~Chapter Thirteen~

And So it Begins

Taemin's POV~

The auditorium is engulfed in loud screams and chaos as the person jumps off of the pole. “Oh my gosh it he dead?!” “What the just happened?!” “That is not Taemin is it?!” I cover my ears as the questions grow louder and louder. All I could try is to dig into my memories and try to remember if that was me. It can't be. I didn't choose to jump off the pole, no. It can't be. I remember losing my footing when the bullies broke the pole. No. No. No!

I close my eyes and put my hand on my chest like I used to do back in the day when I was scared or excited. Right now, I am a little bit of both. I'm scared that what I am seeing is actually the truth but I am also excited for the truth. If I was the one that jumped off the obstacle, that means that Minho hyung might not be the one that betrayed me. Maybe in the end, everything I remembered was actually all made up. But yet again, am I willing to believe that everything I have lived for for the past months have been my imagination?

“Silence. Silence!” The principal yells while waving in front of the projection to distract the confused students. “Lee Taemin, would you like to explain this!?” I look at my hyungs. With encouraging eyes, Key hyung holds onto my hand and walks onto the stage. With all eyes on us, I can't help but shake with fear. Key hyung grabs the microphone with confidence, clears his throat, and turns to the audience with a surprisingly bright smile.

“Surprise!” He yells “We were supposed to have the video show after we introduced it, but I guess they missed that memo. That video was made by us to try to set up the mood for our dance performance. Did you guys see the pain in the person's eyes as he jumped and the confusion of the crowd?” The students agree with claps and screaming. “Please keep the video in your mind as we perform to feel the song!” Minho hyung, Onew hyung, and Jonghyun hyung rush to the stage and each grab a mic. Without a hint of surprise in their face, we stand in our starting positions.

“I'll talk to you later,” Key hyung mouths to me as he turns into his starting position. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I ignore what has just happened and focus on the song. Let my body move with the music and sing into the mic when my turn us up. I ignore the eyes looking at me and only focus on performing he bast that I can. As the song comes to an end, I sing my last note and finished up the dance with heavy breaths. At the last beat, the students all clap and cheer.

“What was that about?” Jonghyun hyung whispers loudly in the isolated room. Us five sneak out of the auditorium and enter Mr. Park's office, the place where I heard the song play.

“Taemin, explain yourself,” Onew hyung says.

“We thought you lost your memory,” Jonghyun hyung says. “I can't believe you lied to us.”

“What are you talking about? You think I did that!? Are you saying the person in the video was me?” I look at my hyungs in shock.

“Normally I would take your side, Taemin-ah, but it's hard to believe you when you pulled something like that,” Key hyung says. “I mean it's fine freaking us out by showing us the video, but in front of the whole school? You have to be going crazy. If I didn't make up some bullsh*t about it being an introduction to our song then no one's going to leave you along. Heck, I don't even know if anyone's going to let you off now that they saw that. That person looked too much like you, Taemin. Now unless you have a good excuse, even I can't believe you. What was that video and why did it get projected for the whole school to see?”

“It wasn't me who did that!” I scream.

“Then who was it?” Mr. Park says. He closes the door behind him and locks it. He eyes me and throws a piece of paper near my foot. I bend down and pick it up. “Sing this. You sounded great on stage earlier. Why don't you sing this as well?” I look the the paper and swallow hard. The lyrics of the song the person sang in the video earlier is written on this paper. “Come on, I'm sure all your friends would be glad to hear this as well.”

“The person in the video wasn't me,” I say with a shaky breath. “Don't make me sing this.”

“Then who was it? If it wasn't you, then who was it? Huh? Can you answer me?” Mr. Park asks.

“Stop asking me. I don't know.”

“I'm sure you do,” he says. “Because if you don't know, why would you seem so shaken up about this song? Sing it. What's wrong?”

“I don't want to.”

“But I want you to sing it, Taemin,” Mr. Park says through gritted teeth.

“He said he doesn’t want to.” Minho hyung steps in front of me. “The performances are still happening. I think it would be best for us to go back to the auditorium.” Minho hyung grabs the paper and crumbles it. “Let's go.” He holds onto my hand and pulls me outside.

“You two better stay in this room until I dismiss you!” Mr. Park yells.

“If you have anything to say, say it to my parents,” Key hyung says and we all walk back to the auditorium, leaving Mr. Park alone in the room.

Minho's POV~

For the rest of the day, we didn't mention the video. We all tried to focus on the fun school event and ignore all of the drama for now. Although no one mentioned it, I am sure all of us want to know who projected the video, but no one spoke. In case Mr. Park wanted to force Taemin to sing the song, we skipped out on detention. Taemin walked back home alone and I walked to mine. Although I don't want to confront my mother, I have to. I need my mom to tell me what happened in the time of Taemin's death and why did I forget what happened? Amnesia is not a common thing. I am no main character of a drama or anything in that sense. How in the world did I lose my memory? I don't remember ever getting sick or getting into any accidents...With a deep breath, I walk into my house and rehearse in my room for a few hours before dinnertime.

“How was school today, Minho?”

“It was great, mother. We had our pep-rally and I even performed.”

“Were you dancing again? You know that's not proper, Minho. You need to stop that little hobby of yours before it takes over your life.” My mother frowns.

“Let the boy have some fun,” my father says. “How was it?”

