“Taeminnie! This way!” Chanseul said as she grabbed Taemin by his arm, pulling him everywhere in the floral garden.

“Slow down, noona! Aigoo~!” Taemin, being the sweetheart as he is, just follows the girl voluntarily. Looking at how excited Chanseul is since she really loves flowers, Taemin couldn’t help but to smile happily as he watched her.

Unlike them, however, Kris is sulking while following them from behind. Seeing Chanseul smiling happily with Taemin is the very last thing he wanted to witness. He waited for this date excitedly, only to realized later that Chanseul also brought Taemin along together with her.

“Noona, there’s a baby blue flower there! Your favourite colour!” Taemin shouted and this time, he is the one who dragged Chanseul.

So he knows her favourite colour, too?

Kris rolled his eyes, and sighed after that as he noticed how much advanced Taemin is in their invisible race. He dragged his steps lazily towards the excited duo.

“You like baby blue?” Kris asked as he squeezed himself between the two, causing Taemin to pouts.

“Neh, sunbaenim! And this.. this is really beautiful!” Chanseul nodded as she looks at the artificial, baby blue flower.

“It isn’t real, noona,” Taemin pointed to the description pasted on the table right in front of the vase, and the girl nodded.

“Forget Me Not..” Chanseul suddenly said.

“I won’t,” both Taemin and Kris responded at the same time. They give each other death glares after noticing they said the same thing.

“I’m actually reading the name of the flower,” Chanseul chuckles, pointing to the top of the description. The 16 year old president and the 12 year old dancer follow the finger of the 14 year old girl, and finally understood what she is talking about.

“So the name is Forget Me Not?” Kris asked.

“Didn’t you hear her the first time, hyung?” Taemin asked, trying to annoy the tall boy.

“I heard her, but I asked again because I wanted to talk to her,” Kris responded, staring at the younger boy.

“You can just talk to her without asking about something that she had already mentioned, though” Taemin is staring too, now.

“I want to, and let me be,” Kris bends down a bit so he can stare better at Taemin.

“You can’t, because I won’t let you,” Taemin raised one of his eyebrows. Both of them exchanged some weird stares for a while before Chanseul’s voice broke their staring competition.

“One day, I’ll go to New Zealand,” she suddenly said. Her voice came out almost like a whisper, but the two males still managed to catch it on their ears.

“To see the flower?” Kris asked.

“That’s why there is only the artificial one here. It can’t live in Korea,” Taemin continues, nodding.

“I never know such a beautiful flower exists,” Chanseul said, smiling at the flower as the two looked at her.

“I’ll go with you to New Zealand, noona!” Taemin said, flashing his eyesmiles as he holds her hand  in his, their fingers interlaced.

Kris quickly cleared his throat upon seeing such scene in front of him.

“I’ll.. I’ll go with you guys, too,” he said and at this time, he is jealous of Taemin for the first time, for being able to hold Chanseul’s hand anytime, anywhere, without being awkward.

“You’re coming too, sunbae?” Chanseul asked, looking at him, and he saw Taemin is giving him another death glare.

“Yes! Both of you are underage.  You’ll need an adult to take care of you guys!”

“Hyung, we will go when we both adults. Don’t worry,” Taemin quickly cuts in.

“Kids or adults, I’ll be there with you guys. Period,” Kris said, causing Chanseul to chuckles.

“Arasseo, sunbaenim! Let’s go together!”

Kris smiles at that respond of hers, and Taemin rolled his eyes.

Another half an hour went just like that, the two males are now sitting on a bench, watching Chanseul running here and there, checking all of the flowers. She gave up dragging them with her and made them sit, to which both of them responded to in a very positive way since they were tired of following her steps.

“Yah, Chibi,” suddenly Kris said, looking at Taemin.

“Me?” Taemin asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

“Yes, you. Who else?”

“Why am I Chibi?”

“Because you’re small, obviously,”

“I am not that small, hyung. I’m the tallest among my friends, and the tallest in my class as well,”

“Well, you’re smaller than me, at least. And shorter than Chanseul,”

Taemin rolled his eyes at that statement, though he knows Kris is saying the truth.

“Chibi-yah, what are you doing here?”

“Sitting,” Taemin gave him a short reply.

“No, I mean, what are you doing here, in the garden?” Kris asked again, adding details to his question.

“I came here with-..” Taemin was about to respond to the taller boy when he stopped abruptly, only because he noticed something that he didn’t earlier.

“You.. only asked Chanseul noona, right?” he asked, finally understand what is this date is all about.

“Neh,” Kris nodded, staring into the younger boy’s eyes.

