Early January 2013

            “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

            Hyeongseop was sitting at his bedroom window. Key had been watching him stare into the busy streets below in silence for almost a full minute. The silence had fallen over the pair when Key told Hyeongseop he wanted to tell his fellow members about their relationship.

            “Seop, we’ve been together for a month and a half,” Key said. “It’s about time my closest friends knew about us.”

            Hyeongseop turned and smiled at him. “A month and twenty- days,” he said.

            Key, who was sitting cross-legged on Hyeongseop’s bed, smiled up at him. “Exactly. All the more reason to tell them already!”

            Hyeongseop’s smile faded slightly, and his eyes turned more serious. “Are you sure they’ll understand?”

            “If I’m being honest,” Key began. “I think they already know.  At least Jonghyun knows. The day you asked me to be your boyfriend, he had been asking me about you.” Hyeongseop’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything. Key continued, “I think he knew from the moment we met after that first fashion show that there was something between us. I doubt he talked about me with the other members behind my back, don’t worry. But I feel they have a right to know. So much has changed.”

            “What do you mean, Kibum?” Hyeongseop asked.

            “I’m so much happier now,” Key answered. He rubbed his palms together anxiously, smiling downward. He was almost embarrassed of how much he was smiling. “They’ve noticed, and I didn’t realize what they meant until that day. I didn’t realize how much you meant to me because it was all happening so quickly. I also hadn’t realized how sad I had been in the months before we met again. All those feelings of love and happiness I had been singing about in songs for so long, it was like they finally made sense when I was with you.”

            Key’s voice trailed off as he suddenly became aware of how much he was rambling. He had never professed his feelings for Hyeongseop this openly before. His stomach turned slightly as he realized Hyeongseop hadn’t said anything yet. Key stared down at the sheets of the bed and smoothed them out nervously with his hands.

            Hyeongseop stood up from his seat by the window and walked to the bed. He sat down cross-legged across from Key, whose face was still bent down as he played with the sheets. Hyeongseop placed his hands on top of Key’s. His were slightly darker in complexion, and they vastly dwarfed Key’s small hands. Hyeongseop rotated his wrists so that his hands were under Key’s, and he squeezed them lightly.

            Key looked at the large hands, which felt smooth and soft despite their size. He lifted his eyes to look at Hyeongseop, whose face was now only inches away from his own.

            “I love you, Kibum.”

            The words came slowly and smoothly, and seemed to swim around Key’s head and linger in the air between them. It was the first time either of them had said it aloud. Key had thought it before, of course, but he had been too afraid that the relationship was too good to be true, or that they would never be able to be public, and he hadn’t let himself say it.

            “I love you, too.” Key’s response was simple, but he put so much meaning behind it that nothing more was needed. From just the sound of his voice, Hyeongseop could tell that everything Key had spoken about was exactly how he felt.

            “I’ve been meaning to say that for a while,” Hyeongseop chuckled softly. “I finally knew it was the right time to say it when you told me you wanted to let them know.” He squeezed Key’s hands again. “I’m with you, no matter what, Kibum.”

            Key smiled. “I’ll tell them tonight,” he said.

            He leaned in for a quick kiss, but Hyeongseop’s hands framed his face and held him there longer. Key reached his arms up to wrap them around Hyeongseop’s neck and he pulled himself deeper into the kiss.

            The kissing slowly turned into laughter and the pair fell into each other on the bed. Hyeongseop’s arms wrapped themselves securely around Key, and Key placed his head in the crook between Hyeongseop’s collarbones.

            “You don’t have to go just yet, right?” Hyeongseop asked, staring up at the ceiling.

            “Not just yet,” Key said quietly, his eyes beginning to feel heavy.

            Hyeongseop began to speak again, but heard Key’s breathing slowly and lengthening. The blonde head on his chest rose and fell with every breath, and Hyeongseop smiled as their breathing synchronized. The afternoon sun was high, but the temperature and wind outside made it the perfect weather for a nap. And nothing made it more perfect than having Key in his arms.

---

            Key returned to the dorm around 9:00pm that evening. He couldn’t find anyone else at first, so he stopped to drop his bag on his bed. On his way out, he paused to stand in front of the floor length mirror by the bedroom door.

            He did look happier, and he certainly looked healthier. Everything about him seemed to glow. He realized now why the other members had noticed. If this was the effect that being private with Hyeongseop had on him, Key struggled to imagine how happy he would be when he was able to be public with the relationship.

            Key took a deep breath, patted down a few stray hairs, and smoothed his clothes. He left the room finally, and made his way toward the living room. There, he found the rest of SHINee sprawled out on the furniture in their various states of bedtime attire, watching a variety show on the television. Key knew that they had all seen this episode before, and he was glad that he could tear them away from it.

            When Key entered the room, only Jonghyun turned to him. Onew, Minho, and Taemin all said hello, but kept their eyes fixed on the television.

            “What’s up?” Jonghyun ask Key, looking up from his position on the couch.

            “I just wanted to tell you guys something, but if you’re busy…” Key trailed off in a way that he hoped stressed the importance of his news over the triviality of the variety show.

            “Oh, no, of course not,” Jonghyun said hastily. He leaned over the couch to grab the remote control off of Minho, who immediately clutched tighter to it and pulled it closer to himself. Jonghyun managed to wrench the remote from Minho’s grasp and turned the TV off, ignoring the protests of the other members. “Kibum wants to tell us something,” Jonghyun said, returning to his position on the couch, but this time in a much more attentive position.

            Key suddenly began to sweat when he saw the four boys giving him their full attention. Four sets of eyes eagerly looked toward Key. He his lips and tried to find the words to start.

            “A while ago,” he began. “It came to my attention that you four noticed that I had been giving off the impression that I was –”

            “Out with it, Kibum,” Onew interrupted him.

            Key exhaled deeply, ashamed of his rambling. It’s so easy talking to Seop about things, so why is difficult to talk to others about him? he thought.

            “I’m in a relationship with Hyeongseop,” Key said finally.

            He looked from face to face in the room, trying to gauge reactions from each of them. Each face seemed to be blank – confused even – except for Jonghyun’s. He was the only one smiling, and he was grinning from ear to ear. He seemed very excited to learn something he had known all along.

            “That’s it?” Minho asked. He reached up to snatch the remote from Jonghyun’s hands and turned the television back on.

            “What do you mean, ‘that’s it’?” Key said, shocked at their indifference.

            “We knew, Kibum,” Onew said. He shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”

            “But how did you –” Key struggled to grasp what was happening.

            “Jonghyun told us,” said Taemin. The maknae was lying on the floor with his chin propped up on his hands. “We all knew the day you told us you had a boyfriend would come, we just weren’t sure when it would be.”

            Onew nodded in agreement. “We’re really happy for you though. Bring Hyeongseop around whenever you get the chance.” He and the others turned back to watch the television as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

            Key nodded in silence. That was much easier than I expected, he thought. He laughed inwardly at himself for worrying so much. “Okay then,” he said aloud. “I’m going to bed then. I’ll see you all tomorrow.” He nodded again and walked out of the room slowly, his mind buzzing over the idea of being able to tell Hyeongseop how well it went over with the others.

---

            Key had removed his makeup, washed his hair, and changed out of his day clothes. He laid out an outfit for the next day at the end of his bed and he was finally ready to sleep when he heard the bedroom door creak open slightly.

            Jonghyun poked his head in the small space between the open door and the wall. “Can I talk to you, Kibum?” he asked softly.

            “Sure,” Key said, gesturing for him to come in. Jonghyun stepped in and closed the door behind him silently.

            Jonghyun sat on his own bed across from Key’s. “I just wanted to let you know I’m really happy you decided to tell us. Even though we knew already,” Jonghyun laughed.

“So you told them?” Key asked. His voice gave away the fact that he was slightly hurt to find out his fellow members had been talking about him when he wasn’t around.

“I honestly wouldn’t have told anyone, had they not asked, I promise you,” Jonghyun said. “The other boys noticed shortly after I did, and they asked me because I was the one who had been with you most often around the time you two met again. I didn’t know enough for myself, but I only shared what I knew for sure. I guess they sort of filled in the rest of it for themselves. I hope you aren't angry at me.”

            Key shook his head quickly. “I’m not angry,” he said. “More than anything, I’m just happy it went over so well. I was a little worried, honestly.”

            Jonghyun’s face became more serious. “We don’t care, Kibum,” he started, but changed his mind mid-thought. “No, I don’t mean that we don’t care, I just mean that it doesn’t matter to us. Wait…” Key chuckled as Jonghyun struggled to find his words. “You having a boyfriend isn’t a big deal to us like it would be to some people. We love you, Kibum, and nothing could change that. Hyeongseop makes you happy, and that’s all that matters in the end.”

            Key smiled. “I know what you’re trying to say,” he laughed. “Thank you, though. Really. It makes it so much easier to do this with Hyeongseop knowing that I have your full support.”

            There was a time when Key would have been shocked to know that Jonghyun wanted nothing more than for him to be happy. But now Key knew that he deserved to be happy, as did all the other members, and his relationship with Hyeongseop made him the happiest he had ever been. With his fellow members behind him, he knew that he would have support to fall back on if he ever doubted himself or Hyeongseop. And the idea of telling other people about his relationship seemed much easier with this first burden off his shoulders.

            “We have rehearsal again, tomorrow,” Key said. “You and the others should get to bed too.”

            “I’ll let them know,” Jonghyun stood up from his bed. He started to walk toward the door, but turned back before opening it. He looked down at Key. “I just have one question,” he said.

            “Of course, what is it?” Key asked. He wondered what more Jonghyun could have to ask.

            Jonghyun smiled at him from the doorway. “When do we get to meet your boyfriend, Kibum?”

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is just a small note to let everyone know that I changed the order of the chapters to make them chronological. It was kind of confusing before but I had written them as my mind had come up with ideas, but now I’m getting into the habit of writing more chronologically so I wanted everything to be uniform and less confusing ^^ Thank you so much for reading~ :D