, “Noona…do you think it’ll work?”

Before I can respond Key does, “I don’t think it will.”

“Anio! If everything happens exactly how it should at the right time, it’ll go smoothly.” I counter with Key’s response.

“That’s why.”

“Explain.”

He sighs, “Since it has to be so precise, things can go wrong since we don’t know if something in between will happen.”

“I think you’re making it more complicated than it seems, Key-ah.” Onew joins the conversation and Key’s reply is just a scoff.

“Look, if there happens to be something in the way, then we can just fix it on the spot.” I say trying to reassure everyone.

“When is this “perfect” plan supposed to happen?” It seems like Key is doing the talking for everyone.

“Ah…um….naeil.” I don’t make eye contact with anyone.

“Yah!” Is all Key says.

“Don’t you think this is a little last minute?” Minho says who’s leaning on the counter in the kitchen.

“Ne, hajiman…don’t you think it’s right to do on his birthday? I mean, do any of you want him to still be in the mood that he is celebrating his birthday?” Silence fills the room once again.

“I don’t want hyung to be upset on his birthday. We should be able to do it tomorrow.” Taemin says supporting me. Onew and Minho both agree to do it for tomorrow.

After a frustrated sigh, Key says he’ll help, “I have a bad feeling about all this going on tomorrow.” Time passed while discussing the plan and so we all decide to go to sleep to get an early start on tomorrow.

As soon as I open my eyes, I shoot up out of my bed since today is Jonghyun’s birthday and the day of the plan. I have a little headache, but it’s nothing too drastic. All of the guys had to go to their schedule, but they end early since it’s a special day. I start to do my part of the plan, but I can’t really do much until the guys are done with their schedule. ‘I guess I should get myself ready and plan out what I’m going to wear.’ I’m go back in my room after having breakfast and when I go to my closet I see a note that I didn’t notice when I first woke up. It read: “Kate-ah, for this plan to work you need to buy something better than what you have in here. We’ll go shopping. ~Key-eomma.” I smile to myself and roll my eyes, ‘I should’ve known Key would do something like this.’ I couldn’t really do anything else so I sit on the couch in the living room to see if there’s anything good on television. After a half hour of channel surfing and not finding anything, I grow frustrated just turning it off with an aggravated sigh. I pick up my phone to call Minho to see how everything is going on the other side.

After the third ring he picks up, “Yoboseyo?”

“Minho-oppa, how is everything going?” I ask him straight-forwardly.

“Ah, jamkkanman.” I then hear him excuse himself to the people I hear in the background, “Well, Jonghyun-hyung is still in a bad mood and seems extra bitter today.”

“Ah, I see.” I say with a sad tone. “Hey, I know I’m supposed to wait for you all to finish, but do you think I can move some of the stuff myself?”

“It’ll be too heavy for you and I don’t want you to hurt yourself.” Minho says a little concerned. I can’t help, but gush over his concern for me, but I quickly snap out of it.

“Yah, I’m stronger than I look you know. Can I just move the things that are not that heavy?” I just hear him sigh, “I can’t just sit here doing nothing waiting for you all. Please, Minho-oppa.” I say cutely and do a pout even though he can’t see me.

I hear another sigh, “Arasseo, don’t hurt yourself please.”

“Ne!”

“Anyway, we’re almost done so I’ll see you soon.” With that said, we say good-bye and hang up.

I roll my sleeves up to get ready and say to myself, “Alright, it’s time for me to get started.” I first decide to gather everything I need into the living room. Some stuff I definitely couldn’t move myself so I leave that to Minho. After about an hour of just collecting everything, I look around the living room to make sure I didn’t miss anything before I have to move it all to where it’s actually going. I stretch and then rub my temples with two fingers each hand since I can still feel the headache. I decide to take a pause to get a drink of water since my throat is feeling a little scratchy. While pouring my glass, I suddenly sneeze, ‘Hm, I guess someone is talking about me…haha.’ Walking over to the couch, my phone starts ringing and I see that it’s Key. Before picking up, I also find out that I missed five calls.

