Requested by: maiyuki

Characters: Jongin/Kai [EXO] & Jung Hayeon [OC]; ft. Taemin [SHINee]

Premise: Hayeon goes with Jongin to meet his family for the first time, but to her own surprise, his brother is Taemin, her former crush!  A fluffy and funny ending.

Author: Admin K, DivinestSense

Something Like Fate

“Hayeon, are you coming with us?”

“No, sorry guys.  I’ve got way too much work to do," she apologized, only to receive a knowing smirk in return.  She hated that look.

“If by ‘work,’ you mean going to a dance competition to stare at Taemin, then yes, you are far too busy," Eunji teased as she waved goodbye, gracefully flipping her long, wavy brown hair over her shoulder.  Hayeon watched as guys stared at her as she passed; her friend was truly gorgeous—the epitome of an ideal type.  She was thin and delicate with perfect skin and a sweet personality that could charm the blind.  The two of them had been friends since they were in diapers and even though she loved Eunji to death, she could not help but compare herself.

There was nothing to be gained by counting her friend’s blessings, but as she hat alone at her table in the café, Hayeon found it impossible to do anything but.  She could only wonder what other people saw who watched them sip coffee together.  To her, it was time well spent between two best friends—friends who knew the cons with the pros of the other.  To others, it must have appeared like a goddess blessing an average peasant with her presence.  With her basic black hair and worn out hand-me-downs (they didn’t look bad on her, but when she sat across from designer labels it was clear that she wasn’t the most fashionable), it must have been difficult to believe that the two girls even spoke to each other.

Never envious or jealous of her best friend’s beauty or her family’s good fortune, what bothered Hayeon most was how the rest of the world perceived her—how they found it strange that the two could be friends.

Throughout her years at school, Hayeon would watch as Eunji easily fit in with the popular crowd.  The way they talked, the way they laughed, the way they effortlessly attracted gazes of guys and girls alike—they were in a league of their own.  The two of them still talked in school—it would take more than the judgmental looks of her peers to break their friendship—but Hayeon, on the other hand, fit in with the artistic minds of her class.  She loved her other friends (and they were by no means losers or outcasts) but they certainly didn’t catch the eyes of their crushes when across the room were Eunji and her other friends.

Mindlessly playing with the saucer under her coffee mug, Hayeon watched people pass outside.  It was the summer before she started university.  It was hard to believe that she was going to move to the heart of the city after spending the past few years of her life where she was with the same classmates, the same streets, the same crush.

Lee Taemin was a year older than she, but he had attended the same high school as her before he graduated.  He was talented, handsome, smart and completely oblivious to her existence.  It was not as though he ignored her, but rather that she never spoke to him. 

Even as she sat in the café, four years since she had first seen him, she could remember the moment he took her breath away.  A first year in a new school, Hayeon had been timidly making her way to class when she had made a wrong turn.  Instead of finding room 12C, she had stumbled upon a lean boy with kind smile helping a smaller, scrawnier boy pick up his stuff.  At first she wondered if he was like one of those characters out of a manga—the type that act silent and cool around their group of bully-friends but are actually kind—but when she watched the glasses-wearing boy laugh at a joke he had made, she knew that he was simply good.

That whole moment was beautiful in her memory.  Maybe it was the way the morning sun elegantly shined through the windows or maybe it was the way his black hair fell perfectly on his forehead, but either way, he had found his way into her heart.

Smiling to herself as she took a sip of her coffee, Hayeon looked down.  After she had learned his name and class, she quickly learned other things about him.  He had one brother, he loved to dance, he could sing, he only ever had one girlfriend—she found him fascinating.  Eunji liked to joke that she was his number one stalker, but she never followed him home or left love letters in his locker, she just admired him from afar, contenting herself with the knowledge that he was a great person and whoever he ended up with would be a very happy girl (though she would admit that she crossed her fingers that she was that girl). 

