The Other Girl

Chapter 8 (You Deserve The Best)

.................................................

Contrary to Taemin's belief, when the SHINee boys touched back down in Korea and eventually their dorms, anyone who was involved with the rumor of Seo Hee and Hyo Jin's supposed confrontation seemed to have forgotten of such a thing. Taemin was lucky enough to return to Korea without worrying about what his sunbaes would say about his silly relationship problem.

That, however, didn't seem to settle things down between him, Minho, and most especially Seo Hee.

Throughout the whole flight between Japan and Korea, Taemin requested to switch seats with Onew so as to avoid having to face the awkward situation of being seated next to Minho. Minho entirely didn't give a damn; he wasn't going to talk to the boy at all, anyway.

By the time they reached their dorm, Minho shut himself up in the room he shared with Jonghyun and had chosen to sleep for the rest of the day. Taemin, unsure of what to do next, approached Jonghyun for another round of advice having to deal with Seo Hee. He took a seat on a stool at their kitchen nook, watching the lead vocalist of their group rummage through their refrigerator for a snack.

"I don't know if there are any good thing left to say about this, Taeminnie," Jonghyun told him, a touch of pity in his voice. "You scolding her after what you only heard from other people? Well, hate to say this, but you fucked it up. Big time."

Taemin banged his head against their wooden kitchen countertop as Jonghyun proceeded with fixing himself up a sandwich, clearly unmoved by Taemin's expression of guilt and general fucked-uppery.

"So what do I do now? I mean, I can't not talk to her forever!" Taemin moped, his head down and his right cheek plastered against the countertop.

"Should've thought of that before you told her that you didn't want to talk to her," Jonghyun said, shrugging his shoulders. "Guess she took that command into consideration now that she isn't answering your calls. And Minho's, too."

Taemin sat up properly. "Minho? Minho tried calling her, too?"

"Yeah, he called like a billion times right after the music festival in Japan, he tried a little more right before we got on the plane this morning, and then again when we arrived at the airport. She never picked up one of his calls," Jonghyun explained, before taking a bite out of his sandwich. As he was chewing, it was apparent that something suddenly came to his mind because he suddenly stopped chewing and swallowed quickly, before saying, "But I think she finally did text him. I think it was actually kind of one of those long messages. I don't know, I didn't see everything. But yeah, she texted him."

There was some tinge of emotion panging in Taemin's guts and he knew for sure that it was nothing but jealousy for his best friend. Taemin had tried countless times to call Seo Hee after what he said to her, but never once did she at least leave a text message like what she did with Minho.

"How could she text him and not me?" Taemin asked, though it was more to himself than to his hyung. But Jonghyun answered him anyway.

"Well, clearly, any girl whose boyfriend shut her down when she's trying to explain a situation isn't going to be happy."

"I know that!" Taemin nearly cried. "I was just mad, alright? I guess things got a little too much for me that I accidentally lashed out on her. I didn't mean, too, really! I was just - "

"Saving face, weren't you, Taemin?"

Taemin spun around to see Minho in the kitchen with them. He noticed that the taller boy was holding his cellphone and a light jacket draped over his arm.