Taeyeon~

It was hard to trust IU. Taeyeon wondered why it was so hard for her to trust anyone that got near to Jonghyun, but this girl in particular got on her nerves the most. Se Kyung was a big one, too, sure, but she wasn’t worth neither Taeyeon’s nor Jonghyun’s time.

“Changing your work times? Why?” IU asked cutely, pouting. Pouting was Taeyeon’s thing to get Jonghyun to loosen up to her, Taeyeon’s.

“I’m trying out for a modeling agency. Just for fun, and for Taeyeon. Is that okay?”

Once again, it took IU to finally notice Taeyeon after Jonghyun mentioned her. “O~h, Taeyeon. Your . . . friend, right?” Oh, gosh, was she still trying to get an answer about their relationship?

“Nope,” Taeyeon responded cheekily, grabbing Jonghyun’s hand and pulling him towards the back. She felt IU’s eyes on her the whole way. Good. Jonghyun chuckled as he opened the door and told Doctor Jung the situation. The kind elder accepted, wishing Jonghyun luck and waving to Taeyeon. Then the two left to head for the SM Modeling Agency.

“Kim Jonghyun, right?” the coordinator there said when they stepped into the building. “This is going to be a sort of pre-debut shoot to evaluate your skills. A lot of pros will be modeling now. I wouldn’t usually allow rookies to come and audition alongside them, but I suppose you’re an exception. Follow me.”

She started going on about Jonghyun’s modeling potential as they walked to a large room. A white canvas covered the floor and walls. A hand touched Taeyeon’s shoulder, making her jump. Jonghyun immediately whirled on the person, pulling Taeyeon back protectively. They both had expected Minho, but . . .

“Doojoon?” Jonghyun exclaimed.

“Jonghyun, right? A~nd, Taeyeon,” the male said with a smile. “Hey! What are you guys doing here?”

“Trying out,” Jonghyun said evenly, still weirded out. “Why are you here?”

“Oh, well, I’m an idol. We do models for CFs and stuff. I’m here for a big mens clothing company, a collab with - ah, there he is. Choi Minho!” Doojoon called. Taeyeon and Jonghyun turned back to blink at the tall frog-eyed boy. He had makeup on, and his happy-go-lucky grins had morphed into charismatic glares.

“Doojoon. Nice to meet you. I’ve heard your music,” Minho greeted, shaking the idol’s hand. He turned calmly to Jonghyun and Taeyeon. “Hello, Jonghyun-ssi, Taeyeon-ssi.”

Whoa. What was up with the honorifics?

“What brings you here?” Minho continued.

“Jonghyun’s going to try out for SM,” Taeyeon explained slowly. This boy who had jumped all over Jonghyun in his happiness before was now so . . . business-like?

Minho’s lips curled into a smirk. Jonghyun’s and Taeyeon’s jaws dropped at the expression. “It will be nice to work with you.”

“You guys know each other already?” Doojoon asked, scratching the back of his head.

“High school,” Jonghyun answered as he cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure. “So, Doojoon, how’re you and Se Kyung?” Doojoon wrinkled his nose.

“Oh, after I found out she’d cheated on me and hadn’t told me back then, I figured we should call it off. It brought me a lot of attention to break up with the actress anyway. Don’t you go on social media?”

Jonghyun glanced at Taeyeon, who shrugged. She remembered Tiffany texting her about that, raving how someone else had gotten to the story while she was off looking for a demon, but she’d ignored it.

Suddenly, a stylist came over and pulled Jonghyun away. Taeyeon stared after him for a second before shrugging and walking over to where the actual shoot was happening. First up, it was Doojoon alone. Taeyeon honestly wondered why she had considered him being the demon; he wasn’t even threatening or hinting at the fact at all.

After, Minho came up, his charismatic stare still on his face as he glanced away and towards the camera. The coordi noonas were swooning and fanning themselves behind the scenes, to which Minho smirked.

Wow.

This was a whole different side of him.

Taeyeon felt a little bit embarrassed looking at him, though, because he was wearing a blazer, ed. Without anything under. Her eyes tried to focus on his face and his eyes, searching for a hint of demon, but she couldn’t help but note that Minho’s abs weren’t as defined as Jonghyun’s. Her eyes went wide.

