a/n: sequel to ‘paper clip bracelets and apple gumdrops.’ which is better, if you ask me. but I’m really annoyed of relationships in stories being perfect AND OMG I LOVE YOU FOREVER. even people in love have problems. original ending wasn't hopeful at all. xD

clarifying, they do live together here, though I imagine them to still be rather young. I know many people that move out ridiculously early, so this doesn’t really seem like a stretch to me.

XXX

For all of Jonghyun’s cockiness and the full of attitude he had adopted, deep down inside, he really was sort of a hopeless romantic. So much could be said by his notebook of scribbled love ballads and evenings spent watching sappy American tragedies that always end in a sobbing Key- and he totally didn’t cry too, nope- and a skeptical Minho.

Jonghyun didn’t quite know what he was expecting when he conveniently found Key again- more days spent tumbling on dying grass, awkward kisses under a drooping maple tree, singing together in the rain- but it sure as hell wasn’t this. Oh sure, the first few months of their renewed friendship was just fine. They did have over half a decade to catch up on, after all. And Jonghyun was right, neither of them had changed too much- just a little bit more mature and with rabid hormones now.

‘But we still manage to change in all the wrong ways,’ Jonghyun thinks sullenly as he leans against the old church wall by the park. Key was far too frustrated to show up that day, even when Jonghyun called to invite him as a peace offering. Honestly, Jonghyun didn’t even remember what they had been arguing about, just that it had escalated into screaming and too many almost thrown punches to be comfortable.

Sighing, Jonghyun slouches into the well-worn brick, hoping it will swallow him up and whirl him away to the easy laughter and badly sung duets he remembers Key for.

There are too many fights, too much disappointment these days and Jonghyun can’t help the treacherous, nagging thought that perhaps he and Key were meant to be childhood dreams and nothing more. The thought has been squirming in his mind like a nasty maggot and no matter how hard he tries to convince himself that his relationship is rose gardens and lemonade against a sinking sun, he really was never one for lying to himself for too long.

“Really Key, really? Do you have to look absolutely perfect to go out to get groceries?” Jonghyun says, exasperated at the boy glued to the mirror. Key throws him a pointed glare over his shoulder.

“Some of us don’t want to look like the ugly puppy nobody wanted,” Key snaps back. Jonghyun almost sighs- the schoolwork and nagging parents and horrible Monday mornings haven’t been kind to them, and he could already taste what this conversation would end in.

“Can we have just one normal talk, just one? Goddammit Key.”

Key whirls around, his fight with his look forgotten. He is clutching a foundation brush- to cover up his growing dark circles, Jonghyun thinks- which is now pointed angrily at Jonghyun. “Oh, and now you blame it all on me?”

“No! You know that isn’t what I meant.”

“Really? Because that’s what it sounded like you were saying.”

“Is that what you want me to say? Now that you bring it up, I’m sure as hell starting to think it!”

Key doesn’t answer him this time, just stares with slanted feline eyes that are somehow just inches from Jonghyun. Silence, punctured only by both of their erratic breathing settles heavily on the two, tension suffocating away any more words.

“God Key, I really hate this,” Jonghyun says quietly, after a pause that could have spanned centuries.

“If you hate this so much, the door is right there. Just get out!” Key’s voice is angry still and Jonghyun’s words seem to have worked him up even more.

But Jonghyun doesn’t miss the tremble in his hand.

“You know what, whatever. I’m leaving, Key,” Jonghyun snarls, before virtually stomping out the apartment and slamming the door shut. He doesn’t know where he’s going; just that he wants to be far, far away from where he has gotten too.

He almost expects to end up at the beloved park, but his legs seem to have other plans- and that place makes him think of a happy Key that misses. Instead, Jonghyun finds himself outside Minho’s house, pounding on the screen door with shaky breath. Minho opens the door slowly and seems just as surprised as him at the sight of an upset, desperate Jonghyun.

“Jonghyun? Why a-,” Minho hesitates, sizing his puffy eyes and tired face up. Jonghyun’s chest is heaving from the way he had sprinted halfway across the neighborhood to get there. “…oh. Is it Key?”

