Taemin woke up slowly, his eyes taking time to adjust to the brightness of the room as he looked around. He could tell immediately that he was in a hospital from the bare whitewashed walls and the buzz of the machines surrounding him. He shifted slightly in the narrow, hard bed and winced as he felt a severe aching pain in the back of his head.

          “You’re awake?” he heard a voice saying. There was someone sitting in the chair next to his bed. Taemin turned to look at the owner of the voice and let out a sharp gasp, his eyes widening as the events of the previous night came flooding back to him. “How are you feeling?” asked the person he now recognised to be Choi Minho.

           Taemin ignored this question, unable to answer as several questions of his own filled his head. He settled on the easiest. “What happened?”

           “There was an explosion. You were thrown backwards onto the ground and the doctor says you have mild concussion, but you’ll be okay in a couple of days.”

           He was sure his face looked as stunned as he felt. “H-how?” he managed to choke.

           “Apparently someone set off a small bomb. The police have no idea who.”

           “Oh my god,” Taemin whispered, suddenly remembering all the people who had been inside. His best friend. “Key?” he whispered to Minho, in the form of a question. “My friend, Kim Kibum…is he…?”

           Minho swallowed uncomfortably. “Taemin, I’m sorry…there were no survivors.”

          “Except us…”

          “Except us.”

          Taemin couldn’t feel lucky, he couldn’t, not when he thought of all those people, dancing and yelling and kissing and having fun and now they were dead, all of them, all dead. It was too much to take in. His best friend, who had been there for him through everything since before he could remember; cheerful, determined Kibum who never let anyone or anything get in his way. Clumsy but caring Jinki…and easy-going Jonghyun with his beautiful girlfriend Sekyung. He’d never see them again. Kim Heechul whose dad worked for the government and the unknown guy who had pushed him over in the garden. Nearly all of his classmates and seniors. Dead.

         And yet here he was, fifteen-year-old Lee Taemin, in a hospital bed with mild concussion. How was that fair? What had he done that they hadn’t; why did he of all people deserve to live? He’d kissed a guy he didn’t even know and then agreed to leave the party with him and now he was alive and they were dead. Why?

         Taemin glared at Minho accusingly. “No-one survived except us. Everyone’s dead but we’re both absolutely fine. Why?”

         He didn’t actually expect Minho to answer, but the older boy took his hand, holding it tightly, and said, “Honestly? I don’t know, Taemin. Luck, maybe? Fate? These things just happen. You can’t blame yourself.”

         Taemin’s first thought was, does he not care? But then he saw the sadness in Minho’s eyes and realised that he was putting on a brave face. He wondered for a minute what Minho was still doing here…the doctors had said Taemin would be fine and he could have gone home hours ago, but here he was, acting as if they’d known each other for a lot longer than one night. As if Minho had read his mind, he offered an explanation.

         “They tried getting hold of your parents but no-one answered the phone. I didn’t want you to wake up alone.”

         “Oh.” Was all Taemin could say. He wanted to thank Minho but he couldn’t seem to get the words out right.

         “Do you want me to call someone?”

         “There’s no-one to call,” he replied bitterly. “Kibum was the only one who cared.”

         “But your parents…?”

         “My mum’s an alcoholic and my dad’s a selfish bastard. I ran away a long time ago to live with Kibum hyung.”

          The expression on Minho’s face was almost satisfying. It was a look filled with the same mixture of shock and pity that Taemin had become used to for five years, ever since his father had left and his mother started drinking. But Minho wasn’t like the others, offering sympathy and comfort as if he was a small child. He quickly pulled himself together and said, “Right, that’s it. You’re coming home with me.”

          Taemin attempted to protest but he quickly realised that Minho wasn’t to be argued with. Minho took no time at all signing the discharge papers and Taemin found himself once again on the back of a motorbike, this time heading towards the apartment of an almost-stranger whom he had no choice but to trust.

-

          A week later and the police investigations were well under way. So far they’d come to the conclusion that the unnamed suspect had set off a timer on the bomb and made a quick getaway so that they were nowhere to be found after the explosion. Minho and Taemin, as the only survivors of the incident, had been called in to answer a number of questions but neither of them were of much help.

