love like...
Love Like...
Love like Spring || taemin/jiyoung ||
The sun shower drizzled down unexpected on Taemin’s back before it started pouring in sheets, causing the youth to desperately run to find shelter.
His neat clothes were drenched, much to his dismay after an entire day trying to pick out something nice to go see his girlfriend. Taemin shielded his head with the bouquet of flowers he had bought when it splashed into his eyes, deafening him with the loud gush that he couldn’t even hear his own breathless breath or pounding heartbeat.
He treaded swiftly over the fast-growing puddles on the concrete path, the flashes of light from the reflection of the bright sun on the watery surface temporarily blinding him at each glance. Even with the rainwater on his skin, the air around him was warm and filled with the scent of flowers that bloomed only in the Springtime.
He finally reached the café he had promised to meet, and he saw Jiyoung sitting by the window, waiting by herself and watching the rain yet completely oblivious to him.
With a heavy heart, Taemin entered into the café, wiping his wet face as thunder rumbled in the sky that was still bright with lots of blue. Jiyoung’s smile lit up as she saw Taemin coming, but her face fell when she saw his expression.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. Taemin bit his lip, hiding the bouquet behind his back out of shame. “Taemin?”
He sighed and held out the flowers to show her, and Jiyoung saw they were completely soaked by the rain, to the point that the petals had fallen off and washed away. Taemin lowered his head sadly, not looking her in the eye.
“I’m sorry.”
He had promised to make their first date perfect, and he was so nervous that he wrote everything down, from what to wear to what flowers she liked so he could buy them for her, and he wanted so badly to be able to do all the things he had always wanted to do with his girlfriend. Walk through the park, having a picnic, taking photographs together by the lake… it was all the things he had planned to make it extra special for her, but all of that was ruined even before he came.
He felt so disappointed in himself that he couldn’t lift up his head.
Jiyoung’s hand reached up and ruffled at his wet hair, and she laughed at his confused expression. Why wasn’t she mad that he had ruined the date? Why was she acting like the day wasn’t ruined?
As if she heard his thoughts, Jiyoung cupped Taemin’s face in her hands and pulled him down in a kiss. Taemin released a muffled sound in surprise, and stared at her when she pulled away.
She smiled cutely, taking his flowers and tenderly touching one of the broken watery lilies with her fingertips, smelling the perfume that came from their core. She smiled at her boyfriend and hugged the bouquet. She looked down at them affectionately.
“Do you know what’s better than a perfect date?” she asked Taemin with a smile. The boy shook his head, making her laugh. She wiped away a raindrop running down the side of his face.
“A perfect date who battled the rain to keep his promise to me,” she told him.
She dragged down her sleeve and wiped the dripping on his chin, and Taemin’s sad face finally started to fade back into his warm, genuine smile. The sun shower outside stopped and the clouds cleared, casting a streak of sunlight onto Jiyoung’s face, where it made her look so beautiful that Taemin completely forgot about all the bad things.
“That’s what matters the most to me,” Jiyoung said.
Taemin didn’t reply and just beamed at her, then scooping her into a rib-crushing hug even though the bouquet was between them, dampening his shirt, which was already wet to begin with anyway.
Love like Winter || minho/hara ||
“Hara… please wake up…”
Minho’s breath was like puffs of white clouds, his body shivering uncontrollably as he laid flat on his stomach on the cold frozen ice floor, desperately trying to reach into the crack where Hara had slipped and fallen, trapped down there.
He kept his ears peeled even with his heart pounding so loudly and heard Hara groan, regaining consciousness from hitting her head. He couldn’t see her, the ice cavern was a crooked downward spiral that blocked his view where Hara fell and rolled down, hitting her body against the jagged edges before landing on the bottom. He saw slight movement that looked like Hara’s jacket as she stirred.
There was a bad cut on her forehead from the fall, and she could barely open her eyes, her body trembling weakly as the cold enveloped her, barely allowing her to breathe. Her head spun and throbbed as she tried to move.