The blonde boy nods furiously. Minho sighs and steps aside to let the other boy in. “Alright, come in then.”

Jonghyun scrambles into his house, and plops face down on the couch. He groans into the stained fabric as he waits for Minho, who he thinks is rummaging for something in the kitchen.

“Are your parents home?” he asks when the younger boy returns and shoves his legs away to sit. There is a clank on the glass coffee table and Jonghyun glances up briefly to find two bottles of beer. “Gonna guess they aren’t, then. We aren’t even legal yet.”

“Yeah, yeah, not as if we don’t end up drinking anyway. And you look like you need it,” Minho says, grabbing one of the bottles and tapping Jonghyun’s leg with it. Jonghyun nods tiredly into the pillow and sits up to take a large swig out of it.

“Well?” Minho says after a while. “You planning on explaining anything or are you just going to drink all of my beer?”

“Drinking all of the beer sounds pretty alright to me,” Jonghyun replies, smiling crookedly. “But just give me a second.”

Minho turns to give Jonghyun all of his attention, sinking into the sofa and waiting patiently. He has a feeling that this is going to be a long story, playing therapist ended up in a lot of those.

“Well, you know, me and Key have… problems. But that’s fine, everybody fights now and then. I’m not gonna throw a huge fit just because of that. Lately, though, that’s all we ever do. We can barely get through one conversation without someone just blowing up. I don’t know if he’s just stressed or all those ty days are catching up to me or what, but just… Maybe I’m being overdramatic,” Jonghyun pauses and sighs, before continuing.

“I really, really like him, you know that right? I don’t want us to end because of this. I don’t. It feels like he doesn’t even care, he’s so distant. Like he thinks we were a mistake or something. And I don’t want to say this, but it’s starting to feel like we’ve grown up too much and we just don’t fit together right anymore.”

Jonhgyun chokes up a bit, words catching on the heavy lump in his throat. Minho doesn’t know what to say to that and just pats the blonde boy soothingly.

“You two… you found each other again after years, right? That says something. If Key makes you happy- and even if you don’t believe me right now, you make him happy too-, than fight for him.”

“I’ll… I’ll try, okay?”

Despite Jonghyun saying he would fight, he ends up staying over at Minho’s because, “I’ll face him again. Just give me a day.”

A day stretched into two days, and soon, it had been almost a week. Jonghyun knew he really should just stop being a coward and go back to the apartment- it was his house too, after all- but every morning Jonghyun would almost leave, he ended up wondering about how the hell would he go about apologizing to Key, since he was sure he wouldn’t be let back in otherwise.

Sorry wouldn’t cut it this time, he knew that for sure. But he didn’t know what would, and Minho didn’t really know either. And so he spends his week playing soccer and dealing with the younger boys expectant stares, doing absolutely nothing important. Jonghyun knew he couldn’t stay there forever, but he certainly didn’t have a good enough plan- or motivation- to leave yet.

It took Minho finally shoving him out the house with a little money and telling him ‘Grow a pair already, hyung, and tell me what happens,’ for Jonghyun to actually do something.

Or well, try to think about what he would do out in town. He drags his feet through the shops all day long, not buying anything and pissing off a few cashiers. Dread starts creeping through him when he remembers that he has no choice but to return to his apartment today and as superficial as it might seem, he really, really doesn’t want to go back empty-handed.

When the sun starts dipping flames into the horizon, Jonghyun decides he’ll try listening to all of Key’s romance novels and do what his heart tells him to do- which ends in him on a shopping frenzy, sprinting home with a bucket of apple gumdrops and a bouquet of garishly green roses. There are half-written lyrics in a note he stashed somewhere- he hopes Key will appreciate the thought.

As he knocks impatiently on the door and waits for an aloof Key, he realizes that this isn’t going to make it perfect. It won’t make them little kids with high hopes and no worries again, either, much as he wants it to. Still, it's a start and that is all he is allowed to have.

Maybe some dreams aren’t meant to last forever, but damn if Jonghyun isn’t one of the most stubborn boys around.