chapter02

s e q u i n  r i b b o n  c l i p

  I looked at him from top to toe, my eyes widening as I saw the small object lying in his palms, out to me. A small sequined ribbon-bow, with dark pink sequins, attached to a small clip. In other words, it was a polka-dot clip. The both of them, laughed hysterically as they saw my shocked expression. I barely stretched out my arm before he plopped the small clip into my hands, laughing with his mouth wide open.

  “Donghae-hyung, Eunhyuk-hyung, get real.” I protested. “There’s no way!”

  “It’s so simple.” Donghae laughed.

  I skeptically raised an eyebrow. “Yeah right, why don’t you try it? She’s very instinctive!”

  “It’s just a damned clip, for damned heck, Minho!” Eunhyuk spat at me, still laughing his gut out. “Besides, you lost the bet. Totally. This is your punishment, accept it.” Then as he looked at me, he added something else. “Hey, don’t be ungrateful! We could’ve dared you to kiss her!”

  Hell.

  Hell that it’ll be easy.

  “Look, look!” Donghae pointed.

  To the other side of the stage, I spotted a beautiful girl, with her soft brown hair tied up, her cute curls bouncing as she walked. Her doe-like eyes seemed to glow in the dark stage, with the moving stage lights illuminating her every now and then. A wide smile spread on her beautiful face, like it always was. She smiled cheerfully, skipping down the stage as she saw Changmin-hyung at the other end, giving him a high five with a big smile.

  “Feisty Changmin, huh?” Donghae poked me. “Hitting on your girl.”

  Oh . But since when was she-

  “She’s not my girl!”

  “Really?” Eunhyuk whispered to my ear. “Don’t lie!” He smacked my arm.

  “It’s the truth!”

  Lies. Damned lies.

  “You’ve been talking about it since you were…actually short.” Donghae rolled his eyes.

  I shook my head. “What now?”

  “Stop denying it!” Eunhyuk laughed. “We all know about your pathetic little crush, Choi Minho!” He rolled his eyes. “It’s not the first time someone’s actually dared you to do anything to her, right? Come on, Im Yoona’s not going to fly down and suddenly kiss if you don’t actually make your move, you moron~!”

  Damned teasing.

  “I do not like Im Yoona!” Damn it.

  “You could stop wasting your time, and just go give it and confess!” Donghae laughed.

  I thought of something. “Hey, she’s your scandal partner!”

  “Shut up.”

  “Stop making foolish guesses then!” I tried again.

  Eunhyuk looked like he was going to puke. “It’s not a guess, you idiot.”

  “Then how-“

  “Oh rest it, Minho!” Donghae laughed heartily. “Everyone in the family of SM who can say a single word of Korean knows that you like Yoona, puh-lease.” He could barely control himself as he looked at my fake bewilderment. “It’s so obvious, that I think the only one that doesn’t know is, her, because she’s totally blind to things about love.”

  “I-“

  “Just go give her the damned thing.”

  They pushed me away, as I held the clip with a blur look on my face. I turned back, and saw them both giving me thumbs up, with childish smiles on their faces. I looked front and all I saw were the smiles on the faces of Changmin-hyung and Yoona, who were talking cheerfully. I sighed; it wasn’t the first time that Donghae and Eunhyuk have teased me about Yoona, definitely.

  The homemade pancakes.

  Champagne.

  Her trademark bracelet.

  Yeah, I damned gave her all that stuff. And probably some other stuff. Countless things, that probably I couldn’t count with my fingers and toes. I mean, it’s been like…two years already, and with so many hyungs, obviously I’d be teased to give her stuff. But I sent it by mail like an anonymous fan, of course, like I would actually give it to her in person.

  It’s my effing first time actually giving it to her in person.

  She’s such a beautiful idiot, if you know what I mean. Always so kind, so funny, so sweet, never once complaining or being mean. Her unreadable thoughts seem to always be floating in her mind when I talk to her, especially when all she does is look at her palms. She’s popular in SNSD because she’s the only one who doesn’t give a heck about anything else except trying to be happy.

