The next three weeks passed by rather uneventfully. You continued attending your classes and found that your professors were actually much more fun and approachable than your professors in Korea. They were more willing to have open discussions and also entertain questions during their lecture. However, you also realized that the learning aspect was much more independent and there were many more projects to complete.

Minhyuk had also gradually started to eat more and more solid food as each day went by. While he still ate brown cereal mixed with milk most of the time, he also seemed to enjoy eating mashed banana as well as peach. At first, you were worried about what kind of solid food to start Minhyuk on but with advice from your doctor as well as from Joanne, you managed to plan out a few types of food for him. The key to everything was to go slow and introduce everything in small amounts.

Earlier in midweek though, you got quite a rude shock when Minhyuk suddenly woke up in the middle of the night and starting crying. At first, you thought that he had a bad dream and tried to calm him down by carrying him against your chest and patting his back soothingly. But when he didn’t stop crying even when you played the CD, you started to worry. It was only when you pressed your cheek into his forehead and hummed softly in attempt to calm him down, that you noticed that he felt warmer than usual.

You were panicking on the inside but kept yourself together because you knew that Minhyuk needed you right now. You put him back into his cot for a bit while you changed and quickly took his baby bag as well as your tote bag before picking him back up and leaving the house. You took a cab straight to the hospital where you had to wait for slightly less than half an hour before you finally got to see a doctor.

As it turned out, Minhyuk had started teething, which was why he was running a slight fever and feeling rather irritable. You were advised to keep him cool, monitor his temperature and to bring him back if his fever got too high. Although you understood the advice, you still felt lost and didn’t know what exactly you should be doing. You wished there was someone you could turn to for help. You immediately thought of your mom and mentally smacked yourself for not thinking of it sooner.

By the time you had reached home, Minhyuk had already fallen soundly asleep in your arms and you carefully took off his jacket put him down in his cot. You checked his temperature and found that he was still a little warm so you covered him with only a light blanket and left the room to call your mom. She was extremely happy to hear from you and told you to try and feed him chilled or slightly frozen fruits that have been smashed or pureed so that you could soothe his swollen gums. She also advised you to get some teething biscuits for him since he was already beginning to grasp objects because the pressure that he exert on his gums while trying to gnaw the biscuit would help relief the discomfort.

Like right now, at this very moment, you were watching Minhyuk happily gnawing away on a teething biscuit while waiting for a video call. You were very tired after having to deal with four consecutive nights of interrupted sleep due Minhyuk crying in the middle of the night because of the discomfort of teething. Last night was the worst because he had finally cut his first two teeth after a few days of have swollen gums. You comforted him as best as you could and ended up letting him sleep in your arms for most of the night. You were used to carrying him but your arms felt rather sore after holding him through the night.

You smiled at Minhyuk and bit back a yawn as you glanced up at the clock. It was already close to 9pm. It was close to Minhyuk’s bedtime and you briefly wondered if you should put him in bed first before a ringing sound came from your laptop and your eyes immediately flicked to it.

You answered the video call and saw only Taemin on the other side. “Hyungs!! It’s working already!” He exclaimed while waving his hands to called his hyungs to him.

“Hi, noona!!”

“Hello, Taeminnie. Where are you now?” You didn’t recognise the background. The room looked very bright and looked rather big.

“Oh, we’re in the practice room now. We were practicing but now we’re taking a break since we promised to call.” He answered. You could see the sweat trickling down the sides of his face but he was still so full of energy.

The rest of the members came over and greeted you, all of them dabbing sweat off their faces and necks with tissues. Both Kibum and Minho had one hand wiping themselves off and their other hand wiping sweat off Taemin. The scene was too cute and you quickly sneaked a video capture of the moment. You chuckled silently to yourself after you had done the deed and they were completely clueless, still busy trying to dry themselves off.

Eventually, you got down to talking to them and when you told them about Minhyuk finally cutting his first teeth, they had insisted on wanting to see it, which was why you were now unbuckling Minhyuk from his high seat and seating him in front of your laptop. You gently took the teething biscuit, which was by now well slobbered on, away from him and placed it on the table beside your laptop. You took a piece of tissue and wiped the drool off his face and hands while the rest waited patiently for you to finish.

Minhyuk’s now empty hands reached out and tried to grab the laptop screen. You gently lowered his hands. “No, Minhyukkie. You can’t grab that. It’s too heavy.” You said. “Look! Look who’s over there.” You pointed to the screen. Minhyuk looked towards the screen and flashed a wide open-mouthed grin towards the camera. You brought Minhyuk slightly closer to the camera so that they could see the two tiny white caps peaking out of his gums. They were really happy to see Minhyuk again and kept trying to prolong his time “on screen” but you eventually had to put him to bed as sleep was still very important for him.

