Minho’s POV

The moment I walked into the café, Key appeared in front of me with his hands on his hips the way a mother would do when she had caught her son doing something wrong and was just about to tell him off.

“You’re late,” he hissed.

I scanned the crowd. There were fewer customers today. I think it was partly because Se Kyung was absent and I had come late so they must have thought I was absent too. There were already two substitutes working in our place.

I shrugged nonchalantly. “I overslept.”

“You? Overslept?” he rolled his eyes. “Find a better excuse next time,” he said and started to walk away but I reached out to hold him back by his elbow.

He turned to glare at my hand but when he saw it; his expressions changed from shock to horror to concern and finally, panic. “What in the world did you do to your hand?” he screeched in high pitch and I winced as his voice hit my eardrums.

I looked down to see what he was talking about and only just realised that I had used my wounded hand. I would not have thought about it if he did not bring it up and now that I was aware of it, my fist was suddenly throbbing and the stinging pain hit me in a shocking wave.

“Ouch,” I said in a monotone.

“What do you mean ouch? Didn’t you notice this earlier?” his screech was getting higher. He was attracting attention to us.

“Key,” I called out warningly but was ignored.

He removed my hand carefully and gently from his elbow and inspected the long gashes where the mirror had cut me. I winced as the slight movement stung. Most of the cuts have dried up so the blood was not dripping anymore but somehow, my fist looked twice as gory as before with broken glass shards sticking out of it. Key shuddered as if he felt the pain in my place.

I tried to pull away. “It’s nothing. I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”

“No, it’s not nothing and you’ll get worse tomorrow. Not better. Now shut up. I need to think,” he snapped, glaring at me in warning to not say anything anymore so I kept quiet while he think of what to do to my hand. It was a known to never try to talk to him when he had his ‘mother’ mode on. You will only get yourself in deeper troubles.

“Come with me,” he ordered and started towing me into the boys’ changing room.

I had to chuckle at that. He was so worried and concentrated on me that he forgot he was supposed to be a girl.

“Sit,” he pushed me down onto the bench. “I’ll get the first aid kit.”

“I’m not going to die from this.” I attempted one last time.

He gave me another glare before closing the door behind him.

I sighed. I knew I would fail. Kibum will always be Kibum with or without the memory loss.

I raised my hand to eye level and stared at it.  I was surprised I haven’t keeled over after losing so much of blood. I tried to pick out one of the visible piece of broken glass. It came out easily enough but it also took all my control to not bang my head against the wall at the pain when the glass came free. My wound started bleeding again. Who would have thought that such a small thing could cause so much pain? I flicked it away from the tips of my fingers and sighed at the few more still embedded in the back of my hand. Inhaling a deep breath, I was just about to pick at another one when Kibum came in with the first aid kit and the moment he saw what I was doing, he screamed so high I thought I had gone deaf.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he screeched again and rushed at me, dropping the white box on the floor so that he could see the further damage that I had done.

“I think I was removing the glass.”

“How can you do that so simply?” he demanded.

I sighed. This conversation will not end well on my side. “Do what you think is right, then and get it over with.”

Kibum tsked at me before digging into the first aid kit. When he had found all the things that he needed, he looked up at me with a worried face full of uncertainty.  

“I’ll be as gentle as possible. I promise. Scream if it hurts and I’ll stop.”

“Can I pull your hair?”

He glared at me in a silent ‘do you want to die?’ and I chuckled. I knew it was a death wish but I still wanted to say it, anyway just to .

“I brought you a bun if you want.”

“To stuff it in my mouth?”

“To distract you from the pain.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

He rolled his eyes. “Well, what else is there?”

I went through all the possible options in my head for a second. “Talking helps.”

Kibum sighed in exasperation. I was not his favourite when it comes to talking.

“Fine. Talk to me,” he said as he took out a pair of forceps and searched for the easiest, most exposed piece of glass to be removed.

“Where do you live?”

He has found his target piece and was now lowering his forceps towards it slowly. “Why do you want to know?”

“To stalk you.”

He rolled his eyes again. “That’s a very good reason why I should not tell you.”

“Then, tell me which school you’re in.”

He secured the forceps on the piece of glass and took a deep breath. “Are you ready?”

“You’re supposed to distract me from the pain. Not remind me.”

“Right. Sorry.” He smiled sheepishly at me and it took me a lot of effort to not hug him right then and there for being so cute.

“Answer the question so I can think of another one.”

“I don’t go to school.” He pulled out the glass and I winced slightly. It was considerably less painful compared to when I did it myself and the bleeding was minimal.

“Why?”

“Because I can’t remember-,” he stopped himself. “Because I don’t like school.”

I smirked inwardly to myself. That’s a foul, Kibum. You have got yourself a yellow card for your first lie.

“Why don’t you like school? With looks like yours, I’m sure guys would die at your feet,” the end of my sentence came out breathless when he took out another fragment of glass.

“I’m not ga- I mean I’m not into guys.”

I had to hold in my laughter now. I knew it would be a lot easier to expose his lies when he had to focus his concentration elsewhere instead of on my hidden motives. That was the reason I wanted to talk to him so badly now.

“You’re not? Does that make you a lesbian then?”

“What did you say?” his voice went up a few notes.

“Ouch,” I muttered.

He had forgotten to be gentle and it hurt quite badly. The wound bled afresh. Maybe I should tone it down a little and remind myself that my life is currently in his hands.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” he was flailing his arms around. “Did it hurt a lot?”

That was an understatement. “Just carry on. You can clean that later.”

He looked up at me warningly. “Stop talking to me, already. I can’t concentrate.”

