The table was set with food and Jonghyun and Minho were scrambling into their seats as Key and Taemin entered the room. 

“I know you were eavesdropping.” Key began, gesturing for Taemin to sit. “But I’m going to ignore that for now, since I know you two lug heads wouldn’t have understood half of what we said.” 

“One day I will be able to speak English just as good as you.” Jonghyun muttered, “Then you won’t be able talk about me behind my back.”

Key smirked. “Technically I’m talking about you right in front of your face, its not my fault you neglected your English lessons as badly as you did. Minho too.” He added as an after thought, knowing that the two had fought against the lessons when they were younger. 

“Eat.” Key gestured to Taemin, “before it gets cold.”

Nodding, Taemin picked up his chopsticks and began to eat staring down at his bowl. He chewed slowly, to both savour the taste and to hope that eating slowly wouldn’t upset his stomach any more than it already was. 

With his concentration steady on his dinner, Taemin missed the look that Jonghyun and Key shared as they watched Minho watching the youngest. An odd look took residence on the tallest boy’s face that left Key and Jonghyun confused. Had it been anyone other than Minho, they would have thought it was something like hesitant adoration. 

The foursome ate in silence, only the sounds of dinner time present in the air. Even though he was nervous, Taemin felt at peace with his friends. He didn’t bother hoping that they would still be there later, what would be would be and he was determine to at least enjoy the food and friendship while he could. 

His big mouth had outed him to Key, Minho too really except that Key said that the tall boy didn’t understand him. Having friends was hard; it was, at times, more difficult than being alone. 

When they were done eating, Minho kicked the other three out of the kitchen so he could do up the dishes. Taemin tried to stay and help, but Minho wouldn’t hear of it. Instead he sent him with a tray of drinks and told him to get settled.

Considering how much Minho hated doing dishes and how Taemin was the one who normally did them, it showed that either Minho wanted to show Taemin that he cared, either that or he was trying to stall. 

Taemin figured it was probably the latter so he left Minho to the dirty work. 

Elbow deep in the hot, soapy dish water, Minho scrubbed at the stubborn food stuck on their dishes. His mind wasn’t on his task and itt certainly wasn’t on everything he was about to reveal. 

Taemin was gay. It had taken a few minutes to understand what the English was that Taemin was screaming but when he did… 

The thought circled round and round in his mind, consuming his thoughts in a way that made him dizzy. He was upset that Taemin worried that they would hate him and he tried to remember a time when he might have given the youngest that idea. 

Especially since for Minho, it was becoming the exact opposite.

When Taemin had first arrived, Minho was angry because it felt like Jinki was being replaced but soon his new roommate began to grow on him. He was cute and Minho knew that Taemin’s cuteness would likely transform into a greater attractiveness as the boy got older. After over a month of living together and getting to know each other, Minho knew that the feelings he was developing were more than that of simple friendship.

Jinki had been the only one of his friends that knew that Minho had similar tendencies to Jonghyun. Sure Jonghyun was engaged to and dating Key, but Minho knew that had Key been any other boy Jonghyun wouldn’t have been as attracted to him.

Minho had had girlfriends, not many but enough that the school was sure he ‘wasn’t like’ Key and Jonghyun. Not that he cared, his parents wouldn’t exactly be overjoyed to know that their youngest son may choose to be with another man, but they wouldn't shun him for it and he wasn’t going to inherit everything anyway. 

Grumbling in frustration and wiping a soapy hand over his forehead, Minho drained the sink. He had saw the look Jonghyun and Key had shared thinking that he wasn’t paying attention. 

Taemin’s shouted confession didn’t mean that he liked Minho in that same way, it just meant that maybe the younger couldn’t hold it in anymore. Minho could understand that, sometimes he wanted to shout things out, just to let out everything that he was keeping in. 

Groaning, Minho left the dishes to air dry. The fact that he had even offered to do the dishes probably set off a red flag in Jonghyun’s mind. 

Meanwhile in the other room, Jonghyun chattered away aimlessly to fill the silence; his anxious rambling a comfort to everyone.

As soon as Minho entered the room and sat down on his bed, Jonghyun stopped talking and bit his lip, waiting for someone else to start. 

The silence that filled in was deafening. 

“Don’t everyone start talking at once.” Key said, getting impatient from his place perched on Taemin’s desk. “Tell me what’s going on.” He glared around the room. “I know that our little conversation before dinner can’t have been the entire reason we’re all gathered here.” He gave Taemin and Minho a pointed look. 

Taemin fidgeted with his bedspread and Jonghyun looked uncomfortable sitting on Minho’s desk chair. 

Taemin opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out but a squeak. He looked at Key hopelessly and then to Minho with the same look. 

“I’ll start.” Minho said, standing up and starting to pace. “I promised you answers Taemin and after last night, you deserve them.” 

“After last night?” Key asked, looking at the youngest. “What happened last night?”

“After Key,” Minho began. “I need to tell you what happened up to last night in order for you to really understand.”

“I’m smarter than you seem to give me credit for.” Key practically snarled. His eyes narrowed in anger and his fingers clenched around the edge of the desk. 

“I know you are.” Minho soothed. “But its complicated and the only reason I understand what happened is because I know what caused it.” He looked at Taemin, “Taemin was attacked last night, here in our room, because of me. Because of something that I’ve been keeping quiet for far too long. So please, just listen for a few minutes Kibum, please.” 

Key was too busy staring in shock at Taemin to really answer, “Attacked?” He breathed to the youngest. 

Taemin nodded but when he opened his mouth to answer, Minho cut him off. 

“At the end.” He walked over to his dresser and pulled out one of the bottom drawers. He withdrew a large black zippered binder and walked to the centre of the room, where he dragged a small table and placed it on. 

“That’s Jinki’s secrets binder.” Jonghyun said in surprise. “I thought that it went missing after his accident. Didn’t he carry it everywhere with him?”

“He did.” Minho began to undo the zipper, not opening it. “Except the day that he was hurt. That day he left it with me, asked me to hold on to it and told me not to open it unless something happened to him.” He paused to gather his thoughts as he thought back to that last conversation. “He asked me to keep it safe.” 

“He never asked me to keep him safe. I didn’t think about it until after he was already hurt. This binder is the reason for Jinki’s accident. It holds all of the information that not even his parents know.” Minho tapped the cover. “Jinki’s accident, wasn’t an accident.”

Minho stopped for a minute to let that sink in. “Jinki was attacked, abused and left for dead. It was done on purpose, with malicious intent.” He nodded more to himself than to the others. “Everything in this binder was a secret. I only opened after he had been in that coma for three weeks, I knew that he wouldn’t want me to read it no matter what he said, but I had to know.”

He hung his head; shoulders and back hunched. “I wish I never looked at it, but I also wish I had looked in it months before.” 

Minho began to pull pieces of paper and photos and folders out of the binder. He passed different pieces to the other three after looking at them briefly and determining who needed what information first. 

Jonghyun was handed a file of Jinki’s hand written notes that he quickly began flipping through as though Minho was going to snatch it away again. 

Key was given an assortment of government documents, photocopies of originals yellowing with over a decade of age. 

Taemin was handed a pile of photographs. There wasn’t many, but he gingerly through them with a very odd, almost sick look on his face. 

When the binder was empty, Minho took a breath and began to speak. 

“Jinki has a younger brother. He was born when Jinki was 4. From what I’ve gathered from Jinki’s notes, the first couple of years were great. He remembers when his brother came home and he remembers the family being happy.” He looked at his friends shocked faces. 

“He never said anything to us, because for all intents and purposes his brother is dead. Jinki’s notes state that he remembers going to school when he was about 6 and coming home to his mother crying and the baby missing. They had a funeral with a closed casket, but Jinki remembers overhearing his mother saying to his father something about burying an empty box. He writes that it didn’t make sense to him then, but by the time he was 12 it made sense.”

“That’s when he started getting all secretive.” Key broke in, horror written across his face. “The first binder appeared, god I remember trying to look in it and I swear I thought he was going to hit me.”

“I think he stole those papers from his dad.” Minho gestured to those in Key’s hands. “Our Jinki was precocious.” A dry chuckle came from his lips.

“What I’ve pieced together, and I don’t think its half of what Jinki knew, is that something bad happened. Obviously.” He muttered the last word, moving to take the notes from Jonghyun and digging until he found the section he wanted. 

“Jinki thinks that his brother was kidnapped. Taken from his parents because of his father’s uncle’s debt.” He pointed out the words and Key slipped off the desk to read over Jonghyun’s shoulder. “He doesn’t have a lot of details, but I think it began as a ransom but the uncle wouldn’t pay it and when Jinki’s father finally did it was too late and Jinki’s brother was gone.”

