#03: "Part-time."

As you waited for him to throw over another snippet, your mind travelled back in time without you wanting it to. Your first kiss... you remembered that day very clearly, even today.

[Flashback, about eleven years ago;]

"Okay, everyone. We'll seperate now. Stay at your teacher's side and don't let go of each others hands, okay?" about twenty children cheered happily as they grabbed their friend's hands and followed their teachers in groups of five.

~*~*~

"Sulli?" a small girl cried out, standing on the edge of tears. To be all alone in the dark wasn't spooky- it felt worse.

"Suuulli!"

Her short legs carried her through the black forest, tumbling over stones and twigs, her cute dress ripping a little as it got tangled up in a bush near by, finally making her fall to her knees in the process. The impact, reinforced by the shock of something pulling on her clothes, did hurt. Very, very much.

"Mummy..." she whined , covering her eyes to not see the bleeding scratches covering her legs.

Suddenly, there was the sound of boughs cracking, making her shriek and hiding behind her arms now. What could that have been? A bear? A wolf? Or did the monster hiding inside her wardrobe follow her up here? Her whining turned into serious crying now, accompanied by calling for her parents. For Sulli, who had always been protecting her at night.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Slowly, she opened her eyes. That wasn't Sulli. Not Sulli, but a boy. The new one.

"Taemin...?" she muffled, still crying.

"Yeah." He smiled at her, taking a seat next to the younger girl. "You know, everyone's searching for you. So I came to take you with me."

Suddenly she froze in her actions, all of her attention directed to him now. "With you? Like a prince?"

"Yeah, just like that. So come on, we'll go back together." Without a sign of shyness, he grabbed her hand and took her with him, guiding the girl through the darkness successfully. It didn't take long for them to be noticed by one of the kindergarten teachers.

"Taemin! Where did you find her?" Wearing a mixture of anger, sorrow and release on her face, she guided the two of them back to the other ones, while the young boy told her about rescuing _____ from the darkness.

After a long telling-of, the two of you sat together, drinking some warm tea and sharing a blanket while staring at the other ones playing hide- and- seek.

"Taemin, I'm sorry for troubling you..." the girl whispered, as she stood up and bowed in front of him- as she was stopped by his hands grabbing her shoulders, making her stand straight again.

"No thanks needed" he grinned, pulling her close and wrapping the warm blanket around her, again. "That's what a prince does for a princess, isn't it?" The tiny girl touched her cheeks while  listening to him, feeling them becoming pink- yet, that didn't take away her confidence.

"In that case, let me give you a present a princess gives her prince~!" She giggled cutely as Taemin already puckered his lips, ready to share a fairytale kiss. His newly-won friend touched his lips with hers as their teacher saw them acting that inappropriate.

"Taemin-ah! _____-ah! Stop that...!"

And suddenly, she knew what to do. Grabbing the boy's hand and running away with him had been the right choice at that moment- at least in the eyes of a child...

[Flashback, End;]

Did Taemin really remember the days the two of you spent together? Did he remember trying to kiss you all through the first class of primary school? Or giving you a frog as your farewell present? Could it be possible for that cute and protective side of his to still exist deep down? Maybe all you had to do was talk to him a little more...?

Excited for his answer, you quickly unwrapped the piece of paper, and after finally reading it's content...

[Of course I do, my sweetheart. I'm remembering each kiss I shared with a puppy of mine, perfectly. You're the most important one, though. <3]

...well, you immediately felt your heart sink. It's not like you loved that attention or anything like that, but... you had to admit beeing quite disappointed. Sighing deeply, you replied to that message and put it next to his hand... Well, you could tell that he wasn't satisfied from the look on his face.

[Lee Taemin... When will you finally start to grow up?!]

~*~*~*~*~

- After School, Café "Cloud Chocolate"-

"And you really think that someone like me would look good in... that stuff?" You eyed the waitress standing at the table next to yours, watching her serving the -male- customers with a cute smile on her face.

