At school the next day, Taemin and Minho held hands for the first time in public. When they stepped into the building, everyone was staring at them. Many girls were screaming and were in tears since almost all of them had been with Minho before and thought that they might have had a chance with him, however, seeing he with Taemin meant it was no hope for them.

“Hyung, aren’t you afraid of being made fun by other people? I don’t mind if people make fun of me, but I don’t want you to get hurt along with me” Taemin was pouting and was looking scared at all the screaming and crying noonas.

“Minnie, don’t worry, I’m pretty sure nothing will happen to either of us. Come on, we have to hurry up or we’ll be late for class” Minho held onto Taemin’s hand again and walked with him to class.

While Minho was with Taemin, Jonghyun decided to try to get close to Key again. After Key ran away from him when he confessed to him last time, he hadn’t seen Key since then. Jonghyun had no idea why but for the past couple of days, all he could think about was Key. What Key was doing, where is he, is he sleeping well and Key always kept on appearing in his dreams. Still in denial and trying to win the bet, Jonghyun just passed the feelings off as getting too obsessed with the bet and little did he know, he was falling in love with him.

As Jonghyun was walking to class, he saw Key by his locker and decided to walk over to say good morning.

“Good morning, yeobo” said Jonghyun as he wrapped his arms around Key’s waist.

SLAP!

Key had slapped Jonghyun on the face and was surprised to see who it was.

“Oh, sorry. You scared me for a second there, I didn’t know who it was, and why were you calling me ‘yeobo’? I’m not yours or anyone’s yeobo, so please don’t ever touch me like that again!” Key gathered his books and walked to class leaving Jonghyun staring at him while rubbing his cheek.  Confused, Jonghyun decided to ask Taemin why Key would have such a big reaction to skinship.

As class ended, the four of them met in the cafeteria and as Key went to buy food since the lunch he packed wasn’t enough, Jonghyun took this opportunity to ask Taemin what happened to Key in the past.

“I’m not sure if I am the right person to tell you what happened” Taemin was sipping his banana milk and was looking out for Key in case he came back early.

“Why? What happened?” as he kept on asking Taemin, finally he gave him a little hint.

“It had something to do with umma’s ex-boyfriend. It was at our old school, that was part of the reason why umma and I transferred here. It was too much for him to handle and he only started to get better. Umma only let me touch him like that, if it’s other people, he would freak out like what he did to you this morning” Key came back so Taemin and Jonghyun pretended nothing happened and continued eating their lunch. Jonghyun was determined to find out what happened to Key if he was going to win this bet.

School soon ended and Jonghyun decided to take this chance to talk with Key. He asked Minho to take Taemin out on a date so he could spend some alone time with Key and maybe find out what happened with his ex-boyfriend.

Jonghyun slowly walked up the stairs to Key’s house and rang the doorbell.

“Finally, baby! Where have y-, why are you here?” glared Key as he saw it was not his baby but it was Jonghyun.

“Since Minho and Taemin went on a date, thought you were going to be bored so decided to spend time with you, since spending time with me is never bored” key rolled his eyes, he thought Jonghyun was really cocky and full of himself.

“I’m fine! I don’t need to spend time with you anyways” Key was about to close the door when Jonghyun pushed it open and walked right in.

“YAH!! You don’t just barge into someone’s house! Get out!” yelled Key as he glared at Jonghyun who had settled himself on Key’s bed.

“Nope, and you can’t force me” smirked Jonghyun. Key sighed and gave up, he did not have any energy today to fight with him and just left him be. Key continued to busy himself, cleaning up the house and cooking dinner for Taemin and himself tonight.

“Do you mind if I stay for dinner tonight?” Jonghyun suddenly spoke up, Key was surprised, but he had made barely enough for three people so he just said whatever and told Jonghyun that there are no free meals in life.

“Go buy some drinks for tonight, I don’t have any in the fridge and don’t expect me to just let you eat a free meal” Jonghyun reluctantly went out to the nearby convenience store and bought some drinks, he also bought a pack of beer. If he was going to make Key tell him what happened in his past, it’s probably best if Key wasn’t entirely sober.

Jonghyun went back just as Key was setting up the table and set down the pack of beer; Key eyed it but didn’t say anything.

“Taemin called back and said that he’s going to eat with froggy, so I guess there’s more food for us to share tonight” Jonghyun wasn’t surprised as he had told Minho to take as long as he wanted.

“Why don’t we open the pack of beer since it’s our first date together?” Jonghyun opened a can for himself and a can for Key.

“It’s not a date so stop making stuff up” as he took a gulp.

Both Key and Jonghyun finished about three cans of beer and while Jonghyun can hold his alcohol quite well, he realized that Key would act differently when he’s drunk. Key was very feminine and would have a lot of aegyo that would almost make Jonghyun blush. He thought this would be a good time to question Key without getting a beating.

“So Key, why did you transfer to St. Juliette instead of staying at your old school?” Jonghyun was careful and kept an eye on Key’s reaction just in case he got mad and slapped Jonghyun again. It appeared that Key was not only more feminine when he’s drunk but also more sensitive.

“Why do you want to know? Do you want me to tell you?” Key hiccupped and Jonghyun nodded his head eagerly.

“It was because of my stupid ex-boyfriend, Choi Minhyuk! I hate that bastard!!” suddenly Key got violent and started waving his hands and knocking things over. He accidentally knocked over a cup and a gash appeared, though it was not deep, but was still bleeding quite a lot.

“OMO! Key, are you ok?!” Jonghyun got up and ran over to Key, he inspected to wound and there was no glass pieces in there, so he picked Key up and walked him to the sink. After looking for the first aid kit and bandaging up Key’s hand, he sat him down on his bed and cleared the table.

