Confusions (1/1)

Now aren’t you tired of the world controlled by them?

Just stop thinking,This and that over again

Dance with all your passion in this moment – Tarantallegra; Junsu (feat. Flowsik) T A E M I NTaemin stifled a yawn as he placed his now empty bowl into the sink and slung his book-bag over his shoulder.  He’d woken up fifteen minutes early, entirely on purpose.  It was only a quarter after seven – more than enough time for him to sneak out of his house before Minho was supposed to get there and walk to school on his own.It wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful for the elder’s kindness – he greatly appreciated what Minho did for him – yet he felt that he was such a nuisance to him at the same time, and if there was one thing Taemin hated, it was feeling like a bother to someone.He turned the faucet on and filled the bowl up to the brim before turning the faucet off and heading for the door.  He slipped his shoes on, grabbed his house keys off of the rack next to the door, and slipped out of the door quietly so as to not wake his sleeping mother.  She was a very busy lady and worked late into the night during the week, so he liked to let her sleep as much as she could in the morning before she had to get up and do it all over again.  Thus, he made sure to turn the knob on the door all the way in and slowly release it when he’d closed the door entirely.  He locked it and turned to begin walking away nonchalantly when the sight of a fancy, black sports car parked on the curb in front of his house caught his attention.His face fell as he realized that Minho was sitting in the driver’s seat looking out of the window expectantly, an eyebrow raised expertly.  Taemin reluctantly made his way over to the car, hands clasped in front of his body and his bag hanging off of his shoulder.  When he reached the car, he simply stared at Minho through the window.Minho, in turn, rolled the window down and let an amused smirk slip onto his face.  “Really, Minnie?  Did you really expect me to believe that you weren’t going to try and walk on your own sometime soon?”Taemin heaved out a sigh and shifted his gaze from Minho’s face to the sidewalk.  “I’m sorry,” he mumbled softly, although loud enough for the actor to hear him.  The latter simply smiled brightly and replied with, “No worries, Minnie, just get in.”  Taemin bit his lip lightly in response but, in the end, sighed and slipped into the passenger’s side nonetheless.  He could practically feel Minho grinning at him.  He fought down another sigh as silence stretched between them.  Minho hadn’t so much as switched gears.After a short while, Taemin threw him a questioning look.  “Hyung, why are we just sitting here?”“It’s only seven twenty, Min.  School starts at eight.”Taemin felt his face heat up and knew for sure that he was probably a very odd shade of red.  He wasn’t sure which one made him blush more, the nickname or the fact that he’d just asked to go to school half an hour early.  He cleared his throat and averted his gaze, which only succeeded in eliciting laughter from the elder of the two.  He felt Minho ruffle his hair and pouted slightly before looking up at Minho and saying, “Yah!  Don’t ruffle my hair, hyung!  I’m a man; men don’t have their hair ruffled!”His comment only seemed to amuse Minho even more, as the elder’s laughter increased in intensity for a moment before he calmed down and looked at Taemin, who now wore an unamused expression, arms folded over his chest.  “Hyung, that wasn’t nice.”The maknae found it almost scary how quickly Minho’s face sobered.  The elder gave the younger an apologetic look as he said, with the utmost sincerity in his voice, “I’m sorry, Minnie.”  Taemin had practically no choice but to forgive him.  He mumbled out an ‘it’s okay, hyung’ before turning his head to look out the window, fighting down a sigh at having been caught trying to escape.This had been exactly why; he always felt guilty that Minho had to sacrifice sleep and gas to be at his house by seven thirty to take him to school and then had to get home later than usual to bring him back home.  He felt even worse now that Minho had woken up extra early to sit outside and make sure he didn’t escape.  He briefly wondered if the elder felt as if he were babysitting sometimes.With the way I act sometimes, it seems to be that way.The guilt within the pit of his stomach grew, tightening into a heavy ball that dragged his mood down.  