"Okay guys, we're going back to the SM building now," SHINee's manager said as they exited the set. 

"Aw, hyung, can't we go to Kiss Café for a while? I'm in desperate need for their bubble tea," Key whined.

"Yeah hyung, I need my mocha latte," Jonghyun chimed in.

“Me too!” Taemin jumped up. “I’m thirsty!”

Manager hyung sighed. "Fine. But be back by the company building by two or the boss will want to know where you are."

"Kansanhamida hyung!" They chorused.

"I do not have a small face!" Minho burst out once they were out of the broadcast station and out in the streets, glaring at Taemin.

"Take is easy hyung," the maknae said, backing away. "I was just following the script!"

"You really think you're second to last place in appearance?' Jonghyun was asking at the same time.

"Nah, I just didn't want to be cocky like you guys," Key said with a grin.

As his dongsengs argued and chatted in front of him, Onew sighed. Being leader meant that he had to it up, even if his dongsengs seemed to betray him. But he was Onew-Gentle. Even if he had the urge to beat one of the up, he couldn't. Well, except for his ttak-bam, but he didn't do that often. "

"Hey!" Taemin turned around with a grin. "Let's settle this appearance ranking once and for all. We'll go up to a random girl who doesn't know us and ask her to pick which one she thinks is the most handsome!"

"Like who doesn't know us?" Jonghyun scoffed.

Minho got a glint in his eye, the one that usually appeared when he wanted to win. "Challenge accepted."

Key rolled his eyes. "Fine, let's get it over with."

They entered the café. There was one girl sitting in the whole cafe, her headphones on studying from a textbook.

Taemin nudged Minho. "You go ask."

"No you!"

"No you!" Taemin said back, making Onew smile.

"Fine, Jonghyun then!"

As his dongsengs started bickering, Onew took a deep breath and walked up. He almost paused in mid-step when he saw the girl's face. At first it was because it was scarred-breakouts had marred her face. However, as he looked even more, his stunned turned from horror to awe. In fact, the girl's face was beautiful once you looked past her scars. Her eyebrows framed her face, although unruly, keeping her look natural. Her brown eyes were deep in thought and concentration. Her lips were the perfect peach color.

"Miss?" Onew said as he got closer.

She looked up and took of her headphones. "Did you say something?"

"Yes. I..." He cleared his vote. "Do you know SHINee?"

She cocked her head. "They have really good music, but I haven't had the time to really get to know them," she said with an apologetic smile. "I don't even know their names yet!"

Relief flooded through his body. "Well, we're part of SHINee," he said, gesturing to himself and his still bickering dongsengs. "And we're having a contest-to see who is the most attractive. Will you help us?"

"Me?" Disbelief clouded the girl's eyes. "I must be dreaming."

"No you're not. Will you please help us? You're the only who can." The dongsengs had now stopped their noisy arguments and crowded around Onew.

"Yes, please?" they chorused.

"Alright." The girl stood up. "What are the rules?"

SHINee looked at each other. "Uhh..." Taemin stammered.

"Why don't you make them up?" Onew finally said. "You get to choose how you choose the best looking."

The girl nodded, tapping her pencil to her cheek. A smile grew on her face. “I got it!”

The members looked at each other. “Okay, so what do we do?” Key asked.

She walked until she faced them, her hands in front of her. “You guys have to close your eyes until a waitress asks what you would like to order!” She said triumphantly. “After all, you’re here to drink, right?”

Taemin nodded.

“Then whoever gets chosen will know.” She clapped her hands. “Now, if you gentleman would close your eyes…”

They quickly shut them. Onew felt uncertainty envelope him as he viewed the rosy darkness of his eyelids.

Suddenly he felt something being pushed into the left pocket of his dark, khaki colored pants. He tried to keep very still, his eyes shut tight in order to resist the urge to look. On his right, Taemin fidgeted.

When something touched his cheek, his curiosity grew to extraordinary levels. What was going on? What did the girl plan? And what touched his cheek? He concentrated, and remembered its gentle pressure.

Right after he determined it was probably a hand, some fingers, a voice asked, “Would you guys like something to drink?”

