Guys, read chapter 20 of Things I Never Knew I Wanted BEFORE reading this if you don't want spoilers!

You've been warned.

            When he didn’t have class, Taemin discovered that Key was all over the place all the time, which made it a whole lot harder to learn about him. He didn’t have specific habits like “go to the café every Friday at two” or “meet up with Ara after English.” He never did the same thing twice, besides going to classes. So Taemin settled on finding Key after his classes.

            Key had fashion marketing class every Tuesday morning, which happened to be right outside Taemin’s freshman seminar, and they ended at the same time, which was immensely useful to Taemin’s plot.

            About a week and a half before Taemin was supposed to move in with Key, he left his freshman seminar to find Key standing out in the hallway with a gaggle of girls around him.

            “Key-oppa,” they squealed, “come to coffee with us!” He smiled slyly, but Taemin recognized the glint of disdain in his eyes.

            “I can’t,” he said in a disgustingly sugary-sweet voice, which made all the girls sigh dreamily.

            “Oppa, are you meeting another girl? Are you in a relationship? Oppa is single, right?” the girls chimed.

            “That’s for me to know,” he said flirtatiously. The girls all made high pitched noises. After several days of following (not stalking) and learning about Key, Taemin knew he was, in fact, single. And if Taemin wasn’t mistaken, Key wasn’t interested in these girls, due to the fact that they were, well…female.

            Key donned his black sunglasses once again.

            “I’m leaving,” he said in a bored voice.

            “Oppa!” all the girls cried as they followed him out of the building as if he was the Pied Piper.

            This would be harder than Taemin thought. But he’d always liked challenges.

            He followed Key and his groupies into the library next door, where Key apologized dryly to the girls and ducked into the men’s restroom, where they couldn’t follow him. Predictably, they waited outside the door for him. Taemin smiled as he pushed past them into the restroom as well, and they were all momentarily stunned by the adorable boy who had passed them.

            Taemin entered in just enough time to see Key climb out the window. He laughed to himself. The guy was resourceful. Taemin turned around and walked outside of the restroom, where the girls seemed to be arguing about who would get to hold Key’s hand when he emerged. He shook his head as he left the library and saw Key walking across the quad to the dorms near the music building.

            That was where Taemin would be living soon enough. He might as well go see what it was like.

            He opened the door to the dorm cautiously. It looked nice enough, nothing like Onew’s dorm though. He didn’t see Key anywhere, so he figured he must have gone upstairs. He vaguely remembered Onew telling him that Key’s room was on the third floor. He followed a guy—whose jacket read “Super Stunning” on the back—up the stairs. The guy was reading something on his phone and didn’t notice when Key disappeared into the hallway marked “3” for the third level. But Taemin noticed.

            The guy in front of him opened the door Key had just gone through and Taemin let it close before he followed him in.

            “Damn it,” the guy said as Taemin reopened the door. “I missed a staircase again. I really have to start checking what floor I’m on,” he muttered to himself, walking past Taemin and going up another flight of stairs. Poor guy, Taemin thought.

            The third floor, Taemin’s future home, was nice. It was clean and had a big window at the end of the hallway that let in a nice amount of light. There were a few chairs at the end of the hallway, and Taemin sat there as he pondered how to best proceed with his plan.

            He wanted Key to get friends, but it seemed like Key was averse to any sort of social interaction. He wanted to be alone. Or perhaps it wasn’t that he really wanted to, he just thought he did, so he willfully stayed away from people.

For the first time ever, Taemin was stumped. He stood up quickly and turned around, trotting back downstairs to go back to his dorm. He’d think about this another day.

            Three days before he was supposed to move in with Key, Taemin had a lucky break. He happened to be in the library, skimming over some book while he waited for Onew to come pick him up so they could go out for Japanese food. Onew wasn’t due to arrive for another twenty minutes, so Taemin had time to spare. He wasn’t really reading his book at all. He preferred to watch the people going in and out of the library, and sometimes, he could hear snippets of conversations.

            He was particularly lucky to catch a certain one.

            “Kim Key?” Taemin heard someone say amusedly. He whipped his head around to see who was talking. A tall guy seemed to be laughing at the “Super Stunning” boy Taemin had seen in the stairwell several days before.

            “Kim Key?” he said again, laughing. “Jonghyun, you—”

            “Chansung-ah, not so loud,” the guy who was evidently called Jonghyun said, shushing his companion.

            “Jonghyun, he’s way out of your league,” Chansung said. “He’s out of everyone’s league. He’s in a league all to himself.”

            “I can’t help it,” Jonghyun replied, running his hand through his brown hair. “He’s so gorgeous, and I bet he has a good personality if you get to know him.”

            “Somehow I feel like that’s going to be impossible,” Chansung replied. “Like I said, he’s way too far up there for someone like you.”

