Taemin’s alarm sounded, and he woke up right away, smashing his hand against the top of it in an attempt not to wake Key. Evidently, it worked. He sighed a breath of relief.

            It was time.

            He slipped out of Key’s bed and got to work, carefully and quietly opening his backpack where he’d stashed the signs and the number plates he’d made a few days before. He also took out a screwdriver, which would prove to be very useful.

            He knew his plan would take a while, and he didn’t want to get caught in the middle of it, so he tried to work as quickly and efficiently as possible. He opened their door, unlocking it so that he’d be able to get back in without the key, and left the room quietly, all his supplies in hand.

            He decided he’d do the stairwell first, which proved to be a good idea, because just as he was finishing screwing in the number plate on the wall, a pretty girl with blonde hair went up the stairs to the real fourth floor. She didn’t notice Taemin or the new sign, but Taemin assured himself that it was just because she wasn’t as forgetful as Jonghyun.

            Taemin knew that it would take longest to change the number plates on all the doors, and it would be hard to do it quietly.

            Then again, didn’t things always go Taemin’s way? There were only about ten rooms on the hall, so it didn’t take nearly as long to replace all the number plates as Taemin had thought. As he was in the middle of fixing all the number plates, he observed Jonghyun going down to the gym.

            Just as planned, Taemin told himself happily. Hopefully this would work.

            After stealing a blanket from the common room, he went back into his room once he’d finished, and Key was still fast asleep. He stowed everything away in his drawer, and finally, everything was quiet.

            Too quiet.

            He missed Onew. He moved over to sit next to Key’s bed and pulled out his favorite book: A Frog’s Life Cycle. It reminded him of Onew and how he’d read it to Taemin faithfully every night before Taemin fell asleep. As soon as Key was gone, Taemin would call Onew.

            “Taemin-ah, Taemin-ah, where are you?” Key cried, signaling to Taemin that he was obviously awake.

            “I’m right here, hyung,” Taemin reassured him.

            “Sunbaenim.”

            “I’m right here, sunbaenim. I’m reading about frogs. I really like frogs, you know.”

            “Don’t you have class?”

            “Not until three,” Taemin said, only half paying attention to Key.

            “Aren’t you like seventeen years old internationally? Shouldn’t you be reading something less childish?” Key asked disdainfully.

            “Sunbaenim said that last night,” Taemin remarked.

            “Well, you act like a little kid,” Key spat.

            “I can’t help being cute,” Taemin replied, trying to pull off his best aegyo.

            “You’re actually just a brat, aren’t you?” Key asked, evidently not convinced. All this was harder than Taemin thought. “Anyway, I have class at nine so I’m going to shower and leave. Do not bother me, and don’t get in to trouble because I’m not your precious Onew-hyung and I’m not going to come to your rescue.”

            “I wish appa was here,” Taemin sighed, looking back at the book and remembering Onew writing Taemin’s name in the front cover.

            “I do too, then I wouldn’t have to deal with you,” Key retorted. “Don’t bother me.” He stomped off into the bathroom. Taemin heard the water start and sighed. He was so used to people liking him right away. Key was different.

            Taemin knew he couldn’t give up, though. He had to get his plan to work.

            As if on cue (and Taemin had ensured that the room stayed unlocked), Jonghyun opened the door.

            It’s too early! Taemin panicked as he tried to think of a way to get Jonghyun to stay and get Key out of the shower.

            “Key-hyung!” Taemin called hysterically. “Hyuuuuuuung!”

            “Don’t call me hyung!” Key shouted. “Didn’t I tell you not to bother me?”

            “But a weird guy just came in!” Taemin cried. Jonghyun looked shocked.

            “No, wait, I—” he began, starting to back out of the room slowly, but Taemin tackled him. Jonghyun caught Taemin but stumbled backwards onto Key’s bed.

            “Why’d you come into our room?” Taemin cried unconvincingly, but Jonghyun seemed so confused that he bought it anyway.

            “No seriously, I thought it was my room,” Jonghyun tried to explain as Key walked into the room. Suddenly, Taemin felt his lungs start to do that thing where they clench up. He knew he should stop struggling or else he’d have an asthma attack, but it seemed like such a good excuse to keep Jonghyun and Key in the same room for just a little bit longer…

            He started to see black spots in his vision.

            “Taemin-ah! …Taemin-ah, do you have an inhaler? Where is it?” Key asked. Taemin struggled to point out his backpack. Key said something to Jonghyun as he raced to get Taemin’s inhaler. He ran over, clutching Taemin’s head, and puffed the inhaler twice. Taemin’s breathing finally relaxed as he lay down on the bed. Jonghyun reentered the room and wiped off Taemin’s face.

            Perfect, Taemin thought as Jonghyun and Key started talking. Taemin liked the way Jonghyun looked at Key.

