Kibum’s POV

“Er…am I supposed to know you?”

She seemed startled as she stopped in her tracks and leaned her body backwards a little as if to get a better look at me to see if she had got the wrong person.

“You are Key, aren’t you?” the girl asked with a light frown to her beautiful face. She made it look like frowning was an art. “Kim Kibum?”

I nodded. She knows my name, alright. But I don’t know hers.

“That’s me. And you are?”

“But he must have- well, maybe he didn’t,” she was talking more to herself than she was to me so I didn’t say anything. “You honestly haven’t seen me?” she pressed on.

Well, I don’t really know the answer to that myself, do I? For all I know, I might have seen her before and we might have even been friends. It’s just that my memories decided to R.I.P. for good and leave me in a tight spot with people like this. People that could have been a part of my life but I don’t remember them. Now, I get why Taemin never liked for me to wander out of house for a long time. He even gave me a limit as to how far I could go so that such a situation like this will not crop up, so I wouldn’t have to kill my brain cells thinking about how to get myself out of this mess without giving myself away with the memory loss.

“I seriously haven’t seen you before.” I decided that this was the safest and most subjective answer for now. If she starts talking about moments in which we have shared bear hugs and spoon feeding each other, I will just say that I was Key’s long lost twin and I’ll name myself Ki. Yeah. I think that sounds good enough.

“Hmm…” she pushed her lips to a side making a cute pout on her face. “Maybe you’re right. I don’t think you’ve seen me before but I know I’ve seen you before.”

Phew. I didn’t need the new fake name and identity, after all.

“So you mind telling me who you are and how come you know me when I don’t know you?”

“Right!” she smiled and it lit up her face into looking like an angel.

Man, if I were straight, I would have fallen head over heels for her. I wonder if I can fall in love with a girl. Can this gayness of mine be in the blood? Is it possible to change the way I feel about a person? Well, she’s really the first girl that I acknowledge to be beautiful and sophisticated (besides myself when I’m cross-dressing, that is). But there’s this feeling inside me that’s telling me that I shouldn’t get too close and comfortable with her. There’s something about her that sort of makes me want to put a barrier in between us.

She held out a hand. “I’m Jessica. Nice to meet you.”

Jessica? This name seems to ring a bell inside me and it wasn’t a pleasant sound, either. Somehow, listening to her name only intensified the distaste in my heart but my head can’t find any flaw in the way she talked or moved. She was the portrayal of perfection from what my head can see. Hmm…I think my heart has short-circuited this past week with all the random and bizarre events like Jonghyun’s almost suicide and the kiss and Minho.

I smiled back and took her hand. “Yeah, nice to meet you too. Especially such as a pretty girl like you.”

Jessica blushed and slightly lowered her head shyly. “You praise me too much. I’m just an average girl.”

“And modest, too. You must be the first I know to not be arrogant about your beauty,” I complimented her. “That is so rare and extraordinary in itself.”

The red tinge on her cheeks turned brighter as she dipped her head lower. It was a very cute sight but my chest tightened a little in an annoying scoffing manner. What’s wrong with me?

“Now I know why Jonghyun loves you so much,” she mumbled shyly.

It took five seconds (which felt like forever to me) for the words to penetrate into my thick skull and settle itself into my brain. Then, the world stopped spinning. The sun stopped shining. Everything was in a standstill as her voice echoed strangely in my head. Comprehension refused to come to me. It was all a jumble of thoughts in my skull but most importantly…What. Did. She. Say?

“I’m sorry?” I blurted.

“Oh! You don’t have to be so surprised! I guess Jonghyun didn’t tell you that he told me,” she raised her hands with her palms in my direction trying to calm me down.

No,” I snapped impatiently. “What did you say earlier?”

She winced at the sudden coldness in my tone and I mentally scolded myself. “Er…you know about the one saying Jonghyun…that he…er…l-lo-loves…”

She giggled at my stutters. “Jonghyun loves you! He loves you more than he loves himself. He loves you the most in this entire universe!” she said, smiling sweetly and exaggerated her words by drawing huge circles with her arms to signify just how much the guy loves me.

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me?! my head screamed. What about Minho? Didn’t he say- but he was saying- I was just about to- did he lie? Was everything he said a big fat lie? Who am I supposed to believe? WHY DO THEY ALWAYS HAVE TO COMPLICATE THINGS FOR ME?

