Listen

Vera is awaken to someone jumping on her bed.

“Ireona, jagiya~. We have stuff to do~!” Taemin chimes, laughing to himself when she starts to move around. “Ireona~” he says, jumping on her faster.

“I’m trying to sleep,” she grumbles, pushing him off her.

The male falls onto the bed and rolls into the spot beside her, a smile on his face as he sees her try to go back to sleep. “Vera~”

“Taemin~” she mocks him, as she faces her back to him.

He pouts when he notices this. Reaching over to put his hand on her shoulder, he turns her over so that they’re facing each other. “We have to go~.”

“Go where?” she asks, acting dumb.

“To the beach, pabo,” he smiles at her as he ruffles her hair.

“What time is it?” she asks, starting to give in.

“Noon.”

The girl huffs as she shakes her head. “Too early. I haven’t had breakfast yet.”

“We can get some on the way.”

Vera finally opens her eyes so she can glare at him. “You really want me to go, don’t you?”

He nods, trying to keep his face neutral so she’ll agree.

Sitting up, she sighs before getting out of the bed. “Fine. But you owe me,” and drags her suitcase into the bathroom. 15 minutes later, she walks back out and slings a bag over her shoulder. “Ok, I’m ready.”

Taemin stops happy dancing to look up at her. A smile bigger than the previous one forms on his face when she walks towards him. “You look so pretty.”

“I look so hungry,” she mutters, grabbing her room key.

The vampire smiles to himself as he follows her. “Off to breakfast, then,” he says, taking her hand in his and vanishing. “Wait here,” he says, as they appear in another hotel room.

“Woah, where are we?” Vera asks, looking around concerned. She had known that he had wanted more skinship, but she didn’t think he had wanted it that soon!

Taemin smiles again as he notices the worry on her face. “This is my room. :)”

“But I thought I got the only single room?”

“Minho hyung and Key hyung are still sleeping,” he says, returning back to her.

“So why are we here?” she asks, sitting on his bed.

“Room service,” he declares, with a wide grin.

“This is how you’re paying me back?”

He nods. “We’ll charge everything to the hyungs’ account,” he says, joining her.

Vera’s lips smile to match his own. “You’re such a bad dongsaeng.”

The vampire chuckles as he grabs the phone and hands her the menu. “Be sure to buy the expensive items,” he adds.

She laughs, but nods as she scours the menu. After a humorous exchange of Vera helping Taemin pronounce the items she wanted and ordering the room service, it finally arrives at the door. “Gracias,” the American smiles at the person as they roll the food in on a cart and leave.

“‘Gracias’?” the Korean repeats, the strange word rolling off his tongue beautifully. “What does that mean?”

“It’s thank you in Spanish,” she explains, smiling as she beholds the food in front of her.

He nods. “You know Spanish?”

“I know very little. It’s easy to pick up some Spanish in America.”

Taemin pouts as he sits beside her, resting his head on her shoulder. “So that means I have to learn Spanish, too?”

Vera laughs. “Not exactly. But you do have to work on your English. You can’t always rely on me to help you.”

He sits up with a determined look on his face. “Ok!”

“Ok?” she asks, turning to him confused, as she eats her breakfast.

“From now until we get to the beach, we can only speak in English.”

Amused by his proposal, Vera turns to face him, a smirk proudly on her face. “Really? Because you know, I’m not going easy on you.”

“Fine,” he responds in English, sounding cocky.

“Fine!” she repeats, happy to switch back to her first language. “Are you going to eat anything?”

“No. I’m not hungry,” he smiles proudly.

“Don’t steal my food, then,” she says, through a mouthful of food.

“What did you say? Can you...repeat that?” he asks, leaning in so he can hear her better.

“Don’t steal my food,” she repeats, not even slowing down or enunciating for him.

Taemin nods, pretending to understand what she said, and reaches over for a bottle of juice.

“Hey! That’s mine,” Vera replies, reaching over.

“Would you like to something drink?” he asks, opening the bottle for her.

The girl has to put down her fork to laugh at his Engrish. “No, I’m fine,” she finally gets out as she calms down.

