It was Wednesday – yet another day Taemin was supposed to study English with Key. He was looking forward to it, although his dance instructor had been grumpy earlier because of his tutoring lessons. However, his English teacher still seemed really pleased with his progress and so did his parents.

Not to forget, it was Key he was spending time with after all – the girl who kept running around in his head all day, who occupied his every thought. Ever since they had gone on their coffee date, Taemin couldn’t think straight in her presence anymore.

He kept wondering if he had just imagined their proximity, if he had misinterpreted the way she had leant closer to him – or if, miraculously, he had somehow made an impression on her.

All this time, Taemin had never once imagined that he could actually have a chance to get with Jongin’s older sister. Key had seemed unreachable, too flawless to even take one look at him, and he had accepted his fate, though it hadn’t kept him from thinking about her.

Now, something seemed to have changed, though. It felt like Key trusted him. She had shared personal stories with him and appeared so vulnerable when they had gone out – suddenly, it was hard for Taemin to believe there was nothing between them.

All of these thoughts and questions were whirling around behind his forehead as he showed up on Jongin’s doorstep. He hoped Key would be there today, although he didn’t mind studying with Kibum, yet at the same time, he prayed her twin brother would take over for Key. In his presence, he could at least think properly.

Taemin was unlucky. Key opened the door with a big smile on her face and an apron wrapped around her slim, lean body. She greeted Taemin with a bow and signaled him to come in.

“You came straight from school, didn’t you?” she rambled as she watched Taemin slide out of his shoes. “Jongin texted me he’ll be there in ten. I didn’t have any classes today, isn’t that awesome? That’s why I cooked something. By the way, we should start the lesson soon since I’m meeting someone later, I hope you don’t mind. We can meet up tomorrow or something to make up for the lost time.”

“No, it’s fine,” Taemin shook his head, desperately trying not to sound too breathless in front of Key.

The girl didn’t seem to notice his nervousness in her giddy state as she skipped off towards the kitchen. At a loss for what else to do, Taemin followed her, though he opted for sitting at the table while watching Key cut up some vegetables.

Soon enough, the doorbell rang and interrupted the comfortable yet in Taemin’s opinion absolutely nerve-wracking silence between them.

“Oh, can you get that, Taem-ah?” Key asked. “Jonginnie must have forgotten his keys again.”

“So, you’re here already.” Jongin didn’t sound too enthusiastic when Taemin opened the door for him. “It almost feels like you’re the one living here.”

He shuffled past his best friend into the hallway and shook off his jacket and shoes while Taemin was still busy trying to comprehend what he had done to Jongin. The other was in a bad mood, that much was obvious, but Taemin didn’t understand why. After all, they didn’t have a fight or anything.

I should spend time with him this afternoon, Taemin thought as he returned to the kitchen. I only ever see him at dance practice anymore.

He sat beside Jongin, but the younger boy didn’t seem to be in the mood for talking, only staring down at his phone with furrowed brows. After lunch, he quickly left without another word, probably going to his room, while Key started tutoring Taemin.

The boy found it a bit hard to concentrate today, especially after noticing the faint dust of silver eyeshadow that was layered over Key’s eyelid. She had put on peach blush that made her freckles pop, too. In short, she was giving Taemin a hard time.

Sadly, she put down her pen after only an hour, smiling apologetically at Taemin.

“I’m sorry, but it’s time for me to leave. Will you be okay on your way out?”

“I won’t get lost, noona,” Taemin sarcastically replied as he rolled his eyes. “I think I’ll hang out with Jongin, though.”

“Oh, let me get him for you.”

Five minutes later, the two boys were standing at the kitchen window, both of them silent. Taemin was, once again, wondering why Jongin seemed so pissed off when Key suddenly stepped out of the door and walked down the small path towards the street.

She had put up her hair in two ponytails that kept skipping along to her walk happily – adorable, Taemin thought.

Just when he asked himself where she was going, the sound of a motor engine rang out to him, loud enough to penetrate through the glass of the window pane. Only thirty seconds later, a small motorbike stopped right in front of Jongin’s house.

