Kibum was mercilessly ripped from his dreams by a screaming alarm clock. Completely disoriented it took him a few moments to realize why on earth he was waking up on the weekend at such an ungoldy hour. As he realized he still had to pack Kibum jumped from the bed and stumbled around his room. He emptied his backpack of school supplies and shoved it full of clothes and other things he would need for the trip. After quickly checking the time he confirmed that there was enough for a quick shower. Kibum was a master at quick showers, being clean, dried, and dressed in just under five minutes.

Now with damp hair he poured himself some cereal for breakfast, throwing a couple energy bars into his open backpack in the process. As he scarfed the food down Kibum ran through the list in his mind, trying to see if he was forgetting anything. Once finished he quickly washed his dishes, brushed his teeth, and packed his dental supplies. Last but not least he gathered together his art supplies and camera. After one last check on everything he went to sit on the porch and wait for Jinki to pick him up.

Kibum couldn't remember the last time he'd done something as spontaneous and exciting as the trip on which he was about to embark. There hadn't been time for much, if any planning, something that made him quite nervous. However, Taemin had ensured him that he'd been to his grandparents' place loads of times and that there wouldn't be any problems.

This would be the first time the five of them would be officially hanging out. He hoped things weren't too awkward. Taemin's friends seemed nice enough, but sometimes there were people that he just didn't get along with.

And then there was Taemin...This was something that as much as he didn't want to think about it he couldn't help himself. The more he learned about Taemin, the more he saw from him, the more he realized he was the type of person he really respected and enjoyed being around. He was complex, open-minded, kind-hearted, artistic, trustworthy, and hard working. In fact, there were things about Taemin that even made him a bit jealous.

He wondered if Taemin ever felt burdened by being seen as 'just another pretty face,' because even though Kibum prided himself for being open-minded and unbiased he realized he'd fallen into the trap and had judged the boy himself. He could only imagine what Taemin thought of him.

He hadn't been looking forward to this year, but already Taemin had made it more interesting and enjoyable. Key decided that meeting new people wasn't too bad.

Broken out of his reverie by a loud car horn Kibum raised his head in alarm, only for his features to soften into a smile as he saw Jinki waving at him.

"Come on in, the water's fine!" His friend called from the driver's seat.

A few minutes later they were parking and getting out at Taemin's house. They were going to take Minho's car because it had more space than Jinki's, and with five teenage guys they needed all the room they could get.

Taemin waved from his porch. "My mom's sleeping in, so try to be quiet."

Luckily for them the weather was at a perfect equilibrium between hot and cold. It was no longer summer, but it wasn't quite fall, so the chill was thankfully missing from the air. On top of that the weather forecast for the weekend had looked pretty favorable when Kibum had checked it on his phone that morning. It was the perfect time to take this trip.

Jinki and Kibum walked up to join Taemin on the porch. Jinki sat next to Taemin on the stairs, but Kibum went straight to the porch swing. He lounged on it and had almost started to doze off when Minho showed up with Jonghyun.

As quietly as possible they stuffed all of their bags into the trunk of the car. Jonghyun had already claimed the passenger seat, leaving Kibum, Jinki, and Taemin to squeeze into the back. To make things less awkward Kibum chose the middle seat. He shuffled a little closer to Jinki to give Taemin some room.

The drive was pleasant enough, the only disruptions being Jonghyun and Minho arguing over the radio station. They all happily chatted about their classes and club activities, and before they knew it they were going down a dirt road and pulling up next to the house.

Kibum couldn't help but be impressed as he got out of the car and looked around. This was a beautiful place. The house was modest, but it was right on the edge of the lake. There was a dock that went out to the edge of the water, and in the distance there were the outlines of tree-topped mountains.

"Not bad, is it?" Taemin said walking up next to him.

"I don't even know what to say." Kibum replied. "It makes me want to start drawing right away."

There were enough bedrooms in the house for everyone to have their own (Minho and Jinki wrestled for who would get the one with the best view,) and the next hour was spent exploring the house, unpacking, and having a snack.

Soon enough Kibum and Taemin were gathering up their art supplies and heading out the door. Jinki wanted to join them for sketching later, but first he wanted to go kayaking with the others.

Carrying cameras and sketchpads Kibum and Taemin made their way around the edge of the lake until they both had found a good angle for what they wanted to capture. Taemin got to work right away taking a bunch of photos of closeups of details on trees and wide shot of the entire landscape. Since he was unfamiliar with the area, Kibum took a bit more time figuring out what he wanted to focus on. There was so much to look at, and he also wanted to make sure to remember to take photos at different times of day before he decided what colors he would use.