“You.. don’t want me here, right?”

And Kris nodded again.

“Is this supposed to be a date?” Taemin asked again.

“The first date, yes, but you ruined it. Happy?”

Taemin blinks his eyes for a while before he quickly jumped on his feet.

“Oh God, no wonder I got a weird feelings today!”

“What, weird-, what feelings?”

“You’re a byuntae! ert!” Taemin snapped, pointing his finger to Kris' forehead, annoying the taller boy at the same time.

“Yah, Chibi!”

“Don’t you Chibi me, hyung! If I’m not here today, God knows what will you do to Chanseul noona!”

“Yah, crazy. Shut up! She’ll hear us!” Kris said as he grabbed the younger boy and make him sit again.

“Why are you asking her out for a date! She’s not your girlfriend!” Taemin tried hard to whisper but failed.

“Is she YOUR girlfriend then?” Kris asked, trying to whisper and fails miserably as well.

Taemin was about to say ‘yes’ confidently, only to realize that the answer is actually ‘no’. Chanseul is not his girlfriend.

“What is so wrong about asking a single girl out?” Kris asked again.

And Taemin realizes that Kris is right. Taemin is really, really close to Chanseul, to the extent that he thought both of them are in, somewhat, an unexplainable, special relationship, and only now he realizes that he is not Chanseul’s boyfriend.

And that thought hurts him a little. Both of them sit there for a few more minutes, immersed in their own deep thought when the taller boy broke the silence.

“Taemin-ah, can I ask you something?” Kris suddenly asked.

“Neh, hyung?”

“Were you born on 25^th of August?”

“Aniyo,”

“Um, did anything happen on 25^th of August?”

“Hmmm.. which year, hyung?”

“1979,”

Taemin then turned to face the older boy.

“Hyung, you’re weird,”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Kris slapped his forehead and Taemin chuckles.

“Taemin-ah, you weren’t born on 1979 right?” Kris asked another question that caused Taemin to laugh.

“Aigoo hyung, how can I be born much earlier than you? And why are you asking all of these weird questions?”

“I don’t know, too. Ignore me,” Kris sighed, and his brain trying hard to work out on the reason Chanseul chose to include 25879 in her pen name.

“Let’s go!” Chanseul suddenly appeared in front of them. Taemin quickly stand on his two feets and use his small frame to block Kris from his special girl.

“Done checking the flowers?” Kris asked, not even bothered by Taemin’s height. Even among everyone his age, Kris is considered unsually tall.

“Neh, sunbaenim! My favourite will be Forget Me Not! Not only the name is very catchy, but I love everything about it. The colour, the looks, the.. “ and she kept on talking about the flower. Both Kris and Taemin then decided that they really need to visit New Zealand one day.

For Chanseul.

*     *     *

November 2005

Kris is sitting at the back corner of the class, whistling. He is too tall; he can’t sit anywhere else in the class other than his current spot, in order to not block anyone from seeing the blackboard. It was still really early in the morning; he is the only one occupying the classroom at the moment.

It was then when Chanseul’s head popped up at the entrance, causing Kris to almost scream in fear.

“Y-yah!”

“Sunbae! Did I scare you?” Chanseul asked as she runs into the class and took a seat in front of the president, landing her bag on the desk in between them.

“Scared? Me? Kris Wu? Nah~” Kris pretended to be cool about it and the girl chuckles. Seems like she knows the tall boy is lying.

“What are you doing here? Your class is upstairs,” Kris asked, pretending to be curious, though the reality is he does not even care. He feels excited actually since this is the first time the girl visited him at his classroom.

“I know you would be here since you usually come to school early. I.. am actually worried about something, and I need to talk about this to someone..” Chanseul said as she hugged her cat-shaped sling bag to her chest, resting her chin on it.

“What is it?” Kris quickly asked. The fact that this girl looked for him and not surprisingly not Taemin caused his heart to skip a beat.

“It’s Taemin..”

And Kris can’t help but to be disappointed. No wonder she looked for him and not Taemin, since the matter itself is about that young boy.

“What about him? Is he sick?” not wanting to disappoint the girl, he still tried his best to respond to her properly.

“Umm.. yesterday he told me I should walk alone to school today..”

“What?! So you walked alone today? It is still so early, the sky is still dark, it could’ve been dangerous for a girl to walk alone! Why didn’t you tell me earlier, I can always pick you up!”

Chanseul blinked her eyes at the president, wondering why is he reacting like this when all she said was she was told that she had to walk alone to school.

