A/N: Hello my lovelies!! Lol~ sorry I just like calling my readers that because it sounds so adorable nyaa! Ok ok~ Anyways, I literally JUST finished my exams like one hour ago and I’m typing this in school. You guys are like my first priority!! =P Anyways, since I’m on a netbook I can’t make the banner right now so I’ll update the new banner later tonight.

Updated A/N: LOL, I just read my own drunk update~~ Hahaha IM FINALLY OFFICIALLY OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL!! YES!!!!! WHEEE~~~ And thank you my wonderful readers for being concerned about me getting hang-overs~ You’ll be glad to know that I don’t get hang-overs ^-^V awesome metabolism. Lol

Basically, because the there are too many plot devices in the upcoming chapters and they’re starting to get really long, I’ve decided to cascade them over a few more chapters, so this chapter isn’t ‘Because we’re the youngest’, that’ll be the next chappie.

On with the story!

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  It was the morning after the dramatic night at Shinee house and untrue to her words the night before, Yun Ri had somehow managed to drag her lazy out of bed and went to school, which left Ki Bum, puffy-eyed and alone in her studio apartment, lying on the giant Stitch while hugging a huge Lotso, stuffing his face with ice-cream.  ‘Oh my god, I’m like a girl wallowing in self-pity… eating ice-cream alone in an apartment…and my eyes…I hope it goes down in time for tonight’s good bye stage…aish!!! Stupid Yun Ri and her ice-cream,’ he muttered randomly .Despite what situation suggests, the Almighty Key of Shinee was not, for once, wallowing in self-pity. In fact he was feeling more refreshed than he did in weeks. 

Flashback

  ‘Ki Bum, I’m going to school now,’ Yun Ri said to Ki Bum, who was still lying in bed, half asleep. Groggily, he pushed himself up, ‘I thought you were going to ditch school and sleep at home today?’ ‘Yea, but my professor called me to fill in for his assistant ‘cause he’s sick,’ Yun Ri replied while putting her hair up in a pony tail. ‘…Aren’t assistants supposed to be like…at least senior students? You’re like in your second year,’ Ki Bum replied after a short pause. Completely ignoring him, Yun Ri turned around and put up two different glasses to her face, ‘Which one do you think makes me look older?’ Without thinking, he pointed, ‘The red one.’ ‘Thanks,’ Yun Ri replied and out on the red framed spectacles. ‘What the hell? I just told you it makes you look old!’ Ki Bum complained loudly, now completely awake. Yun Ri stuck her tongue out, ‘Exactly, I AM too young, hence.’ It took Ki Bum a second to process her sentence before rolling his eyes and snuggling himself into the comforters again. ‘What about me?’ ‘What about you?’ ‘Breakfast? Hello?’ The girl in front of him rolled her eyes, walked out of the room briskly and came back with a spoon and a huge tub of Haagendaz ice-cream. ‘There, breakfast,’ she said, shoving it into his hands, the cold made Ki Bum jump up from his sleeping position, just in time to see Yun Ri’s pony tail swish its way out of the room. ‘I love you too~’ Ki Bum called out sarcastically. Her response was a quick middle finger, or at least what he thinks is a middle finger, it’s really hard to tell with the door blocking his view.

End Flashback

  That was how Kim Ki Bum, puffy-eyed from crying, ended up eating ice-cream alone in his cousin’s lone studio apartment.

Ki Bum’s POV:

  The ice-cream melted on my tongue, the coolness is a sharp contrast to the heat from my tongue. After crying so much this week, I have made several conclusions about crying. Number 1, crying makes your body temperature rise, I think it’s because you lose water content in your body so your temperature rises. Number 2, puffy eyes take exactly one afternoon to go away. Number 3, crying gives you hang-overs, or at least that’s what Yun Ri calls them…I let out a short laugh to no one in particular. I think the whole situation is making my mind spiral out of control. The useless things my mind spends it time on…but better useless than painful I suppose, a bitter smile spread itself across my face as I remembered Jong Hyun’s face. Then, it hit me. Taiwan.

  I buried my face into Lotso’s strawberry scented head and screamed, feeling a little less stressed, I continued to think. After last night I knew, there was no way I can stay sane with Jong Hyun around. Or at least not when Shin Se Kyung was in the picture, but at the same time, I have an obligation to Shawols. They are innocent and they don’t deserve to be treated to a broken Shinee just because I’m too big a baby to it up and deal with things. I hate being an idol sometimes. You belong to others first, yourself second, but that is the road I have chosen, I have always known what I was giving up the moment I decided to move to Seoul but when the reality of it all is shoved in my face, it’s really a lot harder than I imagined. I know I need to, no, have to, go to Taiwan, for the sake of Shinee, Shawols and myself, but I honestly cannot stay as Almighty Key of Shinee 24 hours straight for 7 whole days. I need something to hold onto, I need an escape, I need Yun Ri with me.