He’d been so happy and sure of himself when he’d woken up; today was going to be the day that he’d give Minho a break and just head off to school on his own, then text the elder and tell him that there was no need for him to come pick Taemin up, for he was already at school.  All of his plans had come tumbling down right before his eyes.A hand on his shoulder made him jump and come back to earth.  He looked over and saw Minho giving him a concerned look.  “Taemin-ah, are you okay?”  The younger of the two blinked a few times before nodding at Minho, avoiding his gaze.  He could feel Minho’s own gaze still on him.  He snuck a quick peek at the elder’s face only to find that his scowl had deepened and he’d edged a bit closer to examine Taemin’s face.  The latter felt his breath catch in his throat, as he had not been expecting his current situation.He jerked out from under Minho’s hand – more so from shock than anything else – and frowned as he looked up at his hyung.  “Yah, Minho-hyung, you scared me!”  Minho pursed his lips momentarily, rubbing his chin, before saying, “I’m sorry Taemin-ah, but are you sure you’re alright?  You seem upset about something.”’Taemin hurriedly shook his head and said, “Don’t worry hyung, I’m fine,” but the look on Minho’s face only managed to tell him that he hadn’t been convincing at all.  The elder was still frowning in concern at him.  “Taemin-ah, be honest.  What’s wrong?”The younger averted his gaze again, choosing instead to focus on the mahogany dashboard.  A long moment passed between them in which Taemin did nothing but avoid Minho’s gaze and abuse his lip.  It was broken by Minho repeating his question.  “Taemin-ah, what’s wrong?”  When Taemin still didn’t speak, he added, “Taemin-ah, you can tell me.  What’s wrong?”Taemin shifted uncomfortably in his seat, eyes never leaving the dashboard as he began playing with his fingers.  He bit his lip in hesitation before letting out a sigh and letting out what was on his mind.  “I’m sorry, hyung.  You always seem to end up sacrificing something for me.  I’m not sure why you do it, and you don’t exactly tell me a reason either, but I always end up feeling like such a bother to you.  I’m sure you’d much rather have an extra few minutes every day and I know gas isn’t cheap either.  You do so much and I only seem to make you end up sacrificing more.  You’re so nice to me and you barely really know me, so it makes it all worse.  That’s why I tried to walk to school before you got here today; I don’t want to be a bother.  I was going to text you to tell you that you didn’t need to pick me up when I got there.”Another sigh escaped the younger before he pressed his lips together.  Well I won’t be talking for the rest of the day.He soon felt weight on his shoulders and looked up to find that the weights had been Minho’s hands.  The elder himself was still frowning worriedly at Taemin, who averted his gaze yet again.I can’t even look him in the eyes.“Taemin-ah, look at me.”The younger of the two tentatively looked at Minho, who had pursed his lips to couple his worried frown.  He raised a hand from Taemin’s shoulder and gently placed it on the younger’s head instead.  “Taemin-ah, how many times do I have to tell you that you’re not a bother?  I’m really not sacrificing much.  I’m not losing any sleep or anything, and stopping to pick you up isn’t really considered ‘work’.  I want to do this.  I’m not sure why, but I want to.  So relax, Taeminnie.  You’re fine.”  He paused for a moment and pursed his lips again, seeming to mull over his words.  Taemin couldn’t help but pout at what he was hearing, although the elder took note of this and seemed to find his words again.“Anyway, Taemin-ah,” he began again, “if you would’ve walked to school and then waited to actually arrive before texting me, I’d have gotten to your house and been waiting outside for you to come out only to realize that I had spent my time waiting for nothing.  And then I would’ve worried my head off about why you chose to walk to school rather than wait for a ride and about if I had done something wrong or something that offended you.  Then I would’ve wondered about whether you came across trouble on your way to school.  I’d be worried sick until I actually saw you again.  I’m actually really glad I caught you before you managed to escape.”  He made air quotes on the last word, flashing the younger a reassuring smile.Taemin’s pout had disappeared, although it was now replaced with a look of curiosity.  A question had arisen within his thoughts as Minho had reasoned with him, and before he could even comprehend what he was doing, he found himself asking it aloud.  “Minho-hyung, why do you care so much anyway?”He didn’t speak harshly or rudely, just curiously.  He heard the sincere question within his own tone of voice subconsciously, although he was much more focused on what Minho’s answer was going to be.  The elder, in turn, let out a rather large breath and rubbed the back of his neck.  He glanced out of the windshield before looking back at the maknae and saying, in a voice so low it was almost inaudible, “That’s what I’m trying to figure out myself.”The words puzzled Taemin.  How could someone care so much without a known, tangible reason?  He furrowed his brow and pursed his lips in thought, trying to come up with a logical conclusion in his brain.  Nothing came up.  Minutes of silence passed between them in which Taemin struggled to find a reason for Minho and came up blank while Minho himself glanced out of the window, appearing to be deep in thought when the younger snuck a glance at him before looking back at the dashboard and slipping into his own thoughts yet again.The silence stretched on; no one said a word until a car drove by them on the other side of the road, snapping them both out of their reveries.  Taemin looked over at Minho only to find the elder already looking back at him.  He pursed his lips sideways and hurriedly looked away, for some reason feeling odd under the elder’s intense gaze.His eyes fell, instead, on the time on the dashboard, and for the first time since he’d been in the car the numbers registered within his brain.“Ah, hyung, it’s seven forty already.  We should start heading out to school now, or else we’ll be late.”He looked back up at Minho worriedly.  The elder lazily glanced at the time on the dashboard, in turn, then nodded and put the car into drive.  Not a single thing more was said as they made their way to school.M“Yah, Taemin-ah, are you okay?”Taemin blinked once, twice, three times, before turning to face the concerned-looking sapphire haired boy in front of him.  He was silent as the phrase sunk in, becoming something understandable somewhere in his head.  He nodded after a moment and gave his elder a small smile.  “I’m okay, Hyukjae-hyung.” Hyukjae simply narrowed his eyes at the younger suspiciously shortly, examining his face before saying, “Are you sure?  You looked really out of it.”Again, Taemin nodded and smiled.  “I’m fine hyung, don’t worry.”  He was praying Hyukjae didn’t notice the way his smile didn’t reach his eyes.  Said boy just eyed him suspiciously for a few short seconds before raising an eyebrow and shrugging as if to say, ‘suit yourself’.  “If you say so,” he said before stretching in his seat and turning to face Hyoyeon again and picking up some conversation it seemed they had been having.“You’re lying.”Taemin jumped at the deep, low voice that had sounded in his right ear.  He turned his head, eyes wide, to face Jongin, who was looking at him with an eyebrow raised, an expression that showed he clearly knew that the brunette was not okay plastered on his features.  Taemin automatically placed a hand above his heart and took in a deep, steadying breath before scowling at his dongsaeng.  “Yah, you scared me, Jongin.”His best friend was unperturbed by his comment, choosing to ignore it in favor of asking, “What’s bothering you, Tae?”  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat a bit, casting his gaze away momentarily before letting out a sigh.  It was times like these where he really felt as if Jongin were his hyung instead of the other way around.  Whenever his friend noticed that he wasn’t exactly in the best mood or that something was bothering him and inquired about it so demandingly concernedly, he couldn’t help but feel like the younger one of the two.He met his best friend’s gaze and said, in a voice low enough for only Jongin to hear, “Well, Minho-hyung said something weird this morning.”  He recognized the dangerous look in his best friend’s eyes the moment it appeared and rushed to calm him.“It wasn’t anything rude or mean or anything like that,” he said, “it just made me wonder and now it’s bugging me.  It made the car ride silent on the way to school, too.”His words succeeded in clearing the situation of any danger, although they also succeeded in placing a curious frown on his best friend’s face.  “Car ride?  What car ride, Tae, don’t you walk to school?”Taemin had to seriously hold himself back from smacking himself in the face.  How could he have forgotten to tell Jongin that for the past week and a half he’d been receiving rides from Minho to and from school?  He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten to tell Jongin, his best friend, something – especially something as seemingly big as suddenly being driven to school every day (for no tangible reason, apparently either).“Oh gosh, Jongin, I’m sorry.  I completely forgot to tell you.”  He let out a long sigh, bit his lip, and then continued.  “Minho-hyung’s been driving me to and from school for a little more than a week now.”  He gave his best friend a weak, apologetic smile.  “It completely slipped my mind.”Jongin’s disbelieving raised eyebrow made Taemin internally cringe.  Yeah, he’s upset with me.“It slipped your mind, Taemin?  Really?  How could it slip your mind if you ride with him every day we have school.”  The way Jongin’s eyebrows had pulled in as he spoke more than indicated how upset he was.  Taemin felt his heart fall to his feet, guilt filling him completely.  “I’m sorry, Jongin.  I’ve been so busy planning the showcase thing with the hyungs and setting everything up and all that I forgot to mention it.  It never really crosses my mind during the day, only when it’s time for me to either come to school or go home.”Jongin let out a rather loud huff through his nose, making the guilt in Taemin’s gut flip and double.  The hurt expression his best friend had under his upset façade only made him feel worse.  “I was over here worrying about you walking here every day by your clueless, dopey self and here you are taking rides from a guy who you met just two weeks ago.”  He didn’t miss the slight anger in his dongsaeng’s voice.“Jongin, I’m really sorry; you know how forgetful I am.  Please don’t be upset.”  Taemin pouted unconsciously, eyebrows furrowing into an apologetic frown, a habit from whenever he felt bad about something.  He noticed the way Jongin’s hard gaze seemed to soften just the slightest.  “Aish,” the younger said after a moment, “I was just freaking because I was worried.”  A long sigh escaped him, Taemin watching his face worriedly.  “Just next time something big happens, let me know when it happens so I’m not out of the loop for more than a week, okay?”  Jongin attempted a small smile, although the careful worry in his eyes was still evident.Taemin couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face, despite the concerned gaze of his dongsaeng.  “Okay,” he managed to get out through the rows of teeth he was flashing his best friend.“Yah, don’t you dare forget either, you forgetful squirt!”  Jongin ruffled Taemin’s hair as he spoke, causing the older to send him a playful glare before he let out a small laugh.  Jongin himself let out a chuckle of amusement, the worry dissipating from his eyes, although he calmed quickly, face sobering as he met Taemin’s gaze.  “So what was it that you wanted to tell me about Minho-hyung?  You said that he said something weird, right?”At this, Taemin also sobered and nodded at his best friend.  “Yeah, it was really weird and it confused me.”Taemin sat and looked at his best friend, waiting for him to say something.  Jongin, in turn, waved a hand, prompting him to continue.  Taemin took in a breath and let it out slowly.  For some reason, the thought of what had happened that morning made his stomach flop uncomfortably.  When he spoke, it was still in a voice only Jongin could hear.  “Well, I was trying to sneak out of the house before Hyung could get there so I could walk to school cause I always feel like I’m such a bother to him, but he caught me and made me get in the car.”Jongin stopped him in his tracks.  “Wait, he forced you to get into the car?”Taemin blinked innocently, taking in the way Jongin’s brow furrowed protectively; then he shook his head furiously.  “No, no; he didn’t physically force me.  He was just sitting in the driver’s seat looking at me really expectantly.  Plus it’s not like I could try to nonchalantly walk away and act like I didn’t see him – his car isn’t exactly inconspicuous where I live.”His dongsaeng gave him a searching look before nodding.  “Okay, fine, continue.”He smiled at Jongin awkwardly and continued.  “Okay, well, I got in the car and I was telling him why I was trying to sneak off to school on my own, and he said I wasn’t a bother at all and that he wanted to bring me to school.”  He paused at the huff Jongin let out, giving his best friend a questioning gaze to which Jongin just shook his head and waved him on.  He gave the younger a weird look before continuing.  “Anyway, I got curious and couldn’t stop myself; I asked him why he cared so much and he just looked at me for a minute and said, ‘That’s what I’m trying to figure out myself’.”He could’ve laughed at the face his best friend made had he not been so anxious for his best friend’s input on what Minho could’ve meant.  