a/n: unbeta'd version

Taemin is an average kid who liked to dance and loathed math. But he took up advanced calculus as an elective for school because his Jinki hyung was taking that course. He may or may not have a tiny bit of a crush on the older male but the way Jinki smiled, took his breath away.

Taemin came to know Jinki back in high school, when his childhood friend Kibum introduced him to his seniors Jonghyun and Jinki. He found the male rather beautiful and his smile was brighter than the summer sun. He felt his heart skip a beat that day and he knew that being friends with Jinki would mean a colorful high school life.

Unfortnately for him, rainbow existed in skittles and M&M's but not in his love life because Jinki had made a promise to himself that he will finish college first before entering any relationship. So instead of his love life blooming, it ended up being Jonghyun and Key.

But Taemin wasn't admiting his crush anytime soon because Jinki is rather oblivious to his admirers and he prefered to be friends than scare Jinki away; He'll stay as his hyung's bestfriend and that's quite okay.

But that all changed though when they decided to go shopping on April Fool's day and thought of pranks to pull off on each other. They separated when they arrived at a toy store and Taemin was over the moon when Jinki decided to join him in search of fart bags and zappers. They came across an aisle and Taemin regretted picking up that toy.

It was clear as glass and was labelled emotion ring changes color with your emotions. Taemin chuckled at the lame description and at the idea; who would fall for that cheap toy?

But Jinki thought it was cute so he took the ring from Taemin's hand and inserted it on Taemin's ring finger. The action caught Taemin off guard that he blushed and the ring turned from clear to a deep red. Jinki was amazed and checked out the box to see what the color meant, and oh boy, it was Taemin's nightmare.

"Look Taem, it says here that red means that you are in love." Jinki stated and Taemin laughed awkwardly.

"Don't be silly hyung" Taemin replied as he tried to take off the ring. But the ring wasn't budging and Taemin got frustrated. The ring changed colors to a purple, a color indicating frustration.

Jinki was amazed and seeing how pitiful the younger was, he dragged him towards the cashier. "I'll pay for it, you can try washing it with warm soapy water and maybe it will slip off." Jinki suggested and Taemin smiled gratefully.

Taemin tried washing it with soapy water but heck, it didn't do anything good. Frustrated at the now purple ring, he just resigned to his fate that perhaps, he'll just have to live with it for a while.

The ring glowed yellow one day, when Taemin watched Jinki played a piano piece for his classical music elective (which Taemin wondered why Jinki never majored in despite the skills the elder has) indicating that he was happy. Jinki saw it and smiled brightly, yellow has been Jinki's favorite color.

And despite the ever changing colors of his cheap emotion ring, Taemin was starting to get immune to it; he liked it but he won't admit it pretty soon.

"It's been turning red quite often Taemin." Jinki remarked and Taemin forced an awkward laugh.

"It's not hyung." Taemin replied and went back to his text book.

"Oh Taemin who's the lucky girl? Naeun?" Jinki asked and Taemin was perplexed, Jinki thinks that he likes girls.

"No hyung, I am not into Naeun." Taemin affirmed and Jinki dropped the topic.

It was a bit disturbing for Taemin because Jinki was becoming an observer of the ring which made Taemin happy and anxious at the same time: happy because Jinki is noticing him more but anxious because of the fear in Jinki's actions when he came to know of Taemin's true feelings for him. But he pushed them aside because he needed to focus on the calculus assignment that he was solving for the past 3 hours. "Let me help you." He heard Jinki say as he took a seat next to him and grabbed Taemin's pen and scribbled away. Taemin's heart raced a quarter mile a minute and his cheeks tainted pink. The ring changed color to red and Jinki looked at the direction of Taemin's sight. Jinki saw Taemin's dance classmate and smiled as he faced Taemin.

"Oh you like Kai? You're into boys huh Taem?" Jinki asked and nodded.

But Taemin realized what his response meant so he snapped out of his daze and corrected himself. "I do not! I mean I don't like Kai." He said and Jinki nodded. "But I loke a certain guy." He said and Jinki stopped answering the problem and faced Taemin.

"Oh my gosh and I thought you were straigth!" Jinki remarked and he continued to answer the problems.

Taemin groaned and buried his face in his arms, should he be relieved about it?

Ever since Jinki came to know about Taemin's sort of crush for a certain guy, Jinki became a curious bunny. He would constantly look out for the change in color of Taemin's emotion ring. He wasn't sure why but it had become a habit of his and frankly speaking, curiousity got the best of him. He once saw Taemin walk towards him with Kai tagging along and the ring showed a bright yellow. When they stopped in front of him, Jinki greeted them warmly.

"Hyung, Kai invited me to his birthday party this weekend, wanna come?" Taemin asked but Jinki politely declined.

"Joon hyung had already invited me to dinner already, have fun!" Jinki said and the ring color changed to green then blue. Jinki noticed it before Taemin shoved his hand down his pocket.

They walked away and Kai just wouldn't let it go. "You are freaking jealous Taem." He laughed out and Taemin shoved the friend away.

"Rub it in!" He uttered and Kai laughed some more.

"Grow some balls bro and confess to him!" Kai suggested but Taemin was flabbergasted with what his friend had suggested.

"When Chickens fly!" He remarked.

But the ring turned green quite often, a sign of jealousy, when this certain Joon hyung was often mentioned in front of Taemin. Joon this, Joon that, Taemin just had about enough of it.

