It’s a lovely Saturday today, and I started the day off by having breakfast with Taemin in a café near the SM Entertainment building. The reason why the other members didn’t join us was because they had something going on that morning so they went elsewhere. Nevertheless, the five of them will meet up two hours from now in the practice room to prepare for their upcoming concert.

“It’s been such a long time since I last have breakfast with noona in a nice café.”

Taemin said, in the midst of removing his mask and cap as we sat down in an enclosed area.

“Hahaha, true that. I still go for café hopping in Australia with my friends sometimes though.”

I smiled, then took the menu located on the right side of the table to glance through and think about what to order. I ended up ordering a hot latte, while he ordered hot chocolate. After ordering, we began to chat about the past, laughing at the silly memories we once shared and immersed ourselves into the feeling of nostalgia. While reminiscing about the years before, I started thinking about how Taemin and Sulli were an item in school. That suddenly reminded me that I haven’t been contacting her nor know about her whereabouts.

“Taemin-ah, that just reminds me, where has Sulli been?”

Upon hearing my question, Taemin seemed to be stunned for a few seconds, before taking a sip of his coffee and gazes elsewhere. I noticed that he became somewhat uncomfortable, so I did not bother to repeat my question again and just let it be for now.

After an hour, we finished our breakfast and coffee, so we decided to head to his company. We saw the other four on their way to the lift, so we naturally went and joined them.

Minho had his arm over me, while I was telling Kibum about something as he was drinking his water. Moments later, we were in the lift and I decided to pop the question once again.

“Guys, what happened to Ssul?”

At that moment, I could see Kibum almost choking on his water, and Minho hurriedly patted his back and asked if he was okay. I pursed my lip once again after seeing their reactions, but now I was getting even more curious about what happened to her that they are reacting this way. Jonghyun looked at me, his eyes seemed to convey that something was wrong.

“Taelli actually broke up just before we made our debut.”

He whispered to me, and this time, Jinki saw what we were doing and came to us.

“EunMin-ah, what do you want for lunch?”

He nudged me while asking me that question, but I was still focused on the “Sulli topic” so I ignored him and stared at Jonghyun, still hoping for an explanation to come along. But before he could answer, Jonghyun caught Jinki eyeing him not to say anything, so he turned to me and grinned.

“Just some typical reason, like ‘they’re both too busy to date’, I suppose.”

“Nope, I’m not falling for that, again.”

I narrowed my eyes and looked at him dissatisfied, but we have reached the practice room so I just let it go when he shook his shoulders and played ignorant. I gave up unwillingly and went to Taemin to pull him aside for a minute.

“Y-yes, noona?” He got startled when I did that, but I just looked him straight in the eye.

“Hey, I’m sorry to hear that you guys broke up so long ago…”

“Oh... Nah, don’t be sorry, noona.”

He patted me on my shoulder, then showed me a smile. I silently let out a sigh of relief, seeing that he was okay about things. After that, I pushed him back into the practice room, informed him that I will stroll around the place for a bit and “See ya later!”.

While walking around, I began to think about how I missed the old Taelli, and I felt sulky because I only got to know about their breakup today when it happened so many years ago. My thoughts drifted away as I walked along the rows of practice rooms absent mindedly. It didn’t take me long enough before I spot someone with a familiar figure exiting one of the practice room, I squinted my eyes a little, realizing that it was a girl wearing a half ponytail. Needless to say, the girl definitely looked familiar, so I took a couple of big steps forward to get an even closer look, and then I found out…

“Oh my god!!! Sulli????”

My jaw dropped as I recognized the said girl. Upon hearing her name, she turned swiftly to meet my eyes, and opened wide as well.

“U-unnie?!”

And then we reunited. Happily jumping and hugging outside of the practice room. We must have been a little too loud because it took a minute or two before the door swung opened again, revealing a few other girls looking lost.

---

From Sulli, I got to know more about what happened between them, how she ended up here in her group called f(x), and she happily introduced her members to me. Now, I have a clearer picture of things, but I also noticed that the SHINee members, particularly Jinki, have been keeping things from me. And of course, I felt disappointed about that, but I’d like to believe that they had a good reason to do so, they better do.

“I still cannot believe that you became a Kpop idol and I had no clue about that, for like… More than two years?!”

I shook my head and mouthed “Daebak” continuously.

Sulli giggled when she heard that, then began to put on a pouting face, “Unnie, you’re unbelievably ignorant about Kpop, it’s your own fault.”

I could see Amber and Victoria nodding as they sipped their drink, so I just laughed it off feeling embarrassed for the nth time. As time passes by, I grew familiar with the five of them, and I even got to know that they were named as the “female version of SHINee” by some of the fans. I thought that was pretty cool, but that reminded me...

“So... Are you close friends with Taemin now?”

Sulli seemed flustered by that question, and she even pretended to clear . I also caught Krystal looking at her worriedly, so I thought I made a mistake again.

“N-not exactly... We’re... acquaintances now... I guess?”

“May I know... What happened back then?” I pressed my lips together, feeling slightly guilty for pushing up this question again, but I just want to know why so badly especially when everyone seemed to be hiding something crucial from me.

Sulli pondered for a while, and before Victoria stepped in to help her, she began to speak.

“Wait, unnie, are you still with Jinki?”

“You’re Jinki’s girlfriend?!” Luna almost shouted, only to get covered by Amber hurriedly before we gathered more attention to us. I bit my lower lip and squinted my eyes, before replying the generic answer of “No.” while slowly shaking my head half-heartedly.

“The reason we broke up must have been the same as unnie then.”

Sulli concluded. However, that answer obviously left me in a more puzzled state. Wait what? What did she even mean by that? Something felt missing somewhere, but I just didn’t know exactly what was missing. I let out a heavy breath, thinking that I should get Jinki to spill the beans soon.

Meanwhile, back in the practice room with all the SHINee members gathered around eating chicken, the guys took the opportunity to ask Jinki about his breakup.

“So, you’re saying you broke up with her without telling her the truth, until now?” Jonghyun asked, biting another piece of chicken drumstick.

“Sorta...?” Jinki answered nervously.

“That’s... awful.” Taemin said.

“But when are you going to tell her?” Kibum asked spontaneously after Taemin finished his sentence.

“Someday.” Jinki replied.

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If you notice, I purposely highlighted the way EunMin replied to Jjong when he told her the reason to why Taelli broke up. That's because it was the same ol' reason Jjong gave to her when she asked about why he broke up with Shin Se Kyung (but I couldn't find a place to write out the scene, so here's a little "throwback"?) Also, Jonghyun only told her that because Jinki had previously told him to not tell EunMin anything, with the reason that Jinki wants to do it himself, but has yet to after all these while. So, there's that. Anyways, next chapter will be a filler chapter *the calm before a storm*, featuring Sulli as the main character~