Key was awoken early the next morning by his phone ringing loud in his ear, Taemin's name flashing on the screen and accompanied by a picture of the younger, in it his dyed red hair is dishevelled and his mouth takes up more than half of his face thanks to his favourite Snapchat filter.

With a groan Kibum swiped to answer the call and pressed the phone to his ear. He threw his spare pillow over his head to block out the too-bright sunshine that was bleeding in through his curtains.

“Yoboseyo,” Key mumbled, voice thick with sleep.

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead,” came Taemin's greeting. The younger sounded bright and bubbly and wide awake and Key just wasn't sure if he was equipped to handle this level of chirpiness when he'd just woken up. “You sound half-dead,”

“I was asleep,” he said, “someone decided to call me at this ungodly hour, though,”

Taemin snickered. “Okay, I take credit for waking you but Key, this isn't exactly an ungodly hour,”

“Yah! Do you know how early it is?”

“Uh, yeah, it's almost ten-thirty,”

Kibum could practically feel the colour leaving his face. Nearly ten-thirty? It couldn't be!

(He quickly pulled his phone from his ear to check the time and it turned out that yes, it could be.)

“!” he exclaimed, all but leaping out of the bed.

“Hyung, it's Sunday,” Taemin said; Key had almost forgotten he was still on the phone, “what's the big deal?”

“It's nothing, I just have a schedule,” he said. It wasn't a complete lie. “I must've slept through my alarm,”

Kibum does have a schedule and, going by that schedule, he was supposed to bring his mother breakfast nearly two and a half hours ago. 

That's the way it's been for just over a year now; Kibum would wake up and make her breakfast (at seven-thirty on weekdays and eight on weekends, giving him that extra half-hour to sleep) he would leave some fruits on her bedside table to eat throughout the day and he would make her dinner at six every night, unless he was working or otherwise wouldn't be home, then he would make her a cup of soup and leave it on her bedside for her to eat when she was ready.

They had a schedule and, until recently, that schedule had been meticulous. Key had to admit that ever since he became friends with Taemin and got so wrapped up in Jonghyun, the schedule had been a bit...slack, and that was all on Kibum. He should've been home more often caring for her and not off doing his own thing with his friend or gallivanting around with his teacher.

He was her son, her caretaker, and it was his duty to give her the best quality of life possible in her condition. He had been selfish, he knew, but he couldn't seem to stop himself when the thought of no longer having Taemin and Jonghyun made his heart hurt.

“What were you doing last night that's made you so tired this morning?” Taemin teased through the phone.

Kibum blushed. He quickly steadied his hands. He balanced the phone between his ear and shoulder and began preparing his mother's breakfast. 

“Get your mind out of the gutter, it was nothing like that,” he defended quickly.

(Except, okay, maybe it was something like that. Jonghyun and Key had stayed in that dark corner of road for hours last night. Kibum remembers, in startling clarity, every touch, every press of lips, every slide of Jonghyun's tongue over his own, every soft/teasing/sweet/lust-filled word that was whispered in Kibum's ear.

He felt his face heat up as he remembered the way Jonghyun's hand found his thigh; the way the that hand would squeeze each time Key moaned or did something Jonghyun particularly liked. He began to shake as he recalled perfect teeth tugging at his plump lower teeth and tongue. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath when he thought about how Jonghyun's deep velvet voice sounded when it was breathless and thick with need and whispering sweet nothings into Kibum's ear.

They didn't do anything except kiss last night, and not once did they leave the confines of the car, at least not until Jonghyun dropped the younger home around three in the morning.)

“I was just up late studying for the maths test next week,” he covered.

“So you weren't playing twister with a certain Jaehyo hyung?”

“WHAT?” Key yelled, almost dropping the knife in his hands, “Tae, what on earth made you think that?”

“Jaehyo hyung texted me last night to say his plans finished early and asked if you were still around, as far as I knew you were. He was going to come and surprise you since you were disappointed he wasn't going to be able to make it,”

Key internally groaned.

He had forgotten the way he had been talking to Jaehyo. When he had said he wasn't free, Key was quick to act more disappointed than he was. He even used his aegyo to try and convince the slightly elder to cancel his plans and join he and Taemin. Who could blame him though? Key was freshly heartbroken and he knew that Jaehyo was weak against him. In hindsight, it was wrong of him to (repeatedly) use Jaehyo's feelings to validate himself, but what's done is done and there was no going back now.

Of course, now that he had Jonghyun, he was going to stop playing with the man who could be his friend. He had to tell Jaehyo, to his face, that Key only saw him as a friend – and hope that Jaehyo doesn't hate him for stringing him along and they can remain friends.