3^rdPerson POV:

  As if struck by lightning, or a sudden high, Ki Bum fumbled off the giant Stitch, grabbed his phone and made a phone call…

  ‘Young Soo hyung…Ki Bum here, about Taiwan, I need a small favor from you…’

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  The cold autumn wind bit into Yun Ri’s cheeks as she sat on the curb of the children playground, waiting. She cast a glance at the comfortable but taken benches near the sand-pit and sighed, she has been waiting for more than 20 minutes and the person who called her out to this playground still has not shown up. ‘Aish, that bastard Lee Young Soo, calls a girl out and doesn’t even have the decency to show up on time,’ Yun Ri muttered under her breath and watched as her breath condensed into a puff of white air in front of her. ‘Sorry I’m late!’ A running figure called out. ‘Finally,’ Yun Ri muttered again. Panting, Young Soo stopped in front of the girl and apologized, ‘I’m sorry I’m late, my dad needed to talk to me,’ he said between breaths. Yun Ri, who just raised her hand to slap the man in front of her stopped short when she saw his face.  The youngest son of Lee Soo man has always been impossibly pale, something Yun Ri is extremely jealous about, because even sunscreen could not save her from browning up like a roast chicken in an oven, but today, his pale complexion was replaced by a poorly disguised bruise. Yun Ri quickly decided that whatever talk he had with his father had a little more action than just moving mouths, ‘So what can I do for you today?’

  ‘You’re going to Taiwan with us.’

  All the university sophomore could do was stare, ‘Lee Young Soo, can you please repeat that sentence again?’

‘You’re going to Taiwan with us.’

  Urging every cell in her body to calm down, Yun Ri growled, ‘I would swear my head off if it weren’t for the fact that there are little kids here.’ Smirking, Young Soo replied, ‘That’s why I picked this place.’ The girl in front of him rolled her eyes at his honest reply and continued aggressively, ‘Jerk…what about my school? My job? I do need to pay rent you know.’ As if expecting the bombardment of questions, the manager of Shinee answered smoothly. ‘You’re probably going to have to take leave from school but as for your rent, did you think SM would let you freeload with us? You’re being hired as this trip’s photographer.’

  Yun Ri’s body stilled. Being hired as SM’s photographer? How did they know she worked as a freelance photographer? Did SM do a background check on her? Did Lee Soo Man want her to be taken care of? Is that why they investigated her? Worry begin to spread in her mind like wild fire, but not wanting to sound weak to the man in front of her, Yun Ri chose to utter a complaint, ‘Well WTF and FML, haven’t you guys just got this planned down to a T.’ ‘It was all Ki Bum sshi’s idea actually,’ Young Soo quickly confessed.

   Hearing  Ki Bum’s name, Yun Ri immediately let out a sigh of relief, remembering her cousin’s weird grin when he greeted her when she got home, the newly hired SM photographer muttered darkly, ‘I knew that grin was bad news…’ ‘So are you going?’ Young Soo asked tentative tone evident in his voice. The reply he got was a raised eye-brow, a defeated sigh and a bitter smile, ‘Like I have a choice? Sigh I guess Ki Bum doesn’t remember...’ At that, Yun Ri stood up from the curb, dusted herself off, shocked at her sudden departure, Young Soo called out, ‘Where are you going?’ Halting her steps, Yun Ri turned and said, ‘Home. This meeting’s finished right? Unless there’s something else you want to tell me?’ Young Soo shook his head, ‘Exactly. Bye.’ And at that, Yun Ri continued to walk off.

  Watching Yun  Ri’s figure become distant, Young Soo placed his hand on his rather blue cheek, ‘Thank goodness she didn’t slap me this time.’ Lee Young Soo’s father was never known to be a gentle man and despite becoming less violent in the recent years towards his artists; his child-rearing methods have not become any less ‘heavy-handed’ so to speak. Remembering the rage in his father’s eyes when he asked if Yun Ri could be hired as the trip’s photographer and the slap that echoed in the room thereafter, Young Soo muttered to himself, ‘Kim Ki Bum, you owe me.’

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Yun Ri’s POV:

  I wasn’t really headed home, I don’t want to see Ki Bum at the moment because I know I will do something I regret, like yell at him. I knew he probably didn’t think that far and he just wants me to be there for him but I can’t forgive him for not remembering. If it were any other country in the world then I wouldn’t care, but it was Taiwan, TAIWAN! How can he ask this of me? He was there when I was a sobbing mess in my apartment, he saw it all and he knows it all, so how can he ask me to go to Taiwan of all places, with him!

  I sighed and watched my breath condense into a cloud of white again; I guess I need to face my fears some day. ‘Ki Bum was there for me so I’ll be there for him,’ I said to no one in particular. I need a drink…nodding to myself, I took out my phone and sent a quick text to Ki Bum, ‘I’ll be home later, feed yourself’ and proceeded to walk to my favorite bar. The evening streets in the neighborhood were surprisingly deserted and as I resolved myself to accompany Ki Bum to Taiwan, I can’t help but utter, ‘Kim Ki Bum, you owe me.’