doop dee doo

_________________________________

But while Key was falling over, I nearly hacked and choked on my food, and Hana had to beat my back so I wouldn’t die an embarrassing death. I seized my water bottle and chugged a bunch of it to wash down the huge morsel of beef down my throat, and then slammed it onto the table as I took deep breaths.

“Attractive.” Key commented. I sent a not amused expression in his direction, and then straightened.

“This thing with Minho has got to end.” I announced. I was pretty sick of the whole thing. Some ty stuff happened because of it, and I never even liked Minho more than a friend. All in all, I just didn’t like being portrayed as his girlfriend. Besides, my heart was set on someone else.

“Yea, but everyone thinks you guys are together.” Onew threw in helpfully.

“Apt deduction.” I shot to him. But he was right, if not Captain Obvious.

I was so done with all of this.

So I stood up, turned and faced the entirety of my school student population.

“Minho and I are not together.” I bellowed, my voice tone challenging everyone to defy me. A few seconds passed in silence, and then a shrieking sound sliced through the quietness like it was soft butter. There were several more, nearly identical shrieking sounds.

The origins of those terrible sounds were the people who I assumed to be Minho’s fans.

I turned back and sat down, setting my head in my hand and closing my eyes. “I solved the problem.”

Blinking my eyes open, I found everyone at the table staring at me. With a start I realized Taemin’s mouth was kind of open and he looked… pleased? Key looked like he had won the lottery for some reason. Gee, I wonder why. Minho was also looking more chipper now that he was no longer shackled to the rumor that we were dating.

“So, as I was saying.” Key coughed. “We need partners. And Jae knows who she’s going with.” He finished smugly. I considered picking up Jonghyun and chucking him at Key.

“Really?” Onew inquired. “Who?”

I felt the piercing gazes turn to me. It was almost like I could actually feel sharp blades stabbing me from the intensity of the gazes. I coughed. “So, who wants to go to the arcade after school?” I blurted out, hurrying to switch the topic as Key cackled in the background.

“I don’t think we have anything scheduled for today.” Taemin mentioned, and that was how I ended up going to the arcade with two friends and five celebrities in tow.

The arcade wasn’t that far. Just the eight of us, we made our way down the street, attracting several looks. Well, there was good reason for that.

I was pushing open the arcade door when someone was yelling my name and I shortly found myself nearly falling over because of an arm that had been thrown around me.

“What’s up?” Jung asked, running his free hand through his blond dyed hair. I caught a brief glimpse of a stud in his left earlobe as I looked at him. A smile grew on my face.

“Jung!” I exclaimed, throwing my own arm around him, genuinely happy to see the other teen. Honestly, he was pretty great. We disentangled ourselves and then Jung was thumping Taemin on the back in greeting.

It became clear that everyone else was thoroughly confused.

It also suddenly occurred to me that SHINee had never known about my birthday, and that Taemin had gone with me to the amusement park and met Jung.

Whoops.

Taemin looked also happy to see Jung, his mouth stretching into his own grin. I took amusement though, in all of the puzzled and nonplussed faces of SHINee and my other friends while Taemin exchanged greetings with Jung.

“December twelfth. On the weekend.” I began. “Taemin and I went to the amusement park and met Jung while playing Laser Tag.” It was a simple explanation. I wonder what their faces would be like if I mentioned that it had been my birthday. Taemin and Jung joined us. Faia looked oddly at Jung. Maybe she approved of his fashion or whatever, but it seemed they might be off to a good start.

Key was looking aghast, probably because he was trying figure out how such an even had escaped his knowledge.

Faia looked confused too. She hadn’t exactly met him. In fact, she had only joined up with Taemin and me after Laser Tag.

“On your birthday?” She asked, squinting at Jung. “I guess this happened before I met up with you guys.” She reasoned.

“Birthday? You birthday happened?” Onew was dumbstruck. “December twelfth?”

“Yea.” I nodded, glancing over at Taemin who was laughing behind his hand. “How about we go play some games, yea?” I tacked on, gesturing the vast expanse of arcade games lined up behind me.

***

Faia was partying on Dance Dance Revolution, match equally by Jung. Damn.

They were really into it. Looking a bit to the left, Hana was dominating Minho in a first person shooter, guns blazing. Hana had this manic, crazed look in her eyes, and Flaming Charisma seemed determined to match. A little bit more to the left and Onew, Key and Jonghyun were puzzling over older games, like Fix-It Felix and Pacman. Turning even more you would come to the awkward corner.

I say awkward corner because it got awkward real fast.

“So, what did Key mean during lunch?” Taemin asked casually as I searched my pockets for quarters. The coins fell to the floor and I huffed, bending down to pick them up.

“What do you mean?” I asked, trying to stall, trying to avoid it all. I looked down, steering my gaze away from Taemin.

“Key said you know who you’re going with. To the dance.”

“A-ah…” I coughed, straightening. “Oh no! My bladder is full! I need to go uh, empty it in the… bathroom.”

I proceeded to prance strangely away.

That was ing terrible.

Now safely in the restroom, I splashed some water on my face and then left, dreading the questions Taemin would pose once I was out of the bathroom. But I was saved.

“Who wants to go for ice cream?” Key asked, waving everyone over. Jung pounced.

