Everyone was quiet during the drive back from the hospital, the doctor’s words still ringing in their ears.

After the doctor’s words had sunk in and the realization of what it meant that he had recommended Jinki be taken off life support, the room had exploded in a flurry of angry words and furious gestures. Minho was furious that the doctor had even thought for a moment that it would be okay.

“His parents have agreed.” The words shook their group to the core. “They have stated that unless he shows some change in the next two weeks, there is nothing more we can do. He wouldn’t want to be kept alive like this.”

“He wouldn’t want to be like this at all!” Minho had yelled, moving in close to the doctor’s face. “You were supposed to fix him! How can they agree to let Jinki go? After what happened with…”

Minho’s words were cut off by the angry tone of the doctor’s words. “Not everything can be fixed. You have to realize that not everything will go the way you want, no matter who your parents are.” The doctor retorted before excusing himself, giving his false sounding condolences and leaving the room.

The rest of the visit was spent in angry silence as everyone stared at the comatose boy. The words of the doctor rang heavily in their ears.

By the time they left, Minho had worked himself into a furious silence. He stormed his way to the parking lot and didn’t acknowledge it when Key shoved Taemin none too gently towards the taller boy’s car.

Neither boy said anything as everyone set off back to the dorms.

Unable to think of anything to say, Taemin stayed silent.

When they returned to school, Minho threw the car into park and took a deep, steadying breath before speaking. “I need you to go away for a while.” The words were cold and hard, “I can’t deal with all this right now.” His eyes never left the steering wheel. “I need to be alone.”

Nodding, knowing that Minho would see it without looking, Taemin stepped from the car. As soon as he stepped far enough back, the car revved and Minho was gone.

“I told you Taemin should have just rode with us.” Jonghyun muttered to Key. “Minho’s always in a bad mood after seeing Jinki and today… you should have known he’d want to clear his head.”

“One of these days Minho is going to have to learn to let people in.” Key spoke, voice taking on a haughty tone.

“And you honestly thought that it would be today?” Incredulously Jonghyun stared at his younger friend. “and people think that I’m the dumb one.”

Key’s face contorted with anger but Taemin missed the rant Jonghyun had conjured in his friend.  

“Oppa?” Sulli’s voice came from behind him where Key had parked his own car. “Can I talk to you for a minute.” She looked at the rest of the group before adding, “alone?”

The arguing couple stopped mid sentence as they caught sight of Taemin nodding.

Not trusting himself to speak, Taemin nodded. Ignoring the looks from the other three, he followed the younger girl away from the parking lot and around the school to the place they always seemed to find each other.

They walked until they reached the bench and then sat on opposite ends in silence until Sulli broke it. “Minho’s taking what happened to Jinki a lot harder than everyone else. Not that it doesn’t kill us to see our friend like that, but Minho, he just… and with the news today… But he’ll be okay.”

Taemin stared at his hands, fingers entwined and palms clasped tight together. He had forgotten his mitts in the dorm when they left not knowing he would be outside while the cold bit at him. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Sulli said, sliding closer. “There was nothing any of us could have done, even Jinki knew that at some point all his digging was going to get him into trouble. We just didn’t think it would be that much.”

Taemin nodded, still looking at his fingers and avoiding Sulli’s glance. The half story of Jinki’s search was confusing the young man, but he didn’t want to pry for more information he didn’t feel he needed.

Afterall, he had just given away so much more about himself than he had ever planned.

“It’s not just you so please don’t be upset that he …” She wanted to soothe any hurt feelings Taemin may have. “And to hear that Jinki’s… that he’s…” A soft sob trickled out before she could stop it, “he’s brain dead…”

Taemin stopped her before she could say anything further, “I’m not upset. I know what its like to want to be alone.” He looked up and gave her a smile.

Smiling back, Sulli went quiet. An indescribable look crossed her face as she appeared to be battling her thoughts.

“Taemin-oppa.” Sulli’s voice was higher than normal and Taemin watched in confusion as she blushed as moved closer to him on the bench. “Can I ask you something?”

Taemin nervously nodded, worried about what she could want to know away from all her friends. Her behavior was unusual and he had to wonder what she wanted to say away from the others. He had let so much of his past slip at the hospital and sooner or later his friends would want more answers.

He had to bite back the smile at the thought that he actually had friends at school. That there were people who wanted to spend time with him even though he was the weird Korean orphan.

So he looked at Sulli and watched as she took a deep breath before biting her lip and quickly leaning over and kissing his cheek. Her lipgloss was sticky and left his cheek feeling tingly. “Seeing Jinki and hearing what we heard, well it made me think. I don’t want to die without having lived first.”

Taemin tilted his head as he looked at her in confusion.

“I like you.” Her eyes turned to look at the ground. “I like you and I don’t care that you’re rich or connected because you’re more than that. You’re smart and sweet and nothing like the other jerks that run this school. Aside from my brother and his friends of course.”

Blinking in astonishment, the young man stared at the younger girl.

“I don’t want to waste any time.” Her face flushed as she spoke her first confession to a boy. “So I was wondering if you wanted to go off campus with me. Like a date?” She turned her eyes back to Taemin.

He was in total shock. Never before had a girl said she liked him.
Unless you counted one time five high schools ago when the upper classes convinced a lower class girl to confess to him as a joke. They waited until he was stuttering his way through an answer to throw a bucket of dirty water on him.
This had to be a joke. A prank being played on him by someone, although who he couldn't guess. This wasn't the way Sulli normally acted. It had to be a signal that something was up. He waited for the bucket of water to hit.
Long eyelashes blinked again as Taemin wondered if he was dreaming. Girls like her didn’t like guys like him and they certainly didn’t ask Loser Lee Taemin on dates.

“I mean, if you don’t want to that’s cool, but I just thought maybe you liked me too.” Her words were soft and laced with hurt from his lack of response. “Unless you’re worried about what Minho will think about you dating his little sister.” She laughed weakly, “If that’s the case, I’ll just tell Key on him and…” She trailed off as she looked at him with large hopeful eyes.

Taemin turned quickly to look at her, still in shock as he tried to figure out the right words to say. “I’m sorry.” He began, watching as her face crumpled, “I mean I like you...”

Her eyes lit up and Taemin felt like the worst person ever as he continued. “But I don’t…”

“Want to risk our friendship or your friendship with my brother.” She spoke the words like she spoke them before. “Or heaven forbid Yunho finds out…”

“Yunho scares me.” Taemin admitted, feeling shameful to admit that he was afraid, “But that’s not the problem. I like you, but I’m not…” He struggled to find the right word, muttering the English equivalent under his breath until he found what to say. “I’m not attracted to you.”

“Because I’m Korean? Do you only like white girls now?” She sounded hurt, which made Taemin sink even lower.

He shook his head. “No that’s not it. I thought that you knew.”

“Knew what?” Sulli asked totally confused. Amber had told her that Key confirmed his single status, which blew her mind since even before Key’s transformation she thought Taemin was cute. She had also taken for granted the fact that no one wanted to anger Yunho so she didn’t figure any girls to have risked his wrath for a date with the poor, but totally cute, boy.

Even though most of the school population was afraid of Yunho, it didn’t stop the girls from talking about how cute the new boy was. Especially after Key had gotten his claws into him.

“You’re...” Taemin tried to think of a way to word it as to not hurt her feelings. “You’re not my type.” He braced himself for the explosion of disgust, knowing how people had treated him before when that secret had slipped out. Surely this would be the last straw, the final thing before his friends dropped him.

Sulli looked confused. She worried that all the time in America had made him fall for the North American type, but he just said that wasn’t the case.  Maybe she had made a mistake telling him now, sure it had seemed like a good idea in the car as she watched the back of Minho’s car fly through the streets of Seoul, but now she wondered if it was just too much, too fast.

Taemin shook his head, face heating with embarrassment. “I don’t like girls.” The last time he spoke those words he had ended up covered in dirty water, sent home from school to receive punishment for having to come home early.

The words had come out as more of a whisper than he had intended. He never planned on telling anyone that every again, but he didn’t want to hurt Sulli’s feelings. “All these changes Key’s done for me so that girls will notice me… Pointless.” His voice was soft as he spoke, not looking at Sulli once as he let his confession run. “I know its disgusting. I’m sorry, I’m disgusting. I won’t blame you if you want to leave now and tell everyone else what I am.” His voice was even as he spoke, no change in emotion necessary since he knew how things would end. “That’s what they did at my old schools.”

He didn’t wait for a response, worried about what it would and so with that he stood up and took a step away from the bench. “I’ll go pack now.” He chanced a glance at her face and was unsurprised by what he saw. He figured that if Sulli knew, Minho would know soon after and he wouldn’t want to live with a . It would only be a matter of time until he had to leave.

After all, he was really only welcome at the Academy for as long as the school allowed him. If Minho found out he would surely tell his father and his father would gladly kick out the gay boy he was sure.

The look of shock on her face confirmed his fears and he felt his body go cold. Now was the time when she would jump up in disgust and tell everyone what Taemin was. At least he was prepared this time.

It was an understatement to say that her reaction more than just surprised him.

Laughter burst from the younger girl, doubling her over as tears poured down her cheeks. “I should have known.” Sulli said, wiping at her wet cheeks. “You’re too cute and nice. Key said that you didn’t have a girlfriend so I had to take my shot.”

Taemin turned to stare blankly at her. “I’m sorry if I disgust you.” Her reaction was strange, but he waited for the other foot to drop.

Sulli stared at him in total confusion. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? Anyways, why would I be disgusted?”

“Because everyone says that being, like that, is wrong.” He couldn’t bring himself to say that word. He had only ever thought it in his mind. Whenever his foster fathers would touch him, they always told him how wrong it was for him to make them do it.

To make them commit such a dirty offense, but it was his own fault. He had brought it upon himself.

Sulli laughter shocked him. “Have you met Key and Jonghyun?” She said, wiping wetness from her cheeks.

Taemin nodded, he didn’t understand why she was asking such a silly, unnecessary question. What they did was just a game. That’s what everyone said.

“Then clearly you’ve seen how they act together. They’re engaged to be married even.” She leaned over and brushed the few light snowflakes that had landed in Taemin’s hair. The snow had been falling lightly since they walked out the school doors.

“I thought...” His voice trailed off. Wasn’t it just a game to them?

“That’s what most people think, but anyone who knows better knows that they love each other and something stupid like bigotry isn’t going to keep them apart. They grew up with each other. Key’s father may be the best plastic surgeon in South Korea but his mother’s family is big in business. They thought that Key was going to be a girl so they arranged marriage between Jonghyun’s family. ” The snow began to fall faster. Sulli held out her gloved hand to catch the flakes in her palm.

Tempted to do the same as her words ran through his mind, Taemin shuffled in his boots and stuffed his cold hands in his pockets.

“What’s wrong?” Sulli asked, noticing his lack of reply.

He shook his head.

“Are we okay?” She asked, moving to stand in front of him.

Taemin nodded, hesitant at first but more confidently as he saw her smile.

“Excellent.” She shivered. “Its getting cold, should we go in?”

Taemin stared at her abrupt change. “Why are you not mad at me?”

Sulli was shocked. “Why would I be mad at you? Because I like you and you don’t like me the same way? I’ll get over it.” She smiled brightly at him. “As long as you allow me to take you off campus for a friendship date. Just as friends.”

Taemin nodded. “I’ve never been on a date before, even just as friends.” He had never felt such disbelief and relief all at the same time.

Forcing herself to smile and not return the look of disbelief Taemin wore on his face, Sulli grinned and bounced to her feet. “Great!” She reached for Taemin’s hand to drag him alone as she sped towards the dorms.

Now use to Sulli’s rapid mood swings, Taemin easily went with the flow. He found himself smiling as Sulli began to chatter on.

“Minho won’t be back for a while yet and I know that Jonghyun and Key have their own way of dealing with Jinki visits that I want no part of. Also, I’m starved.” Linking their arms, Sulli continued to chatter away. “This whole confession and rejection thing really makes a girl hungry. I think ice cream for lunch is a good idea.” Her smile could have melted the falling snow with its radiance and not for the first time Taemin wished that he was attracted to her if only to see her smile like that more.

Caught up in his musings and the attempt to keep up with the energetic girl, Taemin failed to notice the person hiding around the corner from the bench where they had sat.

-----

Hey look an update!

And it didn't take me 6 months!! *pats self on back*

Anyways, were you guys expecting this? Thoughts?

Loves you all

Kat