“Who am I going to stay with while you’re gone, appa?” Taemin asked.

“Kim Key,” Onew replied solemnly. “Look, that’s him over there.” He pointed to an exceptionally beautiful boy wearing black sunglasses on the other side of the quad. “I think he’s a sophomore.”

“He looks so sad.”

“What? You think so? Listen, Taemin-ah, Key-ssi has everything he could possibly want. He does whatever he feels like doing. Girls are all over him all the time, heck, even guys are all over him. He’s rich, talented, and handsome. Why would someone like that be sad?”

“I don’t know, doesn’t he look like he needs someone to love?”

“Taemin-ah, nobody likes Key-ssi as a person. He’s rude, and he’s always pushing people around.” Taemin observed Key as he walked across the lawn, literally pushing people out of his path, only to be followed by stares of half shock, half admiration. “He’s the school’s token popular guy who doesn’t care about anyone but himself. I’m sorry you have to stay with him, Taemin-ah.”

“But what’s so bad about him?”

“Jinjja, Taemin-ah, it’s like I just explained. He really has no conscience, no sense of caring for anyone. I’m surprised you haven’t heard about him yet. Everyone knows him as Almighty Key because of his self-righteous attitude. Anyway Taemin-ah, I seriously tried to get Shin-sunsaengnim to let you stay with someone else, anyone else besides him, but he wouldn’t budge. I’m sorry. But about that. I think it’s best if you stay out of his way while you’re with him. Don’t bother him; he’s apparently got a really bad temper.”

“But appa—”

“Listen, Taemin-ah, Key-ssi’s temper has gotten him into trouble before, and it’s caused other people a lot of problems. There are tons of people at this school who would love to pick a fight with him because of that. I don’t want you to be one of those people.”

“I wouldn’t fight anyone ever,” Taemin pouted.

“I know, but if anything happened to you while you were with him, I would never forgive him. Taemin-ah, please, just do as I ask.”

“But appa, I want to make friends with him,” Taemin protested. Onew looked at him with a fatherly expression.

“And if anyone can do that, Taemin, it’s you. But I don’t want you getting hurt, okay? Just stay out of his way.”