“What?” he asks, watching her eat again, with a confused smile. “Did I say something weird?”

“It’s ‘would you like something to drink’,” she corrects, laughing to herself as she plays back his words in her head.

He repeats her sentence and shrugs, finding no difference. “That’s what I said...”

Vera just shakes her head and softly giggles at his pride. “Of course it was,” she says, going back to eating.

Watching her eat the breakfast reminds the male of his own hunger, so he tries to sneak some food off her plate. When he’s caught by Vera, he just innocently smiles and stuffs his mouth.

“I thought you said you weren’t hungry?”

“Maybe, I lied?” he continues with his innocent smile.

She shakes his head and lets him get away with stealing her food. “Try this,” she says, breaking off a piece of bacon and holding it out to him.

He surprises her by eating it directly from her fingers. “What’s this? It’s very...” he searches for the word to describe it.

“Salty? It’s supposed to be like that. Do you like it?” she asks, trying to ignore the glaring fact that she technically just fed him.

He nods, his lips of some grease. “It’s good.”

“Do you want more?” Vera offers the rest of the plate to him as she stands up.

Smiling, he nods and looks up to her with aegyo in his eyes.

“What?” she looks at him confused. “Is something wrong?”

“Can you...do it like before?”

The girl stares at him for awhile, trying to figure out what he means until it hits her bright as daylight. “Do you want me to...feed you?” Say no. Say no. Say no.

He nods afterwhile. “Please?”

She sighs and sits back down. “You owe me,” she says, before tearing off another piece for him.

The second before she holds it out to him, a red-faced Key strolls into Taemin’s section of the suite. “Taeminnie, do you know where Minho kept the aspirin?”

The maknae chews the bacon and thinks for a minute, unfazed about seeing Key drunk. “No...” he replies in English, still.

“Yah. Don’t you know it’s too early for English? My head hurts,” the drunk vampire walks around the room, still looking for something to take the edge off his hangover. “Oh, Vera’s here, too?” he asks, finally noticing her. “It was so cute watching her make you jealous yesterday. You two are so cute.”

Taemin just holds back his laughter as he waits for his hyung to leave them again. “Vera?” his smiles falls when he notices an apprehensive looking Vera.

“Ready to go?” she asks, standing up again.

He blinks at her but finally gets up with her. “What?” he asks, as they walk through the hall.

“Nothing,” she shakes her head and stays silent.

“Ok?” he just shrugs her off and skips along with her.

“You know you can switch back, if you want.”

“What?”

“You. Can. Switch,” she says, in Korean.

Taemin stops to grin at her.

“What?” she asks, back in English.

“You said something in Korean >D”

“Only because you couldn’t understand!” she points out, shying away from the evil grin that stayed on his face for longer than would be comfortable.

“That means you owe me,” he says, still grinning at her.

“I don’t! It’s your fault I had to switch back to Korean.”

“You owe me and that’s final,” he smiles and starts walking again.

Finally reaching the beach after a silent, glare-filled walk with Taemin, Vera huffs. “Fine. What do I owe you?”

“You’ll find out later >D” he says, before leaving her to change. After the two change, they meet back together. Taemin immediately wraps an arm around her possessively and walks with her over to the welcoming ocean water.

“Will you tell me now?” she asks again, but with a different tactic: aegyo.

He thinks for a second. “I’ll give you a hint.”

Vera smiles, triumphantly. “Ok. What’s the hint?”

“Sunflowers,” he smiles wider at her when he sees her smile fall.

“Sunflowers?” she repeats, searching his face for some other clue.

“Mm hmm,” he nods and walks out in front of her to test the water. “The water’s fine. You can come on in.”

“Sunflowers?” the confused girl whispers to herself as she walks in after him into the cool water. Realizing he’s not going to explain anytime soon, she just huffs and musters up a smile. “So what’s up first, Taemin sunsaengnim?”

The male smirks at her joke, but rolls his eyes. “You said you can float, so float,” he says, as she sits down in the water.

“Will you pay attention to me today? And not glare at every person that passes by?” she smiles at him teasingly as she giggles at the memories of yesterday’s events.

“Sunflowers,” Taemin replies, with a breezy smile as he goes deeper into the water.

