Chapter 24: The First Test
First Love and It Hurts
Chapter 24
“Annyeong, Taemin! Your first test will be with us.” Eun Joo said while carrying baby Yujin.
“Annyeong Eun Joo sunbaenim!” greeted by the boys.
“Do come inside first before Hyunsuk sees you. He still doesn’t know that five tests are commencing for Minji. The whole family knows except him. Cause if he knew, he’ll send Minji away from us again. Isn’t that right, Yujin? You were crying when Minji unnie wasn’t here to play with you.” Eun Joo said.
They entered 2NE1’s practice room.
“The girls are on a recording right now. Bom said we can use their practice room for your test with me and with Yujin.” Eun Joo said.
“Uhm, sunbaenim, what kind of test would you subject Taemin on?” Minho asked.
“You’ll see. Taemin, I want you to play with Yujin. If you make her laugh three times within an hour and a half, you pass her test. Minji can make her laugh and smile in that time span so if you can’t do it Yujin wouldn’t approve of you as her unnie’s boyfriend. My test for you is you must make a gift to give to Minji. I must emphasize the word MAKE. You have to give it to me at five p.m. Then, I’ll see through your work if you could make her happy. I’ll leave you guys with Yujin. I’ll be back after and hour and a half. Oh! This room has a hidden camera so I can monitor you and your hyungs can’t help you PHYSICALLY. They can only help you by telling you things and cheer for you.” Eun Joo gave Yujin in Taemin’s arms and then she left.
“Hmph! I want to hold the baby but my son can only hold her!” Kibum ranted.
“Hyung, help me.” Taemin asked.
“You have to make Yujin laugh, Taemin.” Minho said.
“How would I do that? Yoogeun isn’t this small plus Yujin is a girl.”
“Still she’s a baby. Taeminnie, you can do this. Taeminnie Hwaiting!” Jonghyun said and made a gesture of a girl’s hwaiting.
“Eww, gross. Hyung stop doing things like that. You’re creeping me out.” Minho and Kibum said. Jonghyun glared at them.
“Yeah, you could do it.” JinKi encouraged.
Taemin cuddled Yujin and treat her as Minji’s little sister. He cooed over the cute little thing and made funny faces, but Yujin only laughed once for over thirty minutes.
“It’s a lot harder than we all thought.” Minho said.
“Time to call our Bommie noona.” Jinki said.
“Since when did you call Bom noona, Bommie?” Jonghyun asked.
“Oh, about that, I picked it up from Chaerin.”
“You are talking to my Chaerin without my permission hyung?”
“I just overheard her whining at Bom noona over the phone.”
“Okay, hyung break it up. Taemin’s time is running.” Minho said.
Jinki called Bom.
“Hello, Jinki-ah, what’s up? Is something going wrong?”
“Noona, how do Minji make Yujin laugh?”
“Oh. Actually we don’t know either. When Minji visits Yujin, she immediately laughs or smiles. Hang on a sec. Minji-ah, how do you make Yujin laugh?”
“Yujin? I just embrace her and tickle her on her right side using my face or sometimes I use Jjangu’s voice calling her name. Why unnie?” Minji said.
“Oh. Nothing. Eun Joo unnie just asked.”
“Oh. Okay.” Minji answered.
“Jinki-ah, heard that?” Bom asked.
“We all heard noona, you are on speaker phone. Thanks Bom noona!” Taemin answered.
‘It’s been yesterday, since I heard her voice. Her usual voice. Minji-ah, just wait.’ Taemin thought and smiled.
Taemin did what Minji said over the phone and Yujin laughed not just twice but four times. He then played with Yujin like she is his own little sister. Taemin smiled while he played with her like an oppa with an overwhelming love for his baby sister.
Eun Joo came back twenty minutes earlier.
“Taemin, you passed Yujin’s test. Now, you have two hours to make Minji’s present. I’ll wait for you in the café near the building. Remember 5 pm. If you don’t pass this test, you won’t take trainer Hwang’s test. Good luck.” Eun Joo said.
SHINee went to the mall to gather materials.
In the van:
“Hyung, what should I do? What should I make?”
“Taeminnie, relax. Think. What would Minji like?” Jonghyun said.
“She likes Stitch the most.”
“Then make her a mini Stitch doll.” Kibum said.
“Oh, I remember something. She also said before to me that she likes Gundam. The robot you assemble.” Minho said.
“Why don’t you do both?” JinKi said.
“Will you all help me?” Taamin asked.
“Why do you think we are here with you?” Jonghyun said.
‘I have something to give her. Not those two gifts.’
They went to the store where you can buy materials for the Stitch doll, and then they went to find the toy store to get a Gundam. Taemin picked the Wing Zero gundam. They went back to the YG building unnoticed with Eun Joo’s help. They were in 2NE1’s practice room. Taemin assembling the Gundam while unknown to him his hyungs are taking his pictures. After an hour of Taemin’s pure concentration, the Wing Zero gundam is finished. Taemin started with the Stitch doll. He only has an hour left.
