The next morning Minho cooked breakfast. Classic bacon and eggs on toast. He was stood in front an IH cooker on his desk in nothing but dusty pink boxers, pan sizzling away. With me seated on his bed, also in underwear.

“How do you like them?” he asked. I blushed reminded of the events from last night. “You eggs, not whatever filth just came into your head.”

“Oh, however is fine.”

“Ok.” He shrugged and went back to cooking. I took this as an opportunity to take in the sight of his exposed back. He had what appeared to be a bruise peaking at the hem of his shorts.

“You will tell me eventually, won’t you? I mean about what happened the other day.” His shoulders dropped and he sighed.

“Yeah, I will. Eventually.”

After breakfast we hung out for a while, getting to know each other better. We sat at Minho’s desk drinking coffee he made with our fingers laced together talking about our favourite things.

“I’ve always been a big fan of K-pop, specifically EXO.” He said. “Honestly, they were part of what made me realise I wasn’t straight. They’re just so hot. Especially that Suho.” He chuckled.

“Oh, really? One of my oldest friends is in that band. Kim Jongin, you probably know him as Kai.”

“Bull.”

“No really, here I’ll show you.” I grabbed my phone and flipped through the contacts until I found him.

“I still don’t believe you.”

“Ok,” Opening the gallery I found a selca of us together at his birthday. “How about this.”

“Ok, holy . You do know him.” I just smirked and sipped my coffee.

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At around lunch time I left Minho and headed back to my room. Rilakkuma plush in hand.

“Tae-baby? Is that you?” Oh no. Key. “Did you just come out of Minho’s room?” He was standing at my door holding a notebook with my name on it.

“Oh, yeah, I was just…” I trailed off. There was no explanation for this that wouldn’t make him mad. So I breathed deeply and told the truth. “Yes, I did. I know you’re not going to like this Umma, but Minho and I are in a relationship.” Key furrowed his brow and inhaled sharply but remained silent. He stared at the floor for what felt like forever.

“Taemin, I’m sorry. I can’t do this, not again.” As he turned from me I saw a flash of what looked like tears as he stormed off down the hall.

“Key, wait! What does that even mean?” He ignored me and kept walking.

“Kim Kibum, don’t just walk away from me! I am sick to death of people at this school not just ing talking to me! I can’t fix whatever’s wrong if I don’t know what happened between you two!” He hesitated and glanced over his shoulder.

“Fine. Follow me.”

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We walked across campus with an uncomfortable silence filling the air. What could Minho have done to cause Key to feel this way?

We arrived at the library and Key sat me at one of the group tables in the back and disappeared. The library was mostly empty, pretty normal for a Sunday morning, except for a few student scattered around. Each one with piles of books and cups of hot tea and coffee, presumably studying for mid-semester exams.

Key returned with a year book dated three years prior. He dropped it on the desk with a thud and wordlessly flipped through the pages, scanning for something specific. SomeONE specific. He landed on page 49. A group photo of class 2-B all lined up together, smiling. Seated in the front row right in the middle was Key, toothy grin exposing the metal on his teeth. Next to him sat someone I didn’t recognise. A girl, they were holding hands, her smile just as wide as his.

“Her name is Sulli and she’s the reason I don’t like Choi Minho. She and I were as close as two people could be, minus the romance. We did everything together and told each other everything, but she betrayed me.” His face scrunched up in a mixture of bitter anger and sadness as a few tears fell from his eyes. I rubbed Keys back, trying to sooth him. He sniffled, wiping at his eyes and continued. “I told her I had a thing for Minho, and that I was sure he had a thing for me. We spent weeks trying to figure out if he did actually like me and planning how I would confess to him. The day before we were supposed to set our plan in motion I caught them in an empty classroom making out. They were all over each other. She wasn’t even remorseful. She really didn’t care and to top it all off Minho claimed he never liked me and accused me of making it all up. Shortly after that she left and I haven’t heard from her since.” He leant his head on my shoulder and I wrapper my arm around him. We sighed at the same time.

“I’m sorry, Tae. I really should have just told you the truth from the beginning instead of letting it get this far.”

“No, I’m sorry for not trusting you when you just had my best interest in mind and I’m sorry all of that even happened. How would you feel about me getting Minho down here right now?” He sat up straight and looked at me questioningly. “I feel like the only way to make some progress here is for you two to talk it out, and I know I haven’t known him for as long as you have but I do think he’s grown since then. I mean, unless he’s trolling me and I just a straight guy’s .”

“Yah, Lee Taemin!” Key slapped my shoulder playfully. “You didn’t, did you?” I nodded and he gasped dramatically wrapping his hands around my head and pulling me to his chest. “My poor son, taken advantage of by a tall ugly frog! You call him down here right now young man!”

“Sure thing, Umma.” I sent Minho a quick text and within five minutes he was sitting at the table with us. We recapped him on the story so far and he contemplated for a moment. Key’s leg bounced impatiently under the table as he waited.

“Firstly, I would like to say I’m sorry, Key. In the time between then and now I’ve realised I didn’t help the situation by accusing you of lying. I was in denial about my uality and I took it out on you and I shouldn’t have.” Key leaned forward in his chair scowling at Minho.

“If you figured all this out then why didn’t you say something? Try to talk to me maybe?” He spat.

“I-I didn’t want to drag up old drama. I thought maybe you would prefer I didn’t speak to you at all…” he trailed off glancing away, fidgeting with his hands.

“Well thanks for the apology I guess but don’t think I’m just going to trust you like that. I’ll be watching you Choi Minho and if you hurt my son I burn you,” His expression softened. “But for now you two have my blessing and I suppose it wasn’t really your fault Sulli turned out to be too faced.” Key held his hand out. “Truce?”

Minho shook his hand and the battle was over. But a much bigger war was coming.

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I'm on a roll here people. Four chapters in such a short time? unheard of!!

Anyway, enjoy!