Lee Taemin


“Should I drive you?” he asked me, his voice soft. I felt a lump forming in my throat and shook my head. He seemed confused when I handed Seohyun to him and zipped my jacket back up.
“No, thanks … I'll take the train. It's not far from here, anyway …” I mumbled, not even glancing at him.

“Where do you live?”

“Ginpo. Just let me be now …” I mumbled and put my beanie back on. “I … sorry, Hyung.” with that I turned my back to him and quickly walked away, already feeling tears in my eyes – … without knowing he had hit a soft spot.
I hurried as much as I could and soon vanished as I ran down the stairs to the subway station. I didn't look at them a second time, I didn't even turn around when they couldn't see me anymore. I squeezed through all the people, trying to ignore how everyone bumped into me, and when someone made me tumble to the floor I just got up and kept on walking.

“Say … how did Cute Cups come to be, anyway?”

“ …” I mumbled under my breath and sank down in the train's seat, my heart was hammering.

What was most disturbing was that Cute Cups was not the thing that upset me so much … it was just the reason I decided to open it and everything that came with it that upset me so much now.

I stayed silent the entire train ride and didn't even bother to listen to music for the first thirty minutes of my ride, I felt like I needed time to calm down. For the last ten minutes I put my headphones on but didn't listen to anything and when I got off the train and left the station I was still wearing them without listening. My eyes felt like they were puffy although I hadn't cried and my heart felt heavy in my chest – maybe I should have just told him about Cute Cups' story …?

When I walked past one of the largest supermarkets in my area I decided it would be a nice idea to get some ice cream – you know, so I could stuff myself with it tonight.
My gaze was directed at the floor, so I had no chance to notice that two people I'd rather not meet where coming out of said supermarket.

“Watch out!” Jongin, a handsome young man with black hair and fine facial features, snapped at me when I literally bumped into him. “Oh.” his voice changed when he noticed it was – my voice changed, too … to easily three octaves higher. “Nice seeing you again, Taemin.”

“Not really though.” Sehun disagreed. He was Jongins best friend and probably just as handsome with his bright, blonde hair falling into his eyes and his thin body.

However, they were the last ones I wanted to see.

“He's no good for my eyes.” Sehun added and gave a quite disgusted look. My cheeks were burning and I tried to pretend I wasn't hearing them through my headphones and just tried to squeeze past them. However, when I did try, I was stopped by Jongin who ripped the headphones off my head. He listened and then snorted when there was no sound.
“You're such a , Taemin. Seriously. You know headphones can play music if you use them correctly, right?”

“I-I know.” my voice was embarrassing and I knew Jongin and Sehun noticed when they burst out laughing. “Just let me inside, please.” I said, my hands twitching in discomfort and fear of them.
When they understood what I just said they started laughing again. “Funny of you to say it like that.” Jongin said and laughed more. “I didn't even have to ask to get inside of you.” upon hearing that I frowned hard and looked at him with wide eyes – why did he have to bring that story up now!?
“S-Stop it, please …” I mumbled and tried once more to squeeze past them. When Sehun grabbed me by my arms and held me in place I started panicking a bit.

Not again, please.

“How many minutes does it take for you to drop your pants nowadays?” Jongin leaned in on me and smirked right into my face. “Is it still ten minutes?”

“S-Stop …!” I raised my voice and trembled in Sehuns grip. “I don't want to talk to you!”

“Listen to that.” they both started laughing and went on with insulting me, but I didn't quite hear it. Instead I was giving stranger's looks to try and get them to help, every now and then I would verbally ask for help as well, but no-one helped – they were probably not interested.
I started wriggling in Sehuns grip when they continued to make mean jokes about me, but they didn't care. However, when I managed to kick both their shins they seemed to get very angry and soon lost their patience with me and before I knew it they had thrown me against a trashcan and left me laying there on the pavement, covered in leftovers and other garbage.

“ you …” I mumbled to myself and watched them wander off before pushing myself up into a sitting position. I was not going to cry, no way, I was used to them treating me like this. And being thrown against a trashcan was not the worst they've done so far.
Just when I picked out some apple remnants from my now brown hair someone called my name – and it was a voice that I liked. I turned around just in time to see Minho come to a stop in front of me and kneel down. He looked worried and asked: “Are you okay?” he knelt down and brushed the dust and dirt off of me quickly. “What the hell happened? JongHun?”

“JongHun …” I mumbled, my voice very small. When Jongin and Sehun first started bullying me we had pulled their names together to JongHun, mostly so we wouldn't have to call out their entire names all the time, but also because it sounded stupid. “Sorry …”

Minho sighed and put an arm around me – I always liked being with Minho.
We had met in college, on my very first day. While Minho was two years older than me he had been declared my guardian when I had just arrived there. He said he liked me from the moment he first saw me and I could say the same thing about him. He just made me feel comfortable.
Minho was a handsome guy with brown hair covering his forehead. He had big eyes and round lips, it was quite a sweet combination. Although he was muscular he was very thin and tall … of course that made him popular with girls.

