“Hyung…?” Taemin waved a hand in front of Minho’s face, trying to shake him from his guilt-ridden stupor. Minho blinked several times in quick succession, eyes slowly focusing on Taemin as he shook his head to clear his self-punishing thoughts.

“What? Oh, sorry.” He gave the maknae an apologetic smile. “Let’s go home. Third time’s the charm, eh?” Minho laughed, but his eyes revealed his inner turmoil. Taemin however, concerned again about his hair extensions and the noonas, didn’t notice the pain behind his hyung’s innocent words.

They made their way back to the dorms, the only sounds were the whistling of the still fiercely blowing wind and the loud pattering of the pouring rain. Taemin broke the silence first, asking the question that terrified Minho, though he knew it was inevitable.

“Why did you try to kiss me?” There it was. The dreaded question. The question Minho still wasn’t quite sure how to answer without putting stress and unwanted feelings on the maknae.

Minho tried to waste a little more time before he had to come up with an answer. “Oh, that?” He decided to play it off as a joke. “I was just messing with you! Oh man, you should’ve seen your face!” On the outside, Minho laughed it off, but on the inside he wanted nothing more than to scream and cry at his misfortune. Love . Maybe this is why idols don’t date,  ‘cause it just messes everything up. Like we’re not all stressed enough just living life.

The silence grew denser by the minute as Taemin contemplated the meaning of his hyung’s strange actions. Mulling over Minho’s almost-kiss, he thought of fanservice…which gave him a devilishly brilliant plan to get back at Jonghyun.

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“You and Taemin are supposed to meet up again soon, right?” Kira asked her best friend excitedly. Sun Hi gave her a look that said quite clearly you-are-out-of-your-ing-mind-why-am-i-friends-with-you.

“Yes…but I am NOT telling him to invite Minho just so you can conveniently show up and meet him.” Sun Hi rolled her eyes at her ambitious friend, earning her an irritated groan from the aforementioned friend.

“Well how do you expect us to get married if you won’t even introduce me to him?” Kira said exasperatedly, throwing up her arms in annoyance before folding them across her chest and sticking out her bottom lip in a childish pout. Sun Hi rubbed her temples, as if her friend’s insane antics were causing her physical pain, which come to think of it, they probably were giving her a migraine.  

“For the last time, I WILL NOT help you kidnap an idol just to fulfill some ridiculous fangirl fantasy that you’ve managed to make up. Minho is a person too, just like us, only hotter, and he has feelings of his own, which you cannot manipulate. Besides, would you really want to be with him by force, if he didn’t love you back?”

Kira seemed to seriously ponder the idea of forced love for a minute before shaking her head, deciding that it wasn’t worth it. “Well, as much as I want him for myself, I want him to be happy and if being with me doesn’t make him happy, then I won’t force myself on him.” She sighed again, this time with a hint of bittersweet sorrow.

“Finally! You’ve come to your senses!” Sun Hi rushed to hug to her friend, only to be stopped short by a sudden hand in her face. “Whoa! Kira! What’s with the hand in my face?”

“Don’t think that I won’t find a way to get him. Because I don’t plan on letting this glorious opportunity slip out of my grasp.” Kira informed her roommate solemnly before lowering her hand and hugging the other girl.

“Aish, whatever you say, pabo.” Sun Hi released Kira from their embrace and wandered over to the kitchen, guided by her rumbling stomach. “Yah! What happened to my peanut butter chocolate ice cream?!”

Oh . Kira’s mind raced, remembering when she’d had a few friends over last week and accidently let them eat her roommate’s stash of comfort food/midnight snacks. “Er…remember that time when you stole my car? Yeah, I forgive you now.”

“YOU ATE MY ICE CREAM?!” Kira could almost see the smoke steaming from Sun Hi’s ears.

“Well, technically, I didn’t eat it…a couple of my friends did.” Sun Hi glared at her soon-to-be-dead roommate. Kira quickly placated her pissed off friend, “Hey, calm down. It’s gonna be okay. We can just run up to the 24-hour store on the corner and get some more ice cream.”