"Why are you blue baby boo?" Key asked as he sat on the edge of Taemin's bed where Taemin decided to hide under his blankets.

"I am not." He replied but his voice tells a different story.

"Oh come on, who are you kidding? Me or yourself?" Key asked and Taemin emerged from the blankets and let out a sigh.

"You know me so well Key hyung." Taemin uttered and Key chuckled before pulling the younger into a tight embrace.

"Oh you two dating?" Jinki asked as he entered Taemin's room to check up on him and caught the two in an embrace.

"Seriously hyung, you do remember that I've been with Jonghyun since high school." Key deadpanned and Jinki nodded.

"Oh yeah. So you up for chicken? Joon hyung's treat." Jinki said and Taemin just fell back on his bed and covered himself with blankets.

Key sensed the predicament and flashed a small smile to Jinki. "He's not feeling well hyung." Key uttered and Jinki nodded and then turned to leave.

"I'll bring home your favorite banana milk then." Jinki said then went his way.

"Gahhhhh why is it all about Joon hyung!!!! I hate him." Taemin screamed out of frustration while his ring was bright orange, indicating anger.

Key only laughed and suggested the same thing Kai already said which only frustrated the younger. "I will not." He huffed and puffed which only fueled Key's laughter.

Taemin's anger didn't dessipate when Jinki continued to yap about the senior. Taemin was sure that he will pull out his hair if Jinki continues this Joon hyung tirade so he decided that putting a distance between them was the best that he could do.

Avoiding Jinki was hard on Taemin because he loved the hyung way more than what he thought he did and it felt so heavy and painful that tears just pushed their way to the sides of his eyes. The ring was a dark blue, soon turning black that it indicated depression. He was wallowing in the pits of despair that soon, his seclusion had worried Jinki.

That wasn't good though because the more that Jinki wanted to reach out to Taemin, the more that Taemin pushed himself away. To put it simply, they were drifting farther apart.

But that episode ended when Joon talked to Taemin one day, introducing his girlfriend Sooyoung and telling him how Jinki had helped them get together as a couple. Taemin's heart felt like a heavy stone was lifted and his ring glowed yellow. He exclaimed how happy he was for them and wished them a great future ahead.

Jinki was surprised when Taemin back hugged him out of the blue but he smiled and laughed, feeling the warmth of Taemin that he deeply missed. "Sorry hyung." Tamin muttered and Jinki turned to embrace the younger back.

"I miss you too Taemin." He uttered and kissed the top of Taemin's head, making the younger giddy like a teeneage girl.

But even with the renewed friendship, Taemin was not spared with the prodding questions from Jinki whenever the ring turned red. This time, Jinki had suspected Minho, the campus crush every guy and girl was gushing at. Jinki noticed how Taemin was behaving around Minho so he popped the question, making Taemin choke on his ramyun.

"Absolutely not!" Taemin retaliated, cheeks pink.

"You are blushing!" Jinki pointed out and Taemin was surely embarassed that the ring turned bright pink.

Taemin wasn't sure if Jinki was dumb because he has a straight A track record or just completely oblivious to what was obviously out in the open. For as long as he could remember, all the signs and symptomps of being a lovesick teenage girl were in ront of his face yet Jinki was still not getting any of it.

"Please don't state the obvious." Taemin utterred as Jonghyun gave him an apologetic look.

"I am not Taemin but it will help if you just let your inhibition go and just chase the love of your life." Jonghyun uttered as he gave the boy a pat on his shoulder.

Taemin sighed and thought about it so he gathered up his courage and decided that he will finally tell the revered hyung what he feels. With the ring glowing sky blue indicating hope, he marched up to his hyung while they were on a Christmas party hosted by Key.

"Oh Taemin!" Jinki chirped and the younger took a deep breath and threw every care out the frozen window.

He showed the ring glowing red and Jinki quirked a brow. Taemin sighed and pulled Jinki into an innocent kiss. Jinki was more confused and Taemin was left hopeless. Taemin pointed to the mistletoe that hanged above them and then quickly scurried out of Jinki's sight.

"Huh?" Jinki was confused with the gesture because he had never seen Taemin act this way and it's not about the mistle toe. "Oh." He said as relaization struck him and made a move to find Taemin.

He searched the venue and finally found Taemin slumped on one corner of the balcony. Jinki approached slowly and soundlessly then crouched to face Taemin who had tear stained face.

"Taemin." Jinki called out and as soon as Taemin looked up, Jinki leaned in and took the younger's lips in his, a sweet and passionate kiss that gave Taemin a glimpsed of hope.

When they broke apart, Jinki pointed to the mistletoe above them and chuckled but Taemin sighed and stood abruptly. Jinki stopped laughing and pulled Taemin into a tight embrace. "Hey Taemin don't run away." Jinki uttered, tightening his embrace. "I'm sorry I didn't notice the obvious." Jinki said then pushed the boy a little off of his body to look at him. "Can you wait until I graduate?" Jinki asked and Taemin broke into tears making Jinki panic a little bit. But Taemin showed his yellow ring and Jinki understood how happy Taemin is at the moment.

"I love you hyung." Taemin finally confessed and Jinki smiled and hugged him again.

"I love you too Taemin. It's all clear now." He said with a smile and Taemin couldn't ask for a better Christmas present other than this.

Though he may not have the colorful love life he dreamt of when he was in high school, he did get a colorful emotion ring that is permanently red or yellow whenever he was with Jinki and he didn't even care that it's stuck on his finger a little longer than it should.