What if the stylists decided to take advantage of Jonghyun’s fit body and let him go shirtless, too? Taeyeon groaned and buried her face in her hands. She’d seen him without a shirt enough, and whenever she did, it wasn’t always the best situation.

“You alright?” Doojoon walked over to Taeyeon and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She glanced down at his hand oddly before staring up at him.

“Um, yes?”

“Oh, good,” Doojoon said with a nod. He still didn’t move his hand.

“What are you doing, Doojoon?” Taeyeon turned gratefully at the sound of Jonghyun’s voice, then jerked back in shock.

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, Taeyeon thought with a bitter shake of her head. Jonghyun was shirtless - again - his bronze skin adjusted by the makeup artists so that his tanness glowed in the lighting. Ripped, black jeans hung loosely on his hips, held up by a white belt with a dragon buckle.

Taeyeon felt Doojoon laugh nervously as he removed his arm from her shoulders.

“Wow. Well, they’re not making me model without a shirt like you and Minho-ssi because . . . I prefer to stay humble and not show off my body,” Doojoon struggled to regain his confidence. He pulled at the collar of his windbreaker. “Plus, I’m modeling the sportswear section, not the formal and casual like you guys.”

“Sure, whatever,” Jonghyun griped. “But just because you and Se Kyung broke off, doesn’t mean you can go around with Taeyeon.”

“O-oh! Of course! She’s your fiancee or whatever, right? I know she’s taken by you; I wouldn’t dare,” Doojoon laughed shakily, raising his hands up.

Minho glanced up from the camera, raising an eyebrow as the camera clicked.

“Perfect!” the photographer cried. “Minho-ssi, you’re good for now. Change into the next outfit while I get Doojoon-ssi and the tryout.” Minho nodded and stood up slowly, pulling off the blazer without a care. Doojoon looked like he was going to burst.

“Aish, I have abs, too! Why won’t they let me show ‘em?!” Doojoon grumbled as he stomped into the set, posing by the props they had set up.

“I thought Taeyeon wasn’t your girlfriend,” Minho noted calmly as the stylists took his blazer and began to brush at his face and torso. Taeyeon glanced at Jonghyun, who returned the uncertain gaze. Minho seemed to put two and two together. “Shin Se Kyung, the actor - your ex, right? Yeah, the whole news about her and Doojoon splitting up. You guys had something to do with that?”

Jonghyun shrugged. “We told the truth about her. We just lied about us.” Minho nodded slowly, his face betraying no judgement of the two. The stylists finally stopped flittering around him and gave him a thumbs up, leaving the scene. Taeyeon blinked.

“Are they really letting you model with just a tie and pants? Don’t you usually wear ties with a shirt?” she asked. Minho smirked. He smirked again. Was that normal for someone to smirk so much? Or at all?

“In this business, it’s not about the logic.” He tugged at the tie a few times before winking and walking away to snatch a water bottle.

“He’s intimidating me,” Taeyeon grumbled to Jonghyun, who was staring after his old friend. He nodded in agreement. “Formal, my . That is straight up -”

Jonghyun was called up for his turn, and Taeyeon stopped herself to send him words of encouragement. When he was in front of the camera, Taeyeon could easily spot his habits. Jonghyun tended to tilt his head either forward or back then curl one side of his lips up at the camera. Sometimes, he left his mouth hanging open. He preferred to keep a straight face in this shoot, but Taeyeon saw his mouth twitch now and then when he was complimented.

You’re supposed to be stalking Minho, Taeyeon reminded herself, shaking her head as her eyes darted over to the lengthy boy. He was gulping down a bottle of water and finished it cleanly. He then tossed it into a recycling bin. Whoa! That was a nice shot. She began to scribble in her journal.

Suspect Minho:

suspiciously perfect precision in trash basketball

can demons drink water or anything other than blood?

“Wait. Jonghyun eats and drinks the things I make,” Taeyeon muttered. She caught Jonghyun giving her weird looks as the camera flashed.