            “God though, wouldn’t it be amazing if I could get to know him. I’m not even asking to date him, just to be his acquaintance. Someone whose name he knows, you know?”

            “Jonghyun, you’re delusional,” Chansung chuckled. “You and ‘Almighty Key?’ It’s not going to happen. Come on, let’s go to basketball practice. Maybe we’ll see your lover boy on the way.”

            Jonghyun elbowed Chansung in the ribs as they left the library. Taemin smiled to himself. Everything was falling into place. All that was left was for him to move in with Key and set his plan in action.

            Of course, he wasn’t going to leave it all up to fate. Taemin didn’t believe in fate anyway. Taemin believed in Taemin.

            Taemin got his plan ready. Counting on Jonghyun’s ability to miss a flight of stairs (which Taemin had gathered from his remark the day he’d first seen him), Taemin was going to exploit that and make it really easy for Jonghyun. He wrote a few notes on a piece of paper to make sure he knew what he was doing. Apparently, Jonghyun’s room was number 406, which was brilliant luck for Taemin because Key’s room was 306. And Taemin discovered, from a lot of staking out, that Jonghyun went to the gym early every morning, came back to his room to shower, and then went to class if he had it. He went onto the third floor accidentally almost every time he went back upstairs. It was as if nature wanted Taemin’s plan to work.

            Of course, it always seemed like that.

            He was able to make room number plates of 400s so that Jonghyun would think he was on the right floor, since they all looked identical. Hopefully, with enough luck, Jonghyun would find himself face to face with Key. If he could think of a way to keep them together for just a few minutes, he was sure that things would go smoothly. But he left that for when it happened.

            The day before he was supposed to go to Key’s, Taemin got sick.

            “Taemin, please try to take better care of your health when you’re with Key-ssi. I know you always get better, even when it’s really bad—you know, I don’t know how you do it; it’s like fate pays special attention to you or something—but anyway, I can’t guarantee that he’ll take care of you, so you’ll be on your own.”

            “Appa, I’m going to miss you,” Taemin said genuinely. He hadn’t been without Onew since the accident. Truthfully, he was scared that he would be lonely again with Key.

            Onew sat down on the bed next to Taemin. He reached into the drawer next to Taemin and pulled out a sheet of Keroro stickers, sticking one to Taemin’s forehead.

            “Taemin-ah, you’re going to be alright. You’re a strong kid, even if you do have frail health. I know you’ll overcome any obstacles that get in your way.”

            “Appa, that sounds really cheesy,” Taemin giggled. Onew smiled at him.

            “I know. I’m going to miss you too, Taeminnie.”

            They said their goodbyes when Onew dropped Taemin off the next day, leaving him with Shin-sunsaengnim to be brought to Key’s room.

            “Taemin, you know that after you get sick you’re really prone to asthma attacks, so don’t overexert yourself. Be good to Key-ssi, okay? And call me when you wake up tomorrow morning,” Onew said. He smiled and squeezed Taemin’s cheek, which prompted a small grin from Taemin as well. “I’ll be back in May.”

            “Bye, appa,” Taemin waved as Onew left him. Taemin suddenly felt a coldness, an emptiness. He wanted to run and grab Onew and keep him there forever, but he knew he couldn’t.

            “Appa!” he cried, tears suddenly spilling out of his eyes. He ran over to Onew and jumped into his arms, sobbing. “I’m going to miss you,” he bawled. Onew looked at him and started to cry as well.

            “Taemin, you’ll be okay,” he said, wiping the tears out of his eyes. “But I really have to go now. Call me first thing tomorrow. I love you.”

            “I love you too, appa,” Taemin sniffled. “H-have a good trip.”

            And with that, Onew was gone. His one and only Onew, his only friend, his only father figure, gone for longer than Taemin had ever been without someone to count on.

            Taemin was solemn, but as Shin brought him to Key’s dorm room, he remembered his plan. It was enough to distract him from missing Onew. 

A/N: GUYS FIFTY SOMETHING SUBSCRIBERS ALREADY? Y'all make me so happy. Thank you! Remember to read Things I Never Knew I Wanted~

@amykhau: Thank you~

@maedeh: It's not unrealistic, you'll see. He's not a devil nor an angel, he's just a human. I prefer not to make the text copyable but I'll change it soon if it helps you.

@AsianNoodles: Yeah, his story definitely needs to be told. 

@mynameissomeone: Well, you already know all the Taekey interactions from Things I Never Knew I Wanted so I don't think he's going to hit Taemin kekeke.

@naznew: Yes! I hope it works~

@heme-sanloveminho: Yeah, they're different and I really like that.

@AkiBrocoli: Wah, your first review? Thank youuuuu that means so much to me! Your English is fine~ Better than a lot of native speakers on here even!

♥ Exie