Planning (1/1)

You approached me with an unfamiliar face

Everything was taken from me by that first glanceI have changed,

You have switched everything – SHINee; Stranger (Korean Version) M I N H O Minho breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he slipped into the same booth he’d sat at with the guys the last time they’d been in the coffee shop.  Just like last time, he’d managed to arrive two minutes before they’d all agreed to meet, at eleven fifty-eight in this case.  And just like last time, Taemin was already sitting in the seat right in front of him, admiring the scenery of the café.  Minho smiled warmly as he greeted the boy.  “Hi, Taeminnie.”The younger blushed lightly, a soft pink just barely gracing his complexion as he greeted his elder.  “Hi, Minho-hyung.”A small moment of uncomfortable silence passed in which Minho smiled at the blushing boy before him, kind gaze unwavering as he looked at his dongsaeng, who ended up feeling awkward and shifting his eyes elsewhere briefly.“How was your morning?”  Minho found himself asking the question, partly to break the silence and partly to get the boy to warm up to him a bit – after all, he was adorable and Minho had the feeling that being distanced from him in their current situation was a relatively bad idea.And it’s weird but I feel like I want to be closer to this kid.The thought surprised him, both because of its honesty and because of the fact that he hadn’t even known he’d been thinking about it until he’d realized that he’d thought it.“It was good, Minho-hyung.  How was yours?”Suppressing the urge to frown at his moment of intense metacognition, the older let Taemin’s words fully sink in.  He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, an oddly embarrassed smile taking the place of his old, kind one as he said, “I actually woke up just an hour ago.  I had to rush to get here.”The maknae frowned, pursing his lips.  “Well, you got here pretty quick then, considering.  Where do you live?”“I live on the other side of town,” Minho responded, bursting out into laughter at the way the maknae’s eyes widened so much.“How did you get here so fast?”  The amazed face Taemin had made Minho laugh that much harder.  It took a short while for him to calm down.  When he finally was calm, he gave Taemin an amused smile and said, “I drove, Minnie.”Another chuckle escaped him as the boy before him blushed.  “Ah, right.  You’re actually old enough to drive.”Minho’s amused smile broadened.  “You’re so cute, Minnie.”  He laughed softly at the embarrassed look on his dongsaeng’s face.  “Too young to even drive.”  His amused smile fell into a more laid-back, lazy smirk.The blush that adorned the maknae’s face made said smirk twitch wider the slightest.“Just a few more months and I can stop walking,” Taemin announced, brow pulled into a pout that Minho believed didn’t help him look even remotely close to his age, let alone older.  Minho’s smirk did slide off his face, however, when he let what Taemin had said sink in.“Wait a minute, walk?”  He gave the maknae a questioning look, brows pulled in and lips just barely parted.  Taemin nodded nonchalantly in response.  “You walk everywhere?”Again the younger nodded, unperturbed by Minho’s slowly widening eyes.“By yourself?”Another nod, coupled with “Yeah, all the time.”  Minho felt his heart drop to his feet.“Wait, why?”  The older couldn’t hide the horror in his voice.  The fact that young and innocent (at least, Minho liked to believe he was innocent) Taemin walked everywhere triggered an odd sense of wanting to protect the kid.  “Why don’t you take the bus or the train?”  He heard the worry in his voice and questioned somewhere in the back of his head why he cared so much, but he quickly disregarded his thoughts and leaned forward on the table, waiting for the maknae’s response.The boy before him furrowed his brows at the look on his hyung’s face but replied without hesitation.  “I only live a mile away from school.”“Alright, but what about everywhere else?  I’m sure you don’t live a mile away from everywhere else.”The maknae paused, his lips pursing.  Minho felt the worry deep inside him slowly growing, transitioning from a small tinge to a well-sized hum that seemed to brush the insides of his stomach lightly with a feather duster; every so often he felt the unpleasant tickle of concern.But why do I care so much?He pushed the question aside, discarding it to somewhere in the back of his mind, as the maknae began to speak.  “Well, no but I manage.”“But it gets dark so quickly, especially after school.”Taemin shrugged and pursed his lips again.  “I know, but I’m fine.  I’m used to it,” he said after a short second.  Minho rapidly shook his head in disapproval.  “No, no, no.  That’s not good.  That’s unacceptable.  I’ll give you a ride to school.”If he wasn’t so worried, he would’ve laughed at the look on Taemin’s face.  His eyes had widened to the size of the moon and he leaned forward to look at Minho with a bewildered frown on his face.  “Wait, what?  