During the whole exam Key was sure that everyone could hear his heart beating in the dead quiet of the room. He didn’t know how he managed to focus on his exam with so much on his mind. Thankfully he had everything memorized so the answers pretty much wrote themselves.

            The clock ticked the time away. Mocking him with each second that passed. Key let his mind drift to an alternate universe nestled somewhere in the corner of his brain. He imagined a world where time didn’t exist. That would mean that exams like these wouldn’t matter, people wouldn’t die, but no one would be born either… So everyone would be with the same people forever…

            “Times up everyone. Please put down your pencils and hand in your tests,” the teacher said.

            Everyone rose from their seats, tests in hand ready to give to the professor. Some people looks highly discouraged – most likely the ones who hadn’t bothered to study – while others looked almost overly cocky. Hopefully they wouldn’t get horrible marks on their tests, Key thought sarcastically.

            He fell in step behind one of his classmates. Out of the corner of his eye he saw JongHyun waiting for him by the doorway. His messenger bag was slung over his shoulder, dangling over his hip. The overall look was model like and teasing to the young boy.

            Key quickly handed his test to the professor and bounced over to JongHyun. Every muscle in Key’s body was bunched up from the nervousness he held. Today was the day everything was going to change…

            The outside air rushed around the duo once they stepped outside. The bitter winter cold punched at their cheeks and noses – any bare part of their skin that it could reach essentially. Key pulled his trench coat tighter around himself, wishing he hadn’t forgotten his gloves at home. JongHyun didn’t seem to be faring any better. His chin touched his chest, angling his head so it was tilted against the wind.

            How could one man be so cute?

            “How do you think you did on the exam? Key asked.

            JongHyun shrugged, brushing his bangs out of his face. “It was pretty easy. There was that last question, though…” Everything sounded all blurred together. Key was too focused on the way his lips moved with each syllable he pronounced. The way his eyelashes stuck together sometimes and he had to blink a bunch of times to separate them.

            Everything about him was so great… He was smart, independent, funny…

            “Watch out!” JongHyun suddenly yelled.

           A spray of slushy water rained down all over Key’s left side. Instantly he felt his fingers go completely numb, as well as his toes and everything else dripping with the brown tainted sludge.

            “Oh, my gosh!” Key shrieked. He flicked some slush off his face, staring at the car driving away like they hadn’t just sprayed him with a bunch of freezing snow.

            Loud chortles escalated to an embarrassing volume. JongHyun literally keeled over from how much he was guffawing. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen.

            “You look like a drowned dog!” he exclaimed through a particularly loud laugh.

            “It’s not funny!” Key screamed, smacking JongHyun on the chest.

            “Come on, the store’s just around the corner,” the elder managed to get out between his laughs.

            Perfect, Key thought despite his situation. That way he’d be able to get a little more comfortable with JongHyun.

It was warm in the shop, something Key was very thankful for. Onew was down at the register dealing with a customer when they walked in. He looked like he wanted to ask a million and two questions, but they would all have to wait since the pair was already climbing towards the apartment.

            The two dropped their bags by the door. JongHyun stripped himself of his jacket, leaving it with his other things.

            “Come on, I’ll give you a change of clothes,” he said to Key. He grabbed his hand and tugged him along to his bedroom.

            A million butterflies erupted into flight in Key’s stomach. He forced himself not to skip after JongHyun. Instead, he used his free hand to work at the buttons holding his half frozen trench coat together.

            JongHyun’s room had grown messier since the last time he’d seen it. Albeit, that had only been a week ago. Text books lay open all over the place (he’d probably studied some more when Key had left the day before) and boxers – amongst other items of clothing – were strewn around JongHyun’s bed.

            “Sorry about the mess… I was studying last night so I didn’t really have the chance to clean up anything,” JongHyun apologized.

            “It’s fine,” Key assured. He draped his jacket over the back of the desk chair.