"That stuff?" Though you didn't look at her,you knew that Sulli was pouting. "You'd look so cute! I always thought that those maid outfits would suit you well!"

Taking the risk of another look at the waitress's dress, you blushed. "I... I don't know... I heard that many boys from our school do come here. What if they start making fun of me?" The last thing you needed was someone throwing jingoistic comments at you.

"But wouldn't that also be a chance for you to show them your cute side?" Sulli nipped on her hot vanilla chocolate.

"Cute? I'm always cute", you stated, pouting.

You saw your best friend sighing at that. "Well, I meant a different kind of cute... this childish type of cuteness won't get you anywhere. You have to be either s or m, you know? And I guess those outfits would really make a cute and devotive m out of-" She was showing no intentions to stop talking as you nearly spilled your water.

"Su-Sulli!" Quickly, you covered , only a few muffling sounds leaving now. "Why are you so-"

"Straight-forward? Mature? y?" Behind your fingers, her typical eye-smile showed.

"No, actually I meant erted..." you mumbled, drawing your hand away from again.

"Oh, I had a nice chat with Eunhyuk-oppa today. He told me what type of women the kingkas do prefer." She seemed quite happy as she drank some more of the hot chocolate in front of her. "And I heard something pretty funny~"

"If it has got to do anything with these guys, I don't even wanna hear it."

"Aww, come on. Didn't you have a faible for Key-oppa?" Without wanting them to, your eyes got bigger at the sound of his name. "I heard that he's actually quite fond of you... or at least, he's pretty interested in your well-being."

You felt the tips of your ears growing red, so you hid them through pulling your side-bangs in front of them.

"I... I'm not interested in him, and he was just helping me out because he's nice. Stop thinking about stuff like-"

"Oh, Key-oppa! Taemin-ah! Nice to see you!" You shrinked as you heard Sulli exclaiming that, seeing her smiling as she looked over to the entrance and waved.

"Sulli, I won't turn around. You're just trying to fool me either. As if this big fat idiot would walk in here at this moment and spread his stupidity all over the place." You leaned back into your chair, arms crossed, as you felt something cold touching your cheek- for the second time today.

"Oh, I actually don't think that Key-hyung is stupid... even if you might be right about him gaining some weight." A turn of your head let you see a sheepishly grinning Taemin, his arms just reaching out to hug you from behind as you jumped up in shock, your shoulder bumping his chin in the process.

"OW!", he exclaimed, making you snort loudly as Key started giggling in his typical, weird way and Sulli simply gave Taemin a horrified look. "Yah,what was THAT-"

"...for?", you finished his sentence, obviously satisfied with the state he was in. "How about all of the times you touched me without my permission?"

"Permission? Oh come on, we're friends, aren't we?" He scowled, rubbing his chin and whining slightly at his own touch- oh, what a baby!

"I never wanted to be friends, Taemin!"

"But you- Oh, I see. You finally realized the feelings you had for me since our first kiss?"

"Oh, your first kiss? Who was the...", Sulli happily started, as she realized the deeper meaning of Taemin's words. "Wait, "our" first kiss?! As in "we two" did kiss? But when-" At first you were only worried about Sulli questioning you with her sometimes nosy personality, yet that was the moment you realized that there was someone else sitting across the table- Kibum.

"Oh, Sulli, will you finally---"

"Sorry for the wait, guys! I know I'm late, yet the practice went on and on and- oh, hi!" To your rescue came -dressed in his soccer clothes- dear Choi Minho... and you didn't even have to look at Sulli to see that she froze at the sound of his voice.

"Oh, Minho-sshi! What brings you here?" You exclaimed, maybe a little too happy, since you heard your best friend coughing slightly.