Judging by the way Jongin was narrowing his eyes and furrowing his brow – almost angrily – he was either very confused or very upset by Minho’s words.  Taemin frowned worriedly, tapping the tip of his best friend’s nose with his pointer finger lightly after a moment of complete silence.  “Jongin, are you okay?”Jongin blinked a few times, seeming to come out of a daze, and met Taemin’s gaze.  The elder felt himself shudder, a shiver trailing down his spine like an icy finger tracing his vertebrae, from the look in Jongin’s dark gaze; it was so …intense.  It seemed very … unlike him.  The only time Taemin had ever seen his best friend with such a fierce look in his eye was when he was performing, dancing, letting his passion overtake him as he moved about both gracefully and powerfully on stage.  He’d never seen his best friend with such a look offstage and, to put it quite simply, it kind of frightened him.Yah, what’s with that look in his eye?The younger noticed his shudder and blinked a few times, his gaze shifting from intense to concerned in a heartbeat.  “Taemin-ah, are you okay?”  Taemin nodded in response, blinking and averting his gaze.  “Yeah, I’m okay.”There was silence between the two of them, Taemin staring at the metallic, institutional-looking doors of the cafeteria, all the while feeling his best friend’s searching eyes scanning him from head to toe.  “Are you sure,” Jongin asked after a long moment.  Taemin nodded again, making sure to make eye contact with his best friend to assure him.  Jongin’s narrowed eyes only gave him another once over before sliding shut into a short nod.  “Alright,” he said, turning back to his food without another word.What’s with him?Taemin found himself caught in an awkward and uncomfortable silence for the second time that day.MIt had felt like forever and a century had passed after lunch by the time three o’clock had rolled around.  Taemin was mentally exhausted from far more than just school and the lack of sleep from waking up extra early to sneak out before Minho could grab hold of him – his thoughts from that morning had been pestering him all morning, coupled later with the thoughts on why Jongin had behaved the way he had in the lunchroom.  He hadn’t even said anything about what Taemin had told him!  He’d just sat there with that weirdly intense look on his face and practically scrutinized Taemin for a while before turning back to eat as if the conversation had never happened!The maknae scrunched up his nose in thought as he packed his stuff into his bag, disregarding the people around him in favor of letting his mind swim (and drown) in the thoughts that had been plaguing him the entire day.  He barely flinched when Jongin jumped in front of him, the typical grin the younger had whenever he greeted Taemin after academics ended plastered on his face as usual.  The only coherent thing that flitted through his mind at the moment was, Well he seems normal again.“Hey, Youngin,” he said absentmindedly, easing his way out of the classroom and not bothering to look back to see if his best friend was following him or not.  He’d made it halfway down the hallway when he heard the light tap of footsteps behind him somewhere in the back of his mind.  It registered somewhere, subconsciously, that Jongin was following him, eventually reaching him and walking beside him.No one spoke as they made their way to the auditorium in the theater department – a rarity for the two, as whenever they were together they always had something to talk about.  Ten years of being best friends had that effect on people.  In any other situation, Taemin would’ve noticed the tense silence between them and done something goofy to break it, or at the very least ease the tension.  In this case, he was the cause for the heavy silence, his thoughts barely allowing him to focus minimally enough on the world around him to know where he was going, let alone what he was doing.When he reached the door to the theater department, he suddenly felt anxiety explode somewhere within him.  He hadn’t seen Minho all day after he’d been dropped off (even if he’d inadvertently thought about him endlessly); the sudden thought of seeing the elder had his stomach doing odd back-flips.  Would it still be tense and quiet when he saw him?  He hoped not.He stretched his arm out to yank the door to the auditorium open, his mind still swarming like a hive of angry bees with all of his day’s thoughts, only to feel a large, warm hand cover his the second his skin met the smooth, cold metal of the door handle.  