Key’s POV

“Hello?”

“Hey, Se Kyung? Could you cover for me, today? Please?” I pleaded through the phone.

There was silence and then, “Why? Are you not feeling well? Minho’s coming today right?”

I had to force down a laugh. “No, I’m not sick. I just needed to drop by at Jonghyun’s place because he’s sick. And yes, Minho’s going in for work today. He said he has something to tell you.” There was a partial truth to my lie.

“Minho has something to tell me?” Even a deaf man could hear the excitement in her voice. Boy, she is so easy to use.

“Yeah. I don’t know what it is. He didn’t tell me. But he was all flustered and shy about it, though.”

“Oh my god! Do you think- could it be-,” her tone was going higher and higher.

“Anyway, can you fill in for me just today? Please?”

“Oh, of course I can. What are friends for?”

I almost vomited. Friends? Yeah, right. We hardly talk unless she comes over to drill me about Minho.

Girls are very prone to emotional changes. They can easily be manipulated with a simple thug at their feelings. And what better way than to target their hearts, the centre of all emotions. It is a known fact that every girl’s weakness is her man’s heart. Girls were always the ones to do all the chasing in a love game. They write love letters for confessions, make chocolates for Valentine ’s Day, plan the date for their weekly anniversaries and remember all the things their boyfriend likes as well as dislikes. At least that was what I gathered from the things Taemin had told me. That makes me wonder if my girlfriend ever did those things for me. I wonder if she had moved on. She must be so upset when I disappeared without a trace. If only I can see her again, if only I can recognize her, I would beg her for forgiveness although I don’t think I can ever go back to her if she asked me to. After all, the feeling isn’t there anymore. I might used to love her but I don’t remember any of it and if I agreed to be her boyfriend again, it just wouldn’t same. I wouldn’t love her as much. I couldn’t care and pamper her like I used to. It will only break us apart even more. Besides, I don’t think I want to go back to my past anymore. I can’t. Whatever that was in the past will stay as the past. They will always be my forgotten memories. They are the first few chapters of my life sealed into the deepest part of my brain. The doctor had told me that if I do not get back my memories within a year, it would be close to impossible to get them back. That one year had come to pass and I am starting to lose hope.

I will never be able to remember the forgotten.

“Key? What are you doing here?”

I startled out of my thoughts but when I saw who it was walking in my direction, I smiled out of relief. “Jonghyun, you’re still alive.”

He stopped in front of me, glaring into my eyes with disapproval. “I already said I was only joking.” The word *disbelief* must be written all over my face because he added, “I’m really not going to jump! I've been alive for another day, for god's sake!”

I laughed. “Fine. Fine. I was only checking.”

Jonghyun rubbed his chin in a teasingly thoughtful manner. “Hmm…if I knew that you would be this worried about me, I would have done it sooner.”

I punched his arm. “Yah! I will personally push you off if you ever do it again.”

“Fine. Fine. I was only checking,” he quoted after me.

I rolled my eyes. “Check what?”

“Just checking if your heart might really be aiming this way,” he winked as he touched my chest with his forefinger and drew an invisible line with it ending on his chest where his heart is supposedly located.

“D-don’t be stupid! Who would ever like you?” I stammered, pointedly looking at the ground to avoid eye contact with him.

Jonghyun grinned. “You?”

I could feel my face warming up. The air around me was suddenly very hot and stuffy. I swished my fake long hair to one side to allow cool wind to calm brush against my damp neck. God, why does he always have this effect on me? Kibum, why do you let him play you like this? I should be the one playing him the way I used Se Kyung. I should be the one in control but why doesn’t my head listen to me whenever he’s in close proximity? I don’t get it. I never could grasp the cause for this.

“Dr-dream on. I don’t like you. Not one bit,” I said shakily and his raised eyebrow went further into his hairline. It annoys me to look at his expression and I blurted what I never meant to say.

“I hate you!”

The words sounded much meaner than I imagined them to be. It sounded real and true. Jonghyun thought so too. His smirk was gone. So were the raised eyebrows. His entire face was stunned like he couldn’t accept what I said.

His hand closed around my wrist out of nowhere and I wasn’t prepared when he pulled towards him mouthing, “No, you don’t” and the next thing I know, our mouths had crashed together.

One second had passed.

The universe halted itself in its place. The earth no longer orbits around the sun and the moon had stopped circling around our planet. Everything had frozen into stone because I have frozen solid.

Five seconds came and gone.

I, Kim Kibum, for the first time in my life, did not know what to do in a situation. My eyes which were about to pop out anytime soon stared at Jonghyun’s closed ones.

Fifteen seconds flew by.

He wasn’t exactly moving. We weren’t moving. Our lips were just glued together. I was just in his embrace. I can deal with this. I will know what to say when I can finally make my limbs move when my head is directing them to move. This is nothing. It’s not like this is my first kiss. I must have had many in the past. It doesn’t matter that this is the first kiss that I am going to remember. He was only hugging me securely in his strong muscular arms as our lips were still stuck to one another.

