"Minnie about that thing you mentioned yesterday..." Jinki started suddenly, throat dry and palms clammy from nervousness.

Taemin's head turned in his direction, eyes showing he had been caught off-guard. After all they were in the middle of a stay-at-home date, happily watching some movie that was supposed to help them relax after the long schedule. He swallowed the chips he had in his mouth and his shoulders sagged slightly. "Hyung, please don't ruin the mood, we were supposed to enjoy our time alone... Let's not talk about this now, okay?"

Jinki sighed and run his fingers through his hair. "I know you don't want to have this conversation but the others are out and now's the only time we can talk in peace without anyone disturbing us. Also if I'm to be honest with you, I don't think it'll be easy for me to gather enough courage to talk about this again. Just-... Please?"

Taemin pressed his lips together and put away the bowl he had on his lap, somewhat starting to avoid eye contact with the older. "Okay." he mumbled out.

"Okay." Jinki repeated and sat up straight, hands squeezing his knees tensely. "This... this is probably going to um... surprise you so beforehand I'd like to ask you not to walk away if you're angry or- you know. Just... talk to me. Ask me questions if you want, just please don't leave. N-not that I think you'll want to leave, I don't think you should, it's not that big of a deal you know? Um."

Taemin nodded in understanding and Jinki could see he was starting to get nervous as well, judging from his fidgety fingers and shifty eyes.

"So..." Jinki cleared his throat and looked down at his hands. "Contrary to what you've thought, I didn't really have a lot of partners, there were just a few and they weren't exactly... long-term. What you've experienced were mostly things I've learned during a relationship I was in a few years ago. We were together for three years so um, I did have enough time to learn this and that about ." he glanced at Taemin who seemed to be taking everything fairly well so far if you ignored the frown between his eyebrows. Jinki swallowed hard, now was the time for the worse part. "I'd end my story here if the person I was in a relationship with was anyone else, I wouldn't tell you their name because that would make no difference but... I feel like this one might." He his lips nervously, there was no use in dragging this out. "I-it's Jonghyun."

Taemin's mouth parted slightly in shock and it seemed like he stopped breathing for a moment, his body unable to move an inch. Jinki started losing it when a couple of minutes passed and the younger still hadn't uttered even one word. It looked like he wanted to, his lips were twitching as if he was about to start speaking but he never did.

"Y-you're probably very surprised-" How observant, Sherlock. "Um. Y-you can ask me questions if you want to, I'll answer a-anything."

Taemin finally moved then, he dropped his head and bit his bottom lip hard enough to cut the skin, his fists clenched at his sides. It took a while before he actually said anything. "Why him?" he asked flatly.

Jinki's brows furrowed in confusion. "Um, I'm not sure I-"

"Why did you choose him? Why him of all people?" Taemin lifted his head and his eyes were fuming. "Why wasn't it me?"

"I-" Jinki blinked a few times in surprise and then exhaled, his expression compassionate. "Minnie you were- you were a kid back then. It was when SHINee had just debuted, you were still underage, I could've never-"

"I hate it." Taemin hissed out, veins throbbing on his reddened neck. "I hate that while I was in love with you you were screwing Jonghyun behind our backs. How did you even manage to hide from the rest of us? We all shared one room back then, there's just no way you could've had with him and not get found out."

"We all slept in one room but there were also other rooms in the dorm Minnie..." 

"Okay but how did the rest of us not notice there was something going on between you guys? I mean, I ing stared at you 24/7, I would've noticed something, hyung!"

Jinki sighed deeply and looked downwards. "Minnie the relationship between Jonghyun and I... it was something completely different from what we have. We started having before we even got to know each other well. We didn't really talk about us, during the day we had schedules as SHINee, during the night it was all about getting each other off when we weren't busy sleeping. You couldn't have noticed. Kibum and Jonghyun were best friends back in the days and the fact that I was having with Jonghyun didn't change anything, they were still best friends and I was still someone that didn't have one serious conversation with him."

Taemin's eyes narrowed, the anger he was feeling fading and being slowly replaced by curiosity. "Wait, so were you in an actual relationship or was it just some sort of friends thing?"

Jinki looked away and scratched the back of his head in thought because, honestly, how was he even supposed to start explaining the complexity of that relationship? "We... were ed up. We were in a relationship. We were friends. It doesn't mean that feelings weren't involved though, I fell for him somewhere along the way and he did too but-.. we just never talked Minnie... During those 3 years I shared with him never once have I said I loved him. It was the same for him. Sometimes when he looked at me I knew that something was different about his gaze, that something had changed. It made me want to confess to him but I never did, I was scared less of telling him how I felt. Because there was a chance he didn't return my feelings and I didn't want him to break things off with me. We were just friends after all, I was not supposed to get attached. But... one time-" Jinki tucked a strand of hair behind his ear and smiled sadly. "One time, after we had I heard him say it though. 'I love you.' He thought I was sleeping and that's the only reason he thought it was safe enough to utter those words. Honestly, I felt like my heart was going to burst from happiness. But, I wanted to make him say it to my face and not to my sleeping back so the night after his confession instead of dropping to my knees and his I sat on the bed and started talking to him, and he was so startled, he didn't know what was happening." Jinki laughed. "It was the first time we opted for just cuddling and talking instead of having and after that night we started doing it more and more often. I never got to make him say 'I love you' though. The whole night dating thing lasted two weeks. Then, he broke up with me." 

"What? Wasn't he in love with you? Why did he break up with you then, it doesn't make any sense."

"He broke up with me because he was in love with me. I hurt him. I met someone else and I cheated on him." Jinki pursed his lips and his chin trembled slightly. "How can you even cheat on a friend you might ask. That's the thing though. We were something even I myself can't put into words. We were friends but we loved each other. We knew there was something more to our relationship but at the same time we weren't sure enough to do something about it. We labeled us as friends but we belonged to each other like a real couple would. When I cheated on him I knew it was wrong and I knew he'd get upset about it if he found out."

The younger man frowned, distrust apparent in his dark eyes. "Why did you cheat on him then? You said you were in love with him, if you really loved him you wouldn't have done something like this." 

Taemin was scared it would happen to him too, Jinki thought. If he cheated once he could do it a second time. He his lips and sighed. "Minnie I'm polyamorous. I fell for someone else and I wanted to date them too. But, like I said earlier me and Jonghyun didn't talk much, and despite the character of our relationship he was also quite possessive of me. I tried dropping hints about me being poly but they never seemed to reach him, and I was afraid of confessing it directly, I was scared he'd break up with me. I couldn't bear to lose him so I started meeting the other person behind his back and, well, he found out... I didn't even know about this, if I knew I'd try to explain myself, to make him forgive me, understand me, to make him stay..." Jinki looked up at the younger man with a tight lipped smile. "But I only found out yesterday, when I had a small talk with Jonghyun."

Taemin's stomach dropped, the corners of his lips turned downwards, eyes widening in fear. "W-what for."

"I just wanted to make sure he was okay with me telling you about our past. But we ended up talking about so much more than that. As I told you before, when we were still together I never worked up the courage to tell him I loved him. It felt good to finally say it, even though so many years have passed. It felt good to know that what I did with him wasn't meaningless, that we were on the same page with our feelings even though we never admitted to them out loud."

It's over. Taemin was staring at Jinki completely frozen, his heart heavy in his chest. He could tell where all this was going. His bottom lip trembled and he dropped his head feeling tears prickle the back of his eyes.

Jinki tilted his head to the side in worry. "Minnie?" He put his hand on the younger man's cheek to gently pull him up and he was faced Taemin's red eyes and wet trails on his skin he felt guilt wash over him. He wanted to say something to make things better but he didn't know what exactly he was supposed to say. He couldn't say he was sorry because he wasn't, he had never regretted his relationship with Jonghyun and he wasn't about to start now either.

Taemin turned away from Jinki and pressed his forehead against the backrest of the couch, his shoulders shaking slightly with sobs.

"Minnie please..." Jinki reached out and started rubbing soothing circles on the younger's back with his hand.

"Just say it." Taemin sobbed out into the couch.

"Say... it?" Jinki asked puzzled. 

"T-that you want to b-break up and get back with him. I can t-take it, just say it." Taemin hiccuped and faced the older again. He certainly did not look like he could take it. Not that Jinki was going to say whatever Taemin thought he was going to say.

"You're stupid." Onew announced and pulled Taemin in for a kiss. A very wet, salty and snotty one. "I don't know what's in that head of yours but I'm not getting back with him. Whatever we had ended a long time ago. Are we clear?"

"B-but..." Taemin stammered and a few more tears run down his cheeks. "Y-you said it felt good to say you l-loved him. A-and that if you had known he found out about you cheating you'd try to make him s-stay. A-and now you know s-so-"

Jinki run his thumbs gently under the younger's eyes. "I used the past tense for a reason Minnie. Please listen properly first before jumping into false speculations, you alomst served me a panic attack when you started crying."

"I-I love you." Taemin blurted out and honestly, the red nose, the snot and the pitiful looking expression on his face made Jinki's heart melt.

"I love you too, but you're still stupid. I can't believe you thought I was going to break up with you and date the dino again. I have you and Jongin now, I thought I made myself clear." Jinki his boyfriend's cheek tenderly and then exhaled. "Look. What Jonghyun and I had... it wasn't a happy love. It was painful and full of secrets. I treasure those memories because they made me who I am today but I do not need a replay, I've moved on. And he did too, he wishes us all the best. He was the one that talked me out of rejecting you and Jongin and proposed the idea of dating you both instead."

Taemin sniffled and his bottom lip jutted out in a pout, his arms crossing over his chest. "I still don't like him."

"You know you don't mean that." Jinki said and poked his boyfriend's puffed up cheek. "Besides, he's still the same person he was before you got to know about our past. Nothing has changed Minnie."

"I just can't stomach the thought that he had you all to himself for 3 years. It's unfair."

Onew smiled warmly and cupped Taemin's face, staring straight into his eyes. "You're right, it's not fair. Because you have me all to yourself for the rest of my life."

Taemin stilled, his mouth parting slightly in awe, eyes sparkling and completely love struck. He stared at Jinki as if he was the seventh wonder of the world before closing the distance between them and kissing him with everything he was feeling right now.

It was a lot of feelings, Jinki thought, when 10 minutes passed and Taemin was still eagerly his face.

The end of part 3!

Are you guys interested in Onkai ? The Ontae one didn't get too big of a response and I thought that maybe you guys weren't too much into that. I could omit it if you guys don't really care about it and just go straight to the ending of the story. Either way is fine with me :)

Tell me what you think in the comments, I'll see you next time!