He visibly jumped and looked at the owner of the hand, only to find Jongin looking at him with eyes just as big as his eyes own.  “Ah, sorry Tae.  I thought you were just going to randomly stand there and wait for the door to open itself so I went for it but you moved at the last second and …-“  Jongin’s words faded awkwardly, his explanation of why his hand was on Taemin’s dying in the middle of the air as he let out a small sigh.Taemin merely stared at his best friend curiously, inspecting the taller’s face, his hand still caught under Jongin’s on the door handle.  Is that a blush I see?He had no time to delve further into the idea, as the door was pushed open rather violently and effectively almost knocked Taemin off his feet, Jongin himself stumbling backward a couple of steps.  Taemin felt a strong hand on his arm keeping him from falling and turned his face up to look, with big doe eyes, at Minho, who was looking down at him with concern etched over his features.“Taemin-ah, are you okay?”His stomach flipped and he felt the heat rush to his face as he stepped back, raising the arm Minho was gripping to cover his face.  “Yah, Minho-hyung, you scared me!”  He glanced back at Jongin, only to see that his best friend had an oddly sour expression on his face.  He frowned and, out of both habit and worry, asked “Jongin, are you okay?”Jongin, in turn, let his gaze slide over Minho, looking him over from top to bottom for a while, before he looked at Taemin with the same intense gaze he’d had at lunch and nodded.  “Yeah, I’m okay.”  His face made it seem as if he felt otherwise.  Taemin’s face pulled down into a frown at the monotonous tone his best friend had used and he made a move to walk over to the youngest, only to feel the grip on his arm tighten the slightest.He turned and glanced up at Minho, only then realizing that the elder was still holding tightly onto his arm.  His throat seemed to tighten weirdly as he said, blood rising in his cheeks, “Minho-hyung, I’m okay now.  I can stand, you can let go.”Minho looked down at him momentarily, seemingly letting the words sink in, before he blushed lightly and let Taemin go with an embarrassed apology.  Taemin nodded kindly at him, assuring him that it was alright and he was forgiven, before he turned to face his best friend.  “Jongin are you sure you’re okay?”He didn’t get an actual response.  All he got was a terse nod before the taller tightened his grip on the strap of the bag he’d been holding over his shoulder and stepped around him and into the auditorium, effectively leaving him out in the hall with Minho in a surprised and confused silence.  It stretched for a while, with Taemin’s face contorted into one of befuddlement, before he felt a strong, warm hand land on his shoulder.  He looked up at Minho, who was giving him a soft, kind smile.  “It’s almost ten after, Minnie.  Should we head in?”  The elder of the two gestured toward the black, heavy door that was now, once again, closed before them.  Taemin glanced at it momentarily and nodded, adjusting his bag on his shoulder and following Minho into the room after the taller opened the door.He was more than expecting the tense awkwardness from that morning to follow them around, but as time wore on inside the auditorium and more and more people showed up, Taemin found himself speaking more and more comfortably with his hyung, the morning’s incident completely slipping his mind.  By half past three, his thoughts were free and clear of anything that wasn’t the showcase and organizing the groups.Key and Jonghyun had arrived just a few minutes after he and Minho had entered the auditorium.  They’d all placed their bags in the same place they’d had before, with Key, classically, complaining about the dust and letting something about bunnies slip again, reigniting Taemin’s curiosity on what exactly he meant.  (What’s so special about the phrase ‘make like bunnies’?  What do bunnies even do?)  His hyungs had convinced him not to worry about it (“It’s nothing big, Taeminnie, don’t worry about it!”) and dragged him out onto the stage in front of everyone else to begin the afternoon’s activities.They hadn’t planned much for the day, just enough to keep them going until about half past five or so.  