CHAPTER SEVEN

CLAIRE

“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Justin offered, crossing his arms like Key had.

Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!

Major freak out mode x 10.

My eyes flickered around the room, anywhere but Justin or Key’s face, as I thought about my answer. Should I just pull an innocent trick? Or confess in tears? I opened my mouth, ready for fire and pain when I explained.

But luckily, a flurry of SHINee members crowded the stage, yelling something along the lines of, “OH MY GOD, YOU DID NOT. KISS. ON. STAGE. WITH JUSTIN BIEBER.”

My heart almost stopped.

OH MY GOD.

It was like a dream. A really, really, really, y, amazing dream with y, amazing guys.

Minho stood there taunting Key with his y aura, beside him Jonghyun stood laughing and clutching his rock-hard abs under his plain t-shirt. Onew and Taemin’s eyes were opened wide, defending Key fiercely with their arms around his shoulders.

“Guys, guys!” Key shouted over them. “I know, I’m screwed. It was an accident! I didn’t want to kiss him.”

Justin received the killer glare and shrugged. “Damn, I don’t understand, I don’t care.” He turned to me with an unreadable expression. A really, really y unreadable expression.

“You didn’t tell me you wrote Keyber,” he pointed out accusingly.

I faltered, not able to think of anything to say. “I… It never came up?” I lamely covered. Well, it was true, wasn’t it?

Justin just stared me down, his eyes burning with anger or whatever. “It’s a good thing you’re pretty,” was all he said before the guys of SHINee crowded around me. He disappeared to his manager, but I was way too busy to notice.

“Are you Claire?” Jonghyun asked in his y tenor voice. “I talked to you on the phone!”

Minho stood in front of me, holding out his hand. Damn. Even his hand was really, really hot. I think part of my heart melted right there and is never going to recover from it.

I stood there staring at his hand until I realized I was supposed to shake it. They all laughed, but Minho said, “I’m Minho. Nice to meet you.”

Key slapped him on the shoulder, rolling his eyes. “Obviously she knows all of us, she’s a fan. But she loves ME the most.”

Jonghyun scoffed, saying, “Obviously, she would rather date Justin Bieber. Or me.” He grinned at me with all of his pearly-whites.

Oh my God. Are they seriously even TALKING about me?

“Hey, are we the same age?” Taemin asked, with an innocent smile on his face.

“I’m seventeen,” I finally got the words out. LEE TAEMIN WAS TALKING. TO ME.

Taemin grinned and turned to his hyungs. “Finally, she’s not a noona! Same year buddies!” he announced, putting an arm around my shoulder. When the other members kept bickering, he whispered in my ear, “Key thinks you’re really pretty.”

I blushed and ducked my head in surprise. What did those stylists do? Some insane magic to my face without my knowledge?

-

JUSTIN BIEBER

“You’re screwed.”

My manager stood in front of me, pacing back and forth. Sitting on the couch, I put my head between my knees in defeat. “I know,” I said, sighing. “There goes my reputation.”

The door burst open, my mom running through with a phone to her chest to muffle noise, mouthing, “USHER.”

Oh, dammit.

“Hello?” I greeted. Even I could hear the sorrow in my own voice.

The line cracked with the crappy overseas service. “Dude, Justin, cheer up,” Usher said, “Your life’s not over.”

“Hell to the yeah it is. In Korea it might be fine for guys to go kissing other guys on TV, but in America, it’s not okay,” I said decidedly. I could already hear all the laughing on TV and more mocking comments on Youtube.

“Okay, just chill out,” he soothed. “There are some rocky things ahead, but we can get over them. But there is a cost.”

I stayed silent and waited for the news.

“You’re going to be inactive for a month or two. We need you to stay in Korea.”

“What?” I shouted in the phone. “What about all my concerts? All my recording sessions and fanmeetings? I can’t just cancel them all! But why?”

“I’m sorry, but there’s no other way.”

-

KEY

My head was seething in anger.

DAMN, why did Jonghyun have to be such a sleaze?

He wasn't kidding when he said he was a ladie's man, I have to admit.

But what the hell!

I mean, come on, shouldn’t Claire have shown the SLIGHTEST bit of interest in me? I’m ING KEY, HELLOOO.

She laughed at whatever obnoxious thing Jonghyun said. Minho contributed and added in his own damn funny commentary when he could. Onew and Taemin just listened, trying to discreetly cheer me up.

We were all waiting in the lounge for who knows what. Our managers were too busy trying to put up posts to the press that I wasn’t actually gay.

Whatever, it was gonna blow over in no time. Come on, I think I’ve kissed every single guy in this room. At least twice.

“Hey, where are you staying for the night?” Jonghyun asked. My ears perked up at this part, wondering what creepy move he was gonna pull. “I don’t think I ever talked about that with you.”

“I actually don’t know,” Claire responded, looking at Jonghyun for help. “I don’t know what else to do next. I haven’t thought that far.”

I saw grins spread on everyone’s face, and felt one on mine.

“You should stay with us, donggap*!” shouted Taemin, the others all nodding enthusiastically along with him

Oh my God.

