Later that week, Yuri (with the help of other members of the Events Club) had invited everyone who had helped with the organizing of the dance to her house for brunch. It more or less became a pool party because of the huge pool her house had and by around 5 PM, the majority of the people had left.

Jonghyun was teaching Jongin about some old classic songs while Jinki poked fun and referenced memes. They were going through YouTube on Yuri’s TV, watching the music videos of all of those songs Jonghyun insisted one should know about. Jongin seemed like a deer caught in headlights, but he had genuinely taken a liking to all the songs Jonghyun put on one after the other. Kibum and Yuri, who had gained quite a bit of knowledge due to Minho’s car playlist, were also pooling in their suggestions for the next song that Jonghyun should play to educate Jongin, entertaining themselves with Jongin’s reactions.

When Suho had joined them with some popcorn, he had passed a casual comment about a guy’s clothes on the TV and that initiated an animated discussion about the fashion from that era and Jonghyun started pulling out more music videos for a visual example for everyone’s, especially, Kibum’s, questions. Somehow the conversation from there had shifted to an 80s movie which now Yuri was trying to find on Netflix.

Taemin had gotten up from the couch to get some water from the kitchen. When he closed the refrigerator door, Minho was standing there, leaning against the counter, having picked up two glasses on his way in. Taemin smiled as he poured the chilled water into the glasses Minho had set down.

“They are putting on a movie.” Minho picked up his water and took a sip.

“Yeah, judging from the conversation, it’s probably going to be either Mannequin or Back to the Future. I’ve watched those with mom a few times and with Jonghyun a few more.”

“So…” Minho set the glass down as he watched Taemin finish his water, “Nothing you’re going to miss if we sneak out.”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

Taemin’s mom was working overtime and wasn’t home for the weekend… which Taemin remembered only after he had led Minho in and when he had asked, “Your mom isn’t home?”

The question had also made Minho quite conscious right after he had asked it.

“Not yet.” Taemin had answered and Minho grew more nervous, “Oh… oh I see.”

Taemin gave him a quick tour of the house and during that short time, both of them had calmed down quite a bit. Taemin had gotten a bit excited when he remembered that he now had the perfect opportunity to show Minho the keytar he had received from his mom.

Taemin was pulling it out from his wardrobe, where he had put it away for the time being so that he wouldn’t be tempted to play it instead of studying. There were piles and piles of clothes that he had covered the keytar with and now he was being careful for reasons more than one– to not break the keytar while pulling it out, to not create an utter mess by dropping clothes and to not let the wardrobe open more than required and reveal how messy his wardrobe was.

Minho was looking around and he couldn’t help but smile to himself because Taemin’s room was just like him. The walls were white and covered with posters and the shelves had figurines and books. His desk was overflowing with books, his laptop barely visible in the mess and his bag was left open on the chair. The bed was made, but the folds were a bit off, but still neat. He noticed the scrapbook under Taemin’s pillow and was a bit overwhelmed, at the thought that Taemin might’ve been going through it last night.

He sat down on his bed and pulled out the scrapbook, flipping it open. Taemin had finally gotten his keytar out and settled beside him, placing the keytar on the bed carefully. He noticed Minho was on the first page. 

“I didn’t know you were aware of those online love tips,” Taemin started, growing a bit bashful as his eyes settled on the picture of the stars, his name spelled on it.

“Oh,” Minho cleared his throat in embarrassment, “The one with the stars, that’s the only one I know because Yuri made all of us try it out.” He looked up from the picture and turned to Taemin, “How did you come to know about it?”

“Jonghyun…” Taemin answered, “And I have even tried some these past years–” Taemin stopped short, realizing how his words had spilled out and he looked at Minho, who had been looking at him, waiting for him to finish.

“For you.” He finished after a moment, his cheeks burning as he admitted it. The whole truth of it. But it was only right he did because Minho had told him everything– in his confession, through his scrapbook… and just by being him. It was evident in every part of his existence… now that Taemin was aware of it and had no doubts. He could see it, could distinguish it… that the way Minho cared for him all these years wasn’t the same way he cared for others… and he had done a very good job at it, to make him think otherwise.

“All these years…” Minho softly repeated, lowering his gaze to glance at the picture. 

It was right then that Taemin’s phone rang and Taemin answered it after checking that it was Jonghyun. He had hit the speaker option by mistake but since he was anyway trying to the keytar’s case, he let it be.

“This is super-duper-dumb, but please hear me out.”

“Yeah, go on.” Taemin said, furrowing his brows as he looked at Minho, who was kinda still caught up in the scrapbook.

“So these guys didn’t believe that the keytar was a real thing, as in that it could actually play music. So I mentioned you had a keytar and could also play it so we all made this instantaneous plan to go to your house and get a look at it…" Jonghyun rambled in panic mode, "But we were arguing so much on the way that we never noticed you guys were missing. It's only now that we are at your doorstep that we realized it because we saw Minho’s car in the driveway and we can’t even turn back because your mom’s here too, she saw us and asked us to wait while she parks her car and is right now walking up the driveway to come and open the door.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, so if you guys are like, you know, just tidy up or whatever, is what I mean.”

He hung up after that and Minho had looked up from the scrapbook, slightly flushed at the last words Jonghyun had uttered.

“For ’s sake, there’s nothing to tidy up, why do they always assume–” Minho had started but stopped because Taemin had started laughing.