“Please, hyung, pleaseeeeee,” Taemin whined, pulling on Minho’s arm over and over again. “Hyunggggggg…”

“Ani,” Minho said somewhat firmly, but Sunhwa could tell that his resistance was crumbling.

“But it’s the first time we’ve had sugar in a month,” Taemin said, pleading with large bambi eyes.

“Bummie wants ice cream!” Key said, also pulling out his rather loud aegyo and latching onto Minho’s other arm.

Sunhwa, Onew, and Jonghyun couldn’t help but laugh at the sight: Minho trapped by his two members pleading for ice cream. His face was a mixture of bewilderment, annoyance, and what-did-I-do-to-deserve-this.

“Onew, you tell them. You’re the leader,” he barked in desperation.

Onew just grinned and held his hands up. “No way I’m getting involved in that.”
 

“In the meantime, can you get us two ice creams, Sunhwa?” Jonghyun asked oh-so-helpfully.

A louder groan from Minho was heard as she nodded and left.

-

Minho ended up caving when Taemin literally drooled on the tablecloth watching Jonghyun eat his ice cream. They paid the bill and Sunhwa bowed as they stood up to leave.

“Hey, you’re coming to rehearsal, right?” Taemin asked her as he pulled on his coat.

She blinked, surprised at the question. “Neh?”

“Then you can ride with us!” he said happily, giving her a bright smile.

“Ah…I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Sunhwa said a bit sheepishly.

“No, it’s a good idea,” Jonghyun said, slinging an arm around her shoulder which she promptly wacked off.

She insisted stubbornly, “I don’t want to burden you guys. I still have a few more minutes on duty.”

“You won’t be a burden,” Onew said kindly, grinning his adorable dubu smile. “You’re part of the SM family, too.”

“Can’t you boys take a hint?” Sunhwa grumbled.

“Yeah,” Key said, eyeing her ferociously. “She doesn’t want to come with us. Let her go.”

“Don’t be rude,” Minho scolded the umma. “What kind of a gentleman are you?”

“Seriously, I don’t need the ride,” she said, exasperated.

“But Sunhwaaaaaa,” Taemin said, grabbing onto her arm so she couldn’t escape and turning the full force of his eyes onto her, much like he had done with Minho earlier.

She shook it off with difficulty and tried to walk toward the front station. “Taemin…”

“Pleaseeeeeeee?”

She made the mistake of turning and looking straight at him. Blinking quickly, she averted her gaze, but the damage was done. The image of Taemin’s impossibly adorable aegyo was forever imprinted in her mind.

No. Must resist. Must resist. Don’t think about it…

Gah! Why is he so cute?

“Fine,” she sighed, ripping her arm away and glaring at Taemin. “Why are you so unbearably cute?”

He shrugged, a wide grin on his face. “I don’t know. I was born this way?”

“Now that you’ve agreed, let’s hurry up and go. Manager hyung is getting impatient!” Jonghyun said, shooing Sunhwa out of the door.

-

“Annyeonghaseyo, Manager Kim oppa,” Sunhwa said quietly, shyly climbing into the van after all the boys.

“Sunhwa yah!” he said, smiling at her from the rearview mirror. “Annyeong. Aish, how many times do I have to tell you girls to speak informally with me? All it took was one day with SHINee.”

“We’re different,” Onew said a bit smugly from the back of the car.

“Don’t you mean ruder?” Minho asked from his position in the passenger’s seat, raising an eyebrow at them. Sunhwa laughed. She was sitting in the middle row with Jonghyun, leaving Key, Onew, and Taemin in the back.

“Why don’t you call us oppas?” Jonghyun said, revealing an aegyo that wasn’t nearly as cute as Taemin’s.

Sunhwa just rolled her eyes at him. “He specifically asked me to. And he’s the manager.”

“So? We’re idols,” he said, as if the fact that they were pop stars was going to change anything.

She retorted, “I would feel like another one of your crazy fangirls that think they actually are in a relationship with you if I did that. Besides, Taemin isn’t that much older than me anyway.”

“Hey! How old are you?” Taemin said, his voice sounding indignant even coming from the backseat.

Sunhwa sighed. She always lost age battles… “16.”

“Ha! I’m 17,” he said proudly. “Told you so.”

“You’re so young,” Jonghyun marveled. “I feel like I’m associating with a kindergartener.”
 

She punched him without hesitation. “It’s okay, though, because you have the mental age of a one.”

Everyone else cracked up, except Jonghyun, who pouted, and Key, who just hated talking to her for some reason. “Hold up,” Key said suspiciously. “If you’re 16, don’t you have school?”

“Don’t you all have it too?” Sunhwa shot back.

“Onew and Jonghyun graduated already, and Key, Taemin, and I have a tutor that comes around to teach us. We’re trying to graduate soon,” Minho answered.

“Oh God, what if she’s ditching school for us? What have we done? The police will come and find us and we’ll get arrested,” Onew fretted.

Sunhwa laughed. “You don’t need to worry about that. I graduated already.”

“Mwoh?” Taemin said, eyes bugging out. “But you’re younger than I am!”
 

She rolled her eyes. “Thanks for reminding me. But I skipped a grade, and basically studied really hard for forever…so yeah. I’m done with high school.”

“Yah, Sunhwa, that’s really impressive,” Manager Kim said from up front.

She blushed slightly at the praise. “Kamsahamida.”

“But seriously though,” Jonghyun said, eyes still a little larger than normal. “You must have been freaking attached to your books. How did you find time for friends?”

Sunhwa looked down at that and played with her fingers. “Um…”
 

“Oh look, we’re here!” Taemin suddenly announced as the car pulled up to the entrance. He leaped out of his seat, grabbed Sunhwa’s hand, and dragged them both out of the van almost before the car had even stopped.

Onew looked at all the boys. “Um…that was weird.”

Minho shrugged. “Whatever.”

Hey, you. Yeah, you. Come here. *beckons*

*whispers* SHINEE'S BACK.

Can I just say that SHINee is the best thing ever??? Everything on their album and the songs and their comeback is perfect! Aside from the feels, it really reminded me of the reason I write fanfics about them. *tear* It's just that they've come so far...and I'm so proud of them! ^.^

Before I dump gifs of flailing-ness upon you all, I hope you liked the chapter. :)

COMMENCE FANGIRLING. KYAAAAAAA!