Paper Heart

§ 3 §

“I got a Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Paper Heart,”

Beads of sweat ran down the side of Kai’s face as he stared into the practice room’s mirror, his body moving with a grace that no one else possessed.

He twisted his body around, feeling the pulse of the music blaring out of the speakers match in time with his heartbeat. His heartbeat matched the rhythm of the music, his mind becoming lost in the need to escape from the world.

His eyes were glued to the mirror of the dance studio, narrowing down on any moves that seemed less than perfect. He pushed back any pain he felt and focused on the way his body moved in sync with the music.

A figure watched from behind the door, smiling softly at Kai’s hard-working body. Immediately, the person thought of another hard-working young man and felt their heart clench as a memory took over them.   

Jonghyun, Minho, Key and Onew quickly followed the beating sound of music that filled SM Academy. The SM Dance studio was empty except for Taemin (the person they needed to see), who was busy practicing for the ‘SM Academy End of Year Concert’.

“Ya!” Minho marched towards Taemin. “Do you know what your cousin’s doing around your street with his ‘friends’?”

“What hyung?” He said, indifferent. Sweeping his hair to the side, he turned to glare at Key who had turned off the music he was practicing to.

“Hyung!”

“Don’t you hyung me,” Key glared back at Taemin, sitting down on the wooden floor and turning towards the mirrors of the Dance studio, checking to make sure his hair was in place. 

“Look, he’s not my responsibility-“

“You live together, your practically brothers!”

Taemin curled his hands into fists, “Well, he doesn’t treat me like a hyung, so why should I treat him like a younger brother?”

Minho’s face immediately softened, before he shook his head. “He wasn’t always like that- you know that Taemin,”

“It’s not my problem anymore,” Taemin stalked towards the speakers, about to begin practicing again.

“Aish!” Jonghyun grabbed Taemin by his shirt, pulling him towards the door. “You don’t care that he’s out there bloody drinking? Or that he has some on him?”

Taemin’s face turned translucent and pasty, but he shook his head. This was Kai’s choice; he wanted to hang out with Hyun-woo and Co.

“Taemin,” Onew held the young boy’s shoulder, his voice oddly grave for once. “You know what’ll happen if this gets out, the Headmaster’s already put Kai on probation and he’s personally watching him. If they find him drinking, on school grounds or not, they’ll expel him,”

Taemin couldn’t seem to open his mouth as he stared into Onew’s dark eyes. Kai was just like Taemin before; they both loved dancing and were close to each other because of it.

Then he met Hyun-woo and suddenly he was sneaking out every night; Taemin found cigarette butts in his school blazer before; and now he was drinking.

But he also remembered that Kai wasn’t a bad person, he was warm and full of life- he had talent and a love for dancing. How could Taemin let his cousin throw away what he had worked his entire life for?

“Where the is my cousin?”

Ara kept her head down, noticing some low-life thugs hanging around the school alleyway. Gripping her bag, she planned to storm right past them, hoping not to be noticed by them.

“Where is it?” A dark voice asked. “You promised you’d bring it, stupid,”

“Here, I don’t back out of my word,”

Feeling her heartbeat stutter, Ara’s brain immediately filtered the voice to match the person she’d been trying to forget. Clenching her fists to her side, she turned sharply towards the source of the voice, seeing the back of Kai’s face.

In his hand, he possessed the ticket to get him kicked out of SM Academy, the place he had tried so hard to get into.

And up ahead, walking right towards them without their knowledge was Headmaster Park, who was already keeping a strict gaze on Kai to begin with.

Biting her lip, she felt her legs begin to shake. Without a second thought of herself getting expelled for aiding him, she yelled, “Headmaster Park!”

Kai whipped around as soon as he heard the voice he had longed to hear, seeing Ara’s small frame whiz past the alleyway. She sent a pointed glare towards him, motioning her head towards the opposite direction in which she was going. Then, she let a breath-taking smile flicker across her face, the one that always stunned Kai whenever he caught it, as she turned towards Headmaster Park. 

“Headmaster Park, how have you been?” Ara called out, blocking the Headmaster’s view of Kai. Behind her, she could hear him dump all the alcohol, and could hear him trying to get away.

“Fine, you are a student at my school, I presume?” He asked kindly, noticing Ara’s uniform. She nodded her head, tilting her head to the side slightly so she could see whether Kai had gotten away or not.

“Yes sir, I’m in SMB third year,” She replied, turning her body so that the Headmaster was forced to face away from Kai. As soon as she did so, Kai gave her a fleeting glance, mouthing the words ‘thank you’.

She tried not to roll her eyes, keeping herself up to what Headmaster Park was saying.

“… So how do you think the school year is going?”

“Pretty well, nothing really to complain about,” Ara replied truthfully, holdin