“An..annyeong..” Chanseul stuttered her words a little as she bowed to her sunbae-turned-oppa who is standing right in front of her right now, Kris.

It has been a few months since the last time they bumped into each other before Kris graduated from high school, so Kris is actually really glad to see the girl, but he is also curious at the fact that both Chanseul and Taemin that he dislikes are together in his house.

“Annyeong, Chanseul-ah,” he managed to respond to her.

“Oh, so the two of you know each other? I don’t think I ever saw both of you talking at the school last year?” Madam Kim quickly asked.

Chanseul tried to think of a reasonable answer that could explain the fact that they know each other but never talk at school, but Kris beat her to it.

“We’re in the same club, omma. We don’t really talk outside of the club,” he said, to which his mother nodded at. Both of them feel relief since their mother doesn’t find anything weird with what Kris had said just now.

Taemin stayed for a while after that. He listened to Madam Kim explaining to her son about her sudden decision to adopt a daughter, and Kris didn’t respond much other than nodding his head once in a while. Taemin is really curious on Kris’ stand on this situation, and it kills him from inside because he cannot read Kris’ expression at all.

There still isn’t much to read on his face even when all of them get to the second floor.

“There is a number of empty rooms here. I personally think you will like this room, Chanseul,” Madam Kim said as she opened the door to one of the rooms. Both Chanseul and Taemin peek in, and Chanseul dropped her jaw looking at how luxurious the pink-themed room is.

“Whose room is this?” Taemin asked, pointing to the door next to the pink room.

“Mine,” Kris said without looking at him.

Taemin quickly grabbed Chanseul’s hand and walked to the other room next to the pink one. He doesn't want Chanseul's room to right next to Kris'.

“I think this one suits Chanseul noona, more, Madam,” he said unknowingly, pointing to the door at the same time. He opened the door and saw a slightly smaller room, but looks equally amazing, and much to Chanseul’s delight, it is fully decorated in baby blue.

“I love this one!” Chanseul said, nodding her head really quick.

“But that room is a bit small,” Madam Kim said.

“It is okay! My room at the hostel is four times smaller, and I have to share it with three other girls. So this is.. more.. more than enough,” Chanseul responded, and since she looks genuinely happy, Madam Kim decided to just let her have that room.

Kris rolled his eyes before he walked away locked himself in his room. He didn’t respond even when his mother knocked on his door.

“I’m sorry. He had been the only child for so long, I bet he needs time,” Madam Kim quickly apologized on his son’s behalf before she left for the kitchen.

Taemin then told Chanseul that he needs to get back to the SM Building, causing the girl to feel a little down again.

“You’re not staying..?” she asked.

“I’m afraid I can’t, noona.. my training schedule is really packed,” he said, poking Chanseul’s cheeks as she pouts.

“When will you come back..?”

“I can’t say for sure.. our debut date is just around the corner..”

“Hmmm.. make sure you take care. And eat a lot!”

“You, too, noona. Avoid being alone with Kris hyung! If Madam Kim is going out and the two of you were about to be left alone, please beg your omma to bring you with her. And, and..” Taemin keep on advicing Chanseul on how to be careful in the house and the girls nods her head diligently, not wanting to make him worried more than he already is.

“Noona, I’m serious here..!” Taemin started to whine, looking at Chanseul just nodded at everything he said, he is afraid at the fact that the girl just nod to make him feel better.

“Aigoo, Taeminniee..” Chanseul cupped his cheeks, and Taemin pouted.

“I will take care of myself, trust me. Okay?”

Since she looks more serious this time, Taemin feels better and nodded his head.

“I.. will miss you, again,” Taemin said, holding Chanseul’s hand on his cheeks.

“I’ll miss you even more,” the girl said as she smiles.

*     *     *

“Okay, that’s it,” the manager said after he paused the song on the radio in front of the five enthusiast young trainees.

“Is that our song?” the eldest, Jinki asked.

“Your debut song, yes,”

The teenagers look at each other before the second eldest open his mouth.

“I thought we are going to be a rap group?” Jonghyun asked.

“Because we can’t really sing?” the tallest, Minho, continued.

“Well, Lee Sooman-shi decided this should be the song. Even when many were against it, he still thought SHINee should debut with this song, so I hope you guys will appreciate this opportunity. This is a really good song,”

The boys nodded and Taemin suddenly asked.

“What is SHINee?” he blinks twice in a second, just because he is the type who blinks a lot.

