It was erroneous to say that Taemin had a lot on his plate.  In the metaphorical sense of the word, “a lot on his plate” consisted of trying to memorize choreography in only three days and impressing judges at some televised voice talent competition. However, in Taemin’s case, he couldn’t even see this metaphorical plate because SM Entertainment had decided to spotlight all of their attention towards their new boy group, and man-cuddling with Jonghyun was not enough to gain back the momentum that SHINee had once been so proud to possess. The pressure was all on him and the four other members of SHINee.

Basically, he had a lot of work to do.

That meant long weeks of not meeting up face-to-face, twenty minute phone calls, and if Joo Yeon or Taemin were lucky, it meant for late nights at some closed-off bar with one or two friends to ward off insinuations that the two were “exclusively dating”. SME doesn’t play well with media coverage of their artists dating non-gasoo members of society.

However, it was today – thank the Lord in Heaven for showing his mercy – that Taemin was able to get out of filming some sappy music video with a sunbae from the company.

“Oh for the love of God,” Taemin muttered, pulling his girlfriend from under the rain. The awnings protruding from their respective establishments served as a make-shift shelter for the two lovebirds as they rushed to a trendy coffee shop a few blocks away. Well, mostly just Joo Yeon was keeping dry; Taemin was feeling the cold reality of being part of a relationship.

“Finally,” breathed out Joo Yeon the minute they entered the warm vicinity of Coffee Tree, a hip coffee shop that smelled like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and mocha beans. Taemin sighed out in relief, but that wasn’t because they were finally under a dry roof. Not one of the coffee shop patrons prolonged their glances upon him. It was either a good thing because his new hair color was helping him disguise himself, or it was a bad thing because it might imply that his popularity was seriously waning. For a brief second, he mulled over the days where he couldn’t get out of the dorm without a mob of young women at his wake.

“Honey, what do you think about getting the mocha latte?” Joo Yeon asked, looking up at the chalkboard menu of the shop on the wall behind the counter. “And I’ll get the white chocolate latte, so we can trade later.”

Taemin chuckled, pulling out his wallet. “Whatever floats your boat.”

Joo Yeon approached the counter, where a young man seemed to be crouched behind while re-stocking the cabinets underneath it. He stood up in all his six-foot glory, and he didn’t seem to be donning the same, black polo that another employee behind the counter was wearing. Instead, he was wearing a fitted light blue long-sleeved button down tucked neatly into a slim pair of dark trousers. His hair, layered and styled sleekly above his forehead, accented his smooth, narrow face, and soft, thin lips.

And it was like that. There was slightly the grimace of such profundity in this sort of coincidence, but it was so inexorably simple. A vision unimpaired only enticed by the sight of one another.

The man behind the counter with the expensive, ironed shirt and the expensively styled hair: behold, Joo Yeon’s ex-boyfriend.

“Jong Yoon?” She nearly exclaimed, leaning against the counter as if getting a closer look would assure her initial skepticism. The young man smiled widely at her, and Taemin continued to stand back watching the exchange unfold.

Of course he knew about this Oh Jong Yoon chap. They both knew about each other’s past lovers, and truth be told, either parties couldn’t boast a long list. Taemin only dated two girls before meeting Joo Yeon, and as for Joo Yeon, well she only dated one.

From what Taemin’s heard, Jong Yoon was a genius extraordinaire, though quite lazy in exponential limits. Supposedly this was brought upon by the fact that his grandfather was a notable judicial figure and his dad was the current CFO of a huge natural resource conglomerate in Seoul. He lived alone in a bachelor-chic apartment even while he was going to high school because his school was too far from his families’ residence. The last that Joo Yeon has heard of him was that he had gotten accepted to Yonsei University but turned it down to study at the University of Chicago in America.

But here he was, one year later, even better looking than the time Joo Yeon had broken up with him. He never saw him in person, but Taemin could only judge from the pictures that Joo Yeon and Jong Yoon took when they were still together. His physical appearance was breathtaking, he had to admit. Taemin swallowed thickly, feeling insecure in the presence of this sort of porcelain god figure. He was too damn tall, too damn good looking, and leaning too damn close to his girlfriend.

Taemin stepped up to stand next to Joo Yeon, throwing an arm around her waist to, you know, claim what was his.

