CHAPTER ONE: A LONG TIME

KIM JONGHYUN

Every member of our band was bustling about, looking for clothes, and stuffing suitcases. Key and Taemin were in search of the animal carriers, though I was sure I’d told them Eve and Coco couldn’t come. The only remotely calm member was Onew, who was sitting on the couch, Key’s small yorkie whom was sitting beside him. He watched key rush back and forth from his closet to his bag, always looking for the carrier and returning with yet another article of clothing he’d ‘die without.’

I was rushing for an entirely different reason, stuffing an entire year’s worth of souvenirs into a small dent in my clothing. Minho was nearly done packing and Taemin began trying to coax his toy poodle into the small caged box. Eve looked at the box only to skip away and Coco jumped excitedly onto Onew’s lap, tail wagging excitedly as he watched the box. Onew sat perfectly still, an obvious tense rigidness painted upon his posture.

“No, Coco!” Taemin said, a stern gaze set upon the small dog. “This is Eve’s carrier. He pulled the carrier up and pointed at the tag. “See? E-oh… Key, I found Coco’s carrier!”

Key quickly grabbed it and rushed Coco inside, apologizing to Onew, who simply smiled back at him and got back to the soccer game. Minho had had it on the television as it was his dad’s team. Once my packing was finished up, I moved to the couch beside him with both of our suitcases.

“A bit sudden, isn’t it?” he questioned. “This trip. It was your idea wasn’t it? Are we finally taking a vacation?”

“You could call it that,” I answered, leaning against the couches arm and propping my legs in his lap. “Not really. It’s more of a personal trip. I wanted to bring you guys along with me.”

“That seems less than fair,” he noted. “Is it overseas?”

“Nope. No flying.” He was the only one, excluding Key (who really didn’t know any extensive details), that would be able to guess where we may be headed. When one of us had a problem, we naturally went to Onew. Even if he didn’t have the answer for our issues, he listened in silence until we were finished and did his best to help us, or at least make us feel better. He rarely came to us with his problems. I supposed that was just the kind of man he was.

“Is it far?” he asked, surely thinking about how long our manager would have to drive with no sleep.

“Not too far, maybe half a night to get there in traffic. If we leave soon, we can arrive by morning.”

It would be dusk in a short few hours, two, maybe two in a half, not that it wasn’t dark enough with the snow-dripping clouds. We had to leave by then or the roads could freeze by the next afternoon, when our manager, Choi Jin, would be returning.

Once everyone was ready to go, we loaded into our van, Eve, who lacked a carrier, hopped from lap to lap and watched cars pass. Every time she was in Onew’s lap, he  returned to a tense state. When the toy poodle finally fell asleep, the rest of the band dozed off one by one.

Between the exchanging of text messages, I didn’t exactly have time to sleep.

Song Minah: You don’t have to drive in the snow. If it feels too dangerous, stop for the night.

I told you it was fine :) Don’t worry. Our manager is a good driver. We’ll be fine. I’ll see you in a few hours.

Song Minah: If you need to, you can stop at a hotel. You don’t have to be here first thing in the morning.

The guys are already asleep. It’s 2am. You should get some rest, too.

“This isn’t going to be like Hello Baby, you know,” Choi Jin said, keeping his eyes on the road.

My smile faded and I looked up from my cell phone. “Excuse me?”

His eyes darted my way, then immediately back to the road. “It’s not like Hello Baby. You have to keep in mind that she’s nearly a grown woman. How old is she now? Sixteen? Seventeen?”

“She turned seventeen last month,” I mumbled. “What’s your point?”

“She’s nearly an adult. She’s only two years younger than you and Onew. Even though I know she’s, essentially, a child, you need to be careful. I know how you are about her, Jonghyun. You like to do what you can, take her to the hospital, go on bike rides with her.” He looked at me once again. “You’re famous now. If rumors start, it’ll be trouble.”

My arms crossed and I looked out of the window. “I know the protocol.”

“I know you do. You forget, though, who’s seen you interact with her, and who’s seen how attached you are to one another. If I recall, both of you cried when you left for SM.” He sighed. “I’m just saying. Be wary of who sees you.”

I leaned my head against the window and watched the snow fall. There would be no pulling over for the night. My biggest fear wouldn’t allow it. The fear that, given time to think, Choi Jin would turn around.

***

When morning came, we were greeted by a two story wooden house, a house from my childhood. As I was the first to awaken, I was the only one that saw the short haired, small built girl on the small balcony before she slipped into the house. She must have been waiting for us. Choi Jin opened the back of the van, while I slid opened the members door, waking Key, Taemin and Minho immediately while Onew shifted slightly out of the sunlight. Eve sat on Taemin’s lap, looking up at me with a wagging tail as her master rubbed his eyes.

“We’re here,” I announced. Key took that as a cue to wake up Onew (which seemed to be proving difficult for him, as he resorted to violent shaking and yelling).

While the rest of SHINee woke up and removed themselves from the van for stretches and yawns, I helped unload the luggage. When all of the bags were out, and Coco was placed firmly in Eve’s hands, I grabbed my bag and headed towards the gate. I noticed that the old soccer goal was gone, but the ball was still on the porch, and the wood of the tree swing had been replaced in the past year. I couldn’t help but wonder what else had changed. When I reached the porch, I put down my bag and pulled off my string necklace, pushing the attached key into the old-fashioned lock.

When I walked inside, Eve following at my heels, I heard the shuffle of rushing feet. In the time it took me to take off my shoes, Minah was standing at the doorway, picking up my bag and pulling it into the living room with the same large smile she’d always had.

“No, you don’t have to—” she waved her hand at me with a breathy noise that almost sounded like a scoff. It always amazed me that she could be so animated at the crack of dawn.

I looked around the hall at all of the hanging pictures. Some of them had me as a little boy; playing soccer with her, or pushing her on the swing, or eating dinner with her. She had long hair back then. Eventually, the pictures changed to photos of her and her parents or her and her grandparents. I heard her walking again and turned from the pictures to see her petting Eve.

“Hey! I haven’t seen you for how long now? And you’re preoccupied with the dog?” I asked.

She turned her head and stuck her tongue out at me, then stood from the dog and patted me on the head a few times before hugging me, letting go as the front door opened. When she spotted the rest of the members, she smiled even bigger and gave a ninety degree bow.

“Hello,” they said in a cluster, groggily.

“Hey, do you want to go start on breakfast?” I asked, looking at her. “I’ll be there to help in a minute.”

She nodded and scurried towards the kitchen. Bag in hand, I lead everyone upstairs to the guest room that had been set up for us. We all set up our things along the wall, and I put my presents on a small table next to the bed-matts that had been laid out. The first one to really say anything was Taemin.

“Is it just me, or is she really quiet?” Key swatted him on the arm. “What? I’m just asking if anyone else thought she was quiet.”

Minho watched Key’s hand, making sure he was a good distance away. “I noticed.”

“Yeah, that’s Minah,” I announced. Everyone in the room had heard of her, but not everyone knew exactly who she was to me. “She hasn’t spoken since she was seven.”