Not Even Death

M Learns The Truth

Tae sat there so still it was as if he'd become a statue. He stared at M, wide-eyed with shock and fear.

"W-what??" He spluttered.

M fixed him a hard look. "Don't deny it. I'm your best friend. The least you could do is tell me the truth."

"Oh, right, sure. You'd totally believe me if I just came up to you and said, 'hey, M! I know we haven't talked for a little over a year, since I was supposed to be dead, but Death gave me a second chance, and here I am as a Korean kid! Surprise!'" Tae shot back sarcastically, folding his arms angrily. "Yeah, no, if I told anyone that, they'd ship me off to a mental hospital!" Then, realizing what he'd just said, Tae's face paled drastically. "I-I...I'm sorry, P, I think I need to go back to the dorm...I don't feel so well..." He picked up his schoolbag and was about to hightail it out of the place when a hand on his wrist stopped him.

"Please..." came M's pleading voice. "Tell me I'm not imagining things. You're really here?"

Tae turned back to M, eyes on his shoes.  "I'm still wondering how the hell you figured it out. What gave me away?? I don't even look the same anymore, M!"

M didn't say a word, just stood from his chair and wrapped Tae and a warm, tight hug. Tae stood there in shock, then concern when he felt M's body slightly trembling.

"M?" He asked tentatively.

"I can't believe it..."

"Are you okay?"

M drew back, staring at Tae in awe and happiness, a few tears dripping down his face. "How...how are you here?? What happened? Dude...I went to your funeral!"

Tae bit his lower lip, glancing around the noodle place. They were starting to attract attention. "Not here, M," he said lowly. "Let's pay for the food, then go back to my dorm. I'll tell you there."

M nodded, too choked up with emotion to speak again.

XXX

"...Death said I only had thirty days to make someone fall in love with me and kiss me so I could stay on earth as Sun Taemin. Next thing I knew, I was waking up under water as Taemin, I passed out, and woke up again in the hospital." Tae watched M's face as a myriad of emotions flickered through his eyes while hearing Tae's words.

"What were you doing underwater?" M asked.

Tae shifted uncomfortably on his bed. "Umm..."

Dae snorted, pushing away from the desk to sit next to Tae. "He wasn't trying to kill himself. The original Taemin drowned because of his asshole teammates on the swim team. They bullied the poor guy."

Tae nodded sadly. "That's how come I have this scar." He pulled down the neck of his shirt and turned slightly, so M could see the half-inch scar that twisted from the side of his neck over his shoulder, and disappearing into his shirt. "It goes all the way down my back, almost to my knee. As if it wasn't bad enough nearly drowning, but I also came close to bleeding to death after."

M was horrified. "Those bastards! Did they get in trouble??"

"Jail," Tae simply said, pulling his collar back into place. He sighed, flinging himself backwards on his bed. "And they can rot there for all I care."

"So your parents took legal action?"

Tae grimaced. "No. I had to do it myself. But the coach and other teammates backed me up, so it worked out. They got life sentences, with no hope of probation, in a maximum security prison. It's worse for them since it's considered a hate crime."

M gave a sharp nod. "Good. But I still think they deserve worse."

"I said they should've been horsewhipped, but that only made Tae laugh his ass off," Dae commented.

Which was proven true by Tae bursting into laughter at his sentence, though it quickly died.

M frowned. "What I don't get is, why didn't your parents help?"

"Because they had already disowned me when I was 16," Tae said softly, draping an arm over his face so M couldn't see how badly he was struggling not to cry.

"What??? Why???"

"M, not everyone is open to same-sex couples."

M thought about it. "Oh, okay. So you're gay. That's cool."

Tae peeked our from underneath his arm. "Waddya mean, 'that's cool'??"

"You were dating P'Arthit before you...uh, got 'reborn', so why should it matter?" M raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, weren't you gay before anyway?"

"No, I was demisexual," Tae murmured.

"Makes sense," M nodded.

"And what's that mean?"

"You're a warm, friendly person who has deep friendships. It doesn't surprise me that all you look at is the person inside, and not the gender," M smirked. "That's love."

Tae threw a pillow at him, cheeks burning. "Shut up!"

"Hey, I'm your senior now. Gotta treat me with respect," M snarked, grinning.

"Yeah, right. Like I'm gonna treat you like a typical senior," Tae laughed at him.

Dae just shook his head, watching as the two wound up having a pillow fight. Eh, at least Tae wasn't moping anymore about none of his past friends knowing him. It had taken Dae himself a couple days to wrap his head around the idea of a person taking over another person's body.

Dae and Tae had been penpals since high school. So when Tae had told him he was coming to Thailand for university, something wasn't adding up. The Tae before the accident had wanted to go on to be a full-fledged Korean idol. But post-accident Tae was talking about enrolling at the same university as Dae and being an Engineering student.

It made no sense.

Lots of arguing, researching, and thinking later, Dae told Tae he believed he was really Kongpob in Tae's body. But that didn't mean the whole thing didn't freak him out!

He was brought back to the present when M yelped as Tae nailed him on the head with his pillow. Both guys started giggling like mad men.

Dae rolled his eyes and went back to the desk to continue studying.

If those two wanted to act like nine-year-olds, who was he to stop them?

Spoiler! Tae has a little sister that he's not allowed to contact by order of his parents.

Spoiler! The next one to figure out who Tae really is will be P'Bright. (Because he watched Arthit and Kongpob interact, so he knows a lot about Kongpob ^_^)

Aaaaaahhhh...I couldn't help myself!!! I just had to write another chapter! And the spoilers were begging to be typed!!

(I'm soooooooooo sleep-deprived, it's not even funny, lol, ha~lp)

I'll try to post another chapter tomorrow. I'm actually writing these and posting them as I go, very unusual for me. I normally write up about five or so chapters, then post them one at a time. This story seems to be flowing pretty well, so I'm not gonna complain. Yet. >.<

Allonsy~

Eli