February 19th, Tuesday

The silence in the room after Jonghyun left was overpowering. No one moved or said a word until Minho finally asked, “Taemin? Don’t you think you should go talk to him?” His tone was gentle but it was obvious whose side he was on.

“I can’t,” Taemin said, his voice wavering a little. “I have to teach now.” He slung his briefcase over his shoulder and left without another word.

The other three glanced at each other as the door closed. “I had no idea that Jonghyun...liked Taemin, like that,” Jinki said in a hushed voice as if someone might overhear them. “But it makes so much sense, now that I think about it.”

“Please, it was so obvious! It doesn’t take 20/15 vision and a Ph.D in quantum physics, anyone with eyes and a partially functioning brain would have known,” Key declared.

“Key, you didn’t know any more than the rest of us.” Minho rolled his eyes.

Key took a long drink from his coffee cup to avoid responding. Jinki gave them both an urgent look. “Guys. What should we do? We have to do something.”

Minho’s large eyes blinked at him. “But what can we do?”

“We have to get Taemin to realize that he likes Jonghyun, too!” Jinki said passionately. “They belong together! And I never would have met my girlfriend if no one had helped me...even if it was my mom who introduced us.”

“I knew it!” Key exclaimed.

“Not the point!” Jinki crumpled up a napkin and threw it at him, missing by a few inches.

“Okay, okay. Let me think for a second here.” Key rested his chin on a fist. “Maybe you’re right, hyung...maybe there’s a way we can get that annoying...albeit attractive...brat out of Taemin’s life.”

“Key, wait,” Jinki said, nervously pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “That’s not exactly what I meant--”

“No, it’s perfect! I have a class now too, but just leave this to me. I’m coming up with a plan!” Key jumped up excitedly and trotted out the door.

February 20th, Wednesday

“You’re here early,” Taemin observed, looking at Key who was sitting alone at the conference table.

“Yeah,” Key said breezily, “I just wanted to have some extra time to finish my grading.”

Taemin nodded and opened his laptop. Key graded papers and Taemin typed in silence until Key asked, “Are you coming to the meeting later?”

Taemin looked up in surprise. “What meeting?”

“The faculty meeting for all the humanities departments.”

“I didn’t hear anything about that,” Taemin said, scrunching his eyebrows together.

“There was an email about it forever ago,” said Key. “You must have missed it.”

“I guess so,” Taemin said, still looking confused. “Where is it? What time?”

“It’s in here, at 3,” Key told him.

“They’re using this conference room?” Taemin said disbelievingly.

Key shrugged. “Guess so.”

“Okay, well, I should be able to make that.” Taemin reached for a cup of coffee from the tray in the center of the table. “Where are the sugar packets?” he asked.

Key glanced at the tray and threw his hands up exaggeratedly. “Oh, I must have forgotten them, sorry! I was kind of in a rush. So sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Taemin said. “I’ll just go get some from the lounge.” He got up from his seat and Key watched him leave. He counted to three after the door clicked shut before he got up from his seat and plopped himself down again in front of Taemin’s computer. He scrolled over to where Taemin had a tab open for his email and clicked Compose.

He slowly typed in characters until the address he wanted came up: Kim Jongin (student). He smiled to himself as he typed out a message:

Jongin,

There’s something I want to discuss with you. Meet me in the conference room this afternoon, a little before 3:00 if you can.

And please don’t reply to this email...my inbox is full.

If you can make it, I’ll see you there.

Professor Lee

Key hit send with a flourish and deleted the message from Taemin’s sent folder with satisfaction thrumming in his veins. He returned to his own seat a minute before Taemin came back with packets of sugar and Minho and Jinki arrived.

Afternoon

Key was in the conference room again well before 3:00, waiting to see if Jongin would show up. It was 2:59 when the door to the conference room opened, and Key worried that it would be Taemin already, but sure enough, a head of glossy brown hair and a pair of perfect, pouty lips slid into the room instead. He sure did take the “a little before” 3:00 instruction quite literally.

“Professor Lee? You wanted to talk about--wait, you’re not Professor Lee.” Jongin let the door close once he was fully in the room and stared curiously at Key.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Key asked, feigning ignorance. “Did you have a meeting? I was just grading some papers, I can go.”

“Oh, n-no, he’s not here yet, it’s okay, Professor, um…”

“Kim,” Key supplied.

“Professor Kim.” Jongin sat down in a chair across from Key, still watching him nervously even as Key appeared to return to his work. He cleared his throat awkwardly but he didn’t say anything else.

“Don’t worry,” Key said casually after a few more minutes, “Taemin is usually late to everything, I’m sure he’s not blowing off your meeting.” Key laughed. “And for the record, I never speak ill of a colleague. Taemin and I are good friends.”

Jongin stayed silent and Key didn’t think he was even going to respond, but suddenly he said, in a small voice, “I’m not so sure. He’s been avoiding me.”

Key put his pen down on his stack of English essays and looked at Jongin. “Oh, I’m sure that can’t be true,” he said comfortingly.

“Yes it could,” Jongin said, now looking down at the table instead of at him. “I’d deserve it.”

This was going too perfectly. “Now why would you say that?” Key got up slowly and sat down again in the chair beside Jongin. He looked up at him in surprise but quickly looked down again and bit his lip as if scared to say anything else.

“Jongin,” Key said softly, and the student’s eyes widened again at the discovery that Key knew his name, “I know...about you and Professor Lee.” Jongin’s eyes were so wide now that they looked like saucers. “But it’s okay,” Key added quickly. “Like I said, Taemin is one of my closest friends. You can trust me.”

Jongin looked to be fighting with himself whether to actually trust Key or not. “I was wrong,” he finally said. “I shouldn’t have been so forward with him.”

“Jongin,” Key said again, “you shouldn’t have to be punished for liking someone. Taemin shouldn’t have made you feel that way.”

“But it’s not his fault, it’s mine,” Jongin said. “I should have backed off when he asked me to, and I didn’t.”

Key strained his ears, thinking he heard footsteps in the hallway. Taemin would be coming in any second. If this was going to work how he wanted it to, he’d have to act fast. He leaned in closer, lowering his voice and speaking almost directly into Jongin’s ear, his lips practically brushing against it. “Jongin, don’t you think you deserve someone who will fight for you, no matter what the circumstances?”

He watched the line of Jongin’s throat as he swallowed, the rosy color rising in his cheeks. He turned to look at Key straight on, finding their lips so close they were almost touching. “Maybe you’re right,” he said quietly.

“Of course I’m right,” Key whispered, right before Jongin’s pillowy lips crushed tentatively against his own.

It was right then that the door to the conference room opened and someone shouted out, “What is this?!”

But it wasn’t Taemin’s voice.

Key pulled away from Jongin and his eyes snapped toward the doorway in horror.

A/N: Cliffhanger, I know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please forgive me! /o\