The Secrets We Keep - Taekai

the one where jonghyun gives a chance

Taemin had gotten back to the dorm late. Really late actually. He had been out with Jongin all day and time had gotten away from them, not that Taemin was complaining - Jongin and him had ended up screwing in one of the practice rooms that they frequented a lot.

As soon as they had both came, Jongin noticed that it was after midnight and they both hurriedly got dressed again, rushing back to their dorms.

Taemin wandered through the dorm as silently as he could, finding a stickie note stuck to the fridge door.

Dinner in fridge for you. Hope you enjoyed your day out. - Key.

Taemin smiled and opened the door, finding the small plastic containers that held his portion of food that Key must have fixed for Shinee's dinner. He removed the containers from the fridge and stuck them into the microwave, heating them up.

He had just removed the containers from the microwave when the voice came from behind him. "You're getting in awful late."

Jonghyun.

Taemin turned around, nodding and placing his food onto the table. "Yeah. Jongin and I lost track of time."

Jonghyun nodded, sitting down across from where Taemin had. "So did you have a nice day?"

Taemin nodded, smiling over at Jjong. "Yeah I really did." He said, taking a few bites of food before speaking again. "So Jongin and I were talking - I really think you need to lay off of him."

"I'm not laying off him. I don't trust him, Taem. He doesn't deserve you."

"Why not?"

"He called you a fag. I heard it. He said he didn't want to be a fag like you. Then he just all the sudden changes his mind? Taem - he's using you."

"Jongin's not using me. He just - he was scared about accepting himself."

"Think about it, forreal just think about it here for a moment. It's not easy for us to meet people in our industry, sure there's hookups here and there - and Kibum and I are together - but it's easier to just find someone who you can have sex with whenever you want it. And it's easier if it's someone who it doesn't strike the general public as weird if you're seen with them."

"It's not like that, Jjong."

"If it's not then tell me you all haven't had sex yet."

Taemin looked down at the food in front of him.

"Exactly."

"It was my fault though. I practically begged Jongin to -"

"I really don't want or need the details, Tae."

"Seriously though, hyung. Jongin didn't want me to feel forced into having sex. He wanted to wait as long as was needed - I'm the one who brought up the idea of us having sex in the first place."

Jonghyun sighed, shaking his head. "Either way, Taem, I'm just watching out for you here. Jongin's the face of EXO, there's always going to be a lot of focus on him from their fanbase. I'm just making sure you don't somehow end up hurt."

Taemin nodded, "You and Jongin both." He said, meeting Jonghyun's eyes again.

"I'm not going to commit to giving Jongin a chance - I'm not going to promise I'll end up being best friends with him or anything. But I'll attempt to not be as harsh when it comes to Jongin."

■

"Jongin!"

Jongin stopped and turned around, surprised to find Jonghyun running up behind him. He had been heading out of the SM Headquarters after practice with EXO and didn't even know that any of the Shinee members were in the building.