The next day, Taemin walked into his english class scared out of his wits. He'd taken a full dosage of his anxiety medication before going to school that day, something he hadn't done in months, to prepare himself. Today was the day he sat at the front of the class with Kim Jonghyun.

As if sitting in the front where the teacher could call on him wasn't nerve-wracking enough, he would be sitting close to his crush. What if the teacher called on him? What if he got the answer wrong? Would Jonghyun think he was stupid? Well...he did say it was impressive that I'd made it into the advanced class...Taemin thought, but I still need to impress him and make him think that I belong there...maybe he'll just be distracted by his other friends to pay attention to me if I get the answer wrong.

Taemin couldn't decide if it made him relieved or disappointed to have Jonghyun ignore him.

He made his way to class slowly, schooling his nerves to the best of his ability and tentatively choosing a desk in the front of the class, slightly off to the left, a few seats away and a row behind the front, center desk. After all, that was Jonghyun's seat. Taemin didn't want to sit too close because he knew Jonghyun's other friends were way more important than him, but he also didn't want to choose a seat too far away and have Jonghyun think Taemin didn't respect his offer of sitting with him. Taemin flushed a little as he realized how much thought he'd put into choosing a damned seat for class, but he had to, he couldn't mess this up. This was a one-time chance to make this friendship work, and he was determined to see it through successfully.

As the rest of the students started filing into the classroom, Taemin had to fight to keep his eyes trained on his desk, pretending to fiddle about with his phone, instead of snapping his head up everytime he heard someone walk in to see if it was Jonghyun. Eventually he heard the familiar chuckle of his upperclassman as he walked into the room, floored by a senior on each side. Taemin suddenly felt so embarrassed about his seat choice and tried folding himself inwards in his desk just wishing he could disappear as he watched Jonghyun drop his bag on his usual desk, his friends taking their seats next to him. Jonghyun however, didn't sit right away, but quickly scanned the classroom before re-shouldering his bag. Taemin was busy trying not to seem like he was watching Jonghyun to the point where he didn't even notice Jonghyun walking over to his desk until the chair next to him scraped against the floor as someone pulled it out and Taemin looked up anxiously to see who it was, and lo and behold, Kim Jonghyun himself was smiling down at Taemin like some angel of the lord with a smile plastered across his lips and a, "Taemin! It's nice to see you again, how's your side doing?" and then he was taking a seat and setting his bag down and Taemin struggled to breathe.

"F-fine!" he squeaked out. Taemin internally scolded himself, he was honestly getting worse at this communicating thing, "h-how come you're not up at the front, sunbaenim?"

"Ah, I can see the board well from here. I mostly just sit in the front because I wear glasses and no one likes front and center I guess," he chuckled, "it's just easier to see from up there. I can see perfectly well here though, it's nice to see you in the front for a change instead of always having to squint to see you in the back." He smiled. Ah, Taemin thought, so he only sits in the front because he has bad eyesight...he couldn't even clearly see me just from the other side of the cla-

Wait.

"You looked for me in the back of the classroom?" Taemin blurted out. He could feel the tips of his ears starting to burn and he was glad he'd opted out of the haircut his mom suggested because his long hair still hid his ears.

"Yeah, it's kind of obvious you look a little younger than everyone in here, I always wondered about you. It's even difficult for most seniors to make it in this class, I was wondering how you managed, you know? It's pretty cool, do you speak english at home or something?" Jonghyun offered. Taemin was floored. His sunbaenim had noticed him before, and Taemin didn't even know about it.

"Ah...no, I just um...studied hard...?" Taemin was really not in the mood to reveal his entire backstory as to why he was sitting in the senior's advanced english class.

"Oh, I guess you're pretty passionate about english then, huh? That's awesome, me too! I guess we have that in common, eh?" Jonghyun's smile was melting Taemin's heart with every passing second, and Taemin was afraid he was going to blurt out something embarrassing like "I love you" or something, so he just weakly nodded his head. If he had nothing else but english in common with Jonghyun, he wouldn't mind. At least it was something.

Eventually class started, and Taemin watched Jonghyun begin jotting down neat notes. Taemin himself never often took notes because he was too busy staring at the back of Jonghyun's head from the back of the class, and then he just struggled to catch up later, but a bit embarrassed at his lack of effort sitting next to the star student of the class himself, he pulled out his notebook and a pen and started scribbling random sentences down until the teacher announced the class over and the homework for next class. Taemin was about to shut his notebook and pack up when Jonghyun's head leaned over into his personal bubble and Taemin near imploded.

