Annyeong! :) Mianhae, Mianhae, Mianhae. I know i haven't uploaded in a long time but... you know what, I'm not even going to try and give excuses! I'm on holiday right now but the internet is just about stable enough to post this. Kamsahamnida for being patient with me. <3 Enjoy!

After Jonghyun stormed out, leaving Key feeling completely devastated, he did the only thing he could think of: he called Taemin.

With shaking hands he picked up the phone which had been thrown at his feet, and with trembling fingers he dialled Taemin's number, praying he would answer. After a moment of agonizing waiting, he heard Taemin pick up the phone.

“Umma?” Taemin said in his charming yet sweet and innocent voice. Key could hear the sound of slurping from the other end of the line, from which he knew would be Taemin's straw in the bottle of banana milk he was surely drinking.

“Taeminnie, I... I need your help” Key's voice was quivering terribly and was breaking in several places. Taemin's carefree tone disappeared in a heart beat when he heard his poor Umma's voice.

“Umma, where are you?” he asked seriously, immediately placing down his sweet drink and grasping the phone a little tighter to his ear.

“Jonghyun's place” came the timid reply of the usually completely self-confident Diva. As well as the tone, this answer also confused Taemin; Jonghyun and Key lived together, so why would he only say 'Jonghyun's' rather than 'our'?

“Don't you mean 'your place' Umma?” Taemin asked slowly and held his breath as if hoping it had just been an accidental slip of the tongue. There was silence for a split second on both ends of the line until Key whispered,

“He kicked me out.”

It was so unexpected to the point that it almost made Taemin choke. For a second he thought that maybe Key was joking with him and that this was his dumb idea of a prank but then he heard the deadly silence on the end of the call and he knew inside that this was no joke. Yet at the same time, he couldn't believe it was real; it was the last thing he expected his 'Appa' to do and he was so shocked that he almost lost it. He was so angry that he would do this to Key, his own boyfriend who had always been there for him, but he quickly shook it off when he realised what emotional state Key would be in that moment. He quickly snapped back to action and promptly said,

“Wait there, Umma. I'm coming to get you!” and the line was disconnected. Key, who was still shaking, lowered the phone slowly from his ear until is dangled loosely in his hand at the end of his limp and swaying arm. He didn't know what to do, he was still a cocktail of confusion, heart ache and a mixture of other emotions that he couldn't place. So he just discarded the phone on the floor, sliding it away from him as if worried it might bite him and just curled in on himself; his back pressed against the bottom of the sofa, unshed tears in his eyes as he wrapped his arms around himself, making himself as small and vulnerable as possible. He laid his head on his knees and waited until Taemin would arrive, all the while trying his best to withhold the sobs which threatened to wrack his body as images of the fight which had ensued between himself and his lover plagued his mind.

About ten minutes later there was a distressed knocking on the door and Taemin's breathless voice called out,

“Umma? Umma, are you in there? Are you alright?” he shouted, worry evident in his voice but Key was too broken to get up from his position on the floor to go and answer the door. It wasn't long, however before the sound of jangling keys in the lock could be heard as Taemin couldn't control his worry and was instead using the spare key Jonghyun and his Umma had given him when they had first moved in together. Within a few moments, Taemin came bursting through the hall and calling out, “Umma, where are you?” glancing in all the rooms, until he came to the doorway of the living room. When he looked inside, he froze. “Umma...” was all he could say, as he looked across the pale room at the dishevelled figure of his Umma and Hyung, practically in pieces across the carpet, curled in on himself as if he was cornered by wild predators, then Taemin thought that in a way, he sort of was.

Taemin started to take tentative steps towards him as Key had still not raised his head and had yet to even respond to his voice. When he was close enough, he crouched down before his Hyung and as he reached out he whispered, “Key?” Just then one of his hands wound its way gently in his dark hair, whilst the other softly lifted his jaw so Taemin could see his face. His eyes were closed. Immediately the banana-loving boy reached over to check his Hyung's pulse, when he found it he breathed a sigh of relief that it was relatively steady. Taemin then started to let his fingers run gently through his hair as he carefully tried to wake his Hyung. “Umma?... Can you hear me?”

As he was starting to wonder if he should call for help, his eyes slowly started to flutter ope,n but once his dark eyes focused on what was around him, everything came rushing back to him all at once. His eyes widened in panic and he started to hyperventilate. Taemin, also in a shock at this sudden uncontrolled reaction, tried to calm him as he grabbed onto Key's forearms and tried to break him from this sudden panic, calling to him the whole time, trying to calm him and tell him everything was alright. Suddenly the diva's eyes rolled in his skull and for a moment all Taemin could see was the whites of his eyes before his whole body went limp.

“Aigoo” the sound escaped past Taemin's lips instinctively from the shock as he moved in a split second so Key's body landed in his arms rather than the hard floor beneath them both. Taemin was a lot stronger than he was given credit for so he quite easily picked up the figure of his Hyung and carefully placed him out on the sofa to rest. As soon as he was sure his Umma was lying comfortably, he whipped out his phone and dialled the most called contact on the device. It wasn't long before he heard the low silky purr of his love on the other end of the line.

“Taeminnie, what can I do for you sweetheart?”

“Hyung, can you come over? It's urgent... It's about Key, ” Minho was worried by the quiver and urgency in his voice.

“Of course, Minnie, are you at home or Key's?”

“Key's”

“I'll be right over, love. Give me 10 minutes” As soon as the line was disconnected, Taemin pocketed his phone and turned back to face his Hyung. He was worried about what on earth could have made his usually so strong and confident Umma and friend react this way, he had a terrible feeling it concerned Jonghyun in some way but he would wait to hear Key's explanation before jumping to conclusions about what had occurred between them. He decided to go and dampen a cloth to place on his Umma's forehead.

However, once he got back he saw the older's eyes starting to flicker open yet again. Instantly Taemin was by his side, but thankfully it seemed that Key was no longer as hysterical as he was when he first arrived, instead he now seemed to be deeply concerned about something. He pushed himself up from the lying position Taemin had placed him in so that he was now sitting up straight, but at that time he was unable to look the younger in the eyes.

Eventually, the diva took a deep breath and forced his eyes to look into the worried ones of his son and Taemin instantly saw that something very bad must have happened there to see such emotional pain in his eyes. He always knew he was over emotional on many levels but he had yet to see such a terrible concoction of hurt and fear in his deep eyes. At once, Taemin had his arms around the older, binging him tightly to himself and Key couldn't help but cling to him as if his life depended on it and the tears once again started to trace their way down his face. They sat in that position for a few minutes, Taemin rubbing his hand comfortingly up and down Key's back while he whispered comforting words and sweet nothings into his ear.

Finally, his tears subsided and he pulled back, but Taemin wouldn't let go of his hands which he held in his own lap just so Key couldn't pull away from his completely, he feared that if he let him do so, he might retreat into his head and block him out again, also he wanted to make sure he could continue to give at least some small physical comfort to him. Taemin then raised one hand and gently wiped away his tears, however when his hand came over the left side of his face, he felt heat radiating from the skin and he saw his Hyung shrink away a little at the contact. Taemin then looked closer and in the dim light he noticed his cheek was rather bright pink, unusually so.

“Umma, what happened to your cheek?” he asked, concern in his speech yet again but also a growing sense of anger. Key started to back away from the younger, but he wouldn't let go of his hand, his one free hand, immediately came to cover up his cheek, as if to try and hide it.

“Jonghyun... might have... hit me?” He said slowly, phrasing it like a question, as if unsure if he should have even been saying it. These five words did it for Taemin, his anger towards the Dino boy reached its boiling point.

“He what? I'll kill him!” He shouted between clenched teeth.

