Sun Hi POV

I raced to the bathroom, nearly plowing down the ajumma exiting. I quickly mumbled a “mianhe” before continuing into the restroom. As the door swung shut, I heard her say quietly to herself, “Aish. What rascals! What’s with kids these days?” Weird…wonder what else happened to her today? Eh, whatever. I had more important matters to deal with. Like Lee ing Taemin and his damn attractiveness.

Standing in the front of the large washbasin, I leaned on it, resting my arms on the sides of the cool marble surface. I gazed at myself in the mirror, realizing with a twinge of terror that my face had turned bright red. Immediately, I started running water into the basin, waiting until it was ice cold before splashing my face.

I glanced back into the SHINee reflective surface of the mirror, seeing a love-crazed school girl with water droplets running down her face and turning to see who was in the bathroom with me, only to spin back around, a light flickering on in my head that somehow, this love-crazed blushing little girl, was me.

Refusing to believe what my eyes told me in vivid color, I swiftly snatched a paper towel from the dispenser by the sink, wiping my face clean of water, as well as rinsing off all of my makeup. Damn. Guess I’ll have to redo it. I sighed, digging through my purse to find some BB cream, eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss. After a minute of searching, I managed to locate them all.

 I squirted out some BB cream, applying it all over my face and blending it quickly. Then I smudged on some eyeliner and swiped on some mascara. To finish off my rushed makeup look, I threw on some sheer pink lip gloss. Satisfied with my hurried makeup, or perhaps just resigning myself to mediocrity, I tossed the makeup back into my purse, checking my reflection once more before making my way back to the table out in the café.

I spotted Taemin before he saw me, taking the opportunity to inspect him. His jeans, though clearly a bit too long as he had been forced to roll up the legs so as to not trip on them, actually fit him quite well, snug against his thighs and…upper region. And that shirt…dark blue, the color suited him well. The tight cut of the button-up shirt also added to his appeal, especially since the top few buttons were undone, exposing lovely milky smooth-looking skin…and his collarbones. Damn, those collarbones…I found myself wanting to them up to his neck and nibble his ear before I…HOLY , WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING???

Of course, that’s when Mr. Dancing Machine decided to notice me, now that my mind is thinking things it shouldn’t be. His eyes fell on me, his face immediately brightening with that gorgeous smile of his. I felt my heart skip a beat before galloping through the next fifty or so beats. I couldn’t resist smiling back at him as I sat down carefully in the seat across from this heavenly being. Heavenly being? What the hell? Maybe I really have lost my marbles.

We simply sat there and stared at each other awkwardly for a minute before I noticed that the previously empty table had acquired some new friends; Taemin’s coffee and my bubble tea. He seemed to notice the arrival of the drinks at the same time I did.

“Oh, the drinks showed up while you were gone.” Taemin informed me, like I couldn’t see that for myself. Our hand accidently brushed against each other as I reached for my drink at the same time he tried to grab my glass and hand it to me. What a gentleman. We both blushed a bit, startled by the sudden jolt of electricity that arced between us when our skin made contact.

“Thanks, I’ll just…” I trailed off, embarrassed, taking the cup from him and trying to hide my flushed face by sipping the peach-flavored beverage. I swear I saw that smug little bastard smirk at me while he sat there, calmly sipping his coffee. My eyes narrowed slightly as I glared at him over my cup of bubble tea. Pabo. Don’t sit there all smug like you didn’t feel anything.

“So do you have any more questions about the dancing gig?” He inquired, still sitting there all regally, like he was some sort of coffee prince.

“Well…there is one thing I’d like to ask you about…” I answered, hesitantly.

“Yes…?” He raised one eyebrow, as if to say, “Do tell, darling.” Seriously, where the hell is my brain and can I please have it back now?

“I have a younger brother, you see. Well, actually, he’s my cousin, but I take care of him like my brother and we lived as siblings for several years. I’m the only family he has left, besides my aunt, but she’s never around because she’s always working and doesn’t have time to help him with homework and take him to play at the park and stuff. She doesn’t make much at her job and they overwork her, but she refuses to say anything about it because she needs the money. I’ve been trying to help however I can, by doing odd jobs around the neighborhood and working as a waitress. Well, now I think I’m kind of over-explaining, but what I’d like to ask you is: Would I get paid for doing this duet with you?”

“So it’s all about money then?” Taemin queried, appearing disappointed. Odd. Wonder what he wanted me to say.

“Well, no. I mean, I love dancing. But I also have to place the needs of my family above my own.” He seemed to be arguing internally with himself, his facial expression changing rapidly from disappointment to concern to determination.

“You need an income to support your family? And you can’t dance with me if you don’t get paid?”

“Er…kind of. I mean, if I had time, I’d love to just dance with you, but right now, I can’t afford to. Literally.” Ugh. He probably thinks I’m some poor begging orphan now. Great. Just what I need. The pity of an idol.

“You really do love dancing, don’t you?” Taemin scrutinized my face intensely.

“Yes.” I replied honestly. “At one point, I thought I wouldn’t be able to ever dance again, but I proved the doctors wrong because I refused to give up on the one thing in my life that has never let me down and always cheers me up.”

