SHINee had picked this small town for one simple reason: obscurity. They were pretty sure no one had ever heard of Lewisville, Texas. And because of that, they assumed that the press would be a minimum and the fangirls would be down to zero.

It had been Jinki's idea. Everyone in the group had been on edge for weeks, and he'd finally decided that they needed a vacation. So he planned a whole little game around deciding where to go. He wrote the names of every single country in the world on little pieces of paper and put them in a hat. Then he had each of the band members pull out a piece of paper. Key had picked Argentina, Jonghyun had picked Algeria, Minho had picked Poland, and Taemin had picked America. Then Jinki had them put those four slips of paper into a bowl, and he picked from those four. America had won.

Then he found a map of the United States of America. He hung it up in the living room and proceeded to blindfold the other four. He gave them each a sticky note and had them place it blindly on the map. Strangely, all four sticky notes somehow landed on the the second largest state of the country. Probably because it took up so much space. From there, they had decided together on Lewisville. It was close enough to Dallas that they could do some publicity if they really wanted to, but just small enough for them to go unnoticed.

They left in June.

Jonghyun

"Jonghyun! Let's go in here!" the maknae exclaimed, dragging the dino into yet another store that looked designed for female clothes. Jonghyun fought at the irritation growing in his head. He wanted to look at a store that catered towards guys, for Christ's sake. He looked at the name of the store: Aeropostle. Taemin ran immediately to the sweaters, leaving Jonghyun standing in the entrance awkwardly. He glanced around, and was pleasantly surprised to find some clothes for men. He sidled over to the jeans and lost interest in whatever Taemin was doing. Something he regretted a few moments later, because when he scanned the store, the maknae was nowhere in sight. He felt the beginnings of panic set in, knowing that Key would skin him alive for losing Taemin. He started walking around the small store, looking everywhere, and his eyes fell upon someone kneeling in front of the socks. He let out a sigh of relief, walking straight to them.

"Yah! Don't scare me like that, Minnie," he said in Korean. But when the head turned, it wasn't Taemin. It was a girl who looked about sixteen. Her hair was bright red, something he hasn't seen before because her jacket hood was up. Her eyes were green and framed with large, square glasses. And, when she looked up at Jonghyun, they grew as wide as dinner plates. Her jaw dropped and she looked like she had been clubbed upside the head. The first thing he thought was "Woah, this chick is kind of actually really cute," until he understood why she was looking at him like that. Then the only thing going through his head were the words "ohshitohshitohshitohshit!" He took a step back, unsure how the girl might react. That was when another girl with long, dark hair and rectangular glasses peeked around the display, holding a handful of clothes. Which she promptly dropped upon seeing Jonghyun. He took another step back, now thinking "oh fuck, there are two of them!" He waited for the screaming. He waited for the freak out. It didn't come. The two girls just stared at him like they couldn't believe their eyes.

"Jonghyun!" someone called from behind him. He turned his head to see Taemin walking up in a pair of jeans he hadn't been wearing when they had walked into the store. Well, that explained his disappearance. He heard a sound like a mouse being stepped on from near the ground, and looked to see that the first girl -who was still crouching on the ground- had gone completely white. The girl who was standing up looked like she was struggling to breath. Taemin stepped beside Jonghyun and froze. And then the girl who was crouching fell flat on her ass.

Jonghyun couldn't help it; he burst out laughing. Her cheeks burned a brilliant red and her glasses were perched precariously on the tip of her nose. The second girl looked at the other one with an expression of horror. But Taemin simply looked concerned. He crouched next to her and held out a hand.

"Are you okay?" he asked in slow English. The girl looked like she might faint and didn't answer. Then Taemin smiled and took her hand, hoisting her to her feet. She latched onto the other girl's shoulder automatically, and the other girl grabbed her hand. Jonghyun recovered from his laughter and grinned, all his former uneasiness gone. He was confident these girls wouldn't cause a scene.

"What are your names?" he asked. They both swayed on their feet, and Taemin giggled. The first one's mouth started opening and closing, like a fish gasping for air. The second one simply looked shocked. Jonghyun and Taemin glanced at each other, worry in both of their eyes. Then the second girl seemed to recover.

"SHINee?" she asked in a high pitched voice. Taemin smiled and nodded. That seemed to cause more damage as they gripped each other tighter, identical squeaks spilling past their lips. The second one cleared her throat, standing a bit straighter, as if she realized how she was acting.

"Um, my name's Nicole, and this is my friend Brooke. We're huge fans," she told them. Jonghyun grinned.

"We guessed," he said. Nicole smiled, and Brooke blushed. Taemin pointed to the pile of clothes at Nicole's feet.

"Are those yours?" he asked. Nicole looked down as if just remembering and nodded. This time, both Taemin and Jonghyun bent to help her pick up the clothes. Her cheeks dusted pink as they handed her the hangers, and she gave them a small smile. Brooke was looking at her feet, her hands clenched together tightly. Nicole looked at her with concern.

"She's not usually like this ," Nicole explained quietly, then turned her attention to the other girl. "Brooke, are you okay?" she asked. Brooke nodded, looking up to show that her cheeks were still bright red. Jonghyun stifled a smile. It was kind of cute, how embarrassed she was.

"It's alright. I've seen girls do worse when they see us," Taemin assured her. Jonghyun smiled.

"One girl tripped and toppled into one of our security guards. She almost got tasered," he said with a chuckle. Brooke seemed to give a small smile at that, her eyes glowing.

And then Taemin's phone started ringing.

"It's Key," he said in Korean, answering it promptly. Jonghyun caught the words "Aeropostle," "fans," and "food court" before he hung up. He gave Jonghyun an excited smile, then turned to the girls.

"Do you want to meet the rest of the band?"

Key

Key saw them before Minho and Jinki. At first he thought that the girls Taemin had mentioned didn't come, but Jonghyun shifted as he walked and Key glimpsed two girls clutching each other's hands tightly with matching looks of excited terror on their faces. One was taller than the other, wearing a black hoody over black shirt that read "Originality is not dead" and a pair of well worn skinny jeans. She had a blue messenger bag slung over her shoulder and headphones hanging from her neck. Her hair was a bright red that obviously came out of a bottle, but it looked good. She was wearing a pair of glasses that screamed "hipster" and her eyeliner was constructed into elaborate wings that Key could appreciate. But he was really focused on her shoes. They were combat boots that stopped just above her ankles, and they were floral. Key was in love.

Taemin moved a little, and Key saw the other girl. She was smaller than the first, with waist long curly brown hair. She had an adorable face, with big brown eyes that sparkled framed by small, rectangular glasses. She was wearing a pretty purple blouse and dark jeans, some jeweled sandals on her feet. She was one of the cutest things Key had ever seen. His eyes found hers, and at the moment, she looked right at him. Their eyes locked, and she froze. Literally. She stopped walking, her eyes getting bigger. Key smiled, and he could see her breathing hitch. The first girl noticed that she had stopped and turned around, presumably to ask if she was okay. Then she followed the direction of her eyes, and gasped. By then Minho and Onew had spotted the quartet and began to wave them over. The red head tugged on the brunette's hand, forcing her to move, and they began to make a slow progression to their table.

"So, these are the fangirls you mentioned?" Minho asked in Korean. Jonghyun nodded, then glanced at the red head. He seemed to be worried about her, but Key didn't really pay much attention to that. The smaller girl looked like she had lost the ability to speak, her eyes glued to him. The bigger girl was giving her concerned looks. Jinki stood and held out a hand.

"I'm Lee Jinki," he said. The red head just nodded without taking his hand. He looked confused, but Jonghyun gave him a look that said to leave it. Minho just laughed.

"I'm pretty sure they know who we are, Jinki," he said. Jinki replied in muttered Korean and went back to his smoothie. And then-

"NICOLE!" the red head yelled, making the group jump. Jonghyun leaned over to Key.

"That's the first thing she's said since we met," he whispered in his native tongue. Key laughed. The brunette looked shocked, like she had just been shaken awake.

"What happened?" she asked. Minho snorted, but tried to cover it as a cough when he received a glare from the red head. Taemin giggled.

"Alright, hyungs," Jonghyun said, drawing the attention back to him. "These two lovely ladies are Brooke and Nicole. They are sixteen and seventeen, and evidently, they are huge fans of SHINee," he introduced. Nicole smiled, but Brooke blushed a brilliant red. Taemin noticed and leaned over to Key.

"That keeps happening, especially when Jonghyun is involved. I'm thinking someone has a little crush," he whispered in Korean. Key snickered, earning a shy look from Nicole. He winked, and then it was her turn to blush. Taemin decided to show mercy.

"Nicole's an opera singer. She told us that she's going to an arts school in the fall," he told them, but it had the opposite of the desired effect, because she blushed even more.

"And what about you, Brooke?" Jinki asked. She looked terrified at being addressed directly. Nicole nudged her, and she seemed to find her voice.

"I'll be a senior in the fall," she said quickly. Jonghyun looked relieved at hearing her speak. But then she shook her head.

"Sorry, you probably don't know what that means. I'm in my last year of schooling before I go to university," she restated, and this time Jonghyun smiled. She had a nice voice. Deeper than average, with a natural volume that didn't match her quiet demeanor.

"Wait, you're the younger one?" Minho asked. She nodded.

"Really?" Jinki responded. "You seem older." At that, Brooke grinned.

"You obviously don't know me," she said, and Nicole laughed in agreement. And suddenly, the awkwardness off the situation seemed to melt away. The members made room for more chairs, and Jonghyun stole some from another table. Brooke settled between Key and Taemin, and Nicole was between Minho and Jonghyun. Brooke leaned across the table.

"What do you want from Panda?" she asked.

"The usual," Nicole replied, and Brooke stood up, rummaging in the messenger bag. She pulled out a beat up wallet covered in multi-colored hearts and moved to make her way to one of the restaurants. Jonghyun stood up.

"I'll come with you," he said, and Brooke dropped the wallet. Key and Taemin began to giggle, stifling the sounds behind their hands, as Jonghyun bent to pick it up. Nicole looked torn between feeling her friend's embarrassment and joining in with the laughter. Brooke took her wallet back, face red yet again.

"Get me an egg roll," Taemin said. Jonghyun waved a hand to acknowledge he had heard and the two walked to join the line for the Chinese food. Key then took the opportunity to lean over to Nicole.

"So, you sing opera?" he asked. She nodded, looking uneasy.

"What part?" Jinki asked.

"Caluratura," she answered.

"So you can sing really high?" Minho inquired. She blushed.

"Yeah, but I got laryngitis last summer, and it took awhile to recover," she told them.

"Is Brooke a singer?" Taemin asked. Nicole nodded enthusiastically.

"Her voice was made for pop music. She can belt an E in chest voice if she's warmed up," Nicole bragged. Jinki looked impressed.

"I don't even think I could do that," he said. Nicole smiled.

"She doesn't like it when I brag about her. She actually kind of gets mad, so don't say anything," she told them. They nodded in agreement.

"How long have you been friends?" Minho asked. Nicole looked stumped.

"Well, we met when I was fifteen and she was fourteen through choir, but we didn't really become friends until a year later. At least, I think so," she answered, though she still looked unsure.

"What do you mean?" Key asked.

"She was friends with my friend Mikayla, and that's how we met. But we just knew each other. We weren't close or anything. And then, after a choir thing, we just sat down and talked, and I guess we became friends. But we really got close this past year, because we sat next to each other in choir and I got her into k-pop," she explained. The four of them grinned.

"You're a good friend," Taemin joked, and they all laughed.

"I try," she said, but her smile was only for show. They had no idea just how good of a friend she was.

Jonghyun

"Get me an egg roll," Taemin said, and Jonghyun waved a hand in his direction. They hurried and got in line. Jonghyun struggled to find something to say, but then Brooke beat him to it.

"How familiar are you with American Chinese food?" she asked, looking at the people in front of them instead of at him.

"There's a difference?" he asked in confusion. She nodded with a knowing smile.

"Oh yeah. The difference being everything," she replied, her eyes flicking to his for a brief second before settling on her hands. But that hadn't really answered his question. She seemed to understand his silence.

"It's hard to explain, especially because I've never had genuine Chinese food, but it's basically Americanized versions of Chinese dishes," she said. He nodded his understanding.

"So why do you call it Chinese food?" he asked.

"Because Americanized Chinese food just doesn't have the same ring to it," she said with smile, finally looking him directly in the eye. He noticed that surrounding her pupil was a bronze ring, different than the rest of the iris. It was unusual, but pretty. He chuckled.

"At least it tastes good. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth it," she continued, breaking the eye contact. They came up to the counter, where she ordered a meal with orange chicken and chow mien, a meal with beef and broccoli and fried rice, two egg rolls, and two sodas. She paid and stood off to the side to wait for it to be ready. Jonghyun ordered an egg roll and some shrimp and went to stand with her.

"So how did you discover SHINee?" he asked. She didn't look like the type to listen to k-pop. She glanced back at their table, where the guys had suddenly burst out laughing.

"Nicole," she answered, as if that explained everything.

"Care to elaborate?" he pushed with a smile.

"She's obsessed. I'm her friend. We sat next to each other in choir last year, and... well, yeah," she said.

"What did you listen to before?" he inquired.

"Everything. I still do, actually. Just with SHINee and EXO mixed in with it all," she answered.

"Oh, so you don't listen to a lot of k-pop, just a few groups?" She nodded.

"I like Big Bang and Brown Eyed Girls, but mostly I just listen to y'all and EXO," she said. Jonghyun's head wrapped around the word "y'all" as it fell past her her lips and held on. It sounded so drawn out- so interesting- coming from this girl, that it stole all of Jonghyun's focus. Brooke cleared her throat.

"Are you okay?" she asked. He nodded quickly, looking at the counter where their food was coming out.

"Sorry, I lost my focus," he said honestly, reaching for his order.

"It's cool. That happens to me all the time," she responded, grabbing her order and turning for the table.

They were talking about dancing when the two walked up.

"Wait, how? I had a hard enough time learning that routine," Taemin said in disbelief.

"What routine?" Brooke asked as she sat down next to him. He cleared his throat.

"Lucifer," he answered quickly.

"Really? That one looked simpler than most," she said, passing Nicole her plate. Key shot her a look like she was crazy.

"Then you have obviously never tried to dance it," he said. Brooke shrugged.

"Nah. It's not really what I do," she replied. Nicole and Taemin locked eyes before turning hastily to their food.

"What, you don't like dancing?" Jonghyun asked.

"I love dancing. I just don't like choreography," she answered. Jinki's eyebrows scrunched together.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because it's harder. I like being able to move the way I want. When I dance, I move the way the music tells me to, not another person," she told him. And Jonghyun was fascinated.

"What kind of music do you dance to?" he asked. She shrugged.

"Whatever I feel like. Sometimes hip-hop, sometimes dubstep. K-pop," she said, then she started eating. Jonghyun could picture that. Brooke dancing to their songs, swaying her hips to the beat and moving her feet to the lyrics. Then he mentally shook himself. What the hell was he doing? She was sixteen. Guys his age did not fantasize about the way sixteen year old girls danced. That was not socially acceptable. He focused back on the conversation.

"So what do you guys do in your free time?" Taemin asked. Nicole said nothing, so Brooke swallowed quickly and began to talk.

"Mostly I write and listen to music. Sometimes I watch T.V. And I hang out with Nicole," she said.

"What do you write?" Minho asked.

"Novels... and fanfictions," she admitted sheepishly. Key grinned.

"What kinds of fanfictions?" he asked. Nicole started choking on her rice, and Brooke looked like a deer in the headlights.

"Ummm, regular old fanfictions?" she said in a way that sounded like she was trying to convince herself. All the guys burst out laughing, knowing exactly what kind of fics the girl was thinking about.

"We don't care," Jinki told her. "We think it's funny."

"Not that we'd ever consider it," Minho added. Jonghyun nodded in agreement.

"These guys are like my brothers," Key said happily. But Taemin stayed quiet, focusing a little too much on his egg roll. Jonghyun caught Brooke giving him a sympathetic look, but when she saw him looking, her eyes darted to her chicken, where they stayed. He decided to change the subject.

"What are your novels about?" he asked Brooke.

"Well, I currently have two that I'm working on. One is about Heaven and Hell, and the girl who could end the war between them, and the other is about a girl who moves to New York City to escape her past, but then it finds her again," she said quietly.

"They're really good so far," Nicole added. "I've read them both and I can tell they're going to be best sellers."

"Nicole!" Brooke hissed, cheeks turning red yet again. The brunette looked affronted.

"What? I'm just stating an opinion. You can't get mad at me for that!" she replied. Brooke's eyes started darting around quickly, as if she was surveying the surrounding area for escape routes.

"I'd like to read them sometime," Jonghyun said, wanting to lessen the tension. Brooke sat straight up in her chair, eyes wild.

"Y-you would?" she asked.

"Sure," he said. "They sound interesting."

"But you don't even know me," Brooke mumbled. "Besides, after today we'll never see each other again, so what's the point in saying something like that. Today is just an anomaly. Yeah, I'm meeting one of the greatest groups of all time, and it didn't cost me a fortune, but you guys aren't going to become our best friends. After today, you'll forget all about the two fangirls from Texas you ran into at the mall," she muttered bitterly. Then she stood up and walked away, arms crossed tightly in front of her chest and her face trapped in an angry expression. Nicole watched her with a pained expression.

"I'm sorry about that. She's going through some stuff right now, and..." she trailed off, like she couldn't explain what all was wrong.

"Aren't you going to go after her?" Jonghyun asked with worry. Nicole nodded.

"I just need to wait a little while, otherwise it'll be worse," she said.

"What happened?" Jinki asked, eyebrows furrowed with concerned. Nicole thought for a moment.

"She's had a lot of disappointments lately. She's basically stopped hoping that good things will happen to her, so when they do, she walks away before they can end up hurting her," she told them.

"That's awful," Minho voiced. Nicole shrugged.

"It's her way with dealing with the hardships in life. I've tried helping her through it, but she gets cagey and starts to pull away. She's had a difficult life," she said softly. Taemin reached across the table and took her hand gently, making her jump violently in surprise.

"Sorry," Taemin apologized quickly, putting his hand back in his lap. Nicole shook her head.

"No, it's fine. I'm just not used to people touching me," she explained. "I'd better go now. It was a dream come true meeting all of you. I'll be telling my grandkids about this someday." She stood forlornly and grabbed her bag. Jonghyun watched her walk the direction Brooke had gone until she dissappeared into the crowds. That's when Key, who had remained silent through the whole ordeal, shot out of his seat. While Jinki, Minho, and Taemin called after him when he started running after the girl, Jonghyun just smiled.

Key would never let such an opportunity go.

Key

Key pushed past the crowds of teenage girls shopping for their mini-skirts and hooker heels. He shoved past the gossiping moms pushing their screaming toddlers in strollers. His eyes were glued to that head of thick brown hair that was still too far ahead.

"Nicole!" he called, silencing everyone within ten feet and causing the girl to turn around in surprise, her already big eyes growing wider. He caught up to her quickly.

"Key, what are you doing?" Nicole asked with a concerned voice, but one look at her face showed hope radiating from every pore.

"The dream doesn't have to end today," he said. "Do you have a pen?" She reached into her bag automatically and pulled one out. He took the pen in one hand, her wrist in the other, and proceeded to scribble his phone number directly on the skin.

"Get her calmed down, then call me. We'll be in town until Saturday. The hyungs and I would love to spend all the time until then with you two," he said. Nicole looked like she might keel over with excitement.

"We don't normally do this," he added quietly. "But there's something about you two. Something special." He let go of her wrist, which she held against her chest with a sense of reverence. He slid the pen back into the open bag and smiled.

"I'll hear from you," he said, then turned and walked away.

As he ambled away from the starstruck girl, he couldn't keep her face out of his mind. Her eyes were so big, and so bright. Her eyelashes seemed almost too long to be allowed, but they were gorgeous. And he loved how when she smiled, she smiled like she knew something no one else did.

Then his thoughts strayed to Brooke. There was something about her, something not entirely good, that made him want to learn more about her. Yes, her fashion sense was on point, but there was one thing that kept bothering him about it. It was mid-June, in Texas, so it was likely to be 100 degrees outside. So why had Brooke been wearing a jacket?

He got back to the table but offered no one an excuse for what he'd just done. They all looked confused, except for Jonghyun. He could see the excitement growing in his deep puppy eyes, and he knew it was because of the girl with the bottle red hair. He had known the man for eight years, and he'd never seen him look at anybody the way he'd looked at her. Key felt like he should be concerned, given the fact that she was considerably younger than him, but instead he felt glad. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was Jonghyun. And if it took a girl nearly a decade younger than him to do that, well, then the universe sure did have a sense of humor.

Nicole

Nicole finally found Brooke in the men's section of Macy's, looking at jeans. She didn't look angry anymore, just sad.

"Hey," she said softly, making the girl look up briefly before turning back to the jeans.

"I'm a fucking idiot," she muttered in response. Nicole put a hand on her shoulder.

"No, you're not," she said sternly. "You just won't let yourself be happy." Brooke laughed bitterly.

"Every time I allow myself to be happy, fate decides to make me it's personal punching bag," she muttered darkly, pushing against the hangers with more force than was really necessary. Nicole looked around nervously, hoping that nobody was nearby.

"Well, I guess fate changed its mind," she said quietly. Brooke looked at her with confusion. She held up her wrist, where Key's number was plainly visible. Brooke's green eyes widened with shock.

"Who...?" she gasped.

"Key," Nicole answered. "He chased me down when I came to find you and said that the guys wanted to spend the rest of their vacation with us." She waited for that sink in.

"When are they leaving?" Brooke asked, looking at her feet.

"Saturday," Nicole said with a smile. And when Brooke looked back up, Nicole saw something she hadn't seen in those deep green eyes in a very long time.

Brooke was beginning to hope.

Author's Note: Alright, I know it's k-pop. Don't judge! Anyways, Ive been working on this for awhile, so I hope you like it!