“M… Minho…” she gasped hoarsely. A shaken sob came from above, where Minho’s face was wet with tears that were still warm. He struggled to reach his arm down, down, down but he just couldn’t reach.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to be on a date, he was supposed to be teaching her how to ice skate. Guilt plunged into Minho’s stomach as he knew Hara had been scared, how she constantly asked if the ice would break and how he told her it wouldn’t. Now she was trapped under there and he couldn’t reach her.
“Minho yah…” Hara murmured, seeing him at last when she shifted herself with much difficulty to the other side. She raised a shaky hand, and Minho frantically pushed as much as his body could fit into the crack to reach for her, but he couldn’t.
“I’ve called for help,” Minho breathed. His tears were streaming down his face and stinging his skin. “But they won’t come for a while. I don’t even know why…”
He hated himself. He hated himself so much watching her down there, and that he couldn’t reach. He just couldn’t reach.
Hara’s eyes fluttered shut as her strength gave out, her hand falling back down next to her with a dull thump on the ice, and she curled up into a small ball. She took shallow breaths that came in the form of white clouds, becoming slower and slower.
“Don’t fall asleep, Hara,” Minho cried. “Please don’t fall asleep…”
She was going to die if she fell asleep, she was going to die before help came, and it was all his fault.
Hara wasn’t replying, just lying there, the only signs of life were the small clouds of breath.
“Hara yah…” Minho called out, his voice cracking. Hara’s lips curled up into a small smile, and she opened her eyes just a little, tiredly.
“Minho,” she said weakly, too tired to move her lips. “Don’t leave me.”
Minho nodded vigorously, his vision blurred.
“I won’t,” he said tearfully.
It was getting cold and dark, and there were no signs of anyone coming. He couldn’t leave her by herself to find help, in case she was dead before he came back.
“Hara…” he said.
“Hmmm?”
“Hara,” he said again.
“Hmmm?”
It as a promise they made, that if one of them called out the other’s name, they would always replied. It felt like hours passed, the hope in Minho’s heart sinking as he felt the ice slowly freeze him, but he didn’t care, just wanting to hear her voice.
“Hara.”
“Hmmm?”
“Hara.”
“Hmmm?”
Minho thought about why he had so stubbornly wanted this date to be perfect. How he didn’t even stop to think of the disaster that would’ve happened due to his carelessness.
“Hara.”
“…hmmm?”
The pause was longer, her voice was weaker, barely audible. Minho felt something coming, but he resisted.
“Hara…”
“……hmmm?”
“Hara…”
And then it was silent. Minho blinked rapidly to clear his eyes, his pulse racing. It started to snow, the frosty pieces of ice stinging on his tear-soaked cheeks.
“Hara…” he called out again.
No reply.
“H-Hara yah…”
Still no reply, and Minho knew all those months he had tried to build up the courage to confess, to confess on this date that was supposed to be so perfect…
“Hara…” he choked, struggling to shift his aching frozen body up, but couldn’t, everything going numb.
No reply. Not even a faint heartbeat.
“Hara, I love you…”
No reply, and Minho started to cry. He cried and cried with the last fibre of his strength before he was forced to black out, frozen teardrop still on his face.
They were found almost an entire hour later, and it took 2 hours to get Hara out. Minho was barely alive, but it didn’t matter, because his words were left unspoken, dying like the life of everything he knew to be warm and beautiful in this cruel winter.
Spring would never come again.
Love like Summer || jonghyun/gyuri ||
It wasn’t a secret when two workmates were attracted to each other especially with the stolen glances across the office, the intentional bumping into the other’s desk every now and then, as well as the tactic of carrying too many files and dropping them when passing each other, where the other would stop to help.
But in this case, the game was different.
Kim Jonghyun had a naturally flirtatious personality that drew in the younger female coworkers around him, but none had raised the challenge as the newest employee Park Gyuri.
Not only did she refuse to even bat an eyelash at him, she thought she would even try her own little game on him, luring him in before pushing him away, tempting him before rejecting him, turning from a devil into an angel and back, and it confused him as hell.