They’d had the groups regroup and converse amongst themselves, refreshing memories on names and basic information for a good half hour before Key announced the real work for the day; coming up with performance ideas.They’d taken the time to take the groups through a general overview of what the showcase was going to be like, with the basic ideas of when one kind of performance or the other would happen and how long each performance was estimated to last.  The outline was all the group of elites had needed before the ideas had begun springing up at a rate that would’ve alarmed Taemin had he not been so happy for their help.  Key had played a great organizer and taken down the notes as quickly and neatly as a secretary would.They’d spent an hour brainstorming ideas and even creating some performance outlines, including a final performance including every single last one of the elites and their work.  Then they’d allowed the groups to break off and discuss what they’d like to do for their performances for the last half hour.  At five thirty, they’d called everybody back, thanked them for their hard work, and sent them home.Taemin had grabbed his bag and searched for Jongin to say goodbye before his best friend left, but Jongin had been surrounded by his group, on the surface conversing lightly with his fellow members, and not noticing Taemin standing a few meters away.  He’d frowned at his best friend from where he stood; he was definitely within Jongin’s line of sight.  Was Jongin ignoring him?No, impossible.  Jongin would never ignore me, no matter how upset he is with me.  He’d paused, his thoughts registering.  But he can’t be upset, because he’s got no reason to be upset; he was okay after lunch, wasn’t he?  He said so himself that he was just worried and that it was okay, right?He’d felt waves of worry wash over him.  He’d looked over at his dongsaeng expectantly, waiting for Jongin to notice him, however the younger never did.  Instead, he’d laughed rather loudly and turned and walked out of the door with a sandy-blond haired boy who was just a smidge taller than him – and if Taemin had had to guess, the same age as him.He’d puffed out his cheeks at his best friend’s retreating form, feeling the waves of worry transforming into thundering tsunamis of anxiety.  He’d absentmindedly bit down on his bottom lip, silently wondering to himself what was up with his best friend, when a hand had landed lightly on his shoulder.“You okay, Taemin-ah?”He’d glanced up only to find, of course, Minho staring down at him with a concerned expression of his own.  Taemin nodded and let out the air in his cheeks in a small puff.  “I’m okay, Minho-hyung,” he'd said.  The elder had raised an eyebrow and cast a glance in the direction Taemin had been looking at, seeing Jongin’s retreating figure getting further and further away as the door to the auditorium slowly closed.  “Are you sure,” he’d asked the younger after a moment.Taemin had nodded and reassured him again that he was okay, that it had just been a long day, and made his way out of the auditorium with Minho following behind him.  They’d bid their farewells to Jonghyun and Key on their way out of the building and had walked over to Minho’s car in silence.They were now currently seated in said fancy car, seatbelts buckled and Minho easing the car out of the parking lot of the school at an appropriate pace.  No one spoke for a while, Minho cruising down the street easily and Taemin staring out of the window in deep thought.As per usual between them, it was Minho who broke the silence.“So Taemin-ah, how was your day?”Confusing.  Not that great.  Nothing really went like I wanted it to today, and now I think Jongin’s mad at me and ignoring me for some reason, even if he said he wasn’t upset at lunch today and acted normally after school until we got to the auditorium.  And then you said that weird thing this morning that left me confused all day, and I forgot about it while we were working with the elites but now that you asked me what my day was like I remembered everything and now I’m stuck confused and lost and curious and worried because I don’t like being confused and ignored.  But it’s not like I can tell you any of that.“It was okay,” Taemin found himself saying with a slight shrug.  “How was yours, Minho-hyung?”He glanced over at his hyung, noting the way his brows had pulled into a small frown.  Minho ignored his question in favor of asking, “Why only okay, Minnie?”Um, well it was technically not okay, but I can’t tell you that.“The whole school part.  I just wasn’t in the mood to sit through all my classes today; they tired me out.”  And that had been the partial truth, although they’d only succeeded in tiring him out so much because he’d been stuck thinking about everything that had happened over the course of the day, especially after lunch.  