"Hey, you like that band too?" Jonghyun gestured toward the small band sticker stuck to the back of Taemin's notebook. It was an indie band Taemin liked to listen to; they weren't well known, but they made good music. Taemin was surprised Jonghyun had heard of them, let alone liked their stuff. He always figured it was pretty eccentric music because the music style wasn't as common nowadays, "I agree, actually, but I still like their stuff. I like eccentricism you know? Something about their sound is really unique." Jonghyun smiled, and it was only then Taemin realized he had spoken out loud.

"O-oh, yeah...I guess I just didn't think many other people had heard of them before. But their song 'anomia' is really cool." Jonghyun's eyes lit up.

"No way, that's my favorite song by them! It's the title track for their newest album...I actually have quite a few of them."

"I have all of their albums..." Taemin shyly said, but Jonghyun's eyes just crinkled at the corners as he smiled.

"Wow, dude, that's awesome, I'm jealous," he said, playfully pushing Taemin's shoulder, to which the younger boy stiffened. Jonghyun seemed not to notice though, and he carried on, "we should hang out some time and listen to their stuff together, I've actually recorded a couple covers of their stuff...remixes I guess you could say, but you should check them out, you have good taste in music, and I always enjoy a little criticism," he said.

Taemin felt his heartbeat accelerate in his chest until it was pounding near painfully against his ribcage. Jonghyun had just asked him to hang out. He spluttered nervously for a minute before agreeing, melting inside as he was graced with Jonghyun's melodious laughter and a light pat on the back. The two bid each other farewell and Jonghyun left first, allowing Taemin to sit in his desk, the minutes seeping into his lunch break as he thought did that really just happen?

***

As the days went by, english class increasingly became more enjoyable, and Taemin realized it was due to Jonghyun. Jonghyun had taken to sitting beside Taemin every day, talking about music, food, tv shows they both liked, exercise and sports, which Taemin found that Jonghyun loved and Jonghyun chuckled when Taemin compared his limbs to Jack Skellington's, and surprisingly, grumbling about the workload in their class.

"I thought you were a star honor student, sunbaenim, and you're complaining?" Taemin teased, and Jonghyun laughed.

"Hey man, I got a brain but I also got a patience level. It's high school, everyone gets frustrated." Taemin couldn't agree more as he silently reminisced about all the trouble he'd gone through to even make it into that class in the first place.

The days rolled by and Taemin improved at english to a point where he scored higher than Jonghyun on one of their term tests by 2 percent. Taemin had been so happy knowing Jonghyun would be happy for him that he'd immediately taken his test to the upperclassman and proudly showed it off. Taemin had been expecting a firm pat on the back, a playful arm punch, or if he was lucky, a hair tousle. Needless to say, he was extremely surprised when he felt himself being lifted off the ground by his senior, and swung around in circles while Jonghyun yelled shouts of 'you did it!', 'I'm so proud, Taem!', and 'congratulations!'

When Jonghyun set him down, Taemin awkwardly swayed, a little off balance, and fixed his rumpled shirt, biting his lip as he tried to keep his face from flushing, to no avail. When Jonghyun noticed his blush, he coughed a little and cleared his throat awkwardly, surprising Taemin, as he looked in the opposite direction.

"Yeah, anyway...uh...well it's great you got that mark, man, I'm totally proud of you," Jonghyun said, "but this seriously calls for a celebration! Wanna come by my place this weekend? I have the house to myself because my parents got a work thing and my noona lives on campus at her university. We can watch movies, get takeout, it'll be fun. What do you say?"

Taemin studied Jonghyun's flawless features. In the span of a few short months, he had gone from being an awkward daydreaming lovestruck junior sitting in the back of the class to a more relaxed, more engaged student that was friends with the smartest, not to mention most attractive, student in the whole class. Their friendship had grown considerably, and now he was actually being invited to Jonghyun's house, alone. He never in his wildest daydreams imagined he'd be in this position, and with a gleeful smile, he accepted.

***

Taemin was nervous. For the first time in a long time, Taemin was nervous to be seeing Jonghyun. He chided himself in the car on the way to Jonghyun's house, trying to reassure himself that it was just his friend, there was no reason to be nervous...but he knew it was because this time he wouldn't be seeing Jonghyun in the controlled school environment. He would be in his house, his place, sitting on his couch...Taemin felt himself begin to heat up with nerves, so he tried to concentrate on something else, like 'anomia' blasting from his earphones.

Eventually they reached Jonghyun's place, his father dropping him off, promising to pick him up when Taemin called, and then he drove off. Taemin adjusted his shirt and checked his hair through his phone screen before walking up to Jonghyun's porch and ringing the doorbell. He immediately heard barking, startling him as the door flew open and he was immediately attacked by a mound of soft, brown fur.

