After a few hours, Taemin was the one who brought up having a break. It was already noon but Milan didn’t seem to notice it. Taemin noticed her little habits like how she bites the end of her ballpen or when she tucks her hair behind her ear. She seemed like she forgot about Taemin working alongside her. She sometimes bites her lower lip and taps the ballpen against the desk. Her habits were all adorable, no wonder Chanyeol likes her.

“Do you want to go out and eat? I know a nice restaurant nearby,” Taemin asked as he looked at the composer. That’s when Milan realized, once again, she was working with her ultimate bias. Her lips trembled before nodding.

“Just… Just you and me?” She pointed at the idol before pointing at herself.

“Ne. The others have their own schedules so it leaves you and me,” Taemin said before a teasing smile formed on his face. Milan couldn’t handle his smile so she avoided his eyes. She couldn’t believe what Taemin asked. It was a fangirl’s dream to be asked out like this.

Milan could feel her heart racing. She wanted to calm herself down but she couldn’t. She breathed in deeply.

“Kaja?” She said before standing up. Taemin nodded and followed her lead.

As they were walking through the corridors of SM, Milan saw Chanyeol talking to one of the younger stylists. She frowned for a moment before proceeding to talk to Taemin. She wasn’t sure why she frowned or why she was mad but she ignored the feeling. What was important was she was with Taemin and nothing else.

When Taemin noticed her frown, he wondered why. He looked in front of them and saw Chanyeol casually talking to a newbie stylist SM hired recently. It was obvious Chanyeol wasn’t interested in the stylist the way he was interested in Milan. That was the reason why Taemin found things interesting.

Taemin whistled casually and pulled Milan closer to him. Milan, as a reaction, widened her eyes and became as frozen as ice. Chanyeol then noticed them and frowned. Taemin was usually the one who made trouble when it came to this. And Taemin very well knew Milan had the biggest crush on him.

“Annyeong, oppa,” Milan greeted Chanyeol, her cheeks firing red like passion. Chanyeol didn’t know what to say to what was presented in front of him.

“I see you two grew closer,” Chanyeol said, glaring at Taemin. Taemin was smugly smirking at him.

“This err… eh,” Milan glanced at the stylist before looking at Chanyeol.

“I’m going ahead, Taemin-ssi. I’ll wait for you outside,” Milan looked down and walked swiftly away from them.

Taemin chuckled at her response. When the stylist left the two idols, Chanyeol held Taemin’s wrist.

“What was that?” Chanyeol asked. Taemin shook his head and looked at Chanyeol in the eyes.

“She was jealous, I guess. She frowned when she noticed you talking with the stylist. So I did something she wouldn’t even thinking of doing, making you jealous,” Taemin answered coolly.

Chanyeol was slightly shocked. Milan? Jealous? Impossible.

“I have to go. I asked her out to lunch. Don’t worry. I only look at Milan as a colleague,” Taemin patted Chanyeol’s back before leaving him.

Milan put her hand on her chest and sighed. Her heart managed to calm down. She started to question herself. Chanyeol was simply talking to the stylist, what’s wrong with that? She looked up and stared at the sky. The weather was fair and clouds were covering the sun. Cumulus clouds. No sign of rain soon.

“Are you okay? I’m sorry about what I did,” Taemin approached her. Milan only nodded.

“It’s alright. It was embarrassing though. And oppa seemed mad,” Milan said. Taemin chuckled.

“He can handle himself. Let’s go,” Taemin lead the way to his car and let her sit on the passenger seat. Milan felt nervous. She hoped she could act normal in front of him. Taemin was her bias since her KPOP baby years. She fell in love with him and worked hard to be with him. She never expected to get this far.

“How close were you with EXO before you studied abroad?” Taemin suddenly asked before apologizing. “Mianhaeyo. I wanted to know you better.”

“It’s alright,” Milan looked out of the window. “I was very close with them. They were all like brothers to me, older brothers I never had. They looked out for me. And I tried looking out for them. It was hard for a weak girl like me since I couldn’t protect myself from the sasaengs but hey, I asked for this.”

“Asked for what exactly?”

“The scandals, the bad mouthing, everything. I agreed on working with EXO. I know what was coming but I didn’t care. As long as… I was with them.”

“You didn’t think of leaving them?”

A small smile formed on Milan’s face.

“How could I? They were so sweet, especially Chanyeol-oppa. He always looked after me. He cared for me. He…” She paused for a moment. “He loved me but sadly, I didn’t like him that way. He was more of a best friend.”

Taemin decided to change the topic. Milan sounded sad and regretful. He didn’t want this type of mood to be between them.

“What do you like about me? I’ve heard I’m your favourite member in SHINee?”

Something in Milan and she suddenly blabbered about how much she loves Taemin with so much passion. She kept on telling Taemin about the good sides of him. She said she fell in love with his whole being; his voice, his body, his face, his everything.

“Oh shoot… Not again,” Milan covered her face in embarrassment when she realized what she was saying.

“Go on. I like being complimented,” Taemin said as he smiled.

“This is… Oh gosh…” Milan wanted to slap herself. She just gushed over Taemin in front of Taemin. That wasn’t supposed to happen. She was so clumsy. She let herself do that. She was careless. No fan in the right mind would do that. She was sure she looked insane in front of Taemin.

Milan tightly closed her eyes and prayed Taemin will forget what happened. Little did she know that Taemin was really flattered with what she said. Fans would always fire bullets of questions and compliments. They never really looked like they were really reminiscing. Taemin would blame the short time his company scheduled fan meetings.

Milan looked like she really took her time. She even recollected to the moments when she bought her first SHINee album and the day she bought Taemin’s debut album, “Ace”. She truly looked like a fan, a passionate one. She talked to Taemin as if he was Ynna and she was just defending Taemin from Ynna’s sarcastic insults.

“I like how you talk,” Taemin said as he smiled. “It’s rare for a fan to treat me like a friend. Usually, they treat me as if I was dating them so this is a nice change,” he said as he glanced at Milan.

“Don’t be shy. Open your eyes. Look at the guy you just described as angelic,” Taemin paused for a chuckle. “If what you just said is true, don’t you want to treasure this moment then?”