“Yoboseyo?” I say finally picking up.

“YAH! Why haven’t you been answering your phone!?” Key yells so loudly on the other end that I need to pull my phone away from my ear.

“Gomawo. I think you now have damaged my ear.”

“Ugh, never mind that! I’ve been calling you!”

“Wae?” I ask with curiosity now used to the volume of Key’s voice.

“I know I’m on the phone with her now!” He shouts to someone who’s with him and then talks to me again, “Jonghyun-ah left earlier than us because he forgot something at the dorm!”

My mind goes blank from shock, “M-Mwo?”

“He’s on his way to the dorm! He left like a half hour ago so he should be there any minute! The plan will be ruined if you don’t hide-” I hang up on Key without hearing him finish. I’m now in panic mode looking around the room at all the stuff and I feel my headache growing at a rapid rate. I don’t know where to start, but I just start taking things and running to my room to put them there. I’m feeling really warm and my headache is now a migraine from going back and forth countless times. When going back to the living room to grab more stuff, I catch my foot on something and fall on the floor between the couch and coffee table.

“What’s going on?” I hear a voice that I’m hoping is my imagination, but when I look up to see the owner of the voice, it’s not.  I quickly stand up and face Jonghyun. He’s looking around the room and then back at me with a displeased look, “What’s all this stuff? What are you up to?” I just continue to stare with a shocked expression not knowing what to say or do. My body is feeling warmer and now adding to the migraine is dizziness. Jonghyun scoffs, “Never mind. I just came to grab something and go.”

He starts to walk past me and without even thinking I grab his wrist turning him to face me again, “Jamkkanman!” He gives me a slight glare while waiting for me to continue, “I…can we talk?”

Jonghyun just scoffs again, “There’s nothing I need or want to talk to you about.” He detaches my hand from his wrist and walks down the hallway to the guys’ room.

Instead of giving up like countless times, this time I stand my ground and follow him, “Jonghyun-oppa! We need to talk.” I stand in front of the door and when he turns to exit the room I block him.

“Move.” He says to me sternly.

“Anio.” I don’t budge at all.

“I said move.” He’s looking at me directly in the eyes to try and intimidate me.

“Anio. Jonghyun-oppa we have to talk. Stop being so stubborn and talk to me.” I look him straight back in the eyes to show that he can’t faze me. Jonghyun just stays silent looking down at me since we’re inches apart. For a minute, I see his eyes flicker with a hint of hurt, but it goes away and he just shoves past me walking down the hallway quickly. I chase after him again, “Jonghyun-oppa!” My legs don’t take me far though because all of a sudden, the dizziness overtakes me and my sight goes blurry until it completely goes black. The last thing I feel is someone catching me before I hit the ground.

When waking up, I don’t open my eyes right away and notice I’m not on the floor, but on something soft that I’m assuming is my bed. My eyes finally open squinting a bit from adjusting to the light and I confirm that I am on my bed. I try sitting up, but quickly fail since I’m tucked in tight by my blanket. As soon as I’m about to wiggle free, I hear my door start to open and I lay back down shutting my eyes to pretend I’m sleeping. ‘Why am I even doing this?’

A person walks in and I have no idea who it is but I continue to listen. The person walks closer to me and sits on the edge of my bed next to me. Next thing I know is I feel a hand being gently placed on my forehead. After a few seconds of keeping their hand on my head, the person takes it off and sighs a little. I try as hard as I could to figure out whose voice it is, but I can’t tell from a simple sigh. All of a sudden I get startled by something really cold gently put on my forehead, but it feels good. The weight that is on the edge of my bed disappears and the person is starting to leave. Before the person leaves I want to see who it is, so as I open my eyes, I’m a little surprised to see who was being so gentle towards me.