“Don’t you blink your eyes like that at me, that won’t work today!” Kris is still not moving on from the fact that his crush walked alone this morning in the dark to school.

“What won’t work this time?” Chanseul asked, blinking her eyes again, tilting her head at the same time, and Kris quickly closed both of his eyes, trying to calm down.

“Blinking your adorable eyes. Being cute. Being angelic. Shaking my heart. That.. that works every time..” Kris said, but only in his heart. There is no way he is going to say that out loud. He has the feeling that a confession will definitely create a gap between both of them and he doesn’t want that.

“Sunbaenim, it is okay.. I’m safe! Nothing bad happens,” Chanseul said, she feels guilty now looking at how worried her club president is at the moment.

Slowly, Kris opens his eyes, looking at his favourite view everyday; Chanseul’s smile. He sighed, and his hand moves involuntarily, finding Chanseul’s. The girl is looking at their holding hands on the desk right now, trying to understand the reason this boy is doing it when Kris broke the silence in between them.

“Next time if Taemin ever said that he can’t accompany you, let me know, arra?”

Usually, Chanseul knows she is going to make fun of whatever Kris is saying right now, but at this moment, he is looking really serious and worried at the same time, she didn’t know what to say other than nodding her head.

“Good,” Kris said, ruffling the girl’s hair lightly.

Throughout the day, he tried to make Chanseul feels better but failed, especially during recess time when the girl found out from Taemin’s classmate that the younger boy was absent from school.

“Is he sick? Do you think he’s sick, sunbaenim?” she asked, walking without looking as she is so immersed in worrying about Taemin. She almost bumps into other students, walls and even teachers unknowingly, but manage to avoid them, thanks to Kris who is always there to protect her from getting hurt.

“Look in front when you’re walking, Chanseul,” Kris said as he motioned her into a safer lane.

“But yesterday he said I have to walk alone. Does that mean he knows he will be sick today?” the girl is still not paying attention to the front. Kris sighed and stopped walking, grabbing her hand at the same time which forced her to twirl around and face him.

“S-sunbae..?” she asked, looking at the taller boy.

“Look. I know you’re worried. I know this is the first time you walked to school without Taemin. I know this is also the first time he is hiding something from you. But if you fall into that big drain over there, what good will you get?”

Chanseul turned back slowly, and saw the big drain Kris is talking about.

“All I did for the past 15 minutes is shoving you here and there to make sure you didn’t fall or bump into anything,” Kris said again and Chanseul started to feel guilty.

“Mianhae, sunbaenim..” she apologized, and bowed a bit, and the president sighed.

“I don’t need your apology. I just want you to pay attention to what you are doing, and right now it is walking. Okay?”

“Neh, sunbaenim!” Chanseul nodded her head quickly and smiles at the president, which caused the later to quickly walked away as his attempt to hide his blushed cheeks.

*     *     *

Taemin leans on his back on the wall at the school entrance, waiting for Chanseul. Once in a while he will give his watch a glimpse, checking the time. It is 3.30PM. Chanseul is supposed to be here at this time usually.

“I am so going to hit him later when I see him!” he finally heard that familiar voice. Taemin turned to the school gate, and his eyes caught Chanseul leaving the school area, with Kris behind him. He walks after them and when there are only a few steps gap in between them, he called her name.

“Chanseul noona,” Taemin called gently.

Chanseul paused all of her movements upon hearing his voice before quickly turns to face the younger boy.

“Yah! Taemin-ah!” she squealed, before hugging the boy, much to both of the boys’ surprises.

“Yah!” Kris quickly separate both of them with his hands.

“Yah, hyung~!” Taemin whines as he was dragged away from Chanseul.

“Did you just said yah to me? I’m older by 4 years than you!”

“Yes, I just said yah to you, because no one, no one should come in between Chanseul noona and I!”

“Oh yeah? Just wait and see. I’ll.. definitely squeeze myself in between the two of you,” Kris whispered, not wanting the girl to hear him as he folded his arms, looking down at the shorter boy.

“Squeeze in as many time as you want, hyung. It won’t make any difference,” Taemin rolled his eyes as he walked to Chanseul, who is pouting right now.

“Waee~?” Taemin asked as he pinched his favourite girl’s pouting cheeks.

“You dare to ask? First, you said I should walk alone to school. Second, you didn’t explain yourself. Third, I only know that you’re absent today from your classmate! Fourth, again, you should’ve explained yourself! Fifth, you made me worried all day! You can ask Kris sunbaenim how many times I kept on asking if you’re sick or something! Sixth, suddenly you’re here, in your casual outfits instead of your school uniform, and I don’t know what to think about!” Chanseul blurted everything in a single breath. Seems like she’s worrying too much to Taemin, much to his liking, and much to Kris’ annoyance.

