Oh my God, she did ask me out on a date.

She asked me out on a date.

A date. W-We are going out.

Dating.

Holy .

“EH?”

Honestly, I have no idea how this came to be either.

Two days ago, I just came up to Taemin and bluntly asked him to go on a date with me. He was surprised, obviously—I mean, who would not be? Who would not be surprised to hear that the person you like deliberately asked you out on a date? You would think you are going crazy.

I thought I was going crazy too.

I tapped my foot on the sidewalk, in front of the café in the inner part of Myeongdong. I fiddled with my hair that has a clean end and smelled of lemon and cherry blossom. I made sure that I still had my usual auburn hair color, although it was a little darker and has a much more rubicund hue to it. Min was surprised to hear that I am going to go on a date with Taemin but gladly obliged to my wishes of fixing up my physique.

My official first date with SHINee’s Lee Taemin.

Yeah, I must be going crazy—I am going out with an idol! I squealed to myself, almost bouncing on the spot before calming myself down. OK, OK, calm down, Baek Mi-ja, it is no big deal. We are talking this about Lee Taemin, no big deal!

Of course, it is a goddamn big deal! Who knows if there are paparazzi out there?

Then I thought on how Minho took me out first on a “date”, although it was not like one, but it seemed like a date.

I had my ‘unofficial’ first date with Minho, but I am having my ‘official’ first date with Taemin.

God, this is so complicated.

I flipped out my phone from my back pocket and received a message from Taemin.

Taemin: Will be a bit late. Stuck in traffic right now. Sorry! ^^;

I do not blame him, I thought as I put away my phone, looking around the bustling city. It is so busy, it is not even safe to be here as an idol.

By the way, why did Taemin choose this place? I let out a sigh. “At least he said we’ll go to a park on our way there.”

I hope he does well, because on our date, I am going to give him a mission. If he is willing to make me happy and not get me mad at him again, then I suppose I will have to give him a reward.

One problem, I do not know what the reward will be.

I let out an ear-splitting scream when I felt hands on my waist, nearly dropping my phone. I clutched unto it hard as I heard a small chuckle, coming out from a familiar voice. I turned to see Taemin, sunglasses on as well as a black mouth mask.

Geez, he look weird with both of them on. One of them would be fine, but put them together and you will get a person looking creepy wearing black-shaded sunglasses and a mouth mask.

Those two just do not go well together.

Ugh, I am really turning into Key. Curse him and his fashionable attitude.

“Okay, wow, no,” I straightforwardly said as I took off the mouth mask, scrunching up my face as I did so. “These two just don’t go well. It’s either your eyes or your mouth—your choice.” Then I glared at him, slapping his arm. Taemin faked being hurt, staggering a bit onto the sidewalk as he laughed. “And don’t scare me like that!”

He let out a laugh. I glared at him, trying to resist laughing with him. “Mian, but you were cute. I did call you out when I saw you, but you were so lost in thought! I just got out of traffic five minutes ago!”

Five minutes—! Ok, I really have to stop thinking so much.

“Anyway,” I changed the topic swiftly to hide my embarrassment. “You do realize that you could get found out here, right? What will happen if there was paparazzi who assumed that we’re dating”—Taemin rose an eyebrow at this—“which is true, but you’re dating a person who is non­-celebrity?”

Taemin nodded. “Of course,” he said coolly.

I narrowed my eyes at him, my hands on my hips before letting out a sigh. “You’re crazy. I am beginning to think you are officially crazy. Who knows if there’s people who recognizes you?” I paused for a moment before shaking my head, fixing his bangs, “Scratch that, they will be tons of them anyway.”

The brunet let out of a huff before grabbing my hand, taking me by surprise as he dragged me towards his chosen destination. “Oh, relax. We’re on a date, can’t you calm down for a moment?”

“Calm down?” I repeated, pulling back causing both of us to stop. “Calm down?! I didn’t ask you out on a date to receive this kind of attitude from you, Lee Taemin,” I hissed, seeing him gulp. “I asked you out to make me feel better, so either you calm me down or this date is over.”