Does this mean Jonghyun was my boyfriend and not Minho? Is that the reason why he kissed me? But I was being the girl Key at that time. He mustn’t have known that it was me. He has never known that all those times he was teasing and taunting me. Wait a minute. I think I remember that time when I first saw him. Jonghyun frantically ran up to me and pulled at my wrist spouting crazy stuff. He was asking why I was wearing a wig just to evade him. He must have thought that I look a lot like Kibum except that I am Kibum. If I hadn’t managed to secure at least two dozens of pins through that wig on my head, I don’t know what would have happened at that time.

Am I supposed to be grateful to Taemin?

“Um…Key? Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

I blinked once and concentrate my eyes on the worried looking girl in front of me while I tried shoo-ing away all the erratic thoughts going through my head as one single clear thought burst brightly into my mind.

“Can I have your phone number?” I asked seriously out of nowhere.

She was taken aback by it but agreed in the end. “Er…sure.”

Jonghyun’s POV

“What are you talking about?” I asked again, loosening my fingers from his shirt and backing away from him as if I had to put a distance, a wall to protect me from whatever it is that he was going to tell me. Judging from the way he was smirking, I had to be right this time.

Minho let out a dry humourless laugh. “You honestly don’t remember? You don’t remember how you had so cruelly cast him aside for Jessica?” he demanded, a brief glint of fury flashing past his eyes. It was the first real emotion I had seen on his face. It doesn’t matter even if it was a negative expression. The fact that he had shown feelings somehow made me want to smile. Minho is alive, after all.

Back to the present matters at hand, I have no idea what to think of what he had said. I don’t know if I can believe him after the big lie that he had told about Kibum being dead. But he had been emotional about it. So can he actually be telling the truth? And what does he mean by dumping Kibum for what’s-the-girl’s-name-again…Jessica? Who is this girl that he’s talking about? I honestly swear that in my seventeen years of life, I have never heard of this name much less seen her or talk to her. And I can swear with my life on the line that there has never been anyone else in my heart besides Kibum. He was my first love and I meant him to be the last even if fate decided to break us apart and keep us separated for good…like what’s happening to us now.

What about Key? You kissed her, didn’t you?

Oh, ! I did. Oh, god! I’m so sorry, Kibum. I don’t know what went into me at that time. I don’t get why I was mad and why it hurts when she said she hated me. It was just the spur of the moment. I swear it was nothing. If you really are alive and well and if you ever plan on coming back, I will properly explain to you and if you are still mad about it, you can punish me as much as you like. Tie me to the headboard or gag me. Anything as long as you know that you have always been and will always be the only one for me.

“Earth to Jonghyun. Is it empty in there?” Minho taunted.

I shook the crazy thoughts out of my head and re-focused on my best friend, glaring at him, more like. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know who Jessica is.”

“Are you sure about that?” the smirk was more pronounced now.

“Minho! Just get to the damn point!” I snapped.

“I was getting there even without your little reminder,” he moved away from the lockers with his eyes fixed on something behind me. “Turn around and see for yourself.”

I heaved an exasperated sigh as I did what I was told.

My head tilted to the side as my eyes took in the smiling and waving girl walking towards us. Who is she? What does she has to do with anything that Minho was telling me?

“Jonghyun!” she called out excitedly before bouncing into my arms.

My eyes bulged. My jaw dropped. My nostrils flared. Every feature on my face spelled shock and disbelief whereas my body remained stunned, not knowing what to do or say.

The girl finally bounced away and grinned brightly at me. “I’ve missed you. Did you miss me?”

With my jaw still slack, I turned back towards Minho and conveyed a silent what the hell is going on here? Who is she? The guy only chuckled in amusement as he went to stand in front of the girl, completely ignoring me.

“Hey, Jess. It’s been awhile,” he raised a hand in casual greeting.

“Hey, Minho!” she smiled cheerfully back. “Is it just me or have you grown even taller?” she frowned as her hand came up to compare his height with hers.

Did he call her Jess? As in Jessica? Is this the girl he was talking about? What is she doing here? Could this all just be a co-incidence or did he plan this already? What the hell. Knowing him, I’m sure that this was all pre-planned. I shook my head disbelievingly. You really are such a devil, Minho.

“But you weren’t this tall when I saw you the last time,” the Jessica girl insisted with a cute pout.

The pout looks familiar.

She turned to me as if she had heard my thought and started giggling. “Jonghyun! You on the other hand are still short.”

An arrow went through my heart fuelled by the smirk on Minho’s lips. If she had been a friend of mine, I would have taken it as a joke but I don’t know this girl. What is she to say that so openly about me? But I wasn’t going to show that I was offended by it. “Hey! Being short has its privileges!”

