Taemin’s POV

I returned home in a daze, my mind fuzzy from the events of the day. Wandering back to SHINee’s dorm, I kept replaying the date over and over in my head, hearing the lovely ringing sound of her laughter, seeing her smile sweetly at me (even just thinking about it made my heart melt a little), feeling ghosts of the tingling sensation that occurred every time we touched.

I found myself smiling unconsciously, happy beyond belief that I had met this amazing girl. Damn, I’ve really got it bad. I shook my head at my bout of insanity, trying to clear my head before entering the dorm. I check my watch as I deftly punched in the code on the keypad to get into the building. Just after midnight…the hyungs should be back soon, if they’re not already. Manager-hyung doesn’t like it when we stay up late and are sleep-deprived the next day. Especially because our schedule’s pretty full since our comeback last spring.

I made my way up the stairs, to our dorm on the third floor, nearly tripping because my mind was still distracted by Sun Hi. Upon entering our dorm, I was greeted by three pairs of inquiring eyes. I stopped short, giving my hyungs weird looks.

“Hey guys…Whatcha doin’?” I asked, not understanding why they were all staring at me so solemnly. Key and Onew glanced warily at each other, looking like they were debating who should deliver bad news. It was Key who spoke first.

“Tae-ah…” He started sounding gloomy. I waited, a bit afraid to hear whatever they had to say. “You went out with Sun Hi tonight.”

“Yeah…?” I replied, still not getting where he was going with this.

“It’s on the news…” Key said, gesturing towards the muted television. I watched the screen intently, surprised when I saw myself, walking hand-in-hand with Sun Hi, who was giggling like a school girl while I pulled her after me, in a rush to get to the park. The captions on the television were , so I read what the announcer was saying about us. 

Lee Taemin, the dancing machine maknae of SHINee, was spotted out with an unknown girl earlier this evening. The details of their relationship are not clear at this point, however, many are speculating that the two are dating. Seems as though he’s trying to break the hearts of fangirls everywhere. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

A commercial for Etude House beauty company came on after that, signaling the end of the segment on us. I glanced back at my hyungs, all of whom were wearing somber expressions. That’s when I noticed the absence of my favorite hyung, Minho. I only had a few seconds to ponder the reason for his absence before Onew started talking.

“Taemin, look, I get that you like this girl, really, I do, but…I don’t think you can see her anymore.” I gaped at him.

“What do you mean, ‘can’t see her’?” I asked, blood beginning to boil.

“You have to understand the way this reflects on the group.” Onew answered. “Our fanbase is mostly female, which means that if they think one of the members is dating or in a relationship with someone, we could lose support.”

“What?! That’s so stupid!” I said, my voice getting louder. “It’s not like any of them could date us anyway! Besides, we’re constantly traveling and working. What girl would wanna be with a guy that’s never there?” Even as I said it, the painful truth of my own words stung my heart, thinking of Sun Hi.

Onew sighed, tired of fighting. This time, Jonghyun spoke, the first time since I’d returned to the dorm. “Taemin, please. I know you really like her, and we’re not saying that you can’t still talk to her, but you need to be careful. We can’t risk any more publicity like this.”

Key added, “Yeah, Taeminnie, you can still talk to her and hang out, but you have to do it outside of the public eye.” I glared at him for suggesting such despicable behaviour.

“And how do you think she’s going to feel about this?” I demanded angrily. “When I tell her that we have to sneak around to be together? That I don’t want to be seen in public with her?” My hyungs looked momentarily abashed, but their sense of self-preservation overruled their shame.

“Yah! Maknae,  calm down.” Onew ordered. My fury, which had been slowly building since the start of the dispute,  now erupted in a volcano of rage.

“Don’t. You. DARE. Tell me. What to do.” My voice hissed like poisonous gas. I my heel and stormed out of the dorm. I heard Key and Jong yelling after me, but I ignored their requests to halt, only increasing my speed as I ran off into the night looking for a place to escape.

My feet began walking of their own accord, carrying me off into the darkness of the night. I heard the howling and laughter of a distant group of party-goers. My brain felt numb. I finally meet a girl and fall in love and now I’m banned from being with her. FML.

