Onew POV

The doors closed with perfect timing.  Her astonished face was too daebak.  Magically, you had managed to say the right thing at exactly the right moment.  How rare was that?  You grinned in self-satisfaction and headed down toward the practice room, already planning to see if you could convince ­­_____-ah to have dinner together at her house instead of staying here at the company like usual.  You pushed open the door to the studio, noticing the guys slumped in various positions on the floor.

“Yah, lets get this practice together- we need to run the choreo for the last half some more!  Why are you all just sitting around?”

They looked at you pathetically, and variations of “Too full to move” and “Ate way too much” and “Five more minutes, hyung” were groaned in your direction.

Funny, I don’t feel bad at all….and I ate a ton of noodles.

“You’re just not feeling it because you’re in love, hyung,” Key griped at you.  You looked at him in almost fear and opened your mouth to comment-

“Ani, I can’t read your mind, hyung.”  Key shook his head.  Again he answered a question that was only in your mind.  You tried again, taking a breath to speak, but-

“It’s all over your face, hyung.  Chincha, I really can’t read your mind.” Key flopped a hand lazily in the air, you guessed to indicate your face.  

“It’s actually ON YOUR FACE, Onew-hyung,” Jonghyun stated with a sly grin, “You look a little, oh, what’s the phrase?  Like you’ve been kissed?!?”  You could feel the flush working its way into your cheeks, so to cover you shrugged and walked over to pull Taemin up off the floor.   You only managed to get him to a seated position before he went limp on you.  You snorted in disgust.  “What are you Yoogeun now?”

During the mini-drama, you heard Jonghyun lean over to Key with a snicker, “His lips aren’t the only place that gives away what he’s feeling!”  Key reached up and smacked Jonghyun lightly, chuckling along at the innuendo.

You pretended not to hear the comment, deciding that drawing attention to it would only lead to more teasing.

Giving up on the maknae, you moved around to give the same assistance to the others, with basically the same results. 

“Oh, and hyung,” Key said, “If _____-ah tells you she has to work, let me know and I’ll nag her into having dinner with you tonight.”

You stopped in your tracks and stared at him, slightly scared by the fact that whether due to your face or some other means, Key seemed to know PRECISELY what you were thinking at any given moment.  And there were definitely thoughts you didn’t want him to know.

YOUR POV

That rat, you silently fumed, he certainly knows what he’s doing.  I wonder if he has always had an ongoing deal with those tech guys, or if it’s just one of those secrets that get passed down from sunbae to hoobae when you’re part of the “family”.  Kinda like the Godfather or something.  OMO- how many secret dates has he been on anyway?! 

Your fists clenched and your teeth gritted at the thought.  But your face relaxed as you kept thinking it through.

Be fair, this isn’t your first boyfriend either though- and it’s not like he has asked you for all the gritty details of your past dating exploits.  At least not yet.  Hmmm…I should make an edited version in case he does ask.  I mean, there are some things I just CAN’T tell him.  Way too embarrassing.  Well….unless he tells me his stories first, and then maybe I can open up about some of my own…

The elevator doors slid open on your floor once again, interrupting your mental conversation.  Moving down the hall, you tried your hardest to refocus on work, and not on the smoking-hot elevator make-out session you just experienced.

With a calming deep breath, you put on a serene expression and prayed that no one would notice Jinki’s “mark” as he called it.  You opened the door and strode in, calling out a cheerful “Anyounghaesayeo!” 

UNKNOWN POV

And here she comes.  Better look busy- if there is one thing, she certainly notices if you slack off too much.  Actually she’s pretty easy-going for a designer, not like Baek, he was such a perfectionist, and of course none of the blame ever landed on him, it was always our fault for…here we go, here we go.

She’s picking up the letter.  Hope I got those camera angles right, or I could end up on the bottom of the Han River, or worse.

YOUR POV

As you made your way back to your desk, you noted that all your assistants were back on time and already getting back into the groove of their current projects.   You took a seat on the swivel chair, rotating to face the cluttered surface of the desktop.  Moving to stow away your purse, you found a letter-sized envelope marked with your name and an “OPEN IMMEDIATELY” stamp in the otherwise empty drawer.

What is this?  That drawer never has anything in it but my purse, how did this get in there?

You held the letter in your hand, turning it over a couple of times.  It was sealed and you didn’t see any other markings.  Dumping your purse in the drawer with one hand, you shut it with your foot and looked around the studio as if someone could explain the mystery to you.

But all of your minions were hard at work, nothing seemed out of place.  No one was acting suspiciously.

“What in the world,” you muttered, swinging to face your computer (thus keeping your back to all the workers) and dropping the envelope on your keyboard.  You dug through the top drawer for your seldom-used letter opener.  You picked up the letter and cut through the short end, sliding the single sheet of folded white paper from its holder.

Before you opened it, your eyes caught the text scrolling across your monitor as a screensaver.  Someone had changed it!  You felt a chill as you wondered who had crept onto your computer without your knowledge. 

Does anyone know my password but me?  This is bad, what about all my personal sketches…the President wanted them all emailed, so I digitized them and stored them here.  But come on! Surely no one has taken them.   But the text…

It used to read

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do  ~Eleanor Roosevelt”  in English.

But now it read….you had to wait for the scroll to start over from the beginning.  You were a little upset. It made reading the Korean letters harder than normal, especially since it was long and scrolling pretty quickly.

Himdeuleojyeo  pogihago  sipeulttae                                    (When it becomes tiring and I want to give up)
Yaghan  mame  domangchigo  sipeul  ttae                          (When I am weak and I want to run away)
Jageun ne soni neogen gajang keun him dwineun geol     (Your small hand becomes my biggest strength)
Pyeongseng noel wihan norael bulleo julge                         (For the rest of my life, I’ll sing a song for you)

By the middle of the passage, tears were pricking your eyes.  it was an excerpt from one of SHINee’s new songs.  You thought the title was “Honesty”.   Jinki must have found a way to change it.  Your hands tightened on the paper in your hands, crinkling it as your emotions swept you away.

Hopefully, everyone else in the room didn’t notice as you subtly tried to wipe your eyes.  But then, you remembered the next couple of lines; the lines Onew sang in his angelic voice.  You got even more misty-eyed.

Neul geu jarie isseo nalmidgo jikyeojun nege

(You have always been there, Believing in me and protecting me)

Gomaum domeun norael jeonhalge

(I’ll convey this song of appreciation)

UNKNOWN POV

What is going on with this girl?  I know I saw her pick up the letter.  I would have expected SOME kind of reaction.  Damn.  My view isn’t good.  Aish- hope that whoever it is satisfied.  What happens if I'm caught? Prison, maybe?

I don’t want to have to do anything else like this again-

EVER.

A/N: So, because I was all insomniac last night/this morning, you the readers shall benefit.  I'm thinking something like...TRIPLE UPDATE!  (so chapters 29-31).  You lucky, lucky things!  As always, comments good/bad/fangirlingorboying  are what i love to see :D  Happy Thursday to all!