What do you mean by ‘sunflowers’?! Vera huffs again, trying to not let her rabid curiosity get the best of her, as she follows him. “If I float without your help, will you tell me?”

A faraway look comes over him as he pretends to think for awhile. Finally, after baiting her for awhile, he sends her a smile. “We’ll see. :)”

Determined to win the explanation from him, Vera hurries to float. While her technique was correct-she had arched her back properly-because she couldn’t calm herself down in all her competitiveness, the girl starts to sink. And as she starts to sink, she starts to thrash her arms in attempt to stay afloat. “Taemin, help me,” she yells with a shaky voice, as she gets more and more scared of drowning.

Noticing her freak out, the vampire swiftly lunges his arm into the water and pulls her to him, his other arm automatically wrapping around her. “Gwenchanna?” he asks, as she tries not to cough on him.

She nods, struggling to get words out as she coughs. “I-I think so.”

“Did water go up your nose?” he asks, trying to be serious, but his eye smile says otherwise.

Vera laughs at his childishness, but nods. “Unfortunately. But I’m fine.”

“That’s what happens when you don’t listen to me,” he comments, still laughing, as he eases up on his grip on her.

“What are you talking about? If you just told me about the sunflowers, I would’ve been able to float,” she retorts, still sour.

“Try to float again,” he says, ignoring her comment.

“But I don’t want to drown :/”

“You won’t drown, I’m right here. Just try to float again.”

Looking at him for a second to muster up some courage, she finally nods and starts to float again. But not before muttering “If I drown because you were glaring at someone, it’s all your fault.” Earning a laugh from her boyfriend, she lays on top of the water and tries her best to stay afloat as she makes some faces at him. While it works at first, slowly but surely, she starts to sink again.

Before she even has a chance to react, Taemin reaches under her and holds her up. “Arch your back more,” he says, blushing slightly at the skinship.

“If I arch anymore, I will break my back,” she replies, laughing as she attempts. In her attempt, she catches a glance of his reddening cheeks. “And what are you blushing for? You’re the one who wanted more skinship.”

He laughs at the truth of her statement, but that doesn’t mean he blushes any less. “Shut up,” he counters, wanting to desperately cover his face. “I’ll let go now, so try to float by yourself, ok?”

“Ok,” she calmly replies, even though she mentally pleads for him to hold her up for a bit longer until she got comfortable. The girl waits for the feeling of sinking to come again, but doesn’t feel it. “Are you still holding me?” she asks, turning to him.

Smiling proudly, he shakes his head. “Nope,” he says, showing her his hands. “You’re floating by yourself.”

“Now if only I could float away from you :D” Vera says, jokingly, as she squirms away from his smiling form. His smiles tended to be on the fine line between sweet and creepy.

Taemin laughs, shaking his head. “Aniyo~. Don’t leave me~.”

She laughs harder than him. “As if I could, I don’t know how to get down from here,” she says, waving her arms around on the water surface.

“Let me help you,” he offers, still laughs, reaching over her.

“Wait. You should totally float with me,” the girl suggests, grabbing his wrist.

“But what if you sink again?”

“Are you trying to say I can’t float?” she asks, glaring.

“No,” he says, through laughter. “What I meant was...”

“You’ll float with me,” she finishes for him.

“Arasso,” he agrees, knowing that’s the best option. Effortlessly, he lays on top of the water and immediately floats. “Ta da~!!”

Vera’s jaw drops as she watches him. “How did you do that so quickly? I almost died doing that a second ago!”

“I can’t tell you how I did. Just be happy you were able to witness,” the vampire smiles with twinkling eyes.

The human huffs and tries her best not to move in fear of sinking again. “It’s not fair. You have so many secrets.”

“Mm hmm?”

“And I’m so curious-”

“I’m sure you are,” he teases, pushing back some of her wet hair out of her face.

“-but you don’t ever tell me anything.”

“The guy has to have some mystery in the relationship,” Taemin winks.

“You have enough mystery, Taemin! You’re a freaking vampire,” she lowers her voice at the last part.

“I still need more mystery,” he says, still not budging.

