Key started laughing as soon as the door to the studio closed behind them, he couldn’t help it. Onew’s reaction was stronger than anything either Krystal or him could have expected. Onew sped up and tugged on Key’s arm harder as the younger laughed louder and only stopped when they were outside the SMTown building. Onew looked around them both, like he was expecting to see something, before looking at his watch, sighing and opening his mouth to speak but Key cut him off.

 “Don’t even try to make it look like you thought we were going to be late for our ride hyung”

Onew promptly shut his mouth again, he should have realised that wasn’t going to work. He just needed to get out of there, and quickly, because he had made a complete fool of himself. He mentally groaned to himself as he thought through it all again. He had pretty much caressed the younger girl, he couldn’t say it was anything else, and, he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead as he thought about it, he nearly kissed her.

If she didn’t squeak and startle him out of his thoughts, out of his brain which got far too carried away, he would have done it right there and then, in front of everyone. A part of him regretted chickening out and running away like he did but he knew it was for the best. It was better than being shoved away and humiliated in front of others, it was better than being rejected by the rapper.

“Hyung...” Key spoke cautiously and took a step closer to his leader. He couldn’t not ask this now, not after everything that had just happened “...do you, by any chance, like Amber?”

Onew spluttered, his eyes widening as he looked at his dongsaeng. He did, he knew he did, but to tell Key that? No way. Onew already knew that Key was planning something and there was no way he was going to give the younger man fuel. He cleared his throat and mustered all of his acting ability to seem calm and collected as he spoke.

“Well, of course. She’s a very respectful dongsaeng and very nice, I couldn’t exactly dislike her now could I? Plus, Minho would probably get annoyed at me if I did, he gets along well with her and-”

Key cut him off, the man was babbling complete nonsense and he could tell the older man was lying through his teeth.

“True, Amber is a very nice girl...but you know that’s not what I am asking hyung”

Onew sighed, there was no way he was going to get out of this one, he was going to have to admit it. But he refused to say it, instead he just looked at his feet, noticing off handedly that his laces were getting loose, and let his head hang there as he bit his lip. He didn’t know how Key was going to react to this, with disgust? Laughter maybe? He honestly didn’t know which would be worse.

What he got instead was a soft smile and a reassuring pat on the shoulder, none of Key’s usual snark and attitude, instead was it sympathy? Onew couldn’t tell.

“I have two words for you hyung:” Onew looked up then, wondering what these words could be. 'Forget it', 'no chance' and 'hell no' passed through his mind but they weren’t the words he heard “Tell her”

Key was surprised when Onew burst out laughing. But it wasn’t normal laughter, it was self depreciating, as if he was laughing at himself along with Key’s suggestion.

“Yeah” Onew spoke between laughs “because I would just let myself walk into rejection huh?”

Key started to shake his head, wanting to tell his hyung that he was wrong and that Amber wouldn’t reject him but Onew continued to speak.

“Do you want to know how long I have liked Amber, Kibum?” The use of his real name surprised Key. It told him to shut up and listen, not to talk back, and Key did just that; instead just mutely nodding his head “nearly three years now, since just after F(x) debuted but I had noticed her way before that...back when she was a trainee. So don’t you even dare say that so easily alright? Don’t think I could just open my mouth and tell her with no issues because I am scared. I have barely been able to get close to her because I’ve been worried about making a complete and total fool of myself yet, despite that, I’ve always been there, looking out for her in some way or another”

Key’s eyes widened as a look of shock and surprise took over his face. Three years? Onew had liked Amber for three whole years and no one had even noticed. Key furrowed his eyebrows as he silently thought; some things he never understood were starting to make sense now. How Onew could so rarely stand near the girl or have a long conversations with her, not because they didn’t get along because they did really well but he always seemed tense and nervous around her, and how he always watched her closest when they were doing schedules together, or even how he would instantly ask how Amber was doing after any of the other members had spent time with her. He would ask about all of the f(x) members of course but always about Amber first.  Key mentally hit himself, it was there all long, in plain sight to see.

Onew had always treated Amber differently but not in the same way everyone else did. Most people treated Amber like one of the guys but Onew treated her like something delicate and easy to scare. He treated her like she was precious.

“But, these past few days Kibum...” Onew continued. It was like he was spilling his heart to the younger man, like he couldn’t stop now even if he wanted to “I’ve held her while she cried, carried her home when she fell asleep in my arms, wrapped my coat around her when she got cold and listened to her beautiful voice as she recorded and it was like a dam had burst. All those emotions I have been locking up have just overflowed and I can do nothing about it!”

It was then that they heard a car approaching, the car to their next schedule. They couldn’t talk about this in there. Minho, Taemin and Jonghyun would be there too and Key doubted his hyung would want anyone else to know. Key doubted that the older man even wanted him to know but it was too late for that now.

“Hyung” Key spoke quickly, knowing they didn’t have much time “listen to me for a moment. We can talk about this properly later, you can talk as much as you want but just keep what I am about to say in mind. Why would I tell you to tell her about your feelings if I had no idea about how about she felt?”

With that said Key looked over to the car and waved it over with a bright smile. He looked back at his hyung and gave the contemplating man’s arm a light tug to shake him out of his thoughts and to silently tell him the car was pulling up as he simply mouthed “think about it when we aren’t busy”.

Onew nodded, knowing that Key was right and it would be bad to distract himself from his work, it would just make the day drag out longer anyway and that was the last thing any of them wanted after such an early start.

As they climbed into the car, Onew in the front seat while Key got into the back with the rest of his band mates, Key took his phone out of this pocket and sent a text to Krystal which simply read:

He likes her

Author's notes:

*dances* This story hit 30 subs just before I put this chapter up 8D. Thank you~!

I'm not sure how many chapters this will be but I'm up to page 18 of a 35 page word document so there is a while to go yet haha

I'm looking forward to reading any comments you decide to leave ^^ I love reading them.