Upon falling on his on the porch, Taemin realized 'attacked' wasn't really the right word. More like...gently mauled.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry, I was about to put her away and then the doorbell rang and she absolutely adores visitors, and...Roo! Roo, come here girl!" Jonghyun appeared in the doorway making cute little whistling noises to grasp the puppy's attention, and once she was distracted, he scooped her up, pressing a light kiss to her head as she yipped happily, "I'm sorry about my dog...she's still a puppy and I'm still trying to teach her manners," he said, sheepishly. Taemin rose to his feet, brushing his pants off and fixing his shirt again.

"It's okay, sunbaenim, I have 2 dogs so I understand, I got them when they were small, too." He smiled, Jonghyun's face lighting up.

"Oh, wow, 2? I love dogs, we have that in common, eh? And Taem, you can just call me hyung, you know? Sunbaenim is so formal, we're friends now, you don't have to treat me like a superior," he chuckled as he walked inside, cooing at Roo. Taemin was glad his back was turned because there was no way to stop the giant smile spreading across his face from widening with each second. He toed his shoes off at the door, stepping into Jonghyun's house and appraising the decor. Jonghyun's place wasn't too big, but it was neat and tidy. As expected of the organized honor student in him, Taemin thought. The place was decked out in simple but modern furniture, a few art pieces hanging off the walls, which were painted a warm color. The whole place looked cozy, Taemin thought, as he followed Jonghyun into the kitchen, the cool tile pleasant under his feet.

"So, I was thinking we could order in first so we can relax while we wait for the food to get here, what do you like?" Jonghyun asked, holding up a few flyers for a few places, "there's Mexican, a cool Italian place, although the pizza is great too...we could order Chinese if you like that, or we can get a bit of everything I guess if we can't decide," Jonghyun rambled. Taemin reached over to take the flyers from Jonghyun to look through them, starting when their fingers brushed against each other. Taemin pulled his hand away, too quickly, and looked back up at Jonghyun who looked a little surprised.

"Ah...sorry, you uh, you shocked me," he lied, pretending to rub his hand, "my shirt's pretty static-y heh.." It was a lame lie, he knew, but Jonghyun didn't question him about it, so he quickly opened the flyers to look through them. Once they'd decided on some food and Jonghyun had made the call, because Taemin didn't like using the phone, they both flopped on the couch, looking through some DVDs to watch.

"What do you like watching?" Jonghyun questioned as he sorted through some more movies.

"Comedy is great...although a good action/adventure film is good. Secretly, I enjoy horror," Taemin chuckled, "I don't know why I like scaring myself, is that weird or what?" Jonghyun's barking laugh filled the room.

"Nah, it's not weird at all, I actually do that, too," he chuckled, "we seem to have a lot in common." Taemin quieted after that. If only Jonghyun knew how much it meant to him when he said those words. He'd succeeded in becoming good enough friends with Jonghyun, but he wasn't sure if he'd ever amount to more. Taemin was fine with what he had, he wasn't a greedy guy, but he always just wondered what it would feel like to be more than 'just friends' with his handsome upperclassman...

"-min? Earth to Taemin, commander Jjong coming in. Dude, you're spacing." Taemin was snapped out of reverie by Jonghyun, incredibly close to his face, leaning over him on the couch, waving some thriller movie in front of his face. 

"U-uh, yeah, pardon?" Taemin asked, pathetically. He hadn't meant to space out, god he had probably been staring straight at Jonghyun while ignoring him, too.

"You okay, man? You've been acting a little off...you're not sick or anything? I have some Tylenol or whatever in the bathroom if you've got like, a headache or anything..." Jonghyun eyed him curiously, but Taemin just brushed him off. "You sure, dude?" Taemin didn't know how to escape Jonghyun's scrutinizing gaze, and as Jonghyun was about to open his mouth again, the doorbell rang, and Taemin sprang up.

"Oh, cool, the food's here. You pop that into the player, I'll go grab it." Taemin said quickly, grabbing his wallet and ambling toward the front door. When Taemin returned with his arms laden with takeout, Jonghyun helped him set it on the table, and the two dug in. Grabbing napkins, they pressed play on the movie and sat back to relax.

Or at least, Jonghyun relaxed. Taemin was finding it difficult to do anything.

He had tried shifting to a more comfortable position on the couch, but it seemed that every which way he turned, his leg or his elbow or his calf ended up in contact with Jonghyun's and he was embarrassed every time, so he shifted away. Jonghyun obviously noticed, but kept to himself. Taemin was so focused on trying not to be weird that he ended up being more weird than he bargained for. He made the mistake of wondering if he was breathing too heavily and then became incredibly focused on his breathing and as he tried to even it out, it became more erratic and he grew more nervous because he was so sure Jonghyun could hear it and-

And suddenly the movie was being turned off. Jonghyun shifted his position so he was facing Taemin on the couch, remote dangling in his hand, finger poised on the power button. Oops?

