"Debbie" Minho said as he reached the counter where she was standing.

The woman took a look at him frowning "yes?"

"Minho" he said pointing at himself, watching here as her face changed, she circled the counter and got closer to him, wrapping her arms around him with comforting hug.

Minho froze, he stared at her till she let go of him "I look…Tae- Tyler, can't find where…" he mumbled with the much he knew in English "태민 어머니님, 아버지님...엄마, 아빠?" he said desperately.

"You're looking for his parents…? Mom? Dad?"    

"Mom, nae…mom!"

Taking his hand in her she lead him to sit by the counter before she looked for her bag and took out her cell phone, she looked for Mrs. Lee's number and wrote it on a napkin for him.

Minho looked at the napkin and then at Debbie before he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed.

He waited for what seems to be eternity before a soft and quiet voice filled the line "hello?"

"Mrs. Lee? It's Minho…"

"Minho…" Taemin's mother whispered his name with a sad voice.

"Where is Taemin? Is he alright? I called you for so many times and nobody answered, I came here and-"

"You're in Wisconsin?" she cut him off a little surprised.

"Nae… I tried to call you but you wouldn’t answerer"

"Minho, where are you?"

"At the diner"

"Wait for me over there"

"Mrs. Lee…please, where is Taemin?" he asked desperately "please, is he alright?"

Mrs. Lee took a shaky breath as she said "We're at the hospital"

Minho felt relieved, Taeminnie was ok at the hospital where doctors took care of him "where is it? I'll come"

She gave him the address and he wrote it on the napkin before they hung up the call, he got up from the stool he was sitting on and put the napkin in his pocket, he was about to leave when suddenly Debbie called his name.

She got closer to him and grabbed his hands "Tyler forgot it here, just before he took the flight to Korea" she said and places something in his palms.

Minho looked at his hand, an old Rubik's cube- the one that he gave him when they were kids.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

He took a cab to the hospital, somehow managing to tell the driver the exact address. At the hospital he called Mrs. Lee again and she told him exactly where to go, they met at the elevators by the rehab department.

"Minho-ya…" Mrs. Lee hugged him tightly.

"Where is he? Is he ok?"

"He's fine now, he got a tranquilizer not so long ago"

"What happened to him?"

"Limbs injuries, both of his legs were hurt, he already had a surgery"

Minho's face changed with pain "can I see him?"

She nodded and he followed her, when they reached Taemin's room she walked in quietly just in case he was sleeping.

Taemin was awake, he looked from his sickbed at the window with glazed eyes.

"Taemin-ah…" his mother said softly as she reached the bed, she his hair, trying to get his attention.

Taemin didn’t move.

"Taemin-ah, Minho is here to see you"

Blinking, he turned his gaze from the window and looked at his mother "Minho?" his voice was husky.

"Yes, he came from Korea, he was worried about you…"

Minho watched from aside, his lover's legs were bandaged and he had few bruises on his shoulders and ribs from what he could see, his lips were dry and bloody and so the scratches on his face.

Tears sprang in Taemin's eyes and he looked confused, his aching chest fell and rose in painfully harsh breathings "Minho…?"

The older took few steps toward his sickbed "Taeminnie" he said softly, his heart pounded wildly.

"NO! NO!" the boy called and shut his eyes waving his hand weakly "go away!"

Minho looked at Mrs. Lee confused.

"GO! AWAY!" the boy raised his voice "I don’t want to see you…go!"

"Taeminnie!" Minho called and got even closer making the boy raise his voice even louder.

Sharp cry of pain paralyzed Taemin when he accidently moved his legs, he started to cry as he begged "please go! Leave me alone…"

Mrs. Lee rang the emergency bell by Taemin's bed and a nurse came into the room "Minho, wait outside please…"

Broken hearted the older did as been told while the nurse took care of Taemin along with his mother, looking from afar as his lover suffered with pain.

 

After a long hour Taemin was finally asleep, Mrs. Lee came out of his room exhausted, Minho got up from the floor where he waited, in front of Taemin's room, he got closer to Mrs. Lee and looked at her with questioning eyes.

"Let's go" she said tiredly.