“Jonghyun-oppa?” I didn’t mean to say his name out loud; my mouth had a mind of its own sometimes. I didn’t notice until now that my throat feels sore and I sound raspy. He stops suddenly and turns to see I’m awake with an expression that looks a little surprised. He doesn’t say anything and just turns around to start walking towards the exit again. “Please, stay.” I say to him weakly and he stops again. Jonghyun doesn’t turn around, but he doesn’t continue leaving either. It seems like he’s contemplating what to do.

Finally his head goes down slightly and he sighs quietly saying, “Arasseo.” He turns back around and walks back to my bed slowly sitting on the edge next to me. His head is down staring at the floor staying quiet. Not that I finally have his attention, I’m not sure how to start and I also keep silent trying to figure out what I want to say. It remains silent between the two of us for a few seconds. Jonghyun starts bouncing his leg and I watch him while I try to find the right words because if I start out wrong, it won’t be good. All of sudden I hear him sigh; “If you don’t have anything to say then I’m going.”

He’s about to get up again and I sit up quickly grabbing his wrist, “Jamkkanman!” He freezes in place and I feel his muscles tense up. ‘Say something now or I won’t get this chance again.’ “Jonghyun-oppa…Na-neun…” I then let go of Jonghyun’s wrist because I now start to feel the dizziness from sitting up quickly and I put my hand to my forehead. He turns to look at me, sighs, and with both hands on my shoulders pushes me down lightly.

“Pabo, don’t sit up all of a sudden when you still have a fever.” He mumbled it to himself, but I still heard him.

“I have a fever?” I then realize that was the reason for the headache and dizziness earlier, but it looks like my throat is also affected.

“Ne, I caught you when you passed out in the hallway.” He says this quietly while picking up the washcloth that fell to the floor when I sat up to grab him, placing back on my forehead gently.

I look up at him while he puts it on my forehead, “Gomawo.” He doesn’t make eye contact with me and his face seems stoic, but I can see the slightest bit of worry. After, he turns back sitting forward looking at the floor again and it’s silent. ‘So he doesn’t hate me after all, he’s just hurt.’

I sit up once again and Jonghyun turns automatically ready to push me back down, but I hold my hand out to stop him, “Gwenchana.” He puts his arms back down and only nods looking down. “Jonghyun-oppa, do you remember what happened on Valentine’s Day?” From what I can see, his eyes widen in surprise a little, but quickly go back to normal and he just nods. “Well, you never found out why I was crying that day.” Finally, I gain Jonghyun’s attention and he looks at me directly. I feel a little embarrassed explaining it to him so it’s my turn to look down while still feeling his gaze on me. “That day, after Yoogeun-ah went to take a nap, remember how I was vague and said I would be going out for a while?”

“Ne.” I glance up a little surprised to see Jonghyun’s full focus on me listening intently. ‘I wonder if he wanted to know what made me cry that day for a long time.’

I try to make the next part not too painful for him, “I went to go meet Minho-oppa after he was done with his schedule to give him chocolates…and to confess to him.” I didn’t want to look up to see his reaction, but I still check his face. Jonghyun was still turned towards me and his head was down, bangs slightly covering his eyes.

“Continue.” Is the only thing that he says. I nod hesitantly even though he can’t see it.

“When I was almost there, I saw Minho-oppa getting out of the building and I was about to go up to him, but…” I start to get a little teary-eyed remembering how much it hurt. I clear my throat which hurt since it’s sore and recover fast before Jonghyun notices. I glance up and his bangs are still covering his face. “He was waiting for someone and it turned out to be Krystal-ah. I saw them greet each other by hugging and then a kiss. I dropped the chocolates and ran back to the dorm crying. I tried my best to make myself look like I wasn’t upset to not worry you, but I guess I didn’t do a good job.” I finish the story and slowly bring my eyes to him. Once again it fell silent, ‘What are you thinking?’

Without moving or lifting his head, he finally responds, “Wae? Why are you telling me this?”

His hands slowly grip at the bed sheets and I start to feel nervous, but I try to talk calmly, “I wanted to tell you the truth.”

