It was around 6:30 in the morning when Key woke up and felt Taemin cuddling beside him. He wondered how come he doesn’t remember when did Taemin came home last night and why he had such a huge headache. As he tried to think back, Taemin started stirring.

“Umma, you fell asleep pretty early, are you feeling ok?” Taemin stared at Key with his eyes full of worry. Usually, Key would wait until Taemin was already in bed, then he would go to sleep.

“What happened last night, Taebaby?” Key tried to think back, he remembered Jonghyun came over for dinner and soon after, they started drinking and it became blurry after that.

“I’m not entirely sure, but the yesterday, Jonghyun hyung asked me what happened to you in the past and then when I came home, he thanked me for being with you and taking care of you. Umma, did you say something to him last night?” Key suddenly remembered, Jonghyun would only say that if Key had told him about Choi Minhyuk and what happened at his old school. Key started to panic.

“Oh my god! I think I told him all about what happened at our old school. Then that means I even told him about Choi Minhyuk!” Taemin was trying to calm his umma. He knew that his umma like Jonghyun hyung and he worried that if he found out what happened to his umma, Jonghyun hyung might leave umma.

“Don’t worry umma, I think he took it pretty well last night. If he didn’t then he wouldn’t have thanked me for taking care of you. If he was took it the wrong way, he would’ve left without saying anything” Taemin tried to assure his umma and tried to convince himself that was what happened last night. Maybe he’ll ask Minho hyung later to see what happened to Jonghyun hyung.

At school in the cafeteria

As Jonghyun and Minho walked to the cafeteria, he wondered why he didn’t see Key in class, he started to get worried.

“Minho, do you know why Key wasn’t in class today?” Minho said Taemin wasn’t in school today, apparently Key was sick and Taemin stayed home to look after him.

“What?! Key’s sick and you tell me now?!” Jonghyun yelled. Everyone within earshot turned toward him, Jonghyun didn’t care, and he picked up his bag and started walking to the door, Minho followed.

“Hyung, where are you going?” Minho got into the car with Jonghyun as he sped out of the parking lot and drove in the direction of Key’s house.

“I’m going to see Key; could you do me a favour Minho? Could you take Taemin out for a little bit? I want to talk to Key about something in private” Minh agreed as Jonghyun sped through traffic, it was starting to get dangerous as he ran red lights and weaved in and out of the lanes.

“Sure, I’ll take Taemin out for a bit, I haven’t seen him since yesterday and I miss him already” Minho smiled as he thought about seeing his Minnie. Jonghyun thanked him and finally they started to slow down as they arrived near their neighbourhood. Both of them stepped out of the car and walked up to the house. Minho rang the doorbell and Taemin opened the door.

“Hyung! What are you doing here?” Taemin jumped on Minho and hugged him like no tomorrow. Minho chuckled as he held him tigher. When Taemin finally got down, he lightly kissed him on his lips and blushed.

“Aigoo, when has my Minnie gotten so brave? You are so cute when you blush” Minho caressed his cheeks and looked at him with loving eyes. Jonghyun cleared his throat and Taemin looked at him.

“Jonghyun hyung, what are you doing here?” Taemin thought it was only Minho so he was embarrassed that someone else saw their affections.

“I heard from Minho that Key was sick so I decided to see how he was doing. Speaking of which, Minho, didn’t you say you were going to take Taemin out today?” Minho got the hint that told Taemin to get ready.

“Where are we going, Hyung?” Taemin’s eyes lit up in curiosity. Minho didn’t tell him anything and just said it was a surprise.

“Umma! I’m going out with Minho hyung and Jonghyun hyung came over to see how you were doing. I’m leaving now! Bye!” Taemin literally ran down the stairs as Key was about to ask him where he was going. He was already gone by the time Key walked to the front door.

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you disgusted with me?” Key looked at Jonghyun to see his reaction. He didn’t say anything and just stared at Key, who seemed to have gotten the wrong message and thought that Jonghyun didn’t want to talk to him.

‘It’s ok! I understand! After hearing what my ex-boyfriend did to me, you think I’m dirty! And to think I actually thought about being your boyfriend, and I thought you would accept me for who I am, but I guess I was wrong! The door’s that way, you can show your way out” Key sat back down on the bed, his back facing Jonghyun. A few moments later, Jonghyun could hear Key’s soft sobs and his shoulder moving up and down. Jonghyun went and closed the door and walked towards Key’s bed. Key had thought that Jonghyun had left so he just let himself go. Little did he know, Jonghyun was just standing behind him.

“Why don’t you like me? Were you just playing me like Choi Minhyuk did? I thought you would be there to proctect me, did I thought wrong?” Suddenly Key fell sideways and landed on the floor.

“Key! Are you ok? Answer me!” Jonghyun picked Key up and laid him on the bed. He felt his forehead and it was burning up. Jonghyun covered Key with blankets as he started to shiver and ran to the bathroom to get a wet towel. He placed the wet towel on Key’s forehead and went to find more blankets. Even with 3 blankets, Key was still shivering, and then Jonghyun thought of an idea.

