Days passed in a blur and Jinki found himself drowning in college assignments and work for the festival’s musical. In fact, they were all busy, the festival was coming and there was still a lot to do. Still at the same time it was so good to see the result of their hard work, to see the script being prepared, the songs being rehearsed and the actors and musicians auditioning for the coveted roles to participate on stage.

It was nine o'clock in the evening when Jinki finally left the music building that day, walking quickly into the auditorium. He had stupidly forgotten his phone there that afternoon when they had gathered to discuss the songs and had only realized hours later.

As he stood in front of the auditorium doors, the sound of a piano caught Jinki's ears. He opened one of the doors slowly so as not to disturb whoever was playing. The music was vaguely familiar but Jinki couldn’t remember who the composer was.

Jinki just needed to get in and out unnoticed. He needed to go where his phone was and then leave, it was very simple. However, not being noticed was something that Jinki could never do. Whenever he tried, it happened the other way around and today would be no different, to his dismay.

As soon as he started down the theater steps to get to where he believed his phone was, Jinki tripped on the step and stumbled down with an embarrassing cry. His arms were flailing everywhere and he was going to die there and would never be recognized in the music industry... his parents would lose their only child prematurely and children should never die before their parents, they would live the rest of their lives remembering Jinki’s embarrassing death….but of course nothing from his sudden imagination ever came to pass. Jinki stumbled on some steps until he finally lost his balance and fell on all fours, scratching up his hands and knees on the rough carpet. The music stopped suddenly and Jinki closed his eyes shut, totally humiliated by that situation.

"Who's there?"

He raised his head, looking at the stage and cursing, of course he had to embarrass himself right in front of Minho, why not add more burn to the moment?

Getting up, legs trembling, Jinki bit his lip nervously, his voice stuck in his throat with shame. "I-I'm sor..."

"Jinki-hyung?" Minho asked frowning and starting down from the stage, heading toward Jinki. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, sorry to disturb you…" he said pointing to the stage. "I was just looking for my phone."

Minho frowned. "You forgot it here?"

"Somewhere around here." Jinki nodded, looking at the chairs lined up.

"Let me help you then." Minho said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and opening the flashlight app, lighting the row of chairs, and Jinki smiled, feeling butterflies in his stomach.

"Thank you." he murmured, trying not to look at Minho's smile for too long.

As Jinki had hoped, his phone was lying under one of the chairs and he quickly picked it up and held it over his head in victory, grinning triumphantly at Minho. "I found it."

The younger man chuckled and nodded. "I can see, luckily it was hidden and no one stepped on it or took it."

Just thinking about his phone with a broken screen made his stomach freeze. Thank God for small favors, he thought.

"Yeah, lucky me."

And then Jinki stood there looking at Minho as if he didn't know what to do. He should leave, let the younger man continue what he was doing before he disturbed him so… gracefully, but at the same time he did not want to go. He wanted to stay just a little longer with the younger man.

Minho suddenly clicked his tongue, startling Jinki. "You hurt yourself." he said, pointing to his left hand, which was not holding the phone.

Looking at his own hand, Jinki realized that a few drops of blood was running down his hand and fingers, dripping onto the carpet. That might stain!

"Oh, I did not realize." he said closing his hand in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

It was no big deal, just a few scratches and cuts, nothing of which Jinki wasn’t used to. He had several scars over the years to prove it.

"There's a first aid kit backstage, come on." Minho said taking Jinki's wrist and dragging him back from in front of the curtain.

He just didn’t know how to act or what to say, his heart beating so fast that Jinki even stopped breathing for a moment, stumbling on the stage step in the process.

"Hyung…" Minho sighed, walking more slowly. "Let's try not to get injured even worse, okay?"

Jinki went red from the tip of his nose to the top of his ears. He wanted to run away and hide in a hole forever. How could Jinki be such an idiot as to fall right in front of Minho?

"I did not mean it that way," Minho said, causing Jinki to stop and look up. "I'm just worried about you."

"I'm sorry," he said shaking his head, trying not to freak out with Minho's words. "I'm very clumsy naturally and been quite tired lately."

"I know," Minho said, chuckling softly. "You’ve been very busy lately with everything. Here we are, sit there." he said, pointing to the couch as he took the first aid kit from a small cabinet in the corner of the backstage room.

Sitting there while Minho gently wiped down and sterilized his hand, then bandaged it was too much for him. They were so close, something that had never happened before. Plus Minho's lips being so up close were more perfect than he'd thought they could be.

There was one positive to this whole situation, Jinki could look at Minho up close. See all the details like the younger’s long eyelashes, the small scar on his left cheek and even the cute speckle on the chin. Besides that being so close, Jinki could imagine how good it would be to kiss the younger man.

The there were Minho's hands… God… they were so big that Jinki's hand had disappeared into them, and Jinki’s hands were not that small either. Lost in long fingers and a palm that was rough and soft at the same time, Jinki started daydreaming again.

"Is something wrong?"

"Hmm?" Jinki blinked, tilting his head slightly.

