Seeing isn't believing.

Jonghyun sat quietly, there was a pain in his chest after confessing he wanted to come out that he was really with Kibum. The CEO big rig on the other side of the table twiddled his thumbs and stared hard at the young man.

“That Jonghyun, will never happen.”

“You can’t stop it from happening… I’m just.” He wanted to start to yell he wanted to scream at this guy.

“If you come out that you’re sleeping with Key it’ll be the end of SHINee.” He placed his palms on the table and leaned forward in his chair, “Do you understand Jonghyun? Have you told Key you want to do this? Do you know how important being an idol is to him?”

Jonghyun’s hands clenched into fists, his face changed into something unpleasant as he glared at the man.

“I’m waiting Jonghyun.” The man sad with a smile. “I tell you what, don’t tell Key and I’ll act like you didn’t say anything.”

Jonghyun got back to the dorm, looking pissed he threw his bag on the floor and breezed by the other members slamming the bedroom door. Kibum fell off the couch landing on top of Taemin who made a whimpering sound.

“Sorry Minnie..” Kibum said rolling off the younger boy, noting the whole two seconds it took for Minho to be at the other boy’s side.

“What was that about?” Minho asked Kibum as he fixed Taemin’s hair, Taemin with a goofy grin as he waited for Minho to finish.

Kibum shrugged looking towards the bedroom, “I’ll give a little time, I don’t like him when he’s angry.” He rested again this time on the floor. The door opened again and in walked Jinki grinning like an idiot, in Kibum’s perspective. “How was your night hyung?” Kibum asked as he walked by.

Jinki shook his head and smiled more, “Perfect.”

He looked like he would be sick, his boyfriend was in a foul mood, Taemin and Minho were practically holding each other to his left, and Jinki was having a good day too. Not fair.

Not fair at all. Kibum thought to himself as he got off the floor and went to stay in Jinki’s room for the night. He didn’t want to seem overbearing to his upset boy toy, and he wasn’t sharing a room with Taemin and Minho.

Kibum briefly explained the reason to Jinki who lost his goofy smile and started to look serious. In the end he let Kibum have the room to himself and went to check on his friend Jonghyun.

Jonghyun was laying on his stomach a pulled under his head, wide awake and still glaring.

“Kibum said you came home angry…”

“What’s the point Jinki.” Jonghyun’s voice came out soft, poetic sounding as he stared at the white wall ahead of him.

“What do you mean?” Jinki walked further into the room and shut the door behind him, sitting on the edge of the bunk bed next to Jonghyun.

Jonghyun took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, but he didn’t speak.

Jinki smiled, “Feel better?”

He shook his head, tears were starting to form in his eyes. “I told them I wanted to come out about me and Kibum… I told them I wanted people to know, I was tired of hiding it.”

“And…?”

“It’d be the end of SHINee… end of Kibum’s career. They made our love sound so toxic Hyung I don’t know what to do.” He buried his head into the pillow to hide his tears.

Biting his lip Jinki scooted closer to Jonghyun, placing his hand on his back, “It’ll be okay Jonghyun, I know you and Kibum, there’s nothing toxic about you. Did you tell Kibum you were doing this?”

He shook his head, “I wanted to tell him after…”

“Should I get him?”

It pained Jonghyun but he shook his head, “I don’t want him to know about this… ever hyung.” He said looking over at Jinki.

Jinki smiled, “No problem.”

“I shouldn’t have told you…” Jonghyun had finished crying and rested his head to the side again.

He tsked Jonghyun, “Trust me I can keep a secret. I have one right now.” He said with a grin.

‘’What?” Jonghyun raised an eyebrow and sat up on his bed.

“It’s a secret I can’t tell you.” Jinki replied leaning away from Jonghyun.

“I can keep a secret too Hyung…”

Jinki pouted, “Since you told me something important… I’ll tell you. I got a girlfriend.” He smiled widely, “You know her, SeKyung.”

Jonghyun smiled sincerely, “Congratulations Hyung.”

Promotions started for Lucifer, Jonghyun kept his secret and Jinki’s too. He easily smiled with Kibum, even if it still hurt knowing they couldn’t announce how happy they were together. In private though, he could express himself, love Kibum and make up for everything else.

Jinki called on Jonghyun from time to time, to follow him on his little dates with Sekyung so people wouldn’t see them and he agreed to do so, knowing how precious a secret could be. From his point of view they were a cute couple, shy but sweet.

One night when Kibum commented on how close he was getting with Jinki, he could only smile and ask if he were jealous. Kibum’s face turned red as he went on about how he would never be jealous of anything Jinki did, and Jonghyun just laughed petting his face.

How could they know that beneath this surface a plot was boiling? Something to try and tear them apart, ruin their happy feeling.

