“LeeTaemin!” she blurted in shock,

It was funny how he felt that good just hearing someone’s voice, when it wasn’t even that one of a kind, for him to be feeling so exhilarating at the moment.

“I mean” “Taemin-ssi” his heart was smiling now, which was enough to bring a evident smile on his face immediately.

“LeeTaemin?” he was not thinking of pulling her leg at their actual first interaction, till he eventually did it in the flow, “Did you just drop honorifics with me?” he questioned, noticing the colour of her face chnage to pink, with her flustered eyes wandering the space behind & around him.

“Hyerin-ssi must not be older than me” he smirked to himself, before removing his mask to have a proper talk now that he had already come this far with a motive.

“That’s not what I meant” she was seriously flustered, just by realizing now that the poster-boy was standing right in front of her again.

“Taemin-ssi” “Its Lee Taemin-ssi” she raised her hands in front of her in defense, as if that was gonna save her from feeling embarrassed.

He had a constant smile on his lips, as he was enjoying her calling his name twice, actually four times now. Indeed it was a good decision to come here, he thought, in that moment of exhilaration.

Not in her dreams did she ever thought that she would see thsi person again.

Even though he talked about having a meal together, why would she believe that when she knew it was a mere formality?

But he was here now, in front of her café?

But why?

Definitely not to have dinner at 10 pm at night? Or do idols normally eat at this time?

But why was she even considering that he actually came here for a meal?

Asking was only way to know more so she did, “Anyway,” he straightened up, gathering some confidence to herself now, “Why were you peeking inside my café?” “At this time?” Hyerin’s eyes were fixed on him waiting for his answer, trying to help her brain from falling for the cycle of confusion on thinking by itself.

“Uhh?” he looked at her & then the card in his hand taking a deep breath before speaking.

“I need your help as a baker” “Or what they call?” he had looked up the word numerous times remembering it again & again before saying it here, still how hard it could be to spell that once more in life, “Patisserie!” Hyerin helped, as he cleared his throat before correcting his sentence, “Yes, Patisserie!” “I need a professional help here from you” he looked at her with expectation & hope that she would believe his words.

Because he had this great plan born out of his own head now, making him proud of himself thinking about how he could find a chance out of nowhere to meet her again like this & had came here at 10 pm at night, driving as fast as he could afford, putting off his only time of rest aside, just to not lose this chance, hoping to meet her by luck or by coincidence again today.

It was the only place he knew about, where he could find her again.

“Help?” What help she could do to a person like him. She had no idea, “What kind of help?” Hyerin was unable to guess the context.

“Can we talk inside?” Taemin looked at her & then the street with few people still strolling around the lake, near the café.

“Yes” “Sure” she understood the reason behind his request watching Taemin looking out for the people, so they walked to the door as Hyerin opened the lock for them to enter the café.

---------------

Few Hours ago.......

Taemin had a jacket photoshoot for the album in the morning after which he was finally meeting his Jinki hyung & Jonghyun hyung today, after they were back from their military service now.

He was so busy for the entire October & now it was already the end of the month & he was going to get busy again after a week, so they had decided to meet for the dinner, with Ryujin joining them too today, as she had day shift these days, except for Key & Minho, as Key was busy with his own photoshoot for a magazine, for which he had to stay in Incheon for 2 days & Minho was eventually delaying his military discharge by himself, canceling his leave in order to train his juniors.

When members were away, Ryujin was the only person Taemin was mostly in contact with in those days, other than some of his friends who would contact him often.

Ryujin being the one friend, Shinee had got through an unusual coincidence 10 years back, Taemin was equally close to her like other four members. She was two years younger than him, but they were like the maknae siblings always fighting on unnecessary stuff yet supporting each other when the older four would try to act older around them, She was the girl he could talk to about the members & shinee, when they both would miss them. She was always the first one to contact him most of times, knowing his busy schedule for that matter & was a really close friend with whom he had shared a lot of memories since their youth till now.

Even though they bickered almost every time they had a conversation, they both knew they had that crazy bond between them, that had to be cherished.

“I’m going to shoot the show with you next week” Jinki told Taemin as they both were at the restaurant waiting for the other two.

“You weren’t informed?” he looked at the confused face of taemin who definitely had no idea what jinki was talking about.

“Which show?” Taemin asked looking between him & the menu card in his hand, “My youtube show I talked to you about last time” Jinki explained so that Taemin could follow.