Minho shook his head "Taemin-"

"His father would be here any moment, don’t worry" she cut him off.

"Why wouldn’t he want to see me?" his voice cracked, his lower lip trembled and his eyes became teary.

"It's nothing personal" Mrs. Lee gave him a sad look and held his arm however he pulled away "Minho-ya…"

"I don’t understand…why, why wouldn’t he? He knows how much I love him"

"He's just confused" she tried to hold his arm again but he moved.

"Can I stay here with him?"

"It's getting late and you're probably tired and hungry-"

"I don’t care, let me be with him, you and Mr. Lee could get the night off, I know you probably haven't left his sickbed from the moment he arrived"

Mrs. Lee looked at him for a long moment and saw despair in his eyes, eventually she nodded and leaned forward to tap a kiss on his cheek "if you need anything call me"

"Komawoyo"

Minho watched her leaving before he walked into the room, it was quiet unlike the rest of the rehab department, the only light came from the windows and soft breeze cooled the space. Taemin was asleep, a needle was stuck in his arm with infusion, his injured legs were covered with a thin blanket, his bare chest rose and fell slowly in a peaceful rhythm.

Minho got closer to his bed and grabbed a chair to sit by his side, he stared at his young lover for a long moment, feeling his heart aching just by the though that a lot worst could have happened to him.

Reaching his hand he his hair softly, played with it in between his fingers, Taemin opened his eyes slowly and looked at him, tears blurred his vision and he turned his head away.

"Why you're still here?" he asked quietly, small hiccups escaped his throat.

"Are you serious? Do you really think I would go?"      

Taemin covered his eyes with his arm and started to sob, his whole body shook as he mumbled something the older couldn’t understand.

"Taeminnie…" Minho was helpless "why do you want me to go? I was so worried, at the moment I heard the news I dropped everything and came, I didn’t care about anything but you" he waited long until the boy calmed and lowered his arm to look into his eyes.

"I don’t want you to see me like that…defective"

"Defective?!"

"Broken, needy, handicap!"

"You're none of that"

Taemin shook his head "we should breakup" he said all of sudden, taking the older by surprise.

"What?! No! Stop talking nonsense! We're not breaking up and you're not defective and you're going to be just fine and we gonna do all the things we planned and that's it"  

"I'm not going to be fine!" suddenly Taemin looked angry "the doctors don’t know if I could even walk again!"

Minho looked at the boy with fear in his heart.

"…So I'm not going to be fine and we're not going to do all the things we planned because I… I'm going to have a long rehab-"

"So what? We got time" Minho cut him off.

"It's not about time"

"So what is it about?"

Taemin looked at the older through a screen of tears "I can't walk, I can't even pee by myself…"

"It's been only two days since the crush, things would get better with time, I'll be here by your side and help you-"

Taemin shook his head making his words drift "-I can't ask you to take it on yourself " he saw the older opening his mouth to speak but kept talking "I don’t know what will happen from now on, and…" he paused and inhaled, his voice shook as he said quietly "you can still find someone else and you won't have to deal with all that "

"I don’t want someone else" the older said raising his voice "don’t you get it?"

The boy looked at him and let the tears roll down his cheeks, he didn’t move when Minho reached his hand and wiped it away.

"Don’t push me away" he said cupping his cheek gently, trying to avoid his scratches "I didn’t came her for nothing, I came because I love you and I'm not giving up on you, araso?!"

They sat quietly for a while, looking at each other, Minho Taemin lovingly, roamed his hand on his bruises gently and caught his hand in his, he lowered his head and tapped a kiss in his palm "were you scared?"

Taemin gulped and nodded.

"What happened?"