They all opened their eyes to see a waitress standing in front of them, her hand expectantly to her pad to write down their orders. As Onew looked around, he saw that the girl had left, leaving no trace of her behind. “Did you guys feel anything?” Minho asked.

The rest of them shook their heads. Onew shrugged. “I felt her brush past.”

“So did I.” Minho’s eyebrows came together. “What does that mean?”

Jonghyun shrugged. “Maybe she finds none of us attractive? I’d like a mocha latte,” he said to the waitress, who was waiting patiently.

“Bubble tea for me,” Key piped up.

“Orange juice!” Taemin called out.

“Chocolate shake,” Minho said.

“Vanilla coffee,” Onew said last.

The waitress nodded. “Okay. Will you be staying or to go?”

“To go.” Key said. He turned to Taemin. “Yah! Who’s going to pay?”

“I will.” Minho said, pulling out his wallet. “I’m sure she was going to pick me, and she didn’t,” he added with resignation.

“Aww, dongseng, let’s just go dutch. It wasn’t your fault,” Jonghyun replied.

So they all quickly calculated out approximately how much each drink cost, tax, and tip and paid as the waitress came with their drinks.

“Well, that was a failed endeavor, hyung, wasn’t it?” Taemin asked Onew as they all headed back to the SM building.

He shrugged. “At least it wasn’t scripted.”

“Yeah! It was really nerve-racking,” Taemin replied with a smile. “Too bad there wasn’t really an outcome.”

Onew smiled. “What’s your schedule?”

“I have dancing practice,” the maknae replied. “I think it’s with f(x)’s choreography for upcoming promotions, but I’m not sure. What do you have hyung?”

“In half an hour I have vocal lessons. I guess I’ll clean up the dorm while you guys are gone.”

“You? Clean up?” Taemin teased. “That’s Key-umma’s job!”

“Well umma gets tired sometimes!’ Key said behind them.

They all laughed.

“Seriously though, Onew hyung,” Key said as everyone left to their schedules and they now lingered in the hallway that would separate them, “don’t bother. I’ll take care of it when you’re in singing practice.”

As Onew entered the dorm, he looked around. As he heard of, he was the only one alone. Taemin had gone to his dancing practice, Jonghyun and Minho were off with their solo projects somewhere, while Key was discussing new concepts with their stylists.

He entered his personal space, where his favorite chair was. He settled down when something crinkled in his left hand pocket.

Onew reached inside and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it.

“Dear the guy with the kind eyes, voice as rich as coffee, and smile that shines like sunlight,” it began, making Onew smile again.

“I personally find myself, while honored, to be incompetent of being a judge on boys’ appearance,” it continued. “I’m just one girl, and I have my preferences and biases like anyone else. However, since you and your friends insisted, I have chosen, and I hope it’s the right decision. I suspect you will, or I guess may have, lied when your friends asked you if you felt or experienced anything. I will now assure you, your friends are telling the truth-I have chosen to do nothing to them, just let them stand with their eyes closed in vain. Perhaps I should feel a little guilty, but the judgment has already been made.”

“Now onto my justification of my choice-but first, I shall tell you, I take each guy as a different case. I have no general preference, besides that their smile is contagious and genuine. So why you? You definitely fulfilled the only requirement I have-your smile. I saw it when I peeked over to see your friends bickering, bringing unwanted noise into the café. It definitely could brighten anyone’s day. But what else is there? As your friends bickered whoever should ask me to judge you, you just went right up. Even there was hesitation, you still didn’t turn around.”

“I appreciate people who choose to look past my scars. My skin is uncooperative due to my genes, and I can’t control it. I see too many people judge me for it, and decide I’m too ugly to even acknowledge. Thank you. Your courage, kindness, and happy nature has impressed me, and enhanced your appearance even more.”

“The truth is, I considered you and you friends to be equally attractive, although more than the average person. I take personality and character into perspective too.”

“So there you have it, the reasoning beside my choice. I hope you don’t mind when I take the liberty to touch your face. I hope it had reassured you, even in the slightest bit as you were waiting for my judgment.”

“Perhaps fate will bring us together again. But you do know a place where you might be able to find me. May you be blessed with much happiness and a long life if we do not meet again.”

At the bottom, there was a lip imprint-a kiss.

