TaeMin followed JongHyun around while he gathered up his things. His stay at his best friend’s house was coming to an end and he had to go back to his box of an apartment.

            “You don’t have to go hyung! I could ask my mom if you could stay a little longer!” TaeMin said.

            “I can’t impose on you guys any longer… I have to go home eventually,” JongHyun explained. Deep down, though, he really wished he didn’t have to go back. In the short time he’d stayed he’d grown used to the abundance of food, air conditioner and electricity. A little too used to it.

            “We don’t care if you impose! Please hyung! MinHo hyung is coming over – we can all hang out!” TaeMin continued to beg.

            “TaeMin~ah, I’m not going to intrude on your time alone with MinHo. Plus, I have to go tutor Key now so there’s no time to hang out.”

            The disappointment was evident on TaeMin’s face, but there wasn’t much JongHyun could do about it. Plus, he kind of missed the diva.

            “Fine, but call me later!” TaeMin ordered.

            JongHyun froze, remembering just how crappy his living situation was.

            “Uh… I can’t… There’s uh… A power outage in my building so we don’t have any electricity right now,” he lied. He saw the confused look on TaeMin’s face – saw him calculating things. Hopefully he wouldn’t put two and two together and realize what was really going on.

            Thankfully, TaeMin only sighed and let it go. “Fine, go tutor the stupid guy,” he pouted.

            “I thought you liked Key now?”

            “Not anymore~” He pouted his lips while stomping off to somewhere. JongHyun could do nothing but laugh at the silliness that was his friend.

~

            Coffee and pastries smelled up the café with all it fragrances. Barely anyone was in the small restaurant even though it was around the time when everyone should be packing up the place with their crazy demands.

            Key had set up his books on a table in the back where he was secluded, but not completely. A triple swirl caramel macchiato with whip cream and cinnamon sprinkles on top sat at the top of one of his thicker text books. A Half eaten cookie lay crumbling in a plate on one side of the book since he was reading over the words on the uncovered side.

            As if Key hadn’t already been excited about seeing JongHyun, the caffeine and sugar was just adding on to his energy.

            Every couple minutes he would look towards the door and hope to see JongHyun walk in only to realize that he was half an hour early and he wouldn’t be coming for a while.

            Finally, when twelve thirteen hit, the short boy stepped into the café. His hair was dishevelled by the slight summer breeze blowing outside. His cheeks were flushed as if he’d run to get here giving him a fresh baby look. He had his messenger bag with him (like always) and a shirt that was a little too tight on him.

            Key felt his breath catch in his throat when JongHyun started walking towards him. He could see every freaking muscle through that shirt… And his s…

            No Key! You can’t be obvious, he scolded himself.

            Summoning his diva-tude, Key grumbled, “You’re late.”

            JongHyun dropped himself into the chair across from him.

            “I know! I’m sorry! TaeMin wanted me to stay over so it took longer than expected to leave his place,” he apologized.

            He’s too cute, Key thought.

            “Well next time tell him to shove it and leave,” Key said.

            “Sorry…” JongHyun mumbled. He began pulling his books out of his bag, setting them on the table until you could barely see the wooden surface.

            Something sparkly and pink between two of JongHyun’s notebooks caught Key’s eye. He slipped it out by the spiral binding and nearly fell out of his chair from the bursts of laughter that rocked his body.

            “Isn’t this one of the notebooks from the store?” he asked, holding it up. He watched in amusement as JongHyun stopped rifling through his bag and stared at the flamboyant cover. His cheeks acquired a rosy blush colour that only maximized his overall cute puppiness.

            “Yeah… I bought it the day Onew hyung hired me,” He said, returning to his searching.

            “Why?”

            Key really loved the way his blush deepened with each of his teasing words. He never received an answer to his question (except for a small “Just because”) since JongHyun had found what he’d been so intently looking for.

            During the time in which JongHyun cleaned his glasses, Key grabbed one of his pink gel pens (the sparkly one of course) and flipped to the very last page in his notebook. He scrawled a quick message onto the paper and closed it before JongHyun could even realize what he’d done.

            “Okay, let’s get to work. Did you do that assignment I asked you to do last week?” JongHyun asked.

            Key nodded and pulled out the thousand word essay from his folder. For the next thirty minutes the two went over it. JongHyun pointed out things that he liked and didn’t like and critiqued everything he could before moving on to what he had planned for that day.

            Despite only doing this to get closer to JongHyun, Key found himself extremely interested in this major. He clung to every word he said, making sure to take thorough notes and highlight everything that needed to be highlighted.

            Between his listening and JongHyun’s teaching Key managed to linger his gaze on his tutor’s lips… On his eyes… On his muscles which – though smaller than they were the first time they’d met – rippled under the too small sleeves of his white shirt…

            “I think that’s all for today…” JongHyun concluded.

            “You sure?” Key asked, trying hard to hide his disappointment.

            “Yup, your exam is…”

            “A week from now.”

            “Then I want to meet more often. We just have to finish this chapter and you’ll have learned everything I learned last year.”

            If Key had been disappointed earlier that was no longer the case.

            “How often do you want to meet?” he asked.

            “Every other day until your exam… So Thursday… I’m working Saturday, though, so… Let’s do Thursday, Sunday, Monday and then you’ll be ready for your exam on Tuesday.”

            “You’re not working on Saturday,” Key noted.

            JongHyun froze, realized his blunder. He quickly tried to cover it up by saying, “Right, but, uh, I’m still really busy Saturday so Sunday, okay? We can meet here or the park. Wherever you want.”

            “Here on Thursday… Maybe the park on Sunday,” Key decided. He still couldn’t brush off that awkward moment from earlier, though.

            What was going on with JongHyun?”