The boys, feeling terrible about eating all of the food you brought, made it their mission to do everything for you as an apology. Although you told them it wasn’t necessary, they did it anyways.

They cleaned up the mess they did and even went to buy you some drinks to keep you cool under the sun. When you finally got tired of their constant asking if you needed anything, you huffed in annoyance.

“I made the food especially for you guys. I promise that you don’t have to do any of this. Now go and do something you all like!”

They all stared at your outbursts, shocked expressions on their faces. When you fully realized what you did, you’re cheeks turned a bright red color. Looking shyly up at the boys, you were surprised when you heard Key burst out in laughter.

“Oh my! Ji-min has a backbone behind all the shyness! I love it!” That caused the others to smile as well. Suddenly, with a flurry of activity, the boys started to dig through their piles of stuff.

Taemin, trying to be sneaky and not help out his hyungs, plopped down right next to you. Looking at him, you were shocked to see that he was staring at you with a huge smile on his face.

“I’m really glad that you came Ji-min.” You blushed at that and was about to reply back when a shadow covered you two.

“Taemin, stop being lazy and come help us set the volleyball up. Just cause you are the maknae doesn’t mean you can let your hyungs do everything.” Jonghyun dragged the protesting Taemin up and with a wave to you, they went to the other boys and started to set up the net.

While they were busy with that, you went up to Eun Mi. She was trying to make a sand castle and was failing horrible. When she pulled the bucket up, she was once again disappointed to see that it did not keep its shape and it feel apart immediately.

“Hey Eun Mi. Want unnie to help you?” She looked up at your with a delighted look on her face and nodded vigorously.

“Unnie please! The sand won’t stay like I want it to!” Looking at the dry sand that she was trying to built with, you explained to her why it wasn’t working.

Taking the bucket from her and quickly getting some water, you poured it on the sand, making it wet and moldable.

“Sand has to be wet so that you can build things with it.” Now filling up the bucket with some of the wet sand, you flipped it and tapped lightly. When you released the bucket, the shape stayed and it didn’t fall apart.

 “See?”When she saw that, she looked at you in wonder. With a squeal, Eun Mi clapped in happiness at having the form stay.

You gave her the bucket back. “Now you try.” Excitedly grabbing it from you, Eun Mi filled it right up and followed your directions exactly. When her’s did not fall apart and kept its shape, she giggled in happiness and continued to make more and more.

Her happiness and excitement was contagious that you found yourself laughing along with her. You were building sand castles with her, helping her decorate and just having a blast. It’s been a while since you had this much fun.

Then, you saw two shadows approaching you two and you looked with to see Taemin and Minho. Minho immediately went to Eun Mi and asked her what she was doing.

Eun Mi giggled and pointed at the sand castle you two were building. “Unnie and I are building the most beautiful castle in the world!” You smiled at her and turned to the chuckling Taemin.

When Taemin saw that your attention was on him, he smiled brightly at you and put his hands on your shoulders.

Staring into your eyes, he looked at you pleadingly. “The other hyungs all ganged up on Minho-hyung and I. We are short one person for our volleyball team and we need someone else to make it even. Ji-min can you help us?”

You were hesitant to say yes, never paying volleyball before. “I think I would just bring your team down if I played.” You answered honestly.

Still with a bright smile on his face, Taemin shook his head. “It’s alright. We have Minho-hyung so no matter what it will be okay! Plus he said he will teach you what you need to know so that you can play. The other hyungs agreed for Minho to teach you some things before we start our game.” You were still a bit hesitant to agree until you felt another hand on your shoulders.

“I promised I’d teach before right?” Minho gave you a small smile and you couldn’t help but blush a little at it. With one last look at the pleading Taemin, you nodded your head in consent.

Taemin shouted in happiness and ran towards where the volleyball net was set up.

You saw Minho shaking his head at his childish dongsaeng. He bent down to tell Eun Mi what was happening, and when she nodded, he looked at you. He looked at your hand for a minute as if contemplating something. Then all of a sudden, he grabbed your hand and stared to lead you to where the other boys were. Shocked at his actions, you didn’t say anything and just followed him to the other boys.