"Okay man, what's up?" Jonghyun didn't sound upset, more like genuinely concerned, but Taemin was embarrassed. He'd already lied a few times that night, there was no way he was going to be able to cover this one up, and he didn't trust himself to not blab about his stupid crush and he was getting more worked up and breathing more heavily and..and...."Taem? You know you can talk to me, right?"

"Not about this," Taemin blurted before he could stop himself, "this isn't something we can just talk about like bros, hyung." Jonghyun was taken aback. Taemin had never been so forward and serious with him before, or refused to tell him anything. Jonghyun was worried, something was obviously bothering the younger boy. 

"Yeah, you can...that's what friends are here for...you can tell me anything you're worried about or something, you know?" If Taemin wasn't so nervous, he might've scoffed. He really wanted to just tell Jonghyun that he liked him, that he liked him so much, but he couldn't do that. He would ruin everything. He couldn't...

And then

"Is that it? That's what you were worried about?" Taemin snapped his head up, his mouth falling open in a little 'o'. Jonghyun was smiling warmly at him, albeit keeping a bit of distance. Taemin felt his eyes water.

"I...I said it...I said it o-out loud, o-oh , oh god..." Taemin felt the tears coming faster than he could stop them, and soon they were spilling over his lids, his face crinkling with emotion.

The smile on Jonghyun's face dropped off immediately and he moved a little closer, arms stretching out, only for Taemin to scoot himself back on the couch, "Taem..."

"No, don't, this is so stupid, I get it, it's kinda gross, I just...I thought...I don't know what I thought, I just get nervous sometimes and water leaks out, that's all," Taemin rambled, rubbing furiously at his eyes with his sleeve, "I didn't mean for that to slip out, can we just....just f-forget about it? Please?" He sniffled. He felt like such an idiot, does he never have control over his own words? He'd been thinking about how bad he liked Jonghyun that it just slipped out and he couldn't stop it and now it was too late and Jonghyun was going to kick him out and-

"I don't want to, though." Huh?

Taemin slowly looked up from behind his sleeve, "Pardon...?"

Jonghyun's smile returned and he slowly reached out to pry Taemin's arm away from his face, lightly tousling the boy's hair, "I can't say I want to forget about it, Taem. You sorta just confessed to me, you know? That's a pretty big deal." Taemin was confused. Why wasn't he grossed out?

"Aren't you going to ask me to leave?" Taemin asked. Jonghyun's brow furrowed.

"No, why?"

"Because...because I just told you I liked you, and we're both guys, I mean...you don't even feel that way about me..." Taemin mumbled. His eyes rose again when he heard Jonghyun's soft chuckle.

"You know Taemin...we have a lot more things in common than you think," he murmured, eyes averting downwards and shifting closer slightly. 

Realization dawned on Taemin as he thought back to everything Jonghyun had said to him before; 'you're impressive'...'it's nice to see you at the front instead of squinting to see you at the back'...'I wondered about you'...'you have great taste in music'...'we have so much in common.....'

Taemin would've liked to have been smoother about it, really he would've, but Taemin's feelings always seemed to get the better of him and suddenly he was pressed up against Jonghyun, mouth flush against the other's. Although when Taemin felt Jonghyun's lips curve upwards in a grin and return the kiss, he figured Jonghyun didn't really mind.

Hey guys, LifeisSHINee, here! Oh, wow, okay I got a fair amount of requests to add a little bit more onto this story so here it is! Thinking back, the first installment was really short, it was barely 2k words, but it had really been meant to be a drabble idea so I hadn't elaborated more. I'm glad I did though, because I feel like instead of having kind of a quickly slapped together story, it has a little more body now? Although this is it for this fic, I won't be adding more to this. I would've finished this up forever ago but I'm nursing another 20 odd fic ideas oh gosh, haha, and I was thinking up plots for them and stuff so I procrastinated finishing this...also, just a mini disclaimer about the indie band I mentioned, it's not a real band, I just fancy the idea of those two enjoying indie ('anomia' is actually a card game I have sitting on my desk. It was the first word I saw when I looked up and it sounded cool for an eccentric indie band song title, by the way it's a fun card game if you ever wanna check it out haha) I hope you guys like this part, though. It's about 3.5k which is way longer than I intended it to be (considering I sat down and wrote it all in one shot and I didn't even have a plan I just started writing) but I hope it reads well! As always, take care!