"Well, Eunhyuk told me that Jinki said that Key had called everyone in for a meeting, so Yesung asked Taemin if it was okay to get together at a café, and after he got the okay from Jonghyun's dad, we-"

"Let's just say we're waiting for the rest of the group", Taemin cut in, ending Minho's flow of words. Sure, his friend was cool with his height and handsomeness and his fierce and competitive personality, but he easily slit into the shades of a dork.

"Ah, I see" Sulli smiled at him, immediately sliding her chair closer to you as Minho grabbed another one and took a seat between her and Key, who also seemed to notice the sudden change of mood.

"Anyways, what where the two of you talking about before we got here?" Key smiled, and that seemed to set Sulli back to ease while it made your stomach turn upside-down.

"Oh, we were actually talking about the dress of that waitress over there", Sulli nodded over to the girl she had shown you before, "and I wondered whether it would suit my friend over here or not."

"Oh, definetely", Taemin answered immediately, his innocent smile reaching from ear to ear, making you blush- until... "It would surely bring out your figure more, since your school uniform makes you look like a guy."

"What... I'm not a guy!" You exclaimed, ready to jump up and jump at his throat.

"No, but... oh come on, you should know that you've got less to no curves! Don't deny the fact that you're as flat as a pancake!"

"Say that agai-"

"Taemin, say that again, and I'll make sure to make you regret it later on." And again, Kibum jumped in to become your saviour. After a deep huff in Taemin's direction, he turned his head to you. "I don't think you should wear this stuff. I feel like most of the guys coming here would only come here to gawk at you, and that's not the reason to go to a café for."

"And here I thought we meet up here after school because of the waitresses..." Minho murmured, becoming Kibum's best example as he starred at the waitresses fluffy, short skirt as she bowed to another customer, the hem sliding up in the process-

"That's enough!" Your best friend next to you exclaimed, throwing her napkin at Minho before standing up and grabbing her cup of still super hot chocolate, only to chug it and look at you. "Sorry, this is too disgusting. I'm leaving." That made you jump up as well, and you were about to apologize to the guys, as---

"Jonghyun-oppa!" Sulli's mood changed from "annoyed" to "happy" in the blink of an eye, and with a wide smile on her lips, she engulfed said boy in a bear hug.

"Wowowow little lady, safe your energy for later!" Nontheless, Jonghyun mirrored Sulli's action before taking a piece of paper out of his pocket and wagging it infront of her face. "I know what you want, so don't act all naughty suddenly~" he continued in a sing-sang tone, smiling widely as well.

"You made it? Thank you very much! Oppa, you're the best!" Sulli snatched the paper away from him, and grabbing your wrist, she took you with her, straight to the exit of the café. Waving at the boys as a goodbye, you asked her for the reason of her sudden happiness and the aprupt departure, yet all you got from her was her beautiful eye smile and the words "Later, later~~".

Jonghyun, still pouting because of Sulli not thanking him more -since he was used to flattering words coming from women and therefor expected some from her as well-, casually took your old seat, making himself comfortable at the table.

"Since when did the two of you get along this much again?", Minho aske, casually swirling around his spoon in his (already empty) cup of coffee.

"Oh, we didn't talk since... you know what happened, yet she came to find me at our classroom yesterday and asked me if it was true that my father was looking for a new waitress here" he answered, thankfully nodding at the girl who had just brought him an espresso.

"What? She asked you for a part-time job? Have her parents been in any sort of financial crisis?"

"No, actually, she asked if her little friend was allowed to help out." An amused smile crossed Jonghyun's face as he watched his friend getting agitated over his former girlfriend, "I asked my father yesterday, and he said it was fine. She just took the contract with her."

"What?! You allowed that girl to work... here?" Kibum couldn't believe it. This was a serious matter! "She's someone from our school! She shouldn't work around here, should she? Otherwise, our activities-"

"What happens in this café, stays in this café, my dear friend." Jonghyun leaned back in his seat, eyeing their young leader's face.

"And I guess her working here means that we'll come here more often, doesn't it? Taemin?"