No matter how many obstacles are experienced, Taemin and Onew always found a way to get some time to themselves. No matter how much their schedules clashed or how little personal time the group had, the maknae and the leader always put time aside for each other.

This was one of those times.

Much like a few years ago with the One Fine Day reality show they did, SHINee had been told they had a week off from work to do whatever they pleased by their manager. Minho was planning on just lounging around the dorm, sleeping and eating. Key was going to visit his family and Jonghyun was going to visit his older sister.

This gave Onew and Taemin perfect opportunity to get away and be together since they couldn’t do much back at the dorm.

It wasn’t as if Minho, Kibum and Jonghyun would disown them if they let the others know about their… different relationship as such, it was just they weren’t ready to go public, even if the only “public” they were allowed was to their fellow SHINee members.

In fact, the only person who knew apart from the two in the relationship themselves was their manager, who only knew because Taemin had to confide to someone before he burst. Their manager was an understanding person, he wasn’t happy at first, but he didn’t really care as long as it didn’t go out to the fans…which the two didn’t mind at all.

That burning desire to spend time as just the two of them was what caused the two to be on the road right now in a beaten up, tiny car with no heating system in the middle of December, driving up long, country side winding roads towards the cabin that the two boys had rented for a few days.

You’d expect the two to be happy, relaxed… but that wasn’t the case despite their excitement for their week off. SHINee had been busy in Japan with promotions for their new Japanese album, Onew was stressed with the fact he still couldn’t use his voice very well. He could talk easily now, but he still wasn’t allowed to sing, and when that was the one thing he loved doing more than anything in the world…he got a little irritable after a while, Taemin was exhausted after how busy he’d been with his solo promotions, all the radio appearances and music show performances, interviews, television appearances, the SMTOWN World Tour, performing solo without his hyungs… the stress had built on the poor maknae. He was exhausted without a doubt, he couldn’t wait to curl up in a wooden cabin and just sleep the world away for a while, obviously, while simultaneously getting cuddles from a certain Lee Jinki.

They’d been on the road for around 4 hours now, looking at the same scenery over and over again. It felt like they were driving in circles.

“Jinki-hyung,” Taemin sighed from his passenger side seat, looking over at where his partner and band mate was sitting behind the wheel. “How long is it until we get there? It’s beginning to get pretty late now and I wanted to see the lake before we went to bed…”

Onew let out a small sigh, taking one hand from the wheel to rub at his face. “Honestly, Taemin? I’m really not sure.”

Taemin frowned, turning towards Onew while pulling his best -face.  His hair was unstyled due to how much Taemin had run his long fingers through it, pulling out the gel that had so carefully held it in place. His hair was still silvery blonde, but hung slightly lower on his face, covering his eyes now. “What do you mean ‘you’re not sure’?”

“I mean I think we’re lost.”

“Lost? How the hell can we be lost, hyung? You said you’ve been here loads of times!”

“I have, but never with a bratty maknae sat next to me complaining about every little thing! And watch your language!”

“So this is my fault?!”

“I never said that!”

“Yes you did! Just then!”

“Did I specifically say ‘Oh, Lee Taemin, the fact we’re lost is your fault!’”

“No, but you damn well implied it!”

“Taemin! Language!”

“Jinki, watch the road before you get us both killed!”

“I am watching the road! You can’t drive so don’t judge the way I do!”

“You’re too busy yelling at me to watch the da-”

The car suddenly began rolling, the passenger door caving in to the sound of a long, drawn out truck horn. Screams filled the small car as it began to roll, glass smashing out of the windscreen and flying through towards the two terrified passengers. Onew gripped tighter hold of the steering wheel, trying desperately to stop the car from rolling so violently, his stomach churning with every flip the car made. Jinki heard a loud snap, Taemin screaming louder as a long piece nylon whipped up, slicing into Jinki’s cheek just below his eye, the car made another flip, and vaguely the older realised that they must be going down a hill for it to be possible for the car to still be going. From the corner of his eye, the leader saw Taemin lift from his seat, their eyes meeting for a split second before the maknae was thrown into his leader from another violent twist.

After what felt like hours, the car stopped abruptly as it smashed into a tree at the bottom of the hill the car had been knocked off. Still hanging upside-down, Jinki was thrown forwards by the jolting stop, vision fading into nothing.