Taemin ~

Taemin decided to hold Naeun’s hand the whole time. Not because he wanted to make Kai jealous, but it seemed like she would collapse if someone wouldn’t hold her soon enough.

“As we probably all know now, both Taemin of the Light angels and Kai of the Dark angels have fallen for this human,” Onew started off, pointing a polite yet somewhat accusing finger at Naeun.

“Really? We didn’t notice,” Suho said sarcastically.

“We didn’t? I did,” Lay piped up. Chen calmly reached over and smacked him over the head. “Ouch! What?” Mutters. “Oh . . .”

“Anyways,” Onew continued, “I’m sure we’re all expecting what’s to come next.” Naeun leaned over to Taemin.

“What comes next?” she whispered fearfully. Taemin smiled and patted her head. So naive.

“We still have to consider whether or not we’ll just take Kai back to the Dark and knock some sense into him, right?” Chanyeol said with a bright smile. Kai glared at him.

“One - do you think our ruler would just let us waltz back to the Dark without an explanation of our failure? And two - this isn’t something that you can knock out of me,” Kai grumbled. He crossed his arms and stared longingly at Taemin and Naeun’s intertwined hands. Taemin cleared his throat and glanced at the still-confused Naeun.

“What’s happening?” she grunted, looking around at everyone.

“A pact,” Key said, almost regretfully. No. Totally regretful.

“A pact? Like . . . middle ground?” Naeun asked. Key shrugged, glaring at EXO.

“We can’t exactly be jerk-bag hypocrites and hate on Taemin for liking a human now, can we?” Kris said, shooting Kai a pointed look. Kai returned the stare, gritting his teeth.

“What we’re saying is,” Minho explained calmly, “the Dark is willing to come over to our side and convince all the angels to let what you and Taemin have . . . happen.”

“What do you mean?” Kai shouted suddenly. “What they have? Happen?! What do they even have, and what makes you think that I want to help them make it happen, Frog-eyes?!”

“Yah, don’t bring Minho’s frog eyes into this!” Onew argued.

“Yah!” Minho turned his charismatic glare on Onew, who shrugged apologetically.

“So what you’re saying is . . . you twelve are willing to risk yourselves for this?” Naeun gasped. EXO nodded, shrugged, and grunted. “You guys . . . and you guys!” Naeun turned to SHINee. She shook her head in disbelief.

“You have to consider other things, Naeun,” Taemin said quietly. “Like how small of a chance it is for them to be okay with us even being here. But we can work that out, right? Now that there’s the Dark angels, we have both sides . . .”

“We’ll have to have more meetings, but right now, I want to sleep. Discuss battle plans,” D.O. said in the midst of his usual silence.

“You mean persuading techniques? Since when did we say that we were going to get violent?” Key asked. “There’s only two times I agree to resort to violence.” He didn’t explain what he was talking about, though. (A/N: I’ll let your imaginations flow)

“Since when did we say we weren’t?” Tao countered. “I can totally whoop out my martial arts and kick . I don’t think they’d let us go without a fight, anyway.”

“Plus, I’ve got the muscles,” Xiumin offered, rolling up his sleeves. “No one has anything on me in arm wrestling!”

“You guys, I really want to sleep,” D.O. cut in, putting on an expression that wavered between murderous and sleepy.

“Me, too, kind of,” Jonghyun sighed, rubbing his neck. “That camping trip was so short, but that was the most drama I’ve seen since To the Beautiful You.”

“What’s that?” Minho asked, a weird expression crossing his features. Jonghyun shrugged, turning to go back into the restaurant. Key naturally followed, as did Minho and Onew, and EXO started to walk out into the street.

Except for Kai.

Kai stared at Naeun for a long time, long enough to make her shift uncomfortably under his gaze.

“What’s your problem?” Taemin muttered, but Kai ignored him.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry if what I said made it worse. That’s not what I meant to happen,” Kai admitted, staring down at the ground. s waiting at the end of the alley were quiet.

Taemin immediately saw Naeun’s eyes flash with sympathy.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong. Different isn’t wrong,” Naeun assured him. Kai looked up at her and smiled slowly.

“Really?” he asked. “We’re good?”

“Of course,” Naeun promised. Kai smiled and walked away to join s.

“See you soon, Naeun-ah!”

Taemin gripped her hand tightly, and she suddenly seemed to remember that they were still holding hands. She started to pull away, but Taemin spun her around and made it so that her back was against the wall. Naeun blinked rapidly, flustered.

“What are you-?”

“Will you go on a date with me?” Taemin interrupted, feeling the envy flare inside him. He wanted to reclaim himself.

“Eh?” Naeun gasped. Her cheeks turned red. “Why, all of a sudden . . .”

“Our first date. We have a chance, right? Are you going to say no?” Taemin asked. Naeun looked away, and he felt his heart drop. “How about this? I . . . I won’t try to sneak into your room tonight if you let me take you out tomorrow?” he tried feebly. Naeun raised her eyebrows, but she cleared and complied.

“Fine.”

Taemin looked down at the ground, feeling sick inside. She’d only agreed to go because she wanted him to stay away from her. Again.

But what he didn’t know was that Naeun was looking for the first chance to say yes to that date without looking like she wanted it. And she happily took it.

Naeun~

“Naeun! Naeun!”

Ugh. Why was Taemin waking her up so early? He’d said he would take her out at three.

