I barely made it out of the girls' bathroom when I heard the news.

                “Hey, hey!!” A girl frantically ran past me and to her friend that left the bathroom after me. She grabbed them by the shoulders and gave a slight shake. “Did you hear??”

                “Hear what?” Her friend replied, a hint of laziness in her voice.

                I my heel, uninterested in conversations about any sort of drama this school had to offer.

                “Kim Jonghyun and Kim Kibum are about to fight!!!”

                I froze mid-step.        

                “What??” Her friend gawked, eyes widening at the surprising information.

                “Seriously,” The girl continued. “They were all pushy in the hall and before I knew it, they were yelling threats of punching.”

                “Where are they..?”

                “Here, come quickly..!” The girl grabbed her friend and dragged her along. As they passed me, the girl looked back. “If you wanna see, you better hurry up!”

                Listening, I hastily followed her across the school and to the supposed “arena” in the 200 hall before stopping at the edge of a crowd composed of both genders. I looked through the mass of students to find an enraged Kibum. He stood with a bent frame as he clutched at his gut. Blood dripped from his nose and stained his white dress shirt that was messily pulled out from under his uniform jacket. Looking over at his opponent, Jonghyun was equally beaten with a bloodied lower lip and an already swollen cheek. He, too, stood with a messed up uniform; his unraveled tie hung loosely around his neck.

                “You can still back down, Bum.” Jonghyun taunted, his lips forming a small smirk.

                “You can give up before a teacher comes and see you.” Kibum snapped back.

                “You little..!” Jonghyun seethed. He lunged forward, grabbing Kibum by the collar as he slammed him against the lockers. “You piece of—” He recoiled his fist, preparing to punch.

                “Wait!” I quickly pushed my way to the front of the crowd. “Stop!”

                Kibum looked at me in surprise. “Son Ha..?”

                “Quit fighting, you two! Please!” I begged, hoping Jonghyun would back off, but it seemed like his grip only tightened.

                “Son Ha, stay out of this,” Kibum said. “It’s fine.

                “No it’s not—” I started to argue, but Jonghyun’s voice cut me off.

                “Why don’t you listen to your boyfriend?” He spat. “Get outta here. I don’t wanna hurt you too.” He resumed his earlier position as if I wasn’t even there.

                Angered, I instinctively grabbed onto Jonghyun’s arm to stop him. Surprised, he quickly shoved me to the ground with a yell, “Get outta here!” I hit the floor with a thud when Kibum heaved Jonghyun away in a blind rage. When Jonghyun fell on his back, Kibum hastily made his way over and pinned the blond as he delivered an uppercut. Jonghyun tried his best to block, but Kibum didn’t make that easy enough for him.

                Snapping out of my daze, I swiftly ran up to the two and grabbed Kibum by the forearms. “Kibum!!” I tried pulling him off Jonghyun, but his resolve was already too set in stone. Jonghyun’s bloodied lip soon turned in to an open gash. “Kibum!” I yelled. No one was stepping in to help. “Key!! Key, stop!” I looked around in a panic. Everyone was just watching like this was some kind of fight club. Knowing I couldn’t pull him off alone, I called out the only name I could think of right now. “Taemin-ssi!” I yelled. “Taemin-ssi! Where are you, Taemin??”

                “Son Ha?” I heard Taemin’s voice call back. I looked over in the direction it came from to see Taemin make his way inside the circle. His eyes widened when he saw the situation, but his features quickly turned in to a scowl. He rushed over, shooed my aside, and immediately wrestled Kibum off of Jonghyun. Taemin struggled to keep Key in a head lock long enough for Jonghyun to get up.

                “What’s going on here??” A booming voice suddenly erupted down the hallway. Taemin let go of Key and took a step back, knowing he’d get in unnecessary trouble if he were to be seen. The crown parted to let the teacher pass. He got to the center and tsked at the two. “You guys again?” He crossed his arms. “Insulting each other is one thing, but fist fighting? Isn’t that going too far?”

                “Teacher—”

                “No excuses, Kibum!” The man yelled, his once joking voice now deadly. “You realize all the trouble you’re gonna put me through now?” The two bowed their heads as the teacher continued to rant on. “Now I have to write a report on what happened and figure out your punishments!” He looked at the crimson liquid that discolored their uniforms. “Make sure to get those cleaned.” His eyes scanned the crowd, looking for his next victim. Unfortunately, his sights landed on me. “Son Ha, would you please take your friend to the nurse?”

                I gave a shallow bow, “Yes, teacher,” And made my way over to Key. “Come on,” I mumbled, shooting Jonghyun a warning glare. He only scoffed in annoyance.

                “Let’s go, Jonghyun.” The teacher said, calling him to the office.

                “Key…” I said.

                Giving in, Kibum slouched his shoulders and started walking in front of me. I placed my hand in between his shoulder blades to get him to keep going. After a moment of silence—after we were far from the group of people—Key spoke up, “I’m sorry.” He apologized.

                I stayed quiet for a second, unsure if asking questions would anger him more. Nevertheless, I still spoke with hesitation. “Why…did you two fight?”

                “We always fight.” He replied, voice monotone.

                “You don’t punch each other, though…” I said.

                “We just…” He stopped walking and turned to face me with a sigh. “I guess we just snapped. Butting heads for three months get kind of tiresome.”

                “Key,” I said, stepping forward to continue walking. He followed close behind. “Please don’t get in to any more trouble. It’s almost Christmas and it wouldn’t be fun if you were stuck cleaning that whole break.

                I could practically feel the smirk on his face. “Why would me working over break bother you?”

                “Well…because…” I stumbled over my own words. I didn’t know how to say it without sounding so clingy. “I just thought cleaning when you could be celebrating with your friends wouldn’t be fun…” Yeah, that works.

