It was New Year's Eve. She spent the day alone in one of the many cellars of the mansion. Dust and cobwebs tickeld her nostrils but she endured. This was where all the more interesting herbs and ingredients were kept. She found an inventory written in old Korean and Latin (a confusing combination) and started her own system of cataloging using that as a base.

Ever ambitious, she figured that after every shelf of objects she sketched and noted, she'd go and look for a book that'd tell her about that dried leaf, that crushed stem, or that pickled fruit that looked more like hellish eyeballs. By the end of the day, she had drawn pictures of one shelf and was only able to identify and find information about one jar of ground nuts that looked more lke gray fish tank gravel.

She brought one jar of dehydrated blossoms to the library with her and had five books open and spread across the floor. Maybe this wasn't as exciting or as quick as she imagined it'd be, but she wasn't cripplingly put off.

'What a way to spend the end of 2009 though,' she thought as she dropped  the pen on her notebook and put her head down. It was 11:54 P.M. Almost the New Year. A sudden wave of homesickness crashed over her and she sighed. It's been a while since she's felt that. Most of the time she just thought about surival and then studying in conjuction with that drive to live in this dark world.

"Just you and me, Luna." The wolf perked its ears at its name but did nothing else as it lounged by the fireplace. The SHINee members were all wrapping up their last performances for the year.

11:56. She got back to trying to figure out what these dried blossoms could do besides make mediocre tea.

11:57. The needle on her watch shot towards the window. All quietness ceased as Taemin burst through the door. He panted and held his knees as he gasped for breath.

"Taemin! What the?!" She shot to her feet and held her chest. "Scared the living soul out of me!" She almost dropped the jar she was holding.

"Ran...all the way...here...from ...the...highway..." Twigs and dead leaves stuck to his hair which was beyond wind blown even with all the styling product in it.

He struggled to produce sound. "Wanted...to...make it...on time..."

"What?" she half yelled, still in a state of alarm.

Just when he was going to catch his breath at 11:58:08 P.M., a pile of guys stumbled through the door and knocked him over.

"GAH!" "!" "!" "GET OFF ME" "WHAT TIME IS IT!" "WHERE'S KEY?!"

They scrambled to untangle themselves while Luna yipped in amusement and circled them.

Key fell out of the mirror. "! Why do all the girl groups want to talk to me all the time?! What time is it? 11:59 and 57 seconds."

The guys jumped to standing and more so screamed than anything, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

The boys set off streamers, blew horns, and threw confetti. The human held her hands over her ears at the commotion, and Luna howled while trying  to eat some of the falling colors. The fire in the fireplace seemed to also roar in excitement.

"You guys...," she lowered her hands from her head but reached up again to brush stars from her hair.

"What? You thought we were going to let you spend this moment alone with petrified wood as your friend?" Jonghyun said as he pulled out sparklers and threw a pack at her.

Her hands automatically caught the projectile lest it hit her in the chest and she stared at it as if it were foreign.

The firestarter handed out the sparklers to the rest of the group. "Need a light?" A small flame tipped each of his fingers on one hand so that the guys could light their sparklers.

Taemin was too excited and lit his before everyone else.

"....We're indoors..." She watched as the maknae ran around the room with the crackling stick and Luna chasing him.

"You don't have to worry about that while I'm around," Jonghyun assured her and held out an unlit hand towards her. The human just looked at the group dubiously.

Taemin came a to stop while holding his sparkler far out of reach of a curious Luna. "Oh come on! I can't be the only one to play with these! You guys are making me feel like a kid!"

Glancing at her workspace that looked pretty messy from the festivities, she took a deep breath and held out a sparkler towards Jonghyun. He held his arm straight out towards her and produced a small candle flame from his index finger. She raised an eyebrow when he didn't move any further.

"One meter bubble of personal space right?" Jonghyun said.

She eyed him curiously. "Right..." She took one step forward and stretched her sparkler towards the flame. When it started spewing lights. the guys all grinned and lit up more. Minho extinguished the fireplace to have the room only be lit by smiling faces and sparklers.

credit to sojuberry's tumblr

Thea's Corner <3

I undersestimated your quickness to reply and my laziness. So like a day or two late (>_<); But at least not like 3 months late right? Short but something. I typed '2009' and was thinking, 'whoah. so long ago.'
Seems like Onew got the most votes for favorite within the story. LB's Minho has no fans it seems :P Maybe I should go watch more clips and interviews of him to get into the zone when writing his parts.

Posted 01 May 2014