“Your group name,” the manager responded with a smile.

“So we are not going to be Baby Team?” Key asked.

“Baby Team sounds too childish, so no,”

All five of them sigh in relief, since none of them were fond of the first name suggested earlier.

“Right now, we will work on the lines distribution. Jonghyun and Jinki will be leading the song. Key will get a good deal of lines as well since your singing is already quite stable. Minho, we will soon have a song that can display your rapping skill even better. And Taemin, you dancing skill is more than great. Take your time to polish your singing skill. I’m sure Jonghyun and Jinki will be more than willing to help,” the manager explained.

Taemin nodded his head as Jonghyun smiles at him, assuring that he will definitely help.

“After that, we will work on the choreography. And .. to be honest we still don’t have the title for this song,”

“Really? I thought the title is Replay,” Jonghyun said.

“And I thought the title is Noona Neomu Yeppo,” Key responded.

“Exactly. We are contemplating between the two, actually. What is your opinion on this? We might take your opinion into consideration for the song title,” said the manager.

Being young and still trainees, none of them are familiar with making decision for the group, or even giving opinions.

While the other four are looking at each other, with the cutie eldest pretending to think so seriously when he actually is just hungry, Taemin raised his hand.

“Noona neomu yeppo,” he said when the manager looked at him.

“Why do you think it is more suitable compared to Replay?” the manager asked.

“For some girls, younger guys might be a turn off. Although you only played half of the song for us to listen to just now, I noticed the lyric is about the strong feelings the boy has for the girl who is older than her. I think we can take this chance to show that dating younger guys is okay, too,”

While the manager nodded at Taemin’s opinion, Taemin noticed an understanding smile from Jonghyun, who literally knows everything about Taemin and Chanseul, and the younger boy blushed.

*     *     *

Chanseul stepped into her new home, dragging her new sling bag. Her omma got her a new schoolbag last week, and it is still bunny-shaped.

She just finished with her school that day, and went to rest on the couch at the living room. She was so tired, and was about to fall asleep when suddenly Kris appeared out of nowhere and took a seat beside her. Without looking at Chanseul, he the TV.

Chanseul turned to face him, and thought she should try to talk to Kris. They are living together for almost two weeks, and tried really hard to avoid each other, it is tiring.

“I’m trying to sleep here,” she suddenly said, much to Kris’ surprise. The guy then turned to her, and replied.

“Shouldn’t you been doing that at your room, and not at the living room?”

The fact that Chanseul initiated the conversation makes him happy, and he is trying hard to hide it from his expression, to not making it too obvious.

The girl then gave him a death glare, not wanting to loose.

The familiar death glare he used to get whenever he talked nonsense back then. The death glare he missed a lot.

“Arraseo. Fine!” Kris said as he reached for the remote control and turned the TV off.

Chanseul smiles and quickly lean down on the couch comfortably and close her eyes.

“Just like that? You’re really sleeping here?” the tall guy asked, and the girl nodded her head slowly with her eyes closed, hugging her fluffy bag close to her chest.

“Aish..” Kris is obviously not satisfied with the outcomes. He is hoping for the two of them to talk more, but that is impossible if one of them is sleeping.

“Chanseul, omma said you need to eat your lunch before you sleep,” he said, trying to stop for the girl from sleeping, but he didn’t get any respond.

“Shin Chanseul,” he called again, poking Chanseul’s cheek with the remote control, and only then he realized the girl is really asleep.

“She must be really tired,” Kris whispered to himself, and he spent the rest of the next one hour looking at the girl he had been missing a lot since last year before he left for his room, not wanting the girl to wake up to him. That would be so awkward. The situation right now is much better compared to a year ago since they are already talking to each other, even though they only exchanged a few words just now. Kris does not want to ruin it for the second time.

*     *     *

“Kids, gather around,” the manager called the five teenage boys as he walked into the dancing studio, clapping his hands twice. The boys, who were practicing the choreography for their debut song just now paused their activity and quickly make their way to the manager. All of them took seat in the couches at the corner of the studio and the manager take out a picture from his file.

“We already uploaded the promotional picture on our website, and the responses are exploding!” he said excitedly, and the boys clap their hands, smiling.

 

[SHINee, 2008]

“Taemin, many are saying you looked like Heechul,”

“Ah jinjja..? Even with this hair?” Taemin asked, pointing to his mushroom hairstyle. He was asked to have that hairstyle last week before the photoshooting, and being young, despite not really liking it, he didn’t complaint.