No, Minho-hyung, it’s perfectly fine!  I’m okay!”“Nonsense, Minnie,” Minho returned not a second later.  “You’re too young and a mile is way too long when it’s dark.  I’ll give you a ride to and from school every day,” he said.  “And no buts,” he added when he saw the younger open his mouth to protest.The maknae closed his mouth and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in his chair with a pout that made him look twice as young as he really was.A few moments of silence followed before Minho heard the entrance to the café chime along with two familiar voices going back and forth.“Honestly, I say to meet at noon for lunch so we can discuss the showcase and it’s twelve ten and you’re just getting here.”“Oh please.  You’re getting here at the same time I am, so you’re one to talk.  If anything, you’re more late then I am.”“We met up at the same place on the way over here, genius.”“Okay then, so why are you complaining about me being late when you’re just as late?”“I’m late because I actually took the time to make myself look decent, Dino.”“Again with the flipping ‘Dino’.  Well listen here, Kitty, I look fine, and I’m only late because I got caught up helping an old woman cross the street.”“Oh, please with your lies.  You were just late, just admit it.  And I am not a kitty.”“Well I’m not a dinosaur.”“Alright, fine, you’re not a dinosaur, but you’re still late.”Minho and Taemin simply watched as the bickering Kibum and Jonghyun slid into the same seats they had last time.  They seemed completely oblivious to their dongsaengs as they continued arguing.“I told you I was helping a lady cross the street, and you’re just as late as I am.”“But compare the way I look to the way you look.”“There’s nothing wrong with the way I look!”Minho winced at the sudden increase in volume and opened his mouth to try and calm Jonghyun, but was abruptly cut off by Key.“Well you clearly didn’t take a good look at what you’re wearing!”Minho glanced over at Taemin, who was noticeably uncomfortable at the volume of the argument the other two were having.  He frowned as he looked back over at Jonghyun, who was taking in a deep breath to calm himself as Key glared at him.A moment of tense silence passed before Jonghyun spoke again, meeting the blond’s gaze easily.  “Listen,” he said, voice low and strained.  “What matters is that we’re here, so tell me what you guys all want so I can order your stuff and we can get started talking about the showcase.  Okay?”  He put heavy stress on the last word, although his gaze never left Kibum’s.The glare that the blond boy had had on his face fell into an emotionless expression, his eyes locked with Jonghyun’s.  “Fine,” he said after a moment, voice unrestrainedly calm.“Thank you.  Now what do you guys want to eat?  I’ll get the orders.”It was silent for a short minute in which Taemin and Minho glanced at each other before looking back at Jonghyun and Key.  The two seemed to be back to normal – or at least as normal as they could be in the time Minho had known them.“I’ll have the same thing as I had last time, then Jjong-hyung,” Kibum said quietly, breaking the thick silence around them.  He didn’t meet the oldest’s gaze as he spoke, but rather looked down at his intertwined fingers.  Minho almost got the idea that he felt guilty for arguing with him.“Okay, which was?”“I had a powdered donut with chocolate glazed over it and a strawberry frappe with whipped cream.”  He still didn’t raise his gaze the slightest, keeping it fixed on his hands.  He wiggled his intertwined fingers a bit, appearing to space out as he stared at them.Minho himself realized that he’d been staring at Kibum for a long time, studying his face to no avail, for the lack of emotion on it made it impossible to read.  The only readable body language Minho had managed to notice was Key’s odd hand behavior.Well whatever, he thought as he turned to Jonghyun.  “I’ll just have the same as last time too; a vanilla bean coffee and crepes.”  Jonghyun nodded and turned to Taemin, thankfully not questioning Minho on why he’d been spaced out looking at Key.  Minho silently prayed that it was because he hadn’t noticed.“Hi Taeminnie,” he said kindly, giving Taemin a grin that Minho could easily describe as puppy-like.  Taemin smiled back sweetly.  “Hi Jonghyun-hyung,” he replied.“What would you like to eat?”Taemin pursed his lips sideways and let his gaze shift around the room easily.  He puffed up his cheeks, making Minho think about how despite the fact that he was the leader of the dance department he was still ridiculously young and at times acted even younger, before he spoke.  “I’ll do what everyone else is doing then.”  He seemed to be continuing some conversation he’d been having with himself in his head.  “I’ll just take what I had last time; a mocha coffee with coffee cake.”“Okay, you got it kiddo,” Jonghyun said as he slipped out of the booth from next to Minho and made his way over to the front counter to put in the orders.Silence stretched amongst the boys at the table yet again.  