“We performed very well, but there was something weird that happened.”

“What was it?” My father asks.

“There was this video playing of-” My well-rehearsed lies were cut off with a phone call. My parents hurry into their room and discuss a business plan over the phone, leaving me alone on the kitchen table. I look at the clock and get up. Taemin is in one of his part time jobs at the convenience stores right now. I guess I'll go see him.

I enter the store and the bell rings. The cashier bows and smiles, knowing exactly what I am here. She points toward the back corner and I nod, silently thanking her. I smile and walk toward my hard-working dongsaeng. “Hyung? Why are you here? Did you come to see me?” He asks with a cheeky grin.

“No,” I pretended to be offended. “I came to shop. This is a convenience store, isn't it?” I raise an eyebrow and hold back a laugh. Taemin's face is adorably pink. He's flustered. I hold back a chuckle and grab two cup noodles. “Your shifts over now, right?” I wave the two cups in front of him and he smiles. He takes off his apron and name-tag and checks out.

“I thought you said you weren't here to see me~” He jokes.

“I didn't go find you,” I lie. “ I happened to show up when your shift ended and wanted some instant noodles. I was hungry so I bought two, but I decided to not eat all two by myself. Since I had an extra noodle, I had to find a way to get rid of it.”

“You at lying hyung,” Taemin chuckles and separates my chopsticks for me. I take it happily and broke his in return. “I will eat this well~” Taemin yells and eats the noodles happily. I continue staring at him, taking in his happy face. Today in the pep-rally, he looked so confused, so sad. I'm sure the person in the video was Taemin, but he lost his memory, how can he remember? Mr. Park acted like Taemin planned for the video to play and yet Taemin was the one most shocked. Mr. Park scared him. I don't like him. Taemin is already having a hard enough time and yet he he picks on him. Although the person in the video looked like Taemin and sounded like him, the video was way too shaky and blurry for anyone to see. Even if it was Taemin, it was him before the accident and before he came back. He lied to us all, but he's not harming anyone. I bet he just wants to start anew.

It always sparks my curiosity though...Couldn't he have possibly move away or use a different name? Why did he choose to use his old name? Not to mention how mysterious he was when we first started school. He used to have little fits and often spaced out. Whenever he talked to me, he would always make me admit to being friends with him, well, the “dead Lee Taemin” as they say, and it was like he was trying to find something out from me. I remember the time when we made each other play truth or dare and Taemin barged out after he asked me a question. Onew follow him as well and after a good few minutes, I went out to check on them.

~FLASHBACK~

I walk toward the door and turn the handle. I pull the door back a bit and stop after hearing my name. “Minho didn't know Taemin has died until he came back,” Onew hyung says.

“What? That's not possible. I saw him. I saw Minho hyung there. I saw everything! He even threw my father's-”

“What do you mean Taemin?” He cuts me off. “Were you there when you saw Taemin...dying?”

“I don't feel good Onew hyung. See you Monday.” Taemin turns around and rushes away, leaving Onew on the porch alone. He turns around and meets eyes with me.

“Minho, we need to talk.”

~END OF FLASHBACK~

Onew hyung told me not to worry back then and that he got everything covered. He simply told me that Taemin was friends with the other Taemin that died and during that time, there was a rumor that Taemin committed suicide so our Taemin is a bit emotional since he thought I was a part of it because back then Taemin and I used to be friends. Are you getting confused? Because I know I am. Their names are both Taemin and I have no idea how I believed his little lie back then. The dead Taemin is the same as this Taemin and now that Taemin forgot his memory, there is no way for me to find out why he came back. I need to clear up my misunderstandings with him, but I can't since he forgot that we were not in good terms when he transferred into our school. “Hyung!” I snap back into reality. “What were you thinking of? Your noodle's all soggy now.”

“Darn it,” I pout. “So much for eating good noodles.”

“I know it's your dinnertime hyung, why'd you come and eat noodles with my anyways? I'm sure you have a great dinner at home.” I look at his warm, brown eyes and shrug, looking away before I melt.

“I just wanted to see you.” I blurt out. I look away from him and turn away my flustered face. What in the world did I just say? Way to make it awkward! My words are cringe-worthy! I sounded so gay...Taemin won't freak out, will he!?

“I wanted to see you too, hyung,” Taemin replies. “About school, I don't know how to explain it to you-”

“Then don't,” I cut him off. “I don't need an explanation. I'm sure you didn't do it.” Taemin opens his mouth to speak, but hesitates. “Besides, you lost your memory. I doubt you would do something like that.”

“R-right...”

“Taemin-ah...To you find that song familiar though?”

“I'm not sure. It sounded like a song from Les Misérables didn't it?”

“Now that I think of it, you're right. It's like that song the little girl sings...What was her name again? Croissant?”

“You mean Cosette?” Taemin giggles at my mistake.

“Right! It was about that castle she dreams of. I remember that much~”

“♪There is a lady all in white,
Holds me and sings a lullaby,
She's nice to see and she's soft to touch,
She says 'Cosette, I love you very much.'
I know a place where no one's lost,
I know a place where no one cries,
Crying at all is not allowed.
Not in my castle on a cloud♪”

Taemin sings a part of the song angelically. I look at his face and see sadness in his eyes. “Maybe I was wrong...That person was me...”