“Hyung, please.” Taemin called again, shaking Kibum’s shoulders. “You’re scaring me. Talk to me.”

“I was so stupid. So, so stupid.”

“What are you talking about, hyung? What’s going on?”

Kibum clenched his fists and tried to hold the tears. “This can’t be happening. I don’t- I can’t be.”

“You’re not making any sense, hyung.” Taemin said, worried about the other. His hand was resting on the other’s back, mindlessly rubbing it. “This is about Minho hyung, isn’t it?”

He looked at Taemin and felt so bad upon seeing the look on his face. “I’m sorry, Taemin. I’m hurting you too now. I really am stupid. I didn’t want any of this.” He sighed again. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.”

Kibum grabbed his hands and stared at his eyes. “You are amazing, Taemin. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. You accept me for who I am, you’re always there for me and you didn’t run when you found out. And I tried, I swear that I tried but I can’t-“

“You can’t love me.” Taemin finished the sentence for him, looking at their hands. “I understand. Your heart already belongs to someone else.”

“I didn’t want it to be like this, you-“

“Hyung.” The human said, smiling through the tears. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. And even though I’ve tried to deny it, I’ve also seen the way you smile and the way your eyes sparkle when he’s near.”

“It doesn’t matter now. He’s never going to forgive me and, even if he did, Kyungsoo is set on finding a way of opening the gate. We’re all going to leave soon.”

Kibum closed his eyes and shrugged, still holding Taemin’s hands and waiting for an answer. When that answer didn’t come, he looked up to find Taemin wide eyed and only then he realized what he had said. He reached forward to touch the other’s face but he flinched away.

“You’re leaving?”

“Taemin-“

“When?”

“I don’t know, I just-“

“Were you going to tell me?”

“Of course, I-“

“You weren’t, were you? You were just going to leave without saying anything!” He exclaimed, scaring Kibum. “I was going to wake up on day only to find out that you disappeared!”

“Taemin, please, calm down.” Kibum pleaded, trying to ease the other. “I promise. I promise I’ll let you know.”

He sighed and pulled Kibum to him so he could hug him. “Thank you, hyung. Come on, I’ll walk you home.”

**

Minho was walking in the living-room, followed by Soo Jin and Minki. The two kids didn’t stop questioning him the whole way home making him anxious. Since when were they that close to Key that they ended up crying because they couldn’t see him again? Minho knew Soo Jin and Minki liked him but he never thought it was till this extent.

That would make things even harder. He didn’t know what Key was, he only knew he was dangerous. What kind of human grew horns out of nowhere? Key had been lying all this time and Minho felt betrayed. He really wanted to try to get to know the other better. He liked him. He was attracted to him. Key was always so gentle and nice and caring but to hide a thing of this proportion… Minho didn’t know what to do or what to think.

“Appa, were you serious?” Soo Jin asked, her eyes tearing again. “We can never see Key-oppa again?”

“Yes, you heard what I said. And I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Soo Jin.”

“But appa-” Minki started, being interrupted by the look Minho gave him, warning him to end the subject.

“You both saw what happened. He’s dangerous.”

“Key oppa would never hurt us. Appa, he’s our friend.” Soo Jin tried again, now with her tears running down her face. “What about Onew oppa?”

“He has nothing to do with this. I don’t even know if he has any idea about this.”

“Does it mean that we can see him again?” It was Minki’s time to talk.

Minho stopped pacing around and looked at his sons, sitting on the couch, with red little noses. “Yes, I think so. I’ll call him to ask if he can come here tonight and take care of you two. I have something to do.” Minho said, looking for his phone. “But you’re not going to say anything about Key. I’ll talk with Onew later about that.”

He watched as his kids nodded and waited in silence for Onew to answer the call.

“Hi, Onew hyung.” He waited for the answer and then continued. “I’m calling to ask if you could come and spend the night with Soo Jin and Minki. Yeah. I know I’m asking too much, but I need to go out tonight and I’ll probably be back late. Are you sure? I can pay you more, since you’re going to spend the night. Thank you, thank you so much hyung.” He said, hanging up the call and looking at his children. “Onew hyung is going to spend the night here. Please behave. And sleep! I’ll be home late.”

“You’re going to kiss us goodnight when you arrive?”

“Of course I will.” He tried to smile. “You guys know that I love you, right? I’ll never do anything to hurt you.” The kids nodded. “That’s why I need to be alone for some hours, okay?”

“Will you be okay, appa?”

Minho walked to them and kissed their foreheads. “I’ll try.”

