Jessica had finally come back from her holiday break – twice as tan and suddenly blonde. If only she had bleached her attitude than she could have been a little more tolerable for Key. Unfortunately, he was stuck working with her in the rush hour part of day while Onew went out to run some errands and JongHyun worked on a major report upstairs that he should have worked on earlier. Yes, Key did find this a laughable matter since he’d long completed the exact same paper.

            “Key, I have a stupid question about nail polish here,” Jessica droned. The girl in front of her looked like she wanted to melt into a puddle.

            “Can’t you answer it yourself?” Key shot back from where he was bagging some girl’s purchases.

            The evening pursued in a similar manner. Everyone was lucky that Key had found something related to peace in his life otherwise the claws would have been unsheathed and Jessica’s new Barbie look would have been massacred.

            Everything was running along just fine. The New Year had brought on a small covering of happiness that soothed everyone. Only a few customers were roaming the aisles leaving the quiet hum of the heater to make noise by itself. It was peaceful (and not just because Key couldn’t hear Jessica talking). That is, it was peaceful, until JongHyun’s screaming shattered the nice atmosphere.

            “What do you mean he was bailed out?! He just got convicted! The judge said five years or… Damn it! Who had that kind of money?! Who paid his bail? I want a name! I don’t care if you can’t release that information to me! You know what?! You and your system can go to hell!” There was a loud smashing sound as he most likely threw the phone down onto its base. A series of banging and stomping noises followed after. Key was sure he heard JongHyun grumble about stupid people letting criminals out onto the street again.

            “I’m taking my break!” Key called, ignoring Jessica’s slurred garble.

            Taking the stairs two at a time, Key open the door to find his boyfriend pacing back and forth across the living room.

            “Hyun, what’s wrong? What’s happening?” Key asked. He struggled to take off his sole remaining shoe while hopping over to him. When his socked foot finally touched the hardwood floors he was finally able to confront the fuming boy properly. “What’s going on?” he asked again.

            “They let him out! Someone bailed that out! He was barely in jail for three days after his trial and someone bailed him out!” JongHyun raged.

            “Who? Not… Not MinHo right?” Key asked, not so much fearful but sceptical.

            “Yes, him!” The shorter male breezed away from Key and stormed to his bedroom. Seconds later a pillow flew out and landed pitifully on the couch. “I hate him! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him! What kind of jerk – ugh!” A pencil bounced off a lamp shade and thudded onto the floor.

            Key watched it so seizure like movements on the floor and then fall still. JongHyun’s anger was scaring him slightly, despite that Key was finding it difficult to discern his own feelings. He knew he should probably be acting like his boyfriend and be resenting the state for releasing the guy that had put him in hospital for more than a day. But oddly enough, he couldn’t feel the same way. During MinHo’s arrest – and with all his hysterics settled courtesy of a few counselling sessions – he had found a still ground. He’d accepted the fact that it had happened nearly a year ago. And there was also that face that MinHo had given him before he’d went crazy and the words MinHo had said to him before JongHyun had come.

            “I needed money for my mom’s funeral. I didn’t know what else to do! I-I was crazy delusional; you have to understand!”  

            Key would probably go crazy if his mom died, too - even if it was expected in the future. He hadn’t shared this with anyone but the therapist in fear that they would all find him crazy for forgiving the guy.

            “I can’t believe I let that guy near TaeMin!”

            Key’s mind focused back on the present moment. He fixated his gaze on the growing pile of inanimate objects littering the living room floor. Among them was the pencil, a couple socks, a Kit-Kat bar and a fluffy pencil case.

            “Yeah, hyung!” Key called, deciding it was time to revel his secret. When he was ignored he let his diva side take over and yelled, “JongHyun!”

            “What?!” His puppy head poked out of the doorway. Somehow he’d managed to frazzle his hair into an unbelievable mess and a big, blue marker line was stretched out across his chin. For some reason Key started giggling. There was something comical about his appearance that set him off into a tangent of laughter.

           “Why are you laughing?” JongHyun demanded, his anger slowly ebbing away thanks to his boyfriend’s smile.

