Ch 9: The Story

Good thing he had a hard time getting dunk thought Jonghyun as he chugged down yet another shot.

“Oppa, won’t you dance with me~~~?” whined a girl.

“GO away.” He growled in annoyance and shoved yet another girl away. Why can’t they understand when you want to be alone?

“Why so troubled?” asked the bartender, who was wiping glasses as he asked for another shot. He put his head down on the table. Somehow, because he didn’t know her and probably because she wasn’t flirting with him but seemed to want to know why he was downing glass after glass, Jonghyun wanted to talk to her.

“Stuff.”

“What stuff?”She chuckled and rolled her eyes. Then her voice turned slightly melancholy. “Everyone has stuff.”

“Stuff like  being abandoned in an asylum?” (AN: Knew he had problems, just not that big eh? 0.0 lols jk)

She whistled. “Tough. Well, being stuck there can’t be all that bad if you’re allowed to come here and drink and you have this to pay your bills.” She held up the gold card he had been using to pay his bills.

He laughed humorlessly. “I’m not there anymore.”

“Then what’s the problem?” she asked coming around and seating herself on the bar stool beside him.  

“It comes back you know.” He shivered and his eyes darkened. She clapped him on the back.

“Hey you’re all out of there now right. What’s past is past, focus on the present and the future. You have time enough to build a perfect one. That reminds me… you said abandoned? Where you living now? And who was paying the asylum bills.”

“Abandoned.” He put bunny ear quotation marks as he said the word. “My parents paid my bills and I’m living with them now but while I was at the asylum, they never came to visit once. Not once. All I ever got was one birthday card every year.” He chuckled bitterly. “When I was a kid, I used to look forward to my birthday so much. So I could finally feel cared about. But when I was older and began to be able to read, I realized that they all said the same thing. I was filled with an unspeakable fury and tore them all.”

Jonghyun remembered. All the bits and pieces of the flimsy paper flying down turning the room he had into a snow globe. He remembered the loneliness. He remembered deciding that it was time to give up. His 12 year old self remembered the doctors telling him he could be out of the asylum and be given a chance to live a normal life but what was the point if and when he got out, no one cared?

“I met a girl.” He started talking again.

“It’s always a girl.” Said the bartender.

“She was different okay? Not like all these s trying to flirt with me and be my temporary girl—“

“Oppa. Maybe I could make you feel better.” Cooed the bartender and when she was gifted with a glare, she put her hands up as if to say, sorry, sorry, go on.

“I met her in the park. Somehow she had wandered there. It was my birthday and another useless birthday card had arrived. I told her about it and she told me that if I worked hard enough I would be able to come out and I could build my own, bigger, brighter future. My own happy ending. And she promised to visit me. Then she ran off.”

“And never came back?” guessed the bartender.

“Nope, she came back, huffing and puffing, a cake box in her hand.” He smiled, recalling the memory. “She sang me happy birthday, the first time I heard the song. But before she could eat it with me, her governess… Ms. Something or the other, dragged her away. She did find ways to come back though until she told me that she couldn’t come anymore but she would wait for me to fully recover and leave the asylum. So I did that.”

He shrugged.

“That’s like a fairytale.” Squealed the bartender. “So you’re looking for her now?”

“No. I’m living with my good for nothing parents. I will definitely look for her once I build the future she told me I could make.”

“Sounds perfect to me.” Shrugged the bartender. “Still don’t get why you’re here. You should go and find your happy ending.”

“Yeah”, said Jonghyun. “I ran into an argument with the stupid parents (AN: Parents out there, forgive me T.T) and needed to blow off some steam. I’ll be lea—“

“Hi, baby.”(reference to Makbanshi:DD)  A guy with a half shaved head leaned on the counter. He was addressing, Ms. Bartender.

“Oh, hi Key.”

“C’mon Cole-ah, don’t be so cold.” He whined, pouting. “Is this guy giving you problems?”

He pointed at Jonghyun.

“Nope, just a customer.” Said Nicole, continuing to wipe the glasses.

“Hi Key, long time no see.” Said Jonghyun.

“Oh, it’s you.” He sniffed, then grinned. “Looking for a rematch?”

Jonghyun ignored the question. “Are you guys in a relationship?”

Key said yes, while Nicole said no, at the same time.

“So you’re cheating on Jjongie?” challenged Nicole. Key cringed.

“He brought his girlfriend~~” He whined.

 Nicole rolled her eyes. “Go find someone else you attention-seeking . Let’s go find the gang. I wanna meet her!” (AN: Gasp! Did she say that to Key??)

“They’re coming over here now.” Said Key.

“I’ll be leaving. See ya, Ms. Cole.” Said Jonghyun, slinging his jacket behind him.

“Bye.” She waved. “Come back anytime.”

“Yah, Jjong, Sica, Onew, Taemin, Minho! Oooover here~!” Key waved at the 5 figures coming over.

