eye smiles.
“still crushing on heechul-hyung, are we?”
sulli slams her laptop shut, cheeks burning with abashment. “i do not have a crush on heechul-oppa,” she defends herself meekly, too horrified at being found out to even bother fighting back.
“jinri, jinri, jinri.” taemin shakes his head from side to side in a blatantly jeering manner. “he’s a little too old for you. eleven years of age difference, isn’t it?” he sits next to her on the worn leather couch, peering at her from underneath artificial auburn bangs.
“you’re making a big deal out of nothing. he’s just a really nice sunbae,” scoffs sulli, toying with her fingernails. the older boy grins and presses his head against the wall, his ponytail getting in the way.
“open your laptop.”
“what?”
“i just want to take a look at that article about heechul-hyung that you were checking out earlier. come on.”
“i don’t have to listen to you," sulli reminds him with an affronted scowl.
he widens his eyes. “oh? what’s that i hear? is that disrespect? now, jinri” - he wags a finger in her face - “that’s not very good behavior. do you want me to tell victoria-noona about how rude you're being to me? i don’t think she would be very happy if she knows.”
nearing angry tears, sulli slides her laptop toward him. she wants nothing more than to claw his face off with her manicured fingernails but she knows she’ll pay the cost if she does something that outrageous. "let’s see,” murmurs taemin, scrolling through the article quickly. “it says here that heechul-hyung is very much into wonder girls’ sohee. well, that’s old news!"
she doesn’t respond, her arms folded over her chest in defiance.
“it also says here,” he continues, an amused grin playing at the corners of his lips, “that heechul-hyung likes you because of your ‘eye smile’.” he stops reading and bursts into merry laughter.
“why are you laughing?” she demands, exceedingly irritated.
“eye smile? seriously? if he likes girls because of their ‘eye smiles’, he would’ve hooked onto tiffany-noona a long time ago. besides, that sohee chick barely has an eye smile but he worships the ground she walks on,” snorts taemin, rolling his eyes.
“i don’t see why it bothers you.”
“it doesn’t. although i’m pretty sure it bothers you.”
he sneaks a peek at her. her cheeks are scarlet with fury and embarrassment but she refuses to give in to him. her eyes narrow into slits as she stares at the wall across them. “you’re awful,” sulli whispers, her voice wobbly.
“are you crying? dammit, jinri. this isn’t the way things are supposed to go! you’re supposed to retaliate when i taunt you!”
he resorts to yelling at her to mask his horror. he made her cry and if anybody gets to hear about this - if heechul gets to hear about this- he’s dead meat. “i'm tired of fighting back. it never works anyway,” she sniffles.
“jinri, clean your face. if they see you like this i'm dead.”
“so?”
taemin smirks, making the girl’s blood run cold. “so,” he begins, his fingers inching onto her thigh, “you won’t like that, would you? i bet i’m a lot more useful to this world - to you - than heechul-hyung is. just admit that you like me already."
her heart catapults into her throat. this is not what she had in mind. he is the sunbae and she the hoobae; he isn’t supposed to ignite butterflies in her stomach nor is he supposed to touch her in all the right places. nor is she supposed to like it.
“sure i like you,” she finally stammers. “you’re my sunbae.”
“let’s ignore the formalities, shall we?”
it takes every ounce of sulli's willpower to not fall into those bottomless pools of self-satisfaction that are his eyes. she wonders how he can appear as shinee's sweet, wholesome maknae in front of other people and then transform into this cocky, undeserving of attention - yet undeniably attractive - lustful boy when nobody’s around.
“taemin-ah, it’s time to practice for the dance battle!” minho yells from outside the door. taemin shouts back, “coming, hyung!” footsteps decelerate as minho walks away. “well, it looks like i have to go now.”
“uh-huh.”
he pinches her cheek and stands up. “hey, i asked soojung about all the cool places in l.a. that we could go to when the others are hitting up the after party. she mentioned this restaurant called ihop. we could go, right?”
“sure,” sulli concedes, hating how eager she sounds. “luna-unnie will love - “
“jinri. i said we should go.”
with a wink, taenub exits the room. she stares at the door, wide-eyed. “oh, and by the way,” he pokes his head into the room again, “i think your eye smile’s pretty cute.” he ducks out, leaving a hyperventilating teenage girl in his wake.