He picked up the blankets and crawled underneath them, he pulled Key towards his body and hugged him as he wrapped his arms around Key’s body and looked at the boy in front of him. Even in his sleep, Key was still crying as tears slowly went down his face and wetted the pillow beneath him. Jonghyun wiped the tears away and caressed his face. It was still very warm and flushed. Jonghyun guessed Key must have gotten sick when he was drunk. He should’ve made sure Key was wearing enough before he left and he might not have gotten sick. Jonghyun blamed himself since he promised Key that he would protect him always. It was as if Key knew what Jonghyun was thinking as he talked in his sleep.

“Jongie, I’m cold, hold me tighter” it was a mumble but Jonghyun heard him and hugged him tighter. A little later, Key’s arms wrapped around Jonghyun’s waist and he shifted closer into his chest.

“Thank you, Jongie”

Later that day

“I’m hungry, Hyung” Taemin rubbed his tummy after walking hand in hand with Minho for a couple hours. They have been walking in the park ever since they left Key with Jonghyun and both of them were starting to feel a bit tired. Minho decided to bring him to a restaurant that had special couple dinners on their menu, it was all part of Minho’s plan.

As they entered the restaurant, a waitress came up to greet them and brought them to their table.

“Good evening, what can I get you two tonight?” the waitress got her note pad ready and jotted their order down.

“So, you would like the special couple meal for you and your girlfriend?” the waitress repeated herself and was about to leave when Minho spoke up.

“Actually, he’s my boyfriend. I just want to spend a nice dinner with him” smile Minho as Taemin blushed.

“Oh! I’m terribly sorry about that, it’s just your boyfriend looks really pretty, so I just assumed he was your girlfriend” the waitress was so embarrassed and Taemin felt sorry for her.

“It’s no problem, I’ll just take it as a compliment, a lot of people say that, but I would rather people call me manly or handsome instead” Minho laughed as the waitress turned red and excused herself.

“Minnie, I don’t think you can ever be manly. In my eyes, you will always be cute and adorable” Taemin pouted and puffed out his cheeks, Minh chuckled and leaned forward to pinch his cheeks. Everything was going well, the food arrived and they were enjoyed their meal. Minho leaned forwards to feed Taemin until two girls from the next table interrupted them.

“Hey y! Eating with your girlfriend? She’s not even pretty, what do you like about her anyways?” the two girls were eyeing Minho up and down, checking him out. Taemin felt himself get jealous, but also sad, it was true, he was a boy and the two girls were pretty, y, but pretty. The two girls continued with Minho and Taemin tried to ignore them.

“Come on, we’re going to a party later tonight, why don’t you ditch this hag and come have fun with us? We’ll make sure you’re going to have a lot of fun tonight” as they started touching Minho’s arm. Minho excused himself and went to the washroom. Taemin couldn’t stand it anymore so he stood up and yelled at the two girls.

“What do you think you two are doing?! Don’t you have any shame? Trying to steal someone’s boyfriend in public! Keep your hands off my boyfriend!” the whole restaurant had gotten quiet from Taemin’s outburst but he didn’t care, he was angry right now and nothing mattered.

“Who are you to tell us what to do? You’re nothing but an ugly !” as a girl said this, she slapped Taemin as her friend laughed and emptied a glass of water of his head. Taemin was crying now and was about to run out of the restaurant when someone caught his wrist and held him back. Taemin looked back and saw that it was Minho.

“What did you two do to my boyfriend?” Minho glared at them as they looked disgusted when he said boyfriend.

“Eww! He’s a boy? You two are fags?! That’s just wrong!! You shouldn’t even be in the public, and I touched him too!! I have to go sanitize my hand now!!” the two girls were making a huge scene when the waitress that was serving them came over with their owner.

“Excuse me, I would have to ask you two to leave” the two girls smirked and turned to Minho and Taemin.

“Didn’t you hear what the owner said? Now leave!” but the owner pointed his fingers at the two girls.

“I meant you two! We do not tolerate this kind of behaviour at my restaurant. If you two are so disgusted, then please get out of my restaurant, we do not welcome you here!” at his words, the whole restaurant cheered and told them to leave. The two girls were shocked, but to avoid being embarrassed anymore, they ran out of the restaurant, but not without paying for their meals first.

“I’m terribly sorry about what happened, I understand if you two want to leave, but here’s a coupon for a free special couple meal, feel free to come back and the meal’s on us! Don’t listen to what the two girls said; you two are a beautiful couple.” Minho thanked the owner and turned to Taemin, he wiped the tears off his face and lead him out the restaurant. As they made their way out of the restaurant, people spoke up, saying things like “you two are such a cute couple”, “your boyfriend is so pretty”, “and hopefully your relationship lasts forever”. With that, Taemin turned and bowed at the crowd with tears streaming down his face.

“Thank you!” Minho chuckled, he pulled Taemin close and kissed him full on the lips, and the whole restaurant applauded and congratulated them.