“Jinki’s been searching for him here in Korea for years with no luck. Copies of his brother’s birth certificate didn’t do anything and he figures that the death certificate is a forgery. Expensive, but a forgery.” He took the copy from Key and pointed out the various circles on the page that Jinki had made, pin pointing where the almost indeterminable errors were.

“He only had a few photos from when his brother was a baby, his parents tried to get rid of them but Jinki had stolen them back. I think he was making a break through though, his notes were more jumbled but it looked like he found something out.” Minho pointed at the last set of notes, dated two days before Jinki was hurt. 

“It looks like America. I think he hacked the airlines and tried to find records going back that far, but I don’t think that there was anything. I think that when Jinki’s father’s uncle refused to pay, not caring that it was going to hurt his nephew and his family, I think that the kidnappers sent him to America.”

Jonghyun made a high pitched whine and Key dropped his pile of papers. “You mean, you think Jinki’s brother is alive?”

“I think Jinki thought he was and that’s good enough for me.” Minho said, voice hardening. “I think that Jinki figured that out, figured out that it was someone in a position of high power in our government that was involved to cover this up. His notes are a mess and I can’t make most of the last bit out. I wanted to tell you for months Key, but I was worried that Jinki’s mess would get you hurt. Get us all hurt.” Minho looked ashamed. 

“Not your fault.” Jonghyun said with a rough voice. “It was Jinki’s fault that he kept us in the dark.”

“He didn’t want us to get hurt.” Key’s voice was thick with tears. “He was trying to protect us, blaming himself for not protecting his brother. God, what an idiot!” 

“I keep going to the alley he was attacked in.” Minho admitted. “I keep hoping that I’ll see something that would help Jinki, that would tell us who hurt him.” He shook his head. “But nothing.”

He turned to look at Taemin, who was still looking shell shocked at the photos he had spread out over his bed. “That’s where I was yesterday when you were attacked, I was out looking for clues to help a friend who is damn close to dead. I should have been here, with my friend who is alive. Its my fault you were attacked.”

Taemin said nothing. Minho felt hurt, but he continued. “Do you mind if I tell Key what we know?”

No answer came from Taemin, so Minho moved on to explain about how he had noticed Taemin run to the bathroom and how he had subsequently found Taemin’s soiled clothing and called Jonghyun. He told them what Taemin had told him, about being held down and told that he was going to end up like Jinki. 

Key’s eyes were wet with unshed tears by the time Minho finished and Jonghyun’s tears were leaving silvery wet trails down his cheeks. 

“I don’t know why they went after Taemin. It makes no sense. He didn’t get here until after Jinki was hurt.” Key said, looking at the unmoving Taemin. “Why threaten Taemin?”

“Because they must know that Minho has Jinki’s notes.” Jonghyun guessed through his tears. “They probably think that the best way to get Minho to not investigate things is by threatening Taemin.”

“But they told him not to tell anyone, so how does that matter?” Key asked, anger flashing in his eyes. 

A soft thump had the older three turning to look at Taemin. The youngest had slipped off his bed and over to his closet. He dug out the old and battered case that he had brought with him from the United States. 

Only he could see how badly his hands were shaking as he opened the case. Digging at a small hole, Taemin ripped at a mended spot in the cloth interior until he could pull something flat out of it. It was obvious that he had taken great care to hide what he had and made sure that no one would be able to take it away from him. 

“Taemin?” Key asked in confusion, watching as the youngest moved over to the bed and picked up one of the photographs he had so carefully lay out. 

Slowly he moved over to where his three friends stayed and with a look of almost regret, he held out the two photographs for them to see. 

“Oh my god.”

---------

Well there it is! The beginning of the big reveal of what happened to Jinki. Poor guy getting so close and then having it all taken away from him. 

And some 2min starting, I will admit that I had to re-figure out how I was having their relationship build but I think I've got it, the boys finally made it clear to me how they planned on proceeding so there we go!

As always, let me know your thoughts, feelings, comments and concerns! I try to take what you guys say and make my writing better but I can't change/ fix something if you dont let me know!

Thanks for reading, subscribing, commenting and just being amazing readers! 

Loves always 

Kat