Jonghyun POV

I hear my alarm go off in the distance, pulling me out of my dreams. I reach over to Key but realize he left a few hours ago. I miss him already.

I roll out of bed and get ready for school. I wonder how Key will act towards to today, will he be nicer to me or will he still give me the cold shoulder. I hope his feelings toward me have changed, because my feelings for him have just gotten stronger. He could act cold to me in school because he doesn’t want people to get suspicious and I am completely okay with that. As much as I like him, I am not ruining my reputation for him.

The car ride to school is agonizing. My Mom has to drive me today and she will not stop talking about Key. Key had dinner over at my house last night, thus meeting my mother, and he was awfully charming. Key was so polite and my mother was absolutely smitten with him. I wonder what she would say if I told her about us? I don’t think I could ever tell her something like that.

I step out of the car and thank my mom for the ride.

“Feel free to bring Kibum over again, he’s a very nice boy.” She smiles at me, and then drives off.

I guess she likes him so much because I don’t really bring friends over anymore. Minho used to come over all the time but now he’s different and he would probably be rude to my mother. He’s rude to almost everybody even his friends and I still don’t understand what happened to make him like this. A few years ago he was so kind, he would never hurt a fly but now he gets pleasure in ruining peoples lives. There are many times I wish I could have my old friend back.

I reach my locker and grab my books for class when I hear a voice behind me.

“Well look what we have here. It’s the lover.” I hear Minho laugh and my blood boils.

“Excuse me” I glare at him.

“Onew saw you yesterday helping out the kid. What, do you like him now, is that it? You want to him?” They continue to laugh at me. I would love to just break his face in for calling Key that.

“No , it’s called being nice, you should try it sometime.” I snap and slam my locker closer. I can’t deal with this right now.

Minho grabs my arm. “Did you forget the we are not nice? Help him again and we are no longer friends. Got it?” He releases me and walks off.

Well, this day has gone from bad to worse in record time. I have to somehow choose between Key and my friends. I don’t want to lose Key or my friends, even though they aren’t the greatest, they are still all I have. Also, I promised Key that I would talk to Minho. I realize now there’s no hope, he will never leave them alone. What have I gotten myself into? If he never sat next to me then none of this would have happened. I would still be my old miserable self but I would have no complications in my life. Key complicated everything.

The day progresses and my anger doesn’t subside. I walk into my class with Key and I notice how nervous he is. I take my seat and he still remains silent. Good I’m not in the mood for conversation, I don’t want to accidentally snap at him. This isn’t his fault, its mine. It’s my fault for not having more self-control and not thinking about the consequences of my actions.

“Jonghyun.” He finally speaks. “Um..look, I will finish the project on my own. I heard what your friends said to you and I don’t want you to get into more trouble because of me.” He looks away sadly. He heard that? I feel my heart breaking but what can I do. I’m not sure if I want to give up my friends. I just need time to think about everything.

“Alright, thanks.” I say but I don’t think that was the right answer to his question. He looks away and doesn’t spare me a glance the rest of class. When the bell rings he hurries out of class.

I can’t ignore the aching in my chest and the regret that fills my head. I shouldn’t have said that, I should have told him no that I didn’t care about them but I do. Even if we kept this a secret, how long would it take until someone found out? I couldn’t handle that, maybe this is for the best.

I walk down the hall towards my locker and notice that Key’s is surprising close to mine. I look in his direction and see that his eyes are puffy, like he was crying. Something inside me breaks. He’s crying because of me. I’m lying to myself this isn’t for the best. He cares about me and I care about him, I can’t push him away because of Minho.

The urge to go to him and wrap my arms around him is almost too much. My whole body wants run to him and comfort him, and tell him I was an idiot but I cant. Minho could see and I don’t want him to hurt Key anymore than he has.

School finally ends and I wait until I see Minho and Onew walk out of the building until I approach Key. Thank god he is still at his locker with Taemin.

“Hi” I say weakly. He doesn’t even acknowledge my existence.

“Go away Jonghyun.” Taemin says hatefully.

“Please Key, can we talk.” I beg. He has every right to be mad at me but I hate this. I hate myself for upsetting him.

“He doesn’t want to talk to you, so off.” Taemin snaps. I have never seen him so angry even when Minho picks on him. I ruined the only good thing in my life. I sigh and begin to walk away. He hates me again and I don’t know how to fix it, if he wont talk to me.

“Wait.” I hear a small voice say. “Taemin just give is a minute.” I hear Key say.

“Key, this doesn’t deserve your time.” Taemin pleads with him.

“Taemin….” Key says with more force. Taemin huffs and walks away. Key slowly approach’s me. “What do you want?” I can hear the anger in his voice.

“I’m so sorry about what I said earlier. I didn’t mean it. I want to finish the project with you and I’m not going to let my friends change that.” I explain.

“Ha, look Jonghyun, it fine. I’ll do the project. Its for the best anyway.” Even though I was thinking this earlier, it hurts when he says it.

“Please, Key. I care about you so much.” I plead.

“Your ashamed to be with me. Your terrified of what your friends will think if they see us together and better yet your terrified of what everyone else will think about you. I can’t be with someone who’s ashamed of me.” Tears escape his eyes. “I’m sorry.” With that he walks away, leaving me standing there feeling like someone ripped my heart out and smashed it into the ground.

I’m not ashamed of him. Am I? No, I envy him. I wish I could be like him, and not be afraid of what people would say about me. I just need some time to get used to this. Before he came I never even looked at boys that way, everything about this scares me. It scares me that he can make me feel like this. He can make me feel like my chest is caving in on its self and every part of me is shattering. This isn’t what I want. I don’t want to be away from him, I need him.

I get home and decide to text him. I’m not letting him get away that easily.

‘Come over and we can finish the project, your not doing it alone.’ I send.

After ten minutes of anxious waiting, he replies. ‘That’s not a good idea.’

‘I wasn’t asking’ I respond instantly.

Another long ten minutes pass by. I swear he’s doing this on purpose.

‘Fine, I’ll be over around six.’ He finally replies.

Two hours I have to wait until I can see him. This is going to be the longest two hours of my life. At least now I have to time to plan out what I’m going to say to win him back.