The moment they all stepped onto the porch, shielded by the sunroof, the storm finally hit. Kibum quickly opened the front door as loud booms filled the air and lightening lit up the sky. The rain was coming down so hard that he couldn’t even make out these trees in front of the house. Once inside, he shut and locked the door, reaching over to turn on the foyer lights. All three of them were soaked to the bone, rain water dripping onto the floor. If Heechul had been home, he would have thrown a fit to see his ornate rug getting wet. Donghae walked over to the hall closet and pulled out three towels, tossing one to Kibum and Key who took it gratefully.

“Come here to the bathroom, Key, so I can look at your arm,” Donghae said, beckoning the new boy over. It had been quite surprising when he found out that Kibum knew this kid; he hadn’t been aware that his brother actually had any friends. More so, when they saw that Key had been hurt Kibum instantly invited him over, and Donghae was dying to get the inside story behind the two. Kibum was so shy and introverted, it was curious that he was open with this boy.

“I’m okay, really. It doesn’t even hurt that much,” Key assured Donghae as his hand was stuck under the faucet of the sink. The white marble bowl was streaking with dark, red blood that was turning pink in the water. The cut itself was on the palm of his hand stretching across but it didn’t look too deep, so Donghae wasn’t worried that Key would need to go get stitches or anything; leaving the house in the storm was out of the question.

“Alright, I’ll just put some ointment on it before the bandage,” Donghae said, turning off the water. He reached over the sink and pulled out a band-aid from the cabinet, handing it over to Key who peeled the wrapping off and carefully applied it to his palm.

“Thanks, Donghae,” Key said with a smile, brushing a wet strand of hair out of his face.

“Well, it looks like you’re stuck here until the storm is over. I’ll get you some dry clothes, hold on,” Donghae said, leaving the bathroom and heading to his bedroom. While he searched for some clothes, Kibum walked over to Key and gave him a small smile. It was sort of exciting to have Key over, almost like they were friends hanging out. But he knew that they weren’t at a friendship stage yet, but acquaintances.

“Sorry about this. You probably had other plans or something,” Kibum apologized. He knew that Key wasn’t like he used to be, alone. Key was the exact opposite, with a big personality and friends, not to mention a boyfriend. While whatever Key was going through at home, Kibum knew that he wasn’t going through it alone.

“Nah, it’s cool,” Key replied with a shrug. He glanced around the house curiously; it was a nice house but it wasn’t anything compared to where he lived. Donghae appeared from the hallway with some clothes in his hands, having changed into dry ones himself.

“Here you go, Key. You can use the bathroom,” He said, handing them over to the guest. Key thanked him and disappeared into the bathroom. Once the door closed, Donghae turned back to Kibum. “You should go change too; I don’t want you getting sick or anything.”

Kibum nodded and turned to head upstairs to his room. He flipped on the lights and stripped his wet clothes off and pulled out a pair of sweat pants and a black t-shirt out of his dresser. Instead of going back down stairs after getting dressed he sat on the edge of his bed and sighed softly. Although this week hadn’t been the best when considering family bonds, he really missed Heechul already; and he hadn’t even been gone for two hours. After talking with Donghae, Kibum wanted to make things better with Heechul. It wasn’t that things were bad between them, it was just like Donghae’d said; he’d been distant to them all week. He just wanted Heechul to be there so they could spend time together and talk about stuff like normal. But he knew that it was useless to think about that; Heechul wouldn’t be home for three more days. So instead, Kibum headed back downstairs to have a good time with Donghae and Key.

When he stepped into the living room, Kibum saw the two sitting on the couch talking animatedly together. For some reason, when he saw them chatting as if they were old friends some strange feeling moved inside of him. It almost touched jealousy, but not quite that emotion. But Kibum pushed it aside and went over to sit next to his brother, giving Donghae a smile.

“What are we doing?” He asked, hoping to get into the conversation. But it seemed that it’d ended as soon as he walked into the room, because both Donghae and Key’s expressions changed, as if they’d been talking about him or something.

“Oh, we were about to put on one of the movies. Do you want to go make popcorn and get drinks?” Donghae said, although it wasn’t a question. Kibum nodded and left to the kitchen where he’d put the bag of snacks they’d bought. He opened the box of popcorn and placed it in the microwave for two minutes before taking out three glasses from the cabinet and filling them with ice. He could hear the two talking once again, but when he strained to hear them it was blocked by the noise of the microwave. Sighing softly, he leaned against the counter and waited for the microwave to beep before getting out a bowl to dump the piping hot snack into.

“Here, Hae, take these before I drop them,” Kibum said, walking into the living room with three glasses in one arm, three cans of soda in the other, and the bowl of popcorn in his hands. Donghae quickly grabbed the glasses and set them on the table before they slipped out of Kibum’s arms.

“So we decided that Key’s going to spend the night here since the storm doesn’t seem like it’s going to end any time soon,” Donghae informed his brother with a grin.

