The next morning I wake up feeling better. I recall the night before what happened. Both Jonghyun and Minho comforted me when I told them about the situation with SM. ‘Minho has been so sweet to me, especially yesterday.’ My face warms up at recalling what he did yesterday and I touch my chin where his hand was. ‘I can’t believe he got a nose job, but I can hardly tell the difference. I’m going to take his advice and tell the head, of course nicer, what I said to him in my rant yesterday. Then…there’s Jonghyun. I never saw him act so serious before…it surprised me…and then the last thing he said to me…’ I start to blush again remembering his words last night. I shake my head realizing the reaction I have thinking about it. ‘Ugh! Why am I blushing? It’s the same goofy Jonghyun that likes to tease and pester me. Just because he acts serious for a moment doesn’t mean anything. Anyway, I’m sure he was just being nice with the last thing he said to me. No big deal.’ I walk out of my room to go take a shower and then change. I see everyone eating like usual and they turn to me when I walk in the room. I can see from their faces that they know about the situation. Looking at everyone’s face I then stop a brief moment when Jonghyun and I make eye contact, but I immediately look down.

“Kate-ah.” Taemin says getting up walking towards me giving me a hug.

“I guess you all know now what made me really upset.” I say after hugging Taemin.

Taemin replies for everyone saying, “Ne, Jonghyun-hyung told us this morning.” I glance over at Jonghyun again and I can see that he’s still looking at me. His expression still seemed upset, ‘Is he still that concerned about me?’

“Yah! I can’t believe they asked you to get a nose job! It’s ridiculous! I should go talk to them about this!” Key now pipes up snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Anio, Key-oppa. I don’t want any of you to get involved. This is my problem so I’ll deal with it myself. I’m going to discuss this today with them.” They don’t argue with what I say and remain quiet. After that, we all head out to SM building. SHINee wants to come with me in the office, but have a strict schedule they can’t break. I’m waiting in front of the office to talk to the head about the whole ordeal and I feel my nerves growing. ‘I’m nervous, but I don’t want a nose job. I look perfectly fine the way I am.’ I realize what I just thought and sets a reminder in my head, ‘I’m taking the words right out of Jonghyun’s mouth…ha.’ The door finally opens and I see Seunghye gesturing me to come in. I walk in to see the head sitting at his desk looking out the window while Seunghye walks towards him stopping next to him. She bows down and whispers to him, most likely saying I’m here.

The head turns around in his chair to see me, then smiles and says, “Ah! Kate-ah, you’re here. Please, take a seat.” I do as he says and I sit in one of the seats that are across from his desk. He then continues talking now looking a little serious, “Now we’re here to discuss what we of SM have asked of you. Is that correct?”

“Ne.” I answer simply.

“Well, have you thought about it?”

“Ne…and I would like to decline the plastic surgery.”

Seunghye now interrupts, “This will have a fatal impact on your debut if you say no.”

“I know, but I don’t want to change myself to please others. I like how I look. I’m not Korean and I trying to look it will contradict your plan for diversity. What matters more is my music, not my looks.” I say calmly stating my argument.

The director looks at me in thought and then turns around looking back at the window saying, “I see your point. …Ok, fine. You don’t need to get the plastic surgery.” My face grows a huge grin on it.

“Director, I don’t thi-“

“Hajiman…” he says cutting off Seunghye while I worry about what he’s going to say and continues, “Your debut will be pushed back a little as the consequence.”

I let go of the breath that I held in and reply, “That’s fine with me.” The director gets up out of his chair and I follow with the same action.

He says forming a smile once again, “Well, not that that’s settled, you may go to your schedule now. Annyeonghigasaeyo.”

The head bows and I bow back with a smile saying, “Annyeonghigaesaeyo. Gamsahabnida!” Before turning to exit I glance over at Seunghye who seems to have an annoyed expression, but ignore it and walk out of the head’s office. Before heading to wherever I had to go for that time, I run to where SHINee is to tell them the good news. When I’m close I see just Minho standing outside of the recording studio taking a break. I run over to him and he turns his head once he spots me from the side. I stop right in front of him a little out of breath with my hands on my knees and my face down.

He then immediately asks, “What happened? How did it go?”

I now look up at him revealing my huge grin and shout loudly, “I don’t need to get the surgery!” Minho instantly smiles at the good news and from my excitement I hug him around the neck which causes him to hug back spinning a little as a reflex from surprise. As soon as I realize my action, I let go quickly which makes me stumble, but luckily not fall.

