Minho’s POV

                “Minho hyung… Are you listening to me?”

                I pulled my gaze away from the TV to see Taemin staring at me with an annoyed expression. I smiled and tugged at his hair. “I’m sorry, Taemin-ah. What did you say?”

                He smiled and rested his head on my shoulder. “Do you think our plan worked?”

                I laughed softly. “I don’t know. Do you think it did?”

                Taemin nodded and grinned. “Ne. I think it did.”

                I laughed again as my mind flipped back to the day before. Taemin could be so mischievous…

                “Hyung~,” Taemin sang, running through the snow to greet me. I laughed as he wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in the fabric of my coat.

                “Hey, Taemin.”

                “We’re still going to that Christmas party at Jonghyun hyung’s tomorrow, right?”

                I smiled. “Of course.”

                “Is Key hyung going to be there?”

                “I’m guessing so. Why?”

                Taemin smirked. “I have an idea.”

                I pulled my feet up on the couch and wrapped my arms around my knees. “So… Let me get this straight. You think that Jonghyun is in love with Key?”

                Taemin nodded vigorously as he sat down on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate. “Don’t you see it, hyung? He doesn’t hide it very well.”

                I shook my head. “I haven’t really noticed that much. I mean, I can see that they’re good friends and all, but nothing more…”

                “Nothing more?” Taemin scoffed and took a sip of his hot chocolate. “Jonghyun hyung acts like a lovesick schoolgirl every time Key hyung comes around. His face turns bright red whenever Key hyung touches him or whispers in his ear. He stutters like an idiot and totally loses his nerve. He wasn’t like that at all before Key hyung moved here.”              

                I nodded as I thought about it. It was true that Jonghyun had never been this way. He was always the school’s playboy, the bad boy who turned down girls left and right and brushed away their heartfelt confessions with a smirk. Before Key had arrived, he never blushed, stuttered, or showed any sign of losing control. His cool demeanor was what made half the girls at school fall madly in love with him.

                I rested my chin on my hand as I compared his previous character to the way he was now. He really did blush a lot when Key was around, now that I stopped to think about it. He averted his eyes when Key looked at him. He stumbled over his words and did things he never used to do, like eating his carrots at lunch. None of us had ever been able to get him to do that before.

                But Jonghyun? In love? With Key? Jonghyun had a reputation for being a playboy. A straight, cool heartbreaker. The girls fell all over him while he sat back and enjoyed the attention. It had been that way since the 10^th grade. There was no way that he could be gay. But his behavior around Key was so…strange.

                “Okay…,” I began, rubbing my temples in an effort to clear my mind. “So…you want to do what, exactly?”

                Taemin smirked and wrapped his arms around the large teddy bear he always kept at my house. “While we’re at the Christmas party, I want us to find a way to get Key and Jonghyun hyung alone together. I was thinking all of our cell phones could ring and we’d act like our parents called us back home or something… What do you think?”

                “Will they fall for that? All of us mysteriously leaving at the same time?”

                “I think they will… Onew hyung can go back to help his mom cook or something… And you can say that you had a relative come over at the last minute who really wants to meet you. Then, since my family always comes to your house on Christmas, the relative can demand to meet me, too, so you come back and pick me up…”

                I nodded slowly. “Jonghyun would definitely fall for that. I’m not so sure about Key, but what can he really do if we all leave? You don’t think he’ll leave, too, do you?”

                A worried look crossed Taemin’s face. “Well… I don’t really think he will. He’s too nice to leave Jonghyun hyung all alone on Christmas…”

                “That’s true.” I bit my lip as I considered the situation. “I don’t know if Jonghyun is really in love with him, Taemin-ah. He’s got every girl at the school practically wrapped around his finger. He doesn’t seem like the gay type at all…”

                Then again, neither did I. There had been a time when I had received almost as many confessions as Jonghyun, but I had turned them all down on the basis of wanting to remain single. In reality, there was someone else that held my attention. Every girl in the school paled in comparison. No one’s smile was quite as warm. No one else had the ability to make me laugh like he did. All my worries seemed to melt away whenever Taemin wrapped his arms around me, but he had no idea I felt that way. And I wasn’t about to tell him, either. I knew he couldn’t possibly reciprocate my feelings, and I didn’t want to ruin our friendship with my confession. Taemin obviously had no problem with gay people, but I had no idea how he would react when he discovered that someone was gay for him. Things were just fine the way they were…we could just be friends. As long as he was always by my side, I could keep my love quiet. As long as we were friends forever…

                “Hyung? Are you listening? What do you think of the plan? I know Jonghyun hyung doesn’t seem like the gay type, but you can’t judge a book by its cover, right?” Taemin wrapped both of his arms around one of mine and looked up at me hopefully.

                I felt my face heat up and I looked away from his brilliant eyes before I did anything foolish. “B-but…,” I stammered. “What if Jonghyun hyung does confess and Key doesn’t feel the same way? It could ruin their friendship… Couldn’t it?”

                Taemin’s hopeful expression fell as he considered this. He rested his cheek against the top of his giant teddy bear and bit his lip. “But what if Key hyung does feel the same way? It’s harder to tell with him because we haven’t known him as long, but I really think he might… But… Which one is better? For them to be friends and never confess their feelings…or for them to take a chance and risk confessing? If Key hyung doesn’t feel the same way… At least Jonghyun hyung got the weight off his chest, right? And Key hyung is too nice to break off their friendship just because he doesn’t feel the same way.”

                “You really think so? They can still be friends even if Key hyung doesn’t reciprocate the feelings?”

                Taemin nodded. “Of course. A true friend would never leave because of something like that, hyung. And Key and Jonghyun hyung are definitely true friends. I can see it.”

                “So this plan might actually work…”

                “If Jonghyun hyung is brave enough, it will.”

                “Well…we’ll have to wait and see.”

                Taemin’s voice pulled me from my reverie.

                “Hyung! Do you ever listen to me?”

                I looked over to see him pouting with his chin resting on his knees. I ran my hand quickly through his hair and smiled at him.

                “I’m sorry. I was just…thinking.”

                Taemin rested his head on my shoulder and played with the sleeve of my jacket. “About what?”

                “Your evil little plan… I wonder if anything happened between those two…”

                Taemin sighed and moved closer to me, wrapping his arms around mine. I blushed as his breath spilled across my neck. “I hope so,” he whispered. “I don’t want Jonghyun hyung to keep it inside anymore.”

                I pondered his words as I rested my cheek against the top of his head.

                “A true friend would never leave because of something like that, hyung.”

                Taemin and I were true friends. I was sure of it. So if I confessed and he didn’t feel the same way…he would still stay by my side? I didn’t want to keep it inside anymore, either. Taemin had a right to know how I felt, and there were days when the weight of it pressed on my shoulders so relentlessly that I almost told him.

                I took a deep breath. He’ll still be here, Minho. He’ll always be here, no matter what. He’s your best friend. He’s not going to leave. Just tell him how you feel… He’ll understand. He’ll understand.

                I felt the weight begin to lessen as I took his hand in mine.

                “Taemin-ah… I have something I want to tell you…”

                I glanced down at him and my heart sank as I noticed his closed eyes and rhythmic breathing. He was asleep. I smiled and tried to move without waking him. His fingers tightened around mine as I tried to pull my hand away.

                “Minho hyung…,” he mumbled softly, pulling on my hand. “Don’t go…”

                My heart skipped a beat and I felt my face turn red. Didn’t he know what he did to me when he said things like that? I sat back down and placed his head in my lap. He sighed contentedly and laced his fingers through mine before once again falling into a deep sleep.

                Key’s POV

                The heat in the room was stifling. I rubbed the back of my hand across my eyes and yawned. I felt a slight pressure on the top of my head, and I turned slightly to see Jonghyun’s head resting on mine. Why in the world was I asleep on Jonghyun’s couch? My eyes fell on the cold mug of hot chocolate resting on the coffee table, and the images came flooding back.

                Taemin, Onew, and Minho all suddenly leaving the party.

                The snowball fight on the front lawn.

                The way I had almost kissed Jonghyun when we fell in the snow.

                I remembered coming back inside and drinking hot chocolate. I remembered sitting on the couch as the radiating heat had slowly lulled me to sleep. After that, the memory became fuzzy, like a picture that wasn’t entirely in focus. I thought I remembered Jonghyun kissing me on the forehead, but I couldn’t determine if it had been a dream or reality. I shook my head and sat up. Of course it had been a dream. Jonghyun would never do something like that.

                As I sat up, Jonghyun’s head slipped of off mine and he tipped over. His eyes snapped open in surprise. He tried to use his hands to push himself upright, but his hand missed the couch and he tumbled to the floor. I laughed loudly as he sat up and glanced around wildly. His hair was an adorable mess, and he obviously had no idea what was going on. His eyes widened when they fell on me, and I grinned and waved at him.

                “Key…? What…what are you doing here?” His eyebrows lowered in confusion and then shot up when he began to remember. His face turned bright red and he reached up to touch his lips ever so slightly.

                I mentally cursed myself. He remembered the incident in the snow, and he was surely freaked out by it. I had known from the instant I met him that he was the playboy type; the one who had girls falling all over him wherever he went, and who didn’t mind in the least. I could tell that my presence completely threw him off. He wasn’t used to being friends with someone so outgoing and openly gay. I had always had a very strange personality. I wasn’t afraid to speak my mind, and I rarely cared what people thought of me. My fashion sense was undoubtedly superior to anyone’s I knew, but, it was different. And for most people, different meant wrong. I was accustomed to people being instinctively wary of me. I was too open, too strange. As a result, I hadn’t had a friend in years. After only a week, I considered Jonghyun the best friend I had ever had in my life. I could tell from his blushes and stutters that my personality threw him off a bit, and I tried my best to tone it down so he wouldn’t turn away.

                But I had failed miserably. My attitude was so thoroughly ingrained in my behavior that it was difficult to change. I thought for a time that Jonghyun was beginning to get used to it; that he would always be there no matter what. Now I knew that I was wrong. I had screwed up. I still wasn’t sure what part of me had caused me to bring my lips so close to his, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t tell if Jonghyun was the homophobic type, but he certainly wasn’t used to having a gay guy try to kiss him. I knew what would happen now. He would become even more awkward around me. He would avoid my gaze and my words. After a while, we would slowly grow apart until we never spoke. Then we would graduate, and I would never see him again. I pushed down the pain that surfaced at the thought.

                God, Key. Why can’t you do anything right?

                I rubbed my eyes in frustration.

                “Are you all right?”

                Jonghyun’s voice made me jump in surprise. He glanced at me curiously.

                “Um. Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” I mumbled.

                He nodded slightly and looked away. I sighed. And so it begins.

                I glanced at the large clock hanging above the fireplace. 9:55. My parents would be home. Panic turned my blood to ice as I remembered my father’s warning. He would know that I was gone. How could I have been so stupid? I had only planned on staying for a few hours. I knew from past holidays that my parents would be out until about nine, when they usually hit their max and were kicked out of any bar they tried to get into. They would be home. And they would be furious. My hands began to shake.

                Damn it, Key. Get a hold of yourself. You’ve been through this before.

                I took a deep breath. If it got too bad, I could always call someone to take me to the hospital. I couldn’t risk calling 911. Ambulances always drew too much attention.

                “Jonghyun. I… I need to go home now.”

                He nodded. “Okay.” He stood up and headed for the front door. He avoided my eyes the entire time. I ran my hand through my hair. I had really screwed up.

                The drive back to my house was a quiet one. I watched the snowflakes drift past the window, wishing I could be as free as they were. They went wherever the wind carried them and didn’t care about where they landed. Once they found their place, they were surrounded by others who understood their situation, yet they were each unique. And that was okay.

                My heart pounded as the car came to a stop. I glanced out the window and my eyes widened. My parents’ car wasn’t in the driveway. They weren’t here. I let out a sigh of relief and rested my head against the headrest. I was safe.

                “Key…,” Jonghyun glanced down at the steering wheel. “Is…everything okay?”

                The tone of his voice surprised me. He sounded so…worried. I laughed lightly.

                “Everything is fine.” I cringed at how easily I was able to lie.

                His fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “Are you sure? You…you know that…you can tell me, right? If something is wrong…”

                I closed my eyes. Was he trying to salvage the friendship? I knew it was futile. Tomorrow he would act like we had just met. I had ruined the chance of us having a true friendship.

                “I know, Jonghyun. But everything’s all right. Okay?”

                He closed his eyes and sighed. “Okay. I’ll…see you later.”

                I hesitated slightly before I opened the door. “Yeah… See you later…”

                The cold air stung my eyes as I walked up the steps to the porch. I told myself that it was the wind that made the tears roll down my face. But when it came to convincing myself, I was a terrible liar.

                Jonghyun’s POV

                I had screwed up. Big time.

                Key undoubtedly remembered the kiss I had given him, and I knew he was thrown off by it. I was too embarrassed to even look him in the eye, and he was acting strange.

                “I know, Jonghyun. But everything’s all right. Okay?”

                He had sounded so cold and harsh, like the bitter wind that whipped around my car as I sat in his driveway. I had no idea what my feelings were toward him, but he obviously held nothing even remotely close. I knew he was gay; that much was obvious. But I was one of his closest friends. If he began to think that I was gay for him, he would immediately turn away. We’re friends. Nothing more. And I’m not gay. He must be confused from all the strange signals I’m sending. Hell, even I’m confused.

                Just focus, Jonghyun. Tone it down a little. You know you act weird around him because he’s so unique. But you’ll get used to it eventually. Just work on it. Don’t talk to him so much. Listen to him when he’s talking and focus on what he’s saying without acting like a moron. Don’t stare at him. Don’t stutter. Learn to keep your composure. Then he won’t get the wrong message.

                I had to learn to push down that strange part of my brain that made me want to kiss him. It was irrational, confusing. It would push him away from me. On top of it all, I knew I wanted to remain friends with him. I didn’t want to lose him over something like this.

                I put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway. I focused on the road, wishing that my thoughts were as simple.

                Focus. Focus. It’s not that hard to do. You don’t want Key to leave, do you?

                I shook my head. Key was my best friend. After only a week, I had been able to determine that. I couldn’t let my stupid mistakes ruin everything we had. I would try my best. I would make things right. For him, I would do anything.

      Sorry it's been so long! *tears*  I've been really swamped with...well...everything. -_-  School...work...health issues. Geh. I'm trying my best, though! I'm not as happy with this chapter as I wanted to be, so I'm going to update again really really soon. Either later today or tomorrow, hopefully. I couldn't include all the things in this chapter that I wanted to because it would have been too long... so the next one will be better. ^;^  Poor Key and Jjong. They're both so confused. Sigh. I frustrate myself. And Minho's confession shall come... in due time. ^;^ I hope you're not too disappointed~  And I hope you all had a wonderful New Year! I love love love you all~ ! You make me very happy. ^;^  <3 <3  Let me know what you think! <3 Komapsumnida~!!