  How many idols do you see like that nowadays?

  She’s so sweet, that she almost seems brainless.

  I admit, I’m worse than an idiot when I see her. I say stuff I don’t mean, and I start acting like a jerk. She doesn’t get pissed, never. Even when I start showing off, trying to impress her, or acting cool, she just keeps quiet and laughs politely. Sometimes, I think she hears me, but she doesn’t really listen. When I give up, then I’d run headfirst into Yuri.

  Aish…everything about me .

  It’s not effing alright. I’ve got so many scandals I can barely count, and so many girls who I try to entertain. And no effing person outside SM gives a heck about Yoona’s relationship with me. No one ever thought about me and Yoona as a couple who would look good together? Not even President Lee? Damn, it’s my fandom again.

  This time I looked straight, I saw her smiling again, laughing gently as Changmin whispered to her ear, telling her something. She burst into cheerful laughter along with Changmin, patting him on the back as he picked up an unopened bottle of water from the ground and handed it to her kindly. With the both of them…looking damned comfortable with each other.

  If there’s one thing about me, I hate losing.

  I saw the way she smiled as he handed her that bottle, even helping her open the cover. They joked around with each other a bit more before he rushed off to the other end of the stage. I could feel my grip tighten over the small clip, and I was sure, I knew why. She the bottle with a faded smile on her face before taking a big gulp from it.

  That was good to go.

  Then, I just knew what to do.

  “Yoona!”

  I yelled loudly, despite the fact I was at the other side of the stage, and she probably could barely hear me. I called as loud as I could, dashing to her with all my might, holding my towel and that small sequined clip. She turned around, half-confused as she saw me. She broke into a soft smile, directly avoiding my eyes as we looked at each other. A plan formed in my mind, and secretly, I apologized to myself.

  “Yoona, pass me the water.”

  I smiled at, a big wide smile. I knew the sort of smile that would make girls faint at a moment, it was my special talent. That smile, I smiled at her. I stretched out my hand, praying to myself that she wouldn’t notice how much I trembled. But no, she barely looked at me, just keeping her eyes on her bottle of water, pondering things across her mind.

  I know you don’t want to.

  “Yoona, pass me the water.” I repeated.

  You idiot. You’re clearly uneasy, the way you grip your bottle, the way you’re contemplating as if I’m asking you to marry me. Get a grip. You can’t say “no”, even when you want to say “no”, because you’ve got some idiotic assumption in your mind that saying “no” could kill you. You’re being too nice, as usual. Way too nice.

  “Minho, I’ve already drank for this bottle.”

  I could see the way her lip quivered as she spoke, the way she gently said those words, as if she was afraid to offend me. I admit, I chided myself the whole way for acting like a jerk, but she had to face the fact that she was way too nice. But no, she didn’t seem to realize that, kindly looking at me, trying to be nice though it was so obvious I wasn’t being nice.

  “Doesn’t matter.” I smiled as I snatched her bottle. “We’re family, right?”

  Just at that moment, she looked so upset I thought she would cry. She looked down immediately, not even daring to look up. I saw my chance, quickly slipping the sequined bow on her hair, right through her black hair tie, so it wouldn’t fall off. As I looked, it seemed as if the bow was a part of her hair tie. Smiling to myself, she looked up, oblivious to that fact that I had placed something on her hair.

  It’s your fault for being nice.

  I chuckled, ruffling her hair with a smile on my face, turning away from her as I saw her soft smile. Whether she meant her smile or not, I didn’t want to know. I looked to Eunhyuk and Donghae, who gaped like idiots from far away as I took a sip from the bottle of water I acquired from the overly-nice Yoona. I walked away from her, a contemptuous smile on my face.

  Im Yoona, it’s your fault.

  It’s not so bad to be a little bit playful around her, right?

  She’s the only girl I can’t “kill”.

