Chapter 6

                      Minho couldn’t stop thinking about Taemin. The young boy whom he only met a few days ago occupied his thoughts all the time. He was starting to wonder about his feelings for him. I only met him a few days ago, yet I feel as though I can’t live without him. What is going on? I’ve never felt this way before.  Minho’s confused thoughts wouldn’t leave him alone.

                      His mind drifted to Jonghyun. He doesn’t want Taemin to be close to Jonghyun, but what can he do? Jonghyun is Taemin’s umma’s boyfriend and hyung. Jonghyun also met Taemin before Minho met Taemin. But there’s so much past and misunderstandings with Jonghyun that he was afraid Jonghyun would tell Taemin. I don’t want Taemin to hate me before hearing me and Jonghyun’s story from my point of view.

                       Taemin and Key must be confused about why Jonghyun was so angry when he saw Minho. Truth is, Jonghyun and Minho were best friends since they were in high school. They hadn’t seen each other for a couple of years after Jonghyun chose to transfer school.

                       In middle school, Jonghyun and Minho were inseparable. They were the best of friends and were always there for each other, despite the one year age difference. One day, Minho and Jonghyun fell for the same girl. They knew about each other’s feelings for the girl but they didn’t want to ruin their friendship so they kept quiet about it. They didn’t mention it and pretended that they don’t know anything. One day... Minho flashed back to the scene a few years ago.

-Flashback-

                     “Minho-yah. We’ve always pretended like we don’t know we like the same girl. It’s time we brought it out in the open. To be honest, I cherish our friendship and I don’t want to lose you because of a girl.” Jonghyun said to Minho one night when they were relaxing at Jonghyun’s house.

                     “Yeah, me too. So what should we do?” Minho asks.

                     “Let’s just agree and promise to let go of the girl and not ask her out or get too close with her. Is that okay with you? If you really like her and can’t let her go… then I’ll try to let her go.”

                      “Dino… I like her, but I don’t want to cause you any pain. We’ll just stop asking her out and avoid her. Okay?”

                     “Okay. Agreed.”

-Flashback ends-

                     They had agreed and for a few weeks, they kept their promise. Things went back to normal and their friendship was better and stronger than ever. However… things didn’t work out the way they planned.

-Flashback-

                     Minho stayed back at school for some extracurricular activities. Their school provides the students with all the sport facilities they need. He was running across the track when he sported the girl he and Jonghyun both liked. Spotting her, Minho decided to use the other side of the field instead. The school felt so quiet, the only sounds heard were the ‘uhmps’ and ‘uff’ coming from the girl when she falls down. From what Minho can see, the girl was trying to somersault.

                      Minho was concentrating on his exercise when he heard a moan of pain. He looked over at the girl. She was sitting down on the field in an awkward position. Her expression showed that she was in intense pain. “Minho-yah! Help! Ugh it hurts!” The girl yelled across the field at Minho, seeing that Minho was looking at her.

                      Minho hesitated. If Jonghyun finds out about this… our friendship could be ruined, Minho thought. The girl yelled out to Minho again. “Minho-yah! Can you hear me? I think I broke my leg or something.”

                     Minho ignored his conscious and ran over to the girl in pain. He just couldn’t walk away when he knows that the girl is in pain. If it was any other person in pain, I would help them too. Minho tried to reason with himself.

                      “Can you stand up?” Minho asked the girl.

                      She tried to stand up, but her legs could not support her. Pain flashed across her face, showing how much her leg hurt. Minho, seeing that she couldn’t stand the pain much longer, immediately picked her up in his arms, running towards the exit of the school to the hospital just down the road. The teachers had all left the school and he knew that the girl’s injury was too serious, and that if there were any teachers in the school, they couldn’t help her either.

                       Minho ran as fast as he could, but stopped in his tracks when he saw a familiar face when he was passing through the school hall. Jonghyun looked back and forth at Minho and the girl who was already limp and pale from the pain she was experiencing. The girl, who was carried by Minho bridal-style, was leaning her head on his shoulder while her arms were around Minho’s neck. As her hair was covering her face, Jonghyun couldn’t see that the girl was in pain. All Jonghyun saw in his blinding rage was that Minho is carrying the girl that they both agreed they would avoid. Jonghyun felt the betrayal from his best friend like a knife through his heart.

                      “Jonghyun… I can explain. Just… WAIT! DON’T GO! JONGHYUN!” Minho yells after Jonghyun who walked away without a backward glance. Minho couldn’t run after him as he had to send the girl to the hospital. 

                       After the incident, Minho tried calling Jonghyun and even waiting for Jonghyun outside his house, hoping to see him and explain. Jonghyun wouldn’t pick up his calls and he wouldn’t come out of his house if he knew Minho was waiting outside. He waited outside Jonghyun’s class, but every time Jonghyun sees him, he just pretended as if he didn’t see Minho and walked away.

                      After a month of Minho trying to get Jonghyun to listen to his explaination, Jonghyun stopped coming to school and he even changed his phone number. Minho later found out that Jonghyun had transferred to another school somewhere else. They didn’t see each other since and sometimes, Minho feels hurt when he remembers that Jonghyun didn’t trust him enough back then.

-Flashback ends-