You arrived at home just as your parents were making their morning coffee.

“________, where were you at”, your father asked.

“I went for a walk with our new neighbors’ son. He’s my age and we were just hanging out.”

Your mom nudged your father in the side and winked. You just rolled your eyes. As you went up the stairs to get dressed, you heard your mother yell up while laughing,

“Why are you cheating on Taemin?”

You went to your room and sat on your bed and grabbed your cell phone out, checking for any missed texts. You got one from Taemin. It said,

“Good morning!! Did you have fun yesterday at the park? I know I did!! We should meet up later at our usual spot for lunch. Text me if you can come.”

Lunch with Taemin did sound nice and it would give you a chance to ask him what happened between him and Kevin at the park last night. You texted back,

“Sure, I can come. 12 sound okay?”

A few minutes later,

“Yeah, 12 sounds great. See you there!”

Your usual spot was a small restaurant about 5 minutes from your house. You closed your phone, made your bed, and got dressed before heading down for breakfast.

“So how is everything at school”, your mother asked.

“It’s good. I have A’s in all my classes so far”, you said in between bites of pancake.

“That’s good. So tell us about this new boy you met.”

You should’ve known this would come.

“His name is Kevin and he just moved in next door to us. He goes to my school and he also went to the amusement park with Taemin and me yesterday.”

“Sounds like you guys had fun yesterday.”

“Neh, we did!! It was an exhausting day too. I even rode the Ferris wheel.”

Your parents both looked at you in shock.

“I know, me, bad with heights. Taemin and I had a deal because I invited Kevin and it was just supposed to be our day together so if he let Kevin come along, I had to ride the Ferris wheel. It was really scary, but Kevin comforted me. It was nice.”

“Sounds like Kevin has a little crush on you”, your mom said smirking.

“No, he’s just nice that’s all, although, I think while I was in the bathroom before we left, he and Taemin got into an argument of some kind.”

“Oh no, that doesn’t sound good. Must’ve been pretty important to argue with someone you just met”, your father said glancing over at your mom.

“I know what you guys are getting at. They were so not arguing over me. Maybe they just don’t like each other that’s all.”

You finished your breakfast quickly and put your dishes in the dishwasher.

“I’m going over to Taemin’s for the day. I’ll be back this afternoon.”

“Okay honey. See you later.”

It’s so boring to stay at home because your parents run a business so they are always doing paperwork or other financial things so on weekends you always go over to Taemin’s house. Even though it’s like your second home, you knock before you come in because you just like being polite.

Knock knock

A few seconds later, a young 15 year old girl with short black hair answered the door. It was Taemin’s little sister, Aly.

“Unnie!! Taemin’s up in his room still sleeping. You’ll have to wake him up.”

“Okay. Thanks Aly.”

You climbed the stairs to the second floor and opened Taemin’s bedroom door. Just as his sister said, Taemin was fast asleep on his bed. You quietly closed the door and stood over his bed. His face looked so innocent and cute while he was deep in dreamland, but it was even funnier to wake him.

You leaned down next to his head and whispered in his ear, “Oppa wake up.”

No response. He didn’t even move, so you said the same thing, but a little louder.

“________ stop that”, he said, clearly still asleep.

Was he dreaming about you? You put a hand over your mouth to muffle your giggles. You stood over his face and put your nose against his and started poking his cheek and saying, “Taemin, wake up.”

Just then, his arm came swooping down and clamped around your back while his body rolled so that you were now lying on the bed with him on top of you. You squirmed underneath him, trying to break free. You were desperately trying to get free when you didn’t notice Aly come in until you heard her scream and run down the stairs. Her screaming finally woke Taemin up, who just looked down at you with sleepy, but wide eyes.

“Please get off of me.”

Slowly he rolled out of bed and just looked at you. You were embarrassed and blushing.

“I was trying to wake you up and you grabbed me and rolled over on me.”

Taemin was still trying to wake up and process what just happened.

“I’m going to go see if your sister is okay. She probably is scarred for life by what she “thinks” she saw.”

You walked back downstairs and found Taemin’s little sister in their family room playing a song on the piano.

“Aly, are you okay?”

She turned around and looked at you.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just scared the crap out of me though. I always knew it would happen between you two.”

“No, it wasn’t like that. Taemin just…

“Save it. I know nothing happened. I kind of figured you needed my help waking him up so that’s why I screamed”, she said laughing.

“Oh that’s a relief.”

“I’m 15 years old. Please. I hear about this kind of stuff from my classmates all day long. It’s nothing new. Just make sure if you’re going to do it with my brother, it’s at your own house.”

You were shocked by what was coming out of Taemin’s sister’s innocent mouth.

“Well, that will never happen. Besides, we’re too young anyway.”

“Not according to Taemin you’re not. That’s all he talks about.”

Just then Taemin came rushing in and clamped a hand over his sister’s mouth.

“Sisters. They’re so much trouble. They say such erted things”, he said talking to you.

You start laughing. “Hey it’s okay. You’re a guy I get it. It’s not like I haven’t heard of guys doing this before.”

Taemin was clearly embarrassed of his sister talking about his “ual” habits. You were a little embarrassed for him too. You were too young to think about doing any of that stuff and like you said before, you only think of Taemin as an older brother.

It was about 11 o’clock so you guys decided to go for your lunch “date”. It wasn’t crowded in the restaurant and you guys managed to get a back booth. You ordered your food and while you were waiting for it to arrive, you decided to ask about the argument last night.

“So why were you and Kevin fighting last night at the amusement park?”

“How did you know we fought?”

“Kevin told me. He said you had a small disagreement.”

“Oh, that. Do you really want to know?”

“Yes, I’m dying to know. Just tell me.”

“He told me he was only being nice to you to get you to sleep with him and I told him to back off and leave you alone. I was only trying to protect you because that’s what friends do.”

“You’re lying. Kevin would never say that. He just wouldn’t.”

“Hey don’t believe me. I told you he was odd. Don’t trust him ________.”

“I’m going to go find out for myself.”

You went to leave, but Taemin grabbed your wrist and threw you back down on your seat.

“What is your problem lately”, you said yelling at him.

Everyone in the restaurant looked over at you.

“My problem?! He’s not my problem, he’s YOUR problem. I’m trying to protect you from a guy that only wants to be nice to you just so he can get you into his bed and you’re mad at me?!”

“I think you’re jealous. You’ve always been the only guy in my life and now that’s there’s another guy taking an interest in me, you feel like you have competition and now you’re acting like an . Well newsflash for you Taemin, I don’t need your sympathy and I don’t need you if you’re going to act this way.”

“After all I did for you over the past years!? If it wasn’t for me, you would have been bullied again and again.”

“Actually, I think it’s because of you that I’m bullied. Look, I’m done. If you want to stop acting like a jerk, you know where to find me.”

You ran out of the restaurant in tears and didn’t turn back to see if Taemin had followed you out. You ran all the way to the park and sat under a big maple tree and cried your eyes out. In four years, it was the first time you and Taemin ever fought and it was all because of Kevin.