Jonghyun's POV

After a hard hunt to find Key and the others (with the possibility of shredding Key into smithereens hanging around the back of our minds) we had to go through the whole shock about Key dying his hair black and wearing possibly the most prim and proper piece of clothing that he will ever wear (still not making the standard though, because after all he is dressed black from head to toe).

And then Key had proceeded to gush and gush and gush about Jung Hye's dress and how it was such a good idea to ditch the stupid fluorescent adolescent theme. He was so proud of his choice of Jung Hye's style and dress and shoes and hair and everything that he even started calling people over to show her off.

"Goodness girl, you have the most beautiful dress ever. It just radiates, you know? Where did you get it from? What's the brand?" Some unnamed friend of Key's sparkled her eyes at Jung Hye's dress, who in turn did not have an answer for her, she didn't know anything about her own dress.

"I chose the dress!" Key huffed. Egotistical bastard. "It's from Chic Collections. I don't think you've heard of them, they're so underexposed but they fit every season's fashion to a double T."

The unnamed friend mouths an awestruck 'wow' as if she placed Jung Hye's dress in her mind at the same level to royalty. And that was the effect that Key had. He was always good with words. And plans. Witty, too. I'm surprised he still bothers to be my best friend.

Oh wait, I'm awesome. That's why.

Jung Hye distracts me from my thoughts and she tugs on my sleeve, pulling me through people and out of Key's company where he's probably dragging someone else to brag about Jung Hye's dress.

She turns back around with a smile, which tugs itself at my lips too.

"Yoo Mi's going to be so disappointed. I mean, I didn't wear the dress that she helped pick." she says, an attempt at small talk as a hand rests on my waist and the other on my shoulder. I do the same, remembering the dance room where we escaped from.

"Oh. What are you going to do about it?"

Jung Hye shrugs. "Let it sit there?"

I frown. "Waste. Don't waste money like that! Sell it or something."

"Huh. Sell it? What's the p-" she pauses, as if to contemplate and then her eyes sparkle as she grins. "You got it, Jjong! I should sell it and give the money back to Key. I mean, he did buy me these dress and shoes, after all..."

I laugh. "Hahaha. I don't think you can pay that off."

"I can so pay that off! Are you suggesting that I'm dirt poor?"

"No I don't - actually, thinking about it, you would have to be dirt poor to buy our apartment, you know."

She sniggers. "So you're dirt poor."

"Don't change the subject!" I protest, and in that I accidentally step on Jung Hye's foot and I lose balance all together, but thankfully everybody is packed like sardines in the hall so I didn't fall down. Not that it mattered because Jung Hye would help me up with her superman strength and all if I did fall down. No surpise.

"Almost thought I was dancing with Onew there," she laughs when I stand up again, "You should be bloody thankful the flats you stepped on were made of plastic. Or something."

I groan, "Ugh. Stop hanging out with Key."

"I'm just saying this for your sake." Jung Hye shrugs innocently with a playful smirk and the music changes to another slow song, one that was played from Kenny and Jenny's dance room and we continue dancing in comfortable silence, soaking the presence of each other and drowning in the beat of the music in sync with our hearts.

Jae Ri's POV

I didn't expect to see him there.

In fact, I didn't expect to see him at all for the rest of the night.

I had been hoping to, but I knew the line that divided reality and hopes, so when I saw his all-too-familiar blonde head, sitting on the floor of a place I needed to run over, I doubted my sanity.

His back was turned to me, so I inhaled a long breath to somehow ease my nervousness and walked quietly over. "Taemin-sshi?"

Taemin's hair bounces as he whips his head to face me, (eyes softening, and my heart skips a beat) "Oh. Hey. Jae Ri-sshi."

I notice something glisten on his cheeks, and from looking closer, it's a wet stream.

I pretend not to notice. "What are you doing here? I mean... this is a staff only area, you know!" I add in a light hearted laugh at the end, that was also half hearted.

"Huh?" His head whips around in surprise and he looks at his surroundings, as if he finally realised where he was. "Oh. I'm sorry, I came in here without thinking, I'll leave now-"

I should let him.

I know I should really just let him leave, because he's not supposed to be there, he's supposed to be having fun, and that's my job, isn't it? Letting all the seniors break free and have fun.

But I don't, I stop him, because something wet had run down his cheek and I didn't want him to leave. Not yet, because he's already  here.

So, I smile reassuringly. "Stay. It's okay. You can stay here."

He's about to protest, but I try to soften my look.

Taemin cast his eyes down on the floor. "Thank you."

I gather the courage to sit down with him, our backs facing each others. I didn't want to intrude into Taemin's line of sight when he was thinking of other things, but that means I should also get out and let him be alone, but the selfish part in me doesn't want to. "It's okay. It doesn't matter."

Silence.

I closed my eyes and let myself bask in this peace.

Taemin covers the short distance and he leans his back against mine and my eyes open abruptly, body stiffening and tingles shooting down my spine and to my limbs as I revel in the thought that Taemin is there, leaning on me, the scent of his shampoo, his cologne (maybe his favourite brand that he put on just for tonight), so close that I start to feel his breathing.

Sniff.

His breathing becomes a little bit shorter, a little more ragged.

Sniff. Sniff. Sniff.

"A-Are you cold?" I croak out.

Taemin shakes his head against mine.

Sniff.

I know I can't do anything, so I let him cry.

I let his tears run down, all filled with his hurt and the bleeding of his heart, and I wonder if that leviates the pain.

His bleeding heart is infectious, though. I let it infect mine because experiencing his broken state, cracks at me too.

I know I can't hug him, so I lean closer to him and press my back against his, because that's the most support I can offer.

So I close my eyes again and bask in the tense atmosphere that I have created for myself, and soon enough Taemin's calmed down, breathing normally and arms reaching out to wipe his face of any wetness. It's silence between the both of us, but the slow song plays in the prom hall... in the prom hall.. prom hall... PROM HALL...

"CRAP!" I curse, eyes opening as realisation hits me like a bullet train. Taemin looks back at me, surprised. "Taemin, we're on stage!"

He blinks back. "What?"

The music stops. And as expected, the hall fills with Soo Hyun's booming obnoxious voice.

"Class of 2011, in our annual senior prom this year, we-"

"We're on stage right now! Like, on the actual stage! Prom king and queen is going to be announced and- we need to get off. Oh gosh, I was supposed to do a last minute check here but -"

"Calm down! Calm down, it's okay, I'm sorry for randomly going here - wow I didn't know I went to the stage, how cool - let's go!" Taemin says, and he beckons me to come with him.

Which I will.

Which I would, if I didn't see the curtains in front of us move and they start to draw open.

"Jae Ri-sshi? Let's go," Taemin grabs hold of my hand (another skip of my heart beat; he's going to stop my heart someday), but it's already too late because the curtains are already half-opened and I see the first pair of eyes from the audience who looks back at me, and oh. My. Gosh.

He's looking back at me, confused.

My thoughts race to Soo Hyun.

Soo Hyun! He was supposed to do all the stage checking. Laidback as always, he was, and now the curtains were drawing out early, they were programmed wrongly, and I just happen to be on the stage with Taemin and OH MY GOSH they are going to announce prom king and queen and there Taemin and I are standing, smack bam in the middle of the stage, embarrassing ourselves in our prom and SOO HYUN I WILL KILL YOU-

I tug on Taemin's hand, a signal for him to follow me.

Jung Hye's POV

The hall is silent as the MC trails his sentence off, clearly as surprised as the rest of the audience when the curtain draws open and-

"Taemin? Is that... TAEMIN?!" Jonghyun exclaims incredulously. "And he's... he's..."

"Holding hands with..." I continue the sentence for him, and I squint my eyes to see the face of the girl properly. I recognised her. Everybody could recognise her. She was pretty popular, being the student president and all. When the curtains drawed open fully, they both had confident smiles. They lifted their held hands up and bowed down ninety degrees as their hands went down with them. It looked like an introductory show... but it didn't feel like it to me.

In the moment of confusion that befalled the whole hall, hushed whispers instantly infiltrated everybody. "Are they the prom king and queen?" "They're holding hands." "It's a bit early to announce, isn't it." "They look adorable together!" "I guess this is the student council's way of announcing it this year, huh?"

The mic is passed over to Jae Ri and she speaks into it with a confident grin, hands now released from Taemin's, "Thank you all for coming to tonight! We have prepared crowns and gifts with the prom king and queen." The mic is now relinquished from her, and Soo Hyun hands them what looks like crowns. Taemin takes the bigger one and Jae Ri takes the tiara, almost as big and they hold it out for everyone to see it in all its shining glory.

"These jewels are handmade by Seoul's finest jewellers!" Soo Hyun declares, and almost the whole hall groans (including Jonghyun, with the loudest gorilla groan) because everybody knows it's just the janitors forced in a workshop one day to make them. But they're pretty fine, and very pretty. I wonder how it feels to wear one?

