Jonghyun

 

 "...and as soon as his finger touched my hand, my stomach...it felt full of..."

 

"Butterflies."  Key leaned against his left elbow and sighed impatiently.  Jonghyun had been telling and re-telling his best friend the story of him meeting Taemin for what seemed like forever.  They sat in Key's car in the school parking lot, watching kids walking around outside before first period.

 

Jonghyun looked at Key apologetically.  "I'm sorry, dongsaeng. It's just...confusing for me, alright?  These feelings don't seem right.  I mean, it's not like I'm-"

 

"Gay?"

 

Jonghyun cringed.

 

Key sighed again.  "Maybe...I don't know...maybe you just have a guy crush or something..."

 

"No way, man. I don't like guys.  At all."

 

Silence.

 

"Doesn't sound that way."  Key mumbled.

 

This was strange.  Key never acted this way.  He was always helpful when Jonghyun was confused about something.  He always supported him.  Even though Key was younger, he acted older than Jonghyun...most of the time.

 

"What about your girlfriend?"

 

Jonghyun felt panic rising inside of him.  He had completely forgotten about his girlfriend, Hyori.  They had been dating for a few weeks, but he had never felt any sparks with her.  They pretty much only dated for popularity reasons.  She was a popular girl in their grade and he was a popular boy.  That was how dating worked at their school. It wasn't about love, it was about social order.

 

Truthfully, he didn't even like her, but he wasn't going to tell Key that.  It would only add more evidence to his "gay" theory.

 

Obviously sensing that Jonghyun wasn't going to answer, Key looked at the clock.  "We're going to be late for class. Come on."  Key got out of the car and walked straight into the school, not even looking back to see if Jonghyun was coming.

 

* * * * * * * * * * 

 

As much as Jonghyun tried to get Taemin out of his head, he just couldn't.  He was constantly talking to Key about it, and was obviously starting to really get on his best friend's nerves.  By lunch hour, Key barely said one word to Jonghyun.

 

They sat by Jonghyun's friends, Onew and Minho, and Key made sure to sit by Minho, on the opposite side of where Jonghyun was: next to Onew, and turned his head away.

 

"What's wrong?"  Onew asked Jonghyun after noticing the silence between the two.  "Did you and Key break up?"

 

Onew and Minho snickered.  Key rolled his eyes.

 

"Oh, ." Minho said with a facepalm. "Here comes the devil's spawn."

 

Hyori skipped over to their table, planting a kiss on Jonghyun's cheek before shoving Onew aside to sit by her boyfriend.

 

Onew glared at her as he took a seat next to Minho. Hyori ignored the others and turned to Jonghyun, draping her arms around his shoulders.

 

"Hey, baby. I think we should go see a movie after school." she said, batting her eyelashes at him. "And then...maybe...we could go back to my place..." she trailed off seductively as she rubbed her hand along Jonghyun's thigh.

 

"I...have other plans.  Hanging out with the guys." He removed her hand from his thigh, so she moved it to his cheek instead.

 

"Aw, that's too bad." She pouted, looking at him with a puppy-dog face before pulling him in for a long kiss.

 

His friends all groaned and turned away.  She finally acknowledged their presence.

 

"Aw, Key! You are just ADORABLE!" She ruffled his hair, and he quickly fixed it, a scowl on his face.

 

She turned to Minho.  "Minho, darling, have you been working out?"  She squealed, feeling his arm.  "Sooo strong!"

 

He rolled his eyes and turned away.

 

"Onew..."  She looked him up and down, obviously trying to find a compliment to up with.  "Your hair looks...cute."  She smiled encouragingly at him.  He just stared at her and shook his head slowly.

 

"Well, don't let me interrupt!" She got up skipped away cheerily, oblivious to their scowls.

 

"Too late." Onew grumbled, playing with his hair.

 

"Why don't you just dump her?" Minho asked. "None of us like her, especially you."

 

"She's such a , and it's obvious to everyone besides herself." Onew rolled his eyes. "Is she even your type? She's so damn annoying."

 

Ignoring him, he looked over in Hyori's direction.  She was at her friends' table, talking animatedly about something that nobody seemed to be interested in at all.