“At least tell me what you mean by sunflowers. Please,” she pleads.

Nodding, the male exhales softly before turning his head to her. “What are sunflowers known for?”

“Being yellow?”

He chuckles at her answer, but shakes his head. “Try again.”

“Being flowers of the sun...?”

“You’re close,” he now smiles at her awkward answer.

“Being....sunny....flowers?” Vera just says the dumbest thing she could think of, just so that he would explain already.

He laughs. “Sunflowers can only survive with the sun. They look to the sun and the sun only for their wellbeing.”

“So you want me to be like that?” she asks, after awhile of thinking it over.

Taemin smiles and nods, happy she quickly understood.

Vera sighs in relief. “Oh good. I thought you were going to say I had to be as pretty and delicate as a flower. Because then I’d have to direct you to another person to date.”

He laughs at her comment and uses his arms to paddle closer to her, as throughout the conversation, the soft ocean current had caused him to drift off. “Why do you say that?’

“I mean, I already do that. I already go to you when I’m feeling down, so it’s a no brainer,” she shrugs. Taemin nods in understanding. “But you could also mean it in the way that would mean I could never joke around with the rest of SHINee and to that I say, but they’re my friends D:”

The male thinks this over for a bit and finally nods. “You do...” he notes, ignoring the last part.

“You’re the only one I really tell about all the crap that happens in my life, I don’t even tell Onew about all of that, and you know how close I am with him. But maybe that just has to do with the fact that you’re my boyfriend...”

At the sound of the word ‘boyfriend’, Taemin’s smile brightens, as it does everytime she calls him that. He felt like he had accomplished life just with that one word. “Ok. :)”

Vera turns to face him and almost falls into the water. “Ok?”

With one hand, he stabilizes her again. “I’ll tell you something about me.”

“You’ll tell me what?” she asks, her curiosity sparked. Finally something had gotten to him and it wasn’t aegyo! The girl inwardly sighs as a smile stays on her face.

“Something,” he says, with a mysterious smile, as he dives under the water.

“Yah! Where are you going? How do I stop floating?” she asks all the questions at once, hoping at least one of them will be answered. Suddenly, something comes from under her and pulls her under the water. Before she has the time to even scream for help, she feels arms wrap around her and turns to see Taemin giggling. “Yah!” she starts to yell, but all the water rushes into .

Still laughing, the vampire pulls her back up. “And that’s how you stop floating,” he smiles, mischievously.

Although she honestly wants to glare at him for scaring her like that, the girl can’t help but laugh at his never-ending childishness, despite being the older of the two. “You’re so weird, sometimes,” she laughs, as hugs him to stay above the water.

“You were so scared!” he teases her, still laughing.

“I can’t swim! What did you think I would be? I could’ve died!” she fires back, laughing with him.

“Quit whining, you wouldn’t have died :P”

“What if someone snatched me under the water? What would you have done then?” Vera switches to quickly bait him.

“Then I’d go find them and kill them,” he smiles at her with an eerily innocent smile.

Shaking her head, the human just laughs at him and his quirky personality. “Can we go now? I’m hungry.”

Taemin nods, carrying her out of the water. “Now that you mention it, I am pretty hungry, too.”

“You’re always hungry,” she teases, as she grabs her beach bag and heads for the changing rooms.

“Ready?” he asks, as she walks out with her regular clothes back on.

“Yup,” she replies, slipping her hand into his.

The couple go eat lunch and then walk around the city for a bit, observing the Spanish scenery. Stopping in a corridor overlooking a beautiful villa, Vera asks for him to stop so they can take a picture. Agreeing, Taemin takes out his camera and stands beside Vera, with the camera outstretched. “Say cheese~” he says, wrapping an arm around her.

Vera’s smile widens after she remembers the first time the two of them took a picture. How Minho held the camera like a father and how Key forced more touching between the two. The way Chaerin and Jonghyun made bets on which of the two of them would blush first (Taemin did, so Jonghyun won). Once the picture was taken, she could finally let out the laughter she had been holding in.

Taemin looked at her with a confused smile on his face, as he tried to find out if he did something wrong. Maybe he took the picture weirdly? “What?”

