The world outside the van window seemed cold. In the literal sense, outdoor temperatures had dropped to a piercing -4 degrees Celsius since nightfall and walking outside felt like diving into a frozen lake stark . Figuratively, Joo Yeon had not replied to the text Taemin sent her earlier that day and her unusual dismissive behavior had provoked an embittered aura into the world.

Taemin closed his eyes, leaned back in his seat, and sighed very loudly. This was not strange and therefore, those around him guiltlessly chose to ignore it. Taemin was tired, they’d conclude, and reacted accordingly by not trying to obnoxiously ask him “What’s wrong?” Everyone in that van was tired. Obnoxious behavior is severely frowned upon at this time.

As SHINee’s manager drove cautiously through the frozen streets between the SM building and their dorm, Taemin allowed the deep, reverberating hum of the drive simmer through his senses and isolate him from the world that was too unkind. Since having left Joo Yeon at her apartment without another word after their tiny argument on whom she was talking to on the phone, neither Taemin nor Joo Yeon had humbled themselves to be the first to say something, anything. It was only today – three days post-phone conversation argument – that Taemin finally sent her a text (nothing special, just “Hey, good morning my darling”). At 11:46 PM– that’s 13 hours after Taemin’s text was first sent – Joo Yeon still had not replied back.

The van finally pulled up into its usual parking spot in front of their dorm’s building. Taemin slipped out of it and that was when he finally felt his phone vibrate in the pocket of his backpack. He pulled it out as he waited outside of the elevator in the building, viewing the new message that he had received.

Just got home and saw your text. Long day today. Will talk to you tomorrow. xx

His heart sank into the bottomless pit of his insides. Onew absentmindedly pushed past him in order to get into the elevators and Taemin snapped his head up and hopped onto the elevator.

***

Joo Yeon stared blankly at her desktop computer, swatches of Andre Kim’s spring collection displayed on the screen in front of her. She was supposed to be writing up an article about Kim’s most recent shift to a vibrant, brighter selection of colors for his newest designs, but something was obviously eating her attention away. Her colleague, Na Eun snapped her skinny fingers in front of Joo Yeon’s face.

“Hey,” she called out. “You’re not expecting the article to write itself, right?’

Joo Yeon wordlessly reverted back to reality, pulling up closer to her computer and began clacking away on her keyboard like a writer doped on Red Bull. Na Eun continued to watch on with a concerned expression on her face. She had a good feeling that there might have been a serious rift between Joo Yeon and her Hallyu star boyfriend (of whom she still has no idea of his identity), because the latter usually acted strangely whenever that happened.

Na Eun looked up at the large analog clock on the wall as soon as it struck midnight, sighing.

“God, look at the time,” she whined. “You’d expect to leave the office at the same time everyone else in the magazine leaves, but nooo. Nope. We had to stay here until we get out these pieces before the deadline like a bunch of animals.”

Na Eun threw a sideway glance at Joo Yeon, who merely grunted in response. Making conversation was futile and Na Eun could only do so much to try to make Joo Yeon feel better. Joo Yeon continued to type away and after one final on the keyboard, she quickly clicked around with her mouse and finally proceeded to shut off her computer. Joo Yeon picked up her purse from the ground.

“I’m going to go now,” she said to Na Eun.

Her colleague nodded quickly, proceeding to save and close her work as well. “Sure, good idea.”

Joo Yeon said nothing, her heels sharply clicking on the linoleum floor of their department’s office. Na Eun hastily picked up her belongings and half-ran to catch up to Joo Yeon.

“You wanna go get something to drink?” Na Eun asked Joo Yeon, skipping up to her. “You look like you’ve just seen a dog run over by a truck. Or something of that sort.”

Joo Yeon scrunched her little nose. “I’m sorry. I’m just a bit tired.” She pressed the down button on the elevator. “I’ll pass on your invite.”

The elevator did not take too long to slide to their floor. The cab doors opened up, and Joo Yeon and Na Eun stepped inside. Joo Yeon solemnly bid Na Eun goodbye as they reached the ground floor.

“What? You’re not driving home?” Na Eun asked, as the elevator doors slid open. They had parked inside the garage at the basement of the building.