The other four members keep on telling him he looks more adorable with the haircut though, so he is okay with it.

“Practice hard today. Practice hard tonight. Tomorrow, make sure all of you have enough rest. Your life will be turning upside down starting the day after tomorrow,” the manager said to all of them.

Taemin turned to the calendar hanging on the wall not far from him.

23 May 2008.

It is almost time.

And he didn’t get to go back to his hometown before his debut.

*    *     *

Kris is watching National Geographic on TV when Chanseul suddenly ran down the stairs in a very clumsy way, she fell as soon as she reached the first floor.

“Yah, yah! Are you okay?!” Kris asked. He was about to help the girl but Chanseul quickly stood up and ran towards him.

“Sunbaenim! Remote control!” she said as soon she climbed on couch from the arm panel, lost her balance and landed on the cushion on her face, and quickly changed into a normal sitting position. She held out both of her hands, asking for the remote control for the second time, smiling at the same time.

Kris looked at her in awe, literally dropping his jaw.

“Are you crazy?” he asked, and the girl quickly shook her head.

“You ran down like crazy just now, that was dangerous! And then you fell! And instead of whimpering or something, you asked for the remote control! And did you see how did you get on the couch just now? You climbed! From the arm panel! Like, why?! Why don’t you get on the couch like normal people do?! And you land on your face! Why?” Kris blurted all of his questions at the same time. Now that they are living under the same roof, he gets to witnessed how Chanseul really are as a person. She does many weird things every day, but still managed to appear charming in Kris’ eyes.

“Remote control!” ignoring all of his questions, Chanseul only focused on the remote control.

They talked more to each other since two weeks ago, and Kris is really happy with the new situation. They might not be as close as before, but Kris is more than contented.

“You can't. II’m watching National Geographic,” Kris said.

“Just this one time, sunbaenim!” Chanseul asked for the remote control again.

“Say please,” Kris said, raising one of his eyebrows at the girl.

“Can I have the remote control, please, sunbaenim?!” Chanseul quickly reword her request. Kris smiles and looked down a bit closer to the girl.

“Now, call me oppa,”

His second request, however, took Chanseul by surprise. Only then she realized she had been calling Kris “sunbaenim” for a month already in the house.

“N-neh..?” she stuttered.

Kris then turned to the TV, continue watching National Geographic, telling Chanseul how cute the Koala is, annoying the girl at the same time. It was then when the girl just grabbed the remote control from his hand, and changes the channel to KBS2.

“Yah! I’m watching the koalas!”

“Please let me watch this channel for awhile!” Chanseul said, pleading.

“Aish.. what is this?” Kris asked when he saw people singing on the screen.

“SBS Inkigayo!”

“What? You never watch KPOP before on TV!”

“Because I always watch on my phone,”

“So why didn’t you watch it on your phone today?”

“Because today is special.. I need a bigger screen..”

“Sp-“ Kris didn’t get to ask what is so special today when the group singing just now disappear from the screen and a new one appeared, the audience scream like crazy.

“Shy..nee,” he read the name at the background of the stage. There are five members and all of them look so young.

 

“What is this? A new group?” Kris asked, but got ignored. He stared at Chanseul and seems like the girl only have her eyes on the screen for now.

Kris just smile at her. He then decided that as long as Chanseul is happy, he is happy too. The girl suddenly squeals, so Kris quickly turned to the screen, and much to his surprise, one of the members who is wearing yellow is now dancing in the middle, and he extremely resembles Taemin.

He does not need to ask if the boy is really Taemin or not. He always knew that Taemin was a trainee since back then. And the fact that Chanseul said today is special.

“He debuted?” he asked but suddenly felt a tight grip on his arm.

“He looks so adorable in his mushroom haircut, omo!” Chanseul squeals as she grabbed Kris’ arms, swinging the muscular part of his body back and forth.

“Oh god, we have a fangirl in the house,” Kris whispered to himself, but chuckles at the same time. Chanseul looks really happy at this moment; he doesn’t want it to end.

Chanseul squeals even louder when Taemin did a solo dance towards the end of the song and Kris cupped .

“Yah! You’ll scare our neighbour!”

Chanseul quickly pushed away his hand from her face and clapped her hands like a happy seal.

“I never thought he will be this good! Let’s go buy their album after this, oppa!”

