Taemin was practically singing when he got up that morning, he didn’t remember being this happy before. He didn’t even mind that he had to become Emerald again, because he got to see Minho.

He put on his silicon s and a matching pair of underwear. Next he put on his tattered blue jeans and a simple black tank top before putting his hair up in a ponytail. Then he went to the bathroom to put on his make up (he refused to use anything other than natural colors), it was only used to hide his boyish features.

He looked up and smiled at Emerald, waving good morning to her in the mirror before he grabbed his bag off his desk and headed down stairs. He grabbed a plain piece of bread off the counter before jumping into the passenger’s side of Saemi’s car.

“Good morning Emerald, did you sleep well?” Saemi asked just like every other morning. “I slept fine,” Emerald yawned without a care in the world.

Saemi threw his lunch onto his lap and drove off towards the school.

When they reached the school he did the usual, jumped out of the car before she stopped it, and walked away without a second glance.

As he walked into the building it was more crowded than it was the day before, sighing he just stepped right into the crowd without any notice.

He walked into his biology classroom and sat down, taking out his note-taking material for the day. When he finished taking out his things he looked at the doorway, waiting for Minho to enter the room. However when he did Emerald looked away and pretended to do something else, but was still painfully aware of his presence.  

As class went by he could see Minho through the corner of his eye giving him brief glances and often turning away in confusion, he was happy to know that he had caught even a little bit of his attention.

“Alright class, for the first experiment of the year we are going to do a rather simple one. What keeps a cut flower fresher longer? Now we won’t be doing it right away, but I thought I should give you guys a heads up so you could get with a partner and think about it a bit before you actually do it. For homework I want you to write about all the things that a living thing needs to grow, and a brief description as to why. We will go into further detail throughout the year, so think of this as a beforehand review for your exam.” Mr. Dave spoke more about the experiment and then ended the class.

Emerald started packing up his things when he heard Minho start talking to him about the project, “so do you want to get together after school sometime to think about it?”

Emerald kept packing, “sure, but don’t we have plenty of time before we need to start worrying about this?”

Minho chuckled, “for a normal teacher yes, but when he says that we aren’t doing it right away, he means in two classes.”

Emerald nodded his head, understanding, “So tomorrow? We can sit in the library for a while.”

“Or you could come to my house, there won’t be as many people.”

Emerald looked at him as if he were crazy, “do people in this school really stay after to go to the library? I’ve barely even seen them do their homework let alone go to the library.” He raised an eyebrow.

Minho raised his hands up in defense, “okay, you caught me. I kind of have the same thing going for me. I have this streak that I want to keep up to not have to stay after school. But, you know, still have good grades. So what do you say, my house?”

Emerald chuckles, “Sure. Your house.”

With that Minho smiles and leaves the room with a brisk goodbye. At the door was a group of at least five girls waiting for him, smiling and waving, giving Emerald a few glares, and when he walked away they followed him. Emerald rolled his eyes and kept packing.

His next class was math. He didn’t really like the teacher but he liked the subject too much to hate the class. So he sat in the back so that he would have to have as little contact with the teacher as possible.

Minho was in this class too but he sat in the front row so he didn’t really get to worry about him. He also didn’t really think Minho even knew that he was in his class, but he was fine with that. He’d know eventually.

As Emerald was on his way to his next class he spotted Skittles walking in the opposite direction with some other guy he had never met before. They looked really into their conversation and Skittles didn’t even give him a second glance as they walked by.

While he was walking he realized that he had absolutely no idea where Minho lived, not to mention how to get there. He shrugged it off with a simple, ‘I’ll ask him later’ thought and kept walking.

During lunch Emerald thought about trying to find Minho and asking him but at the same time was feeling too lazy to do anything but finish his lunch. He waited a little bit to make sure no one would come and sit next to him again before he actually started eating.

While he was eating he looked around the room hoping to find either Skittles or Minho in hopes for some entertainment. The first thing he saw though was a group of girls swarming Minho and his friends at their lunch table.

Taemin felt a hint of jealousy, but Emerald couldn’t care less.

He watched as Minho’s friends tried to get some of the girls to talk to them while Minho was pretending that they weren’t even there. It was as though he was used to all of these girls herding around him.

Emerald decided that he didn’t have a chance getting near him with that many girls around, so he kept looking in hopes to find Skittles.

He saw him on the other side of the cafeteria sitting next to the guy he was walking with in the hallway. They both had their food sprawled out in front of them and just taking what they wanted. They looked rather calm and accepting of each other making Emerald think that they looked really cute together.

He knew how weird it was, but he just sat there and watched them eat and talk as if they were lovers. It made him think about his desire to have that type of relationship with someone. This had been a constant thought of his for his entire life, even before he knew he was gay. But he didn’t have a single memory of that type of relationship with anyone, not even his own family or friends, and the day he came out it made everything even worse.