For the next few minutes, I let him work in silence. He was a quick learner and the pain gradually reduced with each glass shard he took out of my hand. The time he took to remove them was faster too. After he had got rid of all the fragments of glass, he took out a bottle of antiseptic and dipped several cotton buds into it. I refrained myself from wincing every time the solution touched my wound but I know it would have been worse if he wasn’t so gentle. He finished cleaning the dried blood and was now securing a bandage over my fist. I waited patiently until he was almost done before I dropped the axe.

“Just answer one more question.”

He slumped his shoulders in defeat. “What?” he asked as he tied the ends of the bandage together.

“Where are your parents? Your family? Your friends?”

Kibum froze. He stopped working on my hand and met my stare. “I don’t know,” he said with a lost look in his eyes. He was looking into me as if pleading me to give him the answers, instead.

This was the first time I hate myself for reading so much into things. But like I said, I have to know. I need to know. I’m sorry, Kibum. I’m sorry for hurting you.

“Did they abandon you or did you abandon them?”

A punch landed on my face just as I predicted.

“Does that mean it was them who left you?”

“No. I left them. I left all of them,” he spat through gritted teeth and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

I sighed, pushing my good hand through my hair. I haven’t even told him that I was taking the day off work. I guess I would just have to leave the boss a direct message. I turned to look at the door which Kibum had disappeared through. “Red card, Kibum. That was your biggest lie yet. But thanks, anyway. You have helped make my decision,” I spoke to myself as I stood up to leave.

By the way, you should know that girls don’t punch.

Jonghyun’s POV

He was coming over? With Onew? What for? He sounded agitated on the phone. I have never heard him being on edge. Did something happened? But what could possibly reduce Minho into that? I was under the impression that there was nothing Minho cannot solve. And if he cannot solve whatever it was, why was he coming to me? I’m pretty sure I cannot solve it if he can’t. So why?

I groaned in frustration and checked the time on my watch for the umpteenth time as I paced up and down my room. Why was he taking so long anyway? If I had known, I would have taken my time coming back from Key’s place. I was only there for fifteen minutes when it usually took me at least one hour to finally be able to convince myself to go home. Should I go over to his place instead? But what if he wasn’t home? What if he has got into trouble on the way somewhere?

“Oh, to hell with it,” I muttered as I went to fetch my keys from the table.

“To hell with what?”

I almost jumped out of my skin. I turned to the source of voice to see a solemn Minho leaning against the wall like he had been there forever whereas Onew walked in behind him looking like he was on a sightseeing tour.

“I like this better than your folks’ house.” His sentence was completed with a crashing sound and the two of us stared bemusedly at him. You can’t expect him to live through a day without breaking something.

“Um…that ugly looking vase can’t be more than a hundred thousand won right?”

“That vase was a gift from the Queen to my father. It was her personal favourite by her most admired Italian artist whose name I’m not bothered enough to know so saying that it could cost a few hundred won is an understatement because it probably costs about a million US dollars.”

Onew’s jaw dropped. “Um…can I pay in instalments? Er…minus the interest too?”

The corner of my lips lifted up in a smile. “Forget it. I’ll get someone else to clean it up and replace it later.”

“Really?” his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and he hauled himself at me, knocking me to the floor in an ambush bear hug. “I love you so so much!”

“Eew! Get off me, Onew!” I tried to push him off of me but he wouldn’t budge. “Minho! Get your here for Christ’s sake and help me!”

Minho sighed depressingly as he pushed himself off the wall, stretched his limbs and slowly walked over to me. I would have strangled him to death if I didn’t need his help right now. He peeled Onew away from me in a blink of an eye and offered me his hand. Instead of letting him pull me back to my feet, I stared at it with a frown.

“What happened to your hand?”

He immediately retracted his hand and offered me the other one. “Nothing.”

I stood up by myself and grabbed his bandaged hand. There were blood spots peeking through the white cloth. “What did you do to your hand? Did you get in a fight?”

“Hyung, I’m here to talk about you. Not me.”

“Minho, tell me how this happened and who did this.”

“He broke a plate while working and ah…someone accidentally pushed him from the back and ah…he got cut,” Onew said.

I stared into Minho’s eyes and he met mine unblinkingly. It was obvious that Onew was lying to protect Minho. Onew was never a good liar in the first place. He knows that and he knows that we know that. But why did he still try? Does he know something I don’t? And since when does Minho need protection? He was always strong enough to man his problems without any of us intervening. It was always we who needed him to come up with solutions for us although he was the youngest out of us three.

I let go of his hand and shrugged like it was none of my concern. Minho is tough enough to deal with whatever it is. I cannot be worrying about him like he was a three year old child anymore. I have stopped those years ago ever since we entered junior high. In fact, I think it is the other way around now. It was now his turn to babysit me. Anyway, we both know that he will come to me when he hits a dead end so I will just have to wait and hope he doesn’t have to come to me.

“Okay, then. Let’s start talking about me,” I said as I walked over to the couch and as cheerful as I tried to sound, my voice sounded tired. I knew from the way he spoke on the phone that his visit would mean bad news and it was a given fact that Minho never goes out of his way to do something unless it was urgent or very important to him.

Minho sighed while Onew scratched his head in confusion. Looks like Minho did not tell Onew anything before coming here.

“Well?” I asked expectantly, folding my arms.

“I need you to stay calm when I tell you this, you hear me?” Minho said very seriously. He was already serious to begin with but now, he was twice as gloom. That made me worry even more and my heart started picking up its pace.

“Why?”

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he spoke the words that brought my world crashing down. “Key’s dead.”

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