The sun shone softly on the rows of pastel coloured buildings. The trees which lined the streets so neatly dazzled as the leaves caught light like diamonds. The air was quiet, still. Distant traffic could be heard from somewhere to the west, but mostly the only thing to brake the silent peace was the humming of a bumble bee.

Teamin stepped slowly out of the car. His petite blue pumps soundlessly touched the ground, as a light breeze wondered past. It caressed his flat stomach and made small of his thin striped shirt. He slowly ran his fingers through his smooth chestnut hair and let out a tender sigh.

Once more he was faced with the prospects of hard work and sweat, all packaged so nicely in this large bland trainee building. Someone had gone through the trouble of growing a flower bed outside, perhaps in a failed attempt homogenize the workplace. Still it stuck out like a sore thumb in comparison to the pretty family homes that surrounded it, like placing a glass brick in a field of flowers. Yet it did have one advantage in its location, far from the city centre, near the outskirts of Seoul. Since Shinee’s debut Taemin had been finding himself increasingly lost, surrounded by groups of hormone crazed girls, all desperate for a grab at him. Well, perhaps hormones could not be blamed, still being young himself it seemed that most of the time the people to flood him were quite a bit older. Recently he had found himself questioning his career choice more than he had expected to. Not that an Idol life had ever seemed a walk in the park, but he used to think of his privacy as a right, these days it seemed more of a luxury.

 Taemin touched the rosary around his wrist. To think like this was ungrateful and he knew it, for everything he had, he’d worked hard; blood, sweat, tears. The members deserved better. Yet still, he thought of his deep dark secrets, the twisted thoughts he harboured within, and thought of how he wished them to stay that way. There are certain things no one can know. He shook his head, and shut the car door behind him, the walked up to the driver’s seat where the window was slowly being wound down.

“Listen I’ll be back to pick you all up at the end of the day, and you can go back to the dorm as a unit,” as he spoke the manager stuck a cigarette between his lips and lit it. ”The others will join you in the studio later. ‘Leader’ and ‘Flaming charisma’ are busy promoting right now. God knows where Jonghyun and Key are. Honestly those two are just waiting for a scandal.”

“Thank you, I’ll see you later then.” Just as the car began to pull away Taemin hastily added, “Wait! Hyung, I forgot. You’ll post this won’t you?” He pulled a crumpled up envelope from the bottom of his back and hurriedly tried to flatten it against the side of the car, before eventually handing it over. “He…. He hasn’t written back yet, has he?” The manager reluctantly took the envelope, as he had done with countless others, and solemnly shook his head. Taemin nodded and turned back to face the trainee building as the car drove off into the distance behind him. He straightened his expression, and entered.