SHINee ships || one shot collection

Irregular Moments

Taekey, Jongyu, a whole lot of SHINee bromance <3
Ages: Minho + Taemin: 27 | Jinki: 28 | Jonghyun + Kibum: 29
Wordcount: 23,2K

Long time no see!!! I cannot believe the last time I uploaded anything new was pre-covid! >.> Since then I started uni, which is keeping me pretty busy. Now I have an actual bachelor's degree (omg) and I'm so excited to get back to writing. To kick it off, here is a Taekey one shot.

Enjoy <3

"You good?" it rings from the other end of the flat. Taemin is frustrated and his roommate has begun noticing his disgruntled noises getting increasingly louder and more frequent. The following silence is broken by slippers tapping gently on the wooden floors. A concerned-looking roommate pops into the room. "You need a break," Minho says matter-of-factly to the disheartened writer sitting hunched over at his desk surrounded by used mugs and with dark purple bags under his eyes.

"Maybe you're right," Taemin says and slouches from his desk chair to his bed, "or maybe I'm not the writer I thought I was," he admits, feeling a sense of dread fill his stomach as he starts to become more and more convinced that this might be true.

"All you need is a touch of inspiration. You're dealing with writer's block. It's so normal. Google it."

"I know what writer's block is, thank you," Taemin says sarcastically. Minho rolls his eyes at the poor excuse for a living person spread out self-deprecatingly on his bed.

"You're as pale as a ghost. Go out. It's a beautiful evening. It might inspire you."

"I've got work in an hour anyways, I better get ready."

"Good idea but you'll need more time than that to get decent by the looks of you," Minho scoffs at his roommate with a teasing tone. Taemin ignores the remark and simply brushes by Minho to get to the bathroom. He washes up and gets into his uniform before Minho eagerly sends him out the door and into the mild autumn weather. The late evening breeze brushes against his face as he makes his way to the convenience store where he works nights.

Taemin's job is very mundane, and very temporary he hopes, as he is striving to be able to make a living from his writing. That, however, means he will have to start writing something soon. Anything at all. Feeling defeated by his lack of inspiration, he pushes open the glass door and looks over at his colleague, who nods at him before getting ready to clock out. He takes his place behind the counter and begins his unfathomably long night shift. Taemin only works notoriously slow weeknights, so he gets to spend the majority of his shift staring down at a blank page in his notebook, his mind just as empty as the page. At around midnight, a customer enters and heads straight for the drinks. He grabs an iced tea and a couple of other things before approaching the counter.

"Writing or drawing?" The man with a prominent scar etched into his eyebrow asks, cutting into the silence between them and gesturing at Taemin's empty notebook.

"Uh," Taemin falters from the unexpected interaction and fumbles with the scanner in his hand, "writing... Although nothing is coming out," Taemin shares with the stranger, whose eyes are full of genuine interest and curiosity, which startles Taemin who is barely even used to a 'hello' or even a smile from most customers.

"Ah, feeling uninspired?" He asks as Taemin begins packing the items into a bag.

"Very," he sighs and hands the bag over the counter to the charming stranger in front of him.

"With the risk of sounding awfully corny, sometimes the inspiration you seek lies within the mundane. Try looking in the most familiar places and maybe you'll be surprised at what you find." Both of them stand still for a moment looking at each other, Taemin taking in the advice. "I don't know," the stranger shrugs, "maybe you can extract some meaning from that."