Key was busy texting whoever it was that Key texted and Minho was watching Taemin play around with his phone.  He smiled softly at the way the boy’s lips puckered out as his brows pulled down into a frown in concentration.  His thumbs twiddled repeatedly against the screen expertly.  Minho could tell that he was extremely focused.A small sigh escaped Taemin soon enough.  He lightly placed his phone on the table and ran a hand through his brown waves, his gaze drifting up just in time to catch Minho staring at him.“Minho-hyung?  Are you okay?”He fought the urge to blush at being caught and nodded.  “I’m fine, Taemin-ah,” he said, feeling his face heat up at the questioning look the younger gave him.Why is he so adorable?He raised a questioning eyebrow at the maknae himself, more so to distract himself from his own thoughts than to actually question the maknae.“Yah, Minho, Taemin-ah, what are you doing?  Why are you looking at each other like that?”Both boys turned to look at Key, who’d also finally placed his own phone on the table and clasped his hands again.  Minho felt the heat in his cheeks increase and struggled to fight down the blush he knew, as thunder follows lightning, that was lightly breaking out on his face.  “Ah, nothing.  We’re not doing anything,” he responded, a weird laugh escaping him as he rubbed the back of his neck.  Key raised an eyebrow as if to say, “And you expect me to believe that?”  He opened his mouth to speak – probably to continue to question the two boys, in Minho’s opinion – but was interrupted by Jonghyun, who set the tray of food down on the table and said, “Okay, so I have all the stuff.  Grab what’s yours and we’ll get started.”Surprisingly, Key didn’t snap at him for cutting him off.  He simply grabbed his things and began silently eating them.  To say Minho was surprised was the understatement of the year, but he chose to remain silent and not bother the blond.  Rather, he grabbed his own food and began eating it silently.Another famed silence overtook the four boys as they sipped from their cups and picked at their food.  When it was broken, however, it was by Jonghyun, not by Key, as had been typical since they’d met.  “Ah, so yeah, uh, any ideas on how we’ll be grouping people?  Or you know, for the showcase in general?”Everyone turned to look at Key, who was usually the first one to speak up.  Instead of speaking up, though, he simply looked back at all of them with solid, emotionless eyes, inciting a rather long awkward silence in which everyone just looked at one another.Thankfully, Taemin broke the silence.  “How about we set standards first and then group them based on that?”The focus broke from Key and fell onto Taemin instead, who blushed at having the other three looking at him so intently at once.He’s so adorable.Choosing to ignore his thoughts yet again, Minho chimed in with, “Alright, so then how’ll the standards help?”Taemin pursed his lips; Minho found himself examining the way his bottom lip jutted out just slightly more than the top one and how ridiculously pink they were.  He fought down the urge to bite his own lips and shifted his gaze elsewhere, wondering what in the hell was going through his mind.  An eternity seemed to slip by before Taemin spoke again.“Well how about we group people based on how well they met the standards we set?  So like the people who did really well are placed in a group together and those who did mildly decent are put into a group together.  And then we split those groups into smaller groups if they’re too big.”There was a contemplative silence at the table as the boys thought over his suggestion.  “I see no problem with that,” Minho announced after a short minute before flashing the maknae an approving smile.  “What about you guys?  Do you agree?”  He turned to the blond and the oldest, an eyebrow raised in gentle question.Jonghyun shrugged after a moment and said, “I’m fine with it, it’s a solid idea.”  Minho took note of how he turned to look at Key with him.  Said blond just looked over at Jonghyun for a moment, face still entirely deadpan as he shrugged and said, “it’ll do” in what had to be the most monotonous tone Minho had ever heard from him in the time that they’d known each other.  He felt his eyebrows momentarily rise into his hairline before he turned back to face forward and give Taemin a kind smile and nod.“So then I guess that’s the plan.  Good job, Minnie,” he said warmly.  Taemin just grinned back in response.  Minho felt his smile broaden the teeniest bit.“Okay, so since we have that, any ideas on what we should do for the actual showcase itself?”This time there was no silence after Jonghyun asked the question; there was just one word uttered so low it was barely audible: “Dancing.”Minho looked over at the blond, letting his mind process the sounds he’d just heard and letting them digest before asking, “What about dancing?”Key picked at his donut with a plastic fork, his head leaning on the heel of his hand, as he said, still in a low monotone that Minho had already deemed as so unlike him, “We start off with a dance number.”  