Sighing and Happiness

Lucifer's Butterfly

Minho had decided to give her some space since his lonely game of Wii Sports. They had only seen each other at dinner that night, and now it was the next day. All the guys were in one of the rooms of the mansion, sitting on the floor. Kibum sat behind the girl and gently brushed her hair. Well, he combed his own half the time but he gave her the unneeded attention too. Jonghyun and Onew were playing some type of drinking game in the corner. Minho was playing his PSP and Taemin was brushing Luna, his large wolf companion (not named after his fellow SM family artist. He had owned Luna way before meeting that girl).

The girl watched an episode of some drama on the flat screen TV that hung on the wall across from her. It was interesting enough that she would sometimes get engaged into the plot enough to ignore her situation.

Key waved the brush in the air, just a gesture to accompany his speech. “Ugh. Really. How the heck did she get sick from being in the rain for less than a minute? Sometimes these dramas are ridiculous.”

“It’s in the Korean drama script writing rule book,” said Jonghyun. He poured himself a glass of something, set it on fire and drank the flames. It was completely unnecessary, but he was bored and like watching Onew get a bit nervous every time the alcohol was alit with orange flames.

Onew finally got up off the ground and walked over to the girl, pulling her up and stealing her away from Kibum. “Hey!” Kibum complained.

“I’ll bring her back. Don’t worry.” Jinki assured the younger guy while he ushered the female out the doorway and towards his room. She sat on his bed and looked around the room. She’d seen it before, but she always observed her surroundings. This very spot, on that bed where she sat, was the spot where all her beliefs and her old, mostly normal life turned to ash.

“Let’s talk.” Jinki pulled up his desk’s chair to sit directly in front of her.

She looked at him guardedly. “About?”

“Anything. What’s on your mind? I want to know more about you.” Jinki replied.

“What’s on my mind? What’s on my mind is how I’ve been kidnapped and held here against my will by supernatural beings who I thought were my friends.” She said as calmly as she could.

Jinki frowned a little and looked puzzled.

“What’s so hard to understand about that? How could you not see that this is wrong?” She tried to convince him.

Jinki knew it was wrong. To her most of all. To them, the guys, well, they thought she was basically their other half, their soul mate. And they couldn’t bear letting her slip through their fingers. Maybe it was their worst choice ever to reveal to her what they really were. That way, they could at least continue to be close friends with her. They were afraid, and rightfully so, that while knowing what they were, they wouldn’t be able to see her anymore. Just the thought of it made Jinki want to wince.

“Can…can you just learn to be okay with this? It’s not that bad right? Food, shelter, love. We’ll give you anything you want.”

“I want freedom.” She looked into his eyes pleadingly and he had to look away.

He changed tactics. “I know you don’t know much about demons, but Taemin and you formed a blood contract. It’ll be extremely painful for both of you if you break it. We care a lot about promises.”

He was surprised as her brown leather cuff bracelet with the spiked studs came flying past his head. He turned his head quickly enough to see it hit the wall and fall to the carpeted floor. “THAT’S NOT FAIR! I DIDN’T AGREE TO THAT!” Jinki was more surprised than angry, but he was put on edge just a little bit by her outward, aggressive display of opposition. Her heart thumped hard to her and she took deep breaths as she tried to calm herself down. It wouldn’t do her any good to make Jinki angry. The fight in her eyes dissipated and she slouched back down into the bed, looking at her hands that trembled ever so slightly.

The boy knelt down in front of her and held her hands in his. He traced the lines on her palms as he chastised her. “If you had done that to any other demon besides us, or had done that a century earlier, I wouldn’t be able to trust myself with your safety…”

She stiffened just slightly before forcibly loosening her muscles one by one. No, it really wouldn’t be good to anger Jinki. “If I promised to not tell your secret, would I be able to go outside and live my normal life?”

He dropped her hands and leaned back against his chair. “You haven’t acted in a way that would make us trust you enough to let you out. And we’re not just keeping you close because we’re worried about you telling the world about us. You’re so much more to us than that…”

She almost smiled wryly. He sounded so sappy right then. There was silence for a while. They wouldn’t look at each other. “How are my aunt and uncle? Did anyone notice that I’m gone?”

He didn’t know what to tell her. He didn’t want to make her feel even worse, knowing that her relatives were desperately searching for her.

“They’re fine. They looked for you a bit, but I’m not sure about right now…”

She swallowed her sobs. “…How about Gongcheul?”

He stiffened and his toes curled in distaste at that name. He said indifferently. “I think he stopped looking for you a long time ago.”

She breathed in deeply, held it in as if she was trying to cease her breathing forever, and then finally let out a long, large sigh. Jinki sighed also. He said solemnly, “Sighing makes your happiness go away. Please don’t sigh anymore.”

The corner of upturned, but not prettily. “Don’t worry Jinki-ah. I don’t have any more happiness to lose.” She fell back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. Jinki looked on sadly. He wished he had more experience with girls, but then again, this probably wasn’t a normal boyfriend-girlfriend experience to experience.

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“…bad boy…”

“CUT!!!!” The music stopped and the director got up off his seat and walked up to Onew. The director looked so tired and actually looked ready to pull his hair out and weep. “Jinki-gun…why? Oh why is your face like that???” Jinki looked a little taken aback and timidly responded, “My face…?”

“You may not look cool or nice but you’re a pretty decent bad boy! Why do you look like you want to go pet the butterflies and dance heads, shoulders, knees and toes??? Fix your expression! Be more charismatic! Drag your fingers across the tabletop boredly and look good doing it! Look like you own that marble table dammit! AIYSH! Take a break.” Jinki felt really bad and sat down on the white marble counter top or whatever it was supposed to be. He sighed and slumped his shoulders. The staff felt bad for SHINee’s leader.