As Jonghyun went to check up on Key, he saw him sitting there, crying quietly.

“What happened, Key? Talk to me, does your wound still hurt?” Key shook his head and turned toward Jonghyun.

“Talking about Minhyuk just brought up bad memories” Jonghyun could tell that Key was still drunk as he was swaying back and forth and was slurring his words.

“What about Minhyuk that made you so afraid of skinship?” Jonghyun knew he was walking on thin ice, but it was now or never.

“If you really want to know, i’ll tell you. It was last year when I met Choi Minhyuk, he was one year older than me and I always admired him. He was the best in everything, sports, music, academics. He was the perfect student. I was just known as the diva of the school since people knew I was gay and would sometimes make fun of me. One day, Minhyuk approached me after school and told me that he liked me and wanted me to be his boyfriend. I was shocked, The Choi Minhyuk confessed to me and since I had a crush on him, I immediately said yes and that was how it all started. At school, he would pretend to not know me, but after school, we would either meet up at my house or his and we would hang out. He would always hug me the way you did that morning and would always call me yeobo, I always loved that. There were times when he would try to take it a step further but since I wasn’t ready, he said that he would wait for me. However, one day, he suddenly barged into my house and started kissing me. I tried to push him off and told him to stop but he wouldn’t listen, he beat me and punched me and after a few more punches and slaps, I had out” Key was in tears right now and it seemed as if it was really painful for him to retell the story.

“Key, if it pains you so much, you don’t have to tell me anymore” Jonghyun said as he wiped Key’s tears away.

“No, I have to face it sooner or later. I don’t always want to be haunted by those memories anymore, I want to get past them and start over” Key took a deep breath and continued on with his story.

“I don’t know how long it was until I woke up, I opened my eyes and saw him on top of me and he was inside me. I cried and told him to stop and get out of me but he didn’t listen. It was starting to get painful so I just laid there and waited until he was done. After he was done, he told me that he didn’t actually love me; it was just a bet to see how long it took for me to sleep with him. Then he took out his cell phone and showed me a picture of me and him together. He took my ity and I thought he was the one but I was just a game to him, a bet” When Jonghyun heard that, he froze, he realized he was doing the same thing to Key as Choi Minhyuk did to him before.

“After what happened, I tried to pretend nothing had happened and went on with my normal life. I was glad Taemin wasn’t home when it happened, but he knew what that Choi Minhyuk had done to me. He was so young yet so strong, instead of me taking care of him; he in turn took care of me. At school, people started calling me names and I endured it, but since Taemin was always by my side, he got dragged into it also. I stayed home from school and went into depression, I felt dirty and taintd. Taemin was about to stay home with me but I told him to go to school since this had nothing to do with him. I thought that suffering alone was enough and I would somehow be able to get through it, but a few days later, I received a phone call from the hospital saying that Taemin was injured and I was listed as his guardian. When I rushed to the hospital, I realized that Taemin had stood up for me in school and that resulted him in getting beaten up, if the teachers hadn’t broken up the fight, Taemin might not have made it” Key was now sobbing harder than ever. No wonder when Taemin was in the hospital for the incident with Minjung and Eunjung, Key was in hysterics, it brought back the memories of when Taemin was hurt and he was afraid that he was going to lose him forever.

“At that point, I realized that I could not hold back any longer, I told the principal what happened, but sadly since Choi Minhyuk was the perfect student and his parents donated a lot of money to the them, the school tried to cover the whole incident up, saying it was my fault and I was the one seducing him which caused the results. I couldn’t handle it anymore so that was when I decided to take Taemin with me and transferred to St. Juliette” Key’s sobs were subsiding and he started to fall asleep, he started tipping forward so Jonghyun caught him and laid him on his bed. He never knew the story behind Key’s past and now that he knew, he felt like a jerk for making Key remembering his bad memories. Jonghyun slowly covered Key’s body with the blanket and stared at Key’s tear-streaked face. It was so beautiful and innocent that he did not understand how someone could hurt an angel like him. Jonghyun then decided that from now on, he’s going to protect Key from any harm and would never let his angel get tainted. Slowly but surely, Jonghyun was starting to fall in love with Key.

Jonghyun looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 10:00 and wondered where Minho had taken Taemin to. Jonghyun was about to step outside to make a call to Minho when he heard the door unlocked and saw Taemin kissing Minho good night.

“Did you two have fun?” asked Jonghyun in a low voice which caused Minho and Taemin to turn in surprise.

“What are you doing here?” Taemin asked, he looked inside and saw his umma asleep already.

“Nothing, since you and Minho went out on a date, I just decided to accompany Key for the night” Jonghyun lightly ruffled Taemin’s hair and both Minho and Taemin stared at Jonghyun, they have never seen him do these actions to anyone.

“Thanks, Taemin. For standing up for Key and being with him when he needed someone the most” Taemin smiled.

“Well, he’s my umma!  A son is supposed to love and protect his umma at all times!” Minho chuckled and pinched Taemin’s cheek, he was just too adorable.

“Anyways, it’s getting late, Minnie. You should get ready for bed. I’ll see you tomorrow” Minho kissed Taemin good night as he closed the door and left with Jonghyun.

“Hyung, I want to tell you something. I want to call the bet off. I think I have fallen in love with Taemin, and I would not bear to hurt him in any way” Minho looked at Jonghyun to see what his reaction would be and was surprised with Jonghyun agreed with him.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. After learning about Key’s past, I want to do nothing but protect him from now on” Jonghyun continued walking as he remembered Key’s crying face, he was like an innocent and pure angel, he did not for once think Key was dirty or tainted at all. Jonghyun decided that he would do his best to help Key realized that he was not dirty because in Jonghyun’s heart, Key was his one and only angel.