Aish~, because of those two, my real side is coming out too much.

“…And so, that’s what happened.” I sighed as I explained what happened to Jonghyun as we sat in the café, me swirling the straw in my strawberry smoothie while Jonghyun was drinking his own.

He set down his blueberry smoothie and sighed out, “Wow, that’s some mess you got yourself into… I can’t believe Min-Ae and Min would do that, especially Min-Ae as she knows you’re doing your own thing, yet she drags you into her group.”

I shrugged at this, “That’s life for you.”

“Well life .”

We both chuckled, taking our sips of our smoothies before I looked at Jonghyun, “How are the others?”

He seems to be in thought for a while before he answered, “They’re doing well. Taemin couldn’t keep himself still since he’s excited for the showdown and couldn’t wait to see what kind of performance you’re doing. Although, something is telling me you’ll be singing and either playing an instrument or dancing.”

“Darn, how did you know?” I exclaimed in mock-surprise, giggling when the bleached blond dino in front of me started pouting (or at least he is, with that scarf wrapped around his neck—it is getting a bit chilly out here… winter is soon to be near), peering at me through his sunglasses. “Sadly, I won’t be telling you. It’s a secret~”

He rolled his eyes, “Right…and how are you going to pull off that performance with Min-Ae though? I’m afraid that people will start disliking it and Min-Ae will hate you for ruining her performance (and her chance of getting first place…) because of your appearance.”

He got a point—how will I pull that off? Then I said the simplest answer as possible, “Min can solve that problem. You saw how she did my make-up and my disguise.”

He hummed before he stared at me for like what seems like hours (though it has only been like seconds). His question startled me when he asked, “I want you to take off your glasses.”

“M-Mwo…? Waeyo…?”

“I want to see your face without them! I mean, I know you weren’t wearing glasses in your disguise, but I want to see it in your true self.” Then he smirked. “If you refuse, then I will take them off for you!” He reached out for my glasses, trying to make an attempt to grab them away from my face.

I held my glasses back, avoiding his grabby hands. “…N-N-No way! That’s not happening anytime soon! Aish, babo dino, leave my glasses around and keep your grabby hands to yourself, ert!”

He gasped and pouted like a grumpy child, “Yah! How dare you call me a ert! That is damaging my image, woman!”

I giggled and ignored him, taking a drink out of my smoothie while he went on going, “Aish, this girl has no manners…” and so on.

Then I noticed a music store right across the café, as I stared at it, curiosity filled me. I never saw it there, yet I passed it by so many times. There was something about that store that’s pulling me in.

“Yah, Jonghyun-oppa, want to go over there?” I cut him off from all of his ramblings, who immediately stopped and looked out the window, following where my finger was pointing at.

“Huh! What do you know, it’s a music store! I never saw that there.”

“Probably because you’re busy with your schedules and all, and you may be going back to Japan for a concert and a music video recording then go to another concert and then another concert 3 hours away and then afterwards, come back to Korea and do a live radio show before you go to SM to do your dance practice. Then, you’re home.”

“…True that…” He paused for a moment before narrowing his eyes at me, “…Wait a second…how did you know about the schedules?”

“…”

Jonghyun tsk’ed at my silence, getting the hint that was left unsaid. “Sneaky Min – sometimes I wonder if she’s bribing Minho with tickets to the football stadium just to get information of our schedules.”

I had to laugh at that. Minho can be quite excited when it comes to sports—especially football.

“You want to go there?” He asked and I nodded with an “uhm~”, which is portrayed as a ‘yes’. So we left the café to get into the music store. (And yes, we held hands—damn that dino with his love of skinship.)

It seems small from the outside but actually, it’s quite spacious, with the rows of CDs and records as well as lining of different types of guitars hanging on the walls. I assumed there were other instruments but they must be upstairs or something.

“Wow, there’s so many CDs around—hahaha, oh, Jjong! Look, your CD is here!” I laughed a little as I stood in front of the CD row, holding out the “Why So Serious?—The Misconceptions of Me” album. Jonghyun grinned and took it from my hand and looked at it.

“Oh hey, they sell it here! I never thought I’d see it in front of my eyes for real!”

I smiled at this but then I felt my other phone vibrate in my bag. I took out the black Samsung phone to see Min-Ae calling ‘Sora’. I sighed and answered the phone, turning my back on Jonghyun who looked at me with concern.

“Yes?”

“Oh, Sora-ah, um, are you free today? We had done practice with one less member…”

I clutched onto the phone as I tried my best to keep my voice stable. “Oh? What happened to that person?”

“Well, we were practicing for our performance for this talent showdown coming up in five weeks and…me and my…friend (I almost scoffed at that—she couldn’t even call Min her friend in a situation like that, but seriously, they need to make up) got into a fight and she got angry with us and left the room. Talk about anger issues!”

I gritted my teeth—anger issues!? This —

“Hmm…probably because she’s annoyed with the two of you and whatever she had said is right, right? I’m sure she has a perfectly good reason why she’s mad at you guys.”

“Heol…! Sora-ah, why are you like this? Are you in a bad mood?”

I let out a deep sigh and proceeded with calming myself down. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Jonghyun giving me a small yet worried smile.

“You don’t understand, Min-Ae…you really don’t understand how hard you’re making this plan for me.” I mumbled in English on purpose so she was unable to understand what I’m saying.

“Mwoya…? I’m sorry; I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

“…Nothing, I’m just in a bad mood. I’ll have to reject your offer in meeting up. I’m not feeling too well so I’ll call you later, okay? Okay, bye.” And with that, I quickly hung up the phone, not letting her time to answer back and put it back into my bag.

“…Wow, is it really that bad of a fight?”

I sighed and nodded, “Only if you were there, Jonghyun…only if you were there.”

He smiled and checked his watch. “Well. It is 5 minutes to 5 already…do you want to stay over for dinner for the evening? I heard Key’s making some delicious strawberry shortcake—his desserts are just as amazing as his cooking, you must come over and try it out. They are to die for.”

I smiled and wanted to reject, but how can I when his eyes were practically pleading me?

“Please~ Mi-ja, jebal~ At least it’ll cheer you up! You like strawberries, right? C’mon, you cannot resist that!”

Well, he has a point; I really do have a soft spot for strawberries.

(A/N:  I ACTUALLY LIKE STRAWBERRIES OMG LOL)

“Ara, ara… I’ll come over and stay for dinner.” I smiled when he rejoiced happily, doing his little dance. Then we heard the soft pit-pattering on the windows. We turned to see that it was raining.

“Omo, it’s raining? Wow, I guess I should have worn better clothes…” I mumbled looking at my attire—wearing shorts and a large, sleeveless shirt was not really suited for this weather, especially when I just came out of the dance studio without changing back into my clothes.

Then I felt something warm on my shoulders and I saw that Jonghyun was giving me his jacket. I stared at him shocked as he went over to the owner and asked if he could borrow a spare umbrella.

“I promise to give it back to you tomorrow or after that day, whether I have time.” Jonghyun clapped his hands together, as if pleading and making a promise to the elderly.

The male nodded with a warm smile and gave him the spare umbrella. Jonghyun thanked him before walking back to me, linking arms with mine.

“Well, we’re all set~ let’s go and walk to see if we get a bus from here, ne?”

I smiled and nodded.

It was nice, as we stepped outside, the umbrella already up with the two of us holding it. There are two of us, walking home under this one, big umbrella.

Aish, sometimes I want my cheeks to stop growing so red.