"And so," Soo Hyun booms, "I will declare Chungdam High School's 2011 Prom King and Queen...

Choi Minho and Choi Haeyoung!"

The crowd elapses into screams and cheers and hoots as aforementioned couple, surprised but thankful faces steps slowly up the stairs and onto the stage.

Taemin (who's probably blinking as many times as he's breathing, that cute little thing, nervous up on stage!) walks up to Minho and carefully puts the crown on his head, before they manhug each other which they've probably done a few million times before. The crowd claps as Minho bows and Taemin glides off the stage, truly sporting a dancer's feet.

It's Jae Ri's turn, who plops the tiara on Haeyoung's head. Compared to strong and confident Minho, Haeyoung looks like she's going to turn into a tomato from all the redness. They exchange a friendly hug and Jae Ri follows after Taemin, stepping off and down the stairs.

"So, how do you guys feel? You have the same surnames, are you sure you're not married already?" Soo Hyun jokes, and hands it to them to answer the mic, reporter style.

I feel Jonghyun's arm wrap around my waist, as he pulls me closer to him and my stomach flips butterflies.

"So, how do you guys feel?" Jonghyun mimicks Soo Hyun's tone. "You live in the same apartment, are you sure you're not married already?"

"You're stupid," I say offhandedly.

"Well I feel great," Jonghyun says with his voice raised a few pitches higher on purpose. "because now I can go to Jonghyun's-"

I elbow Jonghyun in the guts before he can finish the sentence. Same apartment... we really need to do something about that.

Taemin's POV

My heartbeat returns to normal as my nervousness leaves me. Phew! It was one thing being on stage dancing, because I could actually forget there is an audience watching me, but if I stand out on stage, stage fright overcomes me.

I guess that was one of the things I admired about Jae Ri and the rest of the student council. Being able to stand out like that, always in the spotlight.

I looked around for her, but she was nowhere to be found. I stood on my tippytoes to see if I could discern her look from everybody else's, but I didn't so I sighed and looked around for Key's head. Which was actually quite hard because, well, he wasn't flashy anymore! And that still scared me to bits.

"Yo, Taemin!" a familiar voice calls my name.

I turn around, "Onew hyung!" He squishes between people and flips his hair, smiling his Onew hyung smile.

"Was that you and Jae Ri? Wow, I really thought they were announcing prom king and queen and it was you guys!"

I laugh sheepishly. "Really? Nahhh!"

"No, really! Taemin-ah, you were holding hands with her~ you guys looked like a cute couple!" He insists, and I gently pull his hand down which was doing some weird hand gestures and keep on laughing sheepishly.

"Nah hyung, she's just a friend."

And, after tonight's events... an important friend, too.

Jae Ri's POV

Krystal finds me the second I step off the stage and she pulls me over from all the people.

And is wide open. "Y-You! Jae Ri!"

I look back at her innocently, though having a dreading feeling of what she was going to say. "Uhhhh... yes? That's my name?"

"No, silly! You. With Taemin. Holding hands!" she gushes, now both her hands on her cheeks and looking back at me with wide eyes.

"Hahaha.... that was just a job, you know." Well. Kinda a job. A job made in the moment of being panicked and spelling death threats to Soo Hyun.

"No, I don't know. But you know what you should know?"

"... What?" I answered. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"You and Taemin should've totally been king and queen! It was perfect! The most perfect moment! What a cute couple, you two~" she grins slyly and starts to squish my cheeks, and I start swatting her hands away.

"Aishhh Krystal! Stop joking! He's just a friend!"

Just a friend.

Well, at least it was a step.

---

A/N: In China and I've been eating lots and lots and lots of good Chinese food~ Hahaha happy Chinese New Year everyone! I was watching this really boring new years eve show then I remembered I had to write this chapter, haha~

Anybody remember Haeyoung? I think we wrote about her over a year ago. I can't remember haha. It was in chapter 18 or 19 or 20 when everybody was at the zoo! Wow, it's been so long...

What do you guys think about Jae Ri? I think we've written almost too much of them lmao, but it was necessary! And uhhh. Taemin. Still hasn't quite moved on from Jung Hye, but he's starting to accept something he has already known since a long time ago. And Jae Ri will help him with it!

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and thank you for reading chapter 49 :D Hope you will read chapter 50 and many more to come! Haha