Everything that came next happened so fast that Taemin’s brain barely had the time to process it properly. The rider of the motorcycle got off the vehicle and took off his helmet; his puppy-like face was definitely familiar.

At the same time, Key waved excitedly and called the guy, though her voice wasn’t loud enough for Taemin to hear. She quickly walked towards him, meeting him halfway to the motorcycle.

He opened his arms, caught her and wrapped her up in a tight hug before pulling her in for a deep kiss.

Had he been holding a glass in that moment, that same jar would be lying shattered on the ground right now. The sound of splintering glass was almost audible to Taemin, but then again, his ears were filled with a constant ringing noise that didn’t subside even when the guy pulled away from Key.

All of a sudden, Taemin’s mouth was dry and his fingertips felt numb, like they weren’t getting enough oxygen. For a few second, he couldn’t do anything but stare.

It was hard enough to keep his mouth closed while watching Key throw herself at another boy, another man, but luckily he remembered he couldn’t be too obvious in front of Jongin. The way the motorcyclist guided Key to his vehicle made Taemin feel sick to his stomach.

He didn’t move until the motorbike was out of sight. Key had climbed on it to sit behind the guy after putting on a helmet that only left her bangs uncovered. Then, the man had hit the gaspedal and they had driven off with the same loud noise as before – a voice that now cut through Taemin’s conscious like a knife.

“Who was that?”

His throat was dry and it felt like he had just started to speak again after a long time of silence, the words foreign on his tongue. Jongin, who had been watching the scene as well, turned to Taemin.

At first, his face stayed blank, but then the right corner of his mouth rose up into a half smirk.

“Oh, that,” he said as if it wasn’t a big deal, “that was Key’s boyfriend, Jonghyun.”

________________________________

Needless to say, Taemin spent the rest of the day sulking in his bedroom. He didn’t go to practice his dancing even though the instructor had told him to after he had missed so many lessons. When his mother knocked on the door of his room, he yelled at her to go away.

He didn’t feel guilty afterwards. She would probably just shrug it off as him being a hormonal teenager and gossip to his father about it. Taemin didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything.

Everything he had been looking forward to, his next dance performance, hanging out with Jongin and, most importantly, spending time with Key, all of these events seemed to have dulled now.

Taemin bitterly realized that he had hoped in vain.

How could he ever have expected Key to like him when she had a boyfriend like that Jonghyun guy, someone who was older, more mature and owned a motorcycle? Meanwhile, Taemin was just a boy, a little child that had nothing to offer.

He didn’t even share Key’s love for English, even though the language was the primary reason they had met. Jonghyun looked like he was a university student. He was probably studying law at some prestigious college, or writing – of course Key would fall for him.

During the course of the evening, Taemin could feel his resentment against Jonghyun grow. He began to loathe the guy with his stupid puppy eyes, who had waltzed into the practice room of their school with Choi Minho on Taemin’s first day of school, watching Key’s twin dance.

He was most likely a part of Key’s family already, judging by the fact that he hung out with her brother and his best friend and by how comfortably Jongin addressed him, too.

Taemin was pissed off, but most of all, he felt hopeless. Never had he ever met another person, no matter the gender, who had fascinated him in the same way Key did. After a few weeks only, she had become a lot to him – she was beautiful and deserved to know it, intelligent with a tongue sharper than a razor, she could dance.

No one, apart from Jongin maybe, had ever understood Taemin’s love for dancing before.

Although he felt miserable, Taemin didn’t allow himself to cry over Key and her boyfriend. He felt like it would just prove just how immature and unfitting for the older girl he was, so he stayed grim and impassive.

Jongin still asked him what was wrong the next morning, in a voice that had a slightly mocking undertone to it if Taemin listened close enough, but he shrugged it off.

Truthfully, Taemin dreaded his next meeting with Key, so he was pleasantly surprised to find Kibum at the table when he went to Jongin’s place, greeting him with a wave.

