Chapter 4

                 The next day, Key and Jonghyun are waiting at the restaturant for Taemin and Minho. Key and Jonghyun were doing crossword puzzles while waiting for the other two. One of each of their hands were intertwined under the table. With their heads close together and looking down at the book, they didn’t notice Taemin and Minho’s arrival.

                  “Umma! Hey! Jonghyun hyung!” Taemin calls out to them as he makes way to their table.

                  Key and Jonghyun look up from their crossword puzzle. Key smiles at the sight of the smiling cute Taemin and silent Minho. Jonghyun smiles at Taemin and greets him warmly but his expression immediately darkens when he saw Minho. His hand that was holding Key’s hand slowly start to curl into a fist.

                   “Ow! Jonghyunnie-ah! Why did you do that for?” Key flinches when Jonghyun’s hand around him became too tight. Key noticed Jonghyun’s expression and wondered what was going on.

                   Taemin, who was calling Minho over, didn’t notice what happened between his umma and Jonghyun. Minho’s loving gaze on Taemin, however, turned to daggers when he looked at Jonghyun. Key put his arm around Jonghyun’s waist. He could feel Jonghyun’s body being tense.

                  “Jonghyunnie-ah, what’s the matter?” Key softly asks Jonghyun. Jonghyun looks away from Minho’s glaring stare and looks down at Key. He tries to soften his expression. “Kibummie, I have to go. I just remembered that I have something important to do. I’ll call you tonight, okay? I’m sorry.”

                   “Oh. Is everything okay?” Key asks worriedly.

                   “Erm... yeah. I’ll call you tonight, okay? Bye.” Jonghyun tries to assure Key as he kisses Key’s forhead. Key looks worriedly as Jonghyun walked away, careful to avoid being close to Minho.

                    All this while, Taemin was just staring silently at the Jonghyun and Key scene before him. He looked at Minho’s stony expression. Key exchanged glances with Taemin. Both of them were confused about what’s going on.

                  “Let’s just sit down and have our lunch.” Minho suddenly says. Taemin and Key sit down silently and pretend like nothing happened. The afternoon passed without mentioning another word about the incident.

**************

                  “Hey, dino. Mind telling me what’s up just now?” Key asks Jonghyun when they are on the phone that night.

                   “Kibummie… You trust me, don’t you?” Jonghyun suddenly asks.

                   “Of course I trust you! Don’t you already know that, silly dino?” Key says with a smile. Jonghyun smiles, knowing that Key was trying to make him smile.

                    “Well… Kibummie… I can’t say much, but… just stay away from Minho, alright? Oh, and try to get Taemin to stay away from him too.”

                     Key wanted to ask why, but knowing his boyfriend, Jonghyun asked Key whether he trusted him or not because he wants Key to trust him when he tells him and Taemin to stay away from Minho.

                     “Well… Dino, are you going to come over or what? I miss you already!” Key changes the subject, not wanting to promise anything. He trusted Jonghyun, but he couldn’t see why he didn’t want Minho to be near him and Taemin. Minho seems perfectly fine. Maybe a bit weird and quiet, really competitive sometimes, but it doesn’t make him a bad person. Key decides to get to know Minho through their future rapping lessons then try to get Jonghyun to change his mind. Maybe it’s all just misunderstandings, Key thought.

**************

                        Later that night as Jonghyun is cuddling Key in his arms, Jonghyun whispers to Key as he kisses his forhead. “Kibummie… I don’t want to lose you, please just trust me and stay away from Minho. Please.”

                        Key heard every word Jonghyun whispered although Jonghyun thought that he was asleep. Thank god Onew is a sound sleeper, Jonghyun and Key both think at the same time. It’s the only reason Jonghyun can come over and sleep beside Key sometimes without disturbing Onew.

                        Key continues to pretend to be asleep and snuggle deeper into Jonghyun’s arms. Jonghyun looks at “sleeping” Key while he makes a silent wish. Please don’t take him away from me, I need him. Jonghyun says in his heart while gently Key’s hair. The diva would never let him touch his hair when he is awake. Neither does Jonghyun know that, Key always pretends to be asleep just so he can feel Jonghyun his hair. Jonghyun watches over his boyfriend sleeping until he falls asleep too.

**************

The next morning in class, Taemin waits for Minho’s appearance. He stares at the classroom door, impatient. Finally Minho appears while his backpack swung coolly over one shoulder. Hmm… he looks fine. Just like nothing happened, Taemin thought. I‘ll just act like nothing happened, then.

          As usual, Minho sits down next to Taemin. Today, though, Taemin actually wanted to have a conversation instead of just staring into space. I’m becoming closer to him, Taemin suddenly realized. I’m becoming more comfortable with him, Minho realizes at the same time.

          They had classes as usual, and then walk off separately back to their rooms. This time, though, Minho asks if Taemin wants to come up to his room. Taemin agrees, curious to see how Minho’s room is like.

           Minho let Taemin into his room. He purposely applied to have a room by himself. He doesn’t like roommates. They get to know too much of your personal stuff, and Minho doesn’t like it when someone sees his vulnerable side.

           Minho sat down on the bed and said to Taemin, “Make yourself at home. I rarely invite friends to my room, even back at home, so I don’t really know what to do. Just make yourself at home and don’t destroy anything.”

           Taemin walks around the room, taking in everything he sees. From what he observed, Minho loves sports. He wondered why he wanted to become a rapper and singer, though. Curiosity overwhelmed him.

            “Hyung-ah, you’re really good at sports, right? Why do you want to become a singer?”

            Minho took a deep breath while considering how to answer Taemin’s question. Nobody ever asked him this before, probably cause nobody cared enough to listen to his answer.

            He started to tell his story. It’s the first time he told his story, and it was the first time someone cared enough to listen. It made him fall for Taemin more and it makes him sad that Taemin only treats him as a friend. I want to be something more than just your friend, Taemin… Minho thinks as he slowly let out what he had kept inside him for years.

**************