The Way Life Is, Chapter 7
Title: The Way Life Is
Author: meridianslair
Pairing: JongKey, 2min
Rating: Pg-13
Summary: After Key's dad dies his mom forces them to move to America. In this new high school, Key finds out the way life is with his new friends. He also finds out how is enemy could possibly become... more?
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6
Taemin recognized the three people hopping out of Jonghyun’s car, the problem was that Jonghyun wasn’t the one driving. Jonghyun never let anyone drive his car even if it was Onew. Taemin watched the scene from his bedroom window and once he heard his stepmom causing a fuss downstairs he thought it was a good time to investigate.
He lazily walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where everyone was surrounding Jonghyun at the table. Taemin tried his hardest not to laugh but at the same time he kind of felt sorry for Jonghyun. He had tissue up to his bloody nose, a bruise forming on his jaw, and an ice pack on his right hand.
“Now tell me, what happened?” his mom looked at him with ‘the look’.
“Mom I’ve already told you, I bumped into a guy and he had well… an attitude. He decided to teach me a lesson, or whatever and beat me up. I just tried defending myself and it was like the guy was made of steel and I hurt my hand,” Minho and Onew nodded their heads agreeing with the story.
Taemin’s dad and stepmom walked past him walking out of the kitchen to talk and that’s when he decided to go and asked for the real truth. Jonghyun wasn’t one to be beaten up, he was always the one beating the other person up.
Taemin walked up to the table and sat down, “So what’s the real story?”
“You’re stupid friend Key decided it would be funny to punch me,” Jonghyun rolled his eyes.
“You aren’t completely innocent either Jonghyun. We know you did something to egg him on, Key isn’t exactly the fighting type,” Minho stated.
“When I walked into the bathroom Key’s eyes had gone wild, it was a lot different from when I see him walking around school. What did you say to make him so different?” Onew questioned.
Jonghyun pondered on the question, “I don’t know called him gay?”
“You call him a fag every day, he wouldn’t be angry over that.” Taemin rolled his eyes.
“Uhhh, I think I said something about his dad?”
“You did what? Oh my god, no wonder he punched you! His dad just died not even a year ago, it’s the whole reason he moved here.”
Jonghyun swallowed, hard. He knew what it was like to feel like you don’t have a dad anymore. Jonghyun’s dad had left him only a few years before his mom had met Taemin’s dad. No one could ever replace his real dad and the pain that came with him gone, but Taemin’s dad was really nice and a good caring father.
Onew shook his head, “I don’t think anyone but Taemin knew that, but I think you should apologize to him Jonghyun.”
“I still can’t believe you fought with Key,” Taemin laughed, “and it looks like he won.”
Taemin’s stepmom and dad walked back in the room, “Ok boys, looks like I’ll be taking you home tonight.”
As Onew and Minho walked out the door with Taemin’s dad, he sighed. Would Minho and him ever be the same again? Onew had said a goodbye as he left, but Minho… didn’t say a word. Taemin began climbing the stairs when he heard his stepmom, “Come on Jonghyun I think the doctors need to take a look at your hand.”
A few minutes later the house was almost completely empty. It was pretty rare for Taemin to be home alone, usually Jonghyun would be in his room blasting his music or something. He jumped face first onto his bed with Amie lying down beside the bed. Taemin screamed into the mattress letting out all of his frustration, maybe Monday would be better.
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Jonghyun stood there Monday morning pacing in front of his locker. How the hell was he suppose to apologize to his number one enemy? It had only been a week since they met, but they already disliked each other. Every time Jonghyun saw Key there was just something in the back of his mind screaming at him, telling him to get on the boy’s nerves.
He always felt the need to be around Key but ignore him at the same time. He wanted to be friends, but he didn’t want to be too close. It was so confusing, so he just fought with him instead.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Onew appeared next to Jonghyun’s locker.
“Thinking about how the hell I’m suppose to apologize.”
“You still haven’t thought about it? You had all weekend!”
Jonghyun stopped pacing and turned to Onew, “I have thought about it all weekend! And I still have no clue on what to say to him.”
“I’m not quite sure either,” the bell signaling getting to first period rang, “but I suggest you think of something before fourth period.”
Jonghyun sighed after the two went their separate ways, how could just one apology make him so nervous?