“If they don’t have it, you are dead to me.” Damn, she’s really serious about her ice cream. Kira shook her head in disbelief as she followed Sun Hi out the door, double-checking that it locked behind them.

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The heavy rain quickly turned into hailstones the size of golf balls, beating up both the frog-brella and the couple underneath it. When the clumps of ice started leaving bruises, the pair decided that it was time to find shelter and wait out the storm.

“Hyung…” Taemin whined. “I can actually feel the bruises forming now. Can we please go inside somewhere and wait out the storm?”

Minho glanced at the disheveled maknae, giving in with one look at the beautiful pout on the dancer’s lips. “Aish, fine. Lightweight.”

Taemin heard the insult, but chose to ignore it because it meant getting warmth and not getting hailed on. Besides, his extensions were beginning to look more like a rat’s nest than actual hair. He sighed, attempting to comb through the tangles with his fingers, but to no avail.

The trick to get to the warmth was finding a not-sketchy-looking place that was still open this late, or already open this early, depending on how you look at it. “Oh that sign says ‘OPEN’ hyung! Let’s go there!” Minho followed Taemin’s finger to see what he was pointing at and flushed a deep crimson red. “Taemin…that’s a male strip club.”

Now it was Taemin’s turn to blush. “Oh…guess we shouldn’t go there then.” Gee, ya think? And Minho’s inner sarcasm returns. Although…if you were dancing there, I’d be more than happy to go…DAMMIT. I have to get these *dirty* thoughts out of my mind!!! Minho shook his head, trying to rid it of the contamination. He needed to find a place to escape the hail (and Tae’s closeness) very very soon. Through the haze of the storm and the darkness, he saw two figures go into a small building at the corner of the street.

He grabbed the dancer’s hand, ignoring the butterflies having an impromptu dance party in his abdomen, and dragged him towards the building, which as they got closer, materialized into yet another convenience store.

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Sun Hi and Kira dashed through the hail storm, probably setting a world record in their haste to get back into the dry warmth provided by the store. Unfortunately there were no official timers present, so the record for fastest mad dash to the nearest store with ice cream remains unbroken.

They made it into the store just as a brilliant flash of lightning accompanied by an ominous-sounding crack of thunder tore the dark night sky. The bell above the door tingled as they entered. Sun Hi ran to the frozen foods section at the back of the store immediately, with Kira following at a more normal pace.

“I can’t believe this…” Sun Hi appeared to be close to tears. “They don’t have it…all they have is this STUPID MOCHA CHOCOLATE NONSENSE!!!” She must be PMSing or something because Sunny’s not usually like this. Kira thought. I mean, sure, she always loves her ice cream, but this is a bit extreme.

The two girls were on their way back to the front of the store when they heard the gentle ring of the bell on the door, signaling the entrance of another customer. They glanced towards the door, just in time to seeing a bedraggled young couple walk in. One of them, obviously the guy, was significantly taller than the other, just over six feet tall, carrying an bright green umbrella that looked like a frog. The other seemed younger and, judging by the length of the wet, tangled mess of hair, was female.

That guy seems awfully familiar…come to think of it, so does that girl. Upon closer inspection, Sun Hi realized that the “girl” was actually a guy with long hair. Another moment passed and she gasped in shock, understanding why the pair looked so familiar. Just as she came to this conclusion, she received a hard jab to the ribs from Kira, along with an excited and disbelieving whisper:

“That’s MINHO!!! …and Taemin!”

A/N: So I know this seems kinda random and it's quite possibly mostly drabble but I swear it's relevant to the story's plot! ^^ Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as always, let me know what you think in the comments below~ ^.^ Saranghae readers! I'm sorry it's been so long since I last updated *hides in corner to avoid beatings* I was busy with school but I'll be on break soon, so expect several updates next week! (: