Title: Honey Ramen (4/?)
Author: jaesunbb 
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: 2MIN, JongTae
Genre: angst, AU, school life, romance, drama
Warnings: language, homophobia, bullying, OOC
A/N: Oooh, the drama.

     When Taemin arrived at school that next morning, he thought about the day before. How he carefully pushed himself off of Minho's lap immediately, shock stricken across his face. The look Minho gave Taemin was such a sad, warm gaze that made Taemin's insides flutter. Just thinking about it made his cheeks hot. Before Taemin left Minho's house that afternoon, Minho mumbled that he would do the entire project as if apologizing.

    Taemin's stomach was in knots, afraid that he was going to see Minho sitting at their shared table looking pissed. Instead, he saw a bored Minho already seated near the corner, fingers tapping lightly on the desk. Key was nowhere in sight, making Taemin feel even more content as he knew that Key was just going to poke fun at the pair. Taemin took his seat beside him and hesitantly greeted him. Minho simply turned to face him, and waved lazily to him, a weak smile on his lips.

    "Uh… about last ni-" Taemin started.

    "I know, I know. I have it right here," Minho interrupted him, tossing out a packet of papers, held together by a tiny staple in the corner. 

    Taemin was actually kind of surprised, yet relieved that Minho somehow forgot about the incident and really did the project entirely by himself. He was pleased Minho even did it correct as he read a paragraph from the packet.

    The two sat in silence which Taemin was already used to since the first day he was here. But today, something was off about himself, he barely paid any attention to anything Mrs. Jung said, and his stomach were doing somersaults whenever Minho's gaze turned to him.

    What was this odd feeling bubbling inside him? It made him sick.

    About twenty minutes into class, with his stomach never easing from his thoughts about Minho, he finally had the courage to talk to Minho, even though it was no help to what he was currently feeling.

    "So... um, what do you like?"

    Minho looked at him with risen brows and Taemin blinks slightly, lifting his shoulders as he spittle out an excuse, "We're going to be partners for the rest of the year, we should get to know each other, you know...?"

    He felt nervousness surge through him, "Well, I like to listen to music, play video games, and--"     

    Minho cuts him off with a whole different topic, "Do you have a cellphone?"

    Taemin thinks for a brief moment before he replied, "Er, yeah."

    "Lemme see."

    Taemin hesitates, "Why?"

    "Just lemme see, kid." 

    Taemin eyed the teacher nervously before pulling out his cellphone, handing it to Minho under the table. 

    Minhho takes it and studies it before he glides his fingers across the small device. After a matter of minutes, he hands it back to the younger boy.

    Taemin shoves it into his pocket as he sees the teacher walking up and down the aisles. He wonders with great curiosity what Minho put in his phone, if he even did that is.
 

    When lunch time came, Taemin abandoned his usual spot at the lunch table beside Jonghyun in the cafeteria. Even though Taemin knew it was nearly impossible, he hoped that Jonghyun wouldn't notice him missing. Taemin nervously headed towards where Minho and his senior friends sat, and when he approached them by a feet away, they seemed less than welcome, and Onew was absent from the table of seniors.

    Soohyun speaks up, an annoyed expression across his face, "Yah. What are you doing here?"

    Taemin doesn't know how to respond as he turns his gaze to Minho who simply stares at him with his eyebrows knitted together. 

    "Wait, isn't that the who kissed Minho at the party?" Doojoon loudly chimes with interest. Minho only scoffs and jabs him in the stomach which Doojoon brushes off. Taemin's stomach was caught in his throat, his face flushed. He thought everyone forgot about that. Taemin felt his face heat up even more when Minho held his intense stare. 

    "You better get out of our sight, you ing . Unless you want to get a beating." 

    Taemin stays put as if he's frozen in his place. His heart races faster, his eyes darting around him, but calms a bit down when nobody takes notices of the scene. 