“Sighing makes your happiness go away.”

He looked up and was startled to see a girl he never noticed before. “Eh?”

“Just saying. Yeah some people sigh in relief but most of the time, it’s a sigh of weariness, sadness, or some other negative emotion. What little happiness that you did have inside of you gets pushed out with your sigh. You’re just collecting all that bad energy around you. I can practically see the dark aura clinging to you.” She said as she unnecessarily dusted off the marble.

“So you can tell that I want to go lock the PD in the closet, pretend this never happened, and then go home?”

“Uh…not exactly but now I can kind of imagine that…,” the girl smiled and walked off the set. Onew followed because there was no point in staying on the set that brought on his depression while he was taking a break.

“Onew-ssi!” The boy turned his head towards the staff member who was calling him but he continued to walk forward. As a result, he bumped into a table, knocking over the small piece of furniture and the small, varied objects that sat on it. To avoid stepping on the delicate props, he stumbled and twisted his body in various ways but just ended up falling on his side. “Ugh!”

Staff rushed over to see if the lovable leader was okay and to clean up. Onew blinked as a smooth looking, long- hand came into his view. “Are you okay?” He followed the hand to its owner and saw the girl that spoke weirdly of sighing a mere minute ago. Awkwardly, he took the offered hand, but it wasn’t really necessary because he still did most of the work of getting up on his own anyways. He winced as his skin stretched, irritating a newly made scrape. “I have the first aid kit. Come on.”

As the staff rushed to put everything back before the grouchy director returned, Onew followed behind the girl like a dog being led. Kibum tilted his head to the side in observation as the two teens passed him.

“It doesn’t look bad at all,” said the girl as she disinfected the small wound.

“Yeah. This will heal in no time. You don’t really have to do this.” ‘Not an exaggeration,’ he thought.

“Wouldn’t it hurt your pride if such a small scrape turned ugly or you got sick from infection?” she tried to reason with him.

“….I never really thought about that.”

She carefully stuck a fuchsia-colored band-aid with rainbow smiley faces on his palm and patted the top of his hand. “There you go. All better!”

He laughed as he looked at the fun colored band-aid. “Thanks.” Then the boy realized something all of a sudden that he should have figured out earlier.

“You’re the one Jonghyun was talking about! You ARE young…”

“Jonghyun-ssi? I can’t imagine why he would talk about me. We barely spoke for more than a short while. What did he tell you?”

“He said you wanted to kidnap and torture us…,” he eyed her weirdly because she definitely didn’t look like the type to do such a thing.

“So that’s what he said, huh?” She looked around the studio, searching for the guy that she suddenly felt the urge to throw something at.

Onew steered the topic away from his fellow member. “So how’d you get this job? I’ve never seen someone so young working as a staff member. Are you an intern or something?”

“Nah. I’m going to a university to become a veterinarian. This is just a job for some extra money. That kind of education isn’t free unfortunately.”

“Ah…that’s interesting.”

“I bet…not as interesting as your life though right.” She winked at him and he shifted in his seat awkwardly at the cute gesture.

“How old are you? Are you a nuna?”

“I don’t think I am. At least, not your nuna. I was born in ’90.”

“So that makes me your oppa then.”

“I guess you are…”

There was silence as they both felt awkward.

“Haha…nevermind,” said Onew to break the silence.

“Haha…,” she laughed awkwardly also. ‘I don’t know you well enough to call you ‘Oppa’.’ “So…that was nice flexibility and balance you had there.”

He looked at her as if she was some weirdo. “Are you making fun of me?” he asked with a smile.

“Not at all. I’m not. I mean, sure, it was a little clumsy of you to bump into the table in the first place but you did pretty well at not stepping on and breaking anything. It’s a compliment. Really.” She tried to assure him.

“Ah…thank you then.”

“Jinki!” Onew stood up at hearing the manager call his name. “Hyung?”

The manager rushed over and saw the bright band-aid on his hand. “Aiysh…” The older man noticed the girl. “Ah! Hello. How are you?”

She bowed in greeting. “I’m fine. Thank you.”

“It’s nice seeing you again, but you have to excuse us. Time to get back to work Jinki.”

Onew was a little surprised that his manager seemed familiar with the young girl but dismissed the mental question as he saw the director reenter the studio. He bowed once in thanks towards the girl and then walked back to the set. Kibum spied the leader’s hand and lifted his eyebrow. “Nice band-aid Dubu.”

“Cute, isn’t it? I like it.” He smiled stupidly.

“It actually is kind of cute. I kind of want to buy some now…” Kibum was completely serious.

Onew laughed. “Like we actually need band-aids.”

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THEA's Corner <3

RULE: No potentially harmful/offensive comments from now on and especially no name calling! Penalty will be a delay in chapter no matter who calls me names. Even if it's an anti.

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Posted: 09 May 2010 (Winglin)
Posted: 20 July 2010 (Asianfanfics)
5 pages out of something I don't feel like checking right now...

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ebonyexalted #1
Chapter 68: idk if you’ll ever come back to this but i for the life of me hope you’ll finish it. you’re sooo close and such a talented writer like you and this story deserve closure. ik it’s been over 10 years but quality never dies. i came back after all this time and can’t believe there was never a final resolution!!
jonginybear #2
Chapter 1: this is sooooo good!!
Yeoliipopp
#3
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Yeoliipopp
#4
:::::
Yeoliipopp
#5
!!!!
Yeoliipopp
#6
???
Yeoliipopp
#7
I want to complete it
Yeoliipopp
#8
????
Yeoliipopp
#9
???
Yeoliipopp
#10
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