After about fifteen minutes, I found myself in a deserted park. This one was much less ethereal than the one I’d been at with Sun Hi earlier. A sharp pang pierced my heart when I thought of Sun Hi. I remembered the electricity and the heart-stopping thrill of being near her. I felt like my fragile glass heart had been ripped violently from my chest and thrown off of a skyscraper to shatter into billions of jagged fragments on the black pavement below.

Wallowing in self-pity, though it felt more like drowning, I didn’t notice the hooded figure walking directly towards me. That is, until I ran headlong into him.

“Yah! Watch where you’re- Taemin, is that you?”

“Minho-hyung? What are you doing out here so late?”

“Me? You’re the maknae…”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Mehrong!”

“Clearly you’ve been around Jong too much. You’re getting less mature rather than more mature. Aren’t you supposed to be an adult now?” Minho joked, lightly punching my arm.

“I’m still more mature than you!” I stuck my tongue out again before running away, playfully tapping his as I ran past him.

“Yah! Maknae! You better run!” He yelled as he chased after me. Minho’s lengthy spider legs soon caught up with me, and he tackled me to ground, pinning down my arms and resting on my chest, successfully rendering me immobile.

Minho grinned triumphantly. “Surrender while you still have the chance!”

“Not a chance.” I gave him my best determined look, even though on the inside, I was dying to burst out laughing. I glimpsed a strange expression on his face before jumped off of me, grabbing my hand to pull me up. He held on a bit longer than necessary. Strangely, I felt a weird tingle in my hand, similar to when I touched Sun Hi. This feeling was different, less electric, more of a comfortable warmth but still pleasant. Weird. I shook off the feeling, thinking that my odd reaction was just me missing Sun Hi.

We walked over to the nearby swings, sitting down, resting after our little workout. We just sat there without speaking for a few minutes, until Minho broke the silence.

“So, what are you doing wandering around so late, anyway?” He looked at me curiously.

“Oh, um…I kind of got into a disagreement with the other hyungs…” My hands unconsciously curled into fists as I remembered our heated quarrel.

“Changmalyo? (really)”

“Ne.”

“Wae? What happened?” Minho inquired, concerned because his bandmates rarely fought and hardly ever did Taemin run from a fight. In fact, he usually instigated them.

“They told me that I’m not allowed to see her in public anymore.”

“Who?”

I gave him a look, where have you been all day? “Sun Hi, of course. Pabo, have you not been paying any attention to anything that’s happened today?” The pabo comment earned me a sincere smack on the arm, which actually stung a bit after impact.

“Yah, hyung! That’s so mean…how could you hurt a sad little boy like me?” I asked, giving him my best aegyo look. Again, an odd expression crossed his face before he laughed and ruffled my hair.

“Aigoo. Haven’t you grown out of that yet?” I smiled brilliantly, knowing my aegyo had been a success. “Nope! Once a maknae, always a maknae.”

He grinned. “Guess you can’t go out drinking anymore then, Mr. Maknae.” This time, he stuck his tongue out at me.

“Humph.” I grumbled to myself. “Fine, I’ll stop being all cute and adorable and start acting all mature and responsible and boring.”

“Aish, so sensitive.” He reached over and poked my arm. “You don’t feel very squishy anymore, so why are you acting so soft?”

“Yah! Mind your own business, Choi MEANho!” I pouted and stuck my tongue out at him again. Why am I always so immature around you?

Minho just chuckled. “So back to the reason you’re wandering about late at night…”

I sighed, my momentary happiness gone like a candle blown out by a fierce wind. “Basically, they told me that I couldn’t be with Sun Hi…I don’t know why it bothers me so much…after all, I’ve only known the girl for a day.”

Minho regarded me carefully, a sad smile flashing across his boyishly handsome features so fast that I wasn’t entirely sure that I didn’t just imagine it. “I do…” He whispered, so quietly that I couldn’t be sure of what he had said.

“Eh?”

He just smiled at me, a happy one this time. “Nothing.” Minho jumped up off of the swing, striding over to me, grabbing my hands and lifting me off of my swing. “C’mon. Let’s go home, Taemin-ah.” 

A/N: Hey guys. So I just wanted to update cuz I feel like I've been slacking and I was in a write-y kinda mood so yeah. Hope you enjoyed the 2min fluff ^.^ Lemme know what you think in the comments below! Subs and comments are ALWAYS appreciated (: