Taemin slowly lifted his heavy eyelids. He blinked the blurriness out of his eyes and squinted. His mind slowly tried to piece together where he was and how he got there. All he saw was a plain, white ceiling with bright, fluorescent lights. He tried to sit up and instantly regretted it.  His head throbbed with pain. "Ahh" he hissed and rubbed his forehead with his hand. 

"Just lay down, hun." he recognized Key's voice, but kept his eyes squeezed shut. His voice was warm and comforting, and Taemin obeyed and layed back down. 

"What happend?" he asked finally opening his eyes. He heard the door open and saw the rest of his new friends shuffle into the room quietly. Micha and Jinki looked hopeful, Jonghyun looked like he had just received a shock, and Minho looked plain scared. Taemin still couldn't remember what had happened and the look on Minho's face started to worry him.  

"Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital. How do you feel? What hurts? Do you need anything? Are you hungry?" Key said anxiously. 

Taemin laughed. "What are you, my umma?"

"You could say that. You need someone to take care of you. Umma was very worried about you, Taemin." Key said, fussing with Taemin's blankets.

"What happened?" Jinki asked. Key noticed them for the first time since they moved into the room. 

"Oh, they said that he was in the Gym, practicing his dancing." Taemin remembered it as Key told the others.

"Taemin!"

He was up in the balcony of the Gym, trying to get a difficult move down. A few of his classmates were down on the ground level just shooting hoops and goofing off. They kept distracting him to show him something funny but it didn't Taemin. They were just having fun. He was just about to step off again when one of them called from the floor below. Taemin walked to the side and looked over. "Catch!" they threw a basketball up and it hovered in the air for a split second, a few inches too far for his fingers to reach. Without thinking, Taemin jumped for it and ended up losing his balance. He felt a plumeting feeling in his stomach as he fell over the edge, but everything seemed to go black by the time he reached the ground below.

"Luckily there were some wrestling mats there to break your fall.  You did break your left leg though." Key explained. Taemin sat straight up, and this time he ignored the throbbing pain.

"What about dancing?!" he asked in horror.

"Shhh I know, sweetie. Just relax for right now." Key said soothingly, pushing him back down and fluffing his pillows. Taemin pouted for a minute, thinking of all the practice time he would lose. Then he looked skeptically at Key, who was now fussing with his blankets. 

"Ok umma." he joked.

"If he is umma then who is appa?" Minho asked, continuing the joke to take Taemin's mind off dancing.

"Jinki!" Taemin said.

"And what does that make me?" Minho asked.

Key excitedly joined in. "Grandpa. And Micha is the grandma."

"Yah, how did I suddenly become so old?" she asked. Jonghyun snickered at this. Micha looked at him, pouting with her eyebrows scrunched up. "You're laughing at me? Fine, then you're the annoying, snotty teenager!" she pushed him playfully. Everyone was starting to laugh now.

"So what am I?" Taemin asked. There was a short pause before everyone answered in unison:

"The baby!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that week, students were slowly milling into Anatomy 111. Jinki walked in early and headed for a table toward the back where he, Micha, and Minho had been sitting together for the past couple of weeks. He had only signed up for this class to fill science requirements, but ever since he found out that Micha had the same class, he looked forward to it every time. Minho, however, was not having the same effect on him. Jinki couldn’t help but notice how Micha got excited every time Minho walked into the room and how she always wanted Minho’s attention. At the same time, though, Jinki found it hard to hate Minho.

He is a really nice guy, always helping people. It definitely looks like she has fallen for him…Jinki thought, somewhat dejected.Yah! I can’t just accept defeat! I can win her over somehow. He may be tall, dark, and handsome and really smooth and really considerate, but I have… I can… damn, where was I going with this?

Micha walked in the room, and he instantly lost his train of thought. She was wearing an airy, cream-colored dress with pale pink and blue flowers. A matching cream headband sat on top of a cascade of full, chocolate brown curls. She seemed to float gracefully over to him.

“Hey Jinki, Minho’s not here yet?” she asked. Great, she’s thinking about him already. Quick, entertain her. Make her laugh. Yeah, that’s what you’re good at. He started to tell her a funny story.

When Minho walked into class he saw Jinki talking animatedly to Micha, who was giggling. He loved it when she giggled. Each time he saw her, he became more enchanted. He loved how lively she was, and her straightforward personality seemed to offset his shyness. If things keep going well between us, I might just ask her out on a date.

He walked over and they all greeted each other. Minho started small talking with Micha, but Jinki interrupted, wanting to finish the story he was telling. Throughout their conversation, every time Minho opened his mouth to talk, Jinki would interrupt him. Minho started to get irritated. Is he doing this on purpose?

Then, Micha felt the back of her dress and said,

“Oh! I think my bow is coming undone. Will you retie it for me, Minho?” she gave him puppy eyes. Before Minho could set down his books, though, Jinki jumped in.

“I’ll get it for you!” he said, taking the ribbons in his hands. Wow, he’s acting strange. Minho thought. He noticed Jinki’s hands shaking while he tied her bow. He looked from Jinki to Micha and back again, a smirk forming on his face. Omo. He likes her! What is he doing, competing for her attention? Well, challenge accepted Jinki! Minho picked that moment to let her know that he had brought her something.

“Micha, I have a late birthday present for you. I know you told us not to get you anything, but I saw this in the store and thought of you.” She opened the black box he handed her. Inside was a headband with two connected bands lined with diamonds and a flat, shiny soccer ball toward the side.

“Ohh, this is so cute! You shouldn’t have!” Micha said, hugging Minho. He resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at Jinki, who was shooting him an angry glare. This made him angry, so I must be right. He’s competing for her attention.

Then the teacher started the class, hindering the small feud that was now developing between the two boys.

“…so today should be fun. We are going to do a few little exercises that will test each of your five senses. Instruction packets and supplies are up front here and I’ll be walking around to help. Now, this was meant for pairs of two, but we have an odd number of students so there can be one group of three. Have fun!”   

Both Minho and Jinki immediately said, “I’ll be your partner, Micha!” then glared at each other.

“Whoa, guys. We can be the group of three, duh.” She laughed. Jinki laughed awkwardly and went to get the instructions.

“It says here, for the hearing exercise, that one person sits with their eyes closed while the other claps in various places around them and they try to tell what direction the sound came from. Apparently, it is hard to judge where sounds originate. So, who wants to be the listener?” Jinki said. Micha raised her hand excitedly.

“Alright, and since there’s three of us Minho and I can just take turns clapping.” Jinki said. Micha pulled her chair away from the desk and sat down, closing her eyes. Minho stood behind her, Jinki in front of her.

“Ready!” she said. Minho clapped directly behind her, and she pointed behind her saying “That way.” Jinki clapped down low, near her left foot. She pointed down. She did well at first, but as they went on she became confused.

“Let’s see if this one is easier.” Miho said and clapped right next to her ear, making her jump.

“Yah, Minho!” she tried to push him playfully with her eyes still closed. They were both giggling. Trying to be cute, huh? Well two can play at that game. Jinki thought. He leaned forward, attempting to clap close to her other ear. He stumbled clumsily, though, tripping over her feet and landing in her lap. He put his hands on either side of the chair to break his fall. She gasped and opened her eyes. His arms were around her and their faces were very close.

“Jinki, you’re so clumsy!” she laughed, putting a hand on his chest.

“Here, let me help you hyung.” Minho said through gritted teeth as he yanked Jinki up by his collar. Minho released him and Jinki laughed nervously.

“Uh, let’s do the touch test now.” Jinki said, changing the subject. Micha picked up the directions.

“It says to test your partner’s sense of touch by poking them with toothpicks. Haha, this sounds funny. While their eyes are closed, use varying degrees of pressure from normal to as light as possible and see if they can still feel it. We are supposed to poke the fingertips, forearms, neck, and lips. I want my touch tested first! Who wants to test me?” Micha said excitedly, still sitting in her chair.

“I will.” Minho said at once, grabbing a toothpick and pulling up a chair to sit close to her. Too close, in Jinki’s opinion.

“I’ll record the results this time, then. Minho can get tested next, then me.” Jinki said. Micha closed her eyes and turned her arms over, giving access to her fingertips and forearms. Minho proceeded to poke her gently with the toothpick, leaning closer to her with every trial. When he got to her lips, she giggled and blushed.

“That tickles, oppa.” Jinki was clenching his fists in anger. The pencil in his hand snapped.

“Ok, your turn Minho. I’ll do it.” Jinki said interrupting them and taking a toothpick. Minho looked slightly surprised but closed his eyes and turned his arms over. Jinki, still angry, practically stabbed Minho in the finger.

“Ah! What was that, Jinki?” Minho said grabbing his hand in pain. Just then, the teacher walked by and asked them how they were doing. Micha told him they were doing great and he walked off to another group. Jinki passed the stabbing off as an accident, blaming his clumsiness. The rest of the experiments passed in this manner, with Minho and Jinki silently fighting over Micha. She noticed their odd behavior, but did could not imagine why they were acting this way…

Micha left the class first and the two boys were the only two left. They packed up their stuff in silence, having become quite irritated with each other at this point. As they walked out the door, Jinki rammed his shoulder into Minho.

“Yah! I’m not buying your excuse of being clumsy anymore! What’s your problem?” Minho started to yell.

“Ok fine, I like her! And I don’t enjoy watching the two of you get all close and flirting!” Jinki said.

“What about you, ‘accidently’ falling on top of her?” Minho said sarcastically.

“Yah, that was an accident!” they started to yell things all at once, no longer listening to each other. Then Jinki waved his arms, trying to stop it.Why am I fighting with him? If it weren't for Micha, we would probably be best friends.

“Whoa, whoa. I don’t really want to fight with you, Minho. This is silly…She’s eventually going to pick one of us. Let’s just agree to fight fair until then and when she does pick, let’s try to let it go and stay friends. What do you say?” Jinki proposed. Minho considered him for a moment.

“Deal.” He said, reaching out a hand. Jinki shook it.

“It’s good to know that you won’t hold a grudge against me when she picks me.” Minho added smugly and started to walk away.

“Y-yah! Don’t be so sure!” Jinki called, starting down the hall after him, then sighed. Who am I kidding? If I were Micha, I would pick him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey, Krys here again. 

I really had fun with this chapter. What do you think of it?

Poor Jinki, though, no confidence in himself...