It was Satruday afternoon and Key was headed off to one of his typical meeting places with Jonhyun, their bench in the nature walk.  Jonghyun was already there waiting for him. When Key got there he didn't look up from his shaking hands.  He just patted the bench next to him. 

Key's heart began to race.  "W-what's wrong?"

"Just sit please."  Jonghyun was very nervous and he felt guilty about keeping their old friendship from Key for so long.  He felt the bench shift under Key's weight.  "Do you remember this?"  Jonghyun unfolded the painting that Key had done for him in middleschool and handed it over.  He looked up and watched as Key's face flooded with different emotions, passing through realization and excitement and finally landing on pain.  He looked into Jonghyun's eyes and Jonghyun winced at the look on Key's face. 

"Key..." he said pleadingly. A tear escaped Key's eye.  "Please let me explain..."  He reached up to remove the tear from Key's cheek but Key grabbed his wrist.  More tears began to spill over.  Key dropped the paper and Jonghyun's wrist and ran away. 

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After a long while, Jonghyun managed to make his legs carry him from the nature walk. He felt as if he had been punched in the stomach. Seeing Key crying because of him was worse than anything he had expected. He would have preferred yelling, a slap to the face, anything else. Jonghyun was now standing at the door to Taemin's room. He figured he should let Key be alone for a while, and he didn't know where else to go. He also hoped that Taemin would have some advice for him. He always seemed to know what to do...

 Suddenly Minho showed up looking rather upset himself. When he spotted Jonghyun, he stopped and his eyes widened a bit. They hadn't seen each other since the night that Jonghyun had announced his relationship with Key. Minho seemed to have some sort of internal struggle for a second before he took a breath and continued walking, joining Jonghyun in front of the door.  "What are you doing here?" he asked, trying to sound casual. 

"I came to talk to Taemin." 

"So did I."

Just then the door swung open and a guy with brown hair wearing sunglasses and a big jacket stared at them for a minute. His expression was unreadable and although he was not as tall as Minho, he was a bit intimidating.

"Uhh, sorry. We must have the wrong room..." Jonghyun said. The guy took off his sunglasses and eyed them for another moment.

"Wait. You must be Jonghyun and Minho. Please, come on in." His whole demeanor changed as he smiled, and he seemed rather friendly now. He stepped aside to let them through and Minho and Jonghyun exchanged a confused look before Minho led the way. The brown haired guy moved away from the door and into a living room.  "Take a seat." he gestured towards the couch. "Taemin has told me so much about you guys, and the boy who loves chicken, and the one who is always fussing over Taemin like his mother, and the girl who can supposedly do everything well..."

"Um..." Jonghyun had a confused look on his face.  "I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?"

"Jonghyun," Minho interjected with a joking tone, "He is obviously Taemin's roommate. duh!"  Minho laughed at Jonghyun.

"Actually, Minho,"  The brown haired guy cut in with a very serious look on his face, "I am Taemin's father."

They both just stared at him, flabbergasted.

"But... but you're..."

Then, he broke out into a fit of laughter and doubled over holding his stomach.

"Ahahaha, You should have seen your faces! Omo, you guys are gulliable.  But still roommate? So... understated..."

"What?"  Minho's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Uh...My name is Yong Junhyung, nice to meet you both." He said and they exchanged bows. "Taemin left this note for you two." He pulled a red envelope off of the desk he had been leaning against and handed it to them. 

"Where is he anyways?" Jonghyun asked.

"So he hasn't told you about his part time job either?"

"What job?" Minho asked.

"Oh, I'll let him tell you about that... He said it was urgent that you two get that letter right away. Everything is always 'top secret' or 'urgent' with that boy, I swear..." Junhyung said shaking his head. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Ani, I am good."

"Me too, thank you though." Jonghyun got the letter opened and they began to read it together.

Jonghyun and Minho,

I am sorry that I can not be here at such a difficult time for you both.  

Jonghyun,

Key can be a stubborn, over-emotional person. Just give him some time and he will come around. He will realize that you didn't keep that painting all these years for nothing.  You may have to do something bold to prove to him how much you care. He knows that you are nervous about being public with your relationship...Maybe you could do something unexpected. Just give it some thought.

Minho,

It is not unnatural to have homophobic feelings, you just need to decide if you want to let it ruin some of your friendships or not.  And yes, you got wrapped up in the competition. But you opened up and made five new friends in the process.  Don't let fear of getting hurt keep you from opening up to people and if you are having a hard time, pull that chain out and read your parents' words.  Your time for true love will come soon.  Don't give up hope.

