Onew watched as the SHINee substitute English tutor noona huffed for the umpteenth time as she tried relentlessly to tame her front fringe that stubbornly kept slipping through her hairpin and falling down across her face. Onew watched in rapt interest as she mercilessly tore the uncooperative pin from her jet black hair and viciously pulled back said offending fringe to clip it down at the crown of her head. She waited a few more moments to see if the pin would hold, and when she was satisfied it would, she let out a pleased smile and turned back to their lesson for the day, tapping her pen absentmindedly on the book they were currently working on, reading a few lines in her perfect diction.

It was music to Onew's ears, the way this noona's voice left her strawberry-tinted lips in a slow, almost seductive manner, like chocolate slowly dripping off the aforementioned fruit, and the SHINee leader found it tremendously difficult to tear his eyes away from .

“Why are they so late? They should have been here fifteen minutes ago.”

Onew had to force himself to blink just so he could refocus his attention on this noona's words. She slapped her pen on the table and huffed again, leaning back into the seat and crossing her arms against her chest, sighing heavily. Her eyes travelled to the door and stayed there for a while, and Onew was blessed with an unhindered view of her profile. To him, he would always find something new about her, no matter how many times he would look at her, and this time Onew noticed a small mole on the noona's jaw, just below the shell of her ear.

The other members were still in the dance studio practicing their latest choreography for a showcase to be held in a few more days in a foreign country. Onew was here in their makeshift classroom early because he had a prior engagement the night before for a late night variety show and filming had only ended a few hours ago. Onew was tired and sleepy, but he was pretty sure that wasn't the reason why his head was swimming at the moment.

Onew felt his hand twitch as another strand of hair fell loose from the confines of the plain black clip on his noona's head and onto her face and over her eyes. He wanted to reach out and touch her hair, see for himself if it were as soft and as silky as it appeared to him; also, the fringe was obstructing his view of her eyes- warm brown eyes he could get lost forever in.

“What are we going to do now?” She asked, eyes still locked at the door, “You don't need that much help in English.”

A smug smile touched Onew's lips at his teacher's compliment and he let his pencil drop from his hands and onto the table where it rolled over to her side. He leaned in, well across the desk to catch the pencil before it fell over to his noona'a side. She remained motionless, head still towards the door eyes still glued to the wooden frame waiting for the rest of the members to arrive. Onew leaned in further and closer to her, catching a whiff of her strawberry scented perfume, and Onew felt his smile form into a smirk, he loved strawberries.

A sudden sigh escaping from her lips jerked him back from the beginnings of a wonderful daydream he was about to indulge himself in and he quickly retreated back to his chair, not forgetting to snatch the pencil from the table and waving it in the air as proof of his alibi. She still hadn't looked at him, but there was no one else in the room so Onew was sure she was speaking to him.

“Have you noticed Jonghyun looking at Aika? He's been staring at her a lot lately.”

Aika was a trainee at the SM academy, she was nice pretty girl who was a better singer than a dancer, and it was no secret, to them at least, that Jonghyun was developing a crush on the new girl. The members would always catch Jonghyun staring at her from a distance, even when he pretends not to, and they would gang up on the smitten one, teasing him to no end until he snaps. Anyone would agree to Jonghyun's sentiments though. The girl was beautiful and talented and special in her own right, she was nice and sweet and caring, the typical girl any boy would fall for, all but Onew that is.

If only this particular noona didn't pay as much attention to it. He pretends to not notice though, the way his noona would look at Jonghyun when the latter was staring at the new girl. Onew frowned at her, but she didnt seem to notice as her full attention was on the door.

He prayed silently that the rest of the members would come in much later, there was something he wanted to do, and this was his only chance to do it. Onew squared his shoulders and moved to stand but his pantleg, for some unknown reason, stuck to a splinter on the chairleg and instead of standing in a graceful, and a hopefully seductive manner, he ended up yanking himself off the chair and pushing the table across the floor, stumbling forward, falling over the table and finally landing on top of it, limbs splayed everywhere in an unruly embarrassing mess.

He froze for a bit, unsure of what to do or even say next. He could hear soft laughter coming from his companion and he turns to her, eyes wide with a combination of shock, embarrassment, and also amusement. He loved hearing her laugh though, and Onew thought maybe falling over wasn't such a bad thing after all. He moved to stand up, and his noona helped him.

