Chapter Text
The Seduction of My Brother-In-Law
Chapter 1 – Shinee Things (Like phone lights, diamonds, and pretty boys)
Patience was usually one of my best virtues. I mean, a guy that can keep from blinking for three minutes certainly must have lots of patience. Yet, today I just couldn’t help but frown as I waited for the limo to come pick me up from the airport, continuously lifting my left hand that kept going from fiddling with my blazer pocket to lifting away so I could look at the sterling silver watch on my wrist. It had been three years since I’d seen even a speck of dirt from South Korea. I really should have taken time to take in the sight of my home, but there were other important matters I needed to attend to before I could relax and enjoy my home coming.
Just as I took out my cell phone to call my driver, I heard my name being called and immediately brightened up. I hurried to the sleek black car, a middle aged man holding one of the leather padded doors opened for me. He greeted me with a slight bow.
“Welcome back Young Master Minho,” he said as I climbed in.
I didn’t know this particular driver; he was probably a new one my father had hired in my absence, so I simply replied with, “It’s good to be back.”
The driver shut the door then went to place my bags in the trunk before getting in and starting off. Once we were out of the airport and on the highway, the driver looked through the rearview mirror at me.
“Would you like to go straight home?”
I pulled out my phone and fiddled with it thinking. “I’ll go home and unload my bags and get my car.”
“Very well sir,” the driver said.
After a few dragging moments of silence, I pushed a button and a black screen rolled up blocking me from the driver’s view. It had been a while since I had had to go through the experience of riding in the car with someone who’s every paycheck was depended on not offending any member of the Choi family, so this man would definitely not strike up pointless conversations that would end up leading to me asking that he mind his own business like many of the taxi drivers had in the American city where I had been attending university.
To pass the dreaded awkward silence, I turned on my cell phone for the first time since getting on the plane (it had been a long flight and I wanted to sleep the whole way so I didn’t feel the need in having such a device on). I cringed at the annoying dinging noise the phone made as it turned on casting its bright artificial light directly in my face before smiling at the background picture.
It was a picture of my girlfriend for the past ten years. She was my noona, but the age difference never mattered as she was very sweet. We met at a business party when I was twelve. I found out she went to the sister school of my all boy’s academy and we instantly clicked. When I had told her I would be going to America to study for college, she was so understanding. I had only seen her once in my four years of college when I came back for her father’s funeral three years ago.
Before I could get too distracted by the memories that picture brought, I hit two on my speed dial and brought the phone to my ear.
“Hello,” said the sweet voice of my girlfriend.
“Noona neomu yeoppeo~” I sang into the phone.
Suddenly, there was a squeal and I grinned. “Minho, is that you?”
“Hi Yuri. Yeah, I just got into the limousine,” I said putting my free hand into my pocket and fiddling around inside of it. “I’m going to stop at the estate and then I’ll come over to your house, I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“I’ve got a surprise for you, too,” she said.
“Really, what is it?” I asked a bit nervous. “Is it a good surprise?”
“Maybe,” she said teasingly.
I frowned and crossed my legs. I supposed she could hear my pouting as she gave a muffled giggle.
“Okay, okay. Do you remember my little brother?”
A flash of a glasses wearing skinny shy boy entered my mind. “Yeah, your half brother, what about him?”
“Ah, well, his step-mom got re-married about a year ago so he’s been living with us,” she said.
“Oh, okay, I only caught a glimpse of him at the funeral; does he still look the same?” I asked with slight amusement. From what I knew, Yuri’s younger brother was a result of an affair their father had. The mistress abandoned him and he was taken in by their father eventually leading to Yuri’s parents getting a divorce and her dad quickly marrying another mistress he was seeing at the time. I remembered him as being a pretty boy as a child when I would come over to be with Yuri the last two years of their parent’s marriage, but after the divorce, he became all awkward and I rarely saw him only when I tagged along on their father daughter time every other weekend, though he still had his cute moments like any child.
Yuri sighed on the other end of the line. “Actually, no, after the funeral, he gained some fashion sense, you’ll just have to see it or you wouldn’t believe it.”
“Alright, alright, well, we’re pulling up to the estate, so I’ll see you soon, love you, noona,” I said the last words softly.
There were a few seconds of silence before a quiet, “Me, too,” filled my ears and my chest as corny as it sounded. I hadn’t called my girlfriend often because of the phone bills and such, but I had emailed her as much as I could. I had been slightly frightened that she might have drifted, but Yuri was a nice person, a beautiful person both in and out, she was definitely loyal and the exact kind of person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
I shut my phone as my door was pulled open and stepped out pulling my hand out of my pocket along with a small square maroon velvet box. I smiled at it before flicking the lid up. The light from the Korean summer sun glinted off the 24 karat tear drop shaped diamond placed intricately in the middle of a dozen swirling vine like shapes that led to a double silver band. When I heard footsteps behind me, I quickly shut the box and placed it inside my blazer pocket and turned to see a butler, another new hire, approaching me.
“Master Minho, your father and mother are out at the moment on urgent business, but they welcome you home with warm hearts.”
I frowned a bit at the news, but nodded. My parents were the owners of a large corporation after all, it was normal to be met by sudden disappointments. “What about Minseok?”
“Your brother is currently engaged in a meeting for an arranged marriage,” the butler said.
I couldn’t help but grin. “You should tell my family there will be no need to have my brother marry so soon, they’ll have a daughter-in-law by tonight.” After all, after ten years of dating, I was confident she would say yes.
***SHINee Things***
“Let’s see, so I take the square root of this answer then times it by…” I stared at the numbers swirling around on the slightly crumbled piece of notebook paper in front of me. No matter how many times I went over this problem, I still kept getting lost. Even if I was suppose to be some kind of genius, I really hated college math and the banging noises coming from my sister’s bedroom down the other end of the hall weren’t helping much. That cheesy music she was playing totally didn’t muffle the pounding that reverberated through the thin walls from her headboard. Or was that her desk? Either way it was disturbing more than just my homework, but my innocent mind as well.
“Yah, I wish she’d do that at the guy’s house,” I said to myself as I put away the sheet of paper and pulled out my Ipod and stuck the little ear buds securely in my ears. The moment I pressed play, music filled my ears, the rhythm quick and beat steady. Soon, I found my feet moving from side to side. I slid the Ipod into one of my skinny jean pockets so I could freely move my hands along with my feet, every inch of my body trying to become one with the sounds pumping into my ears.
Dancing was my passion. I was labeled a smart kid because of the fact I had skipped a couple of grades in elementary school, but I was truthfully pretty average when it came to schoolwork. My father hadn’t wanted me to pursue dance or music being his only son. He wanted me to take his spot managing one of the stores of the Choi Corporation. But, he’d died three years ago, so when I started college this past spring there really wasn’t much he could say about my future, was there? Plus, I didn’t feel like fighting with my step-mother’s new husband for the store. Music was my one true love. If music was a person, I’d give it a lap dance, bend over for it to let it have its way with me, and become its slut.
I came to a halt just in time to keep from falling over the edge of my bed with the next move I was going to make when the music stopped. Frowning, I pulled my Ipod out and stared at the low battery sign it gave me before turning off. I’d been playing it so much recently; I guess I had forgitten to charge it. Dread encompassed me as silence filled the house. Silence was never a good thing here. If there was no music playing that meant she was coming home. At least my sister had stopped messing around with her boyfriend. He had been there all morning, certainly getting lost through five songs was long enough for them to finish.
Quickly, I covered my ears as a loud squeal echoed down the hall way. My eyes went wide and I walked out of my room looking up and down the egg shell colored walls landing on my sister’s door at the far end. I didn’t see any blood seeping out from under the baby pink door. Should I go check on her? What if it was something sexual related? I made a face at the thought, but walked out in the hall anyway and started for her door. It wouldn’t do to have a burglar knocking her unconscious and raping her, even if said burglar ended up being next week’s boyfriend.
I lifted a fist and knocked softly on the smooth pink painted wood. “Yuri noona, are you alright?”
“Taemin ah, come in,” my sister’s sweet voice called and I turned the door knob cautiously walking into the girl infested room. Everything was baby blue and pink, girl junk littering every available surface and feet killing shoes piled up in a corner of Yuri’s ajar closet door, one pair of especially spiky pumps carelessly tossed by the bed. Other than the closet and shoes, the floor was spotless, but I still considered the overall affect of the cluttered room a mess. I had always thought that girls were suppose to be neat, but living with my sister since the end of graduation had proved me wrong and Key had lied to me when he said feminine people had neat rooms. Of course, I knew he was wrong right away as my room was pretty bad, but I refuse to admit my own femininity. There’d have to be only one bottle of banana milk left in the world before I admitted to that.
Yuri was laid across her bed looking slightly troubled, her cell phone being twirled mindlessly in one hand.
“Noona, I heard a squeal.”
Suddenly, she popped up and smiled at me brightly. “Minho’s home.”
“Minho?” I asked thinking on the familiar name. Flashes of a tall, long haired, frog eyed boy came to my mind and I couldn’t help but smile. “I didn’t know you and hyung were still on good terms.”
“Of course,” Yuri said doing a little hair flip, “we’re still dating after all.”
My eyes went wide. No, my sister did not just simply admit she’d been cheating on Minho hyung. I loved my sister, she was the sweetest thing most of the time and tried to take care of me, getting as much of her mom’s anger off of me as she could. She was even the one that offered for me to move in. But, Minho hyung was a good guy.
I remembered that he would always come over when Yuri was babysitting me. She’d sit and smile at us as he humored me with card games and praised my childish dancing. He often told me I was cute and would pinch my cheeks. Even when I went through my awkward stage of stringy hair, glasses, and skin stretched against nothing but bone, he still called me pretty and said things would get better. He’d sit in the backseat of my dad’s car with me when we picked up my sister to hangout every other weekend and chat with me, ask me how school went then quietly scold me for not telling my dad about being bullied every time he saw a new bruise. I use to think he came along just to see me and it made me feel special and I was sad when my sister’s mom cut off the weekend trips so that I only ever saw them on holidays.
I had been depressed when my sister told me Minho hyung was going over seas for college four years ago. Even though he probably never considered me as more than a little brother, I had always admired and thought of the older boy as my best friend since I didn’t have any. Luckily I had met Key just after that, but Minho was still my favorite hyung; something I didn't dare tell Key.
The first night I had moved in with Yuri and her mom, I had caught my sister about to go at it on the couch. At first I had been excited thinking that was Minho hyung and totally ignored what they were doing until I saw the guy’s face. He didn’t look familiar so I had called out and asked Yuri who he was. She had been really surprised and took me to the side and said something about her being an adult and that if I could ignore these things and still love her. Of course I agreed to whatever she said and just went back into my room figuring that was her new boyfriend and she had broken up with Minho because he was so far away and didn’t think it was important to tell me. I’d quickly found out that the guy wasn’t her boyfriend, but I just shrugged it off. I was use to random strange guys coming into the house and leaving without a word because my step-mom did the same thing after my dad’s death.
Still, to think my sister had been cheating on Minho all this time, I couldn’t fathom such a thing. Who would want to cheat on Minho? That made my sister a bad person, didn’t it, her being a cheater. I loved my sister too much for her to be a bad person.
“Yuri noona, does that mean you’ve been cheating on hyung?” I asked, blinking my eyes nervously. Maybe they had gotten back together, like, two seconds before I walked into the room.
She looked away guiltily and I felt as if something had stabbed me in the chest. Yuri let out a sigh as she ran a hand through her hair then looked at me again with a sad smile. “You think noona is a bad person now, don’t you?”
I immediately shook my head, but looked at her uncertainly. “Why?”
She brought her leg onto the bed and laid her head on her knees looking at the wall. “I thought I was really in love with him and that I could wait four years for him to come back, but when dad died, he came and visited for the funeral. I don’t think you saw him, but he was there. He looked older, like he was becoming a man and not that ridiculously tall boy I had been dating for ten years. You would think my heart would beat even faster because he had become a man, but it was the same as when I talked to any gorgeous man. I wondered if maybe it was just because I hadn’t seen him for a year so I decided to try it once, cheating, to see if I felt guilty.”
There was silence in the room and I twirled my fingers against the side of my skinny jeans. “Did you?”
“I think you know the answer to that, Taemin. I was hoping he might find some American girl and fall for her or cheat and tell me and then I could tell him I’d been doing the same thing and we could break it off easily like that.” She picked up the phone and looked at the time before throwing it behind her so it landed on the pillow. “He’s coming over soon.”
“Noona, you should break up with hyung if you don’t like him anymore.”
Yuri smiled at me and beckoned me over. I obediently sat next to her and she ruffled my long hazel hair messing up my ponytail before dragging her fingers down to my chin and lifted it up so that her brown eyes met my own. “You’re such a good boy. You’re right, though. If noona doesn’t feel anything for Minho when he comes over, I promise I’ll break up with him.”
I smiled brightly and nodded and she pinched my cheeks causing me to pout.
“Ah, it must be nice to be so young. You wouldn’t understand such complicated things.”
“I know complicated things, noona,” I said.
Her face suddenly became dark and she moved her hands away. “I know, I’m sorry. You should go back to your room, mom will be home for lunch soon. I’ll tell you when Minho gets here.”
“Can I get something to eat first?” I asked.
“I’ll bring you a sandwich and a banana milk,” she said.
I nodded quickly and took her hand giving my sister a cute smile. “You always know exactly what I want, noona.”
“Aish, this kid trying to be cute. Fine, I’ll bring you two bottles,” she said giving in.
I happily danced out of the room and made it to my own. “Thank you, noona.”
***SHINee Things***
I rolled up to a moderate size white house, small shrubs of little white flowers bordering the porch. Stepping out of my dark blue BMW convertible, I took a deep breath of the familiar air, memories of kisses shared on that porch flooding my mind. I stuck my hand inside my pocket and fiddled with the box inside, my heart beating quickly. I felt incredibly silly being so nervous about what I was about to do. It wasn’t like she didn’t see this coming, right?
“Aigoo, why am I so giddy,” I said to myself not able to wipe off the nervous smile on my face as I made my way to the door and knocked on it.
“Just a minute,” that all too familiar voice called from inside the house.
When I heard footsteps approaching, I quickly cleared my throat and fixed my blazer. As soon as the door opened I smiled brightly.
“Minho~” Yuri squealed when she saw me and immediately wrapped her arms around my neck in a hug. I wrapped my arms around her waist and returned the gesture. As she moved away, I placed a quick peck on her cheek.
“Hey, noona,” I said smiling down at her.
She sighed and grinned at me. “Well, come in, come in.”
She took my hand and led me inside and to the living room where we sat down on the couch. I had expected her to curl up on my side like she use to or offer her lap as a pillow like when I would come visit after soccer practice at school and was exhausted. I was a bit disappointed when she decided to sit down beside me leaving a polite two feet between us.
“So, how was America? Did you see Usher?” she asked naming one of my favorite American artists.
“No, there aren’t that many stars where I was going to school, noona,” I said smiling.
She pouted. “Well now, that’s no fun. You certainly weren’t just studying over there.”
“I played soccer, too,” I teased.
She rolled her eyes. “Of course you did. Make any friends, see any pretty girls?”
I gasped as if hurt. “Pretty girls? How could anything be as pretty as noona?”
Yuri slapped my arm. “Yah, there’s plenty of people prettier than me. Even my brother is prettier than me.”
Suddenly, I remembered she said she had a surprise that had to do with her little brother. “Your brother? Speaking of him, where is he, you said I should see him.”
“Oh, he’s in the kitchen helping with dinner,” she said before suddenly frowning, “which he shouldn’t be in the kitchen alone, he’s not good at anything other than cutting steak.”
There was the sound of things dropping and Yuri suddenly popped up, heels clinking on the wood floor and I followed her. We walked through the dinning room that had a half set up table on it before she entered the kitchen. I heard Yuri making a clicking sound from the kitchen before I had walked in after her. My eyes immediately came in contact with perfectly shaped round globes in tight black skinny jeans before they traveled up a slim waist covered by a black tank top like thing until I reached a slender neck covered mostly by a low hazel colored ponytail. Suddenly, the person turned around and I was met by an angelic face, one that seemed so familiar but I couldn’t place a name to. Who was this young …girl?
The person pouted and gave Yuri puppy eyes holding out their hand where a small red line bled. “Noona, I cut my hand.”
Yuri immediately grabbed a napkin and wrapped it around the kid’s hand, placing a quick kiss to it. The kid smiled before turning to me. Immediately, their pretty eyes widened.
“H-hyung,” they stuttered.
Hyung? Wait….“Taeminnie?” No way, this pretty person couldn’t possibly be Yuri’s little brother. The last time I saw him he was still small, skinny, wore glasses, and had stringy fuzzy black hair. Then again, he had always been a really cute kid and if I tried to imagine what he looked like then to what he looked like before and now, he definitely looked more like how I imagined him to grow up to be with the long hazel hair and slim toned body.
A bright smile crossed Taemin’s face probably because I used the pet name I had always called him by when he was younger. He had always smiled like that then as well. It was a cute pretty smile that always made you want to smile as well, which I did.
Taemin bowed before looking at me shyly. “Minho hyung, h-hi.”
I looked toward Yuri and she just shrugged with a small smile and made a gesture toward her brother. I reached a hand out and ran it down to Taemin’s ponytail and tugged it lightly. “Wow, long hair, it suits you.”
He blushed a bit and pulled away, eyes wide as he talked. “Yah, don’t touch it, they’re extensions.”
I gave him a curious look. “Extensions, since when did you know what extensions were?”
He gave me a cute glare before turning to Yuri. “Noona, the food’s done, can we eat now?”
“Yeah, sure, Minho, help carry some of the stuff out.”
I nodded and brought out the bowl of stew they had made placing it in the middle of the dinner table. I pulled out a chair for Yuri and then sat beside her. Taemin sat in front of Yuri and I watched him eagerly gulp down two bowls and two bottles of banana milk. I didn’t remember the boy to ever eat that much before, he use to hardly eat a thing probably too depressed from being bullied at school and his parent’s divorce. I was glad the boy seemed lively again.
“So, Taemin, what grade are you in now?” I asked.
He looked up at me from sipping his banana milk. “I just started college.”
“You’re only sixteen though,” I said. I knew the boy had skipped a couple of grades in elementary, but it seemed ridiculous that he just started college when I just finished it being six years younger than me. “Well, what’s your major.”
He looked toward Yuri and she nodded encouraging him it seemed. Taemin looked back and me and smiled brightly if a bit shyly. “Dance.”
I smiled back. “Good, you liked to dance when you were little, always use to show off whenever I came over, right,” I teased.
“Hyung~” he whined. It was cute, I was glad he had gone back to being cute, not that he hadn’t always been cute, just that he had hid it for the most part during all that depression. I was really disappointed that we had drifted away because of they’re parents hatred toward each other. He had almost felt like my own little brother.
“Well, if everyone’s done, I’ll clean the table off,” Yuri said standing up. Taemin suddenly stood up and grabbed Yuri’s hand.
“Noona, I’ll do it, you stay and talk to hyung,” he said giving Yuri an earnest look.
At first I was a little confused by his reaction but figured he was just being a good little brother and giving us some alone time, which was fine by me as I still had yet to give Yuri her surprise.
I waited until Taemin had cleaned up most of the dishes and I could hear water running as he cleaned some off before turning to Yuri. “Yuri.”
She turned to me with a tired smile that made me frowned. Maybe she’d had a long day and I shouldn’t do this now. I had just barged over here without asking her if she was busy. Then again, I might be able to make her happier and I might as well do it now.
“Yuri, I have a surprise for you,” I said.
“O-oh yes, what is it, Minho?”
I scooted the chair back and went on one knee before her. “Yuri, we’ve dated for the past ten years and I know there have been some hard times and me leaving for four years must have been rough, but I’m back now and I want to do right by you.”
Her eyes seemed confused before going wide as I started to dig around in my blazer pocket and pulled out the velvet box. “Kwon Yuri,” I continued then flipped the box’s lid. Instantly, her eyes went wide. “Will you marry me?”
Silence. Every second of it that passed made me more nervous wondering if I had done something wrong as Yuri just stared back at me struck blank. She blinked a couple times and started mumbling to her self before finally smiling at me with tears in her eyes.
“Yes.”
My heart leapt hearing her answer.
Suddenly, there was a clash and I turned my head to see Taemin staring at us horrified, a soapy wet pan on the floor. My leaping heart started doing flips and I felt sick seeing his expression.
His eyes filled with tears and he shook himself before turning to Yuri. “Noona!”