Dust floated around the room, bathed in clear sunlight. Taemin felt the burning weight on his eyes, lifting them open to glare at the window. There was a damp folded cloth on his forehead, a wash basin next to him, and a pile of blankets crushing his stature. Feeling a bit sluggish, his motivation increases when the wafting scent of food crawls underneath his nose. Out of the bed, he walks through a short hallway to a small kitchen.

     “Good morning~” The stranger sings, cooking up some eggs.

“Did you have a nice sleep?”

Taemin dizzlily nodded, still feeling a fuzzy hum in his head.

“Where am I?” His voice is raspy from his noticeable sore throat.

The stranger flips the sizzling eggs and scrapes it around with his spatula.

“I checked your temperature last night and it seems like you have a fever. Don’t worry about it too much. Take a seat and just relax.”

He mindlessly obeyed, taking a chair and resting his elbows on the table. Hazily rubbing his eyes with his sleeve, his vision somewhat came through. Taemin identified the cook in front of him and hided his gasp.

It was Kim Kibum.

He was in the home of a possible killer.

The idea was so absurd looking at how nice Kibum was acting but it was all fairly suspicious.

“Bringing in helpless people to his home,” could be used for Taemin’s report on him later. This coincidence was very much to his advantage of happening to get sick last night.

“I believe I’ve finished making breakfast.”

Without really becoming aware of it, Kibum had set up the table and dishes containing plenty of food. While munching on some seasoned rice, Taemin took careful observation of Kibum’s actions.

“You must think I’m a murderer or something to just casually bring in an ill person like this and care for them. Don’t worry, the food isn’t poisoned.” He smiled and Taemin got flustered.

He read his thoughts exactly.

The meal was finished in an uncomfortable silence.

“I’m sorry for staring at you, it was rude of me.” Taemin had to acknowledge the generosity given to him and apologize.

“It seems like your fever has died down, that’s good. What’s your name?” The response was friendly, and one that could be trusted.

Taking the risk for the sake of his job, he replied.

“I’m Lee Taemin, how about you?”

“Kim Kibum, great we could finally introduce ourselves. Key is my nickname.”

Key had all the qualities of a selfless individual that meant no harm to society.

But the occurrences told to Taemin by his boss were supposedly from Kibum, and Taemin had no choice but to investigate.

“What type of work do you do Key?”

“Well…one could say I’m a graphic designer, for a music industry. Making visuals for them and sometimes editing their photographs.”

One could say

Taemin took the words with great caution. What did he mean “one could say”? Is he secretly in an illegal business? Or maybe he’s lying and is actually in some kind of indecent photography exertion.

“Okay…” Taemin muttered. He couldn’t say the questions aloud and he wasn’t in the position to press them on Kibum like an intimidator. 

Key lightly laughed at Taemin’s manner. The boy kept fiddling with the edge of his shirt, creasing his eyebrows in frustration.

“You are absolutely adorable!” Kibum flailed his arms in the air and instinctively poked Taemin’s cheek.

“Don’t touch me!”

Flinching at Key’s touch, Taemin backed away, then instantly regretted his actions.

The sweet guy didn’t mean any harm, and the stupid mushroom-head was too blinded by his opinions to see it.              “I-I’m so sorry, it was impulsive. I’m sorry…”

A crimson color stained a side of Key’s face, and Taemin took his own cold hand to touch the warm pain. Key winced, but didn’t pull away.

“It’s okay…”

Again, a smile appeared on Kibum’s face, his gaze driving a disappointed hole into Taemin’s chest.

--

A/N:

So I'm going to have a picture in every chapter somewhat revelant to the story. Last time it was a setting; the walkway bridge. The visual for this chapter is representing a sunlit area; not the home of Key or Taemin. 

Whoop Whoop I updated on a Friday. Comments would be very encouraging.

See you next week!