Last year I was a naïve young sophomore in high school. My parents were even less involved in my life than they had been in Siwon hyung’s. I had known I was gay since I was ten and had a crush on Kim Hyun Joong in Boys over Flowers.

          Trying out for the soccer team seemed like an obvious decision to me; however, I never thought about the fact that showering with my teammates might be problematic. In the end, I always tried to shower after everyone was done or off in a corner by myself. My awkwardness caught the eye of Nichkhun, the senior captain of the team.

          Nichkhun confronted me about it. I admitted to him that I found showering with the others uncomfortable due to my uality. After all, a hormonal teenage boy showering with a bunch of hot guys. Things sometimes got a little….hard, if you know what I mean. Nichkhun was shocked to find out I am gay. Like most people, he held to the typical stereotype of gay men as weak and effeminate.

          Nichkhun decided to help me out by doing extra training after practices and then taking turns showering. We became close friends and I started to eat lunch at his table with his girlfriend and their senior friends. Soon the puppy crush I’d had on him freshman year had turned into the most hopeless of loves, one on a straight friend. I was angry with myself for allowing it to happen and tried to distance myself from Nichkhun.

          After a week of avoiding talking to him, Nichkhun confronted me in the showers after a long soccer practice. I broke down and confessed that I was in love with him. To my surprise, he kissed me and told me that he loved me too. He claimed that he had fallen for me months before but was worried about his status as a popular guy in school. He didn’t want to become an outcast so he had buried his feelings. Now that he knew I felt the same way, he didn’t care about popularity.

          We got ummm…. closer there and then. After, I asked him about his girlfriend, Victoria. He said they had actually broken up several days ago but hadn’t made it public. Foolish, love-struck idiot that I was I became his secret boyfriend. Secret because I couldn’t take the risk of my parents finding out (or so I thought).

          After two months of sneaking around, we got caught. I now know that, in fact, Nichkhun had never broken up with Victoria. She got suspicious of some marks she saw on his body and spied on him. She found us in a compromising situation and secretly took pictures.

          She waited until my parents came home from one of their many business trips. She took the pictures to them and they decided to set up a trap. The next day, they were hiding in the guy’s locker room. They…. Um….” Here’s the first place Minho faltered. He leaned into Kyuhyun and took a deep breath. Kyuhyun gave him a supportive squeeze.

          “Sorry, anyway, they caught me with, as my baby brother likes to say, I was caught with Nichkhun’s lollipop in my mouth. Things went pretty predictably from there. I was shipped off to live with Siwon hyung and Zhou Mi ge for the summer and then here for the school year. They’ll pay for schooling for me and college too. It would look bad for their business if they just abandon their gay son.” With that, Minho’s story ended.

A/N: Hope you feel Minho's pain sufficiently. I needed to show how scared he is to love a straight guy. Any Hottest readers, my apologies but I had to pick someone. Don't worry Lockets, it's mostly Kibum next chapter. See you next week. Let me know what you thought!!!!!