 

"She's pretty. That's the only reason people even talk to her." Minho continued to grumble.  "Including you, Jong."

 

Jonghyun knew that he was absolutely right.

 

* * * * * * * * * * 

 

Jonghyun, Key, Onew, and Minho would usually hang out behind the school at the end of the day, it was where all of the cool people hung out.

 

Well, only if the term "cool" meant leaning against a brick building smoking and drinking alcohol, beating and shooting insults at whoever walks by that is smaller than you.

 

The four of them pretty much had an unwritten routine: Onew and Minho would join everyone else back there, yet focusing less on drinking and smoking and more on picking on kids. Bullying was their high. Key never joined any of this.  He usually just sat against the wall, looking bored.  He said that the only reason that he was there was to watch over them, but they all knew he was there because he felt safe around them.  He didn't want to become a victim to the bullying.

 

Jonghyun usually was in between.  He picked on some kids, but a lot of the time he sat back with Key. He may be different, but Key was a great friend, and he wanted to make him feel important.  Also, Jonghyun didn't like to pick on kids very much.  Unlike Onew and Minho, he had a heart.

 

Today, Key sat against the wall reading a book. Onew and Minho did not approve of this at all.

 

"Put the damn book away, Key." Minho growled. "You're embarrassing yourself and, more importantly, us."

 

Key rolled his eyes and set the book aside.

 

"Good boy." Onew patted his head, earning a punch in the stomach from Key.

 

"Oh my God." Minho gasped, holding back a laugh and pointing towards the road. "Look at that."

 

All three heads turned at once, but Jonghyun was the only one to let out a squeak of surprise.

 

There, with a bag slung over his shoulder, his ponytail bobbing as he walked, was Taemin, in the wrong place...most definately at the wrong time.

 

"Who the hell is that?" Onew was laughing hard now, grinning menacingly.

 

"Is that even a guy?" Minho squinted to get a better look.

 

"I think it is.  What a !  Let's go." Onew and Minho made their way over to Taemin.  "You coming, Jong?"

 

Jonghyun's heart skipped several beats.  No...not Taemin.

 

He turned to look at Key for help, and saw his feelings mirrored in Key's face.

 

"Is that the guy you were talking about in the car?" Key whispered.

 

Jonghyun nodded slowly. He turned back around to watch his friends. He didn't want to watch, but he knew that he couldn't stop them...or look away, for that matter.

 

Onew had Taemin's attention. He couldn't hear them because they were such a far distance away, but he saw Onew's mouth move and Taemin turned around.  Jong watched as Taemin shrank away from Minho and Onew. They were both speaking and laughing at him, occasionally shoving his chest.  He saw tears forming in Taemin's eyes. They were insulting him. Onew was pulling at his hair. They both were noticeably bigger than him, both height-wise and strength-wise.

 

"You're not going to do anything?" He turned around. Key was staring expectantly at him.

 

"I..."

 

What could he do?

 

He turned around again. Taemin was now on the ground, his bag's contents spread around him. Onew and Minho both stood over him, laughing and shouting at him. Sympathy welled up in Jonghyun's chest. He never felt sympathy for the kids that his friends bullied.  He wasn't supposed to feel sympathy.  He was supposed to be tough.

 

He knew that this was different, though...he knew that Taemin was different.  He had to do something to help. 

 

---

 

I kind of liked this chapter, it's fun to write. ANYWAY, as mentioned before, these chapters are slowly inching their way up to the whole plot.  You guessed it:  this is going to be a long story. As I also have said:bear with me.  I am new to all of this.  XD I hope you like the story so far, I'm so excited to get to the main plot that I may put up the third chapter today.  I have it pre-written, but it needs a lot of revising.

Let me just say one thing that isn't very important, but is still a bit relevant in the story... if that makes sense.  Onew and Minho are both in 12th grade, Jonghyun and Key are both in 11th grade, and Taemin is in 10th grade.  I know that Taemin had short, black hair at this age, but I like his hair in the Lucifer video, so his hair is like that in this story.  ONE MORE THING, AND THEN I SHALL BE DONE WITH MY RAMBLE.  Taemin's sister, Yuri (OC), shall be introduced in the next chapter.  And she is VERY relevant to the story XD.  Thank you n.n