His head was still spinning, if he were quite honest with himself, with thoughts and questions that he knew would have no answers – at least not for a long time.  He fought the urge to frown at the idea, and kept a straight face for the sake of not making Minho suspicious.The elder let out a small “ah” of understanding in response to Taemin’s answer before falling silent again.  “How was your day, Minho-hyung,” Taemin inquired after a moment.  His hyung shifted in his seat a bit as he slowed to a stop at a red light and looked over at Taemin with a small smile.  “It was pretty good, especially after school.  Everything went pretty well today, don’t you think?”Taemin nodded in agreement.  “Yeah, it seems like the groups are getting along fairly well, although Hyuk-hyung keeps telling me about how crazy that Kim Heechul in his group is.”  He let out a small laugh at the memory of his sapphire-haired hyung glancing left and right before whispering ‘That Kim Heechul is psychotic; his mood fluctuates like a pregnant woman’s!’.“Hyuk-hyung?”  Minho gave Taemin a puzzled look.  “Who’s that?”Taemin answered happily, forgetting about his swarming thoughts for the moment in favor of telling his elder of one of his closest friends.  “Hyuk-hyung is Lee Hyukjae from the Super Junior group.  He’s one of the dance department’s elites and he’s so cool.  You should see how he dances; he’s really good at locking.  To be honest, I thought he was going to be the one to get the leadership position in our department, so I was really surprised when I got it.  I thought he was going to be upset about it, as it’s his fourth year and all and he’s been an elite since his first year, but he was actually really cool and nice about it.”  He felt himself beaming at the memory of how Hyukjae had congratulated him whole-heartedly, giving him a proud gummy grin and ruffling his hair as if Taemin were his adorable kid brother (which, in essence now that he looked at it, he was).“Oh.”He frowned at his hyung’s response, examining the elder’s face.  Minho seemed to be a bit disappointed for whatever reason, and that disappointment was laced with an easy-to-see confusion in the way his eyebrow’s curled into his scowl.  “Minho-hyung, are you okay?”Minho nodded, although Taemin could see it was more absentminded than anything else.  “Are you sure, hyung?”  Again the elder nodded, although this time he flashed Taemin a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.  He didn’t speak another word as he drove. When they reached Taemin’s house fifteen gruelingly silent minutes later, Taemin slipped out of the passenger’s side with his bag and bowed lightly to Minho, muttering a polite and formal ‘thank you’.  It seemed to snap the elder out of whatever reverie he’d been in, for he gave Taemin a bright smile and said, “You don’t have to be so formal Minnie, it’s no problem.  Don’t worry about it.”Taemin gave him a weak smile and nodded, more so to be polite than because he was actually taking Minho’s words to heart.  “Okay, hyung, I’ll see you tomorrow then.”“Bright and early,” was Minho’s cheerful reply.  Taemin felt his smile widen the slightest, and come up to meet his eyes at the elder’s goofiness.  “Okay,” he said jokingly grudgingly as he closed the car door and made his way into his house.  He closed the door behind him quietly and slipped his shoes off before making his way into the kitchen, his thoughts as he grabbed a banana milk from the refrigerator centering around the confused, anxious feeling he still felt in the pit of his stomach. Oh look guys, I finally updated!

I'm sorry this took so long; I had so much work over the past three weeks, and I've started sports again, so now I have even less time on my hands.  I'm just ready for the school year to be over to be honest. I can't wait until summer.

Anyway;

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  The plot is going to really start rolling from here, so consider this a turning point (I guess?) in the story. Things are going to pick up a bit from now on, so bear with me, haha.

In other news, I wrote a HanChul oneshot like a week ago, and I'm really proud of how it turned out. So it'd make me beyond happy if you all went to go check it out C: it can be found here.

And also, feel free to follow me on tumblr, lovelies, so that we can fangirl together!

(I mean, I mainly reblog stuff but I post about fic updates and the like as well). Hope to see you all! (:

Thanks for reading, guys.

- Love, K