“I don’t mean to hide this from you, noona. I just.. want to surprise you..” the younger boy, smiling said as he took out a folded white cloth from his pocket. He took Chanseul’s hand and place it in her palm.

“What is it..? Can I open it?”

Taemin nooded at the question and the girl quickly unfold the cloth, only to see the word “PASS” on it.

“Pass..?” Chanseul looks at him after reading the word loudly.

“It was pinned on my t-shirt this morning,” Taemin said, obviously not answering the girl’s curiosity.

“Pinned by who?”

“The staff, of course,”

“Which staff?”

“The staff at the backstage,”

“Okay now we have a backstage. I don’t even know there’s a stage to begin with!” Chanseul started to snap again, causing the younger boy to laugh before he took her hand in his and dragged her to the school gate. Right beside it, is a big poster pasted on the white wall.

“This,” Taemin pointed to the poster.

“Taeminnie, I am really going to be angry if you don’t explain all of this,” Chanseul said, and she looks serious.

“I am explaining to you, noona,” the boy said, still pointing to the poster, stressing on the word ‘am’. Chanseul looks at him for a while before she took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh.

“Taeminnie~ do you know how worried I am today?” she asked.

“I know, noona. You told me just now-“ the younger boy didn’t get to finish his sentence because Chanseul cuts in really quickly.

“The least you can do is explain to me when I asked for an explaination,”

“I am, noona. I am saying-“

“You call this an explanation?” Chanseul asked, waving the white colour cloth, obviously not satisfied with whatever Taemin is saying.

“Actually-“ and he didn’t get to finish his sentence again.

“You left me all alone since morning, and now when I asked for an explanation, all you did was pointing to this SM Entertainment audition poster. We’ve seen these posters around the town since last month, Taeminnie. We know SM was calling people for audition, but I don’t see how is that related to you not walking with me today, and the PASS white cloth, I.. oh.. oh.. my God..” Chanseul is now dropping her jaw, changing her glares between the white cloth and the poster repeatedly.

“Oh.. God..” she mumbles again, staring at the word “PASS” on the cloth, finally making some sense of Taemin’s scattered clues.

“This.. was pinned to your shirt earlier..?” Chanseul asked, widening her already big eyes at the same time.

“Neh!” Taemin nodded quickly.

“By a staff at the backstage..?”

“Neh!”

“Taeminnie..”

“Neh?”

“Did you passed the SM audition..?”carefully, Chanseul worded her question.

“Neh, noona!” Taemin smiles as he took the cloth and place it on his chest, mouthed “irreokae” at his favourite girl.

“Omo.. omo omo, Taem!! Oh my!!” Chanseul squealed and throws her arms around the younger boy, pulling him close into her small frame, only to be pulled away really quickly by Kris who had been watching them just now.

“No hugging. Nu-uh,” Kris said bluntly, as if what he did just now is normal.

“Why are you always in between us, hyung?” Taemin said as he elbowed the taller guy to the side as he reached for Chanseul’s hands, holding them and both of them jump together, celebrating Taemin’s admission into SM Entertainment as a trainee.

“Oh wait,” Chanseul said as she stopped jumping, followed by Taemin.

“So.. what will happen now? Will you have to go to training every day and leave me alone?”

“Aniya, noona. I will just go there once a week for training. I’m still underage. There are many other trainees who are older than me and are waiting for their turn to debut,”

“Really..?” Chanseul asked, she started to looks worried. Half day without Taemin is difficult enough, she can’t imagine if Taemin were to leave her one day to be an idol.

“Neh, noona. Even the talented U-Know Yunho debuted at the age of 17. I bet I’ll be debuting probably at the age of 20,” Taemin chuckles, and Chanseul really hopes that the boy will not be leaving her so soon.

“One day when you become an idol, you will never forget me, right?” she asked, and just by looking into her eyes, Taemin understands that she doesn’t want to be without him.

“I promise, noona, I won’t forget you. Ever,”

RAMBLES___♡♥♡
So, Taemin thought he will debut at the age of 20, 8 years from the current setting.
But I bet you guys know when did Taemin debuted, right? This fic will follow the real timeline.

So, the reason behind the title is revealed.
Forget Me Not is a flower.
Remember in the first chapter, when Taemin had a baby blue petal in his pendant?
You can see it in the poster up there, nghehehe.

Stay tune, we're going to skip two years in the next chapter!
Please drop a comment as well, thank you so much.

PYNK