She was leaning against a tree while watching Taemin “play” in the indoor garden area. It was a massive room with a glass roof, real grass, trees, and other plants. There was even a pond with a miniature waterfall. This was as close to getting outside as she could come. Luna was close by, within reach. She was still a little wary of the wild animal but the girl could not deny that it was a beautiful, powerful creature.

The normally fragile looking Taemin was currently wrestling with a bear AND a wild cat. No lie. He was rolling on the grass with a huge black bear, and the boy had displayed his hidden strength more than enough times while tossing the heavy mass of bear around and his hidden speed while dodging the pounces of the big cat in his play.

All the SHINee guys were clingy but Taemin was probably the one who literally clung to her the most. She had to be careful with this one. It was hardest to lift her defenses against Taemin because he was just so…Taemin. The other guys tried to spend time with her by taking care of her. Taemin used a different tactic and made her take care of him. She thought it wasn’t fair, using her motherly instincts in his favor. However, it was times like this that put her on edge the most when it involved Taemin. That display of power, agility and animalistic ferocity in a human form was frightening.

A pair of tiny white butterflies flew across her view, taking her gaze away from the wild boy.

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The girl carefully carried the jar that held the live butterflies. She set the container down next to Taemin, who just happened to be leaning against the table. “Wow! They actually got real butterflies for this?” The maknae’s eyes widened as he stared at the trapped creatures.

“Yeah. I wonder where they got them though. Poor things. I hope they let them go afterwards. In like a garden or something.” She turned towards the boy. “How’s your little furry friend?”

“Huh?” He looked away from the jar. “Oh! I left her at home. I thought that’d be best.”

She smiled. “Yeah. Probably.” She started walking away, and Taemin walked a little behind her.

“So do you like animals?”

“Yeah. You can say that I’m an animals and nature kind of girl. Large animals, small animals, domestic and exotic. Love them all.”

“Really?” His eyes shined and she couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“Aw…you are so cute.” She grinned.

He became embarrassed but he knew she wasn’t saying that he was attractive to her by her tone. “I don’t want to be cute… ‘Let’s see you call me cute when I claw at your pretty throat…’ His nose twitched just barely at her delicious smell.

“You don’t like being called cute? Aw…I’m sorry,” she genuinely apologized.

He then felt bad for thinking such thoughts and genuinely replied, “…I guess it can’t be helped.”

“So how’s filming coming along for you?”

He looked down at the ground at the thought and sighed.

“Ah…I see…” She patted him on the back and would have given him a hug if they were better acquainted. “Don’t worry about it. Fighting!”

He didn’t feel so bad anymore and smiled. With a small bow, he thanked her, “Thanks nuna.”

They both reached the snack table and got some stuff to eat. While walking to a different room, Taemin found himself inching a little bit closer to her as they walked. Not too close though. He wasn’t going to act like a creeper towards an almost stranger.

“Do you own any other pets?” she asked just to start conversation.

“Yeah. I have a few. Canines, felines, and other animals you’ll probably recognize…”

“That’s nice. When I become an animal doctor, you better bring them to me.”

“You want to be a vet?”

“Yeah. Ever since I was little. If not a vet, I still want to work with animals. I like them, and they usually like me. Some of my friends say I must like give off pheromones or something because all their pets just love me. Or I give off this calming sort of aura. Like I swear, sometimes when I pass by houses with loud, barking guard dogs, they don’t bark at me.”

“I’ll bet… That’s interesting.” He tilted his head to the side.

She smiled. “What are you doing? You look like a confused puppy.” She stuck a sandwich in front of his face. “Here. Eat more and grow up strong so I can’t call you cute anymore. You’re very pretty by the way too.” He frowned at her for the comment but she winked at him and he couldn’t get upset at her. After a moment’s hesitation, he bit into the sandwich that was being held in front of his face and then took the whole thing from her.

“Taemin-ssi,” a staff worker called. Taemin bowed to the girl and quickly scarfed down the food as he was being pulled out of the room.

“Hmm….well, now I need another sandwich. I got to stop giving away my food.”

Onew was filming right now so Minho got to have a break from the picky director. He laughed at something an older male staff member said as he reached for a sandwich from the snack table but quickly retracted his arm as it closed over something smooth, warm and definitely not a sandwich. Looking up, he apologized to a young girl who was reaching for the same sandwich as Minho was chatting.

“Sorry.”

“No. It’s fine.” Minho picked up a different sandwich and she took the one she was originally aiming for. She left the studio to eat her lunch in peace.

“I’ll see you in a bit hyung.” Minho and the other guy parted, and Minho walked towards one of the waiting rooms to sit down and eat quietly. He stepped into the room but paused, seeing the girl he apologized to earlier. It would be awkward eating silently with her because she was the only other person there. However, if he just left the room now after entering it, he might look rude to her.