So Kim Jonghyun’s girlfriend’s name is Sica? Pondered Jonghyun thoughtfully as he left the club.

~~~~~`````

Seohyun’s POV

I paced in front of the doors, sat down on the stairs, stood up and began pacing again, before sitting down again and slumping down at the base of the stairs.

Please, please, please, let Sica unnie be okay. Please, please, please, let Jjong oppa take care of her properly or at least, bring her home safely~~. Gaah, I’m dying here. I glanced at the clock. Sica unnie said she would be back by 2 am. It was now nearing 3am. I had taken a nap from 11 to 1, setting my alarm clock to make sure that I would wake up and I was now aching to go back to bed.

Suddenly I heard the key turn in the lock. Finally.

“Bye Jonghyun oppa. Thanks for taking me out tonight.”

“Technically it’s morning. Bye, Sica, I’ll see you soon. Wait here okay? I’ll pick you up.”

“Ok~ Bye oppa!”

“Bye!”

(AN: Is it just me or was that whole convo really awkward??^^)

Sica unnie opened the door quietly and tip toed into the house, casting a long shadow in front of her.

“SICA UNNIE~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!! IT’S—“I glanced at the clock. Crap, I fell asleep for another hour. “4am! YOU ARE TWO HOURS LATE! Are you trying to KILL me?!”

She was cowering by the stairs by now.

“Relax, Hyunnie. Pleease. I said that I would probably be back by two and see I promised, I’m not drunk. And Jjong oppa, brought me back, I didn’t have to do it myself. So I would say it’s a success wouldn’t you?” pleaded Jessica.

I stopped shouting and thought about it. Sica unnie seeing my resolve weakening gave me puppy eyes.

“Fine, fine, fine! Yeesh, coming home two HOURs late and expecting me to forgive you.,,”

“Sorry umma.”

“Don’t umma me. I want to hear every little detail about what happened. Tell all!”

“Ok so—“

I sat down beside her as she started telling all the reasons her prince charming was so perfect.

~~~~~`````

Still Seohyun’s POV

Uwaaaah. Crap, crap, crap, oh, quadruple crap!

I had fallen asleep while finishing the reading portion of the homework assigned to us for English. And today, seungseonim, just today, decided to throw a pop quiz at us to see if “we paid attention and did our homework.”

Please, please, please be nice to me, I prayed as I received the test paper and scantron (y’know, the paper with those numbers you have to color in) sheet. I picked up my pencil and nervously waited for the signal to turn the page over and begin.

“You may start the moment you get the test.” Said Kimseungseonim.

I flipped it over and… died.

There was this tiny section of around 5 to 8 questions about previously learned material and the rest of the 2 page long test was about the homework assigned for yesterday.

My funeral is tomorrow, please *sob* come. May no one say I died without trying. I looked over the questions and tried my best to pick the right answer. Halfway through, utterly exasperated, I glanced over at Yonghwa-ssi. He seemed to be calmly filling out everything without pausing. Seemed like that arrogant jerk really did do homework…

What are you thinking, Seohyun! Don’t get carried away, focus, focus, I groaned in frustration. I wasn’t even through the 1^stpage yet.

Half an hour later,

“Please pass it to the partner on the left and down to the front.

When the time given ran out, I handed it in with a heavy heart. I should get the funeral invitations ready. With a sigh, I plopped my head down on the table.

Yonghwa’s POV

Aish, that girl. I glanced over and she was literally ready to throw a tantrum in the middle of the classroom.

Wasn’t she supposed to be the one with the perfect everything?

When she passed her paper to me, I glanced at it. Hers and mine were as different as night and day and I was one hundred percent sure I had at least 95% of the questions correct.

I looked at her scantron again.

Class: English

Grade: 12

Name: Seo Joohyun

Sorry guys… I know. It’s a short chappie but I needed to get this stuff out of the way. I am a shawol but I’m not one of those crazy, all-out, SHINEE is the best fans. (because I don’t like ALL their songs but yeah… ) I’m still a shawol. And somehow I find them the easiest group to write about.. Probably because I’ve seen the most Shinee variety shows compared to other kpop groups.

And I guess because of Jjong, Shinee will be playing a more important part in the story as opposed to just being a cameo.

I’m such a slow updater I know… T.T It’ll get better promise.

Please anticipate and COMMENT please~ Thanks everyone

@Yupp, yupp, I totally agree. I watched You’re Beatufiul and Shinwoo is just like waaaah. So awesome.

And nope, I love the long comments.

Krystal really pisses me off… should I make her stay bratty or have some sort of sudden revelation or smthing?? … And yeah, you know, classic asian parent with the overbearing standards…

YAY! You passed! Don’t worries, I’m sure you’ll ace the SAT too! :DDD I don’t think Yong is srsly in love with Seo at this point though but that just might change sometime in the future!

@leonagho97 glad you dropped by!

Thanks everyone!

Rena