  It’s been three effing years I’ve known her, but I feel like even her fans know her better than I do. She never says anything to me except “hi” and “bye”. She’s sweet, gentle and kind, but when it comes to Christmas gifts, everyone in SHINee would be getting Christmas cards filled with nice words from her, but for me? I got one too, of course, but guess what she wrote? – “Merry Christmas Noona Killer! (: Hope you have a good year, and your girlfriends will probably write more so I’ll sign off now(: Happy Christmas~(:”

  When even naggy Key gets three pages worth of a Christmas message from her…

  I get less than a paragraph.

   “Minho-dongsaeng!”

  .

  Why damned now?

  I turned around, flinging away the bottle of water I had gripped in my hand five minutes ago. Standing in front of me was the smiling face of my scandal partner, the person who the President probably wanted to be around me all the time. With that grin on her face, she handed me a bottle of water from her hands shoving it straight to my face.

  “Yuri, stop that…” I was being nice.

  She pinched my cheeks. “Its just irresistible, Min-nie!”

  Since when did I let you call me Min-nie?

  I don’t even like her. What the crap. And then I’d bet some stupid fan would just pop out of nowhere and post some idiotic crap on the internet about me and Yuri being in a real relationship, if they took a picture of her pinching my cheeks. As if being Krystal’s scandal partner wasn’t enough.

  What’s the point of being handsome if you don’t get the prettiest girl?

  Life .

  “Your bottle.”

  I groaned quietly as she picked up the bottle had just flung to the ground when she called my name. As she leaned down to pick it up, clipped on top of her head, gleaming brightly under the stage lights, I saw the thing I had just secretly pinned on Yoona’s hair. Quickly, I glanced around, turning to see none of the other SNSD members had glittery pink bows in their hair, except for Yoona, for whom I had sneaked to her hair, and Yuri…who placed it on her own.

  “Thanks.” I murmured as she handed it to me.

  “Min-nie~” She called as I got distracted for a second.

  “Uh?”

  She gave me a wink. “Did you just clip that on Yoona’s hair?”

  Oh .

  “Uh…” I thought of an answer frantically. “No?”

  “Don’t hide it.” She smiled cheekily. “I know you pinned it on Yoona…You little Noona Killer.” She laughed as I blushed bright red. “See this?” She pointed to her bow on her hair. “I pinned an identical one on my hair, so you wouldn’t look like you pinned it to Yoona, just in case there’s another scandal, you know.” She added. “I’m a great Noona, aren’t I?”

  What the-

  Like hell she was concerned about me. She doesn’t give an effing damn about Yoona. She’s cheated her way through being famous because she’s claimed to be looking like Yoona. Even fans call her “Yoona-look-alike”. No one ever says Yoona is “Yuri-look-alike”. This how she weeds her way for fame and crap knows what else.

  Oh, our scandal?

  It’s a bloody fake. I don’t know how the hell we got into the damned scandal in the first place. Maybe it was because of the stupid first combined stage between our bands during the “Juliette” days, when the band was forced to draw lots, and Taemin bloody got Yoona when I got Yuri.  Damn it. Ever since then, it was forced on me, and the fans now think “MinYul” is real and all that crap. Oh hell. There’s even that stupid nickname?

  I’m being a jerk, and I know that. Yuri’s just a girl. Krystal’s just a girl. Hara’s just a girl. Every other scandal partner of mine are all girls who are supposedly innocent, and I’m the badass player who’s toying with their hearts. That’s what TV media spreads to the entire world. Creating scandals, and trying to force this image on me.

  I damn hate it.

  “Hey Min-nie~” She called again. “Do you seriously like Yoona?”

  What do you think?

  “I-“ I stuttered. “Nah, Noona. Just a rumor.” Lies.

  “Oh don’t lie~” She smiled at me. “You, being all lovesick and all~? Krystal’s not going to be happy~”

  She pointed to a corner where I saw a pouting Krystal immediately turn away, and it was so obvious that she had been peeping, looking at me and Yuri. I sighed as I placed a hand over my head, whilst seeing Yuri’s satisfied grin. As if she made her point clear – Minho, you’re a Noona Killer, who kills all sorts of girls, and you’re mine, and only mine.

  “She won’t be, Yuri-noona.” I kept my politeness.

  She laughed. “You’re always like this, Min-nie.” She kept that smile of hers as well. “You always seem to be around the same type of girls don’t you? Krystal, who’s too young but not as innocent as she seems. Hara, who’s such a Barbie doll when she tries to impress you. Oh, Son Eunseo, who just tries to flirt with you though she knows you don’t like her. And Yoona…” She began, as she saw me bite my lip. “That pretty face on an empty head.”

  Did I mention … I hate this?

  I don’t know whether Yuri likes me or not. And I don’t care. She fakes her care for all my scandal partners. Then she’ll put up a pretense and tell me why other girls don’t suit me. I hate the fact that she’s damned straight-forward. She knows she’s insulting the others, but she doesn’t care.

 “It doesn’t effing matter, Yuri-noona.”

  I just had a rush of adrenaline as I unscrewed the bottle cap, and poured the rest of the water out on the stage, leaving Yuri gawking. I stepped to the brown haired girl meters away from me, determined. I don’t know what came over me as I tapped her shoulder, making her turn around with a confused look on her face.

  “Yoong, here’s your water.”

  She was innocently confused. “Minho. It’s empty.”

  “That’s the point?”

  “What?” She tilted her head to the side.

  Why are you so damned pretty?

  “Throw it away for me.”

  She bit her lip. “Minho, throw it yourself.”

  “It’s yours anyway.”

  I’m sorry, Yoona.I admit I don’t know what the hell I was doing. It was like, I wanted her to say no. I wanted to act like a jerk so she would say no. I saw the way she contemplated it seriously. Why can’t you just say no, kick me and say you hate me? Why do you have to be so damned kind all the time? Are you inhumane? Do you not have feelings?

  “Fine.” She took the bottle from my hands.

  Why?

  I swore to myself as I smiled at her before I turned away, seeing Yuri smirk ferociously, and give me that “I-told-you” look as she went to talk to Yoona – probably to say something mean. I knew Yoona was angry, but I just wanted to say something to her. But I could only keep my image if I was a jerk. We were onstage, for hell’s sake.

  I’m an idiot.

  I’m an idiot who’s madly in love with a girl who I know, is way too good for me. I never know what to say, so this is what I do – act like a jerk. My friends tease me about it, and the other girls would laugh at my cowardice. I’m a coward, though I’m often portrayed to be brave. I can’t…I can’t even be nice to her, because I’m just afraid.

  Being a jerk…it makes me stop being afraid.

  This is it.

  “I told you, Minho. Foolish loves don’t count.”

  I turned around to see Yuri smirk. Man, I hate that.

  Enough is enough.

  “You know what Yuri? Screw it.”

  I walked away from her in huff to the other part of the stage. I know I need to stop. I need to stop being afraid. I need to stop acting like this. Who cares about scandals, media, and money? I mean, it’s all important…but is it really important to me now? I’m screwing my own happiness, getting into scandals I don’t want, and getting an image that makes Yoona think I’m just any other jerk. I can’t go on like this forever.

   “Ugh…”

  That doe-eyed girl was back already. In her hands, she held five bottles of water, almost crumpling down under the weight of it all as she dumped it on the ground. She looked exasperated, but I saw the kind way she tried to control it, as she looked at me. But I held myself back, and just raised an eyebrow.

  Gosh, I could really earn a lot from acting.

  “What. Is. This?” I know what it is.

  “Yuri-unnie wanted me to bring you water.”

  Now Yuri’s bullying her again?

  I couldn’t help but laugh gently. “Return it.”

  “Yuri-unnie wanted-“

  “I already drank yours.”

  Damn that was damned acting like a jerk.

   “You can take these as extras.” I saw the way she tried. “Later you’ll be out of water again so-“

   I’m sorry, Yoona.

  “You care so much for me?”

  I know I was pushing her to her limit, as I saw her biting her lip harder, seeing her get angrier and angrier by the minute. I didn’t want to be a jerk. I just wanted her attention, for once. If I don’t make her angry, she probably just wouldn’t care less, and I would never get to tell her why I acted like that. Come on Yoona, just blow up and get angry at me, stop holding it in.

  Please.

  She wasn’t doing anything. She just stood there, nicely. I tried again, laughing at her to mock her, trying to make her angrier. But no, she just gave her usual, doe-eyed expression, with that sweet smile tied to it. I couldn’t stand it, then I thought of something.  Laughing continuously, I leaned to her ear, praying to myself that this last sentence would work.

  “Betraying your unnie for me, aren’t you?” I whispered. “You little fox.”

  It still didn’t do anything.

  What the hell is wrong with you, Yoona?!

  “Minho-“

  “Return them to your unnie then.” I passed the bottles to her. “I don’t want them.”

  She shook my head. “Yuri-unnie’s not going to be happy.”

  I was on a roll.

  “Or you could open one of them…” I winked. “And drink from it.” 

  Her eyes widened. “What the hell are you implying?”

  Yes, you’re finally getting angry.

  “Well, your lips did touch that bottle.” I smiled knowingly. “Indirect kiss, you know.”

  One last sentence.

  “Donghae-hyung’s so going to be shocked when he finds out I’ve kissed SNSD’s beauty.”

  That did the trick.

  …

  “YAHHH!”

   Shedropped her microphone down, yelling loudly as she dumped the bottles back to the ground. Glaring at me with a killer gaze, she kicked me hard in the shins, making me groan as a sharp pain shot through my leg. As I stumbled and fell down, I saw her rage as she hurled the bottles at me with unspeakable rage. With glistening tears in her eyes, she rushed off from the stage.

  Finally.

  I know it was jerky. I know I was being stupid. I know that she probably doesn’t even care for me in the first place. But I love her. No matter how unbelievable that is, I love every frickin’ thing about her. Ever since I debuted, I’ve loved her. Life’s not a fairytale when it’s actually easy to tell the truth. The only way was to act like a jerk, and I’m sorry for it.

  I want to be with you, Im Yoona.

  I chided myself, as I stood up, ignoring the looks from the rest of the SM family as I rushed behind to the stage. This time I knew what I was doing. This time, I’m not going to screw up the way everyone else thinks I will. I won’t be a coward, or a jerk any more. I want to tell the truth. And I swear I’ll set things right.

  Even if it means not being “Flaming Charisma”, for once.

  I remembered that pink ribbon, with the sequins.

  “That sequin ribbon clip will be my truth, I guess.”

~~~

Hey everyone^^ How was this chapter? okay, I'm sorry if I slapped MinYul with insults. I'm just sick of MinYul, so yeah. And I'm not insulting Hara or Krystal, I swear. Yuri said those words in this chapter, and I just made her be mean. She said bad stuff about Yoona too, so yeah. MinStal shippers, don't be disheartened! I'm only against MinYul, but I swear I accept MinStal(: But Minho's kinda epic in this chapter, huh? I suppose y'all never thought he might turn out to be a coward.

Btw, the pink ribbon thing. Only Yuri and Yoona wore sequined ones during SM Town Seoul 2010.  I listened to Rebecca's advice and I watched some fancams. :D It would be kinda epic if this story's true XD And Krystal's in the next chapter:D I'll be doing Krystal's perspective, so be sure to watch out for ChangStal and MinStal scenes:D and maybe some YoonStal too:D 

AND...I HAVE A NEW FANFIC ON YOUR MUSTREAD LIST :D It is called Valentine's Day-> http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/42290/valentine-s-day-fxband-keycole-minyoon-ontoria-shinee-snsd-taelli a new fanfic by me:D OnToria, JongSica, MinYoon, Taelli and KeyCole are inside:D

Also...there's this new fic I really like :D Engraved ->http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/42004  by OnceUponATaem. It's only got it's foreword up, but it seems like it's going to really become a hit :D It's really cool:D It's a Taelli fic:D 

The Candyredhearts Series:

|| Dear Juliette || Flower Tears || The Deer & The Flame ||

||  The Edge of Love || One Spring Day || Cho Sarang ||