Taemin gave me a strange look, almost like he was seeing me for the first time. Whatever he saw in me seemed to make up his mind for him. “I’ll see to it that you get compensated for your hard work. We can worry about haggling over pay later, though, because right now, I have something I’d like to show you.”

He threw some bills on the table for our drinks before standing up and grabbing my wrist, pulling me behind him. I barely managed to seize my purse before I was being rushed out of the café and out onto the street outside.

“Yah! What are you doing?” I yelled, struggling against his tight grip, thinking, oh no, not this again. The crazy maknae apparently was disinclined to acquiesce my request, judging by the fact that he merely kept pulling me down the street, past all of the brightly-lit displays of various stores, bars, and arcades. He did however, deign to loosen his grip on my arm, moving his hand down to capture my own. Silently thanking whatever gods may or may not exist that it was dark enough that he couldn’t see the new blush creeping up my neck to diffuse across my cheeks.

“Will you please tell me where we’re going?” I asked impatiently after we’d been fast-walking for about ten minutes. Taemin just turned and smiled in that dazzling way of his that melted my heart, leaving me breathless and caused me to totally miss his response.

“What?”

He laughed, the sound ringing in my ears like little silver bells. “I said, you’ll see. C’mon, we’re almost there!” He told me excitedly, grabbing my other hand to pull me faster, forcing me to run in order to prevent myself from falling flat on my face. I giggled at his boyish enthusiasm, feeling like a middle school kid on her first date. Oh right…this was my first date. Mer. Well, who needs to date in middle school anyway? It’s not as if you’ll stay together forever and get married. Whatever. I let my annoyance drift away behind us, resuming my ridiculous giggling.

“Okay, stop.” We’d obviously reached the outskirts of the city, the air less dense here and the skyline less cluttered. So busy examining our surroundings was I that I nearly had a heart attack when I felt someone’s hands reach around me from behind and cover my eyes. Then I realized that it was probably just Taemin. Still…

“Yah, pabo! What’re you doing?” I tried to twist around to face him, but he stopped me with surprising strength, saying:

“Calm down. Nobody’s going to hurt you. Just trust me, okay?” As paranoid as I am, I surprised myself with my response.

“Arasso. But you best not try anything stupid.” That pabo just chuckled at my lack of trust. He guided me forward, off the street. I felt myself climbing up a small incline. I attempted to ignore the way his lightly callused hand felt against my face as he blocked my vision. I failed in my endeavor almost immediately as he mere presence turned my stomach into a butterfly farm filled with some seriousy ADHD butterflies. Damn this boy for making me have all of these…feelings.

I felt the ground level out again as we reached the top of what I assumed was a small hill. “Ta-da!” I heard, the whisper in my ear combining with the warm breath on my neck caused involuntary shivers in my spinal column. Taemin removed his hand from my eyes. I blinked rapidly, trying to adjust my eyes to the dim light of my surroundings.

I grinned upon further examination of the environment, noticing that we were in a beautiful park, filled with all sorts of lovely trees, blooming various shades of yellow, green, red, and orange, as it was early September and they were slowly losing their leaves. There were intricately designed wood and metal benches dispersed among the trees. I turned to glance at Taemin, who had been standing behind me, watching me with an expression of absolute adoration on his face.

“It’s beautiful.” I told him, as if he didn’t already know.

“Well, I’m glad you like it.” He took my hand again, causing more tingling sensations on my skin. “C’mon. I have something else I wanna show you.”

This time, I allowed myself to be pulled by the dancer, amazed that he knew of a place like this, wondering what else could possibly top this. We half-ran down the hill, due to the inevitable force of gravity. He led me across the park to another small hill. When we reached the top of this one, I found myself gawking at the scene before me.

Resting on the soft green grass, a large blue and red plaid blanket took up a square of the ground, on top of which sat another folded blanket, a couple of bottles of water, and a high-tech looking camera. I rushed over to the blanket, lying down and enjoying the soft feeling of the plush fabric.

I sat up, exclaiming excitedly, “This is incredible! When did you have time to organize all of it?”

Taemin, the once aloof maknae, blushed slightly before answering. “Well, there are some perks to being an idol.” He smiled cutely as he strolled over to the blanket and laid down next to me.

“I thought you might like to see the stars. It’s not something one sees a lot in the bright lights of the city.” He blushed deeper this time. I only barely resisted stretching out a hand to pinch his cheeks, he looked so cute.

“It’s beautiful.” I smiled cheerfully at him. This time it was me that captured his hand in my own. I blushed furiously as I did so, but I felt this impenetrable bubble of happiness growing in my heart when he didn’t pull away, instead moving closer to me, our bodies nearly touching. I still dunno how long we spent like that. I caught a glimpse of a shooting star, silently wishing that I could spend eternity like this, lying here with him, on that soft plaid blanket, enjoying each other’s company and gazing up at the bright indigo sky speckled with brilliant dots of light. 

A/N: Sorry that I kept you all waiting so long for an update but I hope all of the fluff makes up for it! ^.^ I hope you enjoy it! Lemme know what you think in the comments below! Subs and comments are always appreciated! :) Also, what do you think of my writing style? I feel like it's changed a lot ^^'