As Onew sat back in his chair to think, a familiar scent tinkled his nose. He sniffed, but he still couldn’t make it out. As he followed the aroma, he realized it came from the letter. Two seconds later, he found out it came from the kiss.

“Vanilla,” he said out loud. “It smells like vanilla.”

After a few minutes thinking, Onew got up and went to his desk and took out a sheet of paper.

“To Vanilla Love,” he wrote down. “Thank you for the kind letter. Since you revealed much to me, I will return the favor.”

Then he wrote down his insecurities and all the dreams he had that he thought were lost, but in fact turned into his grasp. When he finally finished and it was time to go, he realized that the time of writing that letter was the time he was most honest to others, let alone a stranger. And writing so honestly had made me feel weak and emotionally torn, yet somehow stronger and more determined.

The next day, he visited Kiss Café again. “Hi, do you know of a girl with a scarred face but open eyes, and comes here to study?” He asked the waitress at the front.

The waitress cocked her head and then shook it. “No I don’t. Perhaps she comes in on a different shift.”

“Oh.” Onew stifled his disappointment.

She looked at him. “Do you want to leave a message for her? I can tell the other waitresses to deliver it to her if they know her.”

“Yes,” he quickly said, taking out his letter. “Please give this to her.”

Days, weeks, then months passed as Onew continued to look for the girl. Now and then he entered the café. Sometimes he was told that she had just left, and would curse silently at his bad luck.

It was raining, and Onew was running out of hope. He sighed and stepped inside the café, letting the warmth and the rich smells overwhelm his cold body.

At that moment a girl was getting ready to leave, when she froze.

Onew looked at her, and then blinked. It was her. Some scars had gone away and new ones continuously marring her face, but otherwise she was the same.

“It’s you,” he said, as he approached her.

“Yes,” she replied with a smile. “You finally found me.”

He shook his head with a wry smile. “I’ve been searching for months…” his voice trailed away.

“So have I. Ever since you replied to my letter.” She laughed. “I can’t believe we still don’t know each other’s names.”

“I’m Onew.” He held out his hand.

She shook it. “I’m Sunkyung.”

He stepped closer. “Sunkyung is too plain for a girl as beautiful as you.” She trembled for a second as he her face. “Your face is the moon,” he whispered. “It shows the signs of experience, yet still illuminates the night sky without shame.”

“If Sunkyung is too plain,” she replied, fixing her gaze on his eyes, “what do you propose calling me?”

Onew adopted a tender look on his eyes, that when he started to embrace Sunkyung she couldn’t resist and let him hold her. “Vanilla Love,” he whispered into her ear, his warm breath caressing her neck, making her shiver slightly. “I finally found you, my Vanilla Love.”

*

Hey guys! Guess what? THE AP TEST IS TOMORROW!!! I can’t believe I’m writing when I should be cramming. >.< Oh well, I need something to distract me from my stress.

Okay, I swear when I came up the theme of Vanilla for Onew, it wasn’t because he’s featured in the song Vanilla Love. (Although, I did change my title after I realized that, sorry guys :3) In fact, it’s because I bought a Revlon Lip Butter (Peace Parfait) the other day just to see if others’ people reviews were in fact true, that’s it’s moisturizing although a bit lacking in pigmentation, and that it smells like vanilla. And it’s true-although I wouldn’t advise using it as a lip balm. It’s just as drying as other lipsticks, just that not as drying. It’s just not going to work as a lip balm too.

ANYWAY so I was thinking would anyone be able to taste that from a kiss? Probably not since when I my lips (involuntarily, when I smelled my mom cooking dinner XD) I didn’t taste vanilla, but I was able to smell it when I blotted my lips.

And the appearance ranking? It was from a video I watched on youtube, from the show Weekly Idol (at least that's what the title said). From what I saw, Onew didn’t even get a chance to put himself in the appearance ranking in Shinee, and he was always put last. Because I felt really bad (but obviously it was for fun and scripted), I decided to write this.

By the way guys, if you’re reading this, please comment? Even a smiley face is enough. Although I bet you’re all busy as I am and don’t have time to read for your upcoming finals >.< But thank you for your support! I will try to write more since now my history class will probably have a lesser workload with the AP test tomorrow ^_^ Have a nice day!