hi guys!!!
im so sorry i havent updated in literally months! ><
i was pretty out of it and there were a lot of issues
going on at home and at school so it was hard for me to
write at all. so as an apology, i made this chapter super,
SUPER long to try and make up for it. it's 6122words
long so thats around 1&1/2 – 2 chapters in one ^^
and also.. I HIT 100 SUBSCRIBERS! SKJBAHDASJDB
AJSNKDHASBDJKASDABSDKJABSDKJBAKSDBAD
ASKJBDKASBDKJBASKLDNBAHSDBJKASDBHAID
JNHBFAI OMG I CANT BELIEVE IT. YOU GUYS ARE
COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY BRILLIANT AND I COULD
EASILY SAY YOURE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
PEOPLE IN MY LIFE. anyhows, thanks again and i'll just
shut up now, so i hope you enjoy it and i will have a poll
waiting for you at the end. thanks for your support
guys. it really means a lot to me! ><

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–Sunghee’s POV–

I was casually walking to class and I was late, as per usual, and suddenly, the bastard’s ugly face appeared out of nowhere. I stopped in my tracks for a second to return the glare that he so kindly sent me and then, BAM. I was covered in goo.

This. . Was. Asking. To. Die.

I stood there for a while, ignoring the substance that was probably staining my shirt, refusing to break the glare that I had fixed on him because of the pride I inherited from my family. So instead of walking into the bathroom that was conveniently located a few paces to my left, I walked up to the bastard and stopped in front of him for a few seconds to continue staring him down, then stripped down to my wifebeater that was untouched by the sludge and shoved the sopping shirt in his face and ‘precious’ hair. When I heard a muffled screech from behind the fabric I was holding in place, I smiled to myself happily to myself and left the scene, walking into the next bathroom I saw to wash the blue paint out of my hair.

Rocking neon blue streaks splotches in my hair for the next week or so wasn’t fun. I was never one to care about fashion but this was waaaaay out of line. Jiyong hyung was so pissed when he saw the guck in my hair the first day he threatened to rip all of their heads off, and knowing him and his temper, there was a potential genocide waiting to happen so I had to be nice to the bastards and hold him back.

I think I plotted my revenge for too long because he suddenly acted all up himself around me. He would color-coordinate his clothes to remind me of the incident, and he and his friends screwed up my hair when they passed me. Well, they tried to. That went down in a five on one fight in the cafeteria which ended with them being sent to the nurse and me being sent to the principals office. I was let off easy, in fact the principal asked me to ‘keep them in line’ for him. On one hand, I was glad I had permission to kick their , but on the other hand, the last thing I wanted to do was to do the old man’s work for him. But at least I had something to do until I could pull the prank on him and his sparkly rainbow unicorn club. What kind of a name was SHINee anyway?

ANYWHO, the day had finally come, and I was walking to the gates by myself, as per usual, and just like any other day, the s confronted me.

“Hey Bluey.” Key mocked me.

“Hey Key. Did you find a donor yet?” I replied.

“Donor for what?” he asked.

“ change obviously.” I shot back. He looked horrified.

“YOU .” He screamed.

And while his mouth was open, I shoved a small packet of raw fish that I had been carrying around in his unsuspecting mouth and waited for a reaction. It took a bit to react at all, but it was worth it because as soon as he had spat it out and started chasing me, it was time for part two.

I sprinted to the school school gym where the rest if my gang had set up my plan. I ran into the main store room (that was never used may I add) that we had broken into and climbed out of one of the air vents. And as soon as Diva and Co. had piled into the room, we barred the doors and windows and pulled the strings that tipped the buckets of paint. And by buckets, I mean there were ten buckets full of neon pink paint, rigged to the ceiling of the shed that covered every inch of where they were standing. The looks on their faces were priceless. And I was actually kinda sorry for them. Not because I was pitying that they would be walking around with neon pink hair for a week but because I wasn’t done with them yet. Unknown to them, there was a bucket of a mixture of glitter, sand, feathers, heart shaped confetti and paper flowers each positioned above the barred windows so that when they tried to open them, they would be covered in one of the embarrassingly cute decorations along with the even more embarrassing shade of paint that they were coated in.

After ensuring the room was locked down and the immediate surrounding area was inescapable, the six of us bumped fists, exchanged hi-fives and left happily to the closest dokkbokki stand.