                “So, you’re sayin’ you wanna spend it with me?” He asked. Backfire.

                “Well, o-of course I always like to spend holiday breaks with friends.” I tried to laugh off my embarrassment.

                “Right…” He chuckled.

                We turned down the hall toward the nurse’s room. I slowed down to walk next to Key. “How’s your nose?”

                He dabbed his finger under his nose to feel the dried blood. “It feels like it stopped.”

                “That’s good.” I said. “Then we just have to clean it.”

                “Seems so…”

                We reached the nurse’s office not long after and headed inside. “What’s—” The nurse began but stopped mid-sentence when she noticed all the blood on Key’s face and uniform. “Oh my…! What happened?” She asked, getting up, but didn’t give either of us time to reply. “I’ll go get swabs and band-aids!” She announced as she ran into the back room.

                Key and I took a seat on the nearest resting bed. I looked over at him, eyebrows raised in worry.

                “Don’t look at me like that…” He mumbled.

                “Don’t look worried?” I asked. “’Cause, honestly, that’s a little hard to do right now.” I let out a heavy sigh. “What are you gonna do if this happens again?”

                “You know…” His voice trailed off.

                “Hm?”

                “I dunno…”

                “Key…!” I scorned.

                “I said I don’t know, Son Ha!” He yelled, looking over at me. “I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”

                “Then at least tell me why you fought in the first place.”

                “I didn’t fight.”

                “Then why was Jonghyun’s face so bloody??”

                “You expect me not to defend myself??” He yelled, angered. “We bumped shoulders in the hall, we started arguing, and then I guess I said something that made him snap.”

                “He punched first?”

                “I couldn’t care less.”

                “Key…”

               “They’re gonna reprimand me anyway.” He said, seeming at a loss. “Whoever punched first won’t matter in this situation.”

                I looked to the floor, unsure of how to carry out the conversation.

                A moment passed before Kibum gave an awkward chuckle, breaking the heavy silence. “Where’s that nurse…?”

                I smiled, got up, and walked over to the sink. I pulled a few paper towels out of the rack and wet one.

                “What are you doing?” Key asked as he started to get up to look.

                I turned around and walked back to him. “Sit down.”

                “Son Ha?” He questioned but sat back down anyway. “What are you—”

                I held the wet towel out to him. “Here, clean your nose, it’s not looking so good.”

                He scoffed and took the towel from me. “And here I thought you were gonna clean it for me.”

                “You’re disgusting sometimes, Kibum.” I said as a grin peeled across his face.

                “Ah, really?” He wiped at the blood above his upper lip. “I guess there’s something like that.”

                “Okay, student,” I looked over to the nurse who was rushing back into the room with cleaning supplies cradled in her arms. “I have some supplies to clean up that blood. I also have something that’ll help get rid of that stain on your uniform.”

                “Great.”

—

                After the nurse came in and I said goodbye to Key, I quickly headed back to class in the gym.

                “What’d he say?” Taemin asked as he walked on the track next to me. We were instructed to walk four laps in twenty minutes, however, Taemin and I decided it the best time to talk about the fight that just happened.

                “Not much,” I said. “He kept saying he didn’t fight.”

                “What does that even mean?” He questioned. “Jonghyun’s face was as bloody as his was.”

                “He said that he didn’t fight just to attack Jonghyun.” I explained. “He did it out of self defense.”

                “That self defense was a little on the offence when I got there.” He mumbled.

                “Yeah…I don’t know what set him off…” I said, looking to the tartan track underneath our feet.

                “Son Ha?”

                “Hm?” I looked up toward Taemin.

                “What are you doing for Christmas?”

                “I’m hoping that Kibum doesn’t get a heavy punishment that lasts over our break.” I said.

                “Yeah…it’s two weeks away.”

                “If it all works out,” I continued. “Then the three of us should go to a karaoke bar Christmas Eve and sing until midnight.”

                Taemin laughed. “That does sound fun.”

                “Right?” I felt my spirits instantly lifted from getting excited. “We could sing popular songs and eat until Christmas day! We can also exchange presents that day.”

               “Sounds fun.”

               “Yeah, I just hope Key doesn’t get in too much trouble.”

               “You sure talk about him a lot.” Taemin noted with a slight grin.

                “Don’t misunderstand,” I countered. “We’re just good friends.”

                Taemin seemed to find that amusing, for he tilted his head back, laughing. “Is that it?”

                I looked over at him. “Of course! I would assume being friends for ten years more than qualifies me to be his best friend.”

                “Best friend, huh?” The brown-haired boy gave a smirk.

                I huffed, “Yes. Taemin. Friend.”

                “Are you sure that’s the word you want to use—”

                “Don’t make me hit you…!” I yelled, raising a fist.

                “Son Ha-ssi, I’m just saying—”

                “Like hell you are…!”

                “Oh, look, is everyone going in already?” He started to jog ahead, completely ignoring my exclaims.

                “Lee Taemin,” I yelled. “You get back here!!”

                “Can’t hear you, Son Ha-ssi~” He called back, a quarter mile ahead already.

                “You…!” I yelled, running after him. “Taemin, don’t you dare spread any weird things around!!”

 

A/N:

Whooooaaa, a few things to discuss here.
1. Thank you for reading the first chapter of my Key fic! I know it started really rough, but I kind of always wanted to start a story like this.
2. As I always like to ask, do you guys prefer longer chapters with longer waits or super short chapter with short waits? (I prefer long ones)
3. WHO SAW THE DOWNTOWN BABY FULL MUSIC VIDEO?? I was so happy to see them back. (Even if it is Japan)
4. I think I got all my points down
As always, thank you so much for reading and remember that I LOVE reading your comments!! Please look forward to chapter two!