I burst into the detention room to find it empty except for one person. It wasn’t like I was expecting anyone else though. It has always been this way. The room seemed to belong to just the two of us besides the occasional one or two students that were sent here for not completing their homework or for not bringing their assignments to school. I dropped into my permanent seat in front of Minho without bothering to say anything to him and was just about to start taking a nap when he spoke.

“It looks like Onew confronted you.”

“Keep your nose in your book and out of this.”

I heard the page on the book he was reading turn. “You do know that he’s right, don’t you?”

I turned around to face him, my chest rising and falling rapidly. “Minho, don’t make me hit you.”

He flipped another page. “You know you've always wanted to.”

I stood up with such force that the chair flew back with a crash to the floor and threw the book he was reading onto the dusty floor impulsively. Minho showed no sign of emotion at all as he stared at his empty hand where his book had been a second ago.

I did not want to admit that what he said was true although I know I have always wanted to have a good fight with him. I felt that it might be the only way for me to understand what goes on in that mind of his. I wanted to know desperately how a pair of such emotionless eyes could read hundreds of those around him but let no one read his or rather; I need to know so that I could be just like him. Then, no one would have to worry about me when I react exactly to what they have in mind.

He finally let out a sigh and clasps his hands together on the table. “Your temper will get you nowhere, hyung. To tell you honestly, that was the one thing I was hoping you would change but instead, it had to be the one thing that you keep. Key would be disappointed if he knew.”

I let out a roar as I slammed my fist into his face and Minho fell sideways off his chair to the floor. He spat blood out of his mouth as he glanced up at me not with the expression of rage but with an expression of relief. I watched as he got to his feet, picked up his book and sat down in his place again to continue reading it like nothing had happened although his lip had cracked and blood was seeping out it.

“Feeling better, now?” he asked.

I picked up my chair and sat facing the front again. I hate it when he does that. I don’t even understand how he could spend almost every hour of the day in here and still be the genius that he is. He was the only person to have skipped 2 years of school to be studying at the same level as me and despite being two years younger; he was the top scorer in every subject he took while I diligently failed all of mine. But that wasn’t all there is to his freakiness. There was his ability to understand other people’s feeling and thoughts as well as knowing just the thing to calm a situation the way he did with me earlier. It was as if he was a natural psychic.

Minho’s POV

We stayed silent, minding our own business as we served the remaining hours of detention. I read my books, one after another while Jonghyun had his head on the table, unmoving. I knew he wasn’t asleep with the way he would twitch every now and then but I also knew that it was his way of building a barrier against troubles to avoid them.

When it was time to go home, Jonghyun stood up, dug around his pocket and dropped something onto my table.

“You’re bleeding,” he said as he walked out of the classroom.

I smirked. When will you stop acting tough?

I took the bandage nonetheless although I did not use it. A small scratch like this wouldn’t cause any death and besides, maybe people will stop looking at me like some kind of freak machine that only has a gorgeous body to house the brain. Sure enough, as I walked along the corridor with the rest of the leaving students, I could hear them whisper about the dried blood on my lip. All kinds of speculations came up about it and some were so amusing, I had to chuckle to myself. Someone punched me because I stole his girlfriend? Well, that was close enough but the punch was for the wrong reason. I was slapped by a girl for harshly rejecting her confession? I have to agree with the harshly rejecting someone but so far, none of them has dared raise their hand against me claiming that I was too intimidating. The girls even went as far as calling me ‘Flaming Charisma’ and as for refusing to be a teacher in this school…my, oh my…the things they would say just to cook up a gossip. I would dare bet another punch from Jonghyun that by tomorrow, everyone in school would be saying that I had been beaten up because I refused to work for some mad scientist even though all there is to my face was a cracked lip.

I was halfway mounting my bike when Onew ran out to me; tripping over his leg and landing face down in the dirt as he did so. I sighed. There is no way that Onew could make it through one day without humiliating himself and here, girls are squealing saying that the way he fell was so adorable and cute. How foolish can the girls get, these days?

I waited for Onew to reach me and when he did; his face was all shock and horror. “Minho, was it true? I heard people saying that the injury on your lip was the first warning for playing with a head gangster’s girlfriend!”

God, sometimes I really don’t get how I have been withstanding his silliness all these years and my hair hasn’t grown white yet. “Use your head, Onew. When was the last time you saw me around a girl? Besides, I don’t have enough time on my hands to waste on such tedious thing as flirting and dating.” I secured the helmet over my head and revved my bike.

“Oh,” Onew said after a while. “Right. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“It’s ‘I’ll see you later’, Onew. You’re coming over to my workplace again, aren’t you?”

He blinked at me. “Oh, right! I’m so stupid!”

“It’s good that you actually know that,” I muttered under my breath.

“What did you say, Minho?”

