Airports (Chae Myeon + Tae Min)
Chae Myeon left the terminal and the first thing she did was to look for her brother, although there was little chance he was there. She knew that Yunho was a big star here, and that he probably had fans, but he had promised that he would come pick her up, and she believed him.
After the first fifteen minutes, she blamed it on the traffic.
After an hour, she thought maybe he had lost his way.
After two hours, she was wondering around the airport with all her luggage, thinking that maybe he was lost in the airport.
After 4 hours, she wondered if there had been an accident and she became worried. She kept checking her phone in case that he tried to call her and she did not notice. After a while, it started to run low on battery and she turned it off to conserve energy.
“Hey are you free?”
“Yeah, where are you going?” She told the taxi driver (at 6 hours) as she stumbled in with all her luggage; she was exhausted, fatigued, hungry, worried and upset. She laid her head against the seat, and watched the scenery go past.
It happened almost a week ago, she suddenly got a call unexpectedly from her brother, her big brother. Asking her to come back to Korea, it was strange because he had sent her a plane ticket as well. He sounded so... desperate in a way for her to get back. He only usually did that when he was gonna ask her for something important.
She hoped he was not sick and desperately needed a kidney. She liked both her kidneys; she was very attached to them.
“Here we are”
“Oh” she said, and she fumbled around with her wallet, she was shocked to see that she had limited Korean currency, and only carried English pounds with her. She looked at the driver and smiled.
“No, no you are not telling me you have no money, you ask for me to drive, and I drive. You pay me”
“I’m sorry; I don’t have any enough”
She looked around hopefully, and saw a student. “Hold on will you, I’ll be right back. I won’t take my luggage out, just hold on a sec”
She got out of the cab with the drivers protests and ran up to the student, “Sorry, could I just borrow some money from you for a sec, please... I only have some pounds with me; I swear I’ll pay you back as soon as I find someone to exchange it”
The girl looked at her, and shook her head, “I’m sorry, this is bus money”
“Shit...”
“I can lend you it”
She turned to see a male student holding his wallet, “How much do you need?”
“Oh come with me!” She said, and she pulled him to the cab.
“See! I brought someone, how much is it?”
While the young student and the driver haggled over price, she got her luggage out of the car.
“Thank you so much for the ride though, and sorry for the trouble” she said as he drove away. She turned to the student, wondering how much taller they had gotten since when she went to school.
“Thank you so much, I swear I’ll pay you back”
“I can think of other ways you can pay me back,” he said with a sleazy smile as he eyes her and she looked at him precariously.
“Sorry, I’m not interested in younger guys, but I’ll get my money exchanged and I’ll give you what I owe, and that’s all”
“Oh come on, you know you don’t want to do that” he said, and he tried to pull her closer.
“Listen, I’ll give you the money I owe you, actually here...” and she handed him a couple pounds, “that’s probably more than enough for you to go do it yourself”
He took her wrist and she hit the hand of his heel to his collarbone, he groaned and let go. But as she grabbed his arm and twisted it around his body, he cried out.
“If you ever touch me or any other girl in that way again without permission, you will suffer so much from the pain I will inflict that you would not wish to be in this world anymore. Do you understand?”
He groaned.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes yes, bitc* let me go!”
She let him go and grabbed her luggage, making her own way to the apartment that her brother had told her that she would be staying with him in. She sat down, took out her mobile, and decided to give her brother cell phone, one last try.
“Sorry, I can’t make it to the phone right now...”
She hung up, he was probably still in practice, so she decided to wait there until he called her back or he came looking for her.
She sighed; it had been a long day and she wanted to sleep, but she was scared that someone might run off with her luggage. She hoped her brother would come soon.
Unbeknownst to her, she was being watched, but not in a stalker type of way.
He had seen her when she had gotten out of the taxicab; the first thing that struck him was the way that she spoke. It was Korean but with an accent, and then it was her eyes and how she held herself and well... everything about her really.
There was something that was familiar about her though, he could not quiet decide what it was yet.
He did not even realize that he had been staring at her from across the street for over 15 minutes, until someone knocked him on the shoulder.
“Who are you staring at?”
“What... Key, what are you doing here?”
“You didn’t come when I called you, who’s that?” he asked, Taemin blushed when he was discovered.
“N-nothing” He blushed more, especially when Key and Minho started to tease him, and poke him.
“His first love!” They cried out, “Our little boy’s growing up so fast!”
Taemin tried to get up and walk away but the two grabbed his shoulders.
“Where are you going? Go talk to her”
“Yeah, what are you waiting for?”
“Hyung... I can’t go talk to her”
“Sure you can, you’re Taemin!” Minho said, he was just a couple of meters from her. He did not even realise when they crossed the street before they pushed him towards her.
“Come on she has her headphones in...” he turned back.
“Just go,” they said as they pushed him to her again.
He breathed in, ‘I can do this, just say hello’
He closed his eyes and walked forwards, “He-” but when he opened them again, she was walking away.
‘She hates me, she hates me...’ he thought.
He looked down, blushed and turned away.
“Hey!”
He turned and his eyes widened when she turned back, she was staring at him and pulled an earpiece out of her ear. His mouth was suddenly dry.
“Ghheeyy” He said, his voice squeezing nervously and dryly.
She pointed to his SM badge, “Are you in SM?”
He nodded, not wanting his voice to get him into more trouble.
She looked at him suspiciously, “Do you happen to know someone named Yunho?”
“Y-Y-Y-Yun...”
“Are you a fan?” Minho asked as he came up behind Taemin, who was grateful but angry that they had decided to come into the conversation.
“Yeah, are you a fan?” Key asked suspiciously.
“Keeey” Taemin said, trying to get them away, but they ignored him.
“Not really, I just um...” she began and then her phone rang, she excused herself and answered it.
Taemin turned and the three argued in hushed whispers to each other.
“What are you doing?”
“You looked like you were in trouble”
“I could handle it”
“You were stuttering”
“So, you told me to talk to her”
“What are you guys doing?” Jonghyun asked as he and Onew appeared.
“Oh, we’re just talking about how shy Taemin is”
“I’m not shy”
“Come on you couldn’t even talk to her”
“Talk to whom?” Onew asked, and they turned to point to the girl.
However, as they did, they realized that she was gone, along with her luggage and any other trace that she had even been there.
“What the...?”
“That was scary”
“Let’s go eat”
Taemin looked back at where the mystery girl stood, he sighed, wondering if he would ever see her again.
******
Looking back on it now, he knew that he should not have fallen for her in the first place. Everything was going wrong from the beginning.
“Chae Myeon” he liked saying her name aloud, because he thought that it was beautiful.
She had come into their lives so unexpectedly, and had left a scar on his. How was he supposed to know what was to happen afterwards?
It seemed that everywhere he looked she was there. At school (in Onew’s class) at work (as their assistant) and when they were at home (because Onew was her cousin).
He came to know everything about her, and he enjoyed having her around. Both Minho and Key would always tease him when Onew was not looking, because he would tell Yunho and he would not dare get on his bad side.
He thought and he assured himself that maybe he would get over her.
Then he heard her sing.
It was in the middle of practice and Taemin had no idea that she would be cooking in the SM kitchen. He had only gone past for some water, when he heard her.
She did not know he was there, and he was glad that no one else had heard that beautiful sound. He knew from an instant that he would never get over her.
He had confessed to her in that moment.
In 15 seconds, she had said no.
In 15 days, she was already gone, back to England.
He sat down back on his bed, unable to believe that he had been so foolish.
“What are you doing? You have to make sure this room is clean for the New Year!” Onew said from the door, Taemin groaned and reluctantly got up from the bed.
He pulled a face as he realized he had to move the cupboards, and no one else would help him. He feared that there were bugs underneath there. He had heard stories about cockroaches and how when people sleep, they crawl into people’s ears and lay eggs, which is why he loved his beanies and hats so much.
He got ready to pull the furniture, and as he did he felt something fall against his hand, he hoped it was not a bug.
It was an envelope.
He picked it up and brushed some dust that had built up on it. He wondered how long it had been there.
It had her writing on it. His heart beat faster as he read the letter.
When he was finished, he stared at it for the longest time. He read it repeatedly, just to make sure it was not a dream. But it was there in black and white.
I love you, I couldn’t tell you because I was leaving, but I love you Taemin.
I love you.
He didn’t know whether to leap up in joy or to break down in cry.
In those last 15 days, he had avoided her like the plague, embarrassed of his rejection. He didn’t even realized that she had left before it was too late. And she was gone.
He reread the postscript of the letter, and a new hope rose inside of him.
P.S- I’ll be back...
He smiled and held the letter close to him.
“Um... Taemin?”
“Hm?” He said as he looked towards the door at Key.
“I-is that a spider?”
He looked down and saw a spider happily sitting on his hand; he jumped up and yelled at Key to dispose of it.
“You’re such a little kid... there, all gone”
“Thank you”
“Nah-uh, you owe me” Key said, “Literally, because I saw the mushroom soup on the counter today”
“I didn’t buy mushroom soup; I know you guys don’t like that” he said, but Key insisted.
“If YOU didn’t buy it, who did? Cause, you know that no one else eats that”
Taemin suddenly had a flashback, as he held the letter.
“Chae Myeon”
“What?”
“Chae Myeon always bought me mushroom soup, Hyung... is she here?”
Key looked at him sadly, “Taemin, she isn’t coming back, not after how you ignored those last couple of days”
“But I didn’t mean... I didn’t... mean to” he said, as his voice went to a low whisper. Key patted him on the back.
“Come on, we’ll be late”
“I’m not going”
“What?”
Taemin crawled back to his bed; he wanted to die right there.
Key pulled at his pants legs. “You have to go, come one... I get bored at these things”
“I feel sick”
“You seemed fine before”
“I’m not going”
“Alright, we’ll leave you here with the spiders and the other creepy crawlies”
******
Taemin cursed Key for tricking him into coming. He was not in the mood to be social; he wasn’t in the mood for anything, why had he ignored her, she wasn’t coming back.
“Taemin, would you care to dance?”
“Thanks, but no thanks. I’m feeling a bit sick”
He sighed again, that was the third girl he’d turn down. It wasn’t like he wasn’t interested; it was just that... he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Taemin thought that he saw Chae Myeon everywhere, and everything reminded him of her.
He was going crazy.
Even now he swore he could see her walking towards him.
He closed his eyes and sighed, another dream.
But when he opened them again, he was shocked to see that she was still there. Actually, in front of him.
‘Hello, Taemin”
“C- C- Chae Myeon?”
He looked at her, amazed.
“Ah, you two have met have you?”
He looked over at one of the higher managers of SM. “Chae Myeon we are ready for the announcement”
“Yes”
She looked at him and smiled, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you again”
“Me too”
“Chae Myeon!”
“Sorry, I’ll be right back, save me a dance?” she asked. He nodded and he saw her walk away.
“Today we are announcing our newest member of the SM family, Chae Myeon! I hope you all can take care of her, and for the new year, let us welcome us to the stage with her new song... ‘I’ll be back’”
Tae Min smiled when he heard the title, because he knew that she wouldn’t leave him again.
_-_-_-_
storyline copyright of jtoasn.
