I was more than a little apprehensive when Jonghyun came to pick me up the following morning for school, but it seemed like Key hadn’t mentioned anything to him about our little excursion – or about how I had sort of hazed him a bit. Not that I thought that I had done anything wrong, but I don’t think that Jonghyun would be exactly thrilled about me messing with his best friend.

I didn’t have any classes with Key except for our social sciences class, so I didn’t have to see him at all during the morning. When it was time for lunch, I braced myself and walked into the cafeteria with Amber and Jonghyun on either side of me.

Much to my surprise, Key wasn’t there when we slipped into our seats at the usual table in the corner. The others didn’t comment on his absence, almost like it wasn’t important that he wasn’t there. Normally I wouldn’t care, but a small part of me wondered if perhaps I had gone just a little bit too far. Even if Youngjae was gay too, it must have been hard for Key to hear all of those things that he was so terrified of hearing for real, even if we’d just been teasing him.

I decided I had to ask. I cleared my throat. “Where’s Key today?”

They seemed vaguely surprised that I was asking about him – it was no secret that the two of us didn’t get along well at all – but then they shrugged it off. “He’s not really a fan of school, so he skips every once in a while for no reason,” Minho explained indifferently. “He does it so often that I stop noticing sometimes. He’s probably out shopping right now.”

“The lucky bastard,” Victoria chuckled. “My parents would kill me if I skipped school to shop.”

“His mom is a pretty famous fashion designer, so I think she’d rather he went shopping than study math,” Jinki pointed out, mixing up his rice before taking a generous bite.

The conversation regarding the usefulness of certain subjects like math and science continued, but I tuned it out. Maybe Key really was just skipping school to shop. I didn’t want to think that he was skipping because of what Youngjae and I had done to him the night before.

Apparently my fears were unfounded because I saw Key in the hallways first thing the next morning. I debated with myself whether to say something or not, to apologize for maybe taking things a little too far the other night, but he was talking to a pretty boy I recognized as a guy in our year, so I figured he’d be more upset with me if I was seen talking to him in public. I decided I would just wait and try to catch him when he was alone.

He wasn’t there when I came into the cafeteria with my two loyal bodyguards, Amber and Jonghyun. The others were already seated at our usual table, however, so the three of us took our seats and greeted our friends – because, besides Key and Jinri, I was actually starting to consider these people my friends.

“Hey Jonghyun, my little brother and I are thinking about going to our vacation home for the weekend on the southern coast,” Jinki spoke up, grabbing a chicken leg with his chopsticks and taking a huge bite. “Want to come?”

“No thanks,” Jonghyun answered, giving me a meaningful look. “My dad is going to be out of town this weekend so I’m thinking of just chilling at my house.”

“Suit yourself,” Jinki answered, taking another big bite of his fried chicken.

Jonghyun continued to look at me pointedly, as if I was supposed to be getting a secret message.

“What?” I demanded. He was sort of unnerving me with all of the staring.

The corner of his mouth quirked up in that smirk that I both loved and feared, because it never meant anything good. “My dad is going to be gone all weekend,” he repeated.

“Yeah, so?” I demanded, still not quite getting where he was going. “Your dad is usually gone, right? And even if he was home, your house is so big that I wouldn’t know if he was.”

Jonghyun rolled his eyes like I was the densest person he knew, but Minho interrupted before his friend could elaborate. “He’s asking you to spend the night this weekend, Narae.”

I became flustered immediately, but Jinri became downright horrified. She kept looking from me to Jonghyun and back again as if she couldn’t believe that this was the current topic of conversation. In fact, I couldn’t believe that this was the current topic of conversation. My intimate life – or lack thereof – was nobody’s business but mine.

“Yah, isn’t this a conversation we should be having in private?” I demanded, glaring at my boyfriend.

Jinri opened to say something, but Key’s sudden arrival kept closed. She looked relieved that her last ally had finally arrived.

“Jonghyun has never been good at being subtle,” Key said coolly, placing a container of food in front of me before settling into his seat between Minho and Krystal.

I stared down at the container and then up at Key. “Are you trying to poison me?” I demanded bluntly.

Key chuckled, taking out his own lunch, which was identical to the one he had placed in front of me. “My chef was already making lunch for me, so I just had him make an extra for you.”

“And I repeat, are you trying to poison me?” I honestly wouldn’t put it past Key to do something like that, to be perfectly honest.

He gave me a level look, and for once it lacked the animosity that he usually had. “No, I’m not trying to poison you. I’m trying to say thank you. Which I never do, so you should feel special.”

The others stared at Key like he had turned into a different person, which, in all reality, he had. He’d gone from calling me trash and refusing to be near me to bringing me lunch and saying thank you. It was a complete one-eighty from the way he usually acted.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Are you doing this because of what happened the other night?” I made sure not to say anything specific about what had happened, because I was fairly certain that Key didn’t want his friends to know about his alternative lifestyle.

“I’m doing this to say thank you for the other night,” Key reiterated, and it was obvious he was starting to get frustrated. “God, can’t you just take a thank you?”

“Okay, okay.” I took a nervous bite of the food, but it was delicious and didn’t taste like he’d put anything in it. I took another bite.

“What are you thanking Narae for?” Jinki asked curiously, sounding amused at how things were playing out.

Key tucked into his own meal, not looking at his friends. “That’s between Narae and me.”

“What did you just say?” I demanded.

He looked up in surprise. “I said that what happened is between you and me.”

“But you used my name,” I pointed out. “That’s the first time you’ve actually used my name and not called me something nasty.”

Key blushed – actually blushed – and looked back down at his lunch. “Ah, yeah. Sorry about that.”

Krystal reached over and pressed her hand against his forehead. “Are you feeling okay? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you apologize to someone.”

“Yeah, well, usually I don’t have anything to apologize for,” Key snapped in embarrassment, brushing her hand away. “And this time I did. So I’m saying sorry.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I guess my little trick with Youngjae and Daehyun had worked.

I was also the only one to notice the murderous gaze that crossed Jinri’s face at losing her only ally against me in our group. 

Dawww Key is coming around ^^