– Taemin’s POV –

We’ve been in this goddamned room for at least a few hours and I’m still covered in this goo and on top of that I have freaking glitter and feathers all over me. Jonghyun hyung’s still trying at the door, and he just slipped again. For the fifteenth time.

“JONGHYUN. SIT THE DOWN ALREADY. YOU’RE WEARING ME OUT JUST BY WATCHING YOU FAIL SO BADLY.” Key hyung shouted.
Jonghyun hyung sat down and shut up. Key hyung doesn't raise his voice unless he’s really pissed. And for him to yell like that meant everyone in the room had to shut up and keep making noises to a minimum or face being beat up by the diva himself.

“Key, don’t get pissed like that. Jonghyun’s probably just as irritated as you are.” Onew hyung intervened. “Don’t let any of this get to you. It’s probably what the bastards want.” No one said a thing back. Onew hyung has always been the boss around here.  

Key hyung took a deep breath and calmed himself. I knew the last thing he wanted was to loose to the new kid. It wasn’t all that bad though; because before he met him, all Key hyung would talk about would be himself. It was really irritating to be honest.

“Ok, so what are we going to do?” Key hyung spoke up.

“They’ve probably made the room inescapable and any exit routes are probably y-trapped.” Minho hyung spoke up. “You can try them I guess, but BIGBANG is notorious for being the best at these kinds of things. They won’t let you out unless they want you out.”

“Wow Mr. Wise-Old-Owl. How d’ya know all this?” Jonghyun hyung asked.

“My hyung went to school with them. He used to be part of the local gang there and although he’s also older than them, he never stood up to them because of how badly he got beaten by one of their girls.” Minho hyung explained.

“Their girls?” I repeated.

“Y’know, like a girlfriend.” He explained.

“No, I mean I’m surprised he got beat up by a girl.” I said. “I’ve met your hyung before. He’s massive.”

“Yeah, I was surprised too. He was a senior at the time and she was a freshman. And he was one of the kingkas too.” Minho hyung told us.

“Sheesh. Even the chicks they pick up are nasty.” Key hyung remarked before wiping off more paint from his shirt.

When we finally found a light switch Minho noticed a box of instant ramen sitting in the corner by the door.

‘Enjoy. Couldn’t find a kettle. Sorry.’ Was written on a note on top of it.

“s.” Jonghyun muttered to himself as he passed the packets around and opened one up for himself.

“At least they had the humility to not let us starve.” Onew reasoned with him.

A couple hours passed and we had almost finished the whole box of noodles and before you complain about how much we sound like pigs, I’ll let you in on a secret. The five of us aren’t just a normal gang. We’re eachother’s only family. All five of us either don’t have any family, or got disowned or given up for adoption by them, so we have to lean on eachother for support. We all have part time jobs at whatever random restaurant or café will take us and we live together in a cramped two-bedroom apartment in a dodgy part of town with no air con and bad heating. We usually wear our school uniform, even outside school because we can’t afford the uniform and casual clothes. Heck, we can’t even afford the whole uniform. We have to buy cheaper jackets and such for winter and we sit out in PE because we don't have the uniform.

To be completely honest, we weren’t such s once. We just picked up the façade to cover up how poor we were. We used to come home and hate ourselves for the sort of stuff we did, but now it’s a second nature to us. To be honest, I used to be a bubbly, cute kinda kid.

Anyways, back to the story, more hours passed and we ended up spending the night there. We found a few jerseys piled up in a corner and used them as blankets.

Next morning when the first PE class found us, we ran out as fast as we could. I could hear students snickering and muttering things. It was humiliating. The hyungs were all violently angry and we didn’t go to school for the rest of the week.

– Sunghee’s POV –

Seeing the guys run out like that was pretty amusing and to have diva boy out of my face for the rest of the week was pretty awesome and time went by quickly. I hung out with my gang most lunches and stayed with the teachers every other lunch. Ryeowook hyung was always ridiculously worried about me and would keep asking why I have a bruise on my arm or whatever; Kangin hyung would always tell me jokes about SHINee; Kibum hyung (who had finally come back from his holiday to Jeju Island) was able to teach me more about English; Henry hyung’s a pretty awesome Canadian and thank god I finished that book on extended English or I wouldn’t be able to understand a single word coming out of his mouth and I think I'm starting to pick up a bit of Chinese from him and Hangeng hyung. And we locked Kyuhyun hyung in a closet because he wouldn’t shut up about how I'm his ‘favorite student’.

And before you ask, yes, I call them by hyung now. We’re that close.

Anyhows, it was soon Friday afternoon and I realized I was low on money, so I dropped by BB’s apartment and picked up my guitar to go busking. I found a relatively busy street and made a few dollars. Now that’s all normal for me, but here’s what was different about that day. After I packed up and was walking home after going grocery shopping, I noticed a familiar maknae sitting by himself in the park just across the street looking sorry for himself. So what did I do? I walked up to him.

Now I know what you’re thinking.

‘Yo. Sunghee. What in the crap are you doing? You hate those guys!’

Yes, I hate them, but it doesn’t mean I wasn’t interested in what was making him so sad and before I knew it, I was standing in front of the guy.

“Hey kiddo. What’s up?” I awkwardly casually greeted.

He looked up, shocked, for a moment and sniffed before replying. “None of your business. Why are you here?”

“I needed a bit of dough. Did some work, and now I'm on my way home. But I saw you and thought I should say ‘hi’.” I replied.

“You thought you should say hi?” he repeated skeptically. “Don’t you hate my guts or something? What drugs are you sniffing?” he scoffed.

“Hey! I take that into offence.” I said mock offended. “No, but seriously. I don’t hate your guts. You’re annoying as the most annoying on the planet, but no, I don't hate you that much.” I told him.

Another one of my rules: Don’t hate people without legitimate reason.

“…the hell…” he muttered to himself, looking me in the eye with much distaste.

“I heard that.” I stated blandly, plonking into the space on the bench next to him. “So. Talk to me.” I said.

“Talk? About what?” he asked.

“Well, I dunna. I got time to kill so whatever’s making you look like a I guess.” I shrugged.

He shot me a glare. “1: I don’t look like a and 2: Even if I do, why the hell would I tell you anyway?”

“Please brother, save it. You look so sorry for yourself right now a blind man could see it. And you’ll tell me because if you haven’t told your sparkly rainbow unicorn club hyungs, then you more likely than not have no one else to tell, hence why you’re sitting on a bench all alone in a park full of pretty flowers looking like a sorry .” I told him.

He sighed to himself. “Yeah, whatever.”

“So are you going to tell me or should I leave?” I asked.

“No.” he said.

“Alright then. I guess I’ll get go-“

“Can you sit with me a little longer?” he suddenly interrupted me.

I blinked at him. “Say what?”

“Damnit. I’m not going to repeat it. I’ll look like a freaken pansy.” He muttered.

“Not that you don't already.” I replied jokingly.

“Bastard.” He replied shortly.

I sighed. Whatever was going on probably involved most or all of his gang so he couldn’t talk to them about it so the poor kid was probably killing himself over it.

After a few minutes of silence, I took a banana milk carton out of one of the shopping bags and handed it to him.

He blinked when he saw it.

“Here.” I said. “It’s the only calcium I’ll be getting this week but you can have it. It usually makes me feel a bit better so maybe it’ll work for you too.”

He looked down to the carton in his hands, then back up to me and gave a small smile.

“..thanks..” he said quietly.

“Oh, sorry. What was that?” I asked, mockingly putting a hand to my ear.

“Shut up . I’m not going to say it again.” He muttered darkly looking in some other direction.

“Thanks~” I mimicked him in a weird voice.

“SON OF A .” He yelled and almost hit me as I ran off.

“SEEYA AT SCHOOL ON MONDAY KIDDO.” I yelled as I ran back to the main street.

The next week was kinda normal, save the fact that the prank war between me and diva boy was going to a whole new level.

He face pied me, I itch powdered his clothes in PE, he stuck stickies with drawn on them all over my locker, I y-trapped his lunch area, he bubble gummed my hair. That one was irritating, so on Friday, I filled his bag with nasties and dirt.

“OH MY ING GOD WHAT THE IS IN MY ING BAG.” The diva screamed. Literally. Screamed. In my ear.

I chuckled to myself and unfortunately, he caught onto it.

“You son of a . You’re going to die after school do you hear me?” he fumed.

“Hmm?” I asked, sounding oblivious.

“!” he screeched.

“You’re welcome.” I snickered.

“I’m going to get you back so bad you won’t even see it coming.” He threatened.