Either of you, don't give up hope.

I will be back soon to help, I promise!

Hwaiting!

Saranghae,

Taemin.

Minho and Jonghyun looked at each other.

"Did you already tell him your problem? 'Cause I never I told him any of that!" Minho said.

"No. I just started having problems with Key like thirty minutes ago. There's no way he could have known!" They both looked at Junhyung as if waiting for him to explain.

"Yah, don't look at me. I just expect it by now. You can't keep secrets from that boy..." Junhyung said shrugging.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, somewhere just outside the earth's atmosphere, there was a vast, black spacecraft. A small figure in a white protective suit was floating up to the back side of it. He opened a small door which revealed an intricate system of wires and knobs. Then, he recieved a message.

"Come in Lee1. This is Houston, requesting a feed from your helmet cam, over."

"Copy that, Houston." Taemin replied, switching on his helmet cam. If the ship keeps having issues, we'll never get through this mission. And it was supposed to be a quick one, too-just some satellite work. It's not like we're going to Mars again... I hope everyone's ok without me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Minho was on the soccerfield venting his frustrations into the ball.  He kicked it with all his strength toward the goal.  He missed and it hit the pole then flew into the air and back to him.  He caught it.

"That was pretty sweet! I bet you couldn't do it twice though."  Minho turned at the sound of a girl's voice.

"huh?... omo!" Time seemed to slow down as he watched her flip her hair out of her face. It was shining in the sun. There was something about this girl- maybe it was her short, messy black hair or the swirly tattoo on her chest peeking out above the top of her shirt or the fiery energy in her eyes. Whatever it was, Minho was mesmerized. 

 "Maybe you could help me. I am looking for a new boyfriend."

"Well, look no further, beautiful stranger." Minho said, pulling a bouquet of flowers from behind his back. Her face lit up as she took them "Oppa, where have you been all my life?" she said and hopped up to press her lips to his. Minho heard the swell of violins somewhere in the background...

"Are you gonna answer me? Hello?" Minho shook his head and snapped back into reality.

"OMO I am so sorry can you say that again? What can I help you with?" She gave him a curious smile.

"I am looking for my brother. He said that I should meet him at Mexicana Chicken. How do I get there?"

"Oh I can take you." She smiled and they began to walk across the campus. "So are you just visiting your brother or..."

"I am going to school here too. I have the weekend to get settled in but then on Monday I will start taking classes."

"Oh..." Minho smiled. So she's staying...

"What's your name?" she asked.

"I'm Minho."

"You're cute Minho." He blushed as he held the door open for her. They went inside and she quickly scanned the room.  On the far right side Minho saw Jinki stand up and start waving. He waved back but then realized it wasn't for him. "Chohee-yah!" he called as he began to make his way through the mess of people sitting and enjoying their lunch.

"OPPA!" she yelled and began to bounce excitedly. Jinki reached them and picked up Chohee spinning her in a circle.

"oppa?" Minho said in shock.

"I see you've met Minho."

Chohee smiled at him.  "I found him on the soccer field and he showed me over here. Are you two friends?"

"I- I- ... But..." Minho was unsure of what to say.

Chohee laughed. "Is he usually this awkward?"

"Not at all..." Jinki said in amazment. "What did you do to him?"

Chohee laughed.  "It wasn't me oppa. At least I don't think I did anything..."

-------------------

That night they went to Minho's restaurant again for their usual get together. The others were surprised by Minho's uncharacteristic forwardness through most of the dinner. Jinki just managed to introduce his sister to everyone before Minho stole her attention away. She barely talked to anyone else through the whole meal. Although, Key and Jonghyun were being strangely quiet, Jinki had noticed, and they didn't make many attempts to talk to Chohee once Minho started. Micha seemed to be enjoying herself, nonetheless.

"I think Minho and your sister have the hots for each other." She whispered to Jinki. He blanched, but never replied for Taemin had just shown up late. Jinki introduced him to Chohee.

"Nice to meet you noona!" Taemin smiled at Chohee and held out a hand for her to shake it.  Before she could, Minho intercepted her hand with a glass of water.

"Are you thirsty?" he asked her nonchalantly.  "Where is JaeJoong with our refills? You'll have to excuse him, he's new here." Minho beamed at her. Taemin lowered his hand and chuckled.

