Chapter 5

Since Minho and Taemin were going to stay with Key, the room that they used to spend the night in was in need of remodeling. Key looked at the bare room and sighed, “We have a lot of work to do.” Taemin and Minho nodded, “Remodeling this room is not going to be walk in the park.” Minho said a little disappointed. Taemin shrugged, “well, maybe we should get started.” Key looked around the room, there was a lot to do; the walls needed paint, or wallpaper, a new bed was needed, perhaps a bunk bed, some other pieces of furniture was needed, the floor needed a bit of polishing, long story short, there was a lot of work that needed to be done. “Well, first things first, let’s move this bed out of the room, along with any other furniture.” Key instructed. The two nodded and got straight to work. They moved the furniture out of the room and into the living room downstairs; they also brought down other small pieces that were there from the previous night. Once that was accomplished, Key looked at Taemin and said, “We’ll have to go to the market to buy some paint for the room as well as other things that you may need here, and I’ll give you some money to buy what you need.” Minho nodded and said, “You two can go and do that, I can stay here.” Key eyed the vampire and replied, “No, you two go, I’ll stay here and do some cleaning.” The two nodded and they went out to the market after Key gave them some money.

As they made their way to the market, Taemin couldn’t help, but release a sad sigh, “What’s wrong, Taemin?” Minho wondered, “I feel bad for Key hyung, I mean imagine never receiving a guardian or protected, living alone to the point where you enjoy going through life alone.” Minho agreed with the younger he couldn’t imagine living life without Taemin. He subconsciously took Taemin’s hand and held it tightly, he never could admit it, but he cared for Taemin he was too important to the older vampire, he couldn’t picture being without him. “I wish there was more we could do for him, hyung.” He heard the younger add. Minho smiled then, “I think there might be something we can do, but we’ll need to talk to a friend of mine.” Taemin’s features lit up, “Really? Well let’s go!” He exclaimed happily, tugging his guardian’s arm. “What do we do about the items we need for our room?” Minho wondered, looking at his protected. “I can go and the stuff we need and you can go and meet up with your friend.” The younger suggested. The older boy wasn’t to keen on that idea, he was very protective of the boy, he took his duty as a guardian seriously, and he was hard to convince when these things occurred. “I don’t know, Taemin.” The younger gave his guardian the best cute pout he could manage, “please hyung.” Minho groaned, he couldn’t take the looks that Taemin threw at him sometimes he couldn’t handle them, so he succumbed to the boy’s plea. “Alright, alright.” The younger smiled victoriously, “great, now go and take care of business while I go and get everything ok?” Taemin said pushing the older off on his merry wat as he went into town to buy everything for their room.

Minho arrived to another area not far from the monument that stood in the town square. The monument of the two beings that started the tradition of guardian and protected and where children wait for their guardians to come, this was also the same place where Key faced the cruelness of reality and never received a guardian. In one of these homes, lived another guardian and his protected Onew and Changmin. Onew being the guardian and Changmin the protected, it was hard for both of them to accept this at first because of the , but after a while, Changmin learned to accept Onew and to go to him for help. Since then, the two have been inseparable. They know how to handle different situation together or alone and this is was why Minho sought them out rather than the leader of his vampire clan. He spotted the duo walking back from what he assumed was Changmin’s work. From what he hears from Onew, whenever he gets a chance to talk to him, Changmin was a teacher, an elementary school teacher and Onew is usually there with him either entertaining the children who don’t have guardians yet or relaxing in the teachers lounge. Minho stopped them in their tracks, making Onew get in front of his protected in a battle ready stance, but relaxed when he recognized the younger vampire, “Minho? Geeze, you really gave me a scare.” He said almost surprised to see the younger. “Sorry about that, but I need your help.” The older looked a little confused. “Help? With what? Is your protected alright?” Onew questioned curiously. Minho nodded, “Everything is fine, but its not so much me and my protected, but its about someone else, I think you should hear this out.” Onew was becoming even more curious. He looked at Changmin who was not only curious, but confused as well, “Hold on, lets take this one step at a time, come with me to my house, we’ll talk this over.” He suggested. Minho agreed and followed the two to their house where Minho told them about Key and his little issue. “…and you say that no guardian ever came to him?” Onew asked, think very hard about this as Minho nodded, “yes, he’s a strong person, but he’s spent a long time alone and I was hoping that-“ “wait a minute, did Jonghyun ever get a protected?” Onew spoke out like he had an epiphany. “Jonghyun? I don’t think so.” “There is your problem.” Onew said confidently, “Most likely Jonghyun is still being the lazy that he is and doesn’t have a protected so we can just put them together.” Minho said voicing out his thoughts. Onew chuckled, “Not so fast, Jonghyun isn’t so fond of humans and persuading him won’t be easy, we may have to take drastic measures.” Minho saddened a little, “but he will do it, right?” Onew nodded, “I’ll make sure he does.” Minho smiled, “good, should we head out tomorrow?” He wondered. Onew nodded, “Yes, I’ll meet you by the town gate.” Minho nodded and left heading back to Key’s house. “Onew, I know this is probably none of my business, but I would like to give you a small piece of advice; be careful, I have heard a lot about Key and from what I’ve heard, he’s someone who is really hurting, so just giving him a guardian won’t do much good either, he has spent the majority of his life alone, remember that.” Changmin warned. Onew nodded, he knew the older was right, this was a delicate situation, but Jonghyun had been refusing to take his position as guardian while the rest of the clan had to do it, so it was time that something was done.