Kibum, alongside with Taemin, took the whole next day off to take a breath from everything and everyone so he could settle his thoughts a little. His heart, his brain and definitely his hair were in a complete mess after that night, and Key surely needed time to fix them first.

         That’s why he decided to chill for a day- to wake up late, eat some leftovers instead making breakfast, then jump back in bed and never get up again. Reading the book he couldn’t touch for a month and listening to the new music he wanted to check out for a while were the first lazy activities Kibum combined doing; yet his mind couldn’t help but drift away from the pages sometimes, flying back to the amazing feeling of his own lips brushing against that sleeping dork’s candy sweet ones. He kept catching his fingertips over his mouth and then moved them away furiously, feeling his cheeks heat up at the same time. After repeating this routine few more times, Kim Kibum finally realized something.

         He kissed Nam Jonghyun while he was sleeping.

         He actually gave his first kiss to him with no second doubt! Geez, he had the freaking courage to kiss a male for the first time in his entire life! And the worst was that Kibum thought of it as a waste, since that sleeping beauty was… well, sleeping, and he didn’t know if he’d have the guts to take the initiation once again.

         Kibum puffed his cheeks in a way that would make the Great Choi Minho admit defeat without even fighting and closed his book, because obviously he got too distracted by his own self.

         Hyun was perfect for him. He was fun to be with, always kind, caring and Key felt so safe, so right around him. He adored his laugh and it seemed like he was getting addicted to the contact with Nam Jonghyun’s skin. He enjoyed Hyun’s slightly colder fingers caressing him and loved being close enough to breathe his masculine scent into his lungs. Also Key got used to have him around so quickly that his absence made him a little bit uncomfortable right now. He suddenly remembered the disappointment he felt in the morning, waking up only to a half empty pillow under his head.

         Kibum let out a heavy sigh, then pushed his nose closer to his bed to check if Hyun’s perfume was still marked somewhere. But the silent crack of his door made him look up and come back to his senses.

“Key hyung, are you sleeping?” an insecure whisper asked, followed by Taemin’s head showing up in the door-frame.

“Tae? Uh… I’m awake.” Key said in a hurry as he got up, trying to look and sound as calm as he could. “What’s up?”

“Well… there’s someone who wants to see you, but I don’t know if you’d like to see him, too…” the younger started, looking a bit nervous. “But I’m just the messenger, don’t kill me please.”

“Who is it?” Kibum questioned grinning, since Taemin’s behavior was pretty amusing to him.

“Jonghyun hyung.” He replied simply, patiently waiting for a flying bullet, knife, or at least a pillow on his face but strangely, nothing made a contact with his body.

         It took a moment for Kibum to remind himself why would Jonghyun send Tae first if he wanted to talk. When he finally remembered the reason for Hyun’s visit last night, he was amazed by his ability to make him forget completely the fight he had with that smurf.

         He wasn’t angry. He didn’t even care that much anymore. The pain he felt, the pain he thought would never disappear, actually was mostly gone by now. But not because he wasn’t offended, nor because he could forgive Jonghyun’s cruel words easily… it was because Hyun somehow did his magic again and made him feel better.

“Let him in.” Key said calmly while he made himself comfortable in his bed.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, you can let him in.”

“But you won’t kill him, right? We still need him in the group.”

“Lee Taemin are you calling him or should I get up and do it instead?”

“Okay fine I’ll tell him! But don’t fight anymore, please. I hate seeing you two like that! Yesterday it felt like my own parents were arguing!”

“I don’t want to fight either, Tae. Don’t worry.”

“Fine then…” Taemin sighed, “Remember I’m always by your side, umma!” he blabbed right before closing the door again, making Kibum feel a tickling warmth inside his stomach. It was so sweet to hear those words after everything!

         Key couldn’t help but smile widely for a good minute until he heard his door opening once again, this time painfully slower than before. He could feel the heavy cloud of guilt flying around Jonghyun’s shoulders even without taking a glimpse at his somehow smaller looking frame. He decided to take his book again and opened a random page just to look at the words and not see any of them.

“Why do you want to talk with me?” he asked sharply, turning to the next page. “Did you leave something unsaid last night?”

“Ye-yes, I did.” Jonghyun answered with a small, cracking voice, standing in front of Kibum’s bed. His eyes were facing the floor and his trembling fingers were nervously playing with the bag he held behind his back.

“Oh really? You came to add something more to the priceless speech of yours?”

“I wasn’t able to say the words that matter the most then.” Jjong said, lifting his head up and met Key’s burning gaze. He already felt like dying, those angry stares were too much!

“I… I apologize, Kibum. For everything. For saying those things to you, for being a coward and not telling you I knew about your feelings, for each time I made you feel bad because of my stupid actions, even for not loving you back the way you do… or did, it doesn’t matter. I’m terribly sorry and I’m begging you to forgive me. It’s killing me to see you and the boys looking at me like that!”

“Well… at least you have the moral to admit you’re wrong.” Kibum said after a long moment of silence. “I appreciate that you finally saw the light and apologized. That doesn’t mean I’ll forgive and forget easily, though.” he continued and left his book on a side. “I’m curious about something, though. When did you get to know about it?”

“About… your feelings?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s say I was completely sure after the Shin Sekyung scandal.”

“And you never said anything?”

“What could I have said, Kibum? That would only affect our friendship badly like it actually did, yet I never wanted to lose a friend like you. I tried to make you lose hope though- those phone numbers I always asked you, for example, I swear I never used any of them.”

“You’re so stupid, hyung…” Key sighed, looking at the older as if he was a clueless kid. “You could have just reject me, you see. That way we both could have been over it