“Yah! Do you want to die? Get up!”

That wasn’t Taemin.

Naeun opened her eyes slowly and held back a scream. What was Key doing in her room?!

“What the heck?! Get out!” she hissed, sitting up. Key narrowed his eyes and looked her up and down.

“Yup. Total bedhead. Messy appearance. It’s a good thing I woke you up early,” he sighed. Naeun frowned and flattened out her hair self consciously. “Taemin’s out getting ready for the date, and he woke me up when he made all that noise. He was trying to cook you breakfast, but I managed to stop him. You don’t want to taste Tae’s cooking.”

Naeun didn’t want to say anything, but she sort of wanted to. Even if he had supposedly put honey and salt in ramen before.

“I decided to give you a whole makeover. And teach you to - you know - not make that straight face all the time,” Key said.

“But this is my face,” Naeun protested, flexing and cheeks as if to test them out.

“Awesome. It doesn’t matter, anyways. Go shower while I dig through your closet of shame,” Key ordered, forcing her out of bed and ushering her out of the room.

“B-but I-”

“No buts unless you’re going to be shaking it!”

“What?!”

“Go!”

~~~~~~~

“Why didn’t you tell me you had such great clothes?” Key immediately asked as Naeun walked in with a towel over her head. She used it to dry out her hair and raised an eyebrow.

“I have great clothes?” she asked.

“Yup. All the way in the back. I had to dig through everything to find some cute dresses,” Key explained dramatically, gesturing to the pile of clothes on Naeun’s once made bed.

“I can see that. I have dresses?” Naeun continued.

Key nodded excitedly and held up a white sundress with embroidery. Naeun shrugged her shoulders; that was something her grandma gave to her a while back. Pouting, Key moved on to the next piece she had.

“How about this dress?” he offered, waving a dark plaid dress around. Naeun’s eyes widened, and she felt her breath catch in . That dress was . . . “What?”

“Oh? N-nothing. I think I’ll wear this one,” she managed to say with a smile. Key blinked.

“Really? I thought I’d never get you into any of the girly stuff I picked out,” he said. Naeun smiled and took the dress, playing with the soft fabric in her fingers.

“This was actually a dress I had a long time ago; it means a lot to me,” Naeun said quietly. She ignored Key’s curious and piercing gaze as she turned to the mirror. She put the dress to herself and watched it swoosh at her thighs. “It’s so small that it could be a skirt now, huh . . . so short . . .”

“Well, anyways,” Key interrupted suddenly, searching through the clothes he’d apparently chosen as “suitable for a date.” “We need a top to go with that.” He pulled out a white short sleeve. “No, something longer would be better . . .” Naeun ignored him as she stared at the dress-slash-skirt in her hands.

Will he remember . . .? she wondered.

“Here.” Key shoved a white shirt with sleeves rolled up to elbow-length in her hands. “Go change. I’ll do your makeup and your - ugh - hair.”

“Am I supposed to be thanking you?” Naeun said. Key waved her off and started to toss her clothes messily back into her closet.   

~~~~~~~

Naeun stopped at a bench in front of the park. Taemin had told her to meet him at the one with the light post and trash can on either side of it. She bit her lip and checked her reflection on the trash can sign. Ew.

As promised, Key had done her hair and makeup - but could she really trust him? Naeun sighed. Well, Key seemed to know more about this sort of stuff than her anyways.

“N-Naeun?”

Naeun whirled around, her heart suddenly beating quickly. She tried to look as calm as possible, but how could she? Taemin was wearing casual jeans and a simple white long sleeve, but he somehow managed to look amazing.

“When did I get you those clothes?” Naeun asked, remembering when they had to go out to get the boys some things to wear from the "modern era" (at the insistence of Key, of course).

“I - Well, I, uh, just got it this morning. I wanted to look prepared, but not too prepared, in that creepy stalker way, you know?” Taemin stammered. Naeun blinked.

“No . . . I don’t know, actually,” she said slowly. Taemin looked flustered.

“Oh, well . . . that dress looks nice on you,” Taemin complimented. Naeun looked down, grateful for the comment, but also a little disappointed. So he didn’t remember? “It still fits and looks good after ten years.” Naeun blinked and returned her gaze to Taemin, open-mouthed. “What? You didn’t think I’d remember? You were so cute back then in this dress! But before it went past your ankles!”

“It was the first time we met,” Naeun mumbled, scratching her cheek timidly. Taemin smiled and pinched her face.

“Aigoo, so cute . . .”

“Hajima! Don’t do that!” Naeun complained, swatting his hands away. “What did you plan for today?” Taemin smiled and hooked elbows with her, looking excited.

Uh-oh. That wasn’t a good sign.

A/N:

It's starting to get fluffy.

But yaaaAAAAY finally a date!

This is what they were wearing basically.

**awkward attempt at hand holding**

So I think I lost a few subscribers...

*sniffs*

But that's okay!

I already told myself that I should expect it at the beginning

Because

I didn't even expect anyone to subscribe

Yeah, I should probably get used to it.

Life goes on, things happen.

I can't help it though, I'm a person of pride, so when I see this stuff I'm like

alrighty then...

But if there's a reason any of you are starting to dislike my story, please tell me!

I will try my best to work on it

I'm sorry if these author notes sound annoying or boring or

Stuff.

Thank you~

-pannashawol