One night Jonghyun received a call from Sekyung she asked him to meet her outside so they could talk about Jinki. She said their 100 days was coming up and she wanted to surprise him, but wanted help from Jonghyun. How could he deny a request like that?

How could he know there was someone watching them, photographing them ask they walked? As he held her because she complained she was cold, or while he held her phone to her ear as she spoke to Jinki? He was completely unaware, completely fooled.

The photos weren’t leaked quickly, they were thought out well, a day when Jonghyun had gone home to his family after hurting his leg. While SHINee was busy with their schedule the story broke out.

SHINee’s Jonghyun confirmed dating actress Shin SeKyung. With both agencies confirming it before Jonghyun even heard about it, how could he deny it?

As soon as he saw he went to SM, demanded to know why they’d like like this and was sat down in the same office again. The same man sat across from him with a crude smile on his face. His expression never changing as Jonghyun went on about how everything was a complete fabrication.

“Jonghyun, you wanted to come out about your relationship. We’re giving you just that.”

“I meant the real one.” Jonghyun said almost snarling.

He smiled at Jonghyun again, “Maybe you should see this in a better light Jonghyun, you can still be a singer. Kibum isn’t even affected by this, he’s not part of this scandal and you get to see what would happen if we had let you do what you want.”

Jonghyun wanted to scoff, but suddenly it hit him, Kibum didn’t know anything. Standing up from the chair he glared at the man one last time before grabbing his coat and running out of the office.

Jonghyun returned to the dorms, getting scolded by Taemin and Minho before he could close the door. Jinki and Kibum weren’t at the home but they should have been… he found out from Taemin, Kibum had ran out of the dorm after hearing it.

“He looked like he was crying Hyung.” Minho added from over Taemin’s shoulder.

They were still mad at him, he didn’t care if they were, but he couldn’t have Kibum misunderstanding this. Rushing out he started to call Kibum’s cell but he didn’t answer, had he waited a moment he would have heard it ringing in the dorm. Next he called Jinki.

“Hello.”

“Jinki!”

“Meet us… we’re close.”

He told him the restaurant and Jonghyun ran until he was there. Jonghyun didn’t wait to be helped he started looking around until he saw two boys sitting side by side in a booth. One was being held… but it wasn’t the one he was expecting.

Jinki was crying.

Jonghyun walked over quietly and sat on the other side of the table, Kibum looked at him and smiled. He noted how red his eyes looked, but his heart felt safe seeing him smile.

“Jinki…”

“I’m sorry you two.” Jinki said as he got control of himself, still he leaned on Kibum as if he’d fall over without him there.

“You just missed SeKyung.” Kibum informed Jonghyun. “They paid her to lie… they paid her company to lie too…”

Jonghyun may have been happy Kibum had smiled at him but seeing Jinki upset and knowing why hurt him again. “Jinki I’m so sorry this is my fault.”

“It’s better… for me to find out the type of person she was.” Jinki said covering his face with his hands, “I’m going to leave you two, please… I just want to be alone for a while.”

Jonghyun nodded, he knew the feeling, “Don’t turn your phone off or we’ll worry.” He said as Jinki stood up.

Jinki nodded at Jonghyun and touched his shoulder as he passed by. “I kept your secret… You might want to come clean now.”

Jonghyun felt pain seeing Jinki looking so sad, he touched the top of his hand, “Thank you, Hyung.”

He waited until Jinki had left to look at Kibum again. Kibum’s eyes looked really puffy and he frowned seeing it, “I didn’t…”

“I know.” Kibum nodded, “Jinki told me she was his girlfriend.. it was a misunderstanding.”

“But… That’s not the whole story Kibum.” His hands were cupped in his lap as he leaned forward a little, “This is my punishment.” Jonghyun said looking at Kibum intently.

“Punishment?” He frowned, “For what?”

Jonghyun bit his lip, he felt like an idiot suddenly, “I told them our label we were dating… and that I wanted to announce it.”

Kibum looked a little dumbfounded, slowly a smile formed on his lips, “Why would you do that?”

“Because I wanted people to know… that you’re mine.” The smile on Kibum’s lips almost sooth the embarrassed feeling he was having.

“Jonghyun as long as we know I don’t care. I know I’m yours. But now I have to listen to you talk about her on programs.. Aish, look at what you did.” He frowned and crossed his arms over his chest giving Jonghyun a sideways glance.

Jonghyun smiled, “How about every time I say something good about her I’ll actually be talking about you?”

Kibum looked up as if he were thinking about it, “… buy me some new sunglasses and we’ll see.”

Jonghyun smiled, “I just did!”

“That was last month! Look at my face, I can’t have people see me looking like this!” Kibum whined cutely.

Jonghyun feeling happy this hadn’t pushed them apart. “Okay. Just one pair."