“Me!” He yelled, seemingly unfazed that he was manhandling some of South Korea’s celebrities. Onew and Jonghyun chimed in quickly, and then Hana and Faia had joined the fray. Taemin and I look at each other, shrugged and then the nine of use were heading off to an ice cream shop.

I should have known something was up the moment we heard Key’s phone vibrate.

“Ah!” Key exclaimed, glancing at his phone. “Sorry, guys, Onew, Minho, Jonghyun and I gotta go.” He abruptly said. The four of them turned to leave.

“What about me?” Taemin asked, confused. I didn’t blame him.

“You’re free today.” Minho shot to him. I stared, dumbfounded as they left. Taemin had an equally puzzled expression, and we stood there like deer in the headlights. And then, from my side, Faia sighed in disappointment.

“Sorry, my mom just called me. I need to go.” She explained, sounding apologetic, but there was something in her eyes that looked devious.

“Uh… huh.” I scrutinized her face as the words left my mouth.

“Oh! Me too!” Hana hurried to say. Before any objection could pass through my lips, Hana and Faia had vanished.

There was only Jung and Taemin aside from me left. I glanced at Jung, expecting him to somehow pull an excuse out of his .

But no. He was whistling leisurely with his arms up and behind his head. Suddenly we made eye contact, and Jung looked to his left and right, realizing everyone had left.

“Oh . Um. Bye!” He his heel and pounded down the pavement.

I looked at Taemin, and we both had the same expressiong.

But then I realized what this was about.

It was Key. Key and his matchmaking plans. I supposed he wanted Taemin and me to go the ice cream place alone. I huffed, but the idea did sound nice.

“I guess we’ll just go to the ice cream place ourselves.” Taemin merely decided, and we were off. It was okay for the first half second, but it became glaringly obvious that a huge, thick cloud of awkward was descending upon us. I could tell he was still dying to find out what Key meant about the dance thing. Oh my god.

But maybe it was because my attraction to him was not exactly unrequited.

The breeze blew through my shortened hair, chilled by the oncoming winter. It was nice outside, if not a bit cold. Leftover, crunchy red leaves from fall had browned, and were dancing down the road.

The beautiful weather was great, yes. But it didn’t help the foggy awkward that settled around Taemin and me. But the good news was that the ice cream shop wasn’t much farther. I could see it already. My salvation. I zeroed in the brick building, focusing on it and the pretty ice cream paintings on the windows.

Suddenly I became aware of a big jumbled mess of footfalls. It was faint, but it was there. But I couldn’t see the source of the sound.

Eventually we made it to the shop, and we heard another sound. Bells. The ice cream place was one of those shops that had jingly bells that rang whenever someone entered. Not too long after that, Taemin and I were enveloped in the sweet, creamy scent of ice cream and we were pressing our hands to the glass window that allowed us to see all the types of ice cream. The floor was all white tiles, but the tables and chairs were in all the colors of the rainbow, sort of like lighter, pastel versions of the colors in an eight pack crayon back.

It was cute. I fumbled around in my pockets for my wallet, and found I only had the quarters from the arcade.

“I got nothing.” I said, exasperated, letting the coins fall back into my pockets. Taemin went to check if he had money, and turned up with nothing.

Damn.

Suddenly I was aware of several gazes penetrating my train of thought. Through the corner of my eye, I could see there was a café across the street.

With… seven people sitting along the window of the café.

I rolled my eyes. I knew Key was behind it all. He and two others were armed with binoculars.

“I guess we’ll get ice cream some other time.” I merely said, looking sadly at the coffee ice cream. I wanted it so much. Sob.

“Yea….” Taemin hung his head, and we exited the shop.

No One’s POV

Meanwhile, over in the café, Key was flipping out.

“You would think they had money!” He yelled, nearly overturning the table in his frantic scrambling. “They were supposed to eat ice cream together!”

The other six people were amused by this turnout, albeit disappointed nothing had really happened between Jae and Taemin. Outside the window, Taemin and Jae parted ways and they went to their homes. Key took one look at the sorry scene and bit his lip. His plans weren’t supposed to fail. They were supposed to kick start the glorious relationship his baby was going to have.

He gritted his teeth.

He had to do something. With an almighty leap, Key leaped out of the café, soaring to inhuman heights.

“Stop right there!” He shouted, striking a pose as he began descending from midair. The two of the lovebirds were  only ten feet away from each other. Jae whirled around, taken by surprise. Taemin nearly fell over.

If Key didn’t say something, no one would.

He opened his mouth, ready to spill.

But then Jae did an equally almighty leap, catching Key in a headlock in midair. The two landed behind Taemin.

“If you don’t do anything, nothing will happen!” He spat out quietly, struggling as they wrestled.

“I know!” Jae hissed back. Eventually they were rolling over the sidewalk in an epic battle.

            “You need to tell him!” Key choked out.

            “I was gonna!” The girl retorted, releasing the celebrity, who was on his hands and knees as he took in air.

            “Tell me what?” Taemin’s voice made her effectively freeze. She rotated very slowly on the spot, shooting glares at Key as she did. Jae nearly stomped up to Taemin.

            “That I like you.” She announced. Then she turned again, and proceeded to single-handedly lift Key up by the hem. “You would have found out tomorrow, when I had already planned everything out!” Jae yelled, her voice punching Key in the face.

            Oh.