The boy's eye became blank as he opened his mouth to speak. Truly he hadn't told anybody yet, not even his parents, not that anyone asked- they thought that maybe it’s shouldn’t be mention because he needed time to process what happened to him "the plane shook…and the pilot ordered to wear the seatbelts, the masks fell from above and I remember I thought it was air turbulence but then it shook stronger and I felt like losing the floor underneath my legs, everybody were quiet at first…but then we heard an explosion and people started to scream. I remember looking outside the window and there was a heavy smoke, then the plane…fell? I don’t know what it was but it was hurts" Taemin paused and glanced at Minho as he lowered the blanket a little to expose his waist, it had blue marks all over with the shape of a belt "the next thing I remember I was in that smoke I saw and my whole body was hurts and it burned so bad"

Minho felt a lump in his throat, he got up from the chair and settled himself on the bed by the younger's side, he wrapped his arms around his lover and held him as he whispered how much he love him into to his ear, Taemin breathed harshly from the pain the older caused him, crushing him in his hug but reached his hand and wrapped around him as tightly as he could "I love you too Minho…"

"I don’t care how long" Minho said and pulled away to look into the boy's eyes "I'm here and I'm not leaving…"

Taemin nodded weakly as he angled his head and fumbled for his lips with a soft kiss.

Separating Minho helped the boy lay down and begged him to get some rest, he stayed by his bed all night long, woke up and fell asleep whenever he did, called the nurses whenever he was in pain, done anything he could to ease on him.

 

 

2019

 

Taemin tried to push all of his papers into his case as he walked into the restaurant, the good smell of traditional food filled his nostrils making his stomach growl, he hadn’t been eating anything today since he walked into court and he was starving.

"Anyonghaseo Mr. Lee!"

Taemin smiled at the receptionist guessing she was new, he hadn’t saw her before "anyonghaseo…" he mumbled as he passed by her straight into the main office.

Few waitresses and even the chef waved at him as he reached the back of the restaurant and walked into Minho's office, the older who was sitting behind his big desk was on the phone, probably with his father by the way the vein in his forehead popped out. He closed the door behind him and waited patiently till the call ended.

"Taeminnie!" Minho called excitedly as always while he got up from his chair and came closer to the younger, Taemin smiled at him and took the remaining steps to fall into his hug.

Even if 5 years has past by Minho could still see that small limp he had, it showed up when the boy was nerves or when the weather changed but only he saw it, it was almost invisible to the eye, Taemin worked really hard to heal from his injuries and unlike the doctors expected he got back on his feet, sure he couldn’t run but he walked.

"How is your legs?" Minho asked now as they separated and sat by his desk.

"Fine…I'm limping, am I?"

"Just a little"

"Big case, I'm nerves…what if the judge would claim guilty? I don’t want to lose" he said with his serious face but the growl from his stomach made them both laugh, he rubbed his stomach with a sheepish smile.

"What do you want to eat?"

"Jjajangmyeon" Taemin said cheerily as he saw Minho reaching his phone and calling the kitchen.  

"It would color your teeth in black! You can't show up like that in court"

"I don’t care" he giggled and waited till the older ordered the chef to make him a dish with black sauce noodles.

With few moments a waitress walked into the office with Taemin's food, he thanked her with a soft smile as he pushed the noodles into his mouth.

"Eat slowly, your stomach would hurts"

"I'm hungry" Taemin whined at the older.

Minho smiled, he reached his hand to catch Taemin's chin in between his fingers as he leaned across the table and tapped a kiss on his mouth, his lips colored in black making the younger laugh at him.

They sat for a long hour, talking and laughing before Taemin had to go back to court, he thanked the older by sitting on his lap and kissing him passionately before he got out of his office, Minho walked him holding his hand.

"Don’t forget we're having dinner together, don’t be late" the older said now as they were standing outside the restaurant.

Taemin made a face hoping the older hadn’t noticed he forgot, he nodded his head quickly "sure"

"You forgot, hadn't you?"

"Just a little…but I remember now "

"Taeminnie…"

"Sorry, I'll be here on time"

Minho looked at him with a face that says 'yeah right' as he leaned and kissed him.

"See you later big lawyer"

The boy giggled and hugged him tightly before he called a cab and got on his way.

 

Oh, he was late, Minho would be upset. Taemin reached his pocket and pulled his phone, he texted him adding a lot of smiling emoticons hoping it would make his delay forgiven.

Minho sent him a thumb up and tired emoticons in response.

Putting his phone back in his pocket Taemin left the court building and tried to catch a cab, god help him with Manhattan at the rush hours.

He arrived the restaurant 30 minutes later, in his mind he already thought about dozens of apologies that disappeared at the moment he walked through the main door.

