The Cell Phone (2/2)

“I’m so sorry!” he squeaked, standing up and gasping when he finally looked up at Minho. “O-oh my god,” he muttered, covering his mouth, his eyes wide.

Minho looked at him incredulously. Was this really happening? “Are you okay?” he asked weakly, looking at Taemin like a monument. The latter looked at him with shocked, confused...hopeful eyes, not sure on what to do. Minho touched his shoulder, a spark igniting between the two. A spark of pure emotion. And Taemin did all he could do. He ran. He ran as fast as he could without hurting himself, making it to his house and slamming the door. He went to his room and laid on his bed, looking at the ceiling while he regulated his breathing.

They touched...

They talked...

Taemin looked in his bag for his cell phone, but gasped when he realized that it wasn’t there. How was he going to text Key? Furthermore, how was he going to get the notifications for his doctor’s appointments? He felt his heart sink. Would he be able to search that area in the morning? Perhaps, by some miraculous turn of events, find his cell phone in perfect condition? He sighed, going back to staring at the ceiling, this time with a feeling of impending doom inhabiting his body. ‘It’s funny,’ he thought. ‘The mood changes so quickly as soon as something goes wrong...’

Minho gathered up all the remaining things on the ground absentmindedly, still shocked by the turn of events. He played it back in his head over and over as he walked the rest of the way home, and even more so when he got to his room. He sat at the edge of his bed and let everything sink in. Okay. So they were walking in opposite directions. They bumped into each other. They got up and made sure each other was okay and then...then they touched. It was so slight, but it meant the world to Minho. Taemin’s long hair brushed against his hand ever so slightly, and it had to have been the silkiest thing he’d ever touched in his life. The fact that Lee Taemin, for that moment, was tangible, was enough to throw Minho over the edge. He was so happy. He couldn’t even begin to express the feelings that were surging through his body.

His thoughts were interrupted by a noise. A...vibrating noise? He checked his bag, searching it until he grasped a white cell phone. His jaw dropped when he figured out whose it was. Lee Taemin, the Lee Taemin, dropped his cell phone, and Minho had picked it up by accident. His rational conscience told him to leave it alone. Put it back in his bag and simply return it to Taemin the next morning. But he couldn’t. Because his heart, which wanted to learn everything about Taemin, was shouting high above his brain. He turned the phone on, smiling at the background picture Taemin had chosen : a cute koala cartoon drawing. That was Kim Kibum’s work, no? He was known for being quite the artist.

Minho really only looked through little things, like apps and lists Taemin had made for shopping, smiling at the fact that banana milk had found its way onto nearly every shopping list Taemin had put together. Minho was about to finish his snooping for the day when the phone began to ring, playing a song that, to Minho’s memory, was called Fire by some girl group he couldn’t remember the name of. Lucky for him, it was a message and not an actual call.

Unable to resist the temptation, Minho looked at the message:

Umma: Hey, Taebaby! I just wanted to let you know that I got approved by your doctor as your legal guardian for all intents and purposes regarding your appointments and stuff. So I’ll be getting forwards of all your appointments and stuff, as well as when to pick up your medication. Do you want me to go get it from now on? You’ve been getting way more easily exhausted lately...

Minho was confused. Taemin needed medication? What for? And why would his mom need to get approval from the doctor to be put down as his legal guardian? Better yet, why did she text him? Couldn’t she just go in his room and tell him?

Several questions ran through Minho’s mind and perplexed him to unspeakable degrees. As time progressed throughout the night, the contact labelled “Umma” continued to message Taemin, mainly asking why he wasn’t replying to any of her texts. Minho started to wonder if maybe this Umma was a noona at school. Which only lead him to wonder why he needed a noona’s help to go to the doctor instead of his real parents. Minho knew that Taemin wasn’t an orphan. His older brother was on the soccer team before, and the Lee family never missed a game.

The next day at school, Minho clutched the cell phone firmly in his hand as he entered the building, prepared to speak with Taemin once again. But when he found the younger sitting by his own locker, smiling and laughing with diva and local attitude problem, Kim Kibum, he felt his heart sink a little. They seemed awfully...close...didn’t they? Kibum had his arm around Taemin’s shoulders, and Taemin rested his head on the older of the two. Minho wanted to get upset, but couldn’t. The sight of that angelic smile on Taemin’s face kept him from showing or feeling any kind of negative emotion. He began to walk again, moving toward the two, wanting to hear his love’s voice again.

“You’re so mean, Umma! He doesn’t look like a frog! He’s so cute!” Taemin smiled.

“Yah! He does! You need glasses, Minnie!” Key replied.

Oh. Now things made sense. Key was acting as a mother toward Taemin. Taemin relied on Key for whatever which reason. Though he didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle yet, Minho was able to place the ones he did have. He couldn’t explain what had possessed him to do it, but that morning, instead of approaching Taemin and returning his phone, Minho turned around and acted like nothing happened. He held the phone as if it was his own. And it was, in a way. It was his own little gateway into the life of his beloved Lee Taemin.