We stood in the sidewalk, staring at each other. My eyes were stern as I gazed at the male in front of me, who stared at me casually. Then he let out a sigh, his eyebrows furrowed. “You’re right. Mianhae, that was rude of me. I suppose it’s something nobody can take lightly after all.”

“You’re damn right it isn’t,” I scoffed, yanking my hand out of his grasp. “Especially when you’re in your 6^th year of being SHINee. Do not let that effort go to waste all because of a silly scandal with me. Hell, both your fans and the students in university will have my head if they knew. Why do you think Min is hesitating to go out in public with Jonghyun?”

He stood there silent, clenching his hands into fists.

Maybe I have taken this issue a bit too far, I thought as I averted my eyes to the ground, biting my lower lip.

“You know what, I’m sorry. It is just that… I don’t want you to get into trouble because of me. I mean,” I let out a sigh before continuing, “You’ve been criticized enough. I don’t want a bad gossip to tear you down as a final damage.” I stood noiseless for a moment before saying, “And I’m scared that I won’t be able to see you again if it does get out.”

Taemin looked at me shocked. I realized that the way I worded that sentence sounded like I only cared for Taemin and nobody else. I could feel my face heat up at that notice. That was not what I meant at all.

“And SHINee,” I quickly added, my face red as I stammered over my words. “I’m scared I won’t be able to see you and SHINee again, that’s what I meant to say!” I hid my face by looking out into the street, watching the cars racing past.

My cheeks burned when I heard him chuckle. “Gomawo,” he told me softly before reaching out for my hand again. “I know you’re worried. It’s nice to have someone worrying about the troubles, and I understand,” he paused to look at me in the eyes as he smiled. “But today’s our day. At least loosen up a little and have fun. You can let your guard down, but not too much. I prefer if you kept it stable, just in case.”

I nodded my head, planning to do just that.

“Now,” he started as he squeezed my hand tight, looking at me with a smile. “Shall we go?”

I rolled my eyes at his dorky grin before nodding my head again.

“We shall.”

It was not long when we reached the park. It was not full of people, but there was not a huge crowd either. I saw many attractions there, such as bouncy castles and booths, so I assumed that there must be a summer fling going on.

I was already wearing black-shaded sunglasses before we came here, since I was not sure if anybody would notice that there is an idol in disguise amongst this crowd.

“Taemin,” I started as we looked at the games, wondering where we could go. “Do you know the reason why I asked you out?”

Taemin looked at me from exploring the region with his eyes, his eyebrows rose in question before shaking his head. “Other than wanting me to make it up to you for the incident back then, I haven’t really thought of any other reasons for it.”

I hummed, nodding my head wordlessly as I looked away from him for a moment. Then I looked back at him, taking off my sunglasses to make eye contact with him behind those lenses of his. “I’m here to take you out on a mission,” I told him carefully, to make sure he understand what I am saying.

“Mission?”

I almost wanted to laugh at his expression. He was all, ‘what are you saying, this crazy girl?’ I know that sounded ridiculous, but it is something that only Taemin can do for me. “Yes, a mission. You are here to make me feel better and forget about our fight if you want me to fully forgive you.”

He looked at me for a while. I can’t tell what he is thinking behind those dark lens of his sunglasses, but after a minute of silence, he let out a sigh, giving in. “Call,” he challenged me, a smile playing on his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest. I smirked at his arrogant, cocky grin on his face.

He thinks that this will be so easy, huh?

“What do I have to do in order for you to fully forgive and forget the fight?” He emphasized the word ‘fully’, his hand making a straight line across as he said his sentence.

I chuckled at his determination and shook my head in disbelief. “Put your ego away, Taemin, you’re going to hurt someone,” I patted his chest as I took out his mouth mask from my bag and forcibly put onto him, shutting his lips. “And shut your lips when I talk, I had enough of your arrogance.”