            “You!” Key gasped, keeling over. Chortles ripped through his body and he actually had to use the couch to support himself.

            “What?” JongHyun pressed. His voice took on a whiny tinge as he grew more and more desperate to learn the reason behind Key’s guffaws.

            “You have a!” He swiped at his face to indicate the marker line. “You really are part Smurf!” he ended up exclaiming as if that was the funniest thing in the world.

            As Key nearly rolled on the ground from the force of his laughter, JongHyun let his words sink in. Smurf? He wondered. Travelling to the bathroom he stared at his reflection to see what Key saw. Once he tilted his head upwards and caught a glimpse at the highlighter marking his face it started making sense.

            The short boy was overpowered by extreme fits of laughter. His hand grabbed on to the edge of the counter to steady himself as he fell over. There was nothing in particular that made it extremely hilarious, but the chuckled wouldn’t stop coming.

            JongHyun had to crawl over to Key since he was laughing too much to stand upright. He clung to Key as they laughed together until no sound could be distinguished and they were just wheezing silently. Dogs were probably whining somewhere from how high pitched they were getting.

            “I-I can’t breathe!” Key wheezed bending over JongHyun who was kneeled at his feet and hunched over his lap.

            “Me either!” JongHyun breathed, straightening up. His eyes locked with Key’s and they stared happily at each other for a while. A few stray giggles still left their bodies. Soon the sound sided down until they were just smiling at each other.

            Key’s hand reached up and scraped through JongHyun’s hair. He felt the pads of his fingers brush his scalp as he did so. It rested there in his luscious locks for a while, lingering in the fluffiness. Joy ruffled his feather when he felt him lean into the touch. These were the moments that he enjoyed the most.

            “What are you going to do about MinHo?” JongHyun asked quietly.

            “Forget about MinHo,” Key whispered.

            “But…”

            “It’s okay; I promise…” He brought his thumb down to his cheek. His cheek bone was hard under his thumb, but it somehow brought him comfort just from the touch.

            JongHyun accepted that solely because he was so content with his position. From the hand tangled in his hair to the adrenaline lingering behind from the laugh attack he’d been subject to earlier.

            His puppy-like eyes moved back to meet Key’s. A connection sparked and JongHyun felt the urge to do something yank at his lips. Unfortunately, being new to the whole “guy scene” he didn’t exactly know how to go about it. He tilted his chin upwards and brought his own hand to brush the hair out of Key’s face.

            “Can I… Can I kiss you?” he asked shyly.

            Surprise flitted across Key’s face for a brief moment. A gentle pink flurried over his cheeks. “You don’t have to ask…” he murmured.

            They met halfway into the small gap that had been separating them. JongHyun’s lips met Key’s nervously, cautiously pushing down against them and moving slowly. The younger was just as careful with his own lips. Having only kissed one guy before JongHyun his expertise on the whole kissing thing was close to non-existent. Somehow, though, his eyes closed and he managed to move his lips gracefully along with JongHyun’s.

            It was just a short and sweet kiss but it left behind a message. Key found it ridiculously cute that JongHyun was blushing just as much as he probably was.

            “You’re a horrible kisses,” Key teased, moving the hand in his hair down to his neck.

            “Like you’re one to talk!” JongHyun retorted. His face was ready to burst into flames thanks to his joking comment..

            “I’m joking; don’t worry.”

            “You better be.” JongHyun moved so he could sit beside Key on the couch. He placed his hand on the other’s knee, needing to keep the close contact.

            Key leaned back into the cushion, feeling his lips tingle.

            “I just hope your Smurf disease isn’t contagious,” he said. Before JongHyun could jitter out a response he’d leapt off the couch towards the door. “I have to get back to work. I’ll come up before I leave – bye!” He skipped down the stairs, back into the sparkly pink store with a large smile on his face.

            He’d kissed JongHyun… No, JongHyun had kissed him!

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Turns out the bump on my arm may be a possible blood clot and may/may not be serious... I need to go see an actual specialist to get it confirmed. If it's not a blood clot, it's a small tumour or solidified calcium (which is basically the same thing).... Please keep supporting even if I'm not able to update as often!