chapter o3.

“Yes, speaking. Who is this?” Jieun asked, listening intently. “What? A performance at a charity concert—hold on, I’ll be with you in a moment’s time.”

“Jonghyun, do you want to do a duet performance at a charity concert? Apparently they want us to do one, and the proceeds will go to some… charity.” She put the phone away and looked at her husband.

“Sure.” He shrugged. “Date, time, place?”

“Yes, yes, that would be okay, but could you send us the details of the charity concert…” Jieun rattled off their house phone number and both of their contact details. “Yes, thank you. Okay, alright, bye!”

“Wow. They want us to perform? After so long?” Jonghyun asked, surprised.

“Well, you still have a wonderful voice, and the best part is that it isn’t going to crack anymore.” Jieun laughed.

“Hey, hey. Onew hyung is the one that has his voice cracking all the time, all right, not me. Besides, it’s a duet, and your voice is also important. Out of all those married couples out there, I believe we’re the most talented.”

“Don’t get cocky, Jonghyun. Onew and Tiffany, Seohyun and Kyuhyun, Leeteuk and Taeyeon, and Donghae and Jessica are talented too! For all you know, they might be called for the performance as well.” Jieun said.

“Mhm, but none of them, none of those girls, can beat my amazing wife. Nobody can do that three-octave note better than you can. And imagine, you were eighteen then, although I bet you can still do it now.” Jonghyun smiled, slinging an arm around her shoulder.

“I guess. Anyway, we need to choose a song. Which song should we do?” Jieun asked, tapping her chin, mentally looking through a list of songs.

“I was thinking Nagging, that duet you did with Seulong a while back. Oh, and remember the time he got trashed because he hugged you? Poor guy. He must’ve been pretty upset. But you looked like you enjoyed it.”

Jieun raised an eyebrow, but nodded. “I did. Nagging promotions was fun. And I think... We should do that song. It’s high though, especially Seulong oppa’s parts, that really long high note with a bit of falsetto as well.”

“You’re underestimating my singing abilities now?” It was Jonghyun’s turn to raise an eyebrow.

Jieun shook her head, and laughed. Jonghyun laughed with her, pulling her close, as if protecting her petite body from harm. Moments later their laughter subsided, and he smiled, bending down slightly to kiss the top of her head, and then hugging her again.

****

“Charity concert?” Donghae asked.

“Mm,” Jessica replied listlessly, “a charity concert. They want both of us, to sing a duet. Proceeds to go to some charity that I couldn’t bother to remember.”

He nodded slowly, sitting next to his wife, contemplating the idea. “Do you want to do it? If you do, I will too then. Besides, it’ll be pretty fun, no? Couple with the fact that they want my lovely wife to sing… What song should we do?”

“Let’s do an English song.” She proposed, smiling immediately.

“Aw, you know my pronunciation is really bad! But if you want to do it, then… okay. Which one though?” Donghae tipped his head back in thought, trying to recall any good sons.

“I’ve got the perfect one.” Jessica smiled, taking out her computer and searching on Youtube. “SNSD… Music… Travel…” She typed. Clicking on the first link that came up, she forwarded the video to where she wanted it to start.

Donghae looked at her curiously, then at the screen. I’ve been living with a shadow overhead… He chuckled, remembering the performance. Him, Taeyeon, Kyuhyun and Jessica had performed it then. “Way Back Into Love, huh?”

Jessica nodded. “Besides, I’ve always thought of that as our song. Remember those practices we had on that song? Taeyeon messed up so much of the lyrics, you too.” She laughed.

“I’m much better now!” He frowned, thinking back.

“I know. That’s why I want to do this song. Okay with you?”

“It’s more than okay.” Donghae replied, closing the laptop and smiling, humming lowly under his breath.

Needless to say Jessica caught on quickly, humming in harmony, and smiling along with him. Alice woke up just as they finished and stumbled out of the room, into her father’s welcoming arms. Time to make breakfast, Jessica thought, getting up to go to the kitchen. Over the years, Jessica had learnt how to cook proper breakfast, and without the bread being over-toasted, or the eggs being undercooked. (Donghae had very kindly and patiently taught her.)

The faint tinkling laughter of Alice and carefree loud laughter of Donghae could be heard while she prepared the meal, putting a smile on her face. She loved to hear the two bonding in mornings. After all, since SNSD disbanded, they were the only other family, apart from her parents, she had, and it didn’t help that her real family was far away in San Francisco.

She didn’t realize she had stopped doing things until she felt Donghae’s protective arms around her. “You almost over-fried the egg, dear… Penny for your thoughts?"

“Nothing, I was just thinking about how blessed I was to have such a wonderful family,” she said, and then turned to the frying pan, adding, “and… Poor egg. I’m sorry I almost killed you.”

Donghae chuckled, and hugged her tighter, resting his head on her shoulder. “The egg forgives you. But only because you’re so gorgeous.”

****

“Wait, what? So they called all of us here to perform and didn’t even tell us?” Taeyeon shook her head, putting her hands on her hips, looking at every one of them.

“Exactly what I predicted.” Jieun grinned, clearly excited with the event. To her, it was a good opportunity to bond with her seniors in singing. “This is going to be so fun!”

“They should’ve told us though—” Kyuhyun began, but was cut off by the organizer of the event.

“Welcome all. I’m Park Minjung, the organizer of the event, but you can just call me Mrs. Park. We will now be having a rehearsal; those who are not performing should head to backstage. After you have performed, exit stage left and sit with the audience.”

All ten ex-idols made their way backstage, prepping with their partners. Some of them brought guitars, while others requested pianos. It was a huge event, but since today was the first rehearsal, there was no one in the vicinity apart from a few who had noticed and were taking videos. The reporters were stopped at the front, but the distant clicking of cameras could still be heard.

“Without further ado, let’s welcome the first pair, SHINee’s Kim Jonghyun and soloist singer IU!”

There was faint clapping as the pair made their way on stage. Jonghyun whispered encouragingly, “I’ve always wanted to share a stage with you since I saw you and Key during our RDD days. Now that we’re here, I know you’ll do well. Don’t be worried, IU-ssi.”

Jieun gasped slightly, but chuckled and walked onto the stage. Just before she began to sing, she whispered, “Hwaiting, Jonghyun sunbae!”

Every performance went smoothly, Onew and Tiffany did One Year Later (Onew’s strong voice and Tiffany’s husky voice complimented each other very well), Seohyun and Kyuhyun did You Know Everything (and their gazes at each other was definitely much more confident and loving than before, during their duet days), Leeteuk and Taeyeon did Goose’s Dream (it wasn’t very difficult considering both of them had beautiful vocals) and Donghae and Jessica did Way Back Into Love (Donghae really wasn’t that bad, in fact, he had stunned everyone there).

The ex-idols, after singing, decided to go for dinner at Seohyun and Kyuhyun’s house, since it was the nearest to the area they were at. The house they lived in was really typical for the pair though. The design was very practical, every piece of furniture was essential to the modern look of the house, but there were a few bits and pieces of messiness here and there, which they concluded probably was Kyuhyun’s doing.

“My gosh, Jonghyun I feel kind of out of place here. All of you are SMTown idols and I’m the only one who’s…” Jieun whispered into his ear, getting increasingly worried in the situation. To add on, she was the youngest out of all of them.

“Chill, it’s going to be okay, they’re all nice people.” Jonghyun whispered back, then raising his volume. “I like what you guys did with the house, although Kyuhyun looks like he messed up the order of things.”

“Oh, you don’t know half of it! Every day I have to clean up after him, it’s getting increasingly annoying.” Seohyun shook her head, picking up a piece of paper from the ground and discreetly ripping it into half after seeing that it was a piece of rough paper.

“She’s just saying that,” Kyuhyun replied, and then to Seohyun, “I do this only to make the house look normal. If not it’d look like I’ve become some kind of clean freak…”

“Yah!” Seohyun hit his shoulder, while Kyuhyun swiftly ducked, causing laughter to stir around the room.

“Aigoo, our maknaes haven’t changed one bit.” Leeteuk laughed. “Remember, SM’s best (un) official couple?”

“That was such a long time ago!” Taeyeon laughed as well. “Remember when you were still teasing Yoona so much back then? Ah, we should invite them next time; have a huge SM campfire or something. Oh, and IU-ssi, you can come along too!”

Taeyeon smiled warmly, and Jieun smiled. “Taeyeon-ah, I think we should stop calling her IU-ssi already… She’s family now.” Leeteuk reminded her tenderly.

“Right, family. I almost forgot.” Taeyeon said, slightly flustered. Leeteuk chuckled, and ruffled her hair slightly.

Throughout the evening, the ex-idols became much closer, and without a doubt Jieun became much more welcomed. Jessica just listened in, giving comments or opinions when necessary, while Donghae, who sat on the armrest of the chair she was sitting on, affectionately combing through her hair with his fingers. The others participated livelily, eager to find out about each other’s married lives, with Tiffany leading the conversation.

“It’s getting quite late already…” Onew said after about an hour of talking. “I think we should all head home.”

“Mhm, I agree.” Leeteuk smiled. “We’ll catch up some other time.”

They all nodded in agreement. Seohyun and Kyuhyun stood up first, heading to the door to open it, thanking them for coming. Donghae picked up Jessica’s bag and helped her put on her cardigan, before holding her hand and leading her out, patting Seohyun’s head and giving Kyuhyun a fist bump.

“Thanks, Kyu.” Leeteuk said, linking his elbow with Taeyeon’s. “Thank you, both of you for hosting us today. And Kyuhyun, do be nicer to Seohyun.”

“Heard that?” Seohyun elbowed Kyuhyun, while he just laughed. “You’re welcome, unnie, next time we’ll go to your house, okay?”

“Fany-ah, I still have to go get something from the office, do you want to head home first, or follow me along? You should really get your sleep, you look pretty exhausted.” Onew whispered, looking at Tiffany in the eyes.

“It’s okay, I’ll follow you. I don’t want to be at home alone without you. Besides, the kids are being baby-sat today, so we don’t need to worry.” Tiffany replied, thanking the maknaes before leaving with Onew.

Jieun watched all of them go, bowing slightly to everyone before leaving with Jonghyun last, thanking very politely. “Thank you so much Kyuhyun oppa and Seohyun unnie!”

“You’re welcome,” the couple replied, and then Kyuhyun added, “Jjong, that’s a very pretty wife you’ve got there. I loved your duet the best, but don’t tell the rest.”

“Yah, I heard that you know!” Seohyun poked Kyuhyun’s side. Kyuhyun laughed again, putting an arm around her shoulder.

“Bye-bye guys.” Jonghyun rolled his eyes, taking Jieun’s hand and stepping out with her.

Kyuhyun closed the door, and took Seohyun’s hand, leading her straight to their bedroom. It was enough for the night, he’d decided. She smiled, lying down on the bed. She’d taken a shower earlier, so all she needed to do was wash her face, but she could do it later.

“Seo, you did well. The dinner was wonderful… But now, let’s rest.” Kyuhyun lay down beside her, taking her hand and tracing patterns on it slowly. “I still have to wash my face and all you know…” Seohyun ticked off the list mentally, thinking about the things she had to do.

“No you don’t. Not tonight, sleep first.” Kyuhyun pulled the covers over them, and switched off the lights from the side. “Goodnight, Seohyun.”

She shook her head, hitting him playfully but eventually giving in. “Arasso… Goodnight, Kyu.”

****

A/N: Whoa. That was a long chapter. O: I hope it wasn’t too boring. Tell me if any typos, and don’t forget to leave a comment! ♥