Title: The Shining Garden
Introduction and Chapter One: Only a Stuntman
Rating: PG
Pairing: None, yet (eventual main pairing of Onew/Minho, as well as quite a few others)
Summary: Onew is the President of a department store, son of a chaebol. Minho is a stuntman, son of a fireman. Both are beyond stubborn and possibly the two most prideful people in Seoul - and it will take magic to bring them together.
A/N: This is a cross-over fic between the Secret Garden K-drama and K-pop band SHINee, and there will be other random K-pop people as well. I do not own any of these people/characters!


SHINee/Other - Secret Garden correspondences:

Onew - Kim Joo-Won - Pres. of a department store
Minho - Gil Ra-Im - Stuntman
Key - Oska - Pop Idol and Onew’s hyung/1st cousin
Jonghyun - Secretary Kim - Onew’s secretary
Taemin - Ssun - Musician
Kyuhyun - Yuen-sul - CF/MV director and Key’s ex
Donghae - Ah-Young - Minho’s room-mate/best friend
Changmin - Director Im - Minho’s Action Team Director
Amber - Second Director Hwang - Changmin’s 2nd in command
Sungmin - Chae-rin - Actor and one of Key’s on-again-off-agains


- Introduction -

Landing with bone-thudding crash onto the cement, the motorcycle tips, the rider’s foot reaching out for purchase as he leans forward just long enough to swing out of the seat, his long legs flying, and pulls a gun from somewhere under his leather coat as he crouches on the ground. Scanning his surroundings, he smoothly tugs out another gun for his free hand, and begins shooting through the dark in a perfect circle, his limber body twisting as the assassins fall around him with screams of agony.

As the last man crumples to the ground, from somewhere to the gunman’s right an authoritative voice calls, “CUT!” The lights go on, revealing cameras, prop staff, various other stuntmen and actors. The ‘dead’ assassins rise, and join in the clapping that begins.

With a smile that is somehow hopeful, thankful and excited all rolled together, the gunman stands and bows to the filming director, and then hurries off to join the rest of the stunt team huddled around their own director.

“Good job today,” Director Shim stated in an undertone of pride. “But there were a few too many fumbles on that final scene. Less partying the night before filming next time.” The sheepish grins that grew on the faces of his team proved how right his assessment had been, and his forehead wrinkled in mock-annoyance before he shook each of their hands and the group dispersed.

“Yah! Minho! Come join us for BBQ!” Second Director Liu called out with a toss of her floppy hair as Minho removed the gun-holster from around his waist and deposited it on the props table carefully. Looking up with a smile, Minho nodded and went to change into his own clothing and out of the lead’s costume.

~~~

“Kibum, please stop being difficult.” Lee Jinki tapped the tips of his fingers on the desk in front of him, less out of impatience and more to annoy the fur-clad man sitting across from him. “Sign the contract, and you can go back to doing whatever, or whomever, it was that you were doing before I dared to bother the great Hallyu Star Key with such mundane details as the renewal of his model contract with the only department store in Seoul that will still hire him.”

“Aish!” Key grumbled, raising a hand as if he was going to slap the younger man before pulling it back and narrowing his eyes instead. “I don’t see why you can’t raise the amount, you said you would last year!”

“Yes,” Jinki replied slowly, as if he was talking to a child. “And that was before you had a scandal that almost ruined the family honor... for the, what is it now, sixth, seventh time? You’re lucky you’re my cousin or you wouldn’t be getting the contract at all, which you know is the truth. So just sign it, and you can go back to that strangely pink creature that was swarming all over you as I drove past this morning.”

“What, Minnie?” Key laughed airily. “Oh he’s gone back to the set. I really think I’m done with him, anyway. Too... like you said. Clingy.”

Rolling his eyes at his hyung, Jinki pushed the papers across the desk. “Just sign them, Kibum, or we’ll both be late to grandfather’s dinner, and neither of us want to upset him.”

“Or our mothers.” Key added with a shudder. He took the papers, rolled his eyes, picked up the expensive pen that Jinki handed him and signed his name with a flourish. “Happy now?” he asked with an elaborate sigh.

“Simply thrilled. Now go home and change out of that... creature.”

Key petted at his furs protectively and stood. “Fine. See you at grandfather’s, dongsaeng.”

Jinki gave him a withering look as he left, and then handed the papers to Secretary Kim as he trotted in past Key. “File these, I’m leaving.”

“Yes President Lee!” Secretary Kim replied with a slightly over-eager smile.




- Chapter One: Only a Stuntman -


“Jinki...” The voice on the other end of the line was hesitant, almost whining.

A bored sigh. “Yes, Kibum?”

“Remember Minnie? Sungmin? The actor? The pink one?”

“How could I forget. The mere sight of you two lovebirds entwined against your car in the middle of the drive-way nearly made me lose my breakfast.” Jinki gave an unseen shiver at the thought.

“Aigoo! Jinki!” Key huffed, “Well... I broke it off with him, and now uhhh... well... he says he has pictures, Jinki. Possibly video. Probably video, actually. And there are reporters on the set of his new film, and...”

Jinki buried his face in his hands, putting the phone down for a moment. A deep breath later, he picked it up again. “And why haven’t you taken care of it, dare I ask?”

“I’m at a filming for Strong Heart. The reporters are there <i>now</i>, Jinki. He keeps texting me. With hearts. And threats.”

The family honor was once again at stake due to Key’s inability to keep it in his pants, or at least keep his conquests happy for more than a month at a time (if he was lucky). Jinki pursed his plump lips. “It will be dealt with.”

Key’s relief was audible. “Good! Because otherwise your store’s image model would have quite a different image, eh?” He smirked, now that it was off his shoulders, and hung up with the last word his.

Jinki stretched his legs, the perfectly tailored suit-pants fitting his thighs like a glove as he stood, tucking his cell into his jacket’s inner pocket and heading for his car. If his family had even the slightest clue how much of his time he spent cleaning up after his hyung, they’d give him just a bit more credit, he thought dryly as he swung into his eggshell-colored convertible.

A short drive later and he was on the set of the movie the infamous Sungmin was filming. Jinki neither knew nor cared to know what the film was about, but it clearly called for a lot of action, as there were warning signs and stunt teams practicing all over the place. He wrinkled his nose a little as a group of sweaty, loudly joking men rushed by. Sungmin had better be easy to find so he could get on with his day.

~~~

If the filming director screamed at him one more time, or Sungmin complained that his stunt-double wasn’t “acting enough like him,” Minho thought he might go mad. Of course they’d never <i>guess</i> that he’d gone mad, because he’d just keep apologising sheepishly and doing what he was told even if he was crazy. He grinned slightly to himself at that thought and whipped the sword in his hands through the air towards his opponent, but before their weapons could even connect, the director was yelling again and Sungmin’s voice added an even more grating level to the din from the nearby road.

“Again! Do it again! Start with the sword higher this time, and make sure you don’t get it too close to your face or we won’t be able to do the edits! Director Shim, you told me this man had filmed close combat before!” The filming director barked, glaring back and forth between Minho and his director.

“He has, Director. I assure you Choi Minho is not new to this kind of filming.” Changmin’s calm, throaty voice gave both Sungmin and the filming director pause.

“Fine, if you’re so sure he can do it, let’s see him do it then!”

And with that, they were off again. The sound of metal scraping against metal as the two swords skid, slid and scraped against each other stilled the over-talkative members of the crowd and Minho felt a rush filling his heart as his feet followed the patterns he’d known since he was a teenager, the parrying, the blocking and the thrusting, and above all the shimmering sword caught the sunlight against the pale, late-autumn blue sky.

When the villain of the movie tripped and fell, giving him the advantage, he brought his weapon down with a <i>swoosh</i> and held it against the man’s chest. That was the end of his part of the scene, the victorious close-up shot of the victor’s smirk was reserved for Sungmin, and Minho waited in that position until he heard the bellowed cry that signaled that his work was done. For once that day there was no angry commentary and Director Shim clapped Minho on the back in congratulations.

After a moment, the filming director motioned towards the cluster of stunt actors around Minho. “Choi, come here! I want you to work with Sungmin on his part of that scene. There are too many places where editing will be impossible if we just film you, so we’ll need both of you doing to sword-work. Sungmin, I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to do it.” And with that, the man walked away quickly, leaving a fuming Sungmin and a slightly worried looking Minho facing each other.

“I don’t want to film this any more than you want to work with me, so let’s just... get it over with.” Sungmin trailed off, moving away to the area of the set reserved for practicing.

It wasn’t that Sungmin couldn’t have learned how to do what was needed for the scene: he was fairly athletic and wasn’t a bad actor. But he clearly just chose to be hopeless at sword-play, at least when up against Minho.

“Just bend to the left slightly, no, try like this... a little more to your left. Almost! Alright let’s try that again?” Minho’s hopeful smile annoyed Sungmin.

“I want to move on to the next portion.” The statement wasn’t a request and Minho was unsure what to do when the actor clearly hadn’t gotten to the point where they should move on yet.

“Well, we can go to the next part, but we’ll need to come back to that later, at least for a while. I apologize, but it’s just not quite ready yet!”

“Yah! You should apologize! This is taking much longer than it should. You should be happier I’m getting it all so quickly!” Sungmin gave Minho a shove, sending the surprised man backwards against the props table. It collapsed beneath his weight and he let out a sharp noise of pain as one of the table’s legs scraped against his upper arm, cutting the fabric of his hoodie and the skin beneath it.

Sungmin knew how to turn things in his favor, immediately putting on his best pouting face and when a crowd had surrounded them he exclaimed with a pitiful voice, “This stuntman tried to hit me! So I pushed him back.”

Thankful that the film’s director was not nearby to hear his star’s complaints, Director Shim handed a cloth to Minho to tie around his wound and turned to Sungmin. “I’m sure he did not mean to hit you. Please continue working with him, and we will be able to film soon, yes?”

Rolling his eyes furiously, Sungmin nodded. “Fine. But know that I am not happy with his behaviour. You should control your team better! And I still want an apology.”

Minho gave a reassuring smile to Changmin and bowed low to Sungmin. “I did not mean you any harm, I am sorry you thought I meant to hit you.”

“That’s better.”

Minho caught Second Director Liu’s eye and shrugged at the angry look on her face. If he let all the unjust things actors like that did to him pile up inside, he’d be as bitter and unhappy as they were... but that didn’t stop it from hurting almost more than his arm did.

~~~

As he locked his car, Jinki's attention was caught by two actors fighting - both were masterful swordsman and the sight was worth giving up a moment of his time, so with casual grace he leaned against the closed door behind him to watch. The victor was a tall, lean-muscled young man, thick dark hair almost to his shoulders. Jinki couldn't help but allow his eyes to follow the fluid movements the actor made as he ended the too-swift battle.

With a slight nod of approval, Jinki clicked the remote lock and headed down to where the reporters waited at the entrance to the set. Breezing through them, he stepped up to a girl who was poking with an edgy, attack-like motion with a pen against the clipboard held tightly in her other hand. “I’m here to see Sungmin, please point him out to me,” he stated more than asked.

“If you’re one of the reporters you can stand in line.” The girl didn’t even glance up.

“Do I look like a reporter?” Jinki asked, raising an eyebrow.

Giving the persistent man a once-over, she had to admit that if he was a reporter, he was the best dressed one she’d seen. None of the other reporters wore grey designer suits with a slightly metalic shimmer and deep orchid purple silk ties that just screamed “Italy.”

“Nooo... you don’t. Is Sungmin expecting you?” she asked, her manner fully attentive now and possibly even a little apologetic that she was further questioning him.

“No, but he wants to see me.”

At that, the girl waved him through, much to the reporters dismay. “Sungmin is the one over there,” she pointed vaguely with the end of her pen towards where two actors were practicing the same scene he’d seen filmed earlier.

“Which one?” Jinki asked, thinking that if Sungmin was the tall one he’d have to give Key a little credit for once.

When the girl looked up, both the actor and his stunt-double were visible and she pointed to the shorter, stabbing the air with her pen - but when Jinki followed where she was pointing, Sungmin had stepped out of sight in front of Minho, and only Minho remained. Jinki hurried off. Better to get this done while the man wasn’t filming. Clearly the fact the actor was actually much better looking than he’d expected, and more talented, had nothing to do with it. The girl glared at his tailored back as he disappeared.

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