I knew he would find his true love soon, but not even I expected it to be this soon... Taemin thought to himelf.  But if he doesn't back off a bit Jinki is gonna have a heart attack.  Taemin looked at the oldest person sitting at the table.  His expression was a mixture of worry and fear as he looked from his sister, talking animatedly about Minho's restaurant, and Minho, who was, for the first time in his life, beaming with pride for his inherited establishment. Taemin could see that Jinki was on the verge of saying something to them so he lightly kicked Micha across the table. She looked at him, confused and he raised his eyebrows at her then nodded his head at Jinki. She gave him a small smile and a nod before pulling Jinki into the conversation she had been having with Key and Jonghyun. 

 I guess it's a good thing I got here when I did.  Aish! These people! Two of them stop fighting, then two others start up and now it looks like the first two are about to get back into it. Romance is hard on these people.  I wonder why i've never had that problem...  "Chohee have you had a chance to look around campus yet?"

"Actually, Taemin, I haven't yet."

"Would you like me to give you a tour?" Minho jumped at the opportunity  "If you're done eating,we could go now. If you'd like..."

"That sounds wonderful." She smiled at him.

"Great!" They got up and left with Jinki staring after them in disbelief.

"So, how have you two been? We haven't heard from you in a while." Micha said suggsetivly and elbowed Key in the ribs jokingly. Jonghyun gulped loudly and shot a sad glance at Key who looked down at his hands with a grim expression.  He gave a small sniffle and a tear landed on the tablecloth. He mumbled an 'excuse me' before getting up and running off.

"I- I'm sorry." Jonghyun said before following Key out.

"What just happened?" Jinki asked, the tone in his voice perfectly matching the concern written on Micha's face.

"Actually, they haven't been doing well lately. They are just going through a bit of a rough patch, though. Just give them some time and they will be ok."

-------------------------------------

Jonghyun ran outside and found Key heading across the parking lot toward campus.  He called after him.  "Key, wait! Don't leave. Will you at least talk to me about this?" Key spun around to glare at him. His voice was angry but his eyes were filling up with tears.

"Talk about what? How you were a ty best friend and you made fun of me instead of sticking up for me? And you know what happened later that day? I was beat up and you were nowhere to be found!" Key was yelling now. A couple getting out of their car began to stare. 

"I know! I'm so sorry! I was young and stupid and I couldn't have known that you were in trouble...I know you won't believe me now, but later I found the guy who did it and I beat him up for you. I swear, I did. I was so angry at him and at myself, you have no idea..." Key was crossing his arms and shaking his head, not looking at Jonghyun as he spoke. 

"You're right, I don't believe you. How am I supposed to believe anything you say anymore? You lied, didn't you? You recognized me from the beginning and didn't say a thing. All of those nice things you said were a lie, weren't they? You let me make a fool of myself. No wonder you didn't want to kiss me. You're just guilty! You're just trying to make up for what you did in middle school! You don't even have feelings for me, do you?!"

"No, yeobo, no that's not..." Jonghyun didn't know what to say anymore. He was horrified and on the verge of tears himself. He reached out for Key but his hands were swatted away.

"Don't call me that! And don't follow me again!" Key said, turning and setting off down the street.

"Key! Please!" Jonghyun called but was ignored. Many things raced through his mind, but what stuck was the fear of something happening to Key while he walked home alone in the dark. He waited until Key was quite far away but still visible and followed him. Just in case... 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, noes. Key umma is upset.

The story can't be all sunshine and daisies, I guess.

But, hey, there's somethin goin down between Minho and Chohee...

Did we trick you? Did you actually think Minho's daydream was real for a minute?

hee hee, I hope so.

<3 Krys

~~~~~~~~~~

So I am a big Jaejoong fan andi couldn't resist putting him into the story when I needed a waiter.

We have decided to start adding sidebars (oneshots) to this story to make it more intresting... the one that goes along with this chapter is ofcourse about JJ because I LOVE him. 

So hee is the oneshot:

http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/148032/unlikely-family-sidebars-shinee 

And here is JJ:

Saranghae JJ oppa!

Oh, and!

We couldn't resist. 

So yeah, Taemin's a supergenious astronaut.

Don't question it.

So why is he going to college? 

To get his third master's degree, of course.

It makes sense if you don't think about it....

This is Junhyung for those of you who might not know:

He will be back later I promise. :D

~Jinjae