            “Here… They’re clean, I promise.” JongHyun shoved a simple black t-shirt into his hands with a pair of grey sweats. “I would have given you some jeans, but the only clean pair I have are on me.” He sat on the bed and cocked his head to the side.

            “You want me to change here?” Key asked when a while passed and JongHyun just sat there.

            “Unless you’re hiding something then that’s the plan.”

            A dark blush stained Key’s face. He turned his back to JongHyun and peeled off his damp shirt over his head. The chilly air made goose bumps pop over his skin. It barely lasted a moment since he had the t-shirt gliding smoothly over his skin in a matter of seconds.

            From his seat on the bed JongHyun shifted uncomfortably. At this angle he was able to see more than just Key’s back. That small peaked out teasingly, standing out against the goose bumps riddling his chest. Each one of his ribs was accented for just a moment as his arms rose above his head. And then just like that, everything was all covered up again.

            The pants came off next. JongHyun would have been lying if he said that he didn’t feel a slight discomfort in his nether regions watching Key yank the wet material off his hips. There was just something about the way he squirmed his hips to squeeze out of them… The fact that he was wearing tighty-whities and not boxers didn’t make things any easier for him. Geeze… He almost had a better figure than some of the girls he knew.

            “Hyung…” Key started as he slipped the sweat pants over his legs (hairless and smooth like a woman’s, JongHyun noticed).

            “Hmm?” JongHyun mumbled. He flopped backwards onto his bed, unable to keep staring at the other anymore. All the weird thoughts in his head were kind of scaring him…

            “I have something to tell you…” Key continued. He wrung the hem of JongHyun’s shirt through his hands and repeated the words he wanted to say over and over in his head.

            This was it. This was his big moment. The moment of truth where he would lay down everything to JongHyun. Hopefully all would go accordingly… He could only pray that JongHyun wouldn’t freak out and run away.

            “Is something wrong?” JongHyun asked. He pushed up into a sitting position once again so he could fix a worried gaze on his dongsaeng.

            Key gave a quick shake of his head, still refusing to turn around. He needed to take one more breath before whipping around and saying, “I like you. Not like a brother but like two married people would like each other.”

            He stared at JongHyun closely so he could assess his reaction. He seemed to have gotten stone stiff and his eyes were fixed on a spot somewhere beyond Key’s head. His face was vacant of any emotion, scaring his slightly. He’d never seen JongHyun so clean of any emotion.

            Minutes ticked by with no one doing anything. Key breathed a sigh of relief when JongHyun connected their eyes. Almost immediately he knew that this wasn’t going to end very well. JongHyun’s brow furrowed in sympathy and his eyes were filled with turmoil of emotion.

            “I’m not gay, Key…” he whispered.

            A lump lodged itself between Key’s trachea and oesophagus. He fiddled with his shirt a little and nodded. If he spoke now his voice was bound to crack.

            “I’m sorry Key… I thought… I didn’t think…” JongHyun stuttered. He ran a hand over his face, looking distraught.

            It was a saved by the bell moment as the phone rang. JongHyun paused for a second, debating whether or not to go and answer. Eventually he went to get it. The silence strangled Key. Something heavy hung in the air, a warning that something was very wrong.

            JongHyun came back, face pale and muscles taut. The phone dangled lifelessly from his hand. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed audibly.

            “I-I have to go…” he mumbled. “I-I… I need a ride… I-I…”

            “Hyung? What’s wrong?”

            “I-I need to get t the hospital!” JongHyun yelled his voice breaking. He seemed close to hysterics which scared Key.

            “Okay, I’ll tell Onew hyung,” he assured him. Together they walked down to the shop where Onew was picking up some postcards. He noticed the pair as soon as they stepped down onto the hardwood floor of the store.

            “Hey – what’s going on?” His voice changed from cheery to worry in a very short span of time.

            “I need to get to the hospital,” JongHyun repeated.