He raised an eyebrow, more so because of Key’s strange behavior than because he was considering the idea.  “Uh, okay.”Jonghyun chimed in rather quickly in an obvious effort to heighten the amount of discussion going on.  “Okay, so we start off with a dance number, but then what after that?”More silence – one that Minho felt truly dragged as if it were trying to remain for the rest of eternity.  The fact of the matter was that the group was surrounded by tense and extremely awkward silence and Minho’s brain was failing to come up with anything to try and salvage the situation.  He couldn’t find any little thing to break the silence, let alone a feasible idea for the showcase.He inwardly groaned and cursed the principal for putting them in the situation they were in.  Here were four boys who knew so little about each other that they were practically strangers trying to organize what would undoubtedly be the biggest event their school had ever seen in the entirety of its history – and failing miserably.He felt his eyebrows pull in out of frustration, and soon after found himself glaring at the surface of the table.  The silence just kept stretching.  He felt his breaking point slowly approaching.It was when he was about two seconds away from slamming his head into the table that Taemin spoke up.  “Wait, Key-hyu – I mean um, Key-umma, how about we start with like a prologue sort of thing, with acting?”Minho’s glare eased into an easy, curious expression as he raised his gaze to look at the maknae.  Said boy had turned in his seat to face Key, a leg resting on the cushions and his head cocked to the side slightly, most likely in an attempt to look the blond directly in the face.The stylist blinked a few times before looking over at the maknae, looking as if he’d just awoken from some sort of daze.  He blinked some more before pursing his lips sideways in thought, clearly mulling it over in his head.  A short minute passed before Key came out with, “Expand on that idea, please.”Taemin glanced down momentarily before commencing.  “Well I mean if we start with a dance it’d be cool but I feel like the rest wouldn’t seem to flow as well because you have something as exciting as a dance in the very beginning.  I feel like we should start with like acting because it’ll get people’s attention but it won’t get them too pumped just yet.”Under any other circumstances, Minho was sure he would’ve taken a little offense to that.  Instead, he found himself nodding in unison with Jonghyun in agreement.  “That’s a good point, there Minnie,” he said encouragingly, earning him a blush from the younger.He turned to look at Key to see the blond’s take on the idea.  Key was simply looking at Taemin unblinkingly.  He seemed to be spaced out as he looked at the younger’s face, eyes exhibiting an odd glaze to them.  He blinked after a moment and shrugged.  “I think it’s a valid point.  Not a bad idea; I’m fine with it.”Key then turned his head forward again, although Minho noticed that he didn’t look at Jonghyun, but rather brought his hand up to examine his nails.Why is he being so weird?Minho sighed internally at the whole ordeal.  He seemed to be thinking and caring about things that normally he wouldn’t have given a second glance at.  For some odd reason he felt some odd sensation within to care for the three boys before him – the youngest in particular, hence the reason he would now be forcing Taemin to ride home with him.It took Minho a moment to realize that Jonghyun had begun speaking.“- groups starting off with acting and then we’ll ease into music, like singing.  How’s that sound?”He turned to look directly at Minho, who blinked in surprise but nodded nonetheless, letting out a small breath as he said, “It’s fine with me, I like the idea.”Silence stretched between the four again.  Minho took a sip from his rapidly cooling coffee before setting his cup down and entwining his fingers.  A few more moments of silence played out before a clever idea hit him.“Oh wait, and then what if toward the end of the first song we set out the runway and have the art department’s latest designs being modeled while the singing goes on?”  He turned to give Kibum a warm smile which was returned by the blond with a quick upturn of the lips that didn’t even come close to reaching his feline eyes.“It sounds like a great idea,” he said, voice completely contradicting his choice of words – or rather just completely void of emotion, Minho should say.  It was so odd; usually the boy was full of sass and diva attitude.  Minho wondered what exactly had shut him down.  It was obvious that the argument between he and Jonghyun had done a great portion, but it hadn’t seemed as bad as most would’ve thought (although it was still pretty bad), and Jonghyun had ended it and tried to be nice.So why was Key so suddenly void of himself?Minho repressed the urge to furrow his brow in curiosity and turned to look at Jonghyun, who nodded in agreement with the idea, before he turned to look at Taemin, who was grinning brightly and nodded just as vigorously.Okay, so I actually contributed.  