When you two reached them, Jonghyun tossed the ball to Minho who immediately caught it with his hands.

Key looked at you with a smile on his face. “Fighting!” He pumped his hands and went to sit at where Eun Mi was. Onew smiled as well and looked at you. “Good luck!” Running up to catch Key, he almost tackled him down when he reach him.

You turned your head back to Minho and saw that he was tossing the between his hands, getting himself familiarized with it. You turned to look at Taemin and Jonghyun who were both looking exasperatedly at Minho. When they noticed you looking at them, they smiled at you and explained.

“Minho here is our sports freak and he always has to do that when he gets a ball.” Jonghyun turned around and started to head to where the other boys were.

“Minho take it easy on her and teach her well okay?” He called out over his shoulder. Minho just smiled when he heard that and continued to spin the ball between his hands.

The only one left on the volleyball court, other than Minho, was Taemin. He went up to you and suddenly pulled you in his hands. Blushing wildly at that, you were speechless as Taemin said something to you.

“Do well Ji-min! We can beat the other hyungs!” He gave you a wave as he ran up to his other four hyungs playing with Eun Mi.

Now it was only you and Minho left in the volleyball court. Both of you didn’t say anything and you were just staring at him playing with the play. Decided to break the silence, you cleared your throat and smiled a little at Minho.

“Um, what should I do?” With that, Minho began his teachings. He told you the correct way of holding your arms out, and said that it should always be straight out in front of you. He also told you that you needed to bend your knees when you hit the ball. The energy was supposed to come from the movement of your legs and not your hands.

When you got the basic steps and was told of the rules of the game, he started to toss you the ball and asked you to bump it to him. When you followed his instructions, you easily did and the ball when high and directly back to Minho.

You smiled in excitement at that, feeling almost giddy at being able to do it correctly. Even Minho was smiling at how well that was. He did it a few more times and all of them went directly to him. You were mastering bumping the ball abnormally quickly.

The next thing that Minho taught you was setting, and like bumping the ball, you were able to learn that extremely quickly. When it came to spiking and serving, just like bumping and setting the ball, you mastered it no problem.

Minho was becoming extremely shocked with how well you were doing in learning how to play volleyball. It was almost as if you have a talent for it.

He decided to put your skills to test and try to play around with him. Minho set up the ball for you to spike, and following the steps that he taught you, you went for the ball, bending your knees and jumping up. Swinging your arm, your arms smacked the ball over the net and onto the floor.

You pumped your arm up in happiness, extremely glad that you did it. Adrenaline was pumping through your body and it was the first time you have felt like this. You could feel your heart pumping and your muscles tensing from playing and it felt wonderful to you.

“Are you sure you never played this before?” Minho asked in amazement as he walked to you. You shook your hear with an excited smile on your face.

“I’m not a sports person and I have never played this before! I’m so shocked that I really enjoy it!” You answered happily.

Minho called the other boys over and when he saw them start to head towards you two, he turned to you and smiled a great big smile.

“We can definitely beat the hyungs with you on our team. You’re an amazing and fast learner!”

And Taemin, Minho and you did beat Onew, Jonghyun and Key. By quite a lot too. They were all so shocked with how well you took to volleyball and you were shocked along with them. You thought you hated any sport, but when you played volleyball with them, you felt ridiculously happy. There were no unhappy thoughts in your head and when you are playing, the only thing you thought about was getting to the ball. You don’t think you have ever enjoyed something as much as playing volleyball with Shinee. You never noticed but there was a constant smile on your face and not once did a negative thought appear in your head.

In a long time, you were finally happy. Extremely happy. 

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WHHEEEEE I'm so happy to be at this point in the story because it's finally the turning point of something! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter because I did as well. Ji-min discovered something that will definitely propell her forward and I hope you guys continue to read it and see how Ji-min grows! Please review and tell me what you all thought of this.