Jessica faked a yawn. “You say that all the time but can’t come up with a proof at all.”

I frowned at her. “I did?”

Why is she talking to me like she had known me forever? Why are these bizarre things happening to me? It was like this too in the morning with that girly looking boy. He won’t stop going on about how I know him and he knows me. He even insisted that I almost beat him to death! Imagine how unlikely that is.

Hold it a second. Could all this be a prank? Could this be Minho’s way of getting back at me for what I did last time? It’s a possibility considering how he would go out of the way just to do something to annoy me. He had done it before and I wouldn’t be surprised if he would do it again. He must have bribed these two strangers and told them exactly what to do when they came face to face with me. Yes. That must be it. I’m sure this is the answer to this entire day’s event. Even the conversation between Taemin and Onew. I must admit that I was badly hurt by it. I thought it had all been true. I thought that Key was really alive and that Minho had been lying to me. But like he said earlier, he has never once lied to me and we both know that. In short, he had used my vulnerability against me. He had used my diminishing hope for Key to be alive to pull me into his drama. Damn, he’s smart. Too smart. But too bad I wasn’t going to fall for it. I won’t give him the satisfaction that he has got to me. I won’t let him know that this one day in school felt like it had shred me into fragments unrecognisable.

“Hahaha!” I laughed aloud. “You’re really funny, Minho! You planned all these, didn’t you? This was all your idea of a joke, right? This is your way of getting back at me! Well, you know what? I’m not falling for it! I’m not that stupid, after all, Minho!”

With that said, I quickly fled the scene before either of them could say anything else to confuse me.

Minho’s POV

I shook my head with a sigh as I watched Jonghyun’s short legs carry him out of school. He really is such an idiot. So easily fooled and preyed on.

“You know he’s gonna find out about it, someday, don’t you?”

I turned to look at Jessica who has gone back to being her ice queen self. Her arms were folded so tightly they looked like they weren’t going to come off in years.

“I won’t let him.”

“In case you didn’t notice. You just fed him parts of the truth.”

“It was a necessary move. The more you hide it from him, the more he wants to know. But if you give him a taste of what he wants with the exact appropriate concentration, he will never know what we’re implying and that small taste of his liking will be enough to quench the bigger thirst for more,” I said before catching the frown on her forehead. As pretty and elegant as she may look, she’s just another blonde doll, after all.

“He already took it as a joke like I meant him to see. Get it?” I said with a sigh.

“Of course I get it!” she snapped but I could see that she still doesn’t understand what I was saying. Pride can be very interesting at times.  

“So what does it feel like to meet your ex-fiance after such a long time?” I taunted her and earned a glare in return.

“He’s a lot hotter than I remember. Happy?” she bit back.

I gave a shrug.

“Anyway, I bumped into Kibum before I got here,” she revealed.

I instantly stiffened. “And?” I asked with my voice dangerously quiet.

“He doesn’t know who I am.”

“Obviously,” I rolled my eyes. “What else?”

She took a deep breath and I knew that what she was going to say wouldn’t be a good one. I tensed for the impact of the damage she had done.

“I told him Jonghyun loves him,” jealousy was painted clearly into her voice.

I held my composure for two more seconds before I walked up to the nearest locker and put a dent in it with my fist. Then, I walked back to the foolish girl (who was trying to hide her fear now) when I had my temper under control. “What did he say?”

“He doesn’t believe me.”

“Are you sure?” I narrowed my eyes at her and searched the honest answer to my question for myself.

“We’re a team here, Minho. What makes you think I would lie?”

I stared passively at her for a second longer. “As long as you know that it would be at your loss,” I said with a shrug and walked out of the school without another word.

I was just about to mount my bike when my phone rang.

“Hello. Choi Minho speaking.”

“Good morning, Representative Choi. This is the Head Office's Secretary. We have a fresh pile of documents for you to sign. They are the deals' agreement letter to accept a few smaller companies as part of our affiliates.”

 I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. “Those are the ones I had approved?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Alright. Leave them on President Kim’s table and I’ll have a look at them when I get there,” I gave the order before disconnecting the call.

When will you be able to fend for yourself and then the company, Jonghyun? I thought as I started the engine and went straight to the office.

author's note

this mid-week update is to make up for the previous short ones!  ^^

and it's also to make up for the school week that i'm going to have (no updating as often  TT)

and i have added a new character in here! it was kinda random so i hope you don't mind!

and sorry for all the suspense / cliffhangers!

i always seem to run out of ideas at the vital and nerve-wreaking moments! blame the useless head!!!