“Natural expression, please, Jonghyun!” the camera person ordered.

“That might be because he’s only half, though . . .” Taeyeon made a note of that. When she looked back at Minho, she jumped in fright. He was looking right back at her, eyes raking over critically. Then his eyes met hers, and his chest moved in a sudden snort. He strode forward and inspected her more obviously.

“You know, I’m having a hard time believing you guys aren’t dating when you keep looking at him,” Minho stated suspiciously. Taeyeon swallowed, not wanting to admit that she was only staring at him to evaluate his human blood drinking habits. Minho leaned forward and took a deep breath. “You smell nice.”  Then he went to join the shoot alongside the other two models.

Jonghyun was giving Minho a skeptical glare before he mouthed to Taeyeon, asking what he’d been doing.

Wide-eyed, Taeyeon gestured toward her nose and waved her hand around in an “air” motion. “He smelled me,” she hissed, knowing he would be able to hear her. Jonghyun raised his eyebrows at Minho as the professional model immediately posed on the ladder prop.

Suspect Minho has sniffed me - note that he said I smelled nice

After the shoot finished, they began to look through the photos. Taeyeon had to admit: Jonghyun looked just as handsome and confident as Minho did. Minho’s manager was nodding to himself and muttered something into his phone before he spun and grinned at Jonghyun.

“Congratulations! You’ve been accepted into SM Modeling Agency. I have a feeling you’ll make it big; would you like to fill out the paperwork?” he said briefly.

“It’s okay if I choose to do this temporarily, right?” Jonghyun questioned. The manager’s eyebrows shot up, but he cleared his throat and grunted in agreement.

“I suppose, but the longer contract is much more promising for your career.”

“I don’t know if I want this to be a career. I prefer dogs over modeling,” Jonghyun admitted.

“You can buy tons of dogs from all the modeling though!” the man said desperately. Taeyeon snorted. Yup. Jonghyun would be a total success.

~~~~~~~

It had only been a week since Jonghyun had started modeling, but he was already featured in a magazine. Taeyeon flipped through the pages, nodding her head approvingly.

“Wa~h, daebak. Hey, they actually covered up your upper half,” Taeyeon snickered at the photo of him wearing a maroon turtleneck. Jonghyun rolled his eyes as he stuffed his face with the ramyun Taeyeon had cooked up.

“You cook a lot better than Jinki,” Jonghyun said through a mouthful of noodles. Taeyeon grimaced and then clapped her hands together.

“Speaking of which! I miss Jinki. Let’s call him over, hm?” Taeyeon begged. Jonghyun’s jaw twitched slightly as he chewed.

“You miss him? You realize I’m seeing him much more often because of you,” Jonghyun muttered, swirling his soup around with his chopsticks.

Taeyeon shook her head as she dialed in Jinki’s number. “You need to talk to humans more. Once you’re human again, you need to get used to it,” she promised as it rang. Jonghyun rolled his eyes and scooped more noodles in.

“Hello?” Jinki’s voice coughed into the phone. He made a sharp nose and sniffed a bit before repeating the greeting. Taeyeon giggled.

“Jinki-ah, what are you doing?”

“Sorry, I was drinking, um, water when I picked up,” Jinki spluttered, coughing a bit more.

“Aish, Onew condition, seriously,” Jonghyun muttered into his food. Taeyeon had no idea what that meant, but she chose to ignore Jonghyun as usual.

“You want to come over for a bite?” Taeyeon offered.

“Eh?!” Jinki choked. Taeyeon waited for him to stop coughing.

“I made some ramyun and there’s a lot. Plus, I wanted to show you the evidence from the old house.” Taeyeon sat there as Jinki thought it over.

“Oh. Well. Okay, I suppose. Be there in a few,” Jinki said brightly before he hung up.

~~~~~~~

“I’m actually pretty full,” Jinki laughed guiltily as he sat next to Jonghyun, across from Taeyeon who frowned.

“You were drinking water. What, did it bloat you up?” she teased. Jinki just gave another of his wide smiles, still accepting the smaller bowl she held out to him. He smiled and nodded again when he took the first bite.