“Remember the first time we ever took a picture together?” she starts, already giggling at the memories. “How Key tilted your head onto mine...”

As he remembers, he nods and laughs. “And Minho hyung’s camera face recognized the statue behind us.”

Vera giggles as she nods in remembrance. “That was so funny. Aren’t you happy they’re not here to do that again?”

The male nods and moves closer to her. “Now I can do whatever I want with you,” he says, his innocence fading in mere seconds.

Unfazed by the mood change, the girl just laughs him off and pushes him away. “Yah! You have 5 more days for skinship. Calm down.”

“Just kidding,” he says, slipping his arms around her waist.

“Of course you were. Let’s not do something we’ll regret,” she says, slipping out his grip when his face nears her neck. “Can we walk around some more?” she asks, rubs her neck awkwardly.

Silently, he nods and takes her hand again as they start walking. “Vera, do I ever scare you?”

“What do you mean?” she asks, looking up at the vampire. “How could you scare me? You’re like the least scariest person I know. Even if you tried to scare, I would just laugh in your face.”

Instead of taking offense, he just smiles at her sadly. “No, I mean, are you ever scared I’ll hurt you?”

Vera nods. “Yup.”

“You are?” he replies, utterly surprised. The way she stated it so simply forced his legs to stop, as if frozen in place, even as he tried to play it off coolly.

“You’re a vampire, I’m a human. There are things bound to happen. And this relationship itself is very risky, but I obviously trust you enough if I’m still with you after this long. So...” she shrugs. “Don’t feel bad, ok?”

At her words, Taemin’s face brightens and he wraps Vera into a bear hug. “Aww, you trust me.”

“Of course I trust you,” she yells through his shirt as she laughs. “If I didn’t trust you, you think I’d become friends with you? I would’ve just glared at you until you left me alone.”

He chuckles, his eyes forming into crescent moons. “You really would’ve. I remember you used to glare at me a lot back then.” The two start to walk again.

“Because you were-and still are-so creepy! How did you know where I lived?”

“If I admit I followed you home for awhile, would you call that creepy?”

“Yes! Yes I would!” she nods to add emphasis, a smile slipping onto her face as he pouts.

“Am I really that creepy?”

“That’s like asking if Key really likes taking selcas. Yes!”

Taemin crosses his arms over his chest, still pouting. “Arasso. I won’t tell you the secret about me.”

“Arasso. Then I’ll just leave,” Vera counters, not willing to back down. She starts to storm off at her brisk walking speed, which was comparative to running.

“I’m kidding!” the vampire flashes in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. He smiles, hoping she’ll do the same and that her earlier statement was just an empty threat. “Should we go back to the beach and swim around some more?”

“Don’t you think we should head back to the hotel? It’s getting late and aren’t the others getting worried?” Vera asks, the thought of checking her phone now occurring to her. She saw there were a few missed calls and texts from the others, asking where she and Taemin where.

“They’re not,” he says, grabbing her phone and slipping it into his back pocket, knowing she would never go to reach and get it back if he put it there. “And sunflowers don’t worry if the daisies are growing. They only look to the sun.”

Getting his corny metaphor, the girl rolls her eyes. “Arasso. Whatever you say, sun. But please don’t blind me with your rays.”

The male laughs and nods. “I’ll try not to~.”

Arriving at the beach, they notice the sun is starting to set and people are starting to leave in groups. As the two walk around, too lost in their juvenile ignorance to even care that the beach was starting to become vacant, they notice a small glow of light towards the far left of the beach and decide to check it out. They find a small group of teens around their age having a barbecue and join in the festivities without bringing too much attention to themselves. Dancing around to the music in their heads, the couple enjoy their carefree summer and actually have fun. Sometime while their were dancing and laughing, someone hands them both sparklers and they commence in chasing each other around with them. They spend more hours there than they can count, just having fun and living free from other people’s watchful gazes, and end up falling asleep on the beach with smiles on their faces and the waves tickling their feet.

Now what were the rest of the group doing while those two were frollicking around like idiots? They were, collectively, sleeping off their jet lag and Chaerin was helping Key deal with his hangover.