Claire.

In my apartment.

HEAVENNNNNNN!

“You could stay in my room,” Jonghyun suggested with waggling eyebrows.

“WHAT?” I shouted in unison with everyone else. “You’re disgusting!”

“Ladies, ladies, ladies,” our manager was saying as he burst through the door. He smiled at first, but turned to me with a solemn and grim expression.

“Key, you’re screwed.”

Oh, .

He cleared his throat, notifying me of the deafness I was gonna have to deal after his bout of shouting. “YOU REALLY JUST POLITELY FELL ON JUSTIN BIEBER?! NO, YOU CAN’T JUST FALL. YOU JUST HAAAAVE TO FALL ON HIS LIPS!”

Silence. I glanced at Claire, who looked as scared as a wet dog.

“YOU’RE SO. DAMN. SCREWED. Justin Bieber’s company can SUE you for ruining his reputation!” manager hyung said with anger seeping through every word. “What are we gonna DO with you?!”

Then he turned to Claire with a (CREEPY) nice smile plastered on his face. What the efff! Two-faced pedobear manager.

“Claire,” he addressed. “You’ve been offered to stay with Justin Bieber in one of his company-rented hotel rooms, or we can book you a room.”

Taemin put a protective arm around her shoulders. “We’ll take care of her,” he assured. “Don’t worry about it.”

The manager nodded. “And be careful not to show your face in public…”

“Why?” Claire asked. “I went on TV once; people don’t know me that well, do they?”

Our manager cringed slightly as he said, “You received a lot of anti-fans from picking Justin over Key, as well as writing the story itself.”

“Oh,” Claire said, blushing. I stared at her in anger and triumph. HA. What you get for not picking ME, for goodness’ sake.

She took a peek at me and immediately ducked her head back down.

Guilt washed over me as I saw a tear form in the corner of her eye. My heart broke for her as she tried not to cry.

I just made a girl cry.

A really pretty girl, too.

-

CLAIRE

I was not going to cry. All of the SHINee members stood there, just waiting for me to cry so I could look stupid. The manager dragged Key off somewhere to speak alone to him, while the rest of them stood in front of me quietly.

“Don’t worry about it, Claire,” Onew said with assurance. “People will forgive and forget; it’s not the end of the world.”

I just basically ruined Key. And probably ruined Justin, too.

Minho put a hand on my back in comfort. “If you don’t want to stay with us, we know the best hotel ever that you can stay in. You’ll have fun…”

“No, it’s alright guys,” I said, taking a deep breath and looking up. “I can handle it on my own.”

“CHE, right,” Jonghyun commented, a devilish wink gleaming in his eye. “We’re gonna take care of you. It’s Key’s own fault. Not yours.”

“There’s only one thing that can ever cheer anyone up in a situation like this,” said Onew with great anticipation. “CHICKENNN!”

-

KEY

“Justin’s staying in Korea because back in America, it’s a mess,” manager hyung told me. “Don’t go anywhere near him. Ever.”

“Not like I want to,” I interrupted, rolling my eyes.

Manager hyung stared me straight in the eye. “No corresponding with Claire, either.”

That caught by attention. “What? Why not? She didn’t do anything!” I reeled. The only good thing about this scandal was her!

“Fans are smart. There are rumors that you guys like each other, as well as Justin and her, too.” Our eyes met in all seriousness.

“I’m not dumb, Key. I know she’s pretty, nice, whatever, but it’s either your happiness, or her safety.”

I stood there, angry all over again. “Fans aren’t gonna kill her, are they? I don’t even know her!”

He didn’t respond, but plowed on with: “You’re not going to be on any variety shows or interviews for at least a month. We want everything to die down before you’re back on.”

“What?” I was too dumbfounded to make an actual sentence. Variety shows and those appearances were my life.

“Think of it as a vacation. For a month. Confined to your apartment.”

-

JUSTIN

Grimly, I firmly grasped Key’s wrist and pulled Claire alongside with us. The Shiny or Sparkly whatever guys protested a little bit, but they went away.

The two both looked at me in surprise as I shoved us all in the family bathroom. It smelled, but all my senses were long gone by then.

“We all got ourselves into this; now we’re getting ourselves out.”

-

Soooo I’m reading this fic that will NOT update. But I realized it’s been only a week since they last updated, I just loved it so much I was DYING by that time. I don’t know if my fic’s like that, but I felt sort of guilty cause I go weeks without updating. So I’ll try to stay good with updating and write a lot!

Maybe too much:/ this one chapter’s 1,694 words long. I don’t know how it got to be so long, nothing much happened! I hope you guys like the insane long chapters!

Sorry, there has to be so much annoying drama for anything to happen! This is the downfall part of this story, so don’t be turned off! It’ll be cheery and bright soon!

Be prepared, guys, lots coming ahead!

I need a new male character who will NOT be permanent for a few chapters ahead. He has to be a bad , btw. :D

VOTE!

Or suggest, I can't think of ANY bad-asses. FAIL T_T