“We’ll have one mocha latte and one white chocolate, venti,” he said, feigning a deep, stentorian voice that might alarm Jong Yoon off. It didn’t.

The other man just smiled pleasantly ringing up their orders on the register. He never took his eyes off of Joo Yeon.

“It’s good to see you again, Joo Yeon,” he told her. “How long has it been?”

“Far too long, I suppose,” she replied, her voice high-pitched like a schoolgirl being offered the role of Dorothy in a school production of The Wizard of Oz. “I thought you’re supposed to be in Chicago?”

Taemin watched silently as Jong Yoon lived up to Joo Yeon’s description of him being lazy. The uniformed worker was the one preparing their drinks while Jong Yoon glued himself behind the register, talking to Joo Yeon.

“Well, it’s winter break for us right now, and I don’t have to get back until the third week of January.”

“Wow, I thought the American school system was a lot more different than ours,” Joo Yeon remarked. Taemin pursed his lips tightly; Joo Yeon was an equally intelligent young woman and if there was one thing that he didn’t like about her, it would be when she tried to act dumb to elongate conversations with people.

“Slightly,” Jong Yoon shrugged. “What about you though? I heard you’ve gotten accepted to Kyoto University. That’s amazing.”

Joo Yeon tipped on her toes, and from that gesture, Taemin knew she was uncomfortable and he knew why. She laughed nervously.

“Um, I actually deferred their acceptance,” and then after noting Jong Yoon’s sudden confused expression, she added quickly, “But just for a year though!”

“Deferred?” Jong Yoon asked, concerned.

“She’s taking a gap year.”

This time, it was Taemin who answered it for her. Joo Yeon and Jong Yoon seemed to shut up after that, like it was some kind of odd inclination that it was rather rude of Taemin to into their long overdue conversation. When the uniformed barista brought them their lattes in venti-sized paper cups, Jong Yoon took the liberty to hand it to Joo Yeon, giving her one more earth-shattering smile.

Taemin suggested that maybe they take a good walk outside, but the heavy downpour seemed to speak for Joo Yeon herself. Defeated, he chose a booth that was farthest away from the counter and for safe measure, took the seat facing it so as to catch Jong Yoon throwing glances over at his girlfriend – if ever he should try.

The smile that Joo Yeon shared with Jong Yoon was still pathetically plastered on her face as she took a sip from her white chocolate latte.

“So,” Taemin spoke up. “How’s it going over at the magazine?”

It took a while for Joo Yeon to respond. “The magazine? Oh. Yeah. Things are good.”

Usually, Joo Yeon took this time to go on a long narrative about how their managing editor all treated them out to lunch at some expensive Japanese restaurant where they randomly bumped into a famous actress and then successfully booked her to do an editorial for next month’s issue. But her answer was alarmingly short, considering that they haven’t had a chance to talk in a while.

Taemin wasn’t dumb. Taemin knew that Jong Yoon had something to do with her lackluster response. He glared outside the window, where the cold rain hit the pavement ferociously. He looked around the coffee shop to see Jong Yoon now outside of the counter and conversing amicably with a pair of women a couple of tables away.

“Jagiya, honey,” Taemin said, taking a hold of Joo Yeon’s hand, “can I kiss you?”

Joo Yeon’s cheeks encompassed with a deep shade of red. “Wh-what? Taemin, are you crazy? We’re in public!”

“Come on, when was the last time I kissed you?” He answered, nearly laughing. And without waiting for her reply, Taemin got up and leaned over the table to give his girlfriend a really good kiss.

Jong Yoon looked over at their booth, watching Taemin kiss Joo Yeon. A small smile played up in the corner of his lips. 

Author's Note: Hey guys! Just a short chapter, but I just wanted to start off the story on a simple foot because it's going to get all crazy up in this ! Ok, maybe just slightly. Obviously. Also, as I've mentioned in my A/N in the Foreword, I have been away from the Shinee fandom for a while so there are things I don't know or have found out very recently (like that MV Taemin did with BoA, which is referred to in this chapter), so if there are anything anachronistically wrong with Shinee-related stuff in this story,  forgive me. Please leave some love and comments and other good things, I'm so excited about this story!

PS: I miss you guys!