Kris’ heart skipped a beat as soon as he heard the word “oppa”. Even though he never feels as jealous as right now towards Taemin, he still managed to smile and ruffles Chanseul’s hair.
 

*     *     *
 

June 2008

Chanseul is lying down on her bed, ready to sleep, supposedly. She tried to sleep but failed.

“Taemin-ah.. what are you doing right now..?” she whispered to herself. She found out that she is missing the boy a lot. Ever since his debut last month, they only get to talk on the phone once.

When Chanseul got a phone of her own after she moved into the house, she thought she can talk freely to Taemin, until she was told that the SHINee members can only use their phones for very limited time per day because of their busy schedule. No matter how many times Chanseul tried to talk to Taemin, it is always the manager who answered her phone call.

Taemin felt really bad about it and told her not to call anymore so she won’t be disappointed. He promised he will call as soon as he can. And he said that two weeks ago.

Chanseul is a little sad, because she is not used to this. Yes, they were away for two months before, but they still talked on the phone at least thrice a week.

It was the when the clock on her wall strike 12. Chanseul quickly fixed her blanket and close her eyes since she needs to wake up early tomorrow for school.

Noonan neomu yeppeo
(Geu geunyeoreul boneun naneun) Micheo
(Ha hajiman ijen jicheo)
Replay Replay Replay

Her phone rang right at the moment she closed her eyes.

Chanseul grabbed her phone lazily and look at name appeared on the scream and squeals as soon as she saw Taemin’s name.

“Taemin-ah!” she quickly said his name as soon as he picked up the call.

“Chanseul noona! Noona!? Noona? I miss you a lot, noona!”

Chanseul smiles. Because she can finally hear his voice. And because he said he missed her.

“I missed you too, Taemin-ah .. I’ve been waiting~”

Even when they are not together, Taemin can almost see her pouting as he listens to her.

“Mianhae yo, noona. Oh wait! Noona, saeng il chukka e!”

Chanseul widened her eyes, and only then she remembered that when the clock strikes 12 just now, she already turned to 17.

“You .. remembered..” she smiles.

“Of course, I do! I’m always the first to wish you since forever!”

“Neh, you are always the first,” the girl chuckles.

“Noona, I’m sorry that we cannot celebrate your birthday together like usual, but I promised we will, once I can go back. Wait for me, okay?”

Chanseul nodded her head even though Taemin can’t see her.

“Neh, Taem. I will wait. Don’t worry about my birthday. Focus on your work, okay?”

And they keep on talking that night about many things. Taemin learned that Chanseul is talking to Kris again after a year and he doesn’t like that fact. Chanseul is quick to divert the topic to SHINee members, so they suddenly talk about SHINee instead, including Taemin’s adorable mushroom hair, and possible names for SHINee’s fandom.

“I think it will be.. sunshine!” Chanseul suggested.

“Sunshine sounds cute, noona. But I’m also thinking of the diamonds!”

“Whatever it is, I’ll be sure to be your biggest fan,” Chanseul chuckles.

Taemin, even when he is talking in the dark inside their dorm, is aware that he is blushing right now when he heard what Chanseul said just now.

“Noona,”

“Neh?”

“You know that song is for you, right?”

Chanseul’s heart skipped a beat as she heard him.

“I mean.. whenever we perform that song, I always thought of you, noona,” Taemin continued as he recalled the real reason he wanted their debut song to be named Noona Neomu Yeppo.

“Well..  that is.. really nice of you, Taeminnie..”

Taemin swears his favourite girl must be smiling at that time.

“Too bad I didn’t get that much lines, noona. I still need to improve my singing. One day.. I hope I can sing this song again, as a better singer, just for you..”

“I know you will definitely improve, Taem. I’ll be waiting for your version of this song,” Chanseul responded as she covered her blushed cheeks with her palms, as if Taemin is there to see them.

After an hour long phone call, they said their goodbye and Taemin promised to call again soon. Deep inside her heart, Chanseul understand that Taemin’s “soon” is not going to be so soon.

And she is okay with it.

It might hurt a bit to wait, but when it comes to Taemin, Chanseul will endure everything.

RAMBLES___♡♥♡
SHINee finally debuted, Oh God!
I was there when SM announced about their new boy group,
and I swear many people said Taemin looks like a mini Heechul, haha.
So yeah, Chanseul and Kris are talking again.
And Taemin is even busier.
What do you think will happen next?
Please leave some words for my motivation,
TQ so much!

PYNK