“Well I'm not the one walking around the school with pink hair.” I laughed.

And with that, he shut up and stormed out of class.

I was walking through the park by myself, humming to my own happy little tune when all of a sudden, there was dirt all over me.

I looked up and saw Key sitting in the tree I was passing under with his bag.

“That’s the best you got?” I asked. “I’m not some sissy prissy girl who’s scared of dirt.” I scoffed.

“Yeah. That’s not it.” Onew said, walking in front of me with Taemin, both with a baseball bat in hand.

“It was only to get your attention.” Jonghyun continued, coming out from behind me with Minho. They were also holding baseball bats.

Key jumped out of the tree and landed next to the trunk, picking up a baseball bat as well. “Payback time~” He sang in a taunting voice and before I knew it, they were all beating me with the bats. It went on for quite a few minutes and I managed a few punches, but I was still the one who was left almost immobile at the end of it. And then, they picked up and left.

I lay there for a while. To be precise, quite a few hours because I even saw the sun set. I was expecting one of the BB members to show up and drag my back to our apartment, but then I remembered they would all be working tonight until late. So I just lay there a little more and then a freaking mushroom popped up in my face.

“The hell do you want kid?” I snapped. I really wasn’t in the mood for it.

He just looked at me for a little bit more and sat down on the grass beside me.

“So instead of killing me, you’re going to give me the silent treatment to death.” I said darkly.

“Sorry.” He muttered quietly. And surprisingly, he sounded pretty sincere.

“Sorry for what?” I asked, my temper cooling rapidly into confusion.

“For not helping you after you helped me.” He said. “To be honest, I don’t really like the things we do.. I’m just… scared.”

“Scared?” I was getting more and more confused. “Scared of what?”

“My hyungs.” He told me. “I can’t stand up to them because I'm scared they’ll beat me too.”

“Have they done it before?” I asked.

He nodded. “The last time was last week when you saw me in the park.”

I was sitting up straight now. “ing s. I thought you were a gang.” I spat darkly.

“We are.” He replied, slightly confused.

“No you aren’t. A gang doesn't turn on their own members. That's corrupted. A gang is a family. You beat up anyone who hurts your members, not the other way around.” I told him. I grew up in a gang. I know what a gang is meant to be. It pissed me off to hear these punk wannabes were tainting the title of being a gang. “Anyway, why the hell are you back here?”

He was silent for a moment before he replied. “They got pissed at me for not wanting to bash you.”

“You what?” I thought I was confused before, but this is confusion on a whole new level.

 “I said I didn’t want to bash you.” He repeated. “You know, I used to think you were some tard who just wanted to be better than us, but you’re a really cool guy.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“It means I’d like to stop fighting. At least between the two of us.” He sighed. “To be honest, you seem like a cooler guy to hang out with than my gang.” He admitted.

“Wow… well… I guess I should take that as a compliment?” I said unsurely.

“Yeah whatever.” He sighed again. “Great. Now I gotta find somewhere to sleep tonight.”  He muttered.

I blinked. “You got kicked out?” I asked.

“Not really. I just don’t feel like going back tonight.” He explained.

“Well, we have a spare couch if you want to crash.” I offered.

“You're offering me to stay at your place?” he asked. “Are you nuts? I thought we were enemies or something?”

“Well, we don't see you as an enemy. Just a rival.” I told him. The confusion was evident on his face. “An enemy is a dangerous opposing gang. A rival is just an opposing gang. We house some of our rivals sometimes when they’re in the area or when they’re hiding from a common rival.”

“Right…” he said. “I guess we’re newbies to this then.” He joked.

“Damn straight you are.” I said back, checking the time. It was already past midnight.

“Well, are you going to stay over or not?” I asked.

“Yeah, ok.” He stood, before helping me to my feet.

I had to lean on Taemin and basically limped the whole way home, and when I got there, I was greeted by a very, extremely scary looking Kim Jiyong.

“WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN. AND WHY THE ARE YOU COVERED IN BRUISES AND DIRT. AND WHO THE IS THIS KID?” he screeched.

“Whoa there tiger.” I clamped one of my hands on his mouth to shut him up. “Long story short, I got jumped by a punk with a baseball bat. And this is one of my classmates, Taemin.” I covered up.

“Isn’t he in that gang? Sparkly or something.” Seungri asked.