You came back and was somewhat surprised to see all the members, except Minho, still there. You raised an eyebrow. “No mass ninja disappearance this time?”

Kibum chuckled, clearly the only one who understood completely as Jonghyun and Jinki were spacing out and Taemin cocked his head to the side and had a puzzled look on his face. “What do you mean, noona?”

“Nothing, Taeminnie. You don’t have to worry about it. Where did Minho go?” You asked and just then, Minho walked in through the door, as if he heard you asking about him.

Their laptop was placed such that you could see the door in the background so you saw Minho as he walked back in. He wasn’t alone though, he brought two people along with him. This time, it was you who cocked your head to the side as you wondered who they were.

“How are my lovely dongsaengs doing?” The one with warm brown hair exclaimed and threw his hands out exaggeratedly. “Not practicing?!” He said in a stern tone when he saw that everyone was crowding around a laptop but you could tell that he was just teasing because of his expression.

“Hyung!” Taemin jumped out of his seat, ran towards the brown haired stranger and hugged him.

“What? No greeting for me?!” The other reddish-brown haired guy pouted and pretended to be hurt.

The other members just laughed and went to greet them while Minho clung onto the reddish-brown haired guy by hugging him from the back. They seemed to be having a conversation like that but you couldn’t be sure. You were so absorbed with watching their interactions that you almost forgot that they could see you as well. “Who’s that?” The warm brown haired one pointed to you and asked.

“Er..” Kibum began, not sure how to explain everything.

“She’s our friend who lives in LA. Kibum met her on his exchange and we met her when we went to visit him.” Jinki quickly explained and you saw Kibum send him a grateful look.

You were just thankful that Minhyuk was no longer seated in front of your laptop with you because you really didn’t know how you were going to explain that. However, instead of worrying about that, you found yourself smiling and bowing your head respectfully as you were introduced to them. The brown haired one was Leeteuk, who was the leader of a group called Super Junior and the other reddish brown haired one was Eunhyuk, who was one of the members of Super Junior.

Apparently, they had just finished recording for their radio broadcast and were on their way to their rehearsal in another room when they saw Minho walking down the corridor and decided to pop by and visit. “Hyung! Can you buy us some food? I’m hungry!” Taemin pouted and whined to Leeteuk, clinging onto his arm in the process.

“Aish! You’re always hungry Taeminnie!” Leeteuk complained.

“Hyung! Now you see what we have to deal with!” Jonghyun and Kibum complained, which caused Taemin to pout even more.

“But I can’t help it.” He whimpered and switched to cling on Eunhyuk instead, just when Minho finally decided to let go of him. “Eunhyuk hyung! You’ll buy me some food right?” Taemin whined and looked up pitifully at him.

Eunhyuk looked from Taemin to Leeteuk and back to Taemin and then to Leeteuk again. “Hyung~” He whined as well.

“Aigoo! Alright alright. I’ll order something in. What do you all want?” Leeteuk asked.

“Chicken!” Jinki immediately shouted out and even raised his hand while he said it, causing even to laugh and shake their heads.

“So chicken? No objections?” He confirmed.

“Chicken is fine, hyung. Thank you.” Kibum said sensibly while nudging Jinki in his side with his elbow. SHINee’s leader just blushed and bowed his head to hide his face.

After that, Leeteuk and Eunhyuk had to leave for their practice and said that they would bring over the chicken when it arrives. They were saying goodbye to everyone when Eunhyuk suddenly turned his attention towards you and said, “Bye -------ah! It was nice meeting you.”

Leeteuk also said bye to you after that and even bowed slightly to you. You were slightly taken aback at this but you bowed back anyway. You knew that idols were trained to be more polite that normal in public eye but you never expected it to carry forward to their private lives as well. “Deh. It was nice meeting the both of you as well, Leeteuk-ssi and Eunhyuk-ssi.”

Eunhyuk stopped in his tracks. “No no no.” He waved his index finger from side to side. “Not ssi.. Oppa. Try it.” He stated.

“Eunhyuk oppa… Leeteuk oppa.” You added when you saw Leeteuk anticipating your words. You were sure that your entire face was red by now so you bowed your head and let your hair fall forward in attempt to shield your face.

They still saw it though and laughed at your shyness. “You’re cute. Just like our Taeminnie.” Leeteuk said, reaching out and ruffling Taemin’s hair at the same time.

“I’m not cute!! I’m cool! Noona said I am!” He protested cutely, causing everyone to burst out in laughter.

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Wow. Close to 2000 words in this chapter! 

Anyway, I don't know if you've heard yet but poor Onew got injured :(((( He sprained his ankle during practice!! SHINee seems to be plagued with non-stop injuries all the time :(

Hope he recovers soon!