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Even thought Jonghyun’s hand was sprained he asked his gym coach if he could still participate. His gym coach said it was alright, but he didn’t have to dress out. Even though he didn’t have to dress out he went to the locker rooms, he needed to talk to Onew.
As soon as he opened the door though he bumped into someone and hit his right hand up against the wall, “Ow, fuck!”
“Sorry,” the familiar voice growled.
Jonghyun turned and saw Key, “No, sorry. It wasn’t your fault… I wasn’t uh paying attention?”
Before Key could say anything else Jonghyun pushed him out of the way and ran into the locker room. He walked up to the area Onew’s locker was and couldn’t help but stare at him.
“Oh hey, Jonghyun.”
“I still haven’t thought of anything yet… ”
“Still? Ugh, you’re hopeless.”
“Yeah uh, mind putting your shirt on?”
“What? Afraid you’re gonna get a boner?”
Jonghyun shook his head, the answer to that question was yes actually. Jonghyun knew for a while now that he was attracted to both sexes, but denied it over and over again. He didn’t want to be gay, it just kind of happened. Only a few of his closest friends expected he was “bisexual”, but Jonghyun never seemed like he was going to accept that part of him.
Most people thought he got girlfriends just to have sex with them and discard them soon after, but that wasn’t really the case at all. He had many girlfriends over the years, many of those relationships ended quickly due to all of them expecting sex. Jonghyun wasn’t ready for that part just yet, it scared him to be honest. He was happy with the girlfriend he had now, Jessica. She was beautiful, sweet, and smart; she only acted ditzy because she enjoyed the attention she got from it. Jessica didn’t really want sex either, but there were a few times they both came pretty close.
After Onew finished getting dressed Jonghyun followed him out of the locker room. It looked like today they were playing dodge ball, ugh.
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Friday night when Key had come home, his mother was pretty mad. He was grounded for the weekend, but the only thing he was worried about was what makeup he was going to use to cover his bruise.
In first period Monday, Minho and Key laughed over the fight surprisingly. Everyone had heard of the fight over the weekend and said it should have been taped and put on YouTube. Most of the fights that happened at their school were filmed and put on the website, for laughs later. Key thought it was kind of mean, but he couldn’t stop how them from filming fights.
He was dreading what gym class was going to be like. Jonghyun would probably try and act all high and mighty, but Taemin had told him earlier that he was actually going to apologize. Key thought that was complete bullshit, and was as rare as seeing the Yeti.
When Key was walking out of the locker room though, he bumped into the devil himself. He knew it was his fault for not watching where he was going, but Jonghyun apologized for bumping into him anyways. It came as quite a shock for Key, but before he could say anything Jonghyun was already past him. He walked out to Jake who was messing with some of the gym equipment and sat down.
“What’s with your weird face?”
“I’m just shocked because Jonghyun is actually, how should I put it? Being nice?”
Key told Jake what had happened and he was just as confused as Key was. Jokwon was tardy again because even for gym class he has to diva himself up.
You pretty much know when the coaches are too lazy to do stuff because they just make you play dodge ball, like today. The coaches were off in their own corner, talking away. Unfortunately for Key, they didn’t notice the overgrown seniors knocking him to the ground even though they were on his team.
The first time he brushed it off, the second time he got a little pissed, the third time he yelled at them, but the fourth time a hand appeared in front of him.
“Are you ok?” Jonghyun asked.
Key grabbed the hand and Jonghyun helped pull him up, “Umm yeah, thanks.”
Jonghyun nodded and walked back to his group of friends, while Key just watched him in even more confusion than before.
When the coaches yelled at them to go get dressed, Jonghyun stopped Key.
“Look, I just wanted to say sorry about Friday and… I was wondering if we could call it truce?”
Key was shocked, wondering if he had heard him right, but agreed anyways, “Truce. Oh and sorry about your hand, I guess I’m really hard-headed.”
They both laughed and Key thought, “Maybe he isn’t so bad after all.”
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Hope you enjoyed it 8) Anything you guys are hoping for in the next chapter?
Ack went canoeing a few days ago and I feel like I can still taste the river water in my mouth from when my dad splashed me, eww. After that we had a Harry Potter marathon lol stayed up till 1:30 am and finally called it quits till the next day.