Listening to: Nothing Lasts Forever by Girl's Day

I start to walk out of the SHINee headquarters when I pass by a familiar person in white. “Taemin?” I ask, weakly.

He notices me, but keeps walking.

“Taemin, wait,” I try to follow him, but he speeds up.

He keeps ignoring me, seeming angry.

“Taemin, we have to talk,” I grab his wrist, which feels cold.

He yanks his wrist from my grasp. “Zara, I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Why not?” A cold wind blows and I feel the pain in my back more intensely.

He sighs and turns to me, his face void of emotion. “Because I liked you, Zara.”

“I know. But you can’t be mad at me.”

“And why not?”

“I mean, you found someone else too.”

He just looks at me with dead eyes. “And look where that got me.”

I sigh. “But why are you so mad at me? I wasn’t happy that you were with Jungmi, but that doesn’t mean I was happy that she broke up with you.”

He sighs. “I wasn’t expecting you to fall in love with him. I just wanted him to be an obligation.”

“I wasn’t either.”

“Then why did you?” he demands.

“...he kinda tricked me into falling in love with him.”

He sits down on a bench and pats the seat beside him. “How?”

“The chocolate.”

He nods, understanding.

“Why didn’t you warn me about the chocolate?”

He stays silent.

“I could’ve possibly not liked him, Taemin.”

“I didn’t want you that knowing of everything. I wanted to protect you from this other part of me.”

“That obviously didn’t work out in your favor,” I note.

He nods. “I resigned from SHINee today.”

I turn to him, shocked. “Why?”

“I was just getting tired of it.”

I rest my head on his shoulder. “Is it because of Jungmi?”

“It’s also because of you.”

“But I thought-”

“I was tired of all the things that were happening around me because of SHINee. I lost you to him because of SHINee and I got my heartbroken because of SHINee. So enough was enough, so I just quit,” I shrugs.

I  nod. “Since you admitted that, I’ll admit something, too. So I kinda just killed Taemanry...”

He looks at me, shocked. “Why~?”

“You know, stuff,” I start to stand up. “Well, since that’s all cleared, I’ll be on my way. Bye Taemin,” I smile and start to walk off. Rather stiffly.

“Wait,” he grabs my hand and another wave of pain through me. “Zara, are you ok?”

I turn to face him, trying to blink back the tears in my eyes. “Yup.”

He stands up. “You’re not. What happened?”

“I kinda got pushed into a wall, but I’m fine,” I try to smile naturally, but even that hurts.

“Zara,” he wraps his arms around me.

“No, it’s fine, Taemin. I’ll just be getting home,” I peel myself from his embrace, no matter how much I would rather just stay there.

“Can I walk you home?”

I shake my head. “No, you’re good. I have to clear Taemanry’s stuff, anyways.”

He sighs, but reluctantly waves as I walk off.

+++

Thinking of what Zara said, I walk back into the building, towards Onew’s office. Knocking on the door, it opens by itself. “Is anyone in here?”

“Taemin-ah, what do I hear about you resigning?” Key asks, walking towards me.

“I mean, I did, but...”

“But?” Jonghyun speaks up.

“Did you know the Lucifer found the information?” Minho speaks up.

“No,” I say, surprised.

“Apparently, they got it from Jungmi,” Jonghyun says, glaring slightly.

“Who said she got it from you.”

“I didn’t give her the information, she must’ve snooped around,” I shrug. Done with her. To think, such a pretty face and yet such an evil heart.

Everyone continues to look at me accusingly.

“Taemanry’s dead,” I announce.

They look at me, surprised. “You killed him? Why?”

“Zara did.”

“Really?” Onew says, even more surprised.

“You didn’t know?”

They all shake their heads.

Which means they don’t know she got hurt. I run out of there, trying to find her.

“TAEMIN!”

I ignore them and keep running for her. “Zara! Zara!”

She notices me and turns. “Taemin?”

I stop before I run into her, which would hurt her more. “I have to ask you something.”

She nods. “What is it?”

“Will you take me back?”

Silence passes and another cold wind blows. “No.”