“Our Taeminnie has become really manly.” Kibum said.
“Taemin beat me. I could never do this.” Jonghyun said.
“Hyung, even for Chaerin? What if I steal her from you? I can do what Taemin is doing right now if the girl I really like is at stake.” Kibum said sarcastically.
“Don’t you dare, Kibum. You’ll never know what hit you.”
“Hyungs, stop it.” Minho said.
As his hyungs are busy with the Chaerin topic, Taemin put something inside the doll’s pocket together with a picture.
Meanwhile:
♫ I want to make my place next to her not as a friend but as a man ♫
“Minji-ah, your phone is ringing.” Chaerin said.
“Hello?” Minji answered.
“2NE1’s Minzy?” said the caller.
“Yes, this is she. May I know who is calling?” Minji asked politely.
“This is Kim Heechul of Super Junior.”
“Heechul sunbaenim? Why did you call, sunbaenim?”
“Can I meet you today? I want to see you about Taemin.”
“Okay, sunbaenim.”
“I’ll see you at a café near SM building at 3 pm.” Heechul said then he hung up.
“Unnie, our recording is finished, right?” Minji asked.
“Yup! Let’s go eat ramyun!!” Dara said while putting her arm around Minji.
“Unnie, I can’t. I’m going to meet someone.”
“Who?” The three asked.
“Super Junior’s Heechul sunbaenim. He wants to meet me.”
“Go, Minji. Just text us when you are finished.” Dara said.
‘Something’s odd with my unnies. Bommie unnie asking about how I can make Yujin laugh and Dara unnie letting me meet Heechul sunbaenim without any argument. Something is up but I can’t quite put my finger on it.’
Minji went to meet Heechul.
2NE1’s Practice room:
“I’m finished!!!” Taemin said.
“Let’s go! You barely have ten minutes Taeminnie!!” Kibum said.
SHINee ran out of the room to meet Eun Joo.
At the café:
“Eun Joo sunbaenim, here it is.” Taemin said while he handed his handmade gifts to Eun Joo.
“Wow, you made these two gifts within two hours? I’m impressed. This gundam is very difficult to assemble. I’ve watched how their manager assembled Minji’s gundam before and it takes a lot of work. You even sew a Stitch doll for her.”
“Sunbaenim?”
“Oh, don’t call me that, I feel old. Just call me Eun Joo noona, I’ll feel better.”
“Noona, did I pass?” Taemin asked with his heart pounding in his ears.
“Of course! You pass my test. I’ll give this to Minji. Don’t worry. I’m on your side. I just gave this test to you to know if you really know our Minji and how would you make her happy. Judging by the way you made this two, I can see how much you love her. So, go now to our building, Jiyong is waiting at the fitness room.” Eun Joo said.
“Thank you, noona.”
“Taemin, do your best okay? Oh, and another thing, Minji doesn’t know you are taking these tests so keep quiet.”
“Okay, noona.”
By the time Taemin went out of the café, he was bombarded by questions.
“What did Eun Joo sunbaenim say?” Minho asked.
“Did you pass, son?” Kibum asked.
“Did she like the gifts?” Jonghyun asked.
“Tell us now!!” Jinki said.
“I passed hyungs!! I need to go back to YG building, GD sunbaenim is waiting by the fitness room.”
“Then, let’s go.”
Inside the café:
‘Lee Taemin, you are really in love with our Minji.’ Eun Joo then, inspects the Stitch doll. ‘Wait, something’s inside this doll’s pocket.’ She looked inside and then smiled. ‘Lee Taemin, you are one sneaky guy. You’ve got guts. You gave Minji three gifts. I’ll definitely vouch for you when the time comes that you are going to be tested by Hyunsuk.’ She smiled and texted Bom. ‘Bommie, I have something to give Minji later, I’ll drop by your dorm later.’
“Sunbaenim.”
“Oh, JinKi. I thought you went with Taemin.”
“We want to give this to you.” JinKi handed a small notebook to Eun Joo.
“What is this?”
“It’s a small diary of what happened in the practice room. We hope you can give it to Minji. This is our gift to her for making Taemin more responsible and mature when it comes to love.” JinKi said.
“Okay, JinKi. I’ll give it to her. Thank you.”
Previously at a café near SM building:
Minji is waiting for Heechul to come when,
“Minji-ah!!!”
“Yoona unnie? Hyoyeon unnie? Sooyoung unnie? What are you doing here? I thought you were in Japan.”
“We heard something weird is going on.” Yoona said.
“Hee-nim specifically called us to test you.” Sooyoung said.
“Test me?”
“He said that you and Taemin are an item. Although we gushed and said the two of you are perfect, he insisted on testing you.” Hyoyeon said.
“Minji-ah brace yourself, although we three approved of you, the other six are here to test you.” After Yoona said that, the other six members of SNSD appeared together with SuJu and f(x).
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