Chapter 3

Fans of the show began to adjust to the new couple as they began to adjust to each other.  Conversations became less awkward and there was far less acting on their parts to seem comfortable around each other. 

Today they had been sent to an amusement park.  Onew vaguely remembered coming to this park with his parents during summer vacation years ago.  Before he had been famous and when no one would want to follow him around.  Today, not only was there the camera crew, but a small little gaggle of fans were also there, squealing behind the cameras and taking their own shots when they thought that they could get away with it. 

Onew sighed as he heard his name screamed again with a request to turn around and face them.  Sometimes he was sick to death of fans. 

“Ready?” a voice asked lightly to his side.  The stylists had finally let Lex leave hair and make-up.  Onew didn’t think that she looked much different than before but they were smiling and looking proud of themselves so they must have done something. 

“Have fun?” He whispered as her mic was secured.

She looked at him sideways with a massive arch to her one eyebrow, “In make-up?  You’re kidding, right?”

Onew laughed and allowed himself to be pulled by one of the staff members over to where they wanted to start the shot, seeing Lex in a similar situation.

Onew was impressed that she wasn’t afraid of roller coasters, like many of the women that he knew.  In Korea, especially in the entertainment industry, it always seemed like women were trying to project that helpless image, the one that needed a man to come and save her.  Lex pretty much just said, to hell with that, and did whatever she wanted to, and because she was a Westerner she could get away with it without anyone giving her too much grief in the industry.  He laughed as Lex had her hands thrown up high in the hair as their coaster did a loop, a big smile splashed across her face and a mix of screams and laughter escaping her. 

They stumbled off the ride, still laughing and Lex slipped her glasses out of her pocket and placed them back on her face with practiced ease.  She hadn’t wanted to risk them dropping or slipping off of her face during the ride and her then loosing them.

“Let’s go again!” she exclaimed, as they rounded the corner of the exit to where the pictures taken during the ride were. 

Onew busted out laughing, one finger pointed and the other clutching at his ribs with the other.  Onew looked fine in the picture, his face seemed happy enough and his hands were raised above his head. 

Lex however…well…that perfectly styled hair was destroyed and whipped about her face, frozen on film with a long strand darting across her upper lip giving her a wonderful mustache.  Her eyes were also in the process of closing when the camera went off so she had a slightly inebriated look about her.

Lex just shook her head at the picture and buried her face into her hands.  “I swear I am the least photogenic person ever!”  She mumbled with a partial groan.

She raised her head and pouted at the screen and Onew was again struck by how childish she could be – and he didn’t think that she was even aware she was doing it.

Onew looked Lex up and down once, “I’m buying it,” he announced before making a beeline for the counter.

“No!” She shrieked, quickly following up behind him.

Onew pointed at the monitor and told the teenager behind the counter which one he wanted while he pulled out his wallet.  “W8,000 for one picture…” Onew handed over a W10,000 note and waited for his change.  Meanwhile he looked at Lex whose face was dumbstruck, “I must like you or something.” He teased as he was given his change and the photo in a cheesy themed folder.

Onew opened it and held it up to the camera, “Isn’t my wife pretty?” He laughed before he could even finish the statement. 

“Oh, throw it away…” Lex groaned, looking skyward as though some deity up there was going to save her now. 

“Nope,” Onew popped the ‘P’ just to get on Lex’s nerves.  “I’m going to frame it and put it up on my wall.”

Lex looked scandalized and stopped dead in her tracks from where she had been trudging slowly behind Onew as he walked back to the park proper.  “You’re not serious?”

Onew just smiled back at her over his shoulder and kept walking. 

“Onew!  You’re joking right!”  Lex suddenly ran up and grabbed Onew’s arm, pulling him to face her and stopping them both in the middle of one of the park’s many walkways.  “Tell me you’re joking!”

Onew brought up one finger and bopped his surprised noona on the nose, “Nope.”  He held up the picture in front of him, “Now how big would you say this…”

Suddenly an arm popped in between the picture and his view.  On instinct Onew raised the picture up above the protruding appendage and he barely saved it from Lex’s grasp. 

“Hey!” he sputtered indignantly.

“Give it here!” Lex made another grab for it but Onew held it high above his head, even going up on his tippy toes.

“Give up yet?”  He smirked.

“Not fair, your arms are longer!” Lex panted as she continued to hop around Onew, much to the amusement of the bystanders who had stopped to watch. 

“Just face it, you’re…interesting…face shall forever adorn SHINee’s walls.”  Onew leaned down just to kind of dig her face in it just a little bit more. 

But then one of Lex’s hands handed on his shoulder and she used him as leverage to leap up and grab the offending picture out of his unprepared grasp. 

“Aha!” She seemed surprised herself for a moment to have it, before Onew came to his senses.

“Hey!  Give that back!”

“Not on your life!”  Lex darted away, the picture held to her chest as she bolted across the park, Onew and panting cameramen on their heels. 

“Lex!” he called, turning quickly to avoid a child who had just unlatched from its mother.  “Come on – I won’t frame it okay?”

Lex shot around a food cart and stood panting behind a confused hot dog seller.  “Promise?”

Onew stooped over in front of the cart, his hands on his knees.  “Pro-promise,” his eyes were clenched shut and his face slightly contorted as he tried to catch his breath. 

“That’s on tape!” she reminded him.

“I know, I know,” he waved one hand around as though swatting at a fly.  “Now can I have my picture back?”

“Yeah…”

She came around the cart and walked up to Onew, the picture held out in front of her, clasped with both hands. 

Onew cautiously reached out for it with two hands and pulled it out of her grasp.  “The framing was really the big deal?” he asked incredulously.

“No.” she answered simply, “I’m just sick of running…”  She smirked, “You’re the one who promised not to frame it though!” 

“You are evil,” Onew shook his head, unconsciously holding the photo to his chest in an almost hug. 

“You love it,” she said back, patting him lightly on the back.  “Now let’s get some overpriced food – my treat for making you run all over.”

Onew brightened.  “Really!  ‘Cause there’s a chicken stand around the corner…”

Lex snorted, “Alright chicken man, let’s get you some.”

All in all, Onew thought it had been a pretty good day.