“I hope you don’t mind. I don’t really want to go home anyways. My dad goes out with his work friends on Friday’s and comes home really drunk and it scares me,” Key said, smiling softly. The way he put his business out there in front of Donghae struck Kibum as odd, but he couldn’t really say anything because Key had told him about his family problems and they didn’t really know each other. He must connect with Donghae better. Probably because Hae is more open and friendly than I am, he thought, sitting next to his brother.

“I’ll turn the lights off and press play,” Donghae said, standing up to get the lights. Once the room was dark and the movie started, the three dug into the snacks and began to watch intently, their attention captured by the film.

As the movie progressed, Kibum unconsciously moved closer to his brother. The movie was turning out to be scarier than he’d thought, and horror movies were his least favorite. He hated the suspense that always made his heart race with anxiety; it almost felt suffocation and these sorts of movies always gave him nightmares. When a bad part came, screaming and howls of terror shrieking in their ears and the room lightening up as the scene progressed Kibum buried his head in Donghae’s shoulder and grabbed his hand fearfully. But amongst the frightening sounds coming from the television, Kibum vaguely heard Key chuckle. Feeling embarrassed, he moved away from Donghae, but kept his eyes closed until the scene changed.

Trying to ignore the movie, Kibum began to debate whether or not he should just leave and go to his room. At least he would have a peaceful mind and relax while reading a book. But before his decision could be made, he glanced at the television at just the wrong moment. There was a little girl there, playing down by the river happily and all of a sudden the monster came up behind her and chopped her head off, blood splattering everywhere. At that moment, Kibum paled and his heart stopped. And with a sudden flash of lightening from the window and a roaring boom of thunder that shook the house, the screen went blank as the power out. Everything was completely silent except for the raging storm outside, until Donghae finally spoke.

“Kibum, are you…” He spoke softly, but stopped because he didn’t know what to say. Kibum closed his eyes and bit the inside of his lip; his entire body felt numb except for his wildly beating heart.

“What? Does seeing that stuff freak you out because you found your sister dead and all gory?” Key asked bluntly.

“Key!” Donghae said incredulously.

“What? I was just asking!” Key replied innocently.

Kibum narrowed his eyes at him and quickly left the room. He carefully made his way up the stairs, the entire house pitch black, and shut the door behind him as he entered his room. Just as he did so, the lights flickered back on. He crawled under his blankets and curled up in a ball, clenching his eyes shut as he tried to block out any pictures in his mind. He didn’t want to remember any of that, not after he’d worked so hard to move away from all that drama. If he started having nightmares about Dayeun again because of that movie, and his nightmares lasted for weeks, Donghae was going to be in so much trouble with Heechul. But Kibum couldn’t blame his brother for this, he should’ve known better than to willingly watch scary movies when he got so easily anxious about things.

After about ten minutes he began to calm down, but he wasn’t planning on going back downstairs. It felt awkward to have Key around and it made him feel a little uncomfortable; especially since Key had smirked at him for being scared. But he wasn’t going to say anything because he’d feel really guilty if he offended Key and made him want to leave. Knowing that Key didn’t have a good home life, Kibum was ready to up any bad feelings and let the boy come over whenever he wanted to. Besides, he and Donghae seem to be getting along great. That’s just what Hae needs too, a friend, he thought; but thinking that, the strange feeling washed over him once again. However, it went away when there was a knock on the door and Donghae stepped inside.

“Hey, are you okay? I’m really sorry, I didn’t know that it was going to be one of those blood and gore movies,” He apologized worriedly, walking over to his brother.

“It’s okay,” Kibum replied quietly, taking Donghae’s hand as he sat on the edge of the bed. Donghae looked at him sympathetically and gave his hand a squeeze.

“I really am sorry; I know that stuff bothers you. But we’re going to put in a different movie, not a scary one, if you want to come back down,” Donghae offered, hoping that Kibum would agree to come back down. He didn’t want his brother to stay up in his room all alone, especially after what’d just happened. He knew Kibum, and if he wasn’t distracted then he was going to keep thinking about it and end up becoming an emotional mess, and quite frankly Donghae wasn’t sure he’d be able to help if that happened. Unfortunately Kibum shook his head no, much to Donghae’s displeasure.

“No, I want to stay up here. You go have fun with Key,” Kibum denied.

“Are you sure? I want to spend time with you too,” Donghae replied with a frown. Kibum nodded and smiled softly up at him.

“We have all the time in the world to do that. Go and hang out with Key, I can tell you two get along,” He said, and Donghae smiled widely.

“Yeah, I like him; he’s really cool and funny. Alright, but come down if you get bored, okay?” Donghae replied. Kibum nodded and Donghae leaned over to kiss his cheek before leaving, closing the door behind him.

For the rest of the night, Kibum stayed up in his room and stared at the ceiling. He listened to the storm outside and the wind blowing harshly against his window, and his mind was just completely blank. But all that was processed was the sounds of laughter that drifted from downstairs and until the moment he fell asleep a few hours later, that strange emotion lingered around. And Kibum didn’t like that feeling, he didn’t like it one bit.

Daww, Kibummie's jealous! Isn't that so cute?

Double update, double comments! Woo!