loose thread;
He’s sitting outside of the Charms classroom chatting with Benjamin Jones, a Ravenclaw and one of his best friends since first year. That’s when the laughter dies on his lips and he’s left with a bitter taste in his mouth. He sees them together again and he knows they’re best friends but it doesn’t do anything to ease his mind which was already working overtime with absentminded thoughts of the brunette.
This isn’t that one piece of loose thread that causes his feelings to unravel, but it contributes to it. It’s a reminder that out of everything Jonghyun is, or is perceived to be, he isn’t gay. He wraps his arms around her shoulder and pulls her close, whispering something in her ear as he leads her down the corridor, no glances spared in Taemin’s direction. To be fair, it’s probably because Kim hasn’t noticed him huddled on the floor with a book in his lap and a frown digging deep into his face.
“That guy is an idiot.” His shoulder is being nudged by Benjy, who is either too perceptive, or perhaps, just knows Taemin a little too well not to know about his feelings. They’ve never spoken them out loud or hinted to them, but it’s one of those things that go without saying. “A pompous idiot who only gets girls because he’s attractive, not because they know anything about his “dazzling” personality.” Benjy has told him things like this before, and he’s also thrown in subtle comments about how Taemin could do better. The Ravenclaw fourth year has had classes with Jonghyun Kim, too, but they were nothing more than peers. Taemin doesn’t take anything the Ravenclaw says to heart, how can he when Benjy didn’t know the first thing about Jonghyun. Honestly speaking, neither does Taemin and he knows that, and hates it more than he dislikes the taste of mince pies. “He’s a tosser, really. I’ve heard things about him.”
Taemin wants to defend Jonghyun, really he does, but he’s never had before and right now he doesn’t have the heart or the energy as he watches Jonghyun and the doe-eyed mudblood’s backs as they turn the corner and out of view. “Out of sight, out of mind?” the half-blood turns back to Taemin, casually flipping a page in his text. Taemin wishes the muggle idiom would prove true but in this instance it doesn’t. His dark eyes can’t even look away from the corner that Jonghyun has turned for a whole two and a half minutes. His desperate look of intense longing was starting to become a more permanent thing and that didn’t settle well with the traditionally obscured Slytherin.