“I must've been gone by the time he got there,” Key said. Taemin's hum of approval on the other end of the line told Kibum he believed the lie. “But anyway, what did you get up to last night?”

“Well, we didn't have in his car because he's truly a gentleman, but we did make out in the bathroom, and he gave me the best of my life – not that I have as much experience in that area as I'd like to, but still,”

Key snorted. “Yeah, well, you're still doing better than me in the experience department,”

“Wait, Key, you're a ?!” Taemin gasped. Kibum could just picture his wide eyes, mouth open in an 'o' and hands on his cheeks, much resembling an emoji Kibum is quite fond of. “I'm sure Jaehyo hyung would love to help you out with that,”

Kibum would much rather Jonghyun help him out with that, but he didn't dare voice that thought.

“Aish, weren't we talking about you and Jinki?” he deflected; he had quickly learned that changing the subject was the best way to avoid Taemin's questions.

“Yes! So, anyway, we hung around for a little while after that, but just before we left, he kissed me in front of everyone! He drove me home, too, and kissed me goodnight; it was so sweet! He's so smart and cool, Kibum hyung, and I think he might even ask me to the spring dance!”

Key frowned. He hadn't heard anything about a dance – which is exactly what he said to Taemin.

“Dance? What dance?”

“Oh, right, sorry the dance hasn't been announced to the school yet. Jinki hyung was telling me about his duties as student body president last night and he mentioned the dance. He's just going through with finalising all the dates and plans with headmaster Choi this week. I wouldn't worry too much about it just yet, there'll be plenty of time for you to find a date,”

'Well. That's awkward,' Key thought. How the hell was he supposed to find a date and have fun at some high school dance when he was already involved with a teacher – a teacher who would more likely than not be chaperoning said dance?

Kibum was finishing up his mother's breakfast at this point, so he decided to say his goodbyes to Taemin.

“Tae, I have to go now, but I’ll see you at school tomorrow. Oh, and Taemin? I’m really happy for you and Jinki; I'm glad he treated you so well,”

“Thanks hyung, now we just need to find you a man,”

Key rolled his eyes. “Goodbye, Taemin,”

“Goodbye, Key,”

Key hung up and placed his phone on the island counter. He picked up the tray of breakfast he’d made and tiptoed cautiously down the hall to his mother’s door. He knocked gingerly and toed it open when he didn’t hear a response.

“Umma?” He called as he entered the room, “I have your breakfast,”

He flicked on the light, making sure to turn the dimmer almost all the way down before he does.

“You’re late,” she said. The venom in her voice made him shiver.

“I know, I’m sorry,” he said, taking another, smaller step into the room. “I was up late studying last night. I slept in,”

She just grunted as a reply and rolled over in her bed, pulling the blanket up over her head in the process. Key sighed, set the tray of food down and trundled back upstairs, this time to actually study.

He started with his history essay, but he barely gets a paragraph into the draft. The old war just not quite exciting enough to keep his attention that day, so he threw that book aside and pulled the next one in the pile onto his bed before him. It was his social studies assignment - the one he had to do with Jaehyo. Kibum wanted to hit himself with his book. He had forgotten all about this assignment, now he was going to have to reject Jaehyo’s advances and yet still complete this for a significant chunk of his grade.

This is just what he gets, he thought, for flirting with someone he was not interested in, instead of owning up to his feelings. He got stuck, doing this assignment with someone who thinks he’s into him. Key had never really tried causal dating (or any dating) nor is he all too familiar with flirting, but he knew that he had learned his lesson for life when it came to flirting with someone you don’t want a relationship with.

He decided to instead work on his maths homework. Maths, while mind-numbing at best, at least made him think of Jonghyun, and that’s something he thinks he can do all day. In all honesty, he didn’t get much actual studying done. Instead, he thought about the way Jonghyun kissed him in the car last night. He thought about how Jonghyun’s hands felt tangled in his hair and how his tongue tasted when he swiped at Key’s lower lip. Instead of working on his maths homework, he thought about his teacher in all the ways he probably shouldn’t.

It took a few hours, but he did manage to get all of his homework done. He didn’t want Jonghyun to have to scold him for not doing it, but he also didn’t want to force Jjong to play favourites. So, like a good student and a good boyfriend, Key did his homework. When he finally realised the time again, it was late afternoon and Kibum could squeal because he and Jonghyun had a date planned for tonight.

He showers quickly, spent far too long on his hair and ch