This is a double update - 96 and 97 went up together.

This structure of this one was influenced by –hanny’s story Best Friend  which was completed not too long ago.  I loved reading this story and you should all check it out if you can.  There was something about the style that just kept catching my head and I decided to try it out for myself.  No offence or anything meant, just adorable of a different style and a challenge to incorporate it into my story.

#97 – Writer’s Choice: Beach

They were all at the beach, waiting around for the director of their latest commercial to be ready for the next take when Minho finally realized.

It was the first commercial that SHINee was doing as a team since Taemin’s return to performing several months ago.  Most of them had had their own few jobs on the side as individuals – some brands were even becoming brave enough to ask Key to model for them – but it was the first time that all five of them, Taemin included were getting to work together on an advertisement.

It was for some summer wear clothing brand – and the five of them were running about the sand at some secluded beach in swim trunks, with Onew and Key wearing tank tops in addition, whereas Taemin found himself dawned in a long sleeve sun shirt that flowed about and swirled with the wind.

They were playing volleyball – Onew and Jonghyun vs. Taemin and Minho with Key sitting out on the side under a large beach umbrella watching the game, whistle in mouth as though he was referee.  The director just told them to play the game for a while and Minho, being Minho, played to win and continually was egging everyone on trying to make the game better.

He swiped at some sweat gather on his upper lip and squinted against the sun as he watched Jonghyun rear up to serve. 

The singer struck hard and it was going to land short in front of Taemin, who surprised everyone by diving forward, sending up a cloud of beige as he slid through the soft sand to save the point and bumped the ball into the air with his right forearm.  Minho spike it over the net to slam the ground just in front of Onew’s feet, which the leader promptly tripped over.

Taemin lurched to his feet, jumping and cheering that they had the point, one hand in a clenched fist above his head, while the sleeve of his shirt slipped down to pool at his elbow. 

“Go Taemin!” Minho exclaimed, giving the dancer a high five as the director called cut.

“That’s great!  A good action shot for the commercial!”  The man looked giddy and excited, eyes dancing at the prospect of including the shot. “Take a break for a bit!”

Minho sidled over to Key’s umbrella and fell into the sand under it, enjoying the shade for a bit.

“Hey, you’re starting to burn your shoulders.” Key pointed out to him, tapping one long finger gently against the reddening skin. 

“Oh really?” Minho sat up and turned his head in a fruitless effort to catch a glimpse of his shoulders.  That was the thing about sunburns.  You could get them and continue to run about in the sun without noticing...until you went back home and there was no longer that impressive heat bearing down on you but you could still feel it and it made everything just that little bit more annoying to deal with. 

“Here,” The rapper grinned, holding out a bottle of sunscreen to his friend. 

Minho squeezed some onto his hands and applied it liberally to his shoulders. 

“How’s my back?” He asked, turning so that Key could examine the skin there as well. 

“You need more.” He explained. 

Minho handed the bottle back to Kibum and presented his back, completely missing the momentary shock on his friend’s face, followed by a giddy little awe as Key re-applied the lotion to Minho’s muscled back. 

“Done.”

“Thanks!” He responded with a smile, before turning to talk with a stylist who had just walked up. 

Key wandered off then, sunscreen in hand, probably intending to make sure the others re-applied.  It would be no fun standing under the hot stage lights with skin sensitive from the sun.

The rest of the shoot was going smoothly, with the men doing individual shots of themselves either playing in the surf or, in Onew’s case, being buried in the sand from the waist down so that his leg’s couldn’t move, his goofy laugh sounding loudly up and down the beach. 

Finally, the whole lot of them were, in the directors words, “frolicking in the surf,” the phrasing of which had sent Jonghyun into an uncontrollable laughing fit for a solid ten minutes.

Between takes Onew began “frolicking” on his own, jumping about in a poor attempt at ballet and flailing his arms about the air singing, “I feel pretty…oh so pretty…” 

The rest of them couldn’t help but laugh, especially when Key added, “Yeah, keep singing and announce that you feel gay too…” which made Taemin, who had been crouching in the water, snort and accidently take some of the sea water up his nose.

The maknae suddenly surged to his feet coughing and spitting, milling about the just over knee deep water absently, eyes clenched shut at the sudden pain of salt water in his sinuses.  The dancer’s foot caught on some seaweed and sent him tumbling into Minho who was the nearest, even with the other’s fast approaching at the sounds of their youngest friend’s distress. 

Minho’s arms wrapped around him on instinct, one around Taemin’s back, hooking his hand just under the opposite arm and the other round the young man’s chest, taking the entire weight of that slim body as his dongsaeng moved to get his feet under him.  One of Taemin’s arms settled around Minho’s hip as he struggled to regain his sense of balance and Minho just tried to hold as still as he could, keeping Taemin upright while the pain lasted. 

Then Key was there, all mother hen and concerned boyfriend rolled into one. 

With a final shuddering cough, Taemin finally righted himself and pulled free from Minho’s arms. 

“Thanks hyung,” Taemin’s voice was thick and husky from coughing, but still the man managed to smile up at his elder. 

“No problem Taemin,” and the rapper ruffled the maknae’s mushroom top of hair for good measure. 

But he wasn’t entirely paying attention.  He was unconsciously parts of his right arm which had been wrapped securely around Taemin, pressing hard into the young man’s chest.  Though Minho had never seen them, first covered in bandages in the hospital and then by Taemin’s clothing whenever he’d seen the man sense, he knew that the younger would have scars.  That was one of the reasons for the shirt he wore today, he didn’t want them to be shown.  But now he had felt them.  Hard ridges of raised skin and scar tissue, a reminder of his second chance at life that almost wasn’t, could be felt through the wet shirt. 

It was a shocking moment for Minho, who throughout the day, hadn’t even thought about that incident, or the events that led to it.

With Taemin back, they were all finally moving past the horror of that day over a year earlier.  For once, Minho wasn’t checking over faces in the crowd of fans that had gathered behind a barricade down the beach throughout the day.  For once, Minho was analyzing everything that everyone said, trying to figure out if there was some other statement being made amidst the babble.  Minho had been on guard for so long, the fact that he hadn’t been was truly shocking to him.

But most of all – for once, Minho didn’t immediately think of Key and Taemin and jump to their relationship.  For once, it was just him talking with his same year friend, or him playing around with his dongsaeng.  The issue of them being gay, or being together, or anything – just wasn’t an issue.

When had that happened?  When had Minho, who had felt so uncomfortable at the knowledge that two of his friends were dating, Minho who had defended them, despite that feeling, when had he finally worked past that? 

When had it come to mean absolutely nothing at all?

Minho smiled to himself as Key finished his inspection of Taemin and released his hold on the younger man’s face. 

Taemin was giving Key a thousand-watt smile that was breaking through Key’s concerned frown like sun through clouds at the end of a storm. 

As the corners of Key’s mouth twitched, Minho snuck up behind the maknae, quickly pulling the shorter man into a headlock.  He couldn’t remember the last time he had played around with Taemin like this.

Because he hadn’t felt comfortable doing it, a voice in the back of his mind pointed out.

But now, he knew that he had been being silly.  There was no reason to distance himself from his friends.  It wasn’t like being gay was catching, he wouldn’t become gay just by being around them or touching them.  And it’s not like they are going to be checking him out either – they both have each other.  They looked at each other with those same doe eyes that his parents still looked at each other with.  If they weren’t together for the rest of their lives Minho would eat his shoes. 

Key caught his eyes, even as Taemin struggled and beat against his stronger hyung to let him go, and seemed to search within their depths for the answer to a question that he would not voice. 

Minho just gave him a slight nod, barely more than a twitch, but his friend understood.

Without warning, Minho suddenly raised his arms, releasing the captive dancer who stumbled and fell once more into the water, making him land harshly on his behind. 

“Oh that’s it frog boy!  You’re dead!”  Taemin threatened as he pushed himself back up.

“Come and get me puppy!”  Minho teased and dashed off, Taemin close on his heels and the laughter of their group acting as background music. 

They were all at the beach, waiting around for the director of their latest commercial to be ready for the next take when Minho finally realized.

It occurred to me, rather out of the blue – literally in the middle of making dinner, that I had never come back to Minho and revealed the point where the fact that two of his male friends were in a relationship with each other just didn’t matter any more.  Because I don’t think that I could say that he had fully come to terms with the fact until it became a non-issue to him – something that doesn’t even cross his mind anymore.  So that was what I was trying to convey with this piece, and the fact that it happened to naturally that Minho never even saw that it was coming. 

And Key’s joke to Onew’s song: this is one of those songs in America that every knows, even if they don’t know where it comes from.  I don’t know where it comes from, though I know that it is a musical.  Anyway, here are the full lyrics and suddenly Key’s joke will make sense if it didn’t before:

“I feel pretty.

Oh, so pretty.

I feel pretty

And witty

And gay!”

And the word gay is said with special emphasis so it really stands out.  Of course this song is from before the term gay was used to apply to homouality and is trying to convey the meaning of ‘very happy,’ but I still think it’s funny in the context of this one-shot.

Comments? 

Anyone?

Bueler?  Bueler?  (kudos if you get the reference)