Jonghyun’s POV

Oh bloody hell. I cursed when I finally noticed the dumbfounded but curious looks on my member’s faces. I quickly repeated the things I’d said in my head and came to the depressing conclusion that I had just given them all the hints they needed to figure out that Ha Neul was living at my apartment.

I definitively couldn’t have lost my temper at a less convenient moment. With the memory of the little happening back at the hotel still fresh in their minds, I didn’t even want to imagine what kind of wild phantasies their minds were processing right now! One after the other, I could watch their shocked expressions slowly morph into that disbelieving smirk and I knew I was doomed. I wouldn’t hear the end of it now.

“Sooo…” Minho deliberately stretched the word while he looked at Ha Neul and me with an expectant smirk. “We are all ears.”

I racked my brain. There just had to be a way to get out of this! But there wasn’t. All I was left to do was play dumb.

Which was precisely what I did. “What do you mean?” I asked and put on the most innocent looking expression I could muster at this moment. Obviously, they didn’t buy it though.

“Yah, just because we aren’t ruining our health by attending university with our busy schedules like you do doesn’t mean we’re complete idiots!” Key huffed indignantly. “You guys were hugging each other!”

I cleared my throat and averted my eyes. That was some cast iron proof…

“Yeah, and you looked like you were enjoying it. There was a silly grin plastered all over your face…” Taemin added in a sing-sang voice and I frowned. Now I was even smiling in my sleep? And silly at that?! Just how much further would this go?!

“Really, who are you and what have you done with our cute and well-mannered maknae?” I asked back dryly, trying to hide my nervousness and also hoping to change the topic.

Minho wouldn’t let himself be fooled though. “The maknae’s behaviour should be of no great concern to the guy who hugs a girl in a hotel room while asleep.” He replied straight away. Well, even I had to admit he had a point there…

“Actually, that is probably my fault…” Ha Neul’s tiny voice let us all turn around to her. She had lowered her eyes embarrassed and her cheeks were heating up again. I felt my lips twitching upwards and I hated myself for it. “Back at home I have a big teddy bear that I hug while sleeping,” she continued. “So when I’m away I hug whatever’s next to me…”

My members didn’t look very convinced though. “It’s true!” I thus backed her, maybe a little too enthusiastically. Because now they all narrowed their eyes at me.

“You mean you’ve got experience…?” Key promptly asked and raised an eyebrow.

“Err… no…?” Deny it. Let’s just bloody deny it!

“Then what’s with the question mark?”

“And how would I know?” Crap talk, the glorious last resort when even denying doesn’t work anymore.

“Suspicious…! Very suspicious!” Minho mumbled with squinted eyes and then turned to Key. “Right, hyung?” His eyes had a dangerously excited gleam in them that I didn’t like at all.

“Definitely!” Key agreed enthusiastically. Then he seemed to remember something: “Ah, hyung,” he turned around to our leader. “What do you think about all this?”

Damn, why did he have to remember asking Onew? By now I knew that hyung must have already guessed a few things. For a moment we held each other’s gaze before Onew broke away. He placed his thumb and index finger on his chin, as if he was thinking hardly.

“You know…” He then said thoughtfully and I just knew he was going to drop the bomb now. “There’s this one circumstance that would explain all of this perfectly…”

“What is it? Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!” The maknae was playing the nagging kid quite convincingly.

Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! I tried to tell Onew through my telepathy skills. But of course they failed me at this crucial moment. Well, some best friend he was! Couldn’t he see that I didn’t want it told?!

“Well, it would all make sense, if…” He made sure not to forget to make an extra pause for added effect and throw me an impish glance before he continued. “If the two of them lived together.”

I knew it! Damn him and his over-perceptive mind!

“Lived together…?” Key sounded as if he first had to process the idea.

Surprisingly, our maknae was quicker on his thinking. Seriously, since when did he become such a busybody? “Oh my God, hyung, that’s it!” He exclaimed and excitedly clapped his hands. “So Hyo Rin was shouting at Jonghyun’s cat on the phone! Because she’s looking after her while Ha Neul is here!”

I froze. What?! “She was shouting at the little monster?! Why?” I knew that little devil of a cat shouldn’t have been left alone!

“Wait…!” Minho interjected before I had even finished. “So Shil Hye is not your cat but actually Ha Neul’s?” He looked at the two of us interchangeably.

“You and Hyo Rin talk on the phone? When did that happen?” Key inquired to Taemin at the same time. Come to think of it, he actually had a point with that?

“Is that important right now? Hyung is an experienced teddy bear substitute!” The maknae successfully brought the topic back to me. Curse him.

“Hold on! So you guys are also sleeping on the same bed back at your apartment?!” Key then asked incredulously.

“Oh. My.” Minho grinned from one ear to the other. “So you guys acted that way this morning because you thought you were back at Jonghyun’s apartment? Where you sleep while hugging each other all the time?”

Key turned to Minho with shocked disbelieve before looked back at me again, his eyes now as big as saucers and his mouth agape. And even the maknae seemed to be new to this thought. If not for the awkwardness of the situation I would have laughed out loud at their hilarious expressions.

