“What’s your story?” asks the stranger sitting across Jonghyun who’s currently spread across the seat. He’s obviously talking to him because other than him, Jonghyun is the only one in the carriage.

     “My story?” Jonghyun asks.

     The guy shifts and lies on his side, resting his head on the palm of his hand. “You look like a guy with a story. You in high school?”

     Jonghyun nods and then asks, “What is it about me that gives you the impression that I’m a guy with a story?”

     The guy shrugs. “You look kind of broken. What’s your name?”

     Jonghyun never intended to have conversations with strangers on his forgetting-Shin-Sekyung-and-his-bestfriend-train-trip and feels overwhelmed. He answers, slightly nervous, “Um, Jonghyun.”

     The guy smiles. “Well, Um Jonghyun, I’m Kim Kibum.”

     “Kim Jonghyun,” Jonghyun corrects. “What’s your story?”

     “Uh, uh,” Kibum says while waving a finger at Jonghyun. “I asked first.”

     Jonghyun doesn’t want to talk about it or go into some whole emotional discussion about it like he’s talking to some kind of therapist but there’s something about this Kibum guy that’s inviting the words out of his throat. Maybe it’s the fact that he looks kind of broken too. So Jonghyun informs Kibum about how much he really did love Sekyung, how beautiful she was, what Jinki did, how Jinki and Sekyung were going at it behind his back, how hurt he was, how Sekyung tried to tell him that she eventually fell in love with him for real and how telling Kibum about it still made Jonghyun feel like not wanting to breathe.

     The rain calms down and Kibum is now sitting up and hugging one knee against his chest. “You should forgive them,” Kibum suggests and Jonghyun actually laughs.

     “Forgive them?” he repeats and he can’t get over the insanity of a suggestion that has just graced his ears. He can’t forgive them, or maybe he can? Maybe he can but he just doesn’t feel like it.

     “Yeah, I mean…they lied to you but they didn’t do it to intentionally hurt you, did they?”

     Jonghyun shakes his head.

     “Exactly, so really, this was all just a big understanding.”

     “Okay,” Jonghyun ponders while nodding his head blankly. “Okay…but what about when he cheated with Sekyung? He knew what he was doing and he knew that if I were to ever find out that I’d be hurt.”

     “I’m not saying that you should forgive them and move on from the situation completely. Just let them know that one day you’re going to be okay and that one day you’re going to want to talk to them again.”

     “But…I’m just so hurt, you know?”

     “I know…Wait…I don’t know…God I don’t know.”

     Jonghyun decides to switch things up a bit. “Alright, I told you my story, what’s yours?”

     The train stops and the doors open to invite the cold, harsh wind in. One passenger enters but goes to sit downstairs. The doors close and the train is on the move again. “Okay…” Kibum starts of hesitantly. He tells Jonghyun about his feelings phobia, his brief and pointless relationship with Boa and then everything with Nicole; how she loved him and how she’s sick and then finally, how he walked away from her.

     “This is interesting,” Jonghyun responds. “I’m the broken and you’re the breaker.”

     “Yeah…” Kibum guiltily concurs.

     “So you just walked away…”

     “Yeah…” Kibum’s voice drifts like a soft breeze. “I know that it was an thing to do. But I just…I was scared. I mean I knew she was scared—more scared than I was but…in that second it flashed before me, like, you know how when people say when you have a near death experience your life flashes before your eyes? Yeah, well, the future flashed before my eyes after she told me. I pictured it. I pictured her dying in a coma in the hospital on a depressing day like this and I was just so scared of being the one who would end up broken.”

     “I get that,” Jonghyun says. “But you don’t want to ignore everything and then find out it’s too late, right? You need to be there for her. Whatever you two decide to be—boyfriend and girlfriend or bestfriends—doesn’t really matter that much to her. She just wanted to tell you that she loved you because she knew she was going to be gone soon. The most important thing to her was to have someone by her side and she wanted that person to be you and you flaked.”

     “So—“

     “So,” Jonghyun intervenes. “So you go back to her because I can imagine that she is so ing scared and hurt right now and she needs someone to be with her and she would prefer that someone to be you. It doesn’t matter what relationship you two decide to have, she needs you regardless. At least that way, when the time comes, you’ll know that you made her happy by being there with her.”

     Kibum feels his throat tighten and he swallows. “You’re right,” he wheezes. He feels the tears coming on. “God, you’re right.”

     “You should go back to her.”

     Kibum looks down and wipes a tear. “I think you should forgive Jinki and your girlfriend. Not straight away, obviously, but just let them know that you don’t hate them--because you don’t.”

     “Who says I don’t?” Jonghyun asks.

     “Because we both know you don’t. You love them too much to stay angry at them for that long.”

     “You’re right.”       

     Jonghyun and Kibum end up steering away from their relationship problems and end up talking about normal conversational things to completely useless topics like what kind of hair gel they would use and what their favourite brand on men’s cologne they liked.

     When they had miraculously made it back home after getting lost at about seven different train stations, they found themselves not wanting to part.

     “Hey Jonghyun,” Kibum calls out to Jonghyun who turns around with a smile. “Good luck with your bestfriend and girlfriend.”

     “Good luck with Nicole,” Jonghyun calls back. “I hope we can meet up again on a bus or a boat or something.”

     Kibum laughs. “Sure…”

     Jonghyun’s positive he’s not ever going to see Kibum again until he feels someone tug on his sleeve and sees none other than Kibum. “Or maybe instead of hoping that we run into each other on some other form of public transportation, here’s my number. Call me whenever you have a fight with your girlfriend or something or, you know, when you just wanna meet up.”

     Jonghyun takes the number gratefully and the two hug for the first time since meeting each other. “Goodbye Kim Kibum.”

     “Goodbye Kim Jonghyun.”

~~~~~~~~~~

     Jonghyun catches Sekyung by complete and utter surprise when he kisses her while they’re both making their way to fourth period. After he kisses her he leaves more little kisses on her lips. Her arms are around his neck and she’s smiling.

     “I love you and I hope you love me too.”

     “I do,” she whispers back and kisses him again.

     When Jonghyun pulls away he says, “But I still don’t forgive you or Jinki yet.”

     “I know.”

     He kisses her once more and tells her that she’ll see her later and he’s not lying.

~~~~~~~~~~

          Nicole’s mother kindly informs Kibum that Nicole is asleep but he still insists on coming in. He enters her room quietly and sees the upper half of her body uncovered by her blanket. He sits on the edge of her bed and pulls the blanket up to her shoulders and runs a hand through her hair. He leans in close to her ear and whispers, “Nicole, I love you. I really do. You’re my bestfriend and I’m really sorry that we can never be more than that. I promise you I’m not going to run away.”

     With that he kisses her on the temple and joins her on the bed and wraps an arm around her body.

Fin.

A/N

Okay, so I'm glad I got this off my chest. I'm sorry you guys, I know how much the majority of you are all against anything that isn't JongKey (or, basically, your OTP--but if JongKyung and KeyCole are your OTPs then sweet). I'm sorry Jonghyun and Key aren't actually together-together in this and I know this is more of a JongKyung and KeyCole fic but regardless of that, I hope you all enjoyed it. I'm sorry for breaking you of your JongKey OTP mod, but this lil' motherer had to get out of my brain or else I was going to smash something. 

Mkay, you guys know the drill. Ignore mistakes and all that shiz.

Thanks for reading! ^^ 

(Oh and by the way, that 'lying tongues are clumsy' line is from 'Why I'm Home' by Go Radio... in case anyone picked that up and thought I was plagiarising or some like that. I'm not plagiarising, just being uncreative(?) XD)