“So the truth is that you liked Minho-ah for a long time and you never liked me!? How is this supposed to make me feel better!?” Jonghyun’s head snaps up looking me straight in the eyes. His face is full of anger and hurt; he’s not even trying to hide it anymore.

I stay calm despite his outburst, “Remember after you saw I was hurt? You made me feel better and instead of me confessing to Minho-oppa that day…you confessed to me. After that, I was confused about my thoughts and feelings. When you asked to date me on the Ferris wheel, I felt happy and thought “Why do I like someone who doesn’t have feelings for me and is now taken?” So, I decided to date you, because I started having feelings for you. Every time we were together, I liked you more and more slowly forgetting my feelings towards Minho-oppa.” I smile to myself recalling the moments spent with Jonghyun.

“I don’t get it. If your feelings for Minho-ah were fading away, then why are you with him?” I can tell he’s trying to piece everything together. The anger was gone replaced with confusion, but the hurt is still there.

I sigh, “The thing is…I thought my feelings for him were gone. Then there was one time when Minho-oppa and I had to record late, but when we finished we were locked in. Before that, I kind of avoided him a little so my focus was on you, but he noticed and asked me that night. He kept asking why wanting to know, and I blurted out that I liked him. A few days later I saw him by the Han River and he told me he’s liked me for a while, close to the beginning of me coming here. Then…I guess you know the rest…” I feel so guilty telling him this, but he deserves an explanation. It seems like I hurt him more looking at his reaction to this. I decide to conclude my long story, “That night, I was going to go home right away and talk to you about this, but you saw. I felt it wouldn’t be right to continue being in a relationship with you since it would be unfair to you. Jonghyun-oppa, I truly did like you from the beginning to end and I still do, but my feelings for Minho-oppa are a little stronger. Mianhaeyo. Jinjja mianhaeyo.” I’ve said what I needed to say and now I wait for Jonghyun’s response. I expect him to still be angry, yell, and our friendship to be over.

“…I’m going to miss the teasing that makes you blush with my skinship.” Jonghyun’s head rises and gives me his best smirk even though he’s clearly upset. He does a tiny chuckle, probably because my mouth is slightly open from his reaction to everything I told him.

“You’re not mad?” I ask him hesitantly.

He sighs tilting his head towards the ceiling, “I’m still upset, but I can’t be mad anymore now after hearing the effort you put in me. I had no idea how much drama you had. You might not be a good liar, but you can definitely hide your drama. Plus, what you said was right…I wouldn’t want to be in a relationship with someone whose heart belongs more towards someone else.”

“It’s not like you’re losing me completely. We’re still friends and can hang out. You can still tease me too…just not that much skinship.” Jonghyun’s head tilts towards me and laughs a little at my last comment.

His left hand rises and ruffles my hair while giving me a soft smile, “Ne.”

Once his hand leaves my head I speak, “So, I guess you finally found out who’s my favorite member of SHINee.”

Jonghyun’s eyes widen a little, “Oh yea! I forgot about that!” We both laugh.

“How could you forget when you would ask me all the time?”

“Molla. Sadly, it’s not the person I was hoping it would be.” He pouts a little and he looks like a cute puppy. ‘Dino-puppy.’

I get the urge to pet his head which is exactly what I do, “Well you’ll always be my favorite SHINee singer.” He smiles hearing that and I swear if he had a tail, it would be wagging. I then ask Jonghyun a question that I’m hoping will be a good answer, “Do you forgive, Minho-oppa?”

His face falls a little and stays quiet for a moment, but then smirks, “Keureochi, if I forgive you, then I should forgive him too. Besides, I need to look like I’m the bigger man.”

“Even though you’re actually the smallest man out of the group.”

“Yah!” I can’t help, but laugh at his reaction.

“You left yourself open to that one, Jonghyun-oppa.” I say smirking. Something comes to my mind and Jonghyun can see I’m thinking about something so he asks what it is. I start feeling embarrassed averting my eyes from his, “Well…I always fantasized two guys fighting over me, and I’m a little disappointed it’s not like what I imagined.” The room is silent. I look up and I see Jonghyun staring at me and then goes into a fit of laughter making me more embarrassed. “Yah!”

