I had to say, everything wasn't very difficult, yet, but my mind was making everything twice as complicated. If I wasn't so keen on keeping Sulli's difficulties a secret until she would come forward herself, I wouldn't feel so guilty talking to Amber and Key. Key seemed to have dropped the subject, though. He started talking two people's worth at lunch, leaving the other occupants of the table, which changed all the time save from Key, Amber, Sulli and myself, without much to say. It seemed like he was trying to fight my silence by leaving me no room to talk, holding onto the belief that I would if he let me.

Amber was another story. She was somebody who didn't act fast, hoping things would turn right on their own, but now that Key seemed to have given up, she had decided to act. In between lessons she grabbed me by my arm and dragged me in the quiet corner under the stairs for some privacy, bumping into some people on the way, which got us a lot of angry stares and mumbled insults she blatanly ignored.

“Tell me,” she said. She didn't seem mad, rather just determined to get to the bottom of whatever was going on. “Why haven't you been talking to Key? Or to me, for that matter.”

“Even friends don't have to talk all the time,” I answered. 

I felt tired. Minho hadn't looked at me again after that one time and he seemed even more closed off, if that was possible, than before. Before, it had felt like he had been listening to me to some extent, which made it easy to ramble. Now it made me tired to think of things to tell him and my stories sounded bland in my ears, all because he didn't give any sign he'd listened to a word I said.

Maybe I finally started to understand how Key and Amber had been feeling. The point was that I really didn't feel like listening to Amber right now, knowing I wasn't going to tell her anyway. She wasn't as persistent as Key.

“Don't joke with me,” Amber scoffed. “You and Key are inseparable. Even if we three have been friends for a long time, I have never been as close with either of you as both of you were with each other, but that doesn't mean it doesn't bother me when you seem to be having a spat of some sorts; And it is obviously not Keys fault this time.”

I couldn't help but smile at that. Key always had been the one ignoring me, with the flair of a well-raised diva (thank Heechul-hyung for that), whenever he thought I had done him wrong. Sometimes I was so desperate to get Key talking to me again, that it had me doing the most crazy things. I couldn't ever find it in myself to hate him for it, though.

I stopped smiling when I saw Amber's glare.

“It will be alright,” I told her, trying to convince myself, too, and patting her on her arm in a soothing manner. “I will patch it up with Key somehow.”

Amber didn't seem to believe me all that much, but the hall was getting emptier and a teacher in the classroom facing the stairs was eyeing us, waiting for the perfect oppertunity to come out and yell at us that we had to go to class, or else.

“You better,” she said in a low threatening voice only she was able to use, before turning her back on me to proceed on her way to her next class.

I walked in the other direction, to my own class, trying to avoid the stare of the teacher.

After Amber's rare lecture, a thing she'll never become good at doing, the people around me had decided that I had to be reprmanded for my attitude. Maybe it was true, but it was a miracle that all of them could do it in one day.

I was just two steps out of the gate when Sulli, of all people, grabbed my arm to stop me from walking. The walkways were crowded with the students leaving the school and I could feel the stares of envy from the guys on me. Sulli's popularity, something that had started from her first day onwards, had obviously not decreased much.

Said girl didn't seem to care as she stared worriedly at me.

“Let's talk for a bit,” she said, her hold on my arm tightening a little to pull me back onto he school grounds.

I could swear I heard a few guys growl when we left the stream of students into the small park, which was part of the school grounds. I must admit that it might have seemed a little wrong. That part had a peculiar reputation, if you know what I mean.

“What do you want to talk about?” I asked after she had sat me down on one of the wooden benches. There was no living soul around to be seen. The trees cut the view of the stream students and luckily there were no couples yet. “And why now? We arranged I was going to come to your house tomorrow, right?”

“Are you avoiding Key because you're trying to keep my secret?” Sulli asked, stunning me with her straight-forwardness. Her cute face was looking honestly concerned, maybe even a bit guilty.

I just stared at her with my mouth slightly open. Her approach was far more effective than Ambers had been. Then again, Sulli had the advantage of knowing the bigger part of what was going on.

Her face went to fully guilt-wrecked when I didn't answer her, taking my silence for a confirmation.

“I knew it,” she sighed in defeat, flopping down next to me.

“It's not what you think, Sul,” I said, turning towards her, feeling a pang of miserable regret, this time for making Sulli sad. “Spats between Key and me are between Key and me. I haven't told him because I respect you, and that is my choice, isn't it? I will make it up to him somehow. He has been my best friend for the longest time. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I lost him, so I will try everything in my power to make him forgive me. Not to forget, Key is a sneaky bastard; he might find out on his own before I feel like I can tell him the truth.”

