Soomin made sure she finished dinner at the same time as her brother- a better reason to follow him up the stairs and push him into her room instead of his. Taemin didn’t seem too surprised as he sat in her chair and leaned back, waiting patiently for his sister to lay out her master plan.

“Taemin…”

“Hmm?”

“You love me right?”

Taemin didn’t answer as he watched his twin with amusement.

“Well, wouldn’t you want things to work out for your sister?” Soomin continued, her eyes never leaving her brother. “You know what I’m talking about. It’s about time we use this weird look-alike thing to our advantage,” she said, moving her finger between her and the individual sitting on the chair. “No one will be able to tell us apart.”

Taemin crossed his arms and relaxed in his seat. “I may have only been at this school for less than a year, but your classmates will notice for sure. We’re not exactly identical you know.”

Soomin had already worked out the kinks during dinner and she wasn’t going to back down that easily. “There’s a virus going around, so we’ll just pretend you, I mean I, have it. Sick people always look a little off, and no one will come close enough to tell the difference.”

Taemin raised his eyebrows as his twin continued. “Plus, with the makeup, no one will notice that you’re a guy,” Soomin told him. “Did you already forget how you fooled Eunhyuk into thinking you were me?”

“That was four years ago,” her brother pointed out. “And you forced me into a dress. Of course Eunhyuk would second guess my gender.”

Soomin couldn’t help giggling at the memory of their cousin’s confusion but quickly pushed it out of her mind. “Anyway, I’ll tell Key. He’ll help distract people from focusing on you.”

“Key? That diva boyfriend of yours?” Taemin teased.

Soomin narrowed her eyes. “He is not my boyfriend Taemin, and you know that.”

Kim Kibum, also known as Key, was her childhood friend as well as her first crush. Of course, first crushes usually had no merit, and Soomin and Key had determined early on that they weren’t meant for each other in that sense and that best friends was definitely the best definition for their relationship. Key was also the only one who knew about her twin brother. For whatever reason, she had never explicitly stated to her other friends that Taemin was her twin, and instead chose to describe him as her younger brother, which was technically still true. Although Soomin would have trusted this switcheroo to her other close friend Chohee as well as with Key, Chohee had a tendency to be extremely timid in front of boys. This meant that although Chohee wouldn’t mean to, Soomin knew her friend would unconsciously shy away from her brother, which would spoil her plan.

“Well, you do realize that I go to school too, right?”

Soomin nodded. “Yup. With a bunch of boys.” Taemin leaned his head against his fist, his elbow on her desk. “Boys won’t notice,” she continued.

“How sure are you about that?”

“You haven’t been there that long right? Besides, I know you. You’re the quiet type; I doubt you’ve done any mingling, so there probably won’t be any bothersome friends…”

“I dunno if that’s a compliment or an insult,” Taemin replied with a tiny smile, not at all offended by his sister’s words.

“And they’re boys.” Soomin rolled her eyes. “I just have to strap down my s and put on a wig, fake eyebrows and some makeup to play down my feminine features and ta-da! You.”

Taemin nodded absently, a smirk forming on his lips. Soomin saw it, and her eyes widened at the realization.

“Please Taeminnie?” she pleaded to her brother as she clasped her hands together. “I’ll love you forever.” She paused. “I’ll give you the Big Bang CD I just bought… and the 2NE1 CD as well.” The blank look her brother gave her merely instilled more rambling. “I’ll add my coin collection to yours, and I just got an iPod, but if my little brother says he needs it, then it’s his!”

An amused smile played on his lips as Taemin replied, “This should be interesting.”

It’s for Choi Minho. The chance to meet Minho. Minho, she repeated silently to herself as she reluctantly handed over her possessions to her twin.

Soomin spun around and immediately picked up her cell, hitting the speed dial button and putting it to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Key, I have to tell you something.”

“What, no hello?”

Soomin couldn’t help the smile that formed on her lips as she answered, “Hi Key.”

“Hey Soo. What’s up?”

Soomin laughed. “You know that model that I have a crush on?”

“That Minho guy?”

“He goes to Taemin’s school.”

There was a pause on the other line. “… So?”

“He’s in the same class as my twin brother,” Soomin clarified.

There was another pause before Key’s voice came back through. “No.”

“Yes.”

“Soo, are you serious? You guys are fraternal twins.”

“So? We look exactly alike, I told you. I introduced you to him!”

“I know. But that was a few years ago! You guys may seem similar, but you’re still a girl. And he’s still a guy.”

“Key!”

“What?”

“Work with me here. In my clothes and some makeup, he’ll pass as a girl. Besides, there’s some nasty cold going around, it’s the perfect excuse. No one will come near him. And he’s got you to help.”

“And you?”

“Taemin goes to an all-boys school, and he just transferred there this year.” There was no response, and Soomin furrowed her brows in question even though they were talking through the phone. “Key?”

“As crazy as it sounds, it could work…”

Soomin quickly laid out the rest of her plan through the phone, with her best friend only partially arguing and finally giving in to her crazy idea. She was going to make this work.

“Are you going to tell Chohee?”

“I don’t think so,” Soomin answered hesitantly. “You know how she is. It took her almost three years to even get a proper conversation going with you.”

“I know.” There was a brief pause. “Be careful, okay? Don’t forget you’ll be in a class full of pubescent males.”

“I’ll be fine. And don’t you complain how I’m sometimes more of a boy than you are?”

Soomin heard him laugh on the other end of the line. “You are, but I’m just saying. Guys seem to think they’re all big and bad and usually group up into gangs and what not.”

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “I’ll talk to you later okay?”

Soomin finished her goodbye and hung up, turning back and eyeing her brother’s room from across the hall. She fished through her drawer for her yearbook and made her way over, spotting him sitting on his bed, reading the back of one of her CDs. Soomin inwardly sighed as she walked over to sit on the end of his bed.

“Tae, you have two days to learn these names,” she told her brother, opening the book to her class.

Taemin looked up from the CD in his hand. “Do I have to? Key’s gonna be taking care of me right?”

Soomin narrowed her eyes. “You still have to memorize. Especially since you’re holding that,” she said, nodding at the CD.

“Fine,” he replied with a sigh.

Soomin sat back as she watched her brother lazily scan the book. “Don’t you have some sort of photo too?” He shook his head, not bothering to look up. “Nothing?” she asked, looking at her twin in disbelief.

Taemin hesitated, then leaned over his bed and came back up with a folded sheet of paper. “You’re in luck. I just remembered that this was still under the bed,” he told her as he handed it over.

Soomin opened the slightly crumbled piece of paper. Someone had taken the simple floor plan of the school and circled a class, including a clear label of the room number and name of the homeroom teacher.

“Person at the front desk gave it to me on my first day,” Taemin said offhandedly, his focus still on her book.

Soomin scanned the sheet. So she was good with the location and the name of his teacher, but was that it?

“You don’t know the names of your classmates?”

Taemin shrugged. “Not really.”

Soomin stared at her twin, a blank expression written on her face.

It’s just a bump in the road, she reassured herself, but she couldn’t help the sigh that escaped her lips.

This is going to be a lot harder than I thought.

* * * * *

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