Lee Taemin



“I haven't seen you in forever.”

“I'm really sorry … I was bu–“

“Busy. Always busy.” Jonghyun made a face at me and sipped on his tea. He had been making a fuss for the whole ten minutes we had seen each other by now. The coffee shop we had come to was crowded and we had had to fight for a table place. “Is Cute Cups going that well or why are you so busy?”
I couldn't stop myself from smiling at that question and just drank some of my coffee. “I … have a lot to do.” when I slowly looked up at him and saw him giving me a weird look I put my coffee mug down and covered my cheeks with my hands. “Don't look at me like that.” I said it with a natural cuteness that obviously told him more than I could have told him.
He just looked at me for a moment before asking in a very neutral voice: “Did you and Jinki finally hook up?”

Hook up?

Damn, that would have been too good.

“No.” I whined a bit and just continued to smile, my cheeks were burning. “Don't say nonsense like that …”

“Well, then what?”

“We …” I grinned and glanced up at him. “We kissed …” since he seemed unimpressed although it seemed like breaking news on TV to me I added: “Like a real kiss! On the lips!”
Jonghyun chuckled at that and crossed his legs. His gazes never left me. “Congratulations. It's been about time.” he sounded a bit cold, but I could see that he was happy for me in his eyes. “Tell me how it happened?” with that he leaned back and continued to drink his tea.
“Well …” I patted my cheeks in a helpless attempt to make the blush go away and started talking.

Jinki and I had been hanging out at Cute Cups, thinking about how we could get some promotion for it. We had just been talking and it had been then that I felt like I should tell him how thankful I actually was for all that he was doing. But since I was clumsy with my words I just started with “Hyung, I need to tell you something.” and followed that with “I … Just … forget it.”

When it came to expressing feelings in a romantic way or expressing gratitude, whatever, I always turned into a rock … it always became harder and harder for me to move, speak or just breathe.

However, apparently Jinki had thought that I had wanted to confess my feelings – which I had had during that time – for him. Thus he had just decided to confess the most obvious way possible.

“He just pulled you down?” Jonghyun raised his brow but let out another chuckle. He sounded impressed. “That's bold.”
I gave him a soft smile and shrugged – yeah, it had been bold … and I liked it. “Anyway, he … kissed me. But … I didn't really know what to do.”

“Why not?”

“I just …” I thought for a moment and tried to find the right words. “I just started overthinking it, I guess. Like … “what if he doesn't actually like me like that?”, “what if I'm not good enough for him?”, “what if he won't like me after some time?”, “what if …””, I stopped. My heart had just dropped a bit and it took me a moment to continue speaking. “What if … it will end the same way as it did with Jongin …?” Jonghyun frowned a bit in his seat and just looked at me for a moment – for all he knew, Jongin had just left me, he didn't know anything about Sehun at all. “I thought being left again wasn't worth the risk …”
We both stayed silent for a while. I found myself staring at my half-empty coffee mug and watched the milk froth move about according to the way I moved the mug.

I had actually thought about those questions when Jinki had kissed me yesterday. Within a split second I had thought about every single doubt anyone could possibly have about a relationship. My feelings for Jinki were strong and if we really did get into a relationship I wanted to be sure it would be worth it and, secondly, secure for both of us … I wouldn't survive another relationship ending like it did with Jongin.

“So … what did you do? Left him hanging?” I blinked and forced myself to look up when Jonghyun spoke again. He was smiling lightly – he knew how I reacted.
“I kissed back … of course.” I replied and felt my heart hammer at the memory of it. One of my hands moved up under the beanie I was wearing and started twirling some hair strands, my other hand playing with the handle of the mug. “How could I have left him hanging.” I smiled a bit and looked at Jonghyun. “I think I'm falling for him.”

“That's nice, but … what about your doubts?” he seemed worried. “A kiss and you falling in love won't make them go away.”

