Like every other morning, Jonghyun left a red rose outside Kibum’s door. This morning, though, Jonghyun expected to be different than all the others before it. Last night, he had actually spoken to Kibum! He had spoken to him, and he had showed him one of his favourite thing; the sun rising after the lights go out in the city of Seoul. It wasn’t a dream either, or a drug-induced hallucination; he knew this because he hadn’t been to sleep since then (even when Kibum retreated to his bedroom), and he had only just had his morning fix before he went out to buy the rose.

He knocked on Kibum’s door, expecting the younger to welcome him happily. He didn’t expect Key to open the door, glance at the rose, take a calculating look at Jonghyun’s face and then slam the door closed.

“Wha~ Kibum!” he called out, banging on the door harshly.

“Go away Jonghyun!” Key called back before adding; “Come back when you’re not high as a kite!”

Jonghyun growled, threw the rose on the floor and kicked the door, making the barrier shake and a crack appear where his boot met the wood. On the other side of the door, he heard a small yelp.

‘!’ he thought when he recognised that he had scared his feline beauty.

“Kibum? Bummie?” Key got that familiar lurch in his stomach at Jonghyun’s use of his nickname. “I-I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to scare you. I just got a little bit mad, that’s all.”

‘One day,’ Kibum thought, ‘I could be standing there instead of the door.’

“Go away, Jonghyun.” Key repeated slowly.

Jonghyun growled and hissed out a ‘fine’. The elder left, going upstairs to his in-home studio to blow off some steam, while inside the room, tears built up in Kibum’s beautiful brown eyes.

Letting out a shaky breath, Key straightened up. He swears he was going to go crazy with the way Jonghyun changed so suddenly. One minute he was sweet and caring, the next Kibum was afraid to be around him. He was a modern day Jekyll and Hyde and Kibum didn’t know which personality would win Jonghyun’s internal war in the end.

He felt slightly bad for shutting the door in Jonghyun’s face the way he did, but he didn’t feel sorry for that Jonghyun; the one that was higher than the moon and throwing his life away shot by shot, but he felt bad for the Jonghyun he had spent time with last night; the one that was kind and soft, the Jonghyun that Key thought he had met that day at the university.

Knowing there was nothing he could do about it, Key opened up his school bag that had been sitting in the corner of his room since he’d been here. He pulled out his sketchbook and chucked it carelessly on the bed. He grabbed a couple of pencils and made himself comfortable on the four-poster bed.

He flipped through his sketches, trying to find a blank page. He observed all of his designs; jeans, jackets, tops, dresses, sneakers, heels. He had at least one of everything in this book. His university days seemed so long ago; when he looked back, all he could see was Jonghyun’s daunting figure.

He tried to draw something new, but all that he got were blank shapes. There was no life to these designs, no creativity. Maybe, Kibum thought, it was because that’s how he had been feeling lately; blank, lifeless. Sighing and closing his book, Key got off of the bed and left the room in search of Taemin.

“Taemin?” Key called, only using half of his voice, in search of the younger boy.

“Key umma! You’re out of your room!” Taemin exclaimed happily as he bounded around the corner, Minho in tow.

“Yeah, I um, I actually came out last night. I spent some time with Jonghyun, even.” He told him.

Taemin happily squeezed Minho’s hand that he was currently holding.

“Really?” he could barely contain the excitement in his voice. “How was it?”

“It was…nice. He was sober and everything.” Key said. “Of course, when he came to my room this morning, he wasn’t sober and he had some issues controlling his temper. Makes sense though; a sort temper for a short man.” He finished bitterly.

“Oh,” Taemin’s face fell. “Yeah he gets like that sometimes, but it’s not always that bad!”

Minho snorted, earning an icy glare from Taemin. Key decided he didn’t want to know how bad it really did get.

“Anyway, I was actually looking for you Taemin.” Key said.

“What’s up hyung?” he asked in return with a bright smile.

“I was wondering if you’d come to the university with me today? I know its Sunday, but I need to go and get my schoolwork since I doubt Jonghyun will let me keep attending.”

“Sorry umma, Minho and I were actually about to go out on a date. Maybe later on today?” Tae said, guilt obvious on his face.

“Oh, never mind,” Key said with a wave of his hand. He didn’t want to disturb Tae’s time with his boyfriend, especially after getting such an earful the previous day about how Taemin was afraid Minho was losing interest. Of course, Key knew he was going to get all the details about this date too, but he’d rather get happy gossip – even if he didn’t like the idea of that creepy frog boy touching his innocent Taeminnie. “Enjoy your date.”

Taemin smiled and hugged Key with one arm while the other was still connected to Minho’s hand. The happy couple left the house.

Key slumped.

“Great,” Key muttered, placing his hands on his hips. “Just great.”

“I can take you.”

“Aahh!” Key jumped five feet into the air, his heart hammering against his chest. He breathed deeply, trying to return some of the air to his lungs. He looked up and saw Jonghyun standing before him. Key couldn’t help but appreciate the muscles that he could see through Jonghyun’s white wife beater. Subtly, Key’s gaze trailed f