“Did you know Minho was a model, Jinki hyung?” Jonghyun demanded. Jinki’s eyes widened. “You didn’t know?”

“No, I knew. It’s just; you didn’t know? Minho is so popular!” Jinki gasped.

“Hyung!” Jonghyun hit Jinki with the end of his chopsticks. “You know I don’t follow that sort of stuff!” Jinki held up his hand, ready for ttakbam as defense. “Well, now I’m a model with Minho at SM. Unknowingly, thanks to you.”

“Eh? Seriously?!” Jinki shouted. Taeyeon handed the magazine over to him wordlessly. Jinki scanned through all the pictures. “Aay, there has to be some photoshop, right? Jjong-Jjong is so perfect!” Jonghyun responded by not looking up from his food and punching Jinki’s stomach. Jinki laughed, although he held his tummy in pain, and flipped to Minho’s pages. “Wow. It’s crazy that this boy I knew since kindergarten grew into this.”

Taeyeon perked up at that. “So Minho has been in your schools since the beginning, right?” She snapped her fingers with a flourish when Jinki nodded. “Even more of a chance that Minho is our demon!” Jinki blinked at her.

“You think Minho is the demon? Really?” Jinki stared into space thoughtfully. “But . . .”

“He’s so happy, right?” Jonghyun cut in, chewing solemnly. “You should’ve seen him at the photoshoot, hyung. He was so into it and so cold. His eyes were like daggers. Or shotguns. Bang-bang! Seriously.” Jinki nodded, squinting at Minho and moving the magazine back and forth as he tried to find the demon part of Minho in the pictures.

“Oh, that’s right,” Taeyeon muttered, moving over to the drawers under the TV and pulling the top one open. “Jinki-ah. Look at this, the elementary school craft. Does it look familiar?” Taeyeon waved the laminated bird hand around. Jinki eyed the paper with a blank expression for half a minute before his eyebrows drew together slowly. He shook his head, looking confused.

“Hm. I remember the art project, but not that one in particular. It’s a little difficult to remember from all the way back then.” Jinki paused. “Actually, can I take that and use it as one of my focuses?” Taeyeon tilted her head at him questioningly.

“Jinks is a photographer. Not like your friend though - Stephanie or something.”

“Tiffany.”

“Whatever. He takes picture of like nature and abstract and inanimate stuff. Deep things.”

“I actually took a picture of a dog peeing on a fire hydrant once,” Jinki noted. The other two stared at him. “I’ve never seen one actually do it in real life. I wanted to capture the moment . . . What? Stop looking at me like that! Someone actually bought it, okay?” Jinki smiled as he plucked the little craft from Taeyeon’s hand. She couldn’t help but feel a little reluctant, though; it was evidence. “It will be a good visual in an empty lot. Something like - how youthful knowledge and creativity is discarded by society?”

“What-ta what whaddya what-a what-what?” Jonghyun echoed.

“Nevermind,” Jinki chuckled as he set the artwork beside his bowl. “I still can’t believe Minho is working with you now. And that he could be the demon.”

“I swear there’s a huge chance. He sniffed me, Jinki. And he said I smelled nice, by the way.” Taeyeon chortled dramatically.

When they finished cleaning up, Jinki said goodbye to the both of them and left. Taeyeon noticed that he’d left the elementary art on the table, but by then he had closed the door.

“Oh? Should I chase after him?” Taeyeon wondered aloud.

“Are you crazy? Just give it to him another time,” Jonghyun sighed, running his hands through his hair. His muddy brown eyes focused on Taeyeon when she harrumphed indignantly. “What? IT’s the truth!” Taeyeon rolled her eyes and began setting up the blankets on the couch for her bed. She stretched and winced as her back cracked.

“Ouch - aish, it’s supposed to get more comfortable sleeping here, not less,” she said to herself, thinking Jonghyun was headed back to his room already. From the corner of her eye, she saw him pause in the hallway, looking back uncertainly, but then stop himself. What did I expect? Taeyeon thought dryly as his door closed.