They bowed towards eat other in acknowledgement, and Minho sat down at one end of the table. He suddenly remembered seeing her before. “Hey thanks for covering for me back when I left that coffee on top of the filming equipment.”

“Oh? No problem. I almost forgot about that. Yeah. My fault in the first place. I left you that drink.”

“Oh really? Why would you do that?”

An older woman stopped by the room.

“Oh! Can you watch my daughter for me? Just for a few minutes,” the woman begged the girl.

“Of course unni! That’s no problem at all.” The girl bent down to the level of the child. “Hello cutie. What’s your name?” The mother thanked her and hurried out.

As soon as the mother’s heels weren’t heard anymore, the quiet child started screeching. The girl stepped back in surprise, and Minho almost choked on his food at the sound. The child started running around the room, falling a couple of times, but always getting up. If there was more stuff in the room, the child would inevitably try to knock everything over. Instead, the little girl did the next best thing. The hyper child started rummaging through people’s bags.

“Oh no! Don’t do that!” the girl rushed over and scooped up the little girl, but that just put more energy into the vocal chords of the child.

Minho really wanted to run away but he didn’t think abandoning the girl to fend for herself against the screaming kid would be very nice. “Do you need help?”

“Yes!!!”

Minho took the kid from the girl’s arms and tried bouncing and rocking the kid. He regretted his choice of taking the kid because now he had the screams going right into his ears. The teenage girl quickly searched her bag for anything at all that might calm the kid down. She pulled out a carton of banana milk and a small lollipop and waved it in front of the kid’s face. The kid stopped screeching, interested in the treats. Minho put the little girl down, and the older girl surrendered the sweets over to the child. As soon as they were in the little girl’s hands, the kid tried to run out of the room. Minho quickly stepped around the kid and blocked the doorway. The child didn’t look too happy with that. Minho became just a bit nervous as the kid’s eyes conveyed a message of ‘I’ll scream and cry if I don’t get what I want.’

“Um…um…” the teen girl was frantic, not knowing what to do. The little girl turned around as she heard the three bears song. She was interested again. Both the little girl and Minho watched in fascination as the older girl embarrassed herself by dancing and singing to the children’s song. The little girl turned back towards Minho and stared at him expectantly.

“Uh…,” Minho became even more nervous.

A few minutes later, the mother came back and paused in the doorway at the sight before her. Minho and the girl were singing “Juliette” to her daughter. Well, it wasn’t very good singing, and those dance moves definitely weren’t the ones to that song. The mother shook her head. There goes her image of the charismatic, cool-looking Choi Minho.

After the lady and her daughter left, the two teens slumped into their chairs.

Minho watched as she fanned her tired self with a napkin. “You’re pretty good with kids,” complimented Minho.

She gave him a look. “You call that being good with kids?” The two were silent for a bit and then broke into laughter. “I’ll never watch a ‘Juliette’ performance the same way again! Hahaha!”

“Your three bears song was pretty funny.”

“Woo…I’m so tired now. Man it’s warm in here but that’s just probably because of us moving around so much,” she took a swig of water.

“Is the air conditioner on?” Minho moved over to the thermostat and fiddled with it. “I’ll turn it up.”

He sat down across from her and she looked at him for all of five seconds before giggling again.

“Ahhhh!” Minho covered his head with his arms, embarrassed.

She tried stifling her giggles behind the napkin she was fanning herself with not too long ago. “Sorry. Sorry.”

“Hehe…” she put down the napkin. “Ah…that made my day. Thank you Choi Minho. My break is ending now though. Thanks for helping me with the little girl.” She got up and stretched. “I don’t want to leave this nice cool room.”

“The studio is air conditioned too.”

“Oh yeah…forgot. Ha.” She bowed to him before leaving the room and Minho behind.

The director had just called cut when she came close to the set and she winced for Onew as he was yelled at. While walking onto the set, she heard him give a big sigh. “Sighing makes your happiness go away,” she told him.

“Eh?”

Back at the room, Minho sat and finished his sandwich quietly. As he got up to leave the room, two guys entered. “Here’s the thermostat,” one guy with glasses showed the other one. “Do you think you can fix the air conditioning in this room by tomorrow?”
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THEA's Corner <3

I was going to post up a Key chapter and end the first meetings with that, but I felt like I owed a more detailed/better first encounter with Taemin and Minho. You know, since Onew and Jonghyun got chapters to themselves.
Next chapter will probably be up within a week.

Posted: 11 May 2010 (Winglin)
Posted: 20 July 2010 (Asianfanfics)
4 pages out of 74