I look up from my laptop to see Taemin storm into the house. “Oh hey, Taemin. Are you ok?”

He just breezes past me, silently.

“Ok...then?” I say, awkwardly.

+++

It’s not the fact that he’s younger than me or taller than me that bothers me. It’s his past. After Kai walked into Onew’s office and sat awkwardly between me and the rest of SHINee, Onew continued to explain.

“Kai was working for the Lucifer for awhile-” my eyes widen “-but quit after deciding he wanted to be on the good side. He’s been training with us for some time now,” Onew smiles, as if his last statement just makes everything ok.

“The Lucifer?” His awkwardness was starting to bother me as well. Hearing that he worked with them made me expect something more evil and sinister about him, at least more flirty or scandalous. Maybe all of their members weren’t as bad as Taemanry.

“I know what you’re thinking, Taemin. I had the other 3 check him out.”

“He’s clean,” Key says, giving me a thumbs up.

I sigh, nodding. “Ok,” and I walk up to him. “Hi, I’m Taemin.”

Kai reaches out to shake my hand. “I’ve so much about you,” he says, smiling.

+++

After what seemed like hours, he finally walked back out, seeming pleasanter than before. “Oh hey, Taemin,” I smile.

“Do you want to go out? There’s a move I wanna watch,” he says, a smile on his face.

“Which one?”

He mentions one that I’ve been wanting to see for awhile but thought no one would want to see it with me. :D

“Of course, just give me a sec,” I say, going to change.

Once I finally go change, we get to the theater and we start to get our tickets.

“You go get our snacks and I’ll save us a seat, ok?” I say, taking my ticket.

He smiles, nodding.

I walk off to get to theater when I bump into someone. “Oh, sorry,” I bow.

“It’s fine,” the guy says.

+++

I finally get our snacks and as I walk to where our movie is playing, I see Zara talking with someone. After looking harder, I realize the someone is Kai. How did he find us already? I walk up to them. “Zara, I have our snacks,” I smile at her.

“Hyung, I didn’t know you were here with Zara,” Kai says, smiling in that shy way of his.

I nod. “Yeah, we’re here to see a movie.”

He holds up a ticket. “You’re seeing this one?”

I notice he’s apparently watching the same one as us and nod stiffly.

“We can watch it together, then,” he smiles.

I sigh quietly and put a smile on my face as we walk into the movie. Kai on her left and me on her right.

+++

We exit the theater and continue to laugh about the last scene. “That was so fun, you guys. We should do this again,” I say, trying to calm down.

Kai nods.

“Well, we should be going home then, shouldn’t we, Zara?” Taemin slips his hand into mine.

I shake my hand from his grip and turn to Kai. “Do you want to come with us?”

“If that’s ok with Taemin,” he says, smiling.

Taemin nods. “It’s fine.” He says this rather unconvincingly.

Kai smiles and I laugh at his face. “Can you wait here? I need to talk with Taemin,” I say, walking over to a corner with him.

“What?” he asks, confused.

“What’s your problem with Kai?”

He silently shakes his head.

“Taemin~.”

“I just don’t like him around you.”

“What are you talking about? Today’s the first day I saw him.”

He stays silent again.

“And he acts like you. I don’t get why you’re so defensive.”

He stays silent again.

“Would you like to explain or does it have to do with something I shouldn’t know.”

He sighs. “Kai’s your bodyguard.”

“Ok? So....wait. Why?”

He shrugs, but I know he knows why.

“What?”

He shakes his head. “It’s nothing.”

“Then why is he my bodyguard?”

He shakes his head and smiles. “We should get going now.”

“Ok...?” And we walk back to Kai and then back home.