…

Hold it right there.

I just said the things that would suggest I like this contact; that I like this kiss; that I don’t mind a guy like me (Kim Jonghyun at that) to ambush a kiss on me.

Slap.

It had taken me a full thirty seconds to lift my hand and bring it across his face, removing the pressure of his warm soft lips on mine. I was breathing heavily. He, on the other hand, had his face to the side. A bright red hand print was beginning to colour itself onto his cheek.

“I don’t ever want to see you again,” I muttered as I pushed the plastic bag of things I had brought for him to his chest and walked away.  

My mind was blank during my journey home. I couldn’t think at all. I can only feel the lingering pressure on my throbbing lips. My finger touched them lightly and the corner of my mouth lifted in a secret smile.

I…don’t really dislike the kiss.

“AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” I screamed, not bothering about the funny looks the other pedestrians were shooting in my direction. What is wrong with me?  I thought in horror as I ran the rest of the way home and jumped into bed the moment I had slammed and locked my room door.

“Sleep, Kibum. Sleep. You have just had a very bad dream. It was just a nightmare. He didn’t kiss you. Nobody did. Sleep, Kibum. You need to sleep. Everything will return to normal tomorrow,” I mumbled to myself.

I was in a room, a strangely familiar room. I felt like I have seen it before (I have this feeling a lot lately). The design and the way the furniture were arranged all felt close to home to me. I looked around the room. There were two other people besides myself here. I couldn’t quite see their faces. The eyes, nose and the forehead were somewhat covered in a weird fog so all that was visible to me were the constantly moving lips. But I recognized the taller, skinnier boy of the two. It was me.

“This is the only key to your lock!” the me I was seeing said as it? (I don’t know what to call him when I’m here) bounced up and down in excitement. He was holding a silver something from his neck. I scrutinized my eyes on it. Was it a pendant?

“Seriously?” the guy in front of him was just as excited. “There’s only one pair of this in the world?”

“It’s the only one in this universe,” the other me nodded. “Promise me that you’ll never take it off.”

The guy smiled from ear to ear as he whispered sincerely, “I promise with my life.” He then pulled me into his arms and said, “I’ll never take it off because you’ll forever be the one and only key to my heart.”

My eyes flew open the moment I skyrocketed into a sitting position. My fingers closed instinctively around the pendant dangling in front of my chest. Sweat dripped down my face like I had been sleeping in a sauna room. My chest was heaving badly. A million thoughts were flying through my head every second that I didn’t have enough time to interpret any of them. Everything was just so confusing. How can I look at myself in my dream? Or was it just a dream? But how can a dream look so real? But what could it be it was not a dream? A future premonition? Or a glimpse of my past? My heart dropped as realisation hit me. Could it really be a small piece of my forgotten past?

The dream I just had…that was the me I had forgotten? But then…I was being hugged by a guy. I was being held by a guy who tells me I was the only key to his heart. Oh, god. My eyes travelled down slowly finding its way to my balled up fist. I opened my fingers one by one and there it was. A key pendant. The key pendant I had seen in the dream. It was true. It was all true. There has never been a girlfriend in my life. I have never had a girl by my side. I was gay. A .

That was why I liked it when Jonghyun kissed me.

I pulled the cover aside and jumped out of bed. I needed some answers now. I am desperate for some explanations to resolve the piling questions in my mind. I almost ran to Taemin’s room.

“Minnie?” I called out, pushing open the door.

He wasn’t in bed. I walked to his bathroom and knocked on the door. “Taemin? Are you in there?”

I opened that door as well when I received no reply. The bathroom was also empty. Hmm…Where could he go to so early in the morning? He usually leaves for school an hour from now. Did he need to drop by somewhere on the way?

I dialled his driver’s phone. I didn’t want to ask him directly because I don’t want to sound like I was prying into his private life.

“Hello? Yoochun? Could you tell me where Taemin is?”

“He went to which school?” I asked, not quite believing my ears.

“He made me drop him off at the Konkuk High School.”

“Okay. Thanks, Yoochun,” I said before disconnecting the call.

If I hadn’t heard wrongly, that was the school Minho attended with Jonghyun. Se Kyung told me that. But why does Taemin need to go there? What could he be doing in that school? Does he know the two of them? Or could this be just an innocent co-incidence?

I need to find out, I thought to myself as I left for the school.

author's note

gah! i'm having writer's block!!!

i couldn't think of what to write for this chapter all week long!

it's thanks to yurikim1601 that i found the spark to finish writing this one

it's also thanks to all your comments that gave me the catalyst to continue writing again and again! so keep them coming!!!

P.S. are you thinking what i think you're thinking? :P

but then, are you thinking about the kiss?

or about what key might find out in school? (not saying that he was the one to hear the ontae conversation. i like twisting my story out of shape!)

P.P.S Key's encounter with Jonghyun is one day before the OnTae conversation...

and lastly, i've uploaded the sequel to *Forgive Me*! 

go check it out! ^^

http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/63331/i-forgive-you-two-shot-2min-key-shinee