But even if she had come to terms with the reality of her crush, she could not stop going to his dance competitions—after all, they were open to the public.  Taemin was good looking, but no hair style or brand of clothing made him look better than a smile on his lips.  When she had watched him perform in their school talent show that first year, she had never seen anything like him.  His movements were fluid, his body language, charismatic.  In the course of his dances, his expression would change from a y smirk to a lovely smile—whatever best fit the mood—but nothing was more stunning than his jubilant, childish smile that would decorate his face whenever he bowed at the end of a performance.

To her, that was more captivating than any dance.

When the crowd of girls would surround him after every performance, she would get up from her typical seat in the back and make her way home.  She could never bring herself to hang all over him and sing his praises; she was far too shy.  Plus, she would be so embarrassed if he began to recognize her as the girl who came to every one of his public performances.

The thought itself was mortifying.

Quickly finishing her drink and grabbing her bag, Hayeon made her way to the venue of the competition.  It was the last one before she left for university and, from what Eunji had heard, his last competition before he started training for an entertainment company.  Either way, it was a “last” of sorts and by the end of it, Hayeon would tell herself that she would get over her crush (it was about time, anyways).  After she saw his smile for one last time, she would be over him.

She was ready.

“Hayeon, do you have a secret passion for dance competitions or something?  Do you live a double life as an idol?”

“No, why?”

“Because it has been a year since we graduated—a year since Taemin—and you still go them.  He’s still training and plus, the competitions are usually at school.  Do you expect to see him there?” Eunji asked as she dug through her purse.

“This isn’t a dance competition—it’s a school talent show," she reasoned.

“Maybe, but the last three weren’t.”

Shrugging, Hayeon stared at the stage.  She would admit the allure of dance competitions was strange, especially since she knew nothing about dance and that she practically fell on her face when she tried to multi task while walking.  It was not as though she would watch the performances and judge them properly (or at all) and it was not as though she had any intention or expectation of seeing her high school crush, but she could not fight off her desire to go.

After that last performance of his she saw last summer, she had done a surprisingly good job of getting over him—in fact, it was almost too easy.  Sure, she thought about him every now and then immediately after, but not once did she have the dying urge to see him.  For a crush she had dedicated four years of her life to, it was easy to get over.

The more she had thought about it, the more she began to question whether she had a crush on him or a strange fixation with seeing him happy.  The latter sounded creepy to her—and when she watched him dance, it was always in such an innocent manner—but as she reflected, it became clear that it was something like that. 

“Sorry about that, we were having some technical difficulties.  But now that it’s all settled, we’ll move on to our next contestant.  Currently a sophomore studying business, it’s Kai!”

On stage walked a tan boy with messy brown hair.  Adorned in ripped black pants and a beat up leather jacket, Hayeon would admit that he was hot.

“Ooh, a business major.  I’d kill to see him in a suit," whispered Eunji.

But her friend’s words fell on deaf ears, for from the moment he stood center stage, he had her full attention.  Everything about him demanded attention and every movement he made commanded the stage.  His dance was powerful and precise, suave and y.  But even though his dancing was enough to completely captivate her, she found herself at the mercy of his facial expressions.

Time seemed to pass all to quickly and before she knew it, he was bowing and grinning as the MC reclaimed his position on stage.

Initially, she had wanted to compare him to Taemin.  Maybe it was the similarity in their physical appearance—though there was something undeniably more dark and alluring about Kai—or their striking talent for dancing that brought it on, but the more she thought about the two of them, the more different they became.  Back in high school, when she would see Taemin or think of him, she had an overwhelming urge to run and hide, even though she knew more about him (and all good things) than she would care to admit.  Having just seen Kai once, though, she wanted to talk to him.  It was definitely more than her love for those tall, dark and handsome characters from stories—there was more to him than met the eye; His smirk was like an invitation to try and find out.

Challenge accepted.

“Hayeon, the dancing boy is coming this way,” Eunji furiously whispered.

Awakening from her thoughts, she was distraught to find Kai making his way over. 

Abort mission!

Hayeon wanted to slap herself for even thinking she had the gut to talk to the guy—she overestimated her confidence.  Lookin