“Hyung, what hap-”

“I’m tired.” Onew said in an emotionless tone and closed the door of his room. It was already 9pm and the members were at the living area waiting for him to arrive. However, he was not in the mood for talking, as he just walked past them and didn’t even give a glance.

“He didn’t see her.” Kibum predicted, looking at the other three members. “This is getting more serious than I thought and all along I considered this as Onew hyung’s childish act.”

“He’s serious, only that he’s dealing with it in a very childish way.” Minho corrected and sighed. “Actually, Onew hyung is a responsible and reliable kind of guy. The only reason I can think of as to why he was acting like this is because this is his first time.”

“And it’s irritating already.” Key expressed. “It’s irritating how he keeps on making us worried about himself and about his emotions. We know he’s very sensitive and he’s really good in hiding his emotions. What if it’s actually worse than what we are seeing right now? Seriously. I don’t know if it’s a relief or a bother that he’s acting like a kid.”

“Let him be cleared about himself then I think he can sort his feelings out and would know what to do. He’s not stupid. He’s just adjusting over these things.” Jonghyun suggested.

“He’s not in puberty to do stuff of adjusting.” Key shook his head. “Call time tomorrow?”

“10am at the rehearsal studio.”

“We should get there by 9.” Key announced and nodded. “We should talk to Jooyoung. We didn’t really talk to her seriously about her and Onew hyung.”

“Hey, Key. We’re not involved.” Minho tried stopping Key but he only shrugged his shoulders.

“We’re not involved, but we’re affected. That makes us eligible to meddle in.” He stood up and stretched his arms up as he yawned. “It was such a tiring day, let’s go to bed and prepare for tomorrow.” Then each of them finally stood up and went to their respective rooms.

*** *** ***

“Jooyoung-ssi? Why are you still here?” The head of her department went on her area and asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the conference now for your meeting?”

“Eh?” She asked with a confused and clueless expression. She was not really aware of what her department head was talking about.

“Your meeting with Key. Oh, didn’t anyone told you?” She paused for a while and frowned, and later on realized that Jooyoung was not really aware of the meeting. “Oh my, I’m sorry. I think I forgot to tell you about that. Key asked me to arrange a meeting with you last night so I scheduled it today before their rehearsal. I think he’s already in the conference room by now. I’m sorry, but can you quickly go there?”

Jooyoung stood up and fixed her things fast. “It’s okay, ma’am, I’ll just go there and meet him.” She smiled, taking it as a no big deal. Perhaps Key just wanted to talk about the recent issues of SHINee, or maybe he has some issues with himself at the moment.

As she entered the conference room, she was surprised to see rather four members waiting for her. “I thought you’re not gonna come!” Jonghyun expressed and relief was shown on his face.

She was looking at them in a confused face as she went towards the table and took a seat. “Did something happened… why are you all…?”

“It was because of Jinki hyung.” Key immediately started, with a face similar to someone who was about to the other person. “Once and for all…”

“Kibum-ah.” Jonghyun said calmly and looked at Key. The latter gazed at the older and sighed irritatingly.

“What’s wrong?” Jooyoung turned to Jonghyun. “Did something happen to him?” She made a mental note as she entered that Onew was not with the other four, that was why she comfortably went in and attended to their presence, but just as how the way these guys were sounding, she felt like something was really wrong with him.

“Are you avoiding hyung on purpose?” Finally, Jonghyun asked what it seemed like a million dollar question.

Jooyoung was taken aback at first, completely not prepared of that question to be thrown at her. She was speechless, and literally took some time to think of the answer.

She would admit being guilty of making up excuses just not to be the one seeing Onew over the issue he was recently involved in. It was just a snap of decision. As soon as the department head told her she should see him, she automatically made an excuse on the spot as if her mind was programmed to do that.

“Hyung likes you – so much.” Key started again. The other members looked at him and he paused for a while to look back at them. “I’m not saying anything bad, okay? Calm down.” He said as he rolled his eyes and went back to Jooyoung. “As what I’m saying. Hyung likes you and we know he misses you. At first I thought you like him, too, but honestly, I know women’s mind and heart change a bit faster than men, so I don’t know certainly how you feel about him. Sorry for coming out rudely, Jooyung, I don’t mean to tell that you’re giving our hyung some false hopes, but please, if the last time both of you talked didn’t help hyung get his head straight, can you just talk to him once more and reject him straight to his face? It’s not so good to just avoid him as if you’re indirectly implying you don’t want to see his face.”

“No, Key, it’s not what you think it is.” Shocked by Key’s blunt statement, she quickly defended herself. “You misunderstood. I was not doing that because of what you think. I…”

“Then what?” Key just wouldn’t stop questioning. Jooyoung then was in a daze, as Kibum definitely caught her off guard. She couldn’t explain a thing, and Key, after some minutes, let out a loud sigh of frustration.

“Let me guess… It’s either hyung has the problem, or you have the problem, or maybe both of you have problems with this situation.” Key concluded and stood up as he turned to the other members. “Let’s go. The two of them are hopeless.”

“Key, but…” Jooyoung stood up to explain herself but was stuck with her words again.

“If you happen to realize you don’t really like our hyung then just go reject him again and this time, use harsher words so he would really stop hoping to see you and pretending to move on when he really cannot do that. At least by then, we have the reason to actually comfort him and not like this which only looks like you, two, are running around in circles, wanting to meet each other but ends up going farther away. Ah, seriously. So frustrating.”

“I’m sorry.” Jonghyun whispered over to Jooyoung as the four of them finally started walking out of the conference room leaving her alone.