“You’re mean,” he said, his voice slightly muffled from the coverage. I can imagine him pouting since his eyebrows were furrowed. Perhaps this was much better than to have a noisy, determined Taemin. He is too full of himself once I said that he has a mission to do for me.

“I am not mean. I am just doing my job.” I fixed his collar of his white shirt whilst Taemin stood silent, his hands in the pockets of his black pants. I noticed that he wore black high-top sneakers as his footwear. I stepped back and silently smiled at his appearance as he held his black jacket that had a hood in his arms. To me, wearing sunglasses and a mask should look ridiculous, but to my surprise, he managed to pull them off and still look fashionable. I suppose there is a benefit when you are an idol, indeed.

Still, it is… not necessary.

Then again, Myeongdong is a busy place after all. Maybe he wanted to attract as little attention as possible.

“Now that you’re looking good”—I ignored Taemin’s baffled laugh to my comment—“here are the rules you need to follow,” I spoke after confirming his attire, my hands on my hips before releasing one to show my index finger. “Firstly: you must ensure that I am happy at all times. Making me laugh will give you bonus points.”

Taemin snorted at the way I explained my rules. I soundlessly agreed with him in my mind, thinking that it sounded too much like a video game. “Shut it,” I told him instead with a playful glare before continuing. “Secondly: you must not make any relations to the topics or our fight, the incident two days ago (about the fight between me and my stepmother and everything after that) and—”

“—the mentions of your mother’s death or make a topic that’ll get us into a fight, got it,” the brunet interrupted me with a grin on his face. I only scowled at him, although I was glad that he had kept that in mind, thanks to Min-Ae who told the group about it.

“Hey, no interruptions!” I smacked his arm to get him back in place, rolling my eyes when he could only laugh about it. “Anyway,” I resumed listing the rules, “the third rule is this: you must do everything I tell you to do to increase the chance of me forgiving you. If you refuse, I will take back my words and lower the possibility of forgiveness.”

He frowned. “So, if you told me to dress up as a girl, I will have to do it no matter what?”

I froze at the thought of Taemin being a girl. I scanned his body as I imagined him wearing a dress that fits his figure, high pumps and a longhaired wig alongside with makeup and lipstick. My cheeks burned red at the thought of a female Taemin, even though he would look much lovelier than I would. Without me knowing, my lips curved into an evil grin as I slowly nodded as an answer to his question.

Taemin, who saw the grin, grumbled under his breath, “Evil girl…”

I shrugged it off and moved onto the last rule, my hand showing the fourth pinky finger. “And lastly,” I trailed off for a second before smiling warmly at the dancer. “Good luck.”

He stared at me before chuckling, shaking his head as he grabbed my hand. “You are mysterious, you know that?” He told me, his voice low beneath the mask as he looked at me behind the shades.

I nodded, acknowledging that. I knew I was from the start, from a wallflower to this—who would have thought that I would change because of SHINee.

“Of course,” I told him with a small smile before dragging him away towards an ice-cream stand. “But talking aside, let’s go get ice-cream!”

Taemin grinned, gripping tightly onto my hand, fingers intertwined closely. I almost stumbled in my steps due to the sudden harsh thud in my chest, my heart squeezing itself.

It hurts.

I turned to Taemin on our way there and chuckled. “At least I remember my promise,” I told him, making him laugh.

“Ne, I remember. You were the one who said that one of these days; we would have ice cream together. Who would have thought that it would be on our date?”

I let out a noise of agreement before slowly loosening my grip on his hand as we neared the stand. Taemin stopped and looked down at my limp hand before looking at me, seeing my face. “Are you alright? You don’t seem to look very well.”

I shook my head, claiming that I am fine. “Just don’t make me upset,” I told him as I shoved him toward the stand, pointing at the cookie-and-cream flavor. “Now buy.”

“Do I have to buy it my—okay, I’m buying it,” Taemin changed words as soon as he saw my glare, reminding him of the mission. I grinned as he took out his wallet, just giggling at the sight of my favorite ice cream waiting to go in my mouth. I really like the sweetness of the flavor, so you could say that I have a bit of a sweet tooth.

“Gomawo,” I thanked him when he handed me my ice cream, another one in his hand. I think it was mint chocolate ice cream, seeing the pale green color with bits of brown.

Taemin only smiled at me. He put away his wallet and removed his mouth mask, stuffing it with his case. “You should eat it all before it melts, it is quite hot out here.”

He was right, actually. The temperature was slowly increasing, nearly creeping up on us. Perhaps a bit of cool breeze would suffice.

“Have a nice day with your girlfriend!” said the male employee who smiled at us. My face went red at the mentions of us being a couple and opened my mouth to deny but then my body suddenly turned, a hand on my shoulder as Taemin directed me the other way.

“Yes, thank you!” Taemin answered him with a grin, taking me elsewhere as he turned his head and ate his ice cream.

I cannot believe he just did that.

I looked at him with bewildered eyes, gripping on the cone of my ice cream. “Why did you do that for?”

He glanced at me before shrugging his shoulders, taking another bite of his frozen treat. “Even if you deny it, there’s no way he would believe that. I mean, any guy in a relationship would buy an ice-cream for his girlfriend and be labelled as a couple.” Then he said, “It would have been different if you were a couple years younger than me. I would be in college and you would be in high school. If I did the same thing back then, he would think of us as siblings.”

…He got a good point there. Damn it, I hate it when people makes a good theory. Makes me feel stupid and not as smart as I usually am.

“…If you say so,” I mumbled to myself before taking a of my ice cream. I took a glimpse at his unattended treat before stealthily leaning over. I took a quick bite of it before eating my own, just as soon as Taemin looked back at his ice cream.

“Wha—?” He exclaimed before looking at me with a glare. “Yah, eat your own ice-cream!”

I stuck my tongue out at him, laughing at his reaction. I yelped when he grabbed my wrist and brought up it to his face, my frozen treat in his sight. I whined when he took a giant bite out of mine and smirked at me tauntingly. “That’s not fair!” I smacked his arm with a pout, my eyebrows furrowed in annoyance.

Taemin nodded in response. “Of course it is! If you eat mine, then I will eat yours. We’re even,” replied the brunet who released his hand on my shoulder, now brought down his side.

I growled as I continued eating my cone.

This bastard will get it.

“Get me that one,” I pointed at the toy as I looked at Taemin with a smile whilst fiddling with the bracelet he got for me. The male had stickers on his face that I forced onto him, and along with the bracelet I personally made for him, (I am surprised that it managed to stay on for today), he wore a bracelet that looked identical to the one I am wearing.

Apparently, it was twin bracelets, used between couples.

“God, Mi-ja, look at me, my arms are full of sweets and you’re trying to kill me with a giant deer?” He looked at me as if I was crazy, his neck and cheek blue. Oh yeah, I was also giving ‘good job’ stamps every time he succeeded. I told him that if he completed my mission with 10 stamps, he would get a reward.

He currently have seven stamps on him: four on his cheeks and three on his neck. Because we have walking around all day, doing games and whatnots, few of them were smudged with his sweat.

I still do not know what the reward will be.

On the other hand, I was keeping watch of paparazzi and made sure we kept our distance at certain moments of which may seems ‘scandal-worthy’. Of course, Taemin told me to relax and not focus too much on them, but I still had my guard up. It was luck when a fan compared him to SHINee’s Taemin as his lower half of his face looked like him (he had his mouth mask off). She never believed him to be the actual Taemin who was standing right in front of her, so he played it off and pretended to be a look-a-like.

It was so close.

“Please?” I pleaded with aegyo, shaking his arm.

Taemin huffed at this. “You already have toys. In fact, you have so many toys from us that I think you do not want to fill with your room with them and reduce the space.”

I stared up at him, still doing my aegyo. Even the person who does aegyo failed to withstand it.

“…Will I get a stamp if I win the shooting game for the toy?”

“Two if you win the toy and get me a puppy,” I bargained with a smile, a cunning spark in my eyes.

“…You’re despicable.”

I snorted as he turned to my back, opening up my rucksack to dump all of the sweets inside. “Nah, you can’t hate me. I thought you said you like me?”

“I will hate you for now,” he retorted sharply whilst rolling up his sleeves, twisting his wrists around as he neared the booth.

Sigh…I just love playing around with him, I thought with a mental laugh in my head.

It was not long as Taemin stood from the distance after paying to play the game. I hate to admit it, but seeing him hold the fake gun, just made him look so badass with his sunglasses on.

…Did I just think that?

Yes, I did…

When the game started, he was trying with all his strength and his efforts that my jaw almost dropped from the accurate shots he was getting. “Holy…” I uttered under my breath as I watched him shoot, his gaze fierce and strong.

If I were to compare him and Minho and I had to play against them, it would be Taemin, because he has more competition than Minho. Who would have thought that there is such fierceness hidden in his innocent and playful demeanor?

It was a slip of his finger when he accidentally shot at the wrong timing, missing the target. He hissed to himself, and I could have sworn that he cursed slightly. (The innocent maknae cursing? Now that is something!)

“Congratulations, you won the deer! Cute little thing, ain’t it?” The female employee giggled as she brought the giant deer to him. I took a side-glance at his face and saw that his eyes were on the second toy—the puppy one as he held the deer in his arms.

I patted his arm to reassure him, smiling when he looked at me. “You tried your best,” I told him as I took the deer from his arms and pulled out the stamp from my pocket. “Give me your hand; I need to give you a stamp.”

He held out his hand, his eyes not meeting mine as I held his hand. I chuckled quietly to myself, knowing that he must have failed the two stamps mission. He really wanted my forgiveness that badly, huh…

All right, if he wanted the two stamps, I suppose I shall give it to him. He did put all of his efforts trying to win both of them at once.

I pressed the stamp once then another above it.

“…Hm?” Taemin noticed that I placed two instead of one. He looked up at me to see my reddened cheeks as I hastily put away the items back into my pockets. “But…I didn’t win the puppy…”

“Taemin,” I started as I held his hand tight. “It doesn’t matter if you won the puppy or not. When you were playing the game, I could see that you really wanted my forgiveness. Moreover, I admire that kind of determination from you. That is why I decided to give you two stamps, because I feel that you need it more than I thought you would.”

He started at me for a while until I saw his lips curving into a smile and before I knew it, he engulfed me into a tight hug. “Thank you,” I heard him whisper in my ear, my skin flushing red from his hot breath. I smiled in his shoulder and returned the hug.

You are welcome.

The sky grew dark, as we have spent the entire day off on our date. I ran out of missions for him to get the last stamp, so I kept on stalling whenever he asked.

We stopped at a nearby corner store, deciding to eat some ramen as a quick meal before we leave. We did play many games and ate many small sweets, so it is no surprise that we would be hungry for something convenient at this hour of the night.

“Are you sure nobody will notice?” I questioned him once he took off his sunglasses and pulled down his hood (he wore it earlier before we came here), now revealing himself as SHINee’s Lee Taemin. I sat at an appropriate distance from him in case, as if pretending to avoid the idol.

He hummed in agreement. “Of course! Now why are you sitting so far apart? Come closer!” Taemin motioned for me to sit closer but I shook my head, looking down into my cup of ramen, breaking them down with my chopsticks.

I prefer to not be caught sitting so closely to a famous idol. “No thanks,” I answered him as I took a bite of my ramen, my lips turning red.

When I heard nothing from him, I thought that he was eating until I look to see him sitting close to me. I almost fell off my seat in shock and scooted away from him. “Yah, that was unnecessary to sneak up on me like that!”

“Mi-ja,” he spoke as he played with his noodles. “It’s alright; paparazzi wouldn’t spot us here.”

I pointed out the large window in front of us that displays the street full of walking people and lit up lampstands. “No, but people who sees you will attract paparazzi.”

I let out a soft chuckle when I heard a groan along with ‘You’re sounding like my mother every time…’ before slurping noises told me that he is eating.

I rolled my eyes at this and picked up my chopsticks to resume eating until I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket.

Now who is calling me at this time?

I set down the wooden chopsticks in the cup and dug my hand into my pocket, fishing out the cellphone. I smiled with flushed cheeks as I looked at the caller ID, seeing Minho’s name pop up on my screen. I answered the call, pressing it up to my ear. “Hey Minho-oppa!”

Taemin next to me froze upon hearing his name, but I did not notice as I was too busy talking to him.

“Oh, I’m with Taemin. No, no, we’re just hanging out,” I told him when he asked me what I am doing.

“I see. Is he treating you well?”

I glanced at Taemin who has set down his chopsticks, suddenly losing the appetite to eat anymore. I frowned at this as I answered, “…He is. He is doing everything I want him to do but sometimes he would refuse… He’s trying, I suppose.”

“I’m sorry. You must understand him; he is trying his best after all.”

“Yeah,” I answered subtly before turning away with a grin on my face. “So what are you up to?”

“Me? I just came out from my drama schedule.”

“Ah, right, ‘Medical Top Team,’ right?”

“Yup, that’s the one. Are you watching it?”

“Of course! Your acting is daebak!”

Taemin clutched onto his jeans as he listened to me talk to Minho on the phone, upset with the fact that I am much happier with the rapper than with him on our date.

“After you finish hanging out with Taemin, maybe you’d like to go out somewhere tomorrow?”

I blinked at his question before opening my mouth to answer, “I—”

Abruptly, my phone went out of my hand, bringing me into shock. I looked at Taemin with wide eyes as he spoke into the speaker, “She’s busy, Minho. Goodbye.” I was even more astonished when he hung up the call.

“Yah!” I screamed, snatching my phone away from him and looking at the screen that already said ‘Call Disconnected’ before it went into home screen. I glared at him with angry eyes. “Why did you do that for?”

He did not say anything other than pulling up a face. I growled and slapped his arm, causing the latter to yell out in shock, his eyes wide at me. “Answer me!” I demanded, clutching on my phone.

“Well, I prefer if you didn’t talk to him when we’re on our date!” He yelled back at me, standing up from his seat, making me back down slightly when he was towering over me. “I hate it when you sound happier with him than you are with me!”

I gasped in disbelief before pushing him away. “What is wrong with you? Minho was only asking me if I could go out with him tomorrow and then suddenly you hung up on him!”

Taemin huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Don’t you think it’s a bit rude to ask a person out when they’re together? Especially if the other person put his effort to ask the girl out and yet his friend ask her for a hangout in the middle of their date?”

I clamped my lips tight, glowering at him intensely before saying, “You’re a ing jealous idiot.”

“I am not!”

“Yes you are!”

The brunet gritted his teeth as if he wanted to absorb his anger and his envy. “You knew. I told you my confession and then took it back for the right time. Now it’s almost as if you’re playing with my feelings by falling for another person.” Then he said, “It almost feels like a joke to play out the part, when I’m not the person who’s in your heart. If that’s the case, then tell me, do you like Minho?”

Without knowing it, I blurted out, “Of course! More than you! He is more understanding than you will ever be! You…you’re just a little prick who never listens to anybody!”

After my words, there was a soft gasp and following it, silence.

I realized that I had taken it too far as I clamped my hands over my mouth, now knowing that I said out of anger. I glanced up at his shocked face, his eyes full of hurt, almost as if a thousand arrows had punctured his heart.

“I… I didn’t mean to…I mean…that wasn’t…” I stammered over my words, to try to take it back somehow but it was too late. I could not do anything to take back the words I have said. There is only option to make it better, but right now, it does not seem to be a very good time to say it.

Taemin stood there, hands limp by his side as his eyes averted to the ground. A loud thud on the window caught our attention, seeing a group of high school girls squealing over the male in front of me. I turned away, my eyes not on him as I kept my distance from him while Taemin pulled up his hood and put his sunglasses, hiding his face.

That did not work obviously, as a few of them even went inside and crowded around him. They have already seen him before he managed to hide himself.

“Oh, my god! It’s SHINee!”

“No way, Lee Taemin is here!”

When a student looked at me, she asked him while pointing, “Who is she? Is she your girlfriend?”

That was the last straw when Taemin abruptly grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the store. He dragged me along as we ran, away from the screaming girls that began to chase us.

I looked behind to see them still following us before glancing at our clasped hands. I stared up at the back of his head, the hood falling back due to the pressure of the wind. Many onlookers saw us, but never got a closer look to see that it was an actual idol being chased by a group of fangirls.

Great. Just great.

I forced my legs to pick up the pace, running harder and faster as Taemin did not say anything, just running as fast as he could to get away from them. As soon as we turned around a corner, I noticed a passage in sight. I pointed at the location, “There!”

Following the direction of my finger, we entered the lane, hiding out of sight for the time being as we hid around the corner, standing close. I gasped when an arm wrapped around my waist, holding me close.

“Shh,” he quietened me, patting my back. I forced myself to hold my breath despite having a lack of air due to all that running. There was a faint buzzing of the lantern behind us, but we listened closely for the girls.

I really stood still when I heard a girl’s voice questioning our whereabouts. They were lingering around the area, as their voices grew louder. I almost feared that they had really found us since one assumed us to be in the alley.

“No way, Taemin may be a man, but I doubt he would want to get dirty,” one said.

“Maybe they kept on going that direction!” Another yelled. With that said, their muddled footsteps resumed going in the said direction.

Once we assumed that they were gone, we both let out a sigh of relief, panting heavily. I stepped back and ran my fingers through my loosened hair. My hair was tied up from the beginning, but now I think I lost my hairband, feeling my fingers go down until the end. I looked up and reeled back when I saw his sweating face, my eyes going elsewhere whilst he did the same.

We stood quiet in an awkward silence. It would be awkward since we fought—again.

Then a chuckle gathered my attention, looking to see Taemin’s lips turned into a small smile. “I’m so stupid…”

I did not say anything. I felt a cloth on my forehead, wiping away the sweat. I saw that it was he doing that for me.

“You’re sweating,” he told me as if that was the most obvious thing ever. I scowled slightly, took the material from his hand, and did the work myself. “At least they were students from high school. That’s better than a group of paparazzi.”

I glowered at him, pausing my motions of wiping the sweat. Then I sighed and gave it back to him. “We’re lucky they didn’t have their phones out. It would be the end of us today,” I told him.

Taemin chuckled again before letting out a deep sigh. I bit my lower lip upon seeing his expression.

“I’m sorry.”

We looked at each other, our words in sync when we said it. Taemin furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Why are you sorry? I should be the one who’s sorry.”

“No, I should be the one who’s sorry. It was not right of me to call you a prick or call you jealous. I guess you are right back there. I mean, I would have felt the same way if I were in your shoes. I did not mean anything of those things. Aside from liking Minho, it’s true that I have interest in him, but after that, I didn’t mean it,” I said, fiddling my fingers. “Mianhaebnida, none of those words were true. They didn’t even make sense.”

He stared at me before saying, “You know, I should be saying sorry here. I did not mean to blow up on you like that. I guess you could say that jealousy has the best of me, I suppose. It ticked me off to know the difference between him and me that I felt that I was not good enough. That I would never be good enough for you.” Then he sighed, “OK, so you don’t love me, not a big deal. If you really like him, then… who am I to stop you?”

“Taemin,” I started, but he shook his head, stepping back to create more space between us.

“I get it. Even if you are sure of your feelings, you are still confused. Moreover, I respect that. That is why I need to apologize because I was not considering your feelings much about it. I’m sorry.”

I gazed at him before looking down to my feet. Wordlessly, I dug my hand into my back pocket, taking out the blue ‘good job’ stamp. Without a word, I took his hand that did not have a stamp and pressed it there. I pressed it so hard that the color came out darker than usual. “I forgive you,” I told him after seeing his confused look on the back of his hand.

He looked at me with slightly large eyes. “Really?”

I nodded.

He stood quiet for a minute before saying, “But…I broke a rule. We fought and I thought you wouldn’t forgive me.”

“But you apologized for it. I guess you deserved it, since I did not know much of how you felt about me until now. That’s why I gave you a stamp—as an apology and my way of forgiving you.”

Taemin stared at me before looking at the inked stamp on his hand. Then he smiled as he looked back at me again. “Thanks.”

“In return, I’ll be keeping the reward a little longer,” I smirked as his face turned from smiling to flabbergast.

“I’ll take back everything I said—you’re despicable,” he told me with a pout.

I laughed, crossing my arms over my chest. It is not that I do not know what the reward will be. I know what it will be. It is just embarrassing to give it to him straightaway, so I decided to wait it out until then. In addition to that, this complicated atmosphere is not really a good time to give him the reward.

I fiddled with the locks of my hair. “So…we’re cool?”

He let out a short laugh before nodding, his hair bouncing slightly with every movement of his head. “We’re cool,” he replied.

I smiled and I held out my hand. He looked at it before smiling, covering my limb with his large one, his fingers curled over my palm. We held our hands firmly as we shook them, our rings twinkling in the dark as we made our truce.

“Next time, we should just talk it out instead of going hard at each other like we’re going to war,” I told him, releasing my grip of his hand, now on my hip while I walked out of the alleyway. “That would make our life so much easier.”

Taemin nodded as he laughed breathlessly, following me from behind. “I can’t promise you that,” he said. “But at least we can try, right?”

I smiled, glad that Taemin’s behind me, unable to see my expression. I glanced up at the starry sky before letting out a sigh with a shake of my head. Sometimes, I think my story is full of flaws, chaos and mysteries.

Nevertheless, I guess that is what makes my life fun, I suppose.

“Yeah,” I answered him. “I guess we could try.”

DID ANYONE SEE TAEMIN'S MUSIC VIDEO TEASER OF DANGER?!

Sorry, I was a bit excited seeing it and when I watched, all I could say is: "...I will forever hate you, Taemin. Y MUST U KILL ME? NO. YOU DON'T JUST DO THIS TO US. SCREW U MAN."

And thus is why I am still freaking confused. It's either, fall in love with Minho because of his competitiveness in Cool Kiz on The Block and his acting in Medical Top Team as well as his abs-glory and hotness or fall in love with Taemin because, not only of his honesty and (whatever innocence he has, now that I have seen the music video teaser), but also his acting in his last musical Goong and the iness.

/sighs. `(๑ △ ๑)`*

And to think he had gone back to blond.

I don't know about you, but that teaser reminds me of Krystal in "Red Light" and Jaejoong's "Just Another Girl" which is oddly enough, similiar to the set. I wouldn't be surprised if the set had been recycled for his solo debut. Not that it's a bad thing, because holy crap, this is not the Taemin I knew in my entire life. This is not the SHINee I knew in my sixteen frickin' life.

I love it.  (☉ε　⊙ﾉ)ﾉ

Anyway, I already got the next chapter in writing because on that day, it is Mi-ja's 20th birthday! Finally she comes of age and can legally drink in Korea. (And get wasted and whatnots, i didn't say that.)

Not only that, but SHINee and the rest of the group discovers Mi-ja's job and is in for a shock. (And no, she's not a star, that is like the last thing she would rather be on earth, god no.)  ಠ▃ಠ

Oh, for the outfits that Taemin and Mi-ja were wearing on their date, here are the attires:

Speaking of which, isn't their date complicated? I mean, first they are all cute and whatnots, then they were playful, then the next thing you know, they're going hard at each other like they're at war, what with the yelling and all. And then, after all that trouble, they forgive each other?

Dude, so much drama in one day. You two need to work on anger management, seriously.

Anyway, hopefully, I'll manage to post up the chapter tonight for a double update or tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see. (　＾∇＾)

See you all next update!

CUE DIVA KEY!