The restaurant was empty from costumers and the lights were dim, music played softly at the background, the smell of food cooking lingered at the air, there was only one waitress at the kitchen along with the chef and all of the tables were gone except one, where Minho sat.

Taemin frowned as the older reached by his side "M-Minho…? What's going on?"

Minho took the case from his hand and placed it on the floor before he held his hand in his and pulled him to the table.

"What I'm missing here?"

"I had the feeling you forgot…" Minho said smiling as he pulled the chair for the boy, he waited for him to sit and took the seat in front of him.

"Forgot what?" Taemin frown, suddenly his face changed with realization "oh, ! I'm so sorry…how could I forgot that?! I'm such a horrible husband!"

Minho chuckled "happy anniversary Taeminnie"

"I'm "

"No you're not..."

"I forgot our first anniversary!"

"You were busy with this big case, its ok. Besides we'll have many more years to celebrate our anniversaries"

"But it's the first…" Taemin said disappointed with himself "if I forgot that one…and I haven’t even bought you anything!"

"I don’t need a gift" Minho said and held his hand, he placed it to his mouth and tapped a kiss in his palm.

"I'm so sorry" Taemin apologized once again "I'll make it up to you, I promise…I'll do whatever you'll like!"

"Anything?" Minho asked with a playful smirk.

"Anything! Even the ert things you like…"

Laughing Minho got up from his chair "dance with me" he asked as he pulled the boy to his feet "that's all I want"

Taemin smiled and wrapped his arms around his husband's neck "that's it?"

"Hmmm…"

"I'm giving you a chance to have ert things and you want to dance?"

"Nae"

Taemin stared at Minho as they moved together to the sound of the music, he looked deeply into his eyes as he whispered 'I love you', he was the luckiest man in the whole world, having that man by his side.

He never thought that things would turn up this way, after the crush Minho stuck by his side as he promised, he helped him work hard so he could get back on his feet, he moved to USA even if they planned differently.

Minho told his parents he was gay eventually, it was when he got back to Korea to pack his life, his father was a little angry at him at the time and Taemin believed it wasn’t because he was gay but because he hided it all of those years. Of course both of them were wrong, apparently his parents knew all along just kept it to themselves- they waited for him to talk about it when he was ready, not wanting to push him or embarrass him with privet questions, his father however was angry at him for a different reason.

Mr. Choi who worked hard on Minho's training for the family business knew that it was all for nothing at the day his son left his office and missed an important meeting, a meeting that could help him find a business partner to open one of his successful restaurants in USA.

Months later Minho received a call for his father telling him that he finally got a business partner and asked him to manage his new restaurant, tired from chasing part time jobs in a place he barely knew the language he accepted the so called apology from his father and in a few months he became the manager.  

Taemin who was busy at that time in Wisconsin finishing the last semester he missed because of the crush supported his lover, however he lived separated from him till everything got in it place, after Minho finally got on his feet and opened the restaurant they moved to Manhattan.

They found a little apartment not so far from the restaurant, it had only one bedroom but it was enough for now, the rent was pretty low and it allowed them to save some money for their dream house.

While Minho finally got the perfect job Taemin was having a hard time to find a place that would hire him- a young lawyer with no experience, for so long Minho offered him to join him at the restaurant just until he'll find a job but the boy refused, knowing that if he'll join his lover he'll be stuck there forever, not that it was such a bad thing but he wanted to be a lawyer, so they lived on a low budget until he found a job, it was frustrating but eventually he found a great job with great salary.

Not long has passed before Minho got on his knee with a ring, they went out on a romantic picnic in 'Central park' and at the moment he kneel he thought that the whole park heard the boy screaming 'YES'.

Minho wanted to get married in Korea but every time they talked about it his young lover got into a panic attack, still traumatized from the last flight he took- can't blame him. Understanding he didn’t push him to agree, Taemin offered they'll go on their honeymoon instead and the older agreed with the compromise- they haven’t gone on their honeymoon yet though.

The waitress served their food while they kept dancing in each other arms, oblivious to all around them.

The boy leaned his head on his husband's shoulder and nuzzled his nose against his neck, Minho chