Was it the way he walked? The way he talked? Or maybe it was his smile? Nah, he rarely smiles. So why was Cameron so infatuated with Lee Taemin?

 

Maybe she missed his old persona. How he used to plant sweet kisses on her cheeks, and how he used to cuddle up with her on the couch whenever it got really cold outside.

 

That was it. She missed the old Lee Taemin. The one that smiled for no reason, that had that angelic laugh that could automatically brighten a room. Where did that guy go?

 

The light playing of the keys of the grand white piano echoed throughout the large, vacant room, with the exception of the piano.

 

The flow raced only a tap faster, then it slowed down to a much content pace.

 

Light brown fingertips ran across the black and white keys as the melody told a sweet/sad story. A crystal tear left the young female player's eye, but her fingers kept on playing.

 

Then her lips parted, and a sound to match the beautiful melody that escaped the fine piano intertwined together with the piano's sound.

 

"If it's tears that you want,

 

My heart is willing,

 

I wish you'd stop hurting me,

 

Take back those words you said,

 

When can we ever become equal?

 

Am I not enough?

 

What will it take?

 

I'm almost gone,

 

Please...

 

Just this once..

 

Love me...

 

I'll do anything to hear those words like before..

 

Just this once...

 

Say it for me...

 

Say it...

 

Love..

 

Say that you love me like before..

 

I won't lie,

 

You're my heroine,

 

My intoxicating drug that I just cannot live without,

 

What will it take?

 

For you..to say...that you love me too..?"

 

Unbeknownst to the young girl, another presence was in the room, but strangely, did not make them self known. They just watched as the girl allowed her fingertips to play across the board, and just listened to the soft melody she played.

 

They also listened intently at the lyrics she freely had spoken momentarily. They knew exactly who she was hinting at, but they couldn't seem to understand the meaning behind it. They were just too different, both of their minds spoke. It was entirely different. Besides the obvious of their skin tones, their taste in things were different as well. The only thing they shared in common with one another was their talent in playing the piano. Of course, they had never played together, but their two similar sounds could've been fooled. It was all in the mind of one stubborn fool.

 

The girl had then began playing a much familiar piece. One that the presence was all too familiar with since the piece was their favorite out of all pieces ever made.

 

They watched as her magical fingers caressed the keys as the beautiful, familiar sound radiated from the grand piano.

 

The keys, each time tapped, rang throughout their mind as they thought about how close the two of them were many, many years ago. Yet, they were confused. After the way she had been treated for the past years, why did she still insist to stay with someone like them? What did she find so appealing about them? They shook their head, ridding of the thought. They portrayed her as a gold-digger. That's all they thought of her as, though they knew well enough that she was the complete opposite. She was an angel sent from heaven to relief them of their problems. Though they wouldn't dare to admit anything such as that, but it didn't hurt to say so in their mind.

 

They noticed that her fingers began slowing down, then going back up, but finally settling on a slow pace. The piece was coming to an end, sadly.

 

Her last three fingers ended on the last couple of notes, and silence suddenly encased the soft atmosphere.

 

Of course she knew that she wasn't alone. She had known that the whole time, yet she spoke not a word aloud. She just continued to play as if she was alone though knowing well enough that there was someone besides her there. She didn't mind. Her talent wasn't meant to be kept as a secret. She adored an audience. It calmed her; soothed her even.

 

She rose up from the comfortable, black bench, and smoothed out her long, flowered sun-dress. One hand rested at the top of her round belly, and the other under her belly.

 

Neither of the two said a word. The silence was comfortable, but she wanted to know something. It plagued her mind ever since she moved into their beautiful, grand home.

 

"The piano sounded old. How long has it been since anyone used it?"

 

It's funny how someone can break your heart and you still love this person with all the rest you have..

 

Her feather-like voice wafted the air, and it quickly became tense.

 

"Five years. I stopped playing it when my parents died. It's been in this room before I was even born. It just needs to be used more often.."

 

The young girl shuffled forward, now standing in front of them. The first thing she wanted to do was touch his face, caress it like she so remembered doing when he'd lose his train of thought, but she held back the urge, and just settled with a simple soft smile.

 

"Then use it more often. It's been awhile since I've heard you play a piece," She whispered.

 

He looked down at her, then at her six month pregnant stomach. His eyes narrowed, and looked back into her soft brown orbs. He couldn't understand why she was always smiling. It bewildered him to no end. He hated it, but he also loved it.

 

He swiftly turned around, and left out of the room, leaving a still smiling Cameron.

 

She was his drug, and he was completely (even if he didn't want to admit it to himself) addicted to her.

 

But they were so different.

 

---

 

 

"Why are you doing this to yourself, Tae? Why won't you just accept the fact that you're going to be a dad soon, and that you have a girl by your side that still (somehow) loves you despite the you give her?" Taemin's best friend, Kim Kibum or originally known as Key by their fans, said, as he threw multiple spices into the pot of soup he was making.

 

Taemin leaned up against the refrigerator, and sighed. He loathed talking about his personal life. Especially when it came to....to Cameron. God, even talking about her gave him that icky taste in his mouth.

 

"Can we talk about something else? I'd rather not talk about what goes on in my personal life," he replied, hoping his friend would just drop the subject, and find something else to talk about.

 

Key put down the salt he was about to sprinkle in the soup, and looked at the 23 year old in disbelief. "Don't tell me you're still keeping out of contact with her just because of her skin tone?"

 

Taemin stared at the salt for what seemed like hours until he heard Key's anxious voice ring through his eardrums.

 

"Lee Taemin! Don't wander off! Tell me! Are you sti-"

 

"Yes! Yes I am, alright?!" Tae exclaimed, losing his cool. He was tired of everyone butting in in his personal life. He didn't care about Cameron, or that child growing inside of her. He just wanted out of everything. He was tired. Tired of being SM's puppet. Tired of having to answer to everyone's questions about what goes on in his house. Tired of the crazy stalker fans that sometimes followed him home. He was tired. So tired..

 

Key's eyes softened, and reached over the soup to turn the dial down to low, and pulled Taemin into a hug. He rubbed the younger's back as he felt Tae's tears soak through his shirt.

 

---

 

 

"I honestly still don't see why you're still with that prick. He's such a sassy ," Bri, Cameron's only best friend, commented, and took a small sip of her second cup of coffee.

 

Cameron shrugged, not really knowing herself. She loved Taemin, but she knew that he'd never love her the same again. She couldn't naturally recall what drove them apart, though she had an idea, but refused to bring it to her attention. It was just a small thought was all.

 

"I don't know.. Maybe I'm not fully sane. What I see isn't really what I would like to see, but what I want to see won't ever come to reality Even if we are married, it has no meaning anymore... Only a figment of my imagination I'd say.." She mumbled, partly to herself than to Bri.

 

Bri sighed, and watched the raindrops fall to the concrete ground outside. She couldn't understand why her friend insisted on staying with 'that ' as she so kindly nicknamed him. The guy didn't acknowledge her at all. There were times when he would being home late-night s, and them like Cameron wasn't in the house, like she didn't even exist.

 

Bri had tried to talk to her about the after-the-baby-comes situation, but Cameron still insisted to stay in that enormous house, and raise him or her there (Cameron refused to know the of the baby).

 

It wasn't because Taemin was well financially stable, or anything of that nature, so Bri couldn't understand it. Why was Cameron so insistent on staying in the same household as Taemin?

 

---

 

 

Cameron hummed a soft tune as she descended the long, grand stairs as her mind wandered off. Due to her not paying attention, she missed the last step, and yelped in fright. But she didn't even touch the ground.

 

When she had opened her eyes, she was met with worried brown ones.

 

"Watch where you're going, alright? You could've hurt yourself, and the baby," He told her, standing her upright. She blushed darkly, and nodded.

 

"Sorry for worrying you, Taemin-sshi. I'll be more careful next time. Thank you," She bowed lowly, but when she came back up, she found that he had already left. She turned around, and saw him heading up the stairs from where she came from. She placed both of her hands on her cheeks, and looked down at the marble floor beneath her.

 

'He was worried about me..'

---

 

Taemin sat down at the piano, and just let his eyes roam over the glowing keys in the moonlight.

 

Like he had told Cameron, it had been some years since he had sat down in front of this piano, or really any piano for that matter, but he didn't tell her all of that because it was none of her business. He shouldn't even have told her that much, but strangely, he had done it anyway.

 

He sighed, thinking of the incident that could've occurred earlier.

 

In the beginning of their relationship, she wasn't as clumsy as she was now. She was always extra careful where she stepped, but for some reason, she wasn't so careful now.

 

Indeed did he remember their past relationship, but he really wished he didn't. They had fallen apart when Cameron had begun tired of their love being kept as a secret. Thats when she told him she was pregnant.

 

He could remember it like it was just yesterday. Glass was shattered. There was so much yelling that the people in the southern part of South Korea was sure to have heard it. Words were said, tables were flipped. Crying then became an important aspect in both their lives, though they never showed one another those tears.

 

Taemin was too stubborn to realize his own stubbornness, and Cameron hadn't quite grasped her right mind to know that there was no use in trying to bring back what had already left.

 

The walls were very thin for such a magnificent home. He could hear her. Her soft cries. It was like he could see each tear that fell down her caramel cheeks. He winced when her cries became louder. Almost instantly did his fingers begin flowing across the keys. He let his mind-no- his heart take the reins, and just....played.

 

It was a piece of like no other. Though, it was one he had been working on for quite some time even though he hadn't thought of playing on the piano. He wrote the piece in his mind, and envisioned himself playing it on the piano.

 

Envisioned playing it for her.

 

With that thought, he angrily took the reins from his heart, and began playing a much rougher piece though this was not his. He didn't know the musician, but the piece suited his mood, so he played it well enough to drown out her cries.

 

He couldn't take another moment nor a second of hearing those painful, heart-stopping cries.

 

How he wanted so badly to comfort her, and tell her that everything was going to be alright, but half of him refused it. He wouldn't allow himself to get close to someone so different from him.

 

It was taboo, his mind plagued him. She was the opposite of him. She wasn't good enough to even be in his presence. Why was she still here?

 

As his piece was nearing the end, he had noticed that the cries had stopped, and he could feel the air grow tense. Without finishing, he moved his hands away from the keys, and sighed.

 

He hated to be disturbed from his thoughts. Especially when he was thinking about...about her.

 

"Why are you in here? This room is off limits to you. I don't want to see you up here again," He rose up from the bench, and turned to face her.

 

There it was again. That same smile. He couldn't understand. What was there to smile about?

 

"Why do you always smile? You're an outcast here, yet you still feel the need to bring more attention to yourself by smiling?" He scoffed, and began making his way towards the door, but stopped once feeling a warm hand encase itself around his cold wrist. As if he was touched by fire, he yanked his wrist away, and glared at the girl with so much disgust, he was inwardly surprised that she didn't cower in fear of his next move.

 

"Don't touch me. If anything, don't even look at me. I should just throw you out, and let you and that....that THING rot somewhere. God, you disgust me."

 

Cameron wanted so badly to just cry, and tell him how much she loved him, but she knew that that wouldn't help the situation. He was never going to accept them, and she had to (somehow) accept his decision.

 

"Why? Why are you doing this? When can I ever become your equal? Why won't you accept us?" She asked him, fiercely holding back her tears.

 

He scoffed with a smile. "When hell freezes over," He looked down at her stomach, then grimaced, and looked away. "You make me sick."

 

He left the room, leaving Cameron even more broken than before.

 

---

 

 

"That ing bastard! I'm going to tear him into pieces, and eat them for breakfast! No more, Cameron! You're moving in with me! No questions asked!" Bri finalized, and snatched her keys from the bar, took the girl's arm, and hopped in her car.

 

{~}

 

Once arriving in front of the familiar beautiful home, they both headed inside, surprised to not finding Taemin there. He was still a part of SHINee, it was just that they hadn't came out with an album for quite some time so they were given a break (surprisingly), but it was perfect for Bri because she could get all of Cameron's belongings out of that house without Taemin ing about her being there.

 

When they entered Cameron's bedroom, Bri's anger momentarily dispersed.

 

"Oh my god. Cami, you so didn't tell me that you had such a nice room," She muttered, already rubbing the brown satin curtains.

 

Cameron opened to respond, but she lost her train of though once hearing the front door close. Bri must have heard it also because she snapped out of her trance, and casually (though, still with some independent sass) walked to her friend's closet, and began gathering her clothes and whatnot.

 

Cameron sat down on her bed, and chewed at her bottom lip all the while listening to the footsteps coming up the stairs. Then the door opened, and a tired Taemin walked in, but stopped upon seeing Bri shoving Cameron's clothes and the rest of her belongings in five different huge duffel bags.

 

Taemin adverted his eyes to Cameron who refused to meet his piercing look. He looked at Bri, then back at Cameron.

 

"Why is she here, and just where the hell are you going?"

 

Bri looked back, and met eye contact with him.

 

"She's tired of you treating her like , so she's leaving," She smiled. "Don't worry. We'll make it quick, then you can scrub clean everything that she's touched."

 

Cameron looked at Bri, then at Taemin to inspect his facial expression. He acted the opposite of how she had envisioned him to have acted.

 

"What'd you mean 'she's leaving'? She's not going anywhere-"

 

Bri instantly stood up, and got into his face, her tone anything but friendly.

 

"You don't own her, so therefore she can do whatever the hell she wants and she wants out of this ing hellhole, and out of this so-called 'marriage'."

 

Cameron quickly stood up, and got in between the two of them. Once Bri was pissed, she was a nuke bomb ready to go off.

 

"Taemin, just go. You don't give a about me, so why are you worried? Isn't this what you wanted? Me out of the house so you'll never have to see me or this thing inside of me?"

 

Tae winced slightly when hearing her refer their baby as a thing. Then it dawned on him. Was he actually beginning to have feelings for her? Why didn't he want her to leave? She was right. He did want her out of the house, but now he didn't. He wanted to keep hearing her play the piano whenever she thought that he was never home. He wanted to keep seeing her smile when talking to other people. He wanted to keep seeing her angelic face everyday. He didn't want anything to change.

 

He grabbed her wrist, but just as he had done not only yesterday, she yanked her wrist away from his soft hold as if fire had at her fingertips.

 

"Stop okay! What the hell is wrong with you?! Why aren't you wanting me to leaving?! I obviously didn't mean to you yesterday or the many years before that, so why now?! Why-!"

 

"I don't know okay! There! I don't ing know why I don't want you to leave but I do know that that if you leave," He looked down. "I'll miss you." He looked back up, then at her stomach, and felt his stomach churn. That wasn't his baby, he had hoped. He even prayed for it to be so. But it was surely his. He knew it deep down. He couldn't push away the obvious no matter how hard he tried. Her round belly kept reminding him of his so-called 'mistake'.

 

There was a moment of silence. Even Bri kept shut. She was honestly surprised that the guy had admitted (even in his stubbornly own way) that he didn't want Cameron to leave him. After all those times that Cameron had told her about how worse he was treating her day by day, the monster actually had feelings for the girl that he obviously wasn't actually disgusted by. If anything, he was disgustedly in love with the very girl that he loved once before. She smiled softly. It was about time.

 

He reached out, and touched her cheek, but sadly, she again denied him off touching her.

 

"Just...just stop.." She whispered.

 

He looked down at her stomach, his hands clenched. He wouldn't accept things as they were. He didn't know whether liking someone so different from him could be accepted in his culture, so he went with what his mind was telling him to do.

 

"I can't accept that thing inside of you. You lied. That baby isn't mine. That's not mine, and I pray to god that it isn't," he looked up at her. "I want nothing to do with it," he reached out to touch her again, realizing what he had spoken was uncalled for, but he didn't realize just how bad things were between them. There had always been a thin line between them, though now it wasn't visible anymore. He had cut the line.

 

She slapped his hand away.

 

"Don't touch me! Don't ING touch me! And don't stand there and call me a liar! This IS your baby, so stop ignoring us! If you're embarrassed to have gotten a black girl pregnant, then just ING say it already!!" Cameron yelled, tears threatening to collapse.

 

Taemin threw his hands up in frustration. "Fine! I'm embarrassed by you! I don't want to walk out in public being seen with someone of your color! There! Are you happy?" He yelled, pushing back the urge to cry.

 

Why couldn't he just take back those words?

 

Those words hit her like a ton of bricks. She had known all along, yet she continued to stay with him. She knew she didn't deserve the treatment he was giving her, it's such a shame that she couldn't have realized that sooner.

 

She then felt a striking pain in her stomach. Not like she had wanted to, but she leaned forward, grasping onto Taemin for support as the pain in her abdomen increased tenfold causing her to yell out in pain.

 

Bri quickly pulled out her cell, told Tae to take her to the hospital, and quickly had begun throwing random clothes/other necessities into a duffel bag.

 

---

 

 

"AHHHH!! !!"

 

Bri and Taemin paced the hallway outside of the delivery room, waiting impatiently for everything to be over.

