That night, they brought me to their dorm and decided to empty out a room for me to stay over for a couple of nights before I find a place nearby to stay.

“Hyung, we need to talk.”

While I was still looking at a few of the fan letters in Jinki’s room, I suddenly hear a knock on the door. It was Minho, who peeked his head into the room and ushered Jinki to leave the room.

“EunMin, I’ll be back in a while, okay?”

He said, patting my head while I just smiled back and nodded. Just as the door closes, I knew that the guys were going to ask for explanations about my sudden return.

“Hyung, are you kidding me? Why is EunMin in Korea?”

Jonghyun quickly asked, his brows tightened.

“Guys, calm down, she’s not my girlfriend anymore.”

He said, looking at them then at the room where I was still in. The guys eyed each other, not believing a single word from what their leader had said.

“What do you mean sh---?”

“We broke up. Years ago.”

Their leader announced sternly. There was not a single sign of regret, guiltiness or sadness when he spoke. This made them all quiet down and stayed that way for a moment or two.

“You’re not lying… Are you?”

Taemin asked wearily, carefully fixate his gaze onto their leader’s eyes. His eyes showed no sign of lies, and Taemin decided to believe his hyung. Deep down in Jinki’s heart, he blamed himself for not having the courage to announce his love to the world proudly as he wanted.

“You know you’ll be in deep if you’re caught dating, it’s not like you’re unaware about that.”

Jonghyun warned, giving Jinki a last pat before he dragged along Kibum into their room, preparing to call it a night.

“I know.”

He hung his head a little low as the guys slowly leave the table into their respective rooms. The door clicked open as I walked out of the room, only to find Jinki sitting alone at their dining table. I walked over to him in soft steps, placing my hand gently on his shoulder, in which caught him by surprise. He grabbed my hand with his left hand and sighed.

“Jinki.”

He stood up as I called his name, pulling me into a tight embrace once again.

“Please be patient with me, I promise you it won’t disappoint.”

I hugged back, nodding as I rest my head into the crook of his neck.

---

The next morning, by the time I woke up, which was around 8.30a.m., the guys have already left the dorm. They left me a message saying they’ll be practicing in their practice room today, and I can join them for lunch at the company. Since I’m basically a free person as of now, I decided to stroll around the streets for a while before heading to the company.

As I walked around and did some window shopping, I was amazed by the popularity of SHINee, seeing how I came across a few brands with SHINee as ambassadors and their songs being played in stores. Caught in my own thoughts, I felt slightly embarrassed as to the fact that I have very limited knowledge about them as idols, for I only know a few hits, some hot news and nothing much. Blame my busy schedule for the past few years.

I arrived at SM Entertainment an hour earlier prior to the promised time, and decided to look around the company while waiting for the guys. While walking around, once again, I met Leeteuk. This time, he was carrying a bag of drinks and gave me a smile as he came to me.

“Hey EunMin, nice to see you again.”

“Hi Jung-soo oppa, what are those for?” I pointed at the bag of drinks with an eyebrow raised.

“They’re for the members, whatcha doing here anyway?”

“I’m waiting for the SHINee members to finish their practice, we promised to have lunch together.”

“I see…” He nodded. There was a moment of silence between the both of us, as he seems to be in some deep thoughts. I blinked my eyes for a few times, waiting for him to say something that was on his mind.

“Then… EunMin, do you want to meet the other members of Super Junior?”

He offered, giving me another smile, this time, his dimples were pretty evident and eye-catching. I raised an eyebrow upon hearing that weirdly familiar term, stunned for a second or two before replying shyly.

“Uh-hmm… S-super Junior?”

He laughed before explaining patiently to me that Super Junior is the group he belonged to, to which I then blushed heavily, feeling embarrassed once again about my ignorance. Took me a few moments before I awkwardly decided to follow him to meet his other fellow members.

I was led into another practice room like the one I saw yesterday, and this time, I saw quite a number of guys in the room, some dancing, some resting. Upon entering, the guys turned to see Leeteuk and beamed happily at the sight of the drinks he brought. They then noticed me behind Leeteuk and began to question about the who’s and why’s. Feeling overwhelmed, I smiled awkwardly and eyed Leeteuk with the signal of “I need some help” and he chuckled before telling everyone to sit down on the floor and to stop bombarding me with questions.

As everyone took a seat comfortably on the floor, they began to introduce themselves one by one, but honestly, I got lost halfway there because there were so many of them. Well, at least I knew who Donghae is beforehand because I now remembered that my roommate back in Australia was a fan of him, hah. I then gave them a polite smile, before telling them my name and the fact that I’m close friends with all of SHINee. They began to ask about how I met the SHINee members, and even some personal questions, like…

“So… We’re just really curious, are you dating Jinki?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, the guy whose name was Kyuhyun asked while giving me a cautious look, as if hoping he didn’t make any mistakes. My smile froze awkwardly for a second, before I swiftly decided to give a short answer.

“Uh… no…?”

Fortunately for me, the moment I gave my answer, the door clicked open after several knocks were heard, revealing to be Jinki. I quickly turned to him, giving him a look which meant “send help now, quick”, to which he muffled a laughter and then ignored me to bow to the Super Junior members.

“Sorry hyungs, I hope she didn’t disturb your practice or anything.”

When I heard that, I immediately gave him a disapproval look plus a glare at him. Some of the members must have noticed our non-verbal interaction there, because soon enough I hear a few chuckles around me. I quickly stood up and went near Jinki, flashing another nervous smile at the Super Junior members. The members smiled and told Jinki that I wasn’t bothering them, and at the same time, praising him for his never changing politeness.

“I heard that you guys were practicing as well, how’s the initial preparation for Sherlock going?”

Leeteuk asked. I looked at Jinki, then at Leeteuk, before popping a question that showed my ignorance yet again. “Sherlock? What was that? You’re filming the Korean version Sherlock series?!”

The moment I asked that question, I regretted awfully at how stupid I must have sounded because most of the guys laughed. This time round, Jinki gave me that disapproval look and knocked my head with his finger, sighing at the same time.

“Pabo.” He muttered, while the guys around continued to laugh and exclaim how cute we both looked. Needless to say, my face was flushed red and I awkwardly laughed together with them. Soon after that, Jinki took a glance at his watch, then told his seniors that we should leave now as the other SHINee members were probably waiting. Unconsciously, he took my hand, bowed at them and brought me out of the practice room. Everything happened so fast that I could only follow after him with my eyes widened in surprise, because I knew he had broken the rule of our game.

Little did we know, after we left the room, the Super Junior members eyed each other with curiosity, before Kyuhyun spoke up, “I’m betting on the fact that both of them are still dating, who’s with me?”

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Happy reading!! EunMin's clueless as heck xD