However now, I cringed inwardly. Did I really have to answer that? Where was my privacy?! Moreover, didn’t they know the answer now anyway? But looking at them leaning in as much as their seat belts allowed and with their eyes sparking with anticipation, I knew I had no choice.

“Ha Neul really lives at your place?” Key repeated again, there was no way he was going to let it go at this point.

I stared at him for a few seconds before I jerked my eyes away and let them wander over to the navigation system. “We’re almost there,” I stated, perfectly aware that they weren’t going to fall for my poor attempt to distract them.

“JONGHYUN!”

I still flinched a little at their outburst though. Then I quickly glanced at Ha Neul. She was looking at me with an apologetic expression probably thinking it was her fault again. I frowned; I hadn’t wanted that. So I gave her a reassuring smile before I faced my members again and pursed my lips. Then I took a deep breath. And nodded. “Oh.”

“All of it?” Key asked again. “About Shil Hye being actually Ha Neul’s, about you letting her live at your apartment, and you sleeping on the same bed?”

“Oh,” I confessed again still looking down.

“Since when?”

“About three month ago…” Ha Neul had been faster at counting back than me.

For a moment it was silent.

Then chaos ensued.

Key started screaming and dancing with his feet since he had to stay seated. Teamin covered his face with his hand in embarrassment. Onew just sat there with a somewhat worrying grin on his face, and Minho, that idiot, congratulated me.

“Congratulations on getting a girlfriend!” He said.

“She’s/He’s not my girlfriend/boyfriend!” Ha Neul and I both refuted simultaneously. And embarrassed.

“Awww, they’re even harmonizing!” Key giggled.

I shot him the death glares.

But he just shrugged and smirked. “You guys sleep on the same bed…”

“Hugging each other…” Minho added with the same smug smirk that made me want to clobber him. Well, I admit some of my actions might have been slightly easy to misunderstand. But it wasn’t my fault that having Ha Neul sleeping next to me somehow cured my insomnia! Or that she would hug anything or anyone lying next to her when asleep.

“But as I said before that’s because of my teddy bear issue,” Ha Neul reasoned flustered. Her cheeks were glowing and she had her eyes lowered. She was embarrassed. How cute.

“Sure, sure,” Minho agreed. His smug grin stayed just the same though. “But that still doesn’t explain why you guys are sleeping on the same bed…”

I sighed and momentarily closed my eyes. “That’s because for some weird reason when she’s next to me I can fall asleep within a few minutes…” I mumbled.

“Seriously?!” They stared at the two of us with unbelieving amazement. “Sleeping next to her takes care of your insomnia?”

Wasn’t that what I just said?! Stop making me repeat myself, for goodness sake!

And as if my prayers had been heard, at that very moment we arrived at the location for our photo shoot and my members were for better or worse forced to postpone their interrogation for later. They looked like it was the saddest thing on earth but I secretly sighed relieved. Finally a few hours where I had to focus on work and thus could shut out the problem that was Ha Neul.

How wrong I was though.

Narrator’s POV

Jonghyun looked at his surroundings and wondered if he was dreaming again. It just felt too much like a déjà vu to be real.

After their manager had led them past the abandoned attractions of a closed amusement park and straight into a little forest, Jonghyun now found himself standing at the edge of a small clearing. The ground was covered with a layer of untouched snow that was glistening in the morning sun like a sea of tiny crystals. Icicles and Christmas baubles hung from the branches of the firs bordering the clearing – all covered in snow. The atmosphere felt magical.

“Wow, it is beautiful…” Onew stated awed and the others agreed. But Jonghyun didn’t really hear it. He also hadn’t noticed all the other staff waiting between the trees and preparing for the photo shoot yet. He was too preoccupied by taking in this somewhat familiar yet unknown place.

He swallowed once and almost automatically turned towards Ha Neul, his eyes searching hers. And she, just like him, had stopped at the edge of the clearing and was now gazing at it with a sort of distant look. But then she felt Jonghyun’s eyes on her and she slowly turned around.

They stood more than three metres away from each other but Ha Neul still felt like an electrical current ran through her whole body the moment their eyes met. It made her heart fly and her eyes unable to look away.

Only when one of the staff called for Jonghyun to get his make-up and hair done, they were able to snap out of it. Ha Neul immediately averted her eyes and turned away. She slumped against the tree behind her, feeling exhausted.

At the same time, Jonghyun momentarily closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he turned around and walked back into the forest towards the staff. Without a word he sat down onto the folding camp chair between Key and Minho and let the stylist do her work.

The two first looked at Jonghyun’s sour and absent-minded expression and then at each other. Was it just them or was their hyung in a bad mood all of a sudden?

“Yah, Jonghyun, I didn’t know you were such a nature-lover…!” Key joked and gave him a friendly push with his elbow. “You looked completely smitten!”

“Smitten…?” Jonghyun mumbled somewhat distressed and continued staring into space.

“Oh…”Key nodded frowning. He looked at Minho questioningly. “He wouldn’t be miffed about our little teasing in the van earlier, would he?” He mouthed over Jonghyun’s head. But Minho shrugged his shoulders, he didn’t know either. And eventually the two decided to leave their hyung to his own thoughts, since he apparently didn’t want to talk anyway.

And no, Jonghyun certainly didn’t feel like talking at the moment. If he could choose he wouldn’t even want to think right now. But his thoughts mercilessly rushed through his mind.

Smitten? He thought defeated. He had looked completely smitten? By Ha Neul? He sighed. What was he doing?

But come to think of it, where was she? She no longer stood underneath the fir at the edge of the clearing. He looked around, completely ignoring his stylist’s reprimands not to move. But he couldn’t find her. And the longer he couldn’t find her, the more restless he got. He started twisting his neck in all different directions and finally the stylist gave up on trying to fix his hair. She just looked at him exasperated. “What are you looking for?” She asked but Jonghyun ignored her.

She wasn’t with Choi Jin or with the other SHINee members. She wasn’t at the food table and she wasn’t with the female model…

Suddenly Jonghyun stopped short. Female model? Since when did they have a female model on the set? Wasn’t this photo shoot’s concept supposed to be a males-only?

His head snapped back to the girl sitting on the folding camp chair and he gasped.

They had given her extensions so now her already long hair reached all the way down to her tights. They had kept it completely straight and had given her a very simple hair dress such that most of her hair flowed freely over her shoulders. And right now, her stylist was just delivering the finishing touches of her make-up. They had kept it as simple as possible to give a natural look but still perfectly highlighted her beautiful eyes and lips.

And as for her clothes; her pants and pullover had been exchanged for an elegantly flowing, floor-length dress that shimmered in lime green and turquoise colours. Jonghyun couldn’t help but think she looked like a goddess.

Still, the dress looked like a summer dress and Jonghyun felt like jumping at Na Neul’s stylist for letting her wear something like that at this time of the year.

“Why do we have a female model all of a sudden now?” He instead asked his own stylist in a snappy voice. “And she’s not even in the business!”

“Well, I heard you guys actually know each other quite well so I’m hoping she’ll be able to get you into Christmas mood.” A voice sounded from behind him and Jonghyun whirled around, his deeply furrowed brows clearly telling how very averse he was to the whole idea. But that only made the owner of the voice, namely the photographer Hara Akiha, smile amused. For a split moment his eyes seemed to focus on something behind Jonghyun and then he added still smiling: “Because after the little incident at our indoor shoot your pictures are actually the ones I still need most.”

“What incident?” Again, the voice belonged to a person standing right behind Jonghyun. But this time it was a female voice and, even more important, one he knew perfectly well.

Jonghyun wanted to curse the photographer for his perfect timing but then he took a deep breath and turned around. And caught his breath.

He had already seen from afar that the stylists were doing a damn good job at dressing her up. However, now that she stood in front of him it was something different altogether. She looked like a goddess. Automatically he stood up, his eyes never leaving her.

“Wow, hyung is speechless!” Taemin commented with a chuckle as the rest of SHINee joined the three.

“Yeah,” Minho agreed with a snicker. “Though I can’t blame him, you really do look beautiful after all!”

Ha Neul blushed at that which let the guys smile amused. “No need to feel embarrassed,” Key chuckled. “It is the truth after all!”

“See? Even our fashionista thinks you’re beautiful!” Minho added.

But that only let Ha Neul turn even redder and made the boys smile even more. Which didn’t go unnoticed by Jonghyun who now felt the sudden urge to hit them all over the head so they would look away. And then he wanted to smack himself for thinking like that. What the hell was he doing?!

He tried to think of something else and his eyes fell on Ha Neul’s dress again. It was way to light a dress for this season! “Yah, aren’t you feeling cold in that dress?” He thus asked her. It was a summer dress, for heaven’s sake!

But Ha Neul shook her head. “Nah, I’m fine,” she assured and pointed at the skin-coloured undergarment on her arms that Jonghyun hadn’t noticed before. “See this?” She asked. “It’s made from the same fabric as the costumes that the figure skaters wear so it will keep me warm.” For a split second her eyes went to Hara Akiha before she looked at Jonghyun again. The latter was still eyeing her sceptically and Ha Neul figured he wouldn’t believe her. She couldn’t lie to him after all.

But just when Jonghyun opened his mouth Hara Akiha beat him to it. “It’s true, so you don’t need to worry.” He said with an assuring smile. “Besides, I would be an idiot if I let my models freeze. I mean how can I get a picture with a nice and cosy Christmas feeling when my models are shivering?”

And that seemed to convince Jonghyun. Ha Neul, however, frowned. Because earlier, when Hara Akiha had asked if she could help out by being a model for the photo shoot too, he had said the exact opposite. He had said that he would give her a light summer dress because her job would be to feel cold.

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Hey guys! A very belated Christmas seonmul... ^^''

Pinocchio Ep. 13 at 43:55

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year!