After they had both taken all the photos they initially needed the two of them settled down to start drawing. Taemin had previously dug out some collapsible chairs from his grandparents' closet which were now much appreciated by their tired backs.

Kibum breathed in deeply and exhaled loudly, feeling his stress float away. Despite being relatively close to their hometown this area was surprisingly quiet, the only sounds being birds, the three other boys kayaking on the lake, and the scratching of his and Taemin's pencils on paper. He almost felt guilty breaking the silence by starting a conversation.

"So, do you want to be a professional dancer?" he asked while they focused on their individual drawings.

Kibum's question brought up his awkward memory of embarrassing himself in front of Taemin, but he was genuinely curious about how Taemin would answer. He couldn't remember ever seeing someone dance the way he'd seen Taemin dance that evening. Even though he didn't know much about it he could tell that Taemin was the real deal, he was seriously good.

"Eh, actually no. Like, I wanted to be for a while, but then stuff happened and I sort of changed my mind." he heard Taemin answer next to him.

The wind picked up a bit, fluttering the pages of their sketchbooks and they had to hold them down.

Kibum didn't want to pry, but Taemin's answer only increased his curiosity.

"Stuff as in...?" he asked quietly enough to give Taemin the option to pretend he hadn't heard.

Instead his classmate sighed, put down his sketchbook and pencil, and stretched his arms. Kibum turned to face him.

"My dad got diagnosed with depression."

Kibum instantly regretted asking. He opened his mouth to apologize for prying, but Taemin held up a hand to stop him.

"Don't apologize, you didn't know. Plus, this was a couple years ago. Anyway, as you can imagine it totally , but actually the best thing that happened to us was him getting diagnosed. It meant that he could get the treatment he needed, and he's so much better now because of it. I saw how much meeting with a therapist helped my dad and in turn helped us. I guess I decided that I wanted to be that person for other people so that no one else had to go through what we did, cause it was a really dark time before my dad got help. "

Usually when Taemin talked he didn't make direct eye contact and he always seemed a little unsure of himself, but this all melted away when he began to explain this part of himself to Kibum. Kibum could tell that this was something really important to the other boy, and he could really see the sincerity in the other's eyes.

“I also felt really powerless not being able to help him at all myself.” Taemin finished softly, continuing to stare at Kibum as if curious as to how he would react. Kibum stared back, afraid to break their connection, and unsure of what to do next. He tried not to think about how pretty Taemin’s eyes looked when they were focused directly on him.

"So, um-" he tried starting, but was interrupted by his own stomach's indignant growl. He away from Taemin, embarrassed.

"Umm, are you?" he muttered even quieter than before.

Taemin laughed.

"Yea, we can go have lunch. I was just thinking the same thing as your stomach."

He stood up to and called out to their friends.

"HEY GUYS!! WANT TO EAT LUNCH?!"

After gathering up their things everyone headed inside together, and they all worked on preparing lunch.

Kibum saw Taemin's demeanor change considerably from their previous conversation as he dropped his serious look and replaced it with a smile.

Seeing Taemin around his friends, with Jonghyun's arm around him and Minho playfully hitting him on the Kibum couldn't help but feel...jealous. He wished he could share the sense of camaraderie with Taemin, to erase all future awkward moments between them. He wanted to offer Taemin a high five and get tackled instead, and he wouldn't mind sitting next to Taemin with their limbs casually draped around one another.

Taemin seemed like someone that would make a great companion. Part of him felt he needed to get to know Taemin better before he could consider them to be close, but there was also a part of him that wanted to break his own rules and to skip all that and jump to the part where they had stupid nicknames for each other and could call the other at odd hours of the night.

Another more sensitive part of himself knew that if he was completely honest with himself what he wanted most of all was someone he could be weak around. He was close enough to Jinki, but he didn't want to burden him with his problems, Jinki had enough stuff going on in his own life. Both their parents were hardly ever at home, Kibum's on business trips and vacations and Jinki's at work. Jinki also had his sister to watch out for, so he relied on Kibum to be a source of strength for him. Kibum didn't mind, and it was nice having Jinki and his sister come over to his house for sleepovers when their house was feeling particularly lonely, but sometimes he wished he could be a little selfish. He hoped that even if he couldn’t find this strength with Taemin he could eventually find it with someone else.

Author's Note: Sorry this took so long. >///< It's just that I want them to be close already, but at the same time I don't want to rush this cause I know I tend to rushhh. Also, I started a new job a couple weeks ago so I've been a bit more busy. But I've thought about the next chapter already so hopefully it will be easier to write. ^^ As always thanks so much for subscribing, and feel free to let me know what you think in the comments. <33 You're all super lovely and I hope you're doing alright.

The next chapter will be from Taemin's point of view.