It took longer than expected for TaeMin to answer the door. JongHyun had actually begun getting dizzy again when the young boy finally answered the door. His hair was wet and he only had on a white wife beater and sweats. He`d probably just showered.

            “Hyung!” TaeMin exclaimed, his face breaking out into a smile. “Where have you been? Come in!”

            JongHyun was ushered into TaeMin’s house and up the stairs to his room. The walk up was somewhat torturous for him since he still had almost no energy. It was fine, though, since TaeMin seemed to have enough energy to last the both of them for days to come.

            TaeMin’s room was just like JongHyun remembered it - messy, but always smelling of fresh fruit (some miracle of life).

            “I just got back from dance class so I haven’t cleaned yet,” TaeMin apologized.

            “It’s not like you would have cleaned up anyway,” JongHyun teased.

            TaeMin threw a pillow at him. The elder let himself be smacked by it, too tired to even try to deflect the blow. Had it been up to him, he would have taken that pillow and slept on it.

He ignored TaeMin for a second as he dumped his things down on the bed and then let his body follow.

            “I’m mad at you hyung!” TaeMin suddenly yelled.

            “Why?” JongHyun asked, already knowing the answer.

            “Because you disappeared on me! I couldn’t find you! Every time I called it said your phone number didn’t exist! The only way I knew you were alive was because Onew hyung said you still came to work! Hey… Shouldn’t you be at work right now?”

            “Onew hyung is making me take a paid vacation type thing…” JongHyun admitted with some embarrassment.

            “Why? What happened?”

            “I, uh, passed out today.”

            TaeMin’s face acquired the cutest worried look JongHyun had ever seen (and if TaeMin ever found out he had thought that he would throw a fit). He sat on the bed by his lying down friend and fixed his gaze on him seriously.

            “Are you sick, hyung? Do you have cancer? Are you going to die?” TaeMin asked.

            JongHyun laughed lightly, shaking his head as best as he could with it pressed up to the mattress. “I’m not sick,” he assured him.

            “Then what’s wrong? You don’t look the same hyung…”

            It hurt JongHyun to not tell TaeMin about how much he was struggling, but he didn’t want to burden him with his problems. TaeMin had enough to deal with – especially with all his medical problems.

            “Nothing’s wrong, TaeMinnie… But do you think I could stay the night?”

            “Sure…” TaeMin agreed.

            Wanting to steer the conversation away from him, JongHyun decided to talk about MinHo. He was curious about how things were going with that frog-eyed guy since he hadn’t been around to keep an eye on him.

            “How are things with MinHo?” he asked. He watched with interest as TaeMin’s face flared up into a dark blush. He fiddled with the zipper on JongHyun’s sweater and mumbled something incomprehensible.

            “What’d you say?” JongHyun asked.

            “I think… Don’t judge me, okay?” TaeMin suddenly demanded.

            “I won’t, I promise,” JongHyun assured him. He wasn’t sure whether to be concerned or amused by the way TaeMin was acting. Everything he was doing was so uncharacteristic of him.

            “I think… I think I might really like him… But like, more than a friend…” he murmured.

            At this, JongHyun up the last bits of energy left in his body to push himself up into a sitting position. His eyes narrowed towards his friend like he was trying to figure out a really hard riddle with a really simple answer. He was aware that he was making his friend squirm uncomfortably, but he needed to process this major bit of information.

            “You mean like… Gay? You like him like I would like a girl?” JongHyun asked.

            TaeMin bit the inside of his cheek, beginning to regret having told his oldest friend his biggest secret. He nodded, nonetheless, and waited for the negative comments he was bound to receive.

            Surprisingly, JongHyun didn’t say anything. He remained eerily quiet, scaring TaeMin a bit. He would rather have JongHyun screaming at him about how dirty he was rather than staying silent.

            Instead of going off on a tangent, the short boy stared at a picture TaeMin had on his dresser. It was a photo of the two of them from a few years before. They were both smiling at the camera, arms around each other, looking like brothers (which they practically were).

            TaeMin was that guy. His little brother who was always smiling and obsessed with dancing and banana milk. It was the same guy he had visited countless times in the hospital. He wasn’t going to change just because of this.

            “Hyung?”

            JongHyun looked away from the picture and to TaeMin. He looked like a scared puppy about to be punished for a wrong doing.

            “It’s fine, TaeMin. I’m just a little… Surprised is all. I never knew you were gay…” JongHyun tried to explain.

            “I didn’t know I was! I don’t know if I am, but I really like MinHo…”

            “And…” JongHyun prompted, knowing there was something else that he wanted to add on to that sentence.

            “BecauseIkissedhimandhedidn’tfreakout.”

            “WHAT?! You kissed him?” JongHyun screamed. He suddenly found himself energized with this massive mental blow. He had never thought that his timid friend – his TaeMin! – would have the courage to kiss anyone let alone a guy!

            “Don’t get mad at me!” TaeMin begged, scrabbling at his blanket so he could hide under it.

            JongHyun peeled back the blanket, wanting to get more answers from him and at the same time. This was TaeMin’s first kiss after all.

            “Come on! Don’t hide! I want to know all about it!” he said.

            TaeMin sighed, pushing up the blanket so it was hanging around his shoulders. His thumbs twiddled together and he twirled his hair when he paused.

            “We went to the beach to go swimming… And MinHo hyung looked really good – he has a six pack! – and well, one thing led to another and I kissed him…” he explained vaguely.

            “What happened after that?” JongHyun prodded.

            “I don’t know… We kind of looked at each other and then kept doing what we were doing.”

            It took a while for JongHyun to let that sink all the way in. He couldn’t believe that TaeMin had actually done what he’d described. Shy, little TaeMin… What had happened in the few weeks he had lost contact with him?

            “I can’t believe you kissed him,” JongHyun ended up staying.

            A melodious laugh escaped TaeMin. He rocked lightly on the spot in embarrassment. He felt relieved that his best friend was accepting of his news. However, he could see JongHyun’s arms (missing some of the muscle they had once had) shaking with the strain of keeping up his body weight. He didn’t know why JongHyun was so tired, but he had passed out because of it, it seemed, so he wanted to let him sleep.

            “Yah, sleep hyung – we can talk more later. I’ll wake you up for supper, okay?” TaeMin said, jumping off the bed.

            JongHyun gave him a grateful smile, not even bothering to argue like he usually would have done. He waited out of respect until TaeMin had left the room before collapsing on the bed to get one of the best sleeps he’d had in days.