Onew's arm trembled with excitement at the feel of his noona's cold fingers on his bare skin. He stayed motionless again as her hand finally wrapped around his arm, her eyes growing wide, and Onew repressed a smug smirk from forming on his lips, knowing full well that she hadn't expected his arm to be firm with muscle. He allowed her to pull him up and he stood at his full height in front of her, both hands planting themselves firmly on her shoulders as if to help him regain his balance.

Onew searched her eyes out but she was staring at the floor. Annoyed, Onew racked his brain for a brilliant comeback that would have her looking straight at him, but a tingling sensation on his lower limbs causes him to look down as well. A rather large splinter has managed to go through his jeans and was now poking at his left shin.

“Does it hurt?” The noona asked, concern filling her voice.

Onew shook his head slowy, “No it doesn't. It didn't go through my skin, only my pants.” Onew wanted to slap himself silly. He felt stupid saying what he said the way he said it. He sighed, so much for being manly, he thought to himself.

Another fringe of hair fell across the nooona's face and she slapped it away with her hand, pushing it behind her ears, taking a good number of tries until it finally behaved. She was still looking at the floor, and slowly she kneeled down, pulling the splinter off Onew's pants in one quick motion. She stood up, carelessly tossing the piece of wood on top of the table and smiled.

“Thank goodness you didn't get hurt.” She said, however Onew didn't seem to hear her as she smiled brightly at him, solely for him at this instant in time.

He dared lift a finger and ever so slowly, and ever so gently he pushed away the offending fringe on her face, letting his cool fingers brush softly against the skin on her cheeks, she was as soft and as smooth as Onew imagined her to be, maybe even more. Time seemed to stop at that moment of first contact, not very different from the first time Onew had realized his growing feelings for the substitute teacher. Lately he had found himself wishing their actual English tutor, a much older noona who smelled too much like perfume, would find herself on some situation that would cause her to be unable to attend their lessons- like an accident, or a disease, anything just so Onew could spend more time with this particular noona.

She was a mystery. Of course, Onew didn't have time to actually get to know her, but he felt that maybe now was the right time for certain things, after all, sometimes, you just have to be forward when the situation calls for it.

If she were affected by Onew's touch she didn't move to show it or say anything about it, but a slight blush that crept up her face was all Onew needed to know he affected her as well. And how she affected him.

Her eyes flickered up to his for a moment and Onew had finally caught them in his. Her eyes grew wide with realization and Onew was first to look away.

“Did...right now, did you want to kiss me just now?”

Onew hesitated. He stammered as he struggled to find an answer, his nerves suddenly making him jittery and awfully uncoordinated as he tried to get out of this situation. He pulled both hands back closing them into fists on his chest and he opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. What did she want him to say? Onew took a step back, but as usual he miscalculated and backed himself onto the table. By now the sensation of falling was second nature to Onew and thus he was fully aware of every moment of it. His hands reached out unconsciously, flailing and grabbing at anything as his survival instincts kicked in, and soon enough he found himself and the older girl in a tangle of hair and limbs on the floor.

Onew didn't move as his breath was knocked out of him, but he thinks it was more because of the soft curves that lay tense above him than of the impact of the fall. Notes chimed in his head as the warmth of her body flowed through his clothes, and he could feel himself tense up as well, he was man after all and he was, by now, more determined to have her see him as one. Onew locked her in place, hands on her arms immobilizing her as she lay flush against him. She was winded, and flustered, and confused, and Onew thought to himself, he liked this. He liked being in control for a change, instead of her being in charge Onew liked her better like this. Vulnerable. Her face hovered a few centimeters from his own, and Onew was assaulted by her scent and by the way her lips parted on their own.

And he reached up. It didn't even take any effort at all. Just one small shift of his head head, and her lips were captured in his in a soft kiss. A mere brush of his lips against hers.

“Hyung!”

For a moment Onew was mortified. It felt like being splashed with ice cold water while in the middle of the sweetest dream. He turned his head to meet four pairs of eyes in varying levels of surprise and bewilderment. Minho was the first into action pulling their noona up in one swift motion, and Taemin was next, pulling him up as well. Onew's eyes however were locked on Key's accusing glare.

“Well,” The substitute teacher's voice breaks the silence in the room, but the tension still hung thick. “Well then, now that we're all here, lets start the lesson, shall we?”

Taemin was the first to fall into place, followed by Minho and Jonghyun. Key however kept his eyes on the leader, and Onew knew exactly why. The evidence was incriminating after all. There was no denying it now. Key knew, but Onew didn't care.