He left them on the living room to watch cartoons and walked to his bathroom. He needed to take a bath and be ready to leave the moment Onew arrived. Minho didn’t want to talk to anyone and he was sure that if the other saw him for a while, he would notice that something was wrong. He didn’t want that. He just wanted to forget.

His life was a mess. He was in love with a out-of-this-world creature and even though he knew he should stop thinking about him, he was angry, because Key didn’t trust him enough to tell him the truth, and scared, since he didn’t know what he was capable of. What if the hurt him or his children? Minho couldn’t risk that. The best thing to do was to stay away, even though it was going to be hard for everyone.  

**

Kibum was preparing a glass of milk to calm down. Kyungsoo decided to go have fun and Jinki said he was going to Minho’s house to take care of the kids, not leaving any time for him to explain what happened. At that moment, he was alone in the house. His horns continued to grow and his hair was now almost white, so he decided to stop trying to cover them. He was looking for the remote to see what was happening on the TV when the doorbell rang. It was already 3 a.m., and he had no clue of whom it could be, so he walked slowly to the door and opened it, revealing a very drunk Minho leaning against the wall.

“M-Minho? What are you doing here this late at night?” He asked, surprised, and trying once more to cover his horns.

“Are they sleeping?”

“Who’s sleeping? Come in and sit on the couch. I’ll give you a glass of water or something.”

“Soo Jin and Minki.” He answered, leaning on Kibum. “I couldn’t find the keys.”

“They wouldn’t work anyway, you’re in my house. Sit here, I’ll bring you some water and call a cab maybe.” He said, bringing him to the couch.

“Don’t. I can go home by myself.”

Kibum ignored him and walked to the kitchen. He filled a glass with water, and looked for a pill to prevent the headache he was sure that would come. Then, he appeared on the living room, grabbing his phone on the way. However, when he got there, Minho was already with his eyes closed, sleeping. He set the glass down on the table and looked at Minho, thinking about what to do. He went to his room to grab something that could cover the human so he wouldn’t be cold.

“I don’t know what to do.” Minho whispered, catching his attention when he was putting the comforter on top of him.

“What?”

“I don’t know. My children, they are so sad.” He said, his eyes open but not looking at anything in particular.  “I can’t see that look in their faces. My little angels.”

Kibum took a deep breath and adjusted his position on the couch. “Minho, please, try to sleep.”

When the human didn’t say anything, Kibum sighed and got up, ready to go back to his room and try to sleep. Which was going to be a difficult task now that he knew Minho was in the same place as he was. Why did he have to come to his house of all places?

“I wanted to make them happy.” He heard him saying when he was about to open the door. “I wanted to be happy too. I would like to wake up and see someone next to me. Someone who would tell me that Soo Jin slept well and that Minki called to say that he couldn’t sleep.” Minho continued and Kibum felt his eyes got teary again. He took a few steps closer to the couch so that he could watch Minho while he spoke. “Someone who would like to leave a lock on the Namsan Tower, you know? The one where you’re supposed to leave a love lock. I’ve always wanted to do that, but their mother never wanted to.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “I wanted to go ice skating, it must be fun. But the kids are afraid and I really don’t know how to convince them to go. You know what I really want, though? Someone I can trust. Someone to share my happiness with. Someone to hold. I wanted to hold someone’s hand and think ‘This is it. This is what it feels like to be happy.’ while looking at Soo Jin and Minki sleeping. I…”

Kibum couldn’t listen to anymore of what Minho had to say so he turned around, when the human spoke again. “You, Key. I wanted to do all those things with you because I really like you. You’re everything I could ask for. But… what are you?”

Key felt like his heart was going to jump out of his chest. He never expected to hear Minho say those things. He waited until he was sure that the human was really sleeping and moved closer. His eyes were burning as he sat on the couch, next to Minho. In that moment, he felt that everything was possible. Minho was snoring lightly and he held his hand, intertwining their fingers and promising: “We’ll do it. Don’t worry. I want to do everything. Whatever you want to do, let’s do it together. You can’t be afraid of me because I’ll never hurt you.”

Hi! Here's another chapter.

I didn't have the time to update on friday so I'm doing it now! 

I know some of you asked why weren't Jinki and Kyungsoo changing like Kibum is but I can't answer that yet :3 I hope you guys stick around to find out why though! It's been really funny to write this story but I think we're getting closer and closer to the end. I already have everything planned but it's still unwritten. I'm on summer break now so maybe updates will come more often? We'll see!

As always, thanks for reading, subscribing and commenting <3