While calming down he gives me this sly look, “What other fantasies do you have, Kate-ah?”

I can’t tell if my face is on fire from my fever or me blushing, “I’m not telling you!”

“Ah, so there are more?” He looks amused.

“Anio!” I shout quickly. Jonghyun laughs and I push to fall sideways on the bed, ending up rolling off the bed still laughing. All of a sudden, my door opens with Key and Minho entering the room.

“Gwenchana!?” Minho says rushing over to me.

Key looks at the situation of Jonghyun rolling on the floor laughing and my red face, “Ike mwoya?”

I calm their worries, “It’s nothing. Jonghyun-oppa and I made up. Everything is ok now.”

“Jinjja?” Minho and Key say in sync staring wide-eyed at me then Jonghyun who is sitting up finally recovering.

“Ne, we’re fine now.” Jonghyun says standing up.

Minho walks over to Jonghyun hesitantly, “Hyung, are we ok?” I look a little worried when they’re face to face silent for a moment.

All of a sudden Jonghyun does a small smile and puts his hand on Minho’s shoulder, “Ne.” I smile that they finally made up, “Hajiman…” His face becomes serious which worries me, “If you hurt Kate-ah, there will be a price.” He then smirks, “If you don’t keep an eye on her, I might just snatch her away.” ‘Oh boy.’ I look at Minho worried about his reaction, but he smirks and nods.

“Joah! Not that everything is back to normal, can we eat dinner? The food I made is getting cold!” Key yells and we all laugh. Key then gives me a slight glare, “Oh yea! You owe us all for having to move everything from the living room back to where it was supposed to be!” I’m a little confused, but then it clicks in my head what I was doing before I fainted from my fever.

My head goes down feeling bad, “Mianhae, Key-eomma.”

“Ah! That’s right!” When I hear Jonghyun speak my head snaps up to look at him. “What was all that stuff in the living room?”

“Well…you see…” I start explaining slowly.

“She had a plan for your birthday.” Key jumps in saying, “I knew it was impossible to do.”

“Yah! Let me at least explain it.” I give Key a look that makes him quiet down. The whole time Minho was just quietly listening to the conversation. I then explain the plan, “Well, you weren’t talking to Minho-oppa and I. It’s your birthday and I wanted you to be in a good mood and maybe make things go back to normal today with a plan I created. The plan was to decorate the roof of the dorm as a surprise dinner. While you guys were at the SM building, I decided to get the decorations and bring them upstairs to get started. Minho-oppa was then going to leave early to do the heavy lifting like the tables and chairs. When you were all at the restaurant to eat out, Onew-oppa and Taemin-ah would order some food secretly bringing it to the van while they were going to the “restroom.” Plus, to make sure you didn’t eat a lot. I was then going to get a call from Key-eomma saying they were done soon since Key-eomma then wanted to meet me at store to get me a dress saying he was going to look around before heading back. After buying a dress, we go to a bakery to buy a cake and head back. I would go straight to the roof setting up the food and cake, then the guys would make up an excuse to get you to go to roof…and well...surprise. I thought it would be a great way to talk to you and say sorry.”

Everyone is silent until Key speaks up, “Pabo.”

“Yah!” I say to him as a reflex.

“Did you really think it was going to work? The plan was complicated, plus it was short notice.” Key says while smirking. I just avert my eyes and pout. Then, all of a sudden I hear someone chuckling then laughing and when I look up to see it is, I find out it’s Jonghyun. Everyone is staring at him and he tries to explain why he’s laughing.

“When…I…came home…you were running into…the living room…looking so panicked! Then…you tripped…on nothing…falling on the…floor! Now that I know…why that happened…it’s hilarious!” He explains between fits of laughter holding his stomach now kneeling. My face gets warmer indicating that I’m blushing from embarrassment remembering what I did earlier before. Minho and Key then start laughing at what Jonghyun said most likely imagining it.

