A/N: This was supposed to be comedy, but it ended up being something completely different. It just wrote itself and I had absolutely no choice in the matter. The drabble (fic?) is from Jonghyun's POV. Mentions of past JongKey and slight MinKey, but the main pairing is of course WooKey. :) With ToHeart set to officially debut in 4 days, my excitement levels just keep getting higher! I hope that Shawols and Inspirits support this wonderful new sub-unit, and that WooKey fans multiply (because how can you not ship these two BFFs collaborating to produce music?).

As always, I apologize for any inconsistencies, and I hope you enjoy the read. ToHeart fighting!

Drabble #4: Intervention

Kibum’s being about as subtle as a rock right before it’s smashed into your face.

Normally Jonghyun would have a good laugh about this (and he does), but his bandmate’s patience is wearing thin and it’s reflecting in the way he’s been acting even more petulant and childish than usual. The clinginess he doesn’t mind, since it’s a refreshing change when it’s always him who has to make the first move. A petulant Kibum is actually kind of cute, although he doesn’t think he’ll be telling him that any time soon.

It’s the fact that Kibum invites Woohyun over practically every day off and forces him to watch like a lost little lamb while he drapes himself over Jonghyun that he can’t stand. He’s all right with being used, if that’s the right term for it, but Kibum’s methods are obviously not working, and it bothers him that his friend is pulling out all the stops when the guy he likes doesn’t even notice. The Infinite vocalist must be blind, or he really doesn’t swing that way.

Jonghyun decides to find out for himself.

Using the paltry excuse of looking through Kibum’s most recent playlist, he easily gets permission to fiddle around with the other man’s phone. Scrolling through the inbox, it takes no time at all to get Woohyun’s number (Kibum has him listed as ‘My W’ in English), and he quickly memorizes the number, transferring it to his own phone and closing the window just as Kibum enters the living room, hair damp from the shower and dressed only in a bathrobe. He plops down on the seat right next to Jonghyun, bag of toiletries in hand. His heart thuds loudly in his chest, and he hopes Kibum hasn’t caught him sniffing around.

“Find anything interesting?” Neatly wrapping a towel around his head, Kibum rummages around for a moment and huffs an irritated sigh. “Now where’d I put that stupid night cream…”

To his relief, it seems the black-haired man is distracted. Jonghyun sets down both phones on the other side of the sofa, singing softly to himself, and turns his attention to the ped bag, bottles and other small containers spilling across Kibum’s lap. He’s seen Kibum go through his facial regimen enough times to know what the night cream looks like, so he plucks it out of the mess and places it into his hand. He’s rewarded with a grateful smile and he smiles back, trying to ignore the twinge of guilt in his stomach.

Later that night, he sends a message to Kibum’s best friend, inviting him for a friendly chat. Woohyun doesn’t answer right away, but when he does, his response is polite and reserved: it would be an honor, he says, but only if he isn’t in the way of his senior’s schedule. Jonghyun arranges the date and time, and the younger man agrees.

The next morning, he sidles up to Minho. “You free this afternoon?” The rapper nods slightly, giving Jonghyun a skeptical once-over.

“What do you want, hyung?”

“I need you to go shopping with Kibum.” Minho grunts; out of the four he’s always had the least patience for accompanying their fashion-forward friend. Taemin, ever attached to Kibum, always eagerly goes when invited, spouting cheesy nonsense like ‘as long as it’s Kibum-hyung, he’ll look good in anything’. With Jinki-hyung the shopping trip quickly degrades into a food trip (although he’s generous enough to pay for Kibum’s purchases whenever they go). He used to go shopping frequently with Kibum, but they don’t have much time for that these days, and there’s no point in him going if he wants to confront Woohyun. Minho will have to do, even if all he does is complain about how long Kibum takes in the dressing rooms and attract unnecessary attention with his tall, broad-shouldered frame (which he is not at all jealous of). With fair-skinned, slender Kibum, whose looks rival those of a woman, they would probably make a picture-perfect couple.

Their tallest member grimaces, but he nods again. Anything for Kibum, those exasperated large eyes seem to say, and Jonghyun grins, satisfied.

Woohyun comes over at precisely 3 o’clock, just as planned. He looks like he’d rather be anywhere else than with Jonghyun, but he knows it’s nothing personal. Woohyun’s always been awkward with SHINee, barring Kibum, and his bandmate’s not really the type to ‘share’. Determined to at least make the atmosphere a little lighter, he starts the conversation with meaningless small talk and an amiable smile.

Eventually, the topic turns to Key (as Jonghyun has predicted it would), and he wastes no time in going straight to the point.

“So what do you think about Kibum?” He asks slyly, trying to contain his laughter at the sight of the Infinite vocalist choking on the coffee he’d brewed for the two of them.

“I’m so sorry,” Woohyun does sound genuinely apologetic, “the coffee’s really good. It just went down the wrong way.” He pauses and knits his eyebrows together before he answers. “Kibum’s… I guess it sounds really cheesy when you put it like this, but I feel like he’s my other half. Like we’ve known each other forever, although it’s only been a little over two years. Does that make any sense?” He smiles sheepishly, embarrassed at his own admission.

Listening to him talk, Jonghyun is struck with a sense of déjà vu. There has always been something about Woohyun that didn’t sit right with him, but it’s taken him up until now to understand what it is.

It’s as if he’s having a conversation with his younger self, a Jonghyun who had adored Kibum like he was his whole world, a Jonghyun who had been convinced that Kibum was his other half.

At least he had been until Sekyung had walked into his life.

And then his promises had turned out to be nothing but empty words. When he’d first gone down that path his head was full of dreams of Sekyung, but as he went further down, those dreams were replaced by nightmares.

At one point, he had been given the choice to be Kibum’s other self, the one who could be trusted to hold half of his heart and not break it into pieces. He had cruelly thrown it aside, assuming it would be his all along. Now the choice is lost, and Kibum has offered his heart to someone else, someone who isn’t him.

He sits in silence, blinking back tears, and the smile he returns is a sad one.

“Yeah, it does.” He swallows back the lump in his throat. “So you definitely like him, right?”

There is no hesitation in Woohyun’s voice. “I don’t just like him, hyung.” His smile is blindingly bright, and Jonghyun realizes he’s been played for a fool. “I’m in love with him.”

His mind whirls at the revelation. Inviting Woohyun to the dorm had been for his benefit, then? So that he would take the hint and notice that he didn’t have to worry and Kibum had clearly moved on? And the skinship… Kibum’s way of reassuring him?

The rest of the afternoon passes by in a blur, and he only dimly remembers walking Woohyun to the door and thanking him for taking the time to visit.

“You could’ve said something,” he barges into Minho’s room and tells him accusingly once he comes back home with Kibum, “God, was I the last one to know?”

“If you weren’t so self-absorbed I’m sure you would’ve noticed earlier,” Minho drawls. “They’re just taking their time.”

“Well now I feel dumb.” He jumps on the bed and lies down next to the younger man, who immediately tries to push him off.

“Get off my bed, hyung.” There is a warning note in the rapper’s low voice, but he decides not to pay attention to it. He wants to sulk for a good five minutes before he goes back and faces Kibum. Minho makes an irritated noise. “And you were dumb to begin with, so don’t feel too bad about it.”

He protests against the statement, but only half-heartedly, and sensing the shift in mood, Minho sighs. A moment later he exits the room, leaving Jonghyun to his own thoughts. Kibum must have known everything, he thinks wryly. No wonder it had been all smooth sailing. Woohyun should have been more flustered, Kibum more suspicious. He knows Jonghyun has never really gotten over him, too, and even then he’s never pushed.

Kibum has retrieved half of his heart and mended it best as he can; will he ever be able to do the same?