“No need to apologize.” he then said, pulling me out of my thoughts. He got up and grabbed my hands, pulling me up. “There's only a need for a shower.” his comment made me smile. “But tell me what happened first.”
I raised my brows and tried peeling off the chewing gum that was sticking to my now. “I wanted to buy something … bumped into them, they bullied me and took my headphones and–“

“And threw you into the trashcan.”

“Yes.”
He sighed heavily and rubbed his forehead. For a moment he seemed to think. “What did you want to buy?”

“… ice cream.” my words made him smile and he nodded.
“Wait here. I'll go get it for you.” he gave me a playful wink and then went inside, leaving me by the side of the supermarket.
I waited only for two minutes until he came back. He was carrying about three liters of ice cream in three different boxes and handed me the bag. “Hope this is it.” right now he seemed like a life-saver.
“Thank you so much …” I mumbled and smiled lightly. I still felt shaken up. “That was really nice of you …”

“I'm always nice.” when he nudged my nose I blushed a bit and kept looking up at him. “Come on, I'll drive you home, okay?” it took me a moment, but when I said that I'd like that a lot we started walking to his car. He had his arm put around me and just started telling me about his day. He owned a sports shop in Gangnam District and was making a whole lot of money with that, unlike me.
He was just telling me about a crazy customer he had today when I couldn't hold it in anymore. I had been thinking about Jinkis question the entire time ever since Minho had found me and it was pulling my entire mood down.

“Say … how did Cute Cups come to be, anyway?”

It was circling in my head and making me sad and dizzy. Once Minho noticed that I had started crying he sighed softly and pulled over. “What's wrong?” he asked worriedly and placed his hand on my thigh, just like he usually did when I was upset. Minho didn't know about Jinki yet, and so I started explaining how I met Jinki, how we had started hanging out and how this day had taken such a bad turn for my mood.

“Ah …” he smiled a bit and nodded. “How Cute Cups came to be … I understand.”

“I … overreacted, didn't I …” I let my head hang low and wiped some of the tears away. “He must think I'm weird now …”

“I don't think so.” he shook his head and continued to look at me. Minho was not the touchy-feely kind of guy, but when I was down, he was there. “He's probably wondering what's going on. You haven't even considered telling him the whole story yet?”

“No, I can't do that.” I said it with absolute determination in my voice and shook my head. “With everything that happened at college … he won't like me anymore.”

“Of course he will. And what happened at college wasn't even that bad, just–“

“Of course it was that bad!” I interrupted him and furrowed my brow. “You have no idea … It was the reason I left college … and it was the reason Cute Cups was opened … it's … bad.”

“I think you just haven't been able to let go of what happened yet.”

“How can I if it haunts me everyday!?” I raised my voice so much that I almost shouted at him. By now, there were even more tears that dripped down my cheeks. “I-It just hurts … to think about …”
Minho looked at me with very sad eyes and nodded in agreement. “Listen …” he leaned over and put his arm around me as best as he could. “I know college was rough on you, but you have to admit that it was your fault, too, that it turned out like that …” I blinked and just nodded, of course I knew that. “And it's been a while now, too … it's time you forget about what happened there and go on with your life … Maybe even close Cute Cups and get yourself a real job.”

“What?” I frowned hard when he said that and sat up. “No. No, no way. Forget it.” I gently pushed his hands away and unbuckled the seat belt. “T-Thanks for the ride, but … I'm gonna leave now. I'm sorry.” without giving him a second glance I got up and left the car, leaving him sitting there with a worried expression on his face.

Closing Cute Cups was not even a choice.

I couldn't … never.



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The rest of my day continued like it had for the last couple of hours – miserably. I spent the evening and night with eating the three liters of ice cream and watching movies. I didn't cry anymore and didn't feel like it anymore either. Instead I just sat there with my puppies, feeling bad for myself.

College …

I wish I had never gone there in the first place. All those people that thought they were something better, that thought they were smarted than everyone else. I had been studying design as my former wish had been to become a designer. My parents and Taesun had brought me to Uni on my first day where I had been assigned to Minho as guardian. He had taken me all around the campus and showed me everything I needed to know. When I had been introduced to my roommate, Kim Jongin, my day been very nice. He was amazing all together – he was nice, handsome, friendly and basically just the perfect friend. However, it all changed one evening, when we … no, I didn't want to think about it anymore.

“You're not like that, Eve … right?” I asked softly and smiled a bit when she crawled onto my lap. I let her eat a bit of the ice cream and then hugged her close, even giving her head a peck. “You're not gonna … uhm …” I had difficulties saying it and so I decided not to. “You're not gonna leave me, right?” she barked a bit and I felt like she reassured me. “Thanks, Eve.” I held her close and kept on watching the movies that were playing. When Adam came over and wanted to cuddle I held both of them and ended up falling asleep with both of them on my chest.

What I didn't notice was how my cellphone started to ring in the background – and furthermore, I didn't notice how Jinki was trying to call me twice in a row.

Maybe something had happened?

But who knew.

I certainly didn't.



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New chapter. Hope it's okay ^^;


Thanks for reading (if you did)!!~