Deer Luhan, With Love

12

Chapter 12 – In Which Taemin Makes a Cameo

Deer Luhan,

Why?

Leigh

It was sheer force of will that got me out of bed the next morning to find Kai in the dance studio.  He was with a person I barely recognised, and the pair of them were popping and locking along to a hip-hop track.  They both whisked around in sync when I opened the door and ground to a halt like a pair of automated clones.

“Luhan, should you be up?” Kai asked me in concern.

“Hi, hyung!” the other guy said.  “What happened to your face?”

“Taemin!” Kai hissed, and it clicked: the guy was from SHINee – another of Abbie’s favourite groups.  But I could have sworn his hair was supposed to be much longer.

“Ah… sorry,” said Taemin.  “Nothing’s wrong with your face,” he added hastily.  I would have laughed, but I had more pressing stuff on my mind.

“The dance,” I said to Kai.  “You said you knew it.  I want to learn it by the end of today.”

Kai looked thoroughly taken aback, but Taemin cut in before Kai could say anything.

“Whoa, hyung.  What happened to your voice?”

“Taemin!”  Kai elbowed him in the ribs.

“Sorry,” Taemin automatically responded.  “Nothing’s wrong with your voice.”

“I feel like I’ve walked into Little Red Riding Hood as the wolf in disguise,” I muttered.

“I’m a wolf!  Awooo!” Taemin couldn’t resist, putting up the wolf ears, and to be honest, I couldn’t blame him.  I would have done the same.  Kai jumped on him and flattened him.

“Right,” he said, dusting his hands off as he sat on Taemin’s chest, the older guy laughing breathlessly.

“Ah, I love you!” I finished for Taemin, and Kai scowled at me.

“Ree Lee, Luhan?”

“No, but I will do if you teach me the dance.”

Kai opened his mouth, about to say something, but then glanced down at Taemin and wisely kept quiet.

“Wait, is this for Memory Lane?” Taemin asked, looking between me and Kai.  “I’ll help.  The other five were practising it yesterday and I helped them tidy up a few things.  Besides, it’s not a solo dance, so it’s better to learn it with more people.”

Kai cast me a worried look, but right then I was more concerned about learning the steps than I was about explaining, so I shook my head at him and mouthed “later”.

“You’ve got really rotten luck,” Taemin told me as we took a break for lunch, all three of us drenched with sweat.  “I heard about you hitting your head and forgetting everything, but now you get a virus on top of that?  It sucks, man.”

“I’ll basically be better by the performance,” I told him around mouthfuls of pizza.  Sweetcorn flew everywhere, but I was too hungry to care.  “I saw the doctor yesterday evening and he says it’ll take some time for the throat infection to go, so I won’t be able to sing for a couple of weeks, but I can still perform.”

Kai was still shooting me sideways glances, clearly burning to know what was going on, but he didn’t dare ask without somebody else around.

“Oh, Yunho was asking after you, by the way,” Taemin said, licking his fingers.  “He was worried because he hadn’t seen you in a while.”