“I really am too tired,” Joo Yeon lamented, already stepping out. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She left Na Eun and headed outside where a shiny black Jaguar was parked at the front of the office building. Joo Yeon heaved a sigh while descending down the steps and the driver of the Jaguar got out. A huge grin played up the feature on her already beautiful but pallid face, as the two got closer.

“I see you got my text,” Jong Yoon said, opening his arms towards Joo Yeon and giving her a friendly hug. He felt warm in her arms, and she felt cold in his.

“I couldn’t keep an old friend waiting.” Joo Yeon lifts one shoulder in a playfully careless shrug.

Jong Yoon smiled at her. The lights emanating from the Ceci magazine’s office building added a deeply misty glow on Joo Yeon’s face. Jong Yoon wanted to say that he might be re-falling in love with her, but that’s pushing it and at that moment, it wasn’t the best idea to push it.

“Well, shall we get going then?” He asked, offering his elbow out for her to cling onto. She entangled her arm around his and the two walked to his car.

“Are we going anywhere tonight?” Joo Yeon raised her eyebrows. “It’s nearly midnight. Nothing’s open now except for bars and a few good restaurants and in all honesty, I’m not in the mood to eat or drink.”

“Au contraire,” he said pointedly. “I heard that there was a gallery opening for Kim Su Kyeong right now. Also, it’s rumored that her new work is truly something to not miss out on.” Jong Yoon opened the passenger seat’s door for her. His smile widened when he noticed Joo Yeon get excited.

“Kim Su Kyeong, really? It’s almost always impossible to get tickets to her gallery showings and wow, she’s amazing. How did you – ” She paused, realizing that she was talking to Oh Jong Yoon. “Family friend?” She assumed.

“Nope,” he smirked, gesturing her inside his car. When Joo Yeon was settled into the passenger seat and Jong Yoon got in the driver’s seat, he the ignition of his car. Ella Fitzgerald’s music began to play from the iPod connected to his car stereo. He turned to her. “Actually, she’s my friend.”

“I am so impeccably jealous.” Joo Yeon laughed, reaching over and lightly slapping his shoulder.

“Me too.”

***

Onew makes green tea for the rest of the group that remains awake after a long day at the SM building. Taemin likes when his hyung brews the tea because it usually always comes out right and he can’t seem to figure out how to replicate it even if – goddamn – it’s just adding the hot water to a bag of tea. But when Onew makes tea for him, he feels good. So he doesn’t miss a beat when he hears the older member making a pot in the kitchen. Taemin appears when Onew is just about to pour a cup for him.

“Thought you might have needed this,” Onew said, pouring Taemin’s helping.

Taemin took the cup from his hyung, slowly taking a sip. Not too strong and not too watered down. “You thought well.”

The two boys went to the living room with their cups where they found Jonghyun watching a recap of the evening news. The only leather couch in their living room is much too small for the three of them so Taemin and Onew settled on the floor.

On the evening news, a young correspondent for the Life and Style segment was interviewing a popular and internationally known artist about her new gallery opening that was supposed to be happening that very evening. The artist’s name, Kim Su Kyeong, was eerily familiar to Taemin.

“That’s Joo Yeon’s favorite painter,” he heard himself say. He suddenly remembered all of Kim Su Kyeong’s paintings that Joo Yeon had aptly used to decorate her otherwise bland apartment walls.

“You should get tickets to her next gallery opening, then,” Jonghyun suggested.

Taemin continued watching the news bit, pondering on that suggestion. It made sense to go on a date at some art gallery. It’s sophisticated and Joo Yeon would be so pleased to see that he made an effort to consider her interests. He’d just have to find the time. Their Dream Girl comeback was rolling close.

After the artist Kim Su Kyeong droned on about her artwork and how she was recently inspired by some movie about a Tibetan tiger and an Indian boy lost at sea, the young correspondent cut to a new interviewee.

Taemin nearly dropped his teacup. “You’ve. Got. To be. Kidding me.”

Both Jonghyun and Onew looked over at Taemin, who was staring at the screen in wide-eyed surprise. They then looked back at their TV, where a charmingly good-looking man was being interviewed. The little caption in the corner said he was Oh Jong Yoon, the gallery’s owner.