“No, of course not …” I frowned hard when I realized that he actually was right – a kiss wouldn't save any of my troubles. “I talked to him about some of them, you know. He's very understanding of everything … we're taking it slow until I'm sure that I'm okay. I think it will be fine …”
Jonghyun didn't seem okay with that kind of explanation. He continued looking at me with a worried expression and I saw him nibbling on his thumb a bit – he usually did that when he was nervous. “And … you are absolutely positive that he's going to wait for you? He's not going to force you into anything … he's not going to talk you into doing things you don't feel ready for?”
I didn't have to think for long to find the answer to these questions. I just smiled and nodded. “Yes … I'm sure he will wait. He promised.”

“And you trust him.”

“Yes, I trust him.” I smiled again and sipped on my coffee.
From then on the conversation carried on without any problems or uncomfortable topics – well, after I had promised to let him meet Jinki properly as soon as possible. We chatted about this and that, whatever that came to our mind. When I told him that Cute Cups would get promotion from next week onward he seemed happy and excited for me and we promised to help me put up the posters with me.

“Did I tell you yet?” he then cut me off when we were already on our fourth cup of coffee and tea. “Kibum is coming back from England next week.”
I gasped and widened my eyes. “It's been three years already!?”

“Already? It's finally been three years.” he groaned and rolled his eyes, he even sank into his seat a bit. “Already … I've missed him so much. I've only seen him three times during these three years.”

“I haven't seen him at all.” I replied and pouted at him. “But he wrote to me. He liked his field of study, right?”

“Of course. Photography and Design … it's what he's always wanted to do.” Jonghyun smiled a bit dreamily at the thought of Kibums work as photographer and designer and seeing him like that made my heart skip a beat. It was sweet to see that he was still so in love with his fiancee, even if they had barely seen each other for three years. “Anyway, I think this might be a good opportunity for all four of us to go on a double date?” he looked at me. “You and Jinki and me and Kibum.”

“Really?” I scoffed at him and raised my brows. “Don't you guys just wanna stay home for the next ten weeks and do who knows what?” he furrowed his brow and asked me as what kind of thing I actually saw him and it was easy for me to reply: “As a –loving–guy that hasn't seen his fiancee in almost a year. There's a lot of catching up to do, isn't there?”

“What do you know about , Taemin-ah.” Jonghyun countered and chuckled a little. His cheeks really had turned a bit red though. “But, even if I was like that, yes, there is a lot of catching up to do.”

“I know … enough.” I said and frowned a bit.

I knew that it certainly was only used for pleasure only. Nothing more and nothing less. Because, if there was anything more to it, then there was no explanation as top why Sehun would have drugged me and taken advantage of me like that – at least in my opinion there was no other explanation.

“Yeah, right.” Jonghyun chuckled a little again and looked at me for a while. “Are you okay? You seem distant.”
I gulped and looked at him, forcing a smile. “Fine. Just a bit tired.”

“I get that.” he just nodded and finished his drink in one go. “You wanna stay over at my place? If not I'll drive you out to Gimpo.”

“Thanks … I'll stay over.” I grinned a bit and finished my mug quickly as well. “I'm not really feeling like an hour long car drive …”

“Neither. Come on, let's go.” he gently pulled me up and together we left the shop and headed to his pearl white car down the street. “What I forgot to ask,” before I knew what happened he had his arm around me and looked at me that was so obviously happy, yet curious that I couldn't help but to laugh, “are you and Jinki dating now?”
I felt my cheeks burning up immediately and I left out an awkward chuckle before clearing my throat and pushing his arm off. “It's none of your business,” I replied playfully, “but yes … we are dating.”



*



We needed about ten minutes to get back to Jonghyuns place, but the sun had already set when we got there. We had stopped for some take out on our way back and I let the food drop onto the kitchen table before going to take off my jacket and leave my bag with my shoes.
“Hyung!” I called out, using the cutest voice I could bring up. “Hyung. Hyung, Hyung.” I tiptoed to the kitchen and peeked over his shoulder from behind. He looked at me with his brows raised and had frozen in his movements, a green pepper in his left hand and a knife in the other one.
“What do you want?” him knowing that I only did this when I wanted something made me chuckle and continued trying to use some sort of cuteness to win him over.
“Do you have any ice cream?”

“Of course.” he kept his brows raised and started cutting the pepper. “I always have some spare ice cream here in case you come over.”

“Okay, thanks!” with that answer my cuteness was gone and I just hurried over to the fridge. What I saw made me pout though. “This is barely half a cup full!”

“That's not my fault!” he called out. I furrowed my brow and glared playfully as he put the pepper into a bowl and put it down next to the take out. “I ain't gonna go and buy you some.”
I opened my mouth to try and get him to go but he just cut me off by saying “Nope” and left me standing there with my disappointed expression.
“Fine … I'll go.” I mumbled and nudged him while walking past him. “Can you lend me some–“

“Money, in the bowl in the hallway.” he interrupted me, his voice obviously sounding amused. “While you're at it, I forgot to bring soy sauce. There's barely a quarter of it left.”

“Well, that's not my fault.” I mimicked and grinned widely, then ran out quickly when he threw a pillow after me.
I kept on laughing while I hurried down the street and towards the shop – Jonghyun was a huge goofball, I just loved spending time with him. My smile didn't fade or leave my lips, not even when I saw that there was a huge queue at the counter. I just got my favorite ice cream, got Jonghyuns soy sauce and waited in line, humming a bit to myself. It seemed like forever until there was only one person left in front of me – and, as usually, the one last person in front of you makes trouble.

“That'd be 13.42, please.” the cashier lady said and smiled at the guy in front of me that kept his face hidden under a hood. Despite not seeing his face I noticed how he froze completely, his hands trembling. When he spoke up I thought that his voice was familiar: “I … only have nine …” he mumbled and looked down at the coins in his hand. “Could you make an exception … please …?”

“I'm sorry, no.”
I blinked and looked down at the things he was trying to buy. It was a pack of bandages, patches, a bottle of water and disinfectant. When I looked at his hands I saw how they were cut in many places and only covered poorly with old patches. He sounded a bit more desperate, apparently he was in a hurry to get out of this shop. “Please … I'm hurt and haven't had a drink for a day …”

“I am sorry, I can't. Either you–“ without even thinking about it I handed him the only money I had so it was just enough for him to pay – I would just pay Jonghyun back. The guy looked at me and I felt his gaze on me for a long time, although I could still barely see his face.
“Thanks …” he said quietly and took his things. Since I didn't have any money left I left the ice cream and soy sauce on the conveyor belt and hurried after the man when he was just leaving the shop. His skinny frame was shaking and he seemed to have trouble holding his things.

“Excuse me?” I grabbed his shoulder from behind very gently, causing him to stop. “Are you okay? Do you need help with anything …?”

“I … I-I'm …” he started mumbling all of a sudden and before I knew it he had dropped everything he was holding and his knees were giving in. He suddenly sank to the floor, his hood revealing his face. I caught him as good as I could, the disinfectant smashing to pieces right next to us and cutting my shin when it scraped over the glass as I sat down.
“H-Hello!?” I called out in panic and pulled the hood aside. “Are you oka–“ I frowned hard when I recognized the man in my arms as no-one other than Oh Sehun. He was unconscious, his face was as pale as marble and he had a black eye. “Y-Yah …! Sehun!” I shook him, but he wouldn't wake up.
Without thinking about it for even a second I shouted at someone to call an ambulance.

What was going on …!?



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Next chapter. I am on a roll ^3^
I hope this story is still interesting, I am giving it my best to bring the plot across well!!
And cursive letters are not working for some reason? I'm sorry!

Thanks for reading (if you did)!!~