It was so amusing.
The day was hot and Jonghyun was sweating like crazy in front of his computer, his glasses sliding down the slippery bridge of his nose. Annoyed by this, he pulled them off and wiped his face with his hand, panting because the air was shallow and steamy.
Seriously, of all things, it was piping hot in summer and the entire air-conditioner system in the whole building had to be broken?
It literally felt like an oven with all his coworkers sitting at their desk like robots, any attempts to find a way to cool off abandoned after the many tries over the last few weeks.
However, there was an absence Jonghyun felt, and looking around to Gyuri’s empty cubicle confirmed it. Jonghyun smirked to himself, knowing this new employee was yet to give up finding at least one working air-conditioner around here.
He puffed a sigh and got up from his desk, leaving with the excuse and a paper booklet that he needed to go print something. It was a good excuse that guaranteed you some cheap free time since no one would bother looking for you if you said you were going to print something.
The copy room usually had the most powerful air-conditioner that was on 24/7 to the point that during the times not in summer, the workers dreaded going into that room since it was so cold.
Of course, it was broken today, but that didn’t stop Jonghyun from guessing Gyuri had hopes it would be annoyingly reliable as it was during the winter and fall.
The heat was unbearable that it was giving Jonghyun a headache when he made his way to the copy room, surprised to find the door closed rather than open for all to enter. He pushed it open, and as his instinct had told him, Gyuri was there.
She obviously wasn’t there to photocopy anything, since she was sitting on top of the print where she could be closest to the air-conditioner vent. From the slight movement of her blonde hair, Jonghyun could guess that it was still blowing air. Not cold air, but air nonetheless.
Gyuri had her head tilted way back that she was staring straight up at the ceiling, leaning onto her hands behind her. She had taken off her safety cardigan and her dark-coloured brassiere was visible through her now see-through white blouse that was damp with her sweat, buttoned a little too close to her cleavage with her sleeves rolled up and her short skirt draped only enough to cover her thighs. Her right leg was crossed over the other to mute any more excitement at this sight, but even from the view from the door, Jonghyun saw that light sheen of sweat on her exposed skin.
Jonghyun stepped inside and closed the door with a snap, catching Gyuri's attention. Sweat dripped down her face as her chest rose and fell from her heavy breathing, but her parted lips closed in a smug smile upon seeing him.
“Can’t stand the heat either?” she said breathily as he came over with his file. Jonghyun pretended to play innocent and just smiled politely, heading to the printer next to her. He fumbled around with a few buttons as she shamelessly watched. She let out a dry laugh when his eyes traveled over to her slick legs, glistening with sweat.
“Stop faking it,” she said with a sadistic smile, slamming her hand on the OFF button. Jonghyun wasn’t offended, since he wasn’t actually printing, as she predicted. He decided to just drop the act and get straight to the point.
Maneuvering himself directly in front of her, he crossed his arms as the light artificial breeze from the broken air-con caressed the hairs on his skin, a strange sense of relief washing over him that he was pretty sure wasn’t because it was getting any cooler in the room.
In fact, it was getting even hotter.
Gyuri smacked her lips as her face was washed clean of her makeup from the sweating, but she knew she still looked good and didn’t lower her arrogant gaze.
“I know something we can do to pass the time,” she said. “Since it isn’t going to get any cooler in here.” Jonghyun smirked.
“What do you have in mind?” he asked.
Gyuri smacked her lips again suggestively before she reached out and grabbed him by the tie, pulling him slowly into her. Jonghyun pulled her knees apart and parted her legs so they wouldn’t get in the way, coming dangerously close. Jonghyun chuckled breathlessly as the mercury rose indefinitely at this close proximity.
“Why the sudden change?” he said quizzically. Gyuri wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down close. Her eyes flashed with playfulness and lust.
“I’m a little delirious from the heat, so I’ll let you take advantage of me.”
“I’m honored,” Jonghyun said with a dry laugh, before he was dragged down onto her lips.
It was like their primal urges that had been held back for those frustratingly long months upon Gyuri’s arrival at the office, where she caught Jonghyun’s attention straight away. The kisses were hot and passionate and sloppy, a tangle of lips, teeth and tongue and swallowed moans, where Gyuri’s hands moved up to seize onto Jonghyun's dark hair. He pushed her further back onto the printer against the air-con, wrapping her legs around his waist. Sweat dripped down from his forehead and splashed onto her face, the air coming out of the vent now as sizzling hot as it was outside, but it didn’t matter because they didn’t even notice at all.
But Jonghyun then abruptly pulled away, a sudden realization clicking in the back of his head that he had almost forgotten in the midst of the make out session. His lips were tingly and numb, but he smiled slyly nonetheless as Gyuri gave him a questioning look before he went to the door, locking it with a click. If anyone was outside, they would’ve heard footsteps walking away again from the door to the printers, ready to finish off what he was printing.
Who knew there was such a fun way to pass time in this heat?
Love like Autumn || onew/seungyeon ||
“Jinki, let’s break up.”
Onew stared in disbelief at the girl in front of him as she looked back with unblinking eyes, her muffler hiding her moving lips as they uttered those devastating words to him.
“What?” he muttered, his mind going blank. A strong gust of wind blew at them, making his hair fly out of place. “Seungyeon, why?”
His voice quivered, genuinely afraid when she had such an expressionless face instead of her usual eyesmile. What had he done that made her like this?
“I know you’ve been calling her again,” Seungyeon said, her voice hard with suppressed anger and hurt. “I heard you talk to her secretly in your room.”
“Who?” Onew exclaimed, taking her hand. “Who have I been talking to that’s made you so angry?” Seungyeon jerked her hand away and grabbed his jacket, pulling it over so she could reach into the pocket and take out his phone. She pressed to the Recent Call list and held it up to him.
The last 17 calls were to SUNYE.
“Why do you keep calling your ex-girlfriend?!” Seungyeon shouted angrily. “And why have you been keeping it a secret from me?!”
Realization dawned on Onew. He quickly took back his phone and stared at it, silently cursing himself for being so careless.
“Seungyeon, it’s not like that…” he began. “Sunye is…”
“What have you been talking about with her so late at night?” Seungyeon said in a low voice. There was some fearfulness in her tone, like she was thinking about this a lot and her mind had jumped to many conclusions. Onew opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it again and averted his eyes. “What? Is it something you can’t tell me?”
Onew bit his lip, hesitating before it was obvious what she was thinking. A part of him wanted to tell her everything, but another part of him didn’t, childishly so. When no answer came, Seungyeon’s face fell and she tightened her fists to hold in the urge to cry. The autumn wind swayed and caused the crispy red and yellow leaves to sail through the sky, reflecting off Seungyeon's glassy brown eyes that threatened to spill tears if she stared at him any longer.
So she didn’t.
She turned around and started walking away, unable to stand his silence.
“Seungyeon, wait!” Onew called out, and she felt him grab her by the wrist, holding her back. She shot him a glare, his touch causing her breath to hitch up as her heart pounded painfully on the wall of her chest.
“Go back to Sunye,” she hissed. “I don’t care anymore. We’re over.”
“You don’t understand…”
“I don’t care.”
“Listen to me!” he shouted, so loudly that Seungyeon stopped. She stared at him in shock while he let go of her hand, taking a step away and lowering his head again. He licked his lips repeatedly, nervous and unconfident, but he was sure if he didn’t just say something, Seungyeon really would walk away.
“I… I wanted to surprise you,” he muttered, finally looking at her face again. He rubbed the back of his neck, laughing mirthlessly. “I wanted it to be romantic and perfect.”
He pulled the warm glove off his hand and shuffled around the pockets on the inside of his jacket for something. Seungyeon watched stonily until her eyes widened at what he pulled out.
A diamond ring.
Onew uttered a sheepish laugh, holding it awkwardly between his fingers.
“Sunye’s father owns a jewelry store, and she was helping me choose,” he confessed, sounding guilty even though he had no reason to be. Seungyeon covered her open mouth with her hands, her eyes sparkling with new tears.
“Jinki…”
“I haven’t even chosen a nice box for you yet,” Onew said disappointedly. “I haven’t even decided how I was going to give it to you. I was still trying to figure out a lot of things so I could make it perfect for you, but I guess the surprise is ruined now.” He chuckled again. “I should do it now, right?”
And he kneeled down onto the crunchy, leaf-littered ground, as awkwardly as he did, and looked up at Seungyeon in front of him. He licked his lip and grinned like a lost little child, taking her hand.
“I don’t have a speech prepared,” he admitted. “I was going to start on it tonight, but I guess that won’t happen.” Seungyeon laughed tearily. “So, I’ll just say it.”
He shifted on his knee that was going numb, so he had to hurry and make it quickly. He cleared his throat and coughed once before bringing his eyes up to Seungyeon again.
“Seungyeon…” he said, holding up the ring. “Marry me.”
His terrible lying and planning had almost ruined the best thing to happen to him, he had been so caught up on trying to do it exactly as it was in a textbook for a perfect marriage proposal that he had forgotten the most important part; the look in her eyes, of sincerity and happiness. Even without his cheesy tactics and all those things he dreamed of doing for this one moment in his life… it was worth it.
“Yes,” Seungyeon replied.
Onew’s jaw fell open at this one word, unable to believe it at all. All traces of regret that had been gnawing in the back of his mind vanished completely, his mouth curling into a huge grin as he beamed. He slipped the ring onto her finger and stood up, wrapping his arms warmly around her, leaning heavily as he felt nothing but happiness and relief. He felt Seungyeon return his embrace, breathing in the scent of her hair in this moment that he wanted to last forever. Seungyeon chuckled softly at his ear.
“Yes,” she said again, hugging him tighter.
“Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Love Like Day || key/nicole ||
She wasn’t spectacularly beautiful wearing her sweatshirt with no makeup and huge black-rimmed glasses, but to him, there was no other way he’d prefer to see her. He loved her looking natural where her determination to do well was so clear in her smiling eyes, a diligence that made him feel admiration as well as affection.
Nicole was training hard during the dance rehearsals for an open concert performance, and she and her Kara members had arrived early in the morning and practiced all through till now when the sun was high up and glazing down at all of them.
Key stood to the side with Shinee and watched as Kara danced to Jumping and lipsynching along with the backtrack. The sunlight reflected off Nicole's pure white skin and made her look even more angelic that Key felt his heart flutter.
When Kara stepped down for Shinee to have their turn, Nicole beamed an eyesmile at her best friend who gave her a water bottle.
“Thanks, Kibum,” she said happily. She looked at him wistfully for a split second, both of them knowing very well that this wasn’t a time to get caught up in anything, since people were watching and they had jobs to do.
Nicole wanted a hug, an innocent hug from him where his embrace would soothe away the aches and pains in her shoulders, and just rest in his arms for a few seconds.
Key wanted to kiss her, he wanted to kiss her because it had been so long since he had, with Shinee and Kara having crazy, crazy schedules that he hadn’t even seen her until now.
But not now. Now wasn’t a good time.
Instead, Nicole gave him a perky smile that always made him feel better during a bad day, reminding him of the good times in life rather than the bad, and Key returned her gesture with a gentle squeeze on her shoulder. It was a friendly touch that was between friends and nothing more, but Nicole still felt flustered, her white skin turning a shade of pink very obviously in the bright sun.
Key let out a laugh at the sight and released her, following Minho and Jonghyun on stage. He glanced back down at Nicole who was still standing in the middle of the runway and gestured her to quickly move away before she got in trouble from the staff.
He laughed again when Nicole appeared clueless, only moving when Seungyeon darted out to drag her in. Key shielded his eyes from the sun as the interlude of Lucifer began. He scanned around at the audience seats in front of the stage, all empty now but would no doubt be packed for the concert that was to come.
His eyes fell once again at the Kara members to the side. They were meant to be resting and taking time to have a bit of lunch, but he saw that Nicole was watching the stage on her feet, hopping up and down excitedly and cheering, even though that was drowned out by the music pumping through Key’s earphone.
He just laughed and rolled his eyes again, and he gave one last cute wave before he sank into his character for the song.
When I first saw you, I stopped for a short time
As if someone was tightly seizing my heart, not letting it go (Still)
Love Like Night || key/nicole ||
Nicole liked her own room. She had her own peace and quiet, her own private little sanctuary where she could escape under her sheets from the harsh life of an idol. Even though it was small and often messy, it held her secrets where no one would ever think of finding out.
It was pitch dark in her room that night, and she honestly couldn’t see anything, not even her hand in front of her face when she tried, and it was almost ironic since she would wake up with the sunlight glaring straight down at her face from the window right next to her left.
It was both silent and dark, Nicole felt like she was blind and deaf in that moment, might as well fall asleep… but she didn’t.
She waited for something to disrupt this silence, twiddling her thumbs patiently as she waited. She wasn’t exactly sure if she was waiting too early and that it’d actually be a little later, but her phone was hopelessly lost in the darkness that she just had to pretend she knew.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a loud creak at the window.
Even though she had repeatedly told herself she was expecting this, Nicole was startled and couldn’t help but jolt in fright. Her eyes shot to the direction of where the door should’ve been and opened her ears for any noises coming from that direction as the window opened by itself, and someone climbing through.
Nicole sat up and stared at the window now, wherever it was, and she was on full-alert, her mind going places and her imagination running wild that it wasn’t who she was expecting and it was probably a crazy fan or a rapist or anyone but the one person whose entrance should’ve left her calm and relieved instead of this agitated.
The intruder made no attempts to reveal their presence and Nicole found it slightly disturbing since she hadn’t said anything either, hence it might have seemed she was fast asleep, but all thoughts were erased when a weight dropped onto her bed and a hand touched her.
“Wha…?” Nicole blurted, but before she could say anything or unintentionally let out a scream to alert her members, a paired of lips closed over hers and Key’s scent took over her senses.
The kiss grew intense even though Nicole had no idea what was going on, letting out a muffled groan of protest when she was pressed back down onto her bed, the lips not giving her any time to take in a breath.
The making out went on silently and blindly for about 5 more minutes before Nicole grabbed a wandering hand out of reflex when it started traveling down her stomach. She used both her hands to push the intruder’s chest away slightly so she could breathe.
“Kibum?” she said uncertainly. No immediate answer came and somehow that alarmed her. “Ki-“
“Of course it’s me, you idiot!” Key’s diva voice exclaimed, pushing himself off her and rolling onto her side. “You’d let a stranger come in through your window at night and molest you like that?”
Relieved a little more than she should be at his comment, Nicole laughed. She felt around in the dark for him and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her chin on his chest.
“It’s because you didn’t say anything,” she murmured in an aegyo voice. Key stroked her head and pulled the blanket warmly over them. Nicole swatted his shoulder. “How could you just break and enter and just go straight for me? I could’ve been asleep, you know.”
“I knew you were waiting,” he insisted.
“What if Hara and I changed rooms today?”
Key laughed humorlessly and shifted onto his side so that he was facing her, despite not seeing a thing. He raised a finger and carefully touched her face with it, trailing from her cheek, over the bridge of her nose, down to her plump lips where he pulled it down a little that he felt the moist inside her mouth.
“Do you really want our couple time to be awkward because you mentioned Hara?” he asked, playfully tapping her lip. He removed the finger and leaned over close that his warm breath tickled her face. “Or do you want to spend this time wisely?”
Nicole smiled cheekily, but of course Key didn’t see, and she made the first move and captured his lips in a kiss.
What was next… well, let’s just say no one really saw anything, not even Nicole or Key themselves.