“Y-Yah!” I hide my faces with my hands feeling completely embarrassed.

Key tries to talk while laughing aloud, “I think you’re hanging around Onew-hyung too much!” The comment makes everyone laugh harder, if that’s possible. The next thing is I feel hands grab mine pulling them away from my face to reveal Minho right in front of me smiling.

“Neo-neun neomu kwiyeopta.” He says to me while pinching my cheek lightly. I puff the cheek heads holding averting my eyes and pouting, but in the end I can’t help to look back at him smiling.

The laughter dies down finally and after Jonghyun catches his breath he walks over to me, “Kate-ah, gomawo. You really put a lot of effort into making me feel better.” It makes me so happy to know that Jonghyun is feeling better.

“Munje obsseoyo.” I say nonchalantly.

“Arasseo, arasseo! Enough with all the sorrys and thank yous! The dinner I made is getting cold! Minho-yah, Jonghyun-hyung, go wake up Onew -hyung and Taemin-ah from their nap.” Key interrupts the moment with his loud voice. Minho stands up straight walking towards the door and Jonghyun follows Minho. I’m about to get out of bed until Key stops me, “Anio! You still have a fever so you need to stay in bed. I’ll get you some soup after you rest up a little more.”

I sigh and listen to Key, “Arasseo.”

“I’ll bring the soup and feed you when you wake up, Kate-ah.” Minho says to make me feel better, which it did. After that they leave so I can get more sleep. I stare at the ceiling smiling to myself, ‘I’m so glad things worked out in the end. Things can get back to normal between the guys now. Minho and I can finally have an actual date!’ With this thought I smile wider getting excited. ‘Oh no, now I’m too excited to sleep! Must go to sleep. The sooner I sleep the sooner I wake up and Minho feeds me. Oh gosh, I sound like my fangirl self before I even came to Korea. Well, now I’m not just a fangirl, I’m Choi Minho’s girlfriend and we’re going on a date! I never thought I could say…think that. Well, I also never thought that I would date Jonghyun, or even see SHINee…ha! Alright, time to shut my thoughts off.’ I start dozing off and then fall asleep with a smile on my face with one last thought, ‘Everything is going to be ok now.’

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Learn some Korean~

Taemin-ah neun neomu daebak - Taemin-ah is really awesome!

Jamkkanman - Hold on a second/ Wait a moment (Add "yo" at the end to make it formal)

Naeil - Tomorrow

Na-neun - I (Jeo-neun is also I, but this one is more formal)

Keureochi - Of course (Informal; Keureomyo is the formal)

Ike mwoya? - What is this? (Formal is mwoeyo)

Neo-neun neomu kwiyeopta - You are so cute (Neo-neun [you] and kwiyeopta [cute] are informal. Formal ones are Dangsin-neun and kwiyeowoyo)

I MISSED YOU GUYS!!!!! I'M SO SORRY!!! I feel so bad about having a long hiatus! I know how it feels when you're reading a fanfic and the author just all of a sudden stops. I've been busy and a lot has happened: I met Jay Park, I did the SM Youth Star audition, school work, family things, Hurricane Sandy, the huge blizzard, and....I went to the Big Bang concert on Friday!!! (I have MANY fancams if you want to see them. Just ask~) PLUS...I drew Jonghyun and I wanted to wait until I was done to post it on here for you guys for this chapter (What do you think?). I might just post my drawings as the chapter pics now. To make it up to you guys, I made this chapter EXTRA long...longest one I've done keke~ Ah also...I might be studying abroad in Korea next summer...woo!! I'm excited ^^ Anyway, thank you soooooooo much for not unsubscribing me! I feel so lucky to have you readers wait for me....unless you forgot you subscribed to me or were too lazy to unsubscribe haha, still it means a lot to me. Has anything big and exciting happened to you guys? How have you been? Enjoy the chapter! Please tell me how it is...I feel a little rusty keke~ Once again THANK YOU!!!!<3