His father and brother refused to speak to him or even look him in the eye. He came out to his friends and some of them were accepting, but others were revolted and went around telling the entire school, making him a laughingstock. That was the only good thing about his father giving him away, he got away from them and he was able to start over again. And now if he were to say he liked guys no one would care since everyone thought he was a girl.

But the thing is that he isn’t a cross-dresser, nor does he even like girl clothing (or at least the ones Saemi makes him wear). He actually doesn’t even find hanging around girls all that appealing because all of the girls in his life made him go through hell. He did meet one girl though, and she was really amazing to him, he didn’t like her or anything, she was just the most relatable person he could have met, but that was in 6^th grade after he came out and the only reason she spoke to him was because she thought he was brave.

But he still appreciated it.

He looked away from the couple deciding not to interrupt them and kept eating in silence. He felt as though he had lost who he was just because of a guy. But because of that guy he had decided to give up his idea of getting expelled. Now he wanted to stay in this school for as long as he could. Hopefully even graduate.

But he felt as though Emerald was losing her walls. He had to build them back up and stop giving a about other people, even if it was in his mind.

He was going to focus on his grades and make sure to slug off Minho so that his feelings don’t develop into something stronger. All he wanted to do was graduate in this school with at least a hint of happiness.

That was his only wish.

Emerald had finished his lunch early so he decided to go walk around outside for a bit.

He slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out the door with a relaxed expression on his face, and he really was relaxed. This was the happiest he’s been in a long time. It was peaceful.

He walked around the parking lot for a bit, pleased to see that no one else came outside during their lunch break, when he spotted a silver chain necklace lying on the ground all bundled up. He walked over and picked it up inspecting the jewel that was dangling from it in a golden cage.

The jewel was a sapphire, he smiled. It was his mom’s favorite gem. He shoved it in his pocket intending to give it to the lost and found later and kept walking.

Emerald was rather observant and could find most anything that he was set out to look for. So he was able to notice a lot of small details that most would miss. When he would find a black earring on the road or a keychain in the grass people would say that he had a good eye or was just really lucky, but he just looked at everything. There was nothing special about him, he just noticed every little detail wherever he went because he didn’t want to miss a single thing. He also thought that everything had beauty, but people didn’t look close enough to see it, but he wanted to be able to, so he took a closer look and spun things in a way that showed their beauty.

Emerald smiled at his thoughts thinking that he was going a bit deep into his thought process, but he was always a deep thinker anyway.

As he was finishing his third lap around the parking lot he looked up and saw Minho coming outside with a sigh of relief. Minho looked up at Emerald but before their eyes could meet Emerald looked away and kept walking as if he didn’t see anyone. A little while later he heard Minho’s footsteps crunch against the gravel behind him.

Emerald quickly turned around with a ‘what are you doing’ look on his face only to find Minho looking like he was about to pounce on him but was paused midway. Emerald laughed, “You do know I could hear your footsteps a mile away,” he pointed at the rocky ground.

“Aw~. I wanted to surprise you,” He said in a whiny tone making Emerald smile a little.

Emerald kissed his teeth, “try harder next time,” then turned around a kept walking.

“Hey wait up I want to talk to you,” Minho said reminding Emerald that he too needed to talk to him. He slowed his pace and let Minho catch up, “What about?”

Minho shoved his hands in the pockets of his plaid hoodie and walked beside him, “It’s been on my mind since yesterday, why are you so rude to your mom?”

Emerald scoffed losing all memory of previous thoughts, “since when did I have to be nice to her?”

Minho shrugged, “well she’s your mom. Don’t you think she deserves some respect? I mean even if you guys are in a fight don’t you think that’s a little bit too much?”

Emerald rolled his eyes, “Minho I walked away from her. How can you decipher my entire relationship with her after one three second long conversation?” He was slowly getting more and more pissed. Even if Minho had these questions he should have kept them to himself, it’s not his place to pry.

“It’s your aura. Before she came by you seemed rather calm and happy, but when she appeared it seemed as though you became more defensive and locked down, while at the same time ready to throw a punch.” Minho kept going.

“Yeah well that’s none of your business now is it? We only just met yesterday.”

Minho raised his hands up in defense, “I know, I know, I’m sorry. I just wanted to help. Normally people like it when I want to know more about them or try to help, so I just thought that you wouldn’t mind either.”

“Did you ever think that maybe everyone’s life wasn’t made for you to look at?” Emerald was getting tired of this conversation. He hated when people tried to get to know him. “Don’t try to pry Minho, It’ll get you nowhere.”

With that Emerald walked back towards the cafeteria, leaving Minho to watch him as he left. But right before he entered Minho called at him, "and Emerald. Happy New Year."

Emerald paused, he had totally forgotten. 

Hi hi :3. I know that it took me a really long time to post this and it wasn't as long as I had hoped but it's finally here! And just before 2015 too. Happy New Year Everybody <3