          Taemin was sleeping on the sofa in Minho’s apartment. He hadn’t been to school since the party; he didn’t think he’d ever be able to face the empty seats where his friends had once sat. For the same reason, he hadn’t been back to Key’s house where he’d stayed previously. Not only would it be haunted with memories of his dead friend, but he couldn’t bear to see Key’s parents who would be silently questioning why it was Taemin that had survived and not their own son. It was cowardly, he knew, but it was much better like this; at Minho’s he could pretend that nothing bad had happened, he could watch TV all day and eat ramen and keep himself completely isolated from the pain of the outside world.

           He barely spoke to Minho but he could sense him there constantly, worried about Taemin, waiting for him to initiate a conversation. In the evenings when Minho got back from college they would sit together on the sofa in silence. Occasionally Minho would look at him with an unreadable expression on his face, somewhere between anxiety and affection, and put a cautious arm around the younger boy. Taemin wouldn’t admit it but he liked the feeling of security this gave him. The feeling that someone cared.

           The nights were the worst. He tossed and turned, his mind disturbed by recurring nightmares in which he was trapped in a burning building, convinced he could hear Key’s frightened scream. He would wake up in a cold sweat, memories of the disastrous night flashing into his head. Memories of crowded rooms and loud music and people that were now long gone.

           “Hyung,” he said one day, when they’d just finished dinner and Minho was in the middle of washing up, “You know what?”

          If Minho was surprised to finally hear Taemin speak, he didn’t show it as he replied, “What, Taeminnie?”

          “I didn’t know a single one of their names.”

          “W-what?”

          “The people at the party, from my school,” he said as if it was obvious. “I didn’t know any of them, and I never made an effort to get to know them. Now…now it’s too late.”

          Minho froze for a moment before putting down the bowl he'd just finished drying. He walked over to where Taemin stood watching him and put his hands on the younger boy's shoulders, staring down at him. “Don't say that,” he said firmly. “You can't think like that. It'll drive you crazy, you understand?”

          There was something fierce in Minho's gaze that stopped Taemin from arguing. Instead he leaned closer to the taller boy and, standing on tiptoes, pressed his own lips to Minho's soft, full ones. He knew this was a mistake as soon as he felt Minho's body stiffen under his touch. He pulled away quickly, his usually pale cheeks turning scarlet with embarrassment.

          “I-I'm pretty tired,” Minho said in a low voice. “I'd better go to bed.”

          Taemin just stood there as Minho walked straight past him towards his bedroom, his expression stony. Why was Minho acting so strangely all of a sudden? Taemin refused to think it was the kiss that had done it, but maybe...was it what he'd said? The atmosphere in the room had definitely changed when Taemin mentioned his dead classmates, and he wondered whether Minho felt the same guilt as he did. It made sense...after all, Minho would feel equally bad about surviving the explosion when no-one else had, right? It shouldn't make a difference that to Minho they had been strangers.

          Come to think of it, Minho had never told him why he'd been at the party in the first place. He was a college student...why would he have been at a party full of high school kids? Taemin hadn't thought to ask, but although he had practically told Minho his life story, now he thought about it there were a lot of things he didn't know about the person who had saved his life that night.

          For there was no question about it, Minho had saved Taemin's life. Not only did he pull him away from the explosion, but if it hadn't been for Minho's offer of a ride, Taemin would still have been inside with everyone else when the house blew up. The timing was almost unbelievable; there was no way Minho could have predicted what was about to happen.

          Or could he? Was it a coincidence that Minho had decided to leave at that moment, taking Taemin with him? Or had he somehow known...?

          Taemin shook his head immediately, clearing it. He couldn't allow himself to think like that, it was mad. He knew Minho was trustworthy, he had to be, it was Minho who had saved him and stayed with him at the hospital, even letting him stay in his apartment unconditionally. It was ridiculous even to think that Minho could've known anything about the incident, let alone be a part of it.

          But that thought stayed with him nevertheless, in the back of his mind, nagging at him as he changed into an old pair of Minho's pyjamas and settled down on the sofa to sleep. That night he was haunted by the usual nightmares; this time, however, there was a slight difference. This time, right after Key's piercing scream, he was shocked to hear the sound of a low chuckle that belonged unmistakeably to Choi Minho. 

A/N: Sorry, I know it's a really short chapter! D: I just didn't want to keep you guys waiting, and this story's turning out to be more complicated than I expected (it was initially supposed to be a oneshot) so it might take longer than I thought to finish. Anyway, hope you like it and thank you to everyone who has subscribed so far^^