Taemin’s palms were sweating. In fact, they were so slick and wet that his pen slipped through his fingers twice before he finally managed to pick it up for good. With a disgusted face, the dancer wiped his hands on his jeans, hoping to make at least some of the sweat go away, though he knew that was very unlikely to happen.

In this exact moment, Taemin was sitting at Jongin’s dinner table with his jotter open in front of him. Nothing about the scene was unusual – if it hadn’t been for the fact that his best friend was nowhere to be seen.

Actually, Jongin had just left for dance practice and the sole reason why Taemin was still at his house was because the older boy was waiting. For whom?

For Key.

As if she had sensed the direction Taemin’s thoughts were taking, Jongin’s sister walked into the room with a stack of books. She placed them on the table with a huff.

“You don’t mind if I fix myself a coffee first, do you?”

Taemin, who had been rendered speechless by the girl’s entrance, spluttered a bit and promptly blushed the second Key turned around. The boy’s eyes landed on her back which was sadly covered by at least two layers of clothes – it was cold outside.

Nonetheless, Key looked flawless when she walked over to the table with a latte macchiato in her hands a minute later. She was dressed in soft shades of brown that matched the coffee’s color and the turtleneck she was wearing hugged her body tightly, like a second skin.

Key giggled a bit as she sat down.

“You look like you want a coffee yourself,” she commented on Taemin’s slightly widened eyes. “Don’t you dare think I’m being impolite or anything. First, I’ll make you do some work and then you get a treat. Jongin told me you tend to be a bit lazy, so I had to get creative.”

She laughed when Taemin scoffed. He wasn’t happy at all, mainly because Jongin had talked badly about him and most likely destroyed the image Key had had of him before. However, the worst was that he couldn’t even deny the accusation.

“He’s exaggerating,” he mumbled.

“Aww, you’re literally so adorable when you’re mad!” Key squealed and before Taemin knew what was happening, he felt her hand on his head, ruffling his hair.

Her skin was warm from holding the coffee.

“’m not cute.”

Trying to protect his dignity, Taemin disagreed grumpily, but he couldn’t deny that he liked Key’s fussing. The girl giggled at his expression a few more times before her face turned serious.

“Okay, back to the reason we’re here today – you’re struggling with English, right?”

“I guess.”

“Don’t worry! I’m here to help you!” She smiled brightly at Taemin and for the first time, he noticed she was wearing braces. “Can you maybe introduce yourself first? So I can see how good you are?”

“Um…I’ll try?”

Even though he had been all too happy to be tutored by Key of all people, Taemin suddenly regretted having taking her up on her offer. He wasn’t insecure about a lot of things, but speaking English in front of his crush – and that, Key was – was definitely something he would rather avoid. Especially since said crush apparently spoke English on a nearly perfect level.

“H-Hi, I’m Taemin and…I’m…”

He paused to give the words some time to form inside his head, but his mind stayed blank – they were only at the first sentence and he was already failing.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I can’t do it.”

“If you could, we wouldn’t be here today,” Key replied sarcastically. “Try again!”

“But-“

“Just do it.”

Her gaze was so stern that Taemin instantly obeyed. Yet again, he felt like his tongue was tied the second he took those foreign words into his mouth. Taemin hated how his voice shook as he spoke and how badly accented his words sounded.

Key must be secretly laughing at me, he bitterly thought.

“Well,” the girl said, “that didn’t work I suppose. Don’t worry, though, I’m here to teach you!”

She looked at the jotter Taemin brought but her gaze quickly caught his eyes again.

“Oh, I forgot to mention, but I’ll try to talk solely in English from now on. Just tell me if you don’t understand anything.”

Needless to say, Taemin’s first tutoring lesson was a disaster. It wasn’t because of Key’s bad teaching skills – the girl had actually thought up a lot of exercises that would help Taemin grasp the basics of the English language – but rather due to the fact that Taemin couldn’t stop staring at her.

She looked beautiful and soft in her outfit, and her newly-dyed black hair matched her dark eyes very well. The domestic vibe she gave off as she sat at the table with Taemin made him feel very warm and contented. He wished he could spend more time with her like that, just the two of them sitting on the couch, watching a movie maybe, or talking while she was sipping her latte.

Maybe Taemin could rest his head on her lap and she would run her fingers through his hair. Maybe she would cuddle up against his shoulder to steal some of his warmth.

To put it short – Taemin was daydreaming.

He also found that he loved the way Key spoke English. Before today, Taemin had never found the language particularly interesting or appealing, but suddenly he found himself wishing he was able to understand at least half of what Key was saying.

Her voice became deeper when she talked in English until it almost sounded like a boy’s voice and she seemed very natural while speaking – as if the foreign language was actually her true element.

“You’re not listening, Taemin-ah!”

The sudden Korean made Taemin jump and, for the umpteenth time that afternoon, he blushed when Key said his name. She had caught him red-handed.

“Noona…” He blinked at her with big eyes and tried to sneak some aegyo into his voice. “I’m tired.”

“So, did you actually learn anything so far?”

“I-“

“Maybe you should look for another tutor, since I’m obviously not suited…”

“No! Wait! I’m sorry and I promise to try harder from now on!”

Taemin had raised his hand along with his voice and, almost unbeknownst to him, Key had recoiled. She smiled, though, and shook her head at him.

“You’re a sneaky one, Taemin-ah. If you weren’t so cute, I swear… Let’s complete these exercises now and then I could maybe perhaps give you some food or something.”

She patted the exercise book to signal him to start over again, and Taemin did. Later, he realized he liked the new side of Key that he had seen today – she was pushy and stern, but in the end her motives were good. She wanted the best for him.

