chapter 11

Masks and legends

People are scattered around the school and the dorms, today is the day where they are all planning about what they would do for the school festival. Taemin got up earlier to prepare for his morning activity, which is of course, dancing, He sighed as he looked at the sleeping form on the bed on the other side of the room and smiled.

'i wonder if you'll ever see my feelings for you'.

he thought and quickly slipped on his shoes and went outside.

The halls of the dorm is so crowded that he had to push his way out of the sea of people and when he finally reached the door, he heaved a heavy sig and made his way to the dance studio. When he arrived at the studio, he was greeted by a sweaty kai.

"how long have you been here?".

"Not that long, here for your morning routine?".
kai laughed and rummaged through his bag to find a towel.

"soooo, wanna dance with me?". Kai turned 5o taemin with a smirk on his face

"Are you challenging me kim jongin?.

"Maybe?"

With that said, the two danced non-stop to see who's better.

The two stopped when they heard someone knocked on the studio' wooden door, the two turned and saw a woman with a clipoard on her left hand.

"yes, do you need something miss?".

Kai was the first one to ask, and the girl looked at her clip board and turned her gaze back to the two boys standing in front of her. "ummm you guys are lee taemin and kim jongin right?". The woman asked and smiked at them.
"yup, what can we do for you?".

"Principal Lee is asking for you two in his office right now". the woman gave them a sweet smile and left.

"aish, we were having so much fun!" taemin shook his head and laughed.
"yeah, I'm already beating you then she came, you should thank her though"
kai gave taemin a quizzical look. "And why is that?". Taemin just grinned and went to pick up his bag. "I'm heading to shower,wanna wait for me?".Taemin asked without sparing kai a glance."nah, i"ll see you pricipal lee's office in a few". the other just nodded ad kai left taemin.

Taemin was glad that even though the whole school is swarming with students, the shower room is pretty much empty, Taemin went inside one of the shower stalls and let the cold water hit his face. He was about to go out of the shower stall when he heard whispers,thinking that it's just some couple,he changed inside the stall and quickly went out,but as soon as he stepped out of the stall, he froze because he couldn't believe what he's seeing. jonhyun was making out with a girl.

Taemin was dumbfounded, he doesn't know what to do so he just stood there awkwardly. 'i have to snap out of this!' taemin said as he shook his head and cleared his throat. Jonghyun's head snapped to the right and his eyes widened when he saw the figure standing there awkwardly.

"taemin, what are you doing here?"jonghyun croaked and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

Taemin, being the good actor he is, just masked his pain by putting on a blank face. "taking a shower obviously." taemin said with a straight face.
jonghyun awkwardly stood there watching taemin fix his thingswhen he realized that he is with someone, jonghyun turned to the girl and smiled at her "taemin-ah, this is my girlfriend,se kyung".

Taemin felt like his heart is being stabbed by blades,but taemin just smiled and greeted her and mumbled a simple "congratulations". Taemin's phone rang and it startled him, excusing himself, taemin fished out his phone and answered the call.

"hello?"

"where are you l?! principal lee is looking for you!"

"i'm on my way kai, be there in a sec."

they hung up and felt jonghyun's eyes on him "what are they still doing here?!" a-ah hyung I have to go,pricipal lee is wants me in his office right now, so I'll be going now. and nice to meet you noona". taemin bowed and bid the two goodbye.

Taemin knocked on the principal's office and went inside. "I'm sorry I was late sir" taemin bowed and the principal just smiled at him and lead him to the meeting room. The room was not empty, When he entered, his friends,kyungsoo,baekhyun, amber, luna, krystal and kai looked up but the other guy, park chanyeol just kept his gaze on his phone. As the principal took his seat, e gestured taemin to seat as well, which taemin gladly obeyed.

There was a moment of silence for awhile but the principal broke it when he cleared hi throat. "As you can see the school's festival is nearing, and everyone is doing their best in setting everything up, and practicing for their.performance."the principal began, and everyone was silent.

"I believe that some of you guys don't know that, we have two legends in this room" principal lee smiled.

"Legends? what do you mean sir?". Kai asked and taemin could see through the side that baekhyun dipped his head down while chanyeol grinned like a creep.

"Yes, jongin, legends" principal lee turned his gaze to baekhyun and chanyeol, "who?" taemin simply asked and to his surprise, baekhyun and chanyeol raised their hand at the same time.

"I know you all are asking 'how did those two became legends?'am I correct?" the principal cocked an eyebrow and continued when all his students do was nod. "baekhyun and chanyeol studied in SM preschool and elementary school when they were younger, they were the greatest duo back then, always acing the festival's contest".

Taemin couldn't believe what he was hearing 'beakhyun studied in SM long time ago?! and he's a ing prodigy in singing?!" Taemin turned his attention back to the principal who began talking again.

"but everything changed when baekhyun went away,and now that they are here again, I've decided that I should give them a special stage, like what I'm going to give you guys." the students just looked at the principal and said nothing.

"wait sir, what do you mean special stage?" kyungsoo asked with a bit of excitement on his voice.

"A special stage, you see, I want my top students to showcase their talents to the whole school,and this is a perfect opportunity for that"

"but what are we going to do sir?"

"good question amber, you see, i've been thinking about how I would showcase your talent, and i have the perfect lineup for that." The principal turned the white board for the kids to see, and he started to explain it.

"okay, so here how it goes.Taemin and kai would dance to kyungsoo and baekhyun's song as the opening, followed by the first five contestants." the principal paused and looked at kai and taemin before continuing.

"next would be kyungsoo amber luna and krystal, followed by the next performers. and for the closing performance, baekhyun and chanyeol would take the stage" principal lee said those last words proudly and baekhyun just averted his gaze and chanyeol just smiled at him.

After all that, the students were dismissed and taemin saw jonghyun walking hand-in-hand with se kyung. Taemin felt like crying but he held it and ran away.

baekhyun saw taemin running away, and being a concerned friend, he tried to.follow him.

Key was bored to death inside their room, sungjong texted him that he cannot go with key since he has some other plans for the day, what are those plans? key doesn't know so now he's stuck in their room doing nothing.

"what the hell!!!??".

key screamed out of frustration and rolled over and that is when his phome vibrated. He unlocked his phone and opened the message.

from:choi minho


hi key, what you doin? _(≥▽≤)/


key just rolled his eyes and scoffed at the text with a cute emoticon.

from: key

what do you want?

from: choi minho

ahaha just, you know, how are you?

from: key

i'm good

from: choi minho

ahh good haha, sooo, see you tomorrow? lunch? (^_^)

key sighed and sent a quick "ok" before throwing his phone.

"what did I agree to?" .

key sighed and decided that sleeping would be a great idea.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Taemin sat under the tree where he met kai, he atmosphere s so calm that taemin felt his eyes getting heavy but he jolted when he heard his name being called.

"taemin! gosh! I finally found you! , you okay?"

A panting baekhyun went to him,and smiled as soon as taemin was infrint of him.

"of course i'n fine hyung, why? and why were you looking for me?. again, taemin put on his happy mask to hide the pain that he's feeling.

"I saw you literally ran out of the office, is everything okay?"

"of course everything's okay,why won't it be?" 'because you saw your long time crush mouth ing sone girl' mouth that's why' .Taemin heard the voice inside answer his last question but taemin just shrugged it off.

"how about you? you seem tensed and depressed when principal lee mentioned chanyeol, why is that?? you two have something goin on?. taemin smirked and baekhyun jist blushed.

"n-n-no haha, w-what are you saying?"

"hmm I don't know, you two were a "legend" in SM". Taemin made a quotation sign with fingers and looked at baekhyun.

"well, we were very close before, but something came up and we drifted apart".

"but he's here now, why not fix it? if you two are friends, then it won't be hard".

'tch, friends" beakhyun mumbled inaudibly. "what was that?". taemin raised an eyebrow and looked at baekhyun.

"ah, nothing haha, tae, i have to go, see you when I see you".

baekhyun was about to stand up when he heard chanyeol's booming voice calling to him.

"yah! baek! let's practice in our room? dara would come though, if you don't mind?".

baekhyun just gave chanyeol a fake smile and nodded. Taemin could see that the smile baekhyun was flaunting is a big fat fake one, but decided not to mind it and bid baekhyum a goodbye hug.

Taemin is alone again under the shade of the tree, thinking how peaceful the place is.

'aww why so sad taemin? daddy jjong didn't kiss you?'. the voice inside taemin's head mocked.

'aren't you going to your favorite place?'.


"no so quit pestering me"

'ooh, I wonder how she would scream jonghyun's name when they have , hmmmm maybe like this, 'oooh! jjong! ahh~ mmm~ faster~ jjong~'.the voice inside taemin's head laughed and taemin abruptly stood up and walked away.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taemin sat on his usual spot and odered his usual drink. on the dance floor, people are either ing each other or making out,and it didn't really help taemin.

"rouh day taemin?.

"what do you want nicole?.

"nevermind, so, mind telling me why you're here again? piss drunk?"

taemin scoffed before looking at her and smiled before shrugging. Nicole just sighed and took off her apron.

"your face is amazing taemin,it keeps on doing those....things". nicole gestured to taemin's face and taemin just looked at her.

"do what nicole?"

"you know, smile like that," nicole said shrugging her shoulders. "ahh~ so you're telling me that i'm good with EMOTIONS AND EXPRESSIONS" taemin laughed but stopped when nicole spoke.

"that thing in your face is neither of thpse two taemin, because those two things that you said are genuine, the smile that you are using is not genuine taemin, their fake.".

taemin looked back at nicole and asked her.

"then what do you u cal this?". taemin pointed at his happy face.

"it's a mask taemin, an excuse for a genuine smile or emotion. don't get me wrong, masks are beautiful, but that kind of mask that you are using, is the ugliest kind of a mask".

taemin just stared at nicole without uttering any word because he knew that she is correct.

"you are already being eaten by that mask, look at you, a young alcoholic who wastes his time drinking. taemin, don't do this to yourself, it's okay to let down your guard sometimes" .

and with that, taemin's face dropped and began to sob. Nicole pulled taemin into a hug and comforted him.

"c'mon taeminie, i'll get you home. my shift is done anyways"

Taemin just nodded..


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Baekhyun couldn't sleep that night, he can hear chanyeol's groans and moans from below him but the painful part is that he could also hear dara's hushed moans.

"i want to die right now".

beakhyun silently said as he cried his heart out silently.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

a/n:
ooooh sorry for typos and miss spelled words lol.

baekyeol coming up next ^^~

comment subscribe ^^ to my crappy fic. xD