Thorn Rose || kjh x ltm [ON HOLD]

Chapter 1 | Love Sick

[short intro]

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Lee Taemin drew careless doodles on a spare notebook he always kept at his convenience during his lunch hour while he sat alone. Being the quiet boy had its pros, but it also had its devastating cons. The pro being: he didn't have any drama or attention lurking behind his shoulder and he was always granted peaceful, quiet time for himself; and, the con was how he was always granted peaceful, quiet time for himself. Some days boredom took the best of him.

Second con that followed was loneliness. Taemin rarely had friends. As mentioned before he did think of it as a pro, but it was also one hell of a tease to his dull social life. He did have two best friend though, Choi Minho and Kim Kibum, but both had a completely different schedule compared to Taemin's and Taemin rarely saw them on campus grounds.

The final con Taemin could think of was not being quite popular enough to approach, become friends with, or even be seen as a social decent human being in the eyes of his crush: Kim Jonghyun, who Taemin was currently and secretly stealing glances from during this lunch period.

Kim Jonghyun, in the eyes of Richmond High School, was a cold, harsh, popular, good, yet bad boy. His rude bad boy demeanor made him top social charts, instantly becoming a top fave among socially popular groups. He was also a straight A student surprisingly, and he took part in clubs and sports, such as singing club and football; football being his main priority.

Taemin knew how driven Jonghyun was towards success.

Now you wonder how Taemin knows all this? Well, it's quite easy if you just camp out in the corner of the hallway before and after school where Jonghyun's locker is and stalk him from that decent distance.

But despite knowing that Taemin didn't have a chance with Kim Jonghyun, that didn't stop him from secretly admiring and wishing that Jonghyun was his and only his.

Every now and then, he'd look up from his notebook at the boy he has a crush on who sat directly in front of his eyes but at a far distance, just to comfort himself. Thankfully Jonghyun would be so busy with his group of friends, he never caught onto his secret admirer stealing dozens of glances during this 50 minute lunch break.

The bell rang and Taemin collected his belongings. Without missing a step he trotted down to his sixth hour class: art.

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The final bell rang indicating the school day is over and Taemin hurriedly collected his belongings and skipped to his usual post 8th hour hangout spot: the corner of the hallway near Jonghyun's locker. Taemin always arrived on time and waited patiently for the other boy to show up. Soon enough, Taemin did spot Jonghyun making his way silently as always to his locker; his head hung low, hands shoved into his pockets, and lips formed into a flat line - Taemin noticed it all.

Jonghyun opened his locker and shoved some books into it.

"Hey man" a random boy unknown to Taemin's eyes greeted Jonghyun and they did a brotherly handshake. They conversed for what felt like an eternity to Taemin cause the unknown boy's figure blocked Jonghyun from Taemin's sight, and that irked Taemin.

"Okay dude. See you in a bit" the unknown boy finally left and Taemin sighed when he caught sight of Jonghyun once again. The smile instantly faded from Jonghyun's face once the unknown boy left- again, not going unnoticed by Taemin.

Jonghyun grabbed his sport's jersey and before closing his locker Taemin noticed Jonghyun's eyes getting fixated on an object- a red rose pendant, to be exact. Jonghyun picked up the pendant in his tiny, chubby hands and slightly smiled at the lifeless object. And yet again, nothing surpassed Taemin's eyes as unnoticed, especially not the genuine smile Jonghyun gave on this rare occasion, nor the softness that was embedded in his brown eyes.

Apart from the many things Taemin noticed and knew about Jonghyun, one specific thing worth mentioning was how Taemin also knew that behind this bad boy mask was a soft Jonghyun hidden somewhere deep down. Catching sight of that rare softness he found on Jonghyun's face instantly lightened up the little boy's face, a smile being plastered across his face throughout the whole day.

An unknown Jonghyun turned around and walked away while Taemin turned around as well to walk back home, holding tightly onto his little doodle book.

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And that is the end of chapter 1! I hope you all liked it! Stay tuned for further updates, and I hope you all enjoy this soft JongTae journey with me!