Taeyeon made her way to the light switch, her finger hovering over it. Then she clicked it as fast as she could and jumped toward the couch bed, burrowing under the blanket to hide from the darkness. It was just a habit she couldn’t brush off.

For a while, she sat wondering what Jonghyun was doing. But then she realized what she was doing and forced herself to not care. In minutes, Taeyeon had managed to doze off . . .

~~~~~~~

Rustling . . . why was their movement?

Jonghyun . . .? Taeyeon wondered hazily, opening her eyes slowly. Her breath stopped, and the figure in front of the TV froze. Slowly, Taeyeon could make out the person turn in the dark, and she did the most reasonable thing.

“AAaAAaAAAAaAAAaasH!” Taeyeon shrieked, leaping up from the couch and throwing herself behind it. She peeked up, on defensive mode, watching as the stranger darted back and forth, torn between the door and going towards her. In seconds, Jonghyun burst out of his room, sprinting to the light switch.

“Taeyeon?! What’s wrong?! Who’s here?” he shouted as he slammed the lights on. Everyone froze.

“J-Jinki?” Taeyeon whispered, standing up. Jinki had one drawer open, looking a little shocked and . . . well, caught. Taeyeon gradually made her way over to him, closing the drawer slowly. “Jinki,” she stated quietly, “why are you digging through my underwear drawer?”

The small-eyed male yelped, shaking his head.

“N-no! That’s not what I meant to - I left the hand thing here, and I wanted it . . . for my pictures! I didn’t know - I didn’t mean to!” Jinki stammered. Taeyeon pointed her finger to the table, where the hand-cut paper still lay.  “I . . .”

“Yah, babo. Why didn’t you wait to call us tomorrow? Or knock on the door! I mean, I know I told you where the key was, but really? It’s like, two in the morning.” Jonghyun ignored Jinki’s endless string of apologies as he pushed him out the door. “Go. Go. To sleep. Now.” Then he slammed the door and locked it loudly.

Taeyeon set Jonghyun with a wide-eyed stare as soon as he came back.

“You left the key out there?! It may be hidden, but this is an apartment building. What if someone else sneaks in, and it’s not Jinki?! What if he goes through my drawers again?” Taeyeon took note that Jinki still forgot to take the craft, and she picked it up and placed it in the bottom drawer, reminding herself to give it to him later.

Jonghyun heaved a huge sigh and picked up Taeyeon’s blanket from the couch.

“Come on. Let’s go,” he announced, making his way to his own room. Confused and curious, Taeyeon followed him. Jonghyun made a wall between the two halves of his bed using Taeyeon’s blanket, then flicked his own blanket out so that they could share.

“What are you doing?” Taeyeon asked softly, though she had an idea.

“You can sleep on the inside. That way, if someone comes, I can get to them first,” Jonghyun muttered sleepily, nudging her towards the bed. “Hurry up. I’m tired.”

“You’ll really let me sleep on the bed?” she inquired eagerly. Jonghyun grunted.

“You’re all stiff on the couch anyways, aren’t you? You can move back when you’re not scared anymore. I’ll make sure to give Jinki a”- Jonghyun yawned -“talk later.” Taeyeon buried deep into the blanket, letting only her eyes poke out on top. She blinked at Jonghyun.

“Thank you.”

“ . . . You’re welcome.”

Unconsciously, Taeyeon kept her eyes open for a while, still a bit on edge. Jonghyun must’ve heard the fear by her heartbeat and the way she kept twitching now and then.

“Just go to sleep. It’s annoying,” he mumbled, but she knew it was his twisted way of comfort. She smiled and did her best, calming herself down by watching Jonghyun. It was weird, she knew, but it helped her relax. That night, she found out that Jonghyun slept with his eyes slightly open.

“That’s creepy,” she murmured to herself before she fell asleep.

A/N:

Oh, hai! Didn't see ya there.

For some reason I feel like this story isn't going as well as I hoped

Maybe because Taeun was more ship-able? Or because EXO was in it? My Angel did a lot better

I dunno~

But I'm cool with it, because I'm proud of what I write

Please let me know if anything is wrong

or right

or whatever!

I will try my best to improve my writing in the future

Until then, valued readers~