When they got up from the table, their hands brushed against each other and – as cliché as that sounded – Taemin felt a tiny shock of electricity run through his hand. He quickly pulled it back and smiled at Key, hoping she didn’t suspect anything.

“So, didn’t you say you wanted to give me a treat?”

_________________________________

Three lessons a week – on that condition, Taemin’s mother had allowed her son to stay on the dance team. Even though he had sulked at first, the boy now happily obeyed the instructions. Three lessons of English a week meant he got to spend time with Key three times – and he was actually starting to get a grasp of English, which he had never expected to happen.

Taemin’s coach wasn’t happy when he was told about the new circumstances, but he agreed to let Taemin stay if the boy proved that he was worth it. That was why Taemin had to spend all of his time training at school, completing his homework or studying English at Jongin’s place.

His best friend wasn’t very happy with his new schedule. He started to complain that Taemin never had time for him – and he wasn’t wrong. Whenever Key tutored Taemin, the two ended up going off topic and more often than not, they spent the entire afternoon together.

Three days a week were reserved for Key – there was hardly any time left for Jongin. It wasn’t like Taemin didn’t feel guilty about the situation, but that didn’t mean he necessarily wanted to change it.

In the end, their arrangements stayed the same for the next few weeks and while Jongin became sulkier and sulkier, Taemin found himself growing closer and closer to Key.

Their talks had become a little more personal lately and although he knew how irrational he was being, Taemin couldn’t help dreaming. When Key was dressed in a big sweater that dwarfed her frame, Taemin wanted to wrap his arms around him and when she was all dressed up, he wished he was the one to receive all of her pretty smiles.

One day, something unexpected happened, though. As usual, Taemin turned up at Jongin’s home after school, but it wasn’t Key who opened the door for him. Instead, her twin brother was the one standing there, an apologetic smile on his face.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “Key…isn’t home today. But I agreed to tutor you instead this afternoon, I hope that’s okay.”

Taemin froze, his eyes widening in astonishment.

However, the real reason he was surprised wasn’t the fact that Key had been replaced by her brother, but the sound of Kibum’s voice. He sounded exactly, absolutely and ultimately like his sister and had Taemin been asked to do so, he wouldn’t have been able to differentiate their voice.

In fact, the similarity was so shocking that Taemin suddenly questioned if Key was actually standing in front of him. But that couldn’t be – Kibum’s hair was jet black and short, except for the middle part that covered his forehead in a messy fringe. He was also wearing his school uniform, the male school uniform that Taemin himself was clad in, although his tie was a bit crumpled.

However, hadn’t it been for the hairstyle and clothing, Taemin wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. Kibum’s lips were the same bowed shape as Key’s and his eyes were just as beautiful. He had the same nose and even his collar bones that were peeking out from under his flannel looked like Key’s.

Taemin shook his head to clear his mind and get over the first shock of seeing Kibum. Then, he stuttered, “Y-yeah, that’s fine.”

It only occurred to him later that that meant he wouldn’t be able to see Key that day, but it somehow didn’t matter too much. Firstly, her brother was so similar to her that it didn’t feel much different to Taemin and secondly had he wanted to talk to Kibum all along.

Apart from Jongin, whom he wasn’t on the best terms with currently, he didn’t have any friends at school. There were some nice people on the dance team, but since he didn’t attend all practices he was kind of a loner there.

It definitely couldn’t hurt to be acquainted with one of his seniors, especially as said senior was friends with one of the most popular students, namely Choi Minho. And last of all, Taemin knew Kibum could dance. Maybe he could distract the older boy by striking up a conversation, so that he wouldn’t have to study as much.

Sadly, Taemin soon found out that Kibum was just like his sister when it came to tutoring him – nagging and disciplined. The third time he received a slap on the back of his head for not concentrating well, Taemin pouted, his bottom lip jutting out cutely.

“Don’t do that,” Kibum grumbled.

“But you hurt me, hyung. That’s not nice.”

“Still, don’t pout! That’s cute, and you’re not supposed to look cute when I’m trying to punish you. What will your teacher say when she finds out you aren’t improving? I’m risking my reputation here.”

“You’re such a diva, hyung.”

“Thanks, I get that a lot.”

Their bickering continued for a while and Taemin realized he got along with Kibum just as well as he got along with Key. He was almost sad when it was getting dark outside and it was time to go.

“Behave well,” Kibum told him as he waved him off from the doorstep, shivering in the winter breeze that was sweeping through the street. “Don’t cause your mum stress or worries, she doesn’t deserve that. Don’t be a brat. Do your homework and study diligently!”

“Yes, mum,” Taemin responded with a grown, but inside, he felt fond.

Kibum was, just like his sister, a very special character and quite unlike anyone Taemin had ever met before. The rest of the evening, the boy spent trying to recall all the stories Jongin had told him during their time at the boarding school and imagining all the situations his best friend and Kibum had experienced together.

_______________________________

At the moment, it feels like this story is moving very fast - which is actually really funny because usually it's the other way round in my stories. Don't worry, though, we are still so far from the end of this story.

These days I'm really busy too, but I still want to keep updating - the comments I've received give me so much motivation and it honestly means sp much to me that there are acc people out there who are acc invested in this story and interested in how it goes on. Thank you so much for the comments you left, I really appreciate every single one!

Another unimportant bit of info abt me: My finals start next week and I'll have to do three written exams within the next fourteen days. But I only have a few weeks of school left until I'm done for good and I honestly can't wait.

Anyway, I'll see you next weekend (by then I'll be done w my English exam AHHHHHH)