I suppose Taemin was a bit upset with me. Ever since the photoshoot I hadn’t been the same. And he had noticed.

I stopped going to Shinee practices or photoshoots. I backed out on plans for lunch, dinner, shopping, movies or any other random activity we had agreed upon. I hadn’t seen Taemin in nearly three weeks. And, I suppose, since he was a K-pop idol and all, it wouldn’t be considered weird for him to be separated from me for long periods of time. Honestly, that wasn’t true.

I attended photoshoots, appearances, and filming for shows. Occasionally I even attended formal events with Taemin as his date (his sister, we would say). I went to every performance in Seoul and many in South Korea. When they were in Japan I went to visit because my father had the funds and I had the time. Being a part-time college student while waiting to get picked up by a ballet company wasn’t too time consuming. When they had flown off to New York for SM Town I followed a day later and spent a week running around Manhattan with Shinee. The most Taemin and I had ever been separated since we met was maybe two weeks and even then we spoke multiple times a day, every day.

But since that consequential photoshoot, I blew off many of his texts with one-word answers and sometimes didn’t even answer his phone calls.

I couldn’t really blame Taemin, honestly. One day his best friend was her normal self and then the next it was like he had contracted some deathly, contagious disease. And to say that I didn’t miss Taemin was a lie. I did. He was after all, my best friend. I would find myself reaching for my phone so I could call him, tell him something funny that had just happened or that the sweater he'd been lusting after was in a store for a great price, just to place it back on the table.

And, really, the only reason I was doing this to Taemin and myself was simple. I was scared. So amazingly scared. I rarely found myself attracted, really honestly attracted, to men. Sure, I found some attractive but not to the point I did when I saw Taemin ready for that photoshoot. I had been willing to chalk it up to a good styling job if it hadn’t been for the next couple of days. Taemin, my soft, sweet, goofy best friend had transformed into a man. A y man. A man who wouldn’t stop running through my head with his windblown, light brown hair and his green jacket that fit his body so perfectly.

And then, suddenly, the Taemin running through my mind was the Taemin I’d always known and the things that stuck out were no longer the new attributes thanks to stylists but, rather, things that had always been there and I had just never seen. His smile, his jawbone. The way his eyes scrunched and twinkled when he laughed, the way his Adam’s apple bobbed on his long, smooth neck when he spoke. The way his voice jumped with laughter when he teased me. The way it softened when he spoke of something serious. The way it warmed when he comforted me; so tender and calming, enveloping my body in its embrace. The way his arms felt when he hugged me. The way his fingers felt when he touched me. The way his skin felt when it gave off heat too near me. The way he was.

And I was scared. Yes, I was scared. Because I wasn’t supposed to feel this way for my best friend of three years.

He was just Taemin.

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Hey guys! Already part fiveeee, wow!

Please leave me comments, thoughts. Maybe even suggestions? I like hearing from readers and I've heard barely anything for this story. =/ 

Thanks for reading!!!