            “What I want to know,” Key said suddenly, awakening Taemin from his master plan, “is why the door was unlocked in the first place. Taemin-ah. Why was the door unlocked?” Taemin gave them his best aegyo pout.

            “Sorry, hyung, I unlocked it.”

            “Why?” Jonghyun asked. Key looked at Jonghyun as if he’d just had an epiphany, and Taemin knew his plan was starting to work. It had been as easy as pie.

            “I…wanted to get breakfast for Key-hyung to surprise him,” Taemin said nonchalantly. Taemin noticed that Key was blushing furiously.

            “I can get my breakfast myself,” Key said, completely flustered. “Anyway I need to go to class so I don’t have time anyway. I want to be on time for the first day of the semester. Thanks for helping, sunbaenim.”

            “You can call me hyung,” Jonghyun said as Key showed him out the door. “Hopefully I’ll see you guys again sometime? Stay healthy, Taemin-ssi.” Taemin waved as Key went over to his dresser to put on a shirt.

            “Hyung, why are you all red?” Taemin asked, knowing the answer perfectly well.

            “I’m not,” Key said a little too quickly.

            “Yes you are! Are you too hot? Also, I don’t think you should go out like that.”

            “Why not?”

            “You’re still wearing your pajama pants!” Taemin pointed out. Key looked down and made an annoyed noise, then disappeared into the bathroom.

            “Taemin-ah, this is all your fault! I’m going to be late for the first class of the semester! And don’t forget your inhaler because I’m not going to be around to help you if another attack happens. And lock the door this time!” Key grabbed his backpack and ran out the door.

            Taemin sighed, congratulating himself for a job well done. This warranted a call to Onew. He dialed the number, and when he heard the familiar “yeoboseyo?” he couldn’t help but feel strangely homesick.

            “Appa!” Taemin cried.

            “Taemin-ah! How are you?”

            “I’m wonderful, appa,” Taemin giggled. He could practically hear Onew smile into the phone.

            “How is Key-ssi?” Onew asked.

            “I don’t think he likes me much so far.”

            “Are you staying out of his way like I asked?”

            “Well…”

            “Taemin-ah…”

            “But Onew-hyung, I have a plan to make him a better person! It’s already working.” Taemin heard Onew let out an amused sigh.

            “Alright, tell me about this plan.”

            “So I overheard this guy saying he had a crush on Key-hyung and I know that Key-hyung would really like this guy so I set it up so that they’d run into each other this morning and they’re already hitting it off really well!”

            “How’d you engineer that?” Onew asked.

            “Well Jonghyun-hyung—that’s his name—came into our room by…accident…this morning, and then I had an asthma attack and he stayed to help and—”

            “Taemin, you need to be more careful about your health!” Onew said, sounding worried.

            “But it was the only way to keep Jonghyun-hyung in the room for longer,” Taemin explained.

            “You caused it on purpose? Taemin, you’re going to kill yourself accidentally one day. It’s not good to make your asthma attacks happen on purpose.”

            “Yeah, Onew-hyung, I know it’s not good to make my asthma attacks happen on purpose.”

            “Especially not to do your manipulation thing with Key-ssi,” Onew scolded.

            “I know, Onew-hyung. But how else can I get him to do what I want?”

            “Taemin, sometimes I think you’re a bad kid,” Onew laughed, and Taemin knew that he was kidding.

            “No I’m not, Onew-hyung!” he cried, playfully offended. Onew laughed.

            “Really though, I don’t want your health to be bad. Don’t do this anymore, okay?”

            “But…” Taemin paused, considering Onew’s words. He really didn’t want him to worry. "Okay, you’re right. I just miss you a lot, appa. Come back from Japan soon, I’m already lonely without you.”

            “You’ll be fine, Taemin-ah. I’ll be back in no time, you’ll see. I have to go now, Taemin, but I’ll try to call you again later, okay?”

            “Mm,” Taemin said, and Onew hung up. Taemin sighed and picked up his frog book again.

            He thought he heard the door click, but he brushed it off as something shifting in the room.

A/N: So. An update. Finally. Sorry it's been so long! I have like none more than this written so...yeah I need to step it up! But I like this chapter a lot. I hope you all like it too. I think I'm going to decrease updates to once a week (I'm sorry!) because I'm working very hard on a new fic called Simple, which you may or may not read. But don't worry! I will finish this if it's the last thing I do. <3

@AmythystJade: Kekeke~

@AlmightySHAWOL123: Oh oh, lemme check them out now!

@naznew: I’m glad you liked the ending~

@Sam97may: That’s good, because I like writing Taemin’s point of view :)

@Sekari: Voila!

@Kpop707: Thank you! Hahaha, Taemin’s not going to be beating people up anytime soon~

♥ Exie