 

Onew, Key, Jonghyun, and Minho waited patiently against the wall, opposite of the door watching the two sweat bullets whilst blaming themselves.

 

Taemin knew well enough that it was all his fault. He had been the cause of Cameron's early birthing. She has already been quite stressed out yet he had to go and make her even more stressed. Though the thought of him inducing her labor hadn't pricked his mind when he was arguing with her.

 

He hated himself for it.

 

Bri blamed herself because she knew she could have stopped the two from arguing, though she didn't know why she didn't. Maybe it was because she thought that letting them two settle their differences without any disruptions was the best idea other than just stopping the argument altogether.

 

She should've known better, but it wasn't her fault.

 

{~}

 

Ten hours later, everyone noticed that the screams had stopped, and that there were muffling voices inside of the delivery room. That's when the door opened, and a smiling doctor along with a couple of nurses ushered them all in, but telling them to keep quiet.

 

Taemin was the first to reach the bed where a tired Cameron rested with not one, but two bundle of joys in her arms. He just stared at the two infants. HIS children-no- THEIR children. He cracked a soft smile as he looked at babies's features.

 

The one in Cameron's right arm had creamy colored skin, and chubby cheeks, then the left armed one had a tad lighter skin tone, but had soft (not quite chubby) cheeks. When he was a baby, he pretty chubby cheeks. It filled him with slight happiness to see that one of his little ones had inherited his newborn cheeks.

 

Cameron turned her head, and made eye contact with Taemin.

 

They didn't say anything for quite some time, that is, until Taemin decided to say something. He leaned down, close to her face, and smiled.

 

"I'm glad that they look mostly like you. I don't think you'd find it worth while knowing that they looked like their idiot dad, ne?" Then he captured her slightly parted lips causing his group members and Bri to let out a small gasp, then followed by whistles, and a couple aww's.

 

When Tae pulled back slightly, he noticed that her cheeks had tinted a dark shade of red. He rubbed the back of his hand across her cheek, and kissed her eyelid, and leaned his forehead against her slightly damp one.

 

"Saranghae, cheonsa. Words can't even tell just how sorry I am... I understand that I messed up what we could've had, but we all make mistakes. I just want you to forgive me... Without you, I'm nothing but a blank sheet of paper. Empty of any words. If I'm the heart, then you're the blood that's keep me going. If I'm the lungs, then you're the air that I will always need. You mean more to me than life itself does. But how can I forget my little babies.." He leaned over and kissed the top of his little baby girl's head, then onto his baby boy.

 

Cameron felt tears running down her cheeks as she watched Taemin show their babies the love that she wasn't lucky enough to have received earlier on. She was happy that he had gotten her Taemin back, and she hoped that he'd never leave her again.

 

"What's their names, jagiya?" Taemin asked, looking at the two infants with love. Cameron smiled.

 

"The girl is named after you. I thought about it for quite some time whenever I was alone in my room, and I thought that since you remind me so much of a girl," Tae chuckled, and rolled his eyes. "-that the name Taehyeon Soo Lee would fit right along in."

 

Taemin kissed Taehyeon's forehead, and smiled. "I like it."

 

"The boy was named after my brother. It's not a Korean name, but I thought it'd really suit him. Kevin Kwang Lee," she smiled. "Plus, he kind of looks like a Kevin."

 

Taemin showed Kevin love as well, then kissed Cameron deeply, but pulled back when he had noticed both Taehyeon and Kevin's eyes slightly open. Key rushed forward, and lightly pinched both of their cheeks, squealing.

 

"They're so cute!"

 

Onew came up, wrapped his arms around Key's waist, and rested his chin on his shoulder.

 

"He is."

 

Minho chuckled, then noticed Jonghyun smirking at him. Minho looked away, blushing. Jonghyun, tired of waiting for Minho to make a move, turned Minho's head back his way, and kissed him lightly.

 

Minho was startled at first, but he gently placed his hands on Jonghyun's waist, and kissed the dino back.

 

Cameron looked at everyone, and saw how perfect things were.

 

She looked back at Taemin who was blushing slightly because Key and Onew were making jokes about how Kevin was going to grow up and become a momma's boy while Taehyeon was going to cling to her daddy.

 

Cameron sighed with contentment, and happiness.

 

Their future was bright up ahead, and she wanted nothing more but to continue on towards it.

 

For her, there was, in fact, a happy ending.

 

How glad she was that it had happened that way.

---