“Say another word, Onew and you’ll be the death of me.” This time, I didn’t wait for him to say something else and sped away from school although I knew he would be yelling after me saying “what do you mean by that?”

“Minho, you’re here,” Se Kyung said the moment I walked in the door. She was a pretty girl with quite the glamorous body. For that reason, our café was always littered with guys of all ages drooling after her and it made me feel the need to protect her from those erts as a friend and colleague although it ended up giving her the wrong impression on me. She hasn’t said it yet but I could tell from the way she looks at me every time she straightened up from cleaning a table and the way she would smile when our eyes meet but this has been going on for months so she has sort of given up on me although her feelings hasn’t faltered one bit.

“Yeah. I’ll get changed and help you with the table cleaning,” I said, carefully angling my face so that she wouldn’t notice my lip because the last thing I wanted was her being all over me with unnecessary concern.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that, today. Boss wants you to man the counter.”

I frowned at her. “Why?”

“We got ourselves a new co-worker. She’s changing into the uniform and I have to warn you. She’s very pretty.” Her tone sounded jealous to me but I chose to ignore it. Reading too much into things won’t get me any benefit besides having but a splitting headache for killing too many brain cells even though I have too many to spare.

I shrugged. “I don’t really care as long as she works well and not faint all over the place.”

 I wasn’t kidding when I said that. We have had a lot of female workers that only applied for the job so they could flirt around with me and act like damsel in distress to have me swooping in like a hero going to their rescue. How very wrong, they were. All of them did not even last a week before they gave up the job. It was because I made them work so hard they fainted for real. Every time they approached me, I would assign them more work to do and in the end, they quit when they couldn’t take it anymore. I was wondering if I had to do the same with this new girl when-

“There she is, now.”

I turned towards the girls’ changing room to see a very slim girl with loose blonde curls tied into a ponytail coming out of it. Her face was sharp and her clear brown eyes feline. The way she wore her uniform made it look like it was made by a famous French designer. She looked up at me when she felt my gaze and my breath involuntarily caught in my throat. She was truly beautiful but -

“When you’re done staring, my name is Key and I’m not available,” she folded her arms in an arrogant way.

- her attitude was terrible. I could read it in her eyes the way she thinks she’s the most beautiful girl out there and that she was every girl’s envy as well as every guy’s fantasy. I huffed out a breath as I shook my head.

“Don’t get over yourself, - what was your name again? Oh, right. Key. Don’t get over yourself, Key.” I said mockingly. “You hardly have any chest to be considered a girl.”

“You!” she pointed at me.

“Yes, me. My name is Choi Minho and I would appreciate it if you don’t fall head over heels for me and so, if we’re done with the introduction, let’s keep a distance since it’s obvious that we don’t like each other,” I said as I walked over to the guys’ changing room.

“Huh! You’re right about that one!” she snorted.

I was already in front of the guys’ changing room as I turned around to raise my eyebrow at her. “I’m right about which one, exactly? Is it about you falling head over heels for me? Because I know that it’ll happen, eventually,” and with that, I closed the door behind me.

So your name is also Key, huh? Interesting...

Jonghyun’s POV

I had no idea how long I have been sitting on my in this empty room but I figured it was time to go. However, I couldn’t help but stop at the doorway as I took one last look around. I come here every day after school but can never get tired of being here. I would sit on the bed and look around the place again and again, sniffing at the air that still has a stain of Key's scent. That's right. This was the room Key had slept in for so many years. Just looking at it brings back the ghost of his laughters every time I tackled him on the bed and how breathtakingly beautiful he looked when he's asleep. Not even angels could look as pure as he did.

I laughed darkly at myself thinking about Key. Why is it that I thought of him so much today? How do I explain the feeling in my chest that kept warning me about something? Was it because I had been remembering him too much when I shouldn’t? Well, whatever. It’s not like I can force myself to not think about him forever. Suddenly, I thought back about what Onew and Minho had said to me – about how it was really time for me to move on and start a new life. That way, everyone could stop worrying about me and everything will be okay again. I’ll go back to laughing at Onew’s clumsiness and get jealous over Minho’s intellect and the three of us will be the way we were back then. The three musketeers. But after all these years of pain, will I be able to do it? Will I be able to put up the tough front I have always had on and say aloud that I will throw him aside for once and for all? The answer is…I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that but there’s no harm in trying, right? Maybe I should stop by Minho’s workplace and see if it will help strengthen my resolve.

When I entered the café, I noticed that it was even busier than usual and the ratio of the crowd was 3:1 in terms of guys and girls. I scanned the people in uniform bustling about the place for Minho when my eyes landed on a blonde girl’s face and I swear the world stopped spinning, the wind stopped howling and the crowd went mute to my ears but it couldn’t be who I think it is…could it?