“SHINee.” He corrected.

“Yeah, that.” Our maknae couldn’t be bothered to correct himself.

“He needs a place to crash.” I explained.

“Ngaw. Poor kid.” GD cooed, stepping forward to give the confused child a hug. “Don’t worry. You can crash here as many nights as you need.” He offered.

“Huh..? Forreal?” he asked.

“Sure, why not.” Daesung chimed. “It’s always cool to have other kids hanging around.”

“He has to pay for his own food though!” TOP yelled from the bathroom. “I’m not working overtime for your freaken boyfriend!”

“Jesus Christ. I’m not gay alright?” I joked, causing TOP to let out his deep ‘manly’ (as he calls it) laugh. “You can just busk with me and that’ll probably be enough to get you by.” I told him, and he smiled and mouthed a ‘thanks’.

Just then, the door opened behind me and Taeyang walked in.

. My. Life.

“OH MY GOD. WHY THE ARE YOU COVERED IN ALL THIS CRAP. ARE YOU INJURED? OMG YOU HAVE SO MANY BRUISES AND CUTS. I’M GOING TO FIX YOU UP RIGHT NOW.” He declared and dragged me into his bedroom, leaving an awkward Taemin in an awkward situation. But because Daesung was there, it didn’t turn out so bad.

– Taemin’s POV –

“Hey Taemin right?” the guy with the really small eyes asked.

I nodded.

“I’m Daesung, but I'm cool if you just call me hyung. You look like you need a shower. You can use it after TOP hyung is done. I’ll get you a towel and you can borrow some of Ri’s clothes.” He said, rummaging through a pile of colored towels before finding one appropriate for me and tossing it to me as ‘Ri’ found a few sets of clean clothes for me.

“..uh… thanks.” I managed. It was weird. I didn't even know these guys and they were treating me like old friends.

“You look like you’re uncomfortable about something.” The panda eyed one said. “What’s up?”

“Uh… well… I don’t know… I’m just not used to being treated like this I guess?” I said.

“Say what?” they all asked at the same time.

“Your gang isn't like this?” the white blonde one asked me.

“Well… no… it’s almost the opposite of this…” I confessed.

“Ahh… newbies…” the tallest guy said, shaking his head as he came out, a single towel around his waist and a smaller one around his neck. His abs were scarily defined and quite intimidating. “You can go shower now kiddo.”

I nodded and walked off, taking note of what one of them said about how dinner would be ready after I was done.

I stepped into the shower with a content sigh. It was my first hot shower in a while. Our water heater was getting old and hadn’t been working properly for a while. I scrubbed the sweat and grime from my skin, dried off after I was done and slipped on the cargos and baggy shirt with BigBang’s crown logo on it. As soon as I opened the door, I was hit by the smell of chinese style pork chops and rice. I quietly made my way back to the living room and saw the six of them eating together over the small fold up table and laughing. When they noticed me standing there, they called me over and pulled up a stool for me to sit on. They gave me a full bowl of rice and another bowl of a soup of some sort. It was a nice change from the ramen I was eating for the last few months.

“Hey, Taemin. You alright?” Hyunsuk suddenly asked me.

“Huh? I’m fine. What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You’re crying dear.” GD told me.

I was confused. Me? Crying? No way. But I guess the wet spots on my shirt proved me wrong.

Within ten seconds, I was a blubbering mess in Hyunsuk’s arms. Thinking about it now, I felt like I had a gay moment, but at the time, it was nice to just feel like someone really cared about you, you know?

Anyhow, I slept over that night, not that we actually slept that much. TOP hyung, GD hyung and Taeyang hyung got drunk and passed out and Hyunsuk, Dae hyung, Ri hyung and I decided to draw on their faces with permanent marker while they were asleep and we pretty much succeeded but klutzy Dae hyung tripped while we were getting out of GD hyung’s room and he made a scene so he ended up waking up TOP hyung and Taeyang hyung as well and we got chased around for the bit and had to suffer from the ‘tickle punishment’. The rest of the night, we sat around playing games, drank a bit more and hung out at the night street market. We got back to their apartment at around five o’clock in the morning fell asleep on top of eachother in the living room.