"You... you were staring at me." Minho said biting his lip to keep from laughing and Jinki squeezed his eyes closed, mortified that he had been caught staring at Minho so blatantly.

"I... I was just...thinking how grateful I am." he said in a small voice.

"My brother, Taemin, is clumsy too," he said shaking his head. "So when he was a kid, he always fell and got hurt, I kind of learned to take care of him and I got good at it."

"Oh." Jinki said, nodding and thinking how nice it would be to have a brother like Minho to always be there to look after him.

Then to Jinki's misfortune, Minho stepped back, letting go of his hand and standing to put the first aid kit back. Jinki didn’t know exactly what to do so he just sat there looking around curiously.

"I still have not had the chance to congratulate you," Minho said, catching Jinki's eye as he smiled. "Your idea was chosen for the musical and it's very good." he said turning to Jinki and looking exceedingly proud.

Jinki could not be happier and proud of himself too. Among so many wonderful ideas, his had been chosen and now would be presented to the entire school. Maybe this was the chance Jinki needed to get the attention of the right people.

"Thank you," he said with a huge smile on his lips. "I really didn’t think they would choose mine."

"You don’t give yourself enough credit hyung, like your songs, the idea is very good."

"You... have you heard my songs?" he asked, his heart racing.

"Yes," Minho said as he approached Jinki. "Kibum showed me some of them. I have to tell you that your voice is beautiful and soft, the most recent song you wrote is my favorite."

What was going on here? Jinki always thought that Minho had never been interested in him, but here was the younger man saying that he heard his songs and what was more, that he had a favorite one?! Had things gone so far only because Jinki had not dared to get closer to Minho before?

"A-are you talking about 'In Your Eyes'?" he asked shakily, not believing in his own ears.

"Yes, that one," Minho said, smiling brightly. "That song touched my heart somehow. It makes me happy just by listening to it."

Maybe, just maybe, Minho feels this way because Jinki wrote that song thinking about the younger man. Somehow maybe he had achieved his goal, which was to touch Minho's heart. But honestly, Jinki would never imagine that this would indeed happen.

Either way he was so, so happy.

"I'm happy." he murmured, looking down, his smile so big it felt like his face would tear apart.

"I'm happy too," Minho said stopping in front of Jinki who blinked confusedly at him. "Now though we must go before they lock the auditorium and we get stuck in here."

The image of Jinki and Minho spending the night together there didn’t seem to be a bad idea, but spending the night in a strange, unheated theater probably wouldn’t be as cool as his imagination made him believe.

"Yeah, let's go."

When Jinki entered his dorm room, Jonghyun was lay sprawled on his bed, his phone in his hand.

"Where were you?"

"In the auditorium, I lost my phone there this afternoon." he said as he pulled up his T-shirt, ready to put on something more comfortable to sleep in.

"Oh, was Minho there?"

Jinki stopped what he was doing and looked at Jonghyun who had a raised eyebrow. "Why?"

"I don't know, maybe because you've been grinning like an idiot ever since you came in."

"I'm not grinning like an idiot." he said, touching his face and realizing that yes, he was grinning.

Jonghyun laughed aloud. "Yes you are."

Giving up trying to deny what was obvious, Jinki, who finally finished pulling up his pajama pants, sat down on the bed. "Yeah, I met him there, okay? I didn’t know he played the piano, he's good."

"He's played the piano since he was a kid." came the voice from Jonghyun's phone, and Jinki frowned.

"Kibum-ah?"

"Hello, hyung. Did you have fun with Minho? Did you finally kiss?"

He grunted, lying on the bed and putting his arm over his face. "We did not do anything. We just talked." he said loudly enough so Kibum could hear him.

"Then why are you so happy?" Kibum asked.

"Yeah, if nothing happened, why are you grinning?"

"Because... because he said he likes my songs."

"Did he?" Jonghyun asked with wide eyes.

"'In Your Eyes' is his favorite." came Kibum's voice from the phone.

"Oh, that song is the..."

Jinki motioned for Jonghyun to shut up, not wanting Kibum to find out about that song. The younger man would never be quiet about something like that and he didn’t want to Minho to find out.

"What about this song?" Kibum asked curiously.

"It's my favorite too." Jonghyun said looking at Jinki who sighed with relief.

"It's a good song." Kibum agreed and Jinki smiled happily.

"Thank you, now I'm going to sleep. So please talk by text you two." he said as he curled up with his head on the pillow.

The loud voices of Leeteuk and Heechul were reverberating down the hall and Jinki was in doubt if he should enter the classroom or not, but he had been called by the two professors, so he should probably make his presence known.

"I can't believe you did such a thing."

"What? It was not my fault, okay?"

"Of course it's your fault, you're the one who should have written the script and not your students. That was your job, and because you were too lazy, you made this mess!"

"Hey!" Heechul said offended. "I am their teacher, and my job is to teach this sort of thing!"

"Teach, not let them do it all on their own!" Leeteuk growled, ruffling his own hair in frustration.

Jinki stood there awkwardly, eventually knocking on the door, catching the attention of the two teachers.