Abruptly a loud banging on the door interrupted his anger. Instantly, Key froze up and his eyes widened as his head quickly snapped towards the door, fear in his eyes which did not go unnoticed by the younger. He comfortingly squeezed his hands in his lap to reassure him and he too looked towards the door. The knocking was quickly followed by a low voice.

“Taemin, Key? You in there? It's Minho” came the voice from the other side of the door, and Key's shoulders visibly slouched. Taemin gauged is Hyung's reactions with confusion on his mind, what had got his Umma so afraid and high strung? He knew he would have been affected by Jonghyun's anger and the fact he was struck, but there was something more. Something else seemed to have pushed him over the edge. Not wanting to cause an awkward silence, or make Minho any more concerned than he clearly already was, Taemin called out to his boyfriend,

“We're here Hyung. I'm coming.” he then slowly untangled his hands from Key's and went to the front door and opened it to the site of his boyfriend. Minho looked into Taemin's eyes which were full of sadness and anxiety.

“How is he?” Minho asked him, and Taemin could only shake his head.

“Not good. I have no idea what has happened to him but it has shaken him up awfully. The only thing I know is that Jonghyun is somehow wound up in this. Come and see him for yourself” he sighed unhappily and beckoned for him to follow him back to the living room. When they got back, Key had started to close up again and his arms had wrapped themselves around his waist and he had suddenly found his shoes surprisingly interesting. Taemin looked back over to his boyfriend as if to say, 'See what I mean?'.

Minho could see exactly what Taemin meant; Key looked devastated. His aura had completely changed from his usually bubbly one to this sort of depressed and fearsome one, something was very wrong.

“Key?” he called out tentatively, and Key's eyes immediately snapped up to his and for a moment anxiety was once again evident in those deep eyes before he managed with some difficultly, to banish it as he realised who the speaker was. “Oh Key, what has happened to you?” he asked, his tone full of sadness and worry for his friend. He slowly started to approach the vulnerable boy, crossing from the doorway to the sofa where Key seemed to be trying to shrink into the leather. When he was close enough, the tall frog carefully placed a comforting hand on his shoulder to see his reaction. When he was sure Key wasn't about to panic, he picked him up in his arms and sat down, moving his Hyung onto his lap and holding him close with his arms wrapped tightly but caringly around him, grounding him. Key couldn't help but melt into the comforting embrace and try and soak up as much affection as he could. But it didn't help him feel any happier when he thought about his Boyfriend walking out on him. Minho gained a little ease when he saw he was able to comfort Key in some small way, but he could see something had happened to him and a simple hug wasn't going to make it all better.

Taemin watched on with a hint of a smile on his lips as he watched his Umma being comforted by his boyfriend. He didn't feel any jealousy as he saw Minho give love to another person, because he knew it was just because he cared and wanted to show his friend he was there for him. But he could see Key was still hurting. It was as though Key had no more tears to shed, his eyes were puffy and red, his face seemed so pale, but his shoulders still shook with tearless sobs. He turned to Minho and said,

“Can you just bring us to my house? I think he needs to get out of this house.” Minho looked up from the childlike figure in his arms to the younger boy and nodded.

“Of course, honey.” He whispered something into Key's ear softly and after receiving a nod from him, he lifted him up in his arms and stood up from their position on the couch. Taemin spotted Key's phone lying abandoned on the floor near him so he picked it up and pocketed it as Minho walked them over to the door where he was standing, when Minho suddenly thought of something, “Also just wondering Tae, how did you get here then?” he asked as he walked out the door, Taemin grabbed the door handle as he answered,

“I ran” and slammed the door shut.

There you go. I hope this was worth the wait. I was going to include more but i decided to split it into 2 chapters. I hope you enjoyed this. Kamsahamndia to all my readers, especially thanks to Jongaykey, jjong_puppy, and leehaes for subscribing while i was away! Luv you all. I'll update as soon as i can. (warning, my next one might be a bit of a small update, but i don't know yet. Wait and see!) Please feel free to subscribe if you are a new reader and comments are much appreciated! <3

Ppyong,

BabyLocket Xx