“Of course they’re gone...” Taemin said, annoyed.

“Well, it’s not that bad, is it?” Did he really not want to be alone with me? 

“No, I didn’t mean it that way. I meant, I totally expected that to happen. This was planned, wasn’t it? Key told you to come?” He said, completely guessing it. How could he be so damn smart?

“Yeah... How did you know?”

“You’re so bad at pretending. Like when we were filming the music video, you should’ve seen your face.” He was laughing.

“Shut up. How was I supposed to know you were gonna kiss me?” 

“Heh.” He said, smirking. “Well, since they’re not here, where should we go?”

“I don’t know if you’d want to, but can you dance for me?” I said. I had always dreamed of Taemin dancing “Replay” for me in the practice room and me smiling up at him. He nodded, putting a CD into the CD player. His debut song, “Replay” came on. I had to laugh. It’s like he could read my mind.

I sat there, watching his amazing dancing. He was a completely different person when he danced. So cool and charismatic. 

When he was done, he proudly smiled as I clapped for him. “Now you have to dance too!” He said.

“Me? Ah... No, I can’t...” I said, embarrassed. 

“Come on. It’s good practice for when you debut. Don’t be nervous!”

I nodded and selected the song I always dance to, which was his song “Lucifer”. As soon as he heard it, he laughed. I was pretty confident about my dancing, since I had practiced until it was perfect. In the middle of my dance, Key and the rest of SHINee walked in quietly, watching Taemin and I from the door. When I finished dancing, they all clapped.

“Where did you guys go? It’s been more than seven minutes.” Taemin said to them, bitterly.

“Ah, lighten up. You should probably thank us instead of being like this.” Key said to him.

“Aish... Whatever.” Taemin responded, leaving the room.

There was a small pause, and then Minho chimed in. “So what happened?”

“Uh...” I said, blushing.

“Let’s just ask this: good things or bad things?” Key said, raising an eyebrow.

“Good. But he told me that I shouldn’t be with him, but I should think about it and then tell him my decision. I mean, of course I’ve already made my decision...” I said, looking at Minho, who looked upset.

“Ah, good. We were afraid he was gonna hit you or som-” Jonghyun said, but Key shot him a dirty look and he stopped.

“Haha. But, I don’t understand why he’s still being cold to you! He told me why he was always so upset, because he wanted to be more manly. Why does he have to still be like that to you, though? Ah, that kid is so confusing.” I said, shaking my head, trying to clear my thoughts. Too many things were on my mind: Minho being upset, Taemin treating SHINee badly, Taemin kissing me, Taemin saying he likes me, and the fact that I had to debut soon.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure it’ll all be fine. We probably just need to talk to him about it too.” Key said, putting his arm around me, reassuringly.

“So what happened though? What exactly?” Minho prodded.

“Why do you want to know so badly?” Onew said, giggling with Jonghyun.

“I just...” Minho trailed off.

“Do you need 7 minutes too?” Key asked him.

“Shut up, Key. I just wanted to know.” He said, looking like he was on the verge of tears.

“We were just teasing, Minho. No need to be so sensitive.” Jonghyun said, comforting him.

I just stood there awkwardly. Minho really did seem to like me a lot, and it was really sweet and cute to see him acting like that. Meanwhile, Taemin was always grumpy and mean, but when we were alone, he was sweet but stubborn. I closed my eyes. What am I thinking? Why am I comparing them? Taemin should be the only one on my mind right now. But I couldn’t help thinking about how it would be like to be with Minho. Was that why Taemin told me to think about it? Because he knew this would happen?

No. I can’t just give up on Taemin after all of that happened. What are you thinking, Raina?! Get ahold of yourself. I told myself.

“Well, we have schedule, so we’re gonna get going!” Key said to me.

“Okay, bye!” I said, as they left. But Minho stayed behind and waited until they all left.