“Oh hot damn, someone call Key over here,” Jonghyun commented, leaning closer towards the television and increasing the volume. Jong Yoon’s smooth baritone resonated around their dorm and it felt like Taemin’s ears were about to fall off. “That guy’s too handsome to be an art gallery owner. Key will get a kick out him.”

“He’s not gay,” Taemin grumbled. Jong Yoon onscreen began to talk about his interest in Kim Su Kyeong’s work and why he felt the need to sponsor her newest collection. Taemin wasn’t listening to the rest. He was too busy deconstructing Jong Yoon’s case. Or mostly just himself thinking “No you don’t enjoy her eclectic taste and use of color you gelled-up, snooty , you just like Kim Su Kyeong because my girlfriend and your ex girlfriend absolutely adores her so take that and stuff it up your – ”

“Taemin,” Onew intercepted his thoughts. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, bro, you look like you’re about to scream bloody murder,” Jonghyun so aptly remarked on Taemin’s clenched fist and tightened jaw.

“Do you know him?” Onew continued to interrogate.

Taemin nodded stiffly. “That’s the guy I’ve told Minho and Key hyung about. He’s the guy that I think Joo Yeon is going to cheat on me with.”

“’Going to’?” Onew parroted. “You mean, she hasn’t cheated on you yet? Not that I expect her to, but what makes you think that she’s going to do such a thing? And how do you know it’s with him?”

“He’s her ex-boyfriend, from high school. He just came back from Chicago or whatever god-forsaken city in the States.” Taemin downed the rest of his green tea like a shot of Tequila and wiped the back of his sweater sleeve across his lips. “They went to high school together and he’s apparently her only other boyfriend before me and now he’s back and looking like that,” he gestures furiously at the television screen where the young correspondent is gushing embarrassingly at Jong Yoon’s charisma, “and I don’t know. She’s being alarmingly distant right now. And if your ex comes back in your life looking like that,” Taemin points at the screen again, but this time the evening news switched stories to the nuclear sanctions in North Korea and file footage of Kim Jong Un is shown on the screen and it sets an awkward tone on Taemin’s rather serious and passionate aside, “then I don’t know… what to… do…”

“Well, if my ex came back into my life looking like the dynastic dictator of North Korea, then I wouldn’t know what to do, either,” Jonghyun deadpanned, keeping the straightest face possible. Onew snorted into his tea and Taemin punched Jonghyun on the stomach.

“Nobody takes me seriously around here! Shouldn’t I get some credential because I’m finally of age?!” Taemin bellowed out in dire frustration.

“Alright, look, get a grip of yourself, and grip real hard because you’re losing it, man. If you really want to think you’re of age then I swear to God you seriously are, what with you getting all insane in the style of King Lear and . You’re going crazy and being insecure and need a good bit of confidence.” Jonghyun took hold of Taemin’s shoulders and squeezed them tightly. “Go out on a date with Joo Yeon and seriously, treat her like a new kind of woman. If you know what I mean.”

Onew, in all his sweet innocence, merely nodded in agreement.

“I’m surprised you’re bringing Shakespeare into this,” Taemin said.

“Been wanting to make a reference all along with The Merchant of Venice, but King Lear will have to do,” Jonghyun replied noncommittally. “But anyway, as I was saying. You’ve got nothing to worry about with this Jong Yoon kid. So what if he’s the ex? He had his chance and definitely can’t take it back because you’re in the picture.”

“What’s the worse he could do to lure her in, anyway?” Onew added, rhetorically.

“Exactly. I’m sure Joo Yeon wouldn’t leave you just because he’s got money. You have money, too, if that helps. Unless, of course, he uses his money to try to get into her good side without her knowledge.” Jonghyun said.  “Like, if he brought her to the gallery opening tonight, well, that is totally going to . Isn’t it?”

Why, yes, it totally would.

Author's Note: Oh, yes, hello. I have finally updated and sorry about the wait! I just noticed the subscriber count and felt guilty because oh my, that is quite a lot of subscribers for only two chapters thus far. Life is happening, and it's happening too quickly for me to update. But don't worry, I'm so invested into this awesome story that I can't be begged to disregard it. I hope you enjoy this chapter! And as always, please leave your love in comments!