Chapter 13

Unbeknownst to those two, the youngest three members were essentially waiting with their ears pressed up against the door.  If this had been a movie, the door would have popped open and they would indeed have found themselves sprawled on top of each other on the floor.  This conversation was going to have a huge impact on their careers and lives and they wanted to know exactly what was said.  As the real reason for Jonghyun’s unpleasantness came out, the three found themselves sharing gazes that were an odd mix of shock, anger, and surprisingly enough, sympathy for the powerhouse singer.

Seemingly coming to a silent agreement, they all moved as one and quietly walked back to their living room, having heard enough, and sat down on the couch.  While they occasionally glanced at each other, there was no real communication between them.  They were all in their own little world trying to place themselves in Jonghyun’s shoes – would they have acted the same way? 

Taemin couldn’t even find it within himself to feel angry at Jonghyun, because it wasn’t just their relationship as a group on the line, but that of Jonghyun’s with his family.  He hadn’t even told his parents yet, though his brother knew.  He also knew about Taemin being in a relationship, though the dancer hadn't been able to tell him who with yet because they were both afraid of the publics reaction if anyone found out.  Taemin was honestly afraid to tell his family, but that was more because he wasn’t sure of how they would react, but he knew that they would never disown him – not approve of him maybe, but never cut him out of their lives completely.  The thought of not being able to pick up the phone and call his mom or being able to get together with them at Christmas or during the holidays created an actual ache within his chest.  If he was in Jonghyun’s shoes, he might be reacting the same way. 

He thought back to what they had heard Onew say about Minho as well.  While Minho was seemingly acting normal, just looking at them as they sat on the couch, he could see that Minho was not sitting as close as he would have just a couple of days before.  Their couch had too longer cushions rather than three smaller ones, and while Taemin and Key occupied one cushion, Minho had the other one all to himself.  He was sitting flush against the arm rest, and was slightly turned in towards the edge, rather than sitting with his back against it and feet curled under him like he normal would.  Taemin didn’t think that the rapper was aware that he was doing it, but he wasn’t entirely comfortable either, he was only trying to make it look like he was in order to make them feel better.

Taemin bit his lip, when Key and him and started this relationship they hadn’t been thinking about how it would effect everyone else really.  They had vague ideas that they should keep it hidden for a while, but not really anything that could remotely prepare them for what was happening now.  Maybe they have been being naïve, but they hadn’t seen any of this coming – the intense conflict with Jonghyun and the showdown with their manager hadn’t been a part of their plan.  They just thought that somehow everyone would be okay with them, just because they were friends.

Was it being selfish?  To place SHINee in this situation?  Taemin didn’t think that he was wrong in wanting to be with the person that he loved, but he didn’t really think Jonghyun was being wrong either – what other choice did the singer have right now? 

Frustrated, Taemin angrily pushed his fingers through his hair and leaned forward, touching his chest to his knees and letting out a groan of misery, why did this have to happen this way? 

He felt Key’s cool hand on the back of his neck, rubbing slighting trying to alleviate some of the tension. 

“What the hell are we going to do?”  He heard Minho ask quietly from his section of the couch.

Not stopping his ministrations of Taemin’s neck, Key responded, “I don’t know what else we can do.  I’m not asking him to like this, any of it, I’m just don’t want him to destroy this, to act against us.”  Key looked down at Taemin who had turned his head to look towards his older lover.  Looking him in the eye, Key said, “I can put up with pretty much anything as long as we can still be together.”  The couple shared a sad smile, “But I don’t want to hurt anyone either…”

Lost in their own world, they hadn’t realized that Jonghyun and Onew had emerged from the bedroom and were standing at the entrance to the living room.

Clearing his throat, Jonghyun caught all of their attention.  “I’m just going to say my piece here first and then you can all jump down my throat however you want, alright?”  And without waiting for an answer he soldiered on, “You guys know my thoughts on this, but I don’t think you would listen to me anyway if I told you to stop.  Just don’t let this get out, it would kill SHINee, and all of us have worked far too hard to let that happen.  I don’t want to see it, and I will not help you meet up or make excuses for you.  I have to wash my hands of this part of your lives, I just can’t…”  Jonghyun found himself unable to continue on, to figure out how to put it into words for his dongsaengs. 

“We heard hyung,”  Taemin said quietly.  He straightened up and looked Jonghyun in the face, “We were kind of listening at the door….”  He almost laughed a little there at the sheer absurdity of the image now – three idol starts with their ears plastered up against a door – but he managed to hold himself together.  “I don’t want you to have to choose us over your family either, I know this must be killing you inside.”

Jonghyun was floored, they actual understood where he was coming from, at least Taemin did, and the dancer didn’t seem to be angry at him.  Their little Taemin was really coming into his own now, when had he missed that? 

“I can give you one thing that might ease your mind a little hyung…” 

And Jonghyun’s ears almost literally perked up, and he watched Taemin and Key share a short glance.  He watched as Key reached over and grabbed Taemin’s hand and lace their fingers together so gently, and Key, his best friend in SHINee, looked at him and said, “No one outside of this group knows, or will know – the guy in the picture was me, so there will be no outside boyfriends…”  But whatever else Key was going to say was lost, because right then Jonghyun chose to faint.        

Yay!  Eneded on a little comic relief there (we haven't had any for a while).  So remember when I said a little while back that I was having trouble bridging what I had to where I wanted to get to, well that bridge is almost done.  These have been some hard chapters to write, but I really hope that they get easier once I've completed the transition.

And as nice as it is to see the subscription and view count numbers go up (and man is that view count nice! - seriously never thought it would get that high!) it would be nice to hear from a couple of you as to what you think - so plesae, drop a comment below about something you liked, or something you hated or an error I made (I've been known to make some funny errors on occasion - once I meant to say 'He fell into the blackness of sleep,' but I aparently wrote 'sheep' instead and it was just funny at that point.  It can all go into making this an even better story for me and you guys. 

Thanks for reading!