Leeteuk looked at him and sighed. "Come in, Jinki-ah."

Looking at Heechul who was clearly annoyed, Jinki sat where Leeteuk pointed and waited until both teachers was calm enough to talk.

"So, Jinki-ah, I need to talk to you about the musical."

"Did something happen?" Jinki asked worriedly.

"Well, actually, yes. Heechul-ssi thought it would be a good idea to let his students write the script and it didn’t go the way he planned. The story they created ended up getting away from the original plot and your proposed idea, which we liked so much. So in short, the story has been lost in translation by those writing it down."

"Oh."

He just did not know what to say.

"The problem is, we all here need this musical to go very well at that festival, the school board is watching us and the parents that are contributing to the college also want to see the outcome of the donations they made." Leeteuk said.

"I understand." Jinki said, nodding. He really did.

"So that's why I want you…” Leeteuk paused for a moment before continuing, “…to rewrite the script."

"What?" Jinki asked with wide eyes.

That was impossible.

"He can't do that." Heechul said to Leeteuk, who sighed.

"Of course he can and," Leeteuk said looking at Jinki. "I'm going to dismiss you from all of your afternoon classes for the rest of the week so you can work on it. I just ask that you check for the notes and readings online later to keep from falling behind in class. You still have time and I'm sure you can do it."

"But professor… I'm not a script writer, I write music. I can't write something like that. How can..."

"What if you work with some of my students?” Heechul said. “So you're not alone, plus they can help you when you don’t understand or have questions."

Leeteuk nodded. "That's a great idea, actually.” Leeteuk thought again for a moment. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll even sweeten the deal even more. You'll earn points on your final grade for that extra work."

How could Jinki deny something like that? It was not because of the extra points really, but because the musical was very important for all of them there, everyone depended on that script. Jinki had to do no matter what.

"Okay, I'll do it." He sighed a bit.

The two teachers smiled with relief and Jinki tried to smile, tried to feel relieved as well but he couldn't, not at that moment at least.

Maybe Jonghyun and Kibum could help him with the script. Jonghyun is very creative plus Kibum is a perfectionist and a theater student with script writing knowledge, so they can work together to do a great job. Make the script creative and perfect.

"So that's what they said." Jinki said, sipping his iced coffee.

"They just threw that bomb at you, huh?" Jonghyun stretching his legs under the table and hit against Jinki's.

"Basically. Now I have to write the script, all the dialogue, stage direction and everything else. I do not know how I'm going to do it." he began to sulk.

"Well, the teacher said you could get help from the theater kids, right?"

"Yes, I was thinking about you and Kibum to help me with this."

"Of course we'll help you," he said, nodding and smiling at the waitress who set another cup of iced coffee in front of him. "Don't worry about it."

"Thank you Jonghyun-ah. We'll start tomorrow at one in the afternoon, since we can't waste time."

Jonghyun nodded, drinking his coffee. "I'm going to call Kibum and tomorrow we'll meet in the library."

"Okay."

Now Jinki was more relieved, knowing that his friends would help him with the script.

After he'd finished talking to the teachers, Jinki was so mad at the people who had made this mess. He already didn’t have free time to hang around and now he would have to spend all of his afternoons and evenings, and probably into the nights, working on something that was not his job. But to please everyone and make his vision a reality, he was going to do what he had to do. After all, this musical was a great opportunity for all of them.

Jinki picked up all the books he thought would help in some way… even some horror books, and stacked them on the table. The computer was , the script there ready to be deleted and started again. It seemed to mock him. How could Jinki be able to finish all this in time for memorization, rehearsals and the festival?

Jinki sat down with everything in front of him and already felt defeated. He started softly banging his head on the table, Jinki grunted. "I'm screwed."

"Hyung?"

He raised his head, his eyes wide. "M-Minho-ah, what are you doing here?"

Minho smiled, sitting next to Jinki who blinked at him confused. "Professor Heechul assigned me to help you with the musical script. You’re making your forehead bright red when you bang it like that you know…" Jinki blushed slightly and began rubbing his forehead smiling.

Despite the misfortune of having to write the script himself, to have the help and company, from Minho was very lucky for him.

"Oh, I didn't know you liked writing as well."

"Well, I do. I just don't do it all the time, especially when I have a play I’m acting in. I prefer to focus on my role. But with how my own classmates screwed up and having the chance to help you, I accepted the chance to work on writing the script."

"Is it okay for you to help me? I do not want to slow you down."

As much as he was happy, Jinki did not want to disturb Minho with this issue. Surely Kibum and Jonghyun would be there to help him soon.

Oh, maybe the three of them could work together.

"You will not slow me down, I want to help you, hyung." he said smiling and Jinki had to hold his breath to keep from blushing again as Minho sat down directly next to him.

Never in a million years would Jinki imagine that he would be so close to Minho. How was he not supposed to fall even more in love?

"Okay then." Jinki smiled, totally hypnotized by Minho's eyes.

Could he be able to hold out until the end of this musical and festival without confessing his feelings to Minho? Jinki certainly hoped so.