I look away blushing from the sudden impulsive action, but I turn back around when I hear Minho say, “I knew you could do it.” He smiles at me looking at me in the eyes and instead of looking away from my shyness; I smile right back at him.

I hear the door open to the recording studio and see Onew peeking out the door saying, “Minho-ah! What’s with all the noise!?” Onew then sees me and says, “Kate-ah!” This then causes all the SHINee members to come out to the hallway upon hearing Onew call my name.

I get bombarded with questions about what happened and I excitedly repeat what I said to Minho, “I don’t have to get the surgery!” Everyone cheers happily and then they all individually hug me. Onew is the first one to hug me saying “Congrats” in the process. Then it’s Key who makes a comment saying that I look more stylish with how I have my nose now. Next is the maknae who has his angelic and cheerful smile on his face.

He gives me a warm embrace and says, “It’s great that noona doesn’t have to change.” We separate and then I look around to hug the last person in the group, but he’s nowhere to be found.

“Hey, um, where’s Jonghyun-oppa?” I ask curiously.

“Oh, he’s still inside recording his part.” Key replies putting behind him towards the door. The guys all start talking to each other while I head inside to tell the news to Jonghyun. ‘I think he was the one most upset about it, so I know he’ll be happy to hear the news.’ As I walk in I see him in the recording booth singing with all his heart. I get chills from listening to him sing because despite Minho being my bias, Jonghyun’s voice was my favorite. I wait until he’s done and once he walks out he spots me and walks in my direction.

“Kate-ah? What are you doing here?” he asks clearly not knowing anything.

“I went to talk to the head about my surgery with the director.” I reply. His face saddens a little when I mention the topic.

“So, how did it go?” He looks hesitant while asking me.

I stay silent for a few seconds before I have a huge smile on my face and say, “I don’t have to get my nose done.” I don’t expect what he does next as his response to what I said. Jonghyun quickly puts his arms around my shoulders in a hug.

I’m taken aback by the sudden action and say, “J-Jonghyun-oppa??” ‘What?’

My arms are at my side because I’m still shocked with what he did and then he says quietly, “I’m glad you’re not getting the surgery.” I feel my face heat up a little because he said it right near my ear, but I smile now hugging him back. When he finally let go of me, I look at him and he’s looking at me with a calm smile.

“Um, oppa? Why-” My question gets cut off because the other guys walk back in. ‘Nice timing guys.’ Following behind them is there manager who asks me to leave to get to my own business and I listen to him. I look back before exiting looking over at Jonghyun who’s now back to acting silly with Key. ‘Jonghyun…why were you so concerned about me?’

I’m back at the dorms and in my room, SHINee is about to get back, but I’m just enjoying the quiet time I have before they’re here. ‘I need to talk to Taemin.’ Then suddenly I listen to the sound of the entrance open following right after with voices. ‘There goes my quiet moment.’

I walk out of my room and see everyone taking their jackets and shoes off. Key heads straight to the kitchen to start making dinner with Onew walking close behind him asking him to make some chicken. ‘Chicken obsessed! If he could he would marry chicken.’ I shake my head at that thought, but then stiffen when Jonghyun walks by me heading to SHINee’s bedroom. Minho is sitting on the couch watching soccer and then I see Taemin still by the door hanging his jacket up. Walking up to him, I see Taemin turn around spotting me approach him and smiles.

I then whisper to him so only he can hear, “Taemin-ah, can you come to my room after dinner? I need to talk to you about something.” He looks at me with a puzzled look about what I want to discuss with him and then nods.

Dinner goes by quickly with the usual random conversations. I participate in most of them, but with a few I stay quiet thinking. Near the end, we play rock, paper, and scissors to determine who washes the dishes. It ends up being Jonghyun which is good for me so he doesn’t overhear the discussion with Taemin and I. He complains, but Key just shoves him towards the sink calling him lazy. I enter my bedroom and change into my pajamas. As soon as I finish I hear a knock on my door. I go to open it and see Taemin who also changed into some night clothes.

He walks in and takes a seat on my bed asking “So what did you want to talk to me about, noona?” I close my door and walk over to him slowly hesitating with what I want to say. Taemin notices how I’m acting and looks more curious.

I finally ask facing a different direction than him, “Taemin-ah…when Jonghyun-oppa told you about the situation with me…how upset was he?”