It was probably TOP hyung who got up first at around seven o’clock. He has two jobs, one in the morning at a supermarket as a cashier and another one at night as a bar tender. Dae hyung and Ri hyung left a little while after to go to cram school and then Taeyang hyung went to a job interview leaving me, Hyunsuk and GD hyung sleeping together on the carpet of the living room.

“Hyunnie, Minnie. Get up.” GD hyung shook the two of us awake to the wonderful scent of a cooked Korean breakfast.

It took much effort to pick my lazy body off the ground and Hyunsuk looked like he had the worst hangover of the century. Well, I DID warn him not to drink more than five cups of Tequila, but he brushed me off and downed it like it was nothing. Serves him right for being a .

“Damn this hangover.” I heard him curse under his breath.

“I did warn ya~” I said in a sing-song voice.

“Aish. Shut it kid.” He gave me a mock annoyed look.

“Fine then.” I pouted, mock hurt and ‘stormed’ off to the eating table.

After breakfast, I suddenly felt extremely imposing.

“Ah… I should probably… go…” I managed.

Hyunsuk blinked at me. “You mean back to SHINee?” he asked.

“Yeah… I guess… I mean, where else is there for me to go?” I tried to make a joke.

“Well… I’d love for you to stay longer,” GD hyung started, “But it’s not like I'm going to force you to do anything. Just know you’re welcome back anytime arrasso?” he told me.

I gave a small smile and nodded.

After I changed back into my uniform, that Hyunsuk had washed for me, I reluctantly made my way back to my apartment.

When I got there, I suddenly started to notice exactly how dark the place was. And I don’t mean physically dark, but the vibe the place gave off was just so dark compared to Hyunsuk’s place. I mean, sure they were also a gang, and rumor has it they’re one of the most dangerous in the area, but they’re still more… family-like than SHINee.

“Yah. Maknae.” Jonghyun’s voice called me. “Where the hell have you been?” he asked.

“I went to see my mother.” I lied.

“Your mom’s dead Taemin.” Key told me.

“And your point is?” I continued.

“You slept next to a gravestone all night?” he asked.

“Do you have a problem with that?” I replied with a question of my own.

“No, but-“

“Then I don’t see the point in continuing with asking me these questions.” I snapped and walked off to my bedroom where I sat on my mattress in my corner of the room and stayed there.

I noticed Minho, who (by the way) doesn’t give a about the world, look up and watch me worriedly as I made my way to the small room. He surprised me by walking in and asking what was wrong. Like I said, the guy doesn’t give a about the world so to see him ask me if I was ‘ok’ was a completely new concept to me. I lied and told him I was fine and that I just wanted to spend some time alone. He nodded and left me alone, but I knew he would be sitting just outside the door until he thought I had enough time and would come right in and ask me again. He was just that kind of guy. Whenever he was worried about something, he would be majorly worried and check up on it as many times as possible.

The weekend was boring, and I found myself getting up early on Monday to watch the basketball team train in the morning. To my surprise, Hyunsuk was there and he had been elected as captain and shooting guard. He was good on court and ran faster than the previous captain did. Luckily for me, training for them ended late, meaning I got to watch them longer. After they finished, I called Hyunsuk over and we talked for a bit. He offered to jig the rest of the day with me, so we jumped fence and hung out at the café down the road. I would normally only be able to afford a small iced coffee, but before I could pay, Hyunsuk leaned over the counter, changed it to a large frappachino and shoved a couple notes to the stunned cashier. She tried to tell him that his behavior was ‘not allowed’ or something, but he just brushed it off and asked her to ‘forgive him this once’. I noticed that she tried to protest again, but he gave a dashing wink and the poor girl shut up and immediately went to completing the order.

We talked about stuff, and he asked me how my weekend was. I told him exactly as it was.

“Uneventful.”

“Really? Well, at least it wasn’t depressingly eventful.” He said.

I shrugged and sipped on the drink. My phone rang for the 50^th time and I checked the ID.

‘Key Omma’

I put the call on silent and ignored it.

“You know, just because they’re somewhat horrible s, doesn’t mean they don’t care about you.” Hyunsuk said, looking concerned. “The poor guys are probably worried sick about you and knowing how Key is, he’s probably gone looking for my gang to hold us responsible for your running away.”

Taemin gave me a look and speak of the devil, the phone rang again.

He waited a moment before picking up and although it wasn’t on loudspeaker, I’m pretty sure half the café could hear the diva’s worried voice as he screeched profanities about my gang and how they were ‘most certainly’ responsible for the kidnapping of his ‘poor baby’. I sniggered at that.

Taemin explained that he was still feeling out of it and wanted to be left alone for a few days before hanging up, not giving the other guy a chance to say anything else.

I noticed a dead look in his eyes as he looked out the window after the call.

“What’s up kiddo?” I asked.

“I feel bad… guilty to be more precise.” He confessed.

“For what?” I asked.

“Key hyung… he may act mean and everything… but he’s a really nice guy… and I just made him worry about me.” He said quietly.

I sighed, wondering what in the world I was going to do about this kid. “We all need our alone time, and sometimes we forget about the people around us and make them worry but it’s not the end of the world.” I explained.

“He was crying, hyung. I made him cry. My omma always told me I wasn’t allowed to make anyone cry. Not my hyungs, noonas, dongsengs, ahjummas, ahjusshis, halmonis or halabojis or anyone. She always said it was a bad thing to do.”

“Making someone cry isn’t necessarily a good thing, but it’s not a bad thing if you haven’t done it on purpose.” I told him. “Have a little more faith in yourself. And also your family.”

“Family?” he asked. “My family d-“

“Not your biological family, Taemin.” I cut him off. “SHINee. Or as I call it, the sparkly rainbow unicorn club.” I joked. He smiled. That was a good sign.

“Shut up.” He muttered trying to sound angry, but unable to hide the undeniable grin on his face.

“They may seem like jerk faces who don’t care, but like you said, Key was just crying because he was worried about you. That’s gotta mean something.” I told him.

Taemin took a bit to think about it, but I knew he agreed with me.

That night, Taemin crashed at my place again, and because TOP was at work, there was a little more space for him at the table. By now, they all understood that Taemin was having some ‘family issues’ and just needed some time alone and they were all totally fine with it. Seungri had run away to Teddy hyung’s apartment multiple times to get away from us and I have been tempted numerous times to go back home and climb to the top of the mountain where the wishing well was and just stay there for however long I deemed appropriate. The other members of my gang just throw tantrums like little children to deal with it.

Anyhows, the rest of the week followed in a regular fashion. I would prank Key when I could, jig a few periods with Taemin and chill with the mentor hyungs at lunch.

That day, it was Key’s turn to prank me. And yes, we somehow worked into a sort of a routine for pranking. I would prank him one day, there would be a day or two of a gap and then he would prank me back. Although Key’s pranks were getting a bit… crazy, I decided to keep mine at a hard-to-beat but still playful level. I was expecting Key to throw something in my face at any moment, but instead, a worried Taemin ran straight into me.

“Hyung! You gotta get away from school!” He told me in a panicked voice.

“Whoa there kiddo. What’s going on?” I asked, trying to get him to calm down.

“Key hyung’s going to get the other hyungs to bash you again!” He rambled.

“And why would he want to do that?” I asked. “Last time I checked a frog in a bag wasn’t something majorly serious."

“It’s… It’s because I told him where I was on Monday night and he thinks you’re the one who made me moody for the last two weeks.” He blabbered.

“So he wants to hold me responsible for that?” I gathered and Taemin just nodded in reply. “Well he can just come and get me. I don't give a damn.” I said, ruffling his hair and attempting to just move on.

“No! You don’t get it! Key hyung is seriously mad this time and he probably won’t stop until your head is cracked open.”

I blinked. “That’s slightly disturbing but I'm sure he wouldn’t do that.”

“You want a ing bet?” the diva’s voice interrupted our conversation and lo and behold there he was with his four other hyungs standing no more than twenty meters away from the two of us.

“Do you even have any money to bet with?” I shot back smartly.

He looked infuriated. “.” He started to storm towards me. I held my ground. “FIRST YOU UPSET TAEMIN AND NOW YOU WANT TO INSULT ME ON HOW MUCH MONEY I HAVE? I’M GOING TO BASH YOU SO HARD YOU’LL-“

“STOP IT.”

I was surprised to hear Taemin’s voice at that moment in time. 

_________________________________________________
O: Cliffies! So that's it. 6122words. You should be proud of
yourself. LOL. anyhows, le poll is just below~

and one last thing.
please, please, please comment.
i dont even care if you just leave 'sjhbdakj' or '.' i just want to 
know if there are people who are actually still reading it is all. 
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