“Ah!” he remembered now, but yes, he wasn't informed for sure, “hyung is already shooting the first episode?” Taemin asked, remembering the talk about this idea jinki had told him on their call a few days back, jinki also asked him to appear for the first episode of this show named, ‘JinkiJangpan’.

“Uhmm!” Jinki hummed, reading the puzzled expression on Taemin's face, “The staff told me that you’ll be performing at a concert next week so they will be arranging this schedule along with it” he continued to explain more, as Taemin now was listening silently, getting a serious face.

“They were probably going to just let me know a day or two before, I guess” he scoffed curtly, “Anyway it’s fine” “Now that you’ve told me, I’ll ask them myself” he looked up with a sharp gaze, thinking of how hard he should roast them for not letting him know these things beforehand.

“Hyung is fine with their ideas right?” he asked, looking back at Jinki, with the same stern expression “They’ll ignore if you tell them once but you have to be stubborn sometimes, if you’re sure about what you want” he suggested, making Jinki nod in return, as the elder had a proud smile on his face, hearing the younger give him positive suggestion, “After all our content should have our opinion too” Taemin added, speaking like an adult for a change in front of the leader, who was just appreciating the words maknae had for him to know.

“Ohh!” “Our Taemin is a grown up kid now” both of them turned in the direction of the voice, noticing Ryujin & Jonghyun walking towards the table.

“You’re 20 mins late” taemin sulked pouting, before handing the menu to jinki, “Hyung, can you order for me?” “I can’t decide what I should eat?” his frowned forehead showed that he was not in a great mood today, but he wasn't hiding, as these were people he was comfortable sharing such moods with.

“Hyung should order for everyone” Jonghyun said taking the seat beside jinki, “After all you decided the place” he smiled, sending Jinki a side eye, making the younger ones look at the eldest with a sly smile, knowing his dilemma now.

“I just know one famous menu here which I order everytime I come here” Jinki chuckled, making the others snicker on his comment, “You guys will complain again for ordering the same menu for everyone” he went on rambling ahead, as the youngers just kept smiling admiring his cuteness

“It’s okay!” “Let’s try what you like oppa” Ryujin answered, taking the initiative to ease him down, “We don’t have to try everything on the menu” she reassured, getting nods from other two, as Jinki glanced between all of them, still doubtful, "We can come back again to try other dishes” she smiled at him, watching him reading their faces again, he was confused, as she had to push him to decide, which got her raising her hand to call the imo to take their order.

“What were you teaching hyung?” Jonghyun asked now, raising his eyebrows at the maknae after he had overheard their former conversation.

“Why are you late?” Taemin counter-questioned instead of answering making Jonghyun chuckle at him, dumbfoundedly, looking between Jinki & him, “I’m scared of him now” he commented, making Jinki laugh too, acknowledging the fact that their maknae was not a kid anymore.

“There was traffic” Jonghyun reasoned, guessing Taemin's upset tone, “What?” “Why are you this cranky today?” he asked concerned now, trying to know the reason, “How did the shoot go?”

“As usual” “It was fine” taemin replied, as he reached to scratch his ear, closing his eyes for a moment, “It’s not work,” Taemin muttered under his breath, but three of them heard him clearly.

“Then?” “What is it?” Ryujin was curious too now, knowing his disturbed face, as she turned to him to face him, as he was sitting next to her.

Both his hyungs had shifted their attention to him too.

“I got a weird call at midnight a few days back, there was a girl on other side, she was talking in such way that I mistook her for sasaeng & reported her to the police” taemin explained, as the three were listening without interrupting till he was finished.

“Sasaeng?” Ryujin exclaimed, worried with the mere mention of the word & even the hyungs were hardly trying to control asking more now, they were concerned exactly what Taemin went through this time with this sasaeng.

 “What do you mean by mistake?” “Was she not the sasaeng?” Jinki had started bombarding a trail of questions too, “What exactly happened?” he asked ahead, waiting for Taemin to speak again.

“Legal team must have got her details soon” Jonghyun interrupted too now, indicating to specific details, “Explain it properly” “What is the matter?” 

“Right” Taemin sighed, looking at their curious eyes,“We got her details but came to know that it was just a cross connection call” he revealed, making their eyes go wide in surprise of unexpected turn of situation.

“She was humiliated a lot as police went to her café to investigate her & then it was found out that she was not at fault at all” he continued to talk, staring at the table top, thinking about that interaction again.

