Jealousy, to Taemin, was somewhat like poison. It starts out by seeping through the boundaries of the skin, creeping up slowly on the senses. It then slithers along inside you, all the while silently spreading, eating you alive from the inside. And Taemin felt it grow, everyday, occupying a larger part of him, but he never knew what to do about it. How do you deal with something that ought not to be there, but feels right anyway? Because he had the right to be angry, to be jealous-

Once upon a time, he would have let it go.
Once upon a time, he would have ignored what he’d seen.

But Taemin has been led on too many times and didn’t think he could take anymore. Because when you love someone like this, there’s just no way out.

Because when you love someone like this, there’s no such thing as sharing with anyone else. And Minho-hyung seems to be shared with a million other people…

His heart throbbed. Maybe, Taemin mused, the venom had already reached that part of him. Maybe, he thought, that’s why his heart would often miss a beat and leave him breathless, whenever he thought too much about Minho.

Minho, who was fast slipping away from him, falling through his fingers…

Taemin recalled the many nights of aching pain, as he laid awake knowing there’s nothing he could do, and feeling all alone in the world. Now thinking back, he realized that all those sleepless nights were results of jealousy eating his brain out. It made you think everything through, so thoroughly that you’d feel your head spin, and yet not be any closer to easing your hurt.

As Taemin knew now, jealousy was poison.

And as everyone knew, poison kills.

He wondered, sometimes, how long it would take for it to kill him too.

--==--

Key laid on his back, sprawled on his bed, casually browsing through Minho’s iPod. He frowned in distaste. Minho’s music was so not his cup of tea.

For some reason, Minho had left the player at home today. Key found that odd, because Minho’s iPod, together with his navy cap, were the two things he never left the dorm without.

Key gave a mental shrug and continued scrolling through Minho’s song library. He probably just forgot it in his rush out for schedules. When it came to music, Key wasn’t the most patient person around. He would listen to 5 seconds of it, and if the intro