My ramblings had never made a lot of sense, but I believed in Key. I would make him understand somehow.

“Thank …" Sulli started, but a rustling noise in the bushes interrupted Sulli's expression of gratitude. Sulli moved, probably without noticing herself doing it, a little closer to me, while we were trying to locate what had caused it.

A few seconds later an animal of some sorts, which I later identified to have been a cat, shot out of a bush, somewhere from the direction we had come from earlier. Sulli let out a yelp and gripped my arm in shock, making me laugh out loud.

“Why are laughing?” Sulli squeaked indignant, hitting me on the same arm she had been holding onto.

“No reason,” I said, chuckling. I stood up and patted the dirt off my pants, extending my hand to Sulli to pull her up too. “I have to go, otherwise I'll be late. I'll see you tomorrow okay? Let's walk home together.”

“Okay,” Sullli nodded, “Please give my regards to my brother, okay?” She added right before we left the school park, surprising me.

I looked at her for a few seconds, but didn't ask her how she knew where I was going. I knew she would already be finding it hard to not ask for the place he was at right know. So I nodded.

“Thank you,” she whispered before we went our separate ways at the gate.

That evening I was laying on my bed with my school books in front of me, after I had come home from another visit from the hospital, when my phone rang from my night stand. I rolled over so I could reach it and pressed it to my ear, without looking at the caller-ID.

“Hello,” I said into the receiver, rolling back onto my belly.

“Hey, Taemin-ah,” a bubbly voice said on the other side. “It's Jinki.”

“Hey, Jinki hyung, what's up?”

“I wanted to invite you and Kibum-ah for dinner,” Jinki-hyung said excitedly. “There is this new grill place and they let you grill your own chicken.”

I giggled at his excitement. I swear, Jinki-hyung could be such a child. Sometimes I wondered if he actually had any friends his own age, because I once saw him looking a bit sad when Key and I were talking about our friends at school. That was before I stopped hanging out with Key of course.

Now that I was actually thinking about it, I hadn't seen Jinki-hyung ever since I found out that Sulli was Minho's sister.

“I'd love to go, but I don't know about Key,” I said.

“Then ask him,” Jinki-hyung retorted.

“Eh …”

Awkward! What do I tell him now?

“Uhm, hyung, I.. eh …Key and I … uhm, we kind of … I can't.” I sighed in defeat

“Did you two have a fight or something?” Jinki-hyung asked. I could imagine him frowning in confusion at that moment.

I grunted in annoyance, letting my head fall onto my books and childishly flapping my feet in the air in frustration. Was this another person who was going to scold me?

“You shouldn't, Taemin-ah,” Jinki-hyung said, worriedly. "Friends are the most important thing in the world!”

Yes, he did. Three people in one day. They must have had a secret agreement on this or something. 

Grrrrrr.

“Yes, hyung,” I said obediently, nodding my head, not caring if he could see it or not. “I know. I'll make up with him. Really, I will. But is it okay if we just go with the two of us this time?”

There was a short silence, but then Jinki-hyung agreed, warning me that 'Kibum-ah' would kill me if he found out that I went out alone with that 'creepy good-for-nothing model' without him there to protect me, making me laugh loudly.

“Talk to you later,” I chuckled, my feat flapping happily now.

“I'll text you about the day and time, okay?”

“Ne~”

After Jinki-hyung hung up, I dropped my phone next to my textbooks and stared at the said books, trying to find where I'd left off before the call. After a few minutes of blank staring I decided I'd forgotten and laid down tiredly.

Screw that, homework could be done in the morning too.

Without putting away my books or changing into my pajama, I slowly drifted away into blackness.

That night I dreamed about Jinki-hyung chasing ready-to-cook chickens over a roster grill with flames underneath it and a giant Key, with a sinister smile on his face and chopsticks in his hand, trying to catch Onew with them. It could have been funny, but it got me all sweaty from unknown fear for the double chase.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

I must say, that since I got someone to edit my stories I'm a little less eager on re-reading my story on faults. I should, I know. But I hate it. What is cool thought, is that I have a awesome storyline in my head now and I hope it will turn out as awesome as it's supposed to be. (ended up doing it anyways. Feels better to know that the bigger mistakes are gone before anybody rads it

Plus, this is a long chapter (at least I like to think so) to compensate for the previous one. (Not the one before that ;P there is not enough story for that)

This was a pretty quick update, so be patient for the next one.

And once again: I LOVE COMMENTS! please let me know when you think my story is worth commenting on 0.0

Still love you all for being subscribers and reading, thought. \\(^.^)// hugs!!!!!!

p.s. is that picture of taeminniie not suuuuuuuuuper y!? <3 The scene of Minnie laying on the bed, while talking to Onew, is completely because of that pic ><