“The worst part after that came was rumors started to spread which reached shawols” he confessed what he was actually concerned about,

“I managed to delete all the posts about it” “But I’m worried that she would be in trouble again because of this misunderstanding if the topic comes out again” he ran his hand through his hair before taking a deep sigh, distressed by the thought of it now.

“You know how rumors work” he looked at Jonghyun & Jinki sitting in front of him with serious faces, “I don’t want her to go through something bad because of me” 

“I don’t think you need to worry about this so much” Jonghyun mentioned, taking his attention, “No one will be much interested in digging into it deeper if you've already deleted the rumors” he added trying to comfort the maknae, as the other two agreed with him, nodding their heads in unison.

“You should apologize to her though, it was a misunderstanding from your side,” Jinki looked at taemin who still had the worried look on his face, as the younger one nodded, “I did” “I apologized to her on the same day but…” he paused, trying to find the right words to explain his mind to them now.

“Why?” “Did she lashed back at you?” Ryujin asked, watching the drowned expression on Taemin’s face, “It’s just a misunderstanding” “What is wrong with her?” Ryujin's immediate reflex was impulsive & loud to grab the attention of people around.

But Taemin smiled, nodding his head in denial, “No” making her blink in confusion now, watching him smile suddenly.

“She was quite calm & cool about it” he reported, remembering her face and voice again, “She said she can understand” he was kind of missing to see her again now that he was talking about her with them.

“Then” “It’s settled right?” Ryujin asked to know the conclusion of this issue after going through taemin’s unsettled responses till now, as he nodded, but again was gloomy about something as she observed him for a while, perplexed what was on his mind.

“You’ll probably not see her again in life” she tried taking a guess if he was still feeling guilty towards the girl, "It's better to move on, oppa" she added, wrapping up the matter for all of them, as imo was already there with their food, and they were damn hungry.

Now that Ryujin mentioned it, not seeing her ever again was kind of a sad feeling, he couldn't shrug off that feeling for a while after that.

Even if he goes for a meal with her as gratitude now, his idol image would make her think it as formality & he would end up seeing her for the real last time then. And he hated that kind of first official meeting between them more after thinking about it now.

Not meeting at all, was definitely not the option he was even considering now, because the amount of times he had been thinking about her in a day was countless after he saw her again, and he would definitely regret not doing anything when he has a chance like this.

He knew they had to meet for him to be at peace again, but now that he was being a bit selfish thinking about more than one meeting, he was not sure exactly how he could manage to make that happen anyway when they’re total strangers right now.

“I’m loving all the songs of this album” Jonghyun's comment had interrupted his flow of thoughts,“As usual!” “But this time you have a different feel overall” “I like it” he smiled proudly, in the middle of gulping down his noodles.

“I have a lot of sad love songs in past albums but this album has very positive vibe in general about love” Taemin replied, smiling proudly taking the compliment, as he needed them from these people at such times, “I tried to bring out more mature version of myself in this album” “I knew you would like it” he gave a acknowledging smile to Jonghyun before continuing to eat himself.

“You were a romanticist always” “Of course it sounds better if you sing such songs more” Jonghyun added, making him agree in return.

“Right” “You always look like the quiet, reserved person who is always busy with his work to the fans" it was time for Jinki to add his words to the book of compliments now, “It must be good for them to know your emotional side too now through such concept" 

Taemin knew his hyungs were always very encouraging of him being the first solo artist among them, and knew him more than anyone to give him feedbacks about his work, that's why all these compliments were very special to me, as this time he actually had included a lot of his own personality to this album.

“If I found a girlfriend in future you should tell her all these words” “I’m feeling really good hearing this from both of you” Taemin smiled sheepishly, making both of his hyungs laugh louder now on his reply.

“I have better things to tell her” Ryujin intervened, as a sly smile was on her lips when she was looking into her plate. making Taemin glare at her, “I won’t let you ever meet her” he sulked, looking back at his plate hearing Ryujin gasp at his words, “I should have a better plan then” she continued to tease more, making the other two on table chuckle on their own now, as Taemin reached to stuff Ryujin's mouth with the meat in his fork to shut her up, making her laugh more with his overwhlemed reaction.

“I can’t believe that Taemin has grown old enough to have a serious relationship now” Jinki said out of nowhere making everyone look at him with puzzled faces.

“Why is hyung talking like my mother?” Taemin scoffed, watching Jinki with a frown, as the hyung smiled cheekily, acting cute suddenly, making the younger ones heart melt.