Taemin clearly confused answers, “Hyung, was actually pretty upset when telling us, but we were upset too after finding out.”

“I see.” I look down to the floor thinking.

“Why are you asking about hyung?”

“Well, you see…” I now walk to my bed and take a seat next to Taemin look at the floor in thought continuing, “When I told Jonghyun-oppa, he seemed so concerned and serious…I never saw him like that before. Then before going to bed I said thank you giving him a hug and before I closed my door he said “You look perfectly fine the way you are now.” Today, I went to tell him the good news and he unexpectedly hugs me whispering in his ear that he’s glad, then pulling away looking at me with this calm smile. He just seemed so upset about the situation with me and…I don’t know….maybe I’m just thinking too much.”

I can feel Taemin watch me as I explained. He stays quiet now looking up at the ceiling in thought before saying, “That does seem to be a little odd.” I nod my head in agreement and he then turns towards me with a grin and jokingly says, “Maybe hyung has a crush on you.”

My eyes widen after listening to what Taemin just said and my reflex is, “Mwoaeyo!?”

He laughs at my reaction and pats me on the back, “Calm down, noona. I’m only joking of course. Hyung sometimes gets serious about certain things and really cares about us all getting worried when we’re upset.”

All that comes out of my mouth for a reply is, “Oh…”

“Besides…” he starts saying, “You have Minho-hyung to worry about. It looks like you two have gotten closer. Has anything else happened?” I blush thinking about last night and a little earlier today.

“Well, last night, Minho-oppa comforted me after Jonghyun-oppa went to go get him. Then today…I got so excited about the news that I kind of tackled him into a hug around his neck.” The redness on my face grows five times more and Taemin smiles brightly and chuckles. My blush fades when I remember something and ask him, “Taemin-ah?”

“Ne?”

“Did you…did you ask Yoogeun-ah to make Minho-oppa and me hold hands?” Now thinking back to it my face once again heats up.

He laughs before answering, “Anio. It wasn’t me that time. Looks like Yoogeun-ah wants you and hyung to be together too!”

“Aigo!” He laughs at my cherry face. I calm down and ask him another question, “Did you tell the others…that I like Minho-oppa? They teased about me and him a lot that day. Plus when I looked back while holding hands with him…they didn’t tease us…just smiled.”

“Anio, I never break a promise…but I wouldn’t be surprised if they find out soon if they haven’t figured it out yet. It won’t stay a secret forever noona.”

“Ne, I know.” I fall back onto my bed and Taemin follows with the same action next to me. We look up at my ceiling in silence for a few minutes. Usually I don’t like silence because I think it’s always awkward, but it isn’t this time.

Taemin then springs back up to sitting on my bed and looks down at me smiling, “Noona! You know what would be fun!?”

“Mwoaeyo?” I say casually sitting back up as well.

He smirks now and says teasing me, “When you both get together, fans will think of a pairing name for you and hyung. We should do it first and think of one!”

“Yah! Taemin-ah!” I shove him and cover my face so he doesn’t get amused by him succeeding at the blush that creeps on my face. He laughs and I now say, “Arasseo, arasseo. Time for bed now.”

“KaHo? MinKa? Ka-”

“Taemin-ah!!” I push him towards my door and he’s just laughing. I walk back to my bed and I lay back down with my feet dangling off the edge of my bed once he starts leaving himself.

“I guess we should get some rest since we have tomorrow off and we want to start early.”

“We have tomorrow off? Wae?” I ask nonchalant looking up at my ceiling.

“Did you forget? Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day!” he says in a teasing tone.

“Mwoaeyo!?” I spring up to sit looking at his smirking face peeking from the door now.

“Jal ja, Kate-ah! Looking forward to what you do for hyung!” Right Taemin after says that he closes the door.

“Taemin-ah!” I yell at him even though I know it did nothing. My mind is frantic and I just head straight to bed with a final thought, before sleeping, ‘How could I forget about Valentine’s Day!?’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Learn some Korean~!

AnnyeonghiGAsaeyo - Goodbye (said when you're the one staying)

AnnyeonghiGAEsaeyo - Goodbye (said when you're the one leaving)

Annyeong~! Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I signed up for a precalc class at my college and doing some auditions. I did Superstar K, but sadly didn't pass...doesn't mean I won't give up so I'm preparing for another audition! Hwaiting! ^^