“It’s me again today, I hope you don’t mind!” he smiled and Taemin quickly shook his head.

He was still baffled by how similar Key and Kibum were and how alike their voices sounded, but he forced himself not to think about Jongin’s older sister.

“So, you have your first English test next week, right?” Kibum asked as he scanned the notes Taemin had taken during the last lesson. “Your handwriting could be a bit neater.”

“Ah, hyung,” Taemin whined as he tried to appeal to Kibum with his aegyo.

However, the older boy ignored him purposefully, pushing the glasses he was wearing up the bridge of his nose. He looked pretty, Taemin realized as he let his eyes linger for a second. Kibum didn’t meet the Korean beauty standards, but his face was still beautiful – it must have been because he looked exactly like Key.

“Hyung,” Taemin started another attempt to distract his tutor, “how did you get your eyebrow scar?”

“Oh, you’d think it’s a long story but it’s actually not. I was a child, a very small one, and hit my head. It must have been right after Jongin was born, so I was 2. My dad didn’t discover it soon enough so it’d been bleeding for quite a bit when we arrived at the clinic.

“I got stitches and cried all day, apparently, but in the end the little wound was the only damage done that day. Do you think the scar looks weird? I don’t fill it in because I kinda like how it makes me look unique but-“

“Don’t worry, hyung,” Taemin interrupted Kibum’s rambling. “I think it looks cool. Really badass.”

It fits you, he added in his head. Then, “hyung?”

“What is it, you pest?”

“I’m really hungry, do you have any food? I haven’t eaten any lunch yet.”

Taemin pouted and Kibum shook his head incredulously.

“Wow, you’re really something. But fine, I guess I could fry you an egg or two. On the condition that we’ll keep revising in the meantime. What’s fried egg in English?”

The two kept on bickering as Kibum started preparing the egg and Taemin found himself relaxing. When he had walked through the front door earlier, he had feared that he would only be able to think of the scene that had unfolded outside just one day ago.

However, now that Kibum was here, Taemin realized he was a good distraction.

“Hyung, on the first day of school I saw you dance,” Taemin asked at some point, happily munching on his egg (which was absolutely delicious by the way, with crispy bacon in perfect American manner and style). “Are you on the team of our school?”

“I’m not,” Kibum smiled, “the stuff I like to do doesn’t really belong on a stage. I mostly cover girl group dances, but in the end, I’ll dance to anything that catches my eye. I’m good at memorizing steps, I can look at a choreo once or twice and repeat it perfectly. The sequence at least.”

“Then do you practice together with Key-noona? She told me she liked those K-Pop dances as well.”

“Together with Key?” Kibum stayed silent for a moment, then he nodded. “I guess you could say it like that.”

“That’s so cool,” Taemin told him.

He knew that his eyes were starting to glow as he talked about dancing and that he was probably embarrassing himself, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t too often that he met people who were willing to listen to his opinions and dreams.

“What do you do, Min-ah?” Kibum then asked. “Your movements were pretty sharp the last time I saw you, but you looked flexible, too. What’s the story behind that?”

“Do you really want to know, hyung? I won’t shut up for an hour, so I’m warning you.”

“Of course I do, go on.”

“Well,” Taemin smiled, “I mostly do what Jongin does, though I lean a bit more towards contemporary while he likes ballet. We’re a team, though, a unit. We like to think up our choreos together and…”

__________________________________

poor taeminnie, getting his heart broken just like that. i'm curious if any of you were wondering about jonghyun's role in this story, and now you know. it's getting interesting now, so watch out for the next chapters.

also, last week was wild. i had to do my other two exams for finals, which was an interesting experience. but afterwards, i was able to sleep over at my best friend's house and it was honestly so fun bc we played sims all night (we also may have downloaded jongkey as sims, lmao). so yea, i was quite busy (and didn't get a lot of sleep until today)

i hope you're all doing well these days, too! once again, thanks to everyone who subscribed to this story and who's reading the new chapters that come out every week. it makes me very happy ~.~