    "He's really asking for it, heh." Junhyung smirks as he cracks his knuckles, and sits up out of his seat from the lunch table. The senior table cheers for Junhyung to beat the smaller boy, even Minho encouraged him. Taemin panics and takes a step back, ready to sprint away, but he's too slow as he feels a punch to the stomach. Junhyung grips Taemin by his uniform shirt, pushing him against a nearby wall in the cafeteria. Hoards of people began gathering around, excited yet again for another fight in just one week. Junhyung sends him another punch across the face. Taemin struggles violently, trying to escape from Junhyung's grip. He fails horribly as Junhyung's grasp only tightens, his fist once again colliding into Taemin's face. 

    "That's enough, dip!"

    Taemin falls roughly onto the cold floor of the cafeteria as Minho pushes Junhyung away from Taemin, sending the older boy crashing to the ground. He grabbed Taemin by the arm and forcefully dragged him outside the cafeteria, Taemin looking completely stunned by Minho's sudden appearance. 

    "What the , Minho?" Taemin swore at Minho for the first time, ripping his arm out of Minho's grip and shoving at Minho's shoulders, pushing the other boy away from him slightly. Taemin's bottom lip was split, blood trickling down his forehead, and he could feel the bruises forming everywhere. His vision is blurry, and his head is throbbing.

    Taemin glared daggers into him and stormed away from the courtyard.  Minho stood there bewildered as he watched Taemin stomp off. As he came to his senses, he started running after Taemin.

    Taemin continued his fast pace for quite a while with Minho following his trail, keeping his distance from the upset boy. He felt he should wait until Taemin was a bit calmer to say or do anything.

    After a good 10 minutes of walking outside the school campus, Taemin abruptly stopped and fell to his knees, cradling his head in his arms. 

    Minho stood there shocked and confused, looking at Taemin, he didn't know how to react. 

    Taemin bite his quivering lip while he fought back the tears threatening him. 

    Minho watched as Taemin gently rocked back and forth holding desperately onto his head. Minho noticed a few tears fall onto the pavement in front of Taemin, causing him to panic. He really didn't know what he should do, and what was he currently dealing with.

    Minho seemed so shaken up by what he had just seen. He felt so bad for Taemin, no one should have to go through that , even if he did kind of provoke it…

    Minho sets aside his pride and sits beside Taemin, taking off his jacket and cautiously wrapping it around Taemin.
    
    He murmurs softly, "You should go home."

    Taemin absentmindedly nods and walks home, his legs wobbling on the way. Minho watched him with a sadden expression before he turned around and walked back to school, his hands shoved into his pockets for warmth.

    When Taemin came home that afternoon, his mother rushes to him, crying to him about what happened. Taemin only gives her a weak smile, and tells her he just ran into a pole. It was a huge lie, and Taemin could tell his mother knew. Much to Taemin's relief, she backs off though and instead offers him to make his favorite meal for dinner. He accepts and thanks her before heading upstairs to to wash up. 

    Before changing into a clean set of clothes, he looks at the jacket wrapped over his shoulders. Then he remembered.

    Oh God. He just broke down in front of Minho.

    His cheeks heat from embarrassment before he strips it off, and tosses it on the floor of his room. He changed into a bright colored hoodie and dark skinnies, just in case he was going anywhere later. He even had his cellphone in his pocket and a chapstick in the other. He has nothing to do, and he decides just to lay on his bed. Eventually he fell asleep.

    After a few hours, his cellphone rings and he digs around in his pockets until he retrieved his phone. The caller ID reads, Jonghyun. He stares at it, letting it ring a couple times before he answered it. 

    "… Hello?" Taemin answered groggily. Jonghyun on the other line sighed gratefully. 

    "I heard what happened! Are you ing okay?!" Taemin pulls the phone away from his ear as Jonghyun shouts loudly in concern.

    "Yeah. Where were you?"  Taemin asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

    "Somewhere with this guy, Key," Jonghyun began, "Why? Were you expecting me to come rescue you, my princess?" He continued, laughing lightly.

    Taemin sighed, "Yeah, right. Can I..." He trailed off as he rubbed at his aching head, "--come over?"

    There is a pause on the other line.

    "Of course, you can, dude!" Jonghyun answered rather cheerfully. Taemin tells him he'll be there in a couple of minutes and hangs up. 

    He opened his desk drawer and pulled out cover-up makeup he had stolen from his mom. He grudgingly flicked on his lamp, wincing at the sudden change of light, and walked over to his mirror.

    His face looked terrible.

    He opened the little makeup container and started to apply the cover-up to the cuts and bruises forming on his sore face. After applying it, he looked pleased as his face didn't look as bad as it was.

    Taemin rushes downstairs, and glances around. His mother's back is turned from him, so he takes this chance and swiftly takes his shoes before dashing out the door.

    Once he was far enough from his house, he places his shoes on the ground and pulls them on.

    After walking for fifteen mintues, he lifted his eyes from the pavement and found himself outside of Jonghyun's house. He walked quickly up to Jonghyun's doorstep, knocked on the door and waited. The door opened in less than a minute and Jonghyun greets him brightly. Taemin feels as if this guy wasn't who Minho described as: fake, liar,backstabber, and girlfriend stealer. He shakes his head at his thoughts and enters the older boy's house.

    Taemin was already familiar to Jonghyun's home and immediately felt comfortable. Jonghyun leaded him to his room that was filled with musical instruments and anything music-related. 

    They watched a few horror flicks for a couple of hours. Then they finally settled on video games, quickly getting bored and constantly switching the game they were playing. They did that for a good two hours before Jonghyun noticed Taemin's character had stopped moving.
    
    He looked down at Taemin sitting on the floor and saw the boy had fallen asleep with his back up against his dresser. He smiled to himself and just sat there staring at Taemin.

    Jonghyun felt his face heat up, averting his gaze away from Taemin but found himself unable to stop his curiosity when it came to the sleeping boy.

    He saw a bruise around Taemin's eye, he didn't notice it until now. He figured the young boy had covered it up with concealer. Jonghyun set his controller down beside him on his bed and quietly moved down to Taemin, unable to stop himself. He was nervous and freaked out by the fact that he was so interested in Taemin, but… that bruise looked pretty bad. He quietly gets down onto the floor, approaching the younger boy.

    Eyeing Taemin to see if he was still asleep, and getting reassurance when he heard a small snore from him, he slowly reached his hand out and gently ran his fingers around the area of his eye.

    Jesus Christ. It was really bad. Jonghyun was extremely saddened by the sight.

    "Wha--" Taemin's eyes widened when he realized where Jonghyun's fingers were.

    He quickly swatted Jonghyun's hand away.

    Taemin turned away from Jonghyun and sat cross legged, his face heating up with embarrassment.

    Jonghyun just looked at him sadly.

    "You want me to kick their asses? I already told not to hang around Minho and his stupid senior friends!" Jonghyun exclaimed, his fists clenched into a ball.

    "Don't worry about it…" Jonghyun could hear the sadness in Taemin's voice. 

    Jonghyun felt his stomach knot up. Jonghyun didn't know why, but he had the strongest ing urge in the world to just kiss Taemin right now, to hold him. The guy looked like he could use some comforting.

    Jonghyun took his hand and placed it gently over the bruise on Taemin's cheek. Taemin doesn't react and stares at the older boy. Jonghyun instantly felt the electricity from his touch but held his gaze on Taemin's eyes.

    Jonghyun leaned towards Taemin, their noses meeting together. He softly rubbed his nose against Taemin's and planted a sweet, gentle kiss on it. He could feel Taemin's heart pounding. 

    Taemin realized he had been holding his breath and exhaled slowly. He places a hand on Jonghyun's chest, fingers curling against it. He squeezes his eyes and pushes him back. He shakes his head and gets up to leave the yellow-fringed boy's house.

    "Wait. Tae--"

    Taemin's already gone.

    That night, Taemin shoved his face into his pillow and screamed as loud as he could. He felt tears stinging at his eyes, unsure if it was merely from the pain of his bruises, or from the frustration and fear. 

    He didn't want to feel this way.

    He didn't want to be gay. He wanted to be normal.

    Taemin retrieves his phone from his bedside table. He scans at the list of contacts and comes across a familiar name.

    Minho.

    He stared up at the name, angry. He threw it against the wall, and it snapped in two.