Nice.It was a nice feeling.“And then,” he heard Key say, almost inaudibly and still in that monotonous tone of his, “we end with a big dance that has everyone who participated in the showcase in it.  What do you think, Taemin-ah?”  He turned to look at the maknae, who pursed his lips momentarily before nodding, a small smile gracing his lips.  “I think it’d be cool.”Key shook his head side to side a bit before saying, “Good” in a tone that shocked Minho at the amount of diva-ness that seemed to suddenly leak out, “-because you’ll be choreographing it, Mr. Head of the Dance Department.”  Apparently Diva Key was suddenly back.Minho felt bad for the maknae; his face had instantly paled at the stylist’s statement, and his eyes were wide and scared enough to make him resemble a doe caught in traffic.  “What?”  His voice was a small squeak of surprise.“You heard me,” the blond said, a small smirk beginning to adorn his face.  He let out a laugh – presumably at the maknae – and ruffled his brown locks.  “Oh relax, Taeminnie, I’m sure you’ll be fine.  You’re Taeminnie, Head of the Dance Department, and I’m sure that’s for a reason.”Taemin visibly blushed and Key’s grin broadened as he reached out and pinched the younger’s cheeks.  Minho himself felt a smile spread over his own face at the younger boy’s blush.  He was so cute when he was embarrassed.“Anyway,” Key stated, acting as if he hadn’t been seemingly ridiculously out of it for the past twenty minutes, “We’ve got the basic order for the show now, and of course I’ll be designing stage costumes with the best in my sub-department, and the rest of the visual-arts department will be creating backdrops and such.  Now we just need to figure out the standards Taeminnie mentioned and we’ll be set.”Minho took a glance at his phone; the time read twelve forty in the afternoon.  They’d already spent forty minutes at the place.Repressing a sigh, he placed his phone down on the table, laced his fingers together, and waited patiently for the others to begin coming up with standards. L Time had really flown.  Once Key had gotten back to his normal self, the ideas had begun springing out, the silences getting shorter and shorter, replaced instead by the announcement of the multitude of ideas that the boys were suddenly coming up with.  When they’d finally finished setting all of the standards (and consequently taking the notes down in their phones since they all hadn’t bothered to bring notebooks and pens) and finished the last of their drinks, it was already three and the area around the café was filling with more and more people running afternoon errands and meeting up for dates.They’d all pitched in for the food, paying Jonghyun back for their own shares and forcing him to take the money, since he had been dead set on letting them get away without paying him back.  In the end, he’d grudgingly accepted the cash and placed it neatly in his wallet.Now, as the sun was a bit lower than it had previously been, the boys all stood awkwardly outside of the café building as they had the first time they’d visited it.  Jonghyun had his hands in his pockets, scuffing the toe of his shoe against the sidewalk.  Taemin had a hand on the arm that was dropped by his side, seemingly interested in the fronts of his shoes.  Key was nonchalantly texting in front of them, his fingers whizzing over the screen of his phone faster than Minho had previously thought was humanly possible.Minho himself was standing there looking at the other three boys, scratching the back of his head unsurely.  He wasn’t certain as to what to do to get the group to disband and give Taemin a ride home (because there was no damned way in hell he was letting the poor kid walk home now that he knew).Thankfully, he didn’t end up having to do a thing.  Key had pocketed his phone and announced in his own diva-ishly awkward way that he was leaving.  Jonghyun nodded, giving him a polite “good-bye” as the blond gave them all a small smile and started to walk off in his own direction.Taemin took a step in the same direction, almost as if to join him, but Minho quickly placed a hand on his shoulder.  “Hey, Minnie, hold on.  Where do you think you’re going?”The maknae looked up at the older and blinked a few times before saying innocently, “I was going to walk home with Key-hyung.”Minho frowned and shook his head, raising a finger and signaling ‘no’ with it as well.  “Nonsense, I’ll drive you home, Minnie.”  He flashed the younger a kind smile.For the first time since Minho had known him, Taemin did not smile back, but rather bit his lip nervously and didn’t meet Minho’s gaze.  “It’s okay, hyung,” he said almost inaudibly.  “I don’t want to be a burden.”“Oh please,” Minho said, grabbing the younger by the upper part of his arm and beginning to pull him in the direction of where he’d parked.  “I’m offering, so that means I’m not burdened at all by it.  If it was going to be a burden, I wouldn’t have offered.”He paused momentarily in his dragging of the maknae and turned to wave to Jonghyun and say a small, “Goodbye, Hyung.”  The oldest simply gave him a smile and waved goodbye back to the both of them before turning and going off in his own direction.Minho turned back and continued leading the younger toward his car.  He felt more than saw Taemin’s gaze on him the entire time they were walking.  He tried his best to ignore it as he rounded the corner of the block and stepped into the generic parking lot that had been built for the downtown area.He led the maknae over to his black Infiniti, grinning like an idiot at the shocked look on the maknae’s face.  He unlocked the car and slipped into the driver’s seat, Taemin sliding into the passenger’s side and closing the door just as quickly.  His eyes were still the size of dinner plates.Minho couldn’t help himself; an amused laugh escaped him.  “Are you okay there, Minnie?”Taemin turned his head to look at Minho, face still showing obvious signs of surprise.  “Minho-hyung, are you sure this is okay?”  It took a while for him to actually say it.  Minho rolled his eyes, a soft smile playing over his lips.  “Oh, Taemin-ah, relax.  I’m one hundred percent positive that it’s fine.  Now tell me where you live so we can get you home to your mommy.”  He laughed at the last part as he reached out and pinched the maknae’s cheek.Taemin scrunched up his face in response and gave Minho a long look, utterly silent.  Minho frowned, lips pursing slightly. “I might be young, but I’m a man,” Taemin said after a while.Minho really, really, really didn’t want to, but he laughed so hard at the younger boy – at least until he saw the hurt expression cross his face and the pout formulate on his lips.“What’s so funny,” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest, pout becoming a bit more pronounced.  “I am a man.”With a pout like that?  I don’t think so.“Alright, Taemin-ah, you’re a man,” Minho said, trying his best to reconcile.  “Although,” he added at the last minute, “your pout isn’t really helping your case.”The younger blushed cutely, causing Minho to chuckle amusedly before sticking the key in the ignition and turning the car on.  “Alright, now tell me where you live,” he said, glancing over at Taemin.Taemin gave the older his address and Minho eased out of the lot and onto the street in the direction of the boy’s house.Silence reigned for a few minutes, Minho maneuvering his way through the busy streets of downtown Seoul, Taemin looking out of the window quietly, until Minho stopped at a red light and decided to try and strike up conversation.“So Taemin-ah,” he said, trying his best to avoid the nickname he’d made for the boy in case it offended him and made him feel “less manly” (he had to hold down his laughter at the idea – the boy definitely had the potential to be manly, but he was so cutesy it seemed nearly impossible in Minho’s mind), “what made you first start like dancing?”He glanced over to the passenger’s side, watching as the maknae shifted his body so that it was facing foreword but turned his face to look at his hyung.  “I’m not sure what it was, all I know is that dancing for me has always been, just been, since I started.”  He paused and bit his lip.  Minho noticed and waved a hand, urging him to go on as he pressed down on the gas in response to the now green light.He heard Taemin let out a small puff of breath before saying, “It’s like with walking.  People always have to walk right?”  Minho nodded in response and Taemin continued.  “Well I’ve always had to dance.  Is that weird?”  He heard the uncertainty in the younger’s voice and found himself, strangely, smiling.  He knew exactly what he meant.“No, it’s fine.  I know how you feel – it’s the same way with me and acting, except that I got into it a bit late.”He seemed to have spiked Taemin’s interest, for the boy pressed him to go on.  “When’d you get into it,” he questioned.  Minho let his smile widen just the slightest.“To be honest I didn’t really get into it until three years before I entered Seoul’s School for the Arts.  We had a school play and my friend Donghae convinced me to do it.  In the end, I played one of the lead parts and really liked it.  I was in the production that went on the year after, even though Donghae had already moved on to the higher level.  He goes to school with us, actually; he’s an elite.  Anyway, I just kind of fell in love with it, and ended up going to Seoul’s School to study it.”He hadn’t realized he’d said so much until after he’d finished and realized he was in desperate need of a breath.  He felt a light blush make its way onto his face as he also realized that he’d probably been rambling when Taemin had asked him a question with such a short answer.“Uh, sorry,” he said softly.  He could hear the smile in the younger’s voice as he said, “Oh no, don’t worry about it, hyung.  It’s a nice story.  And I kind of want to meet this Donghae person.”Minho laughed lightheartedly at the legitimate enthusiasm in the younger’s voice.  “You’ll meet him eventually,” he said, amused smile still on his face and stretching his cheeks to a point that normally would’ve been a little uncomfortable.  “He’s an elite, after all, so he’ll be sorted into one of the groups that we have.”He made out the image of Taemin nodding from the corner of his eye, a huge smile plastered on the younger’s face.  Minho felt his own smile broaden just the slightest.Why is it that all I can do around this kid is smile?He turned the thought over in his head, smile easing into a more relaxed face as he drove reflexively along the road.“That’s good,” Taemin announced, and Minho could hear the smile in his voice.  “I’m actually kind of anxious to meet all of the other departments’ elites.”A very brief silence followed before Taemin spoke again, continuing.  “I want to know what everybody’s like.  This whole thing makes me curious about the different things people are good at and how they are and what they look like and -.”  He cut himself off, making Minho frown.“Why’d you stop,” he questioned, glancing sideways at the maknae, who had begun to blush the palest tint of pink.“I was rambling,” he said quietly, running a finger over his cheek.“I was enjoying it,” Minho shot back, giving the younger a quick, reassuring smile before letting his attention fall back to the road in front of him.The rest of the ride was silent, Taemin choosing to leave everything where he’d dropped off.  Minho didn’t really want to admit it to himself, but somewhere deep down he missed the boy’s happy rambling.  He also tried not to admit to himself that he was getting progressively less happy the closer they got to where Taemin had said his house was.They had long since escaped the hustle and bustle of Seoul’s main downtown and were now nearing one of the many residential areas of the city.  Minho noticed how the houses in the area were quaint, but seemingly well built and charming.  He found himself approving of the neighborhood, thinking to himself, it’s a suitable place for him, and he wasn’t lying; it is close to school.  Still though…He took a turn onto a wide street, the houses lined up neatly along the sidewalk with well-cut autumn grass and the occasional red and orange leaved trees.“This is a cute neighborhood,” Minho found himself saying.  He saw Taemin nod from the corner of his eye as he eased down the street at a suitable pace (although he would never admit that maybe it was because he wasn’t looking forward to actually getting to Taemin’s house).  “I like it a lot,” he continued, trying his best to illicit a response from the younger.“Ah, I like it too,” Taemin responded, a smile formulating itself on his lips.  “Everybody here is really nice and it looks so pretty in the winter when there’s snow.”“I believe it,” Minho said, a small smile adorning his face now as well.  “I’d like to actually see it though.  Maybe I will if it snows this winter when I come down to get you before school.”The maknae seemed to deflate like a popped balloon.  “Minho-hyung, you don’t have to give me rides to school.  I can walk, it’s fine.”Minho sent him a look before stating in a tone that left no room for questioning, “Taemin-ah, I want to give you rides to school.  Walking isn’t safe in today’s world, even if it’s only a mile out.”The younger opened his mouth to say something, but in the end closed it and said nothing, a sigh escaping his lips.“Are you sure?”  he asked after a minute.“Positive.”“Okay.”The silence that overtook them afterword was short, for Minho had finally turned onto Taemin’s street.  As soon as he did, the younger said, “Right over there, Minho-hyung,” pointing to a compact beige house with large stone steps leading to a wooden front door.  Minho examined the façade of the building carefully, scanning every detail he could.  He found that, although it was nowhere near as big as the home his parents were able to afford, it was still really cute and Minho liked it – a lot.He eased up to the house and pulled up to the curb slowly, the car coming to a halt right in front of the large stone steps.Taemin opened the car door lightly and stepped out onto the sidewalk.  He bowed to Minho as he thanked him for the ride, hand still holding the door open.  Minho waved him off lightly.  “Not a problem, Minnie.  I’ll see you Monday; seven thirty sharp, okay?”The boy blushed at the use of the nickname before nodding, waving, and closing the door.Minho watched him enter his home before he turned around and headed home, letting his car cruise until he hit the main roads, the entire time questioning his sanity and why on earth he cared for someone so much in such a short amount of time.Sorry this took so long. I had literally no time on my hands last weekend ^_-' so here it is late as ever but here.

Also, I've been thinking up a EunHae one-shot, which I'll hopefully get around to writing up tomorrow so I can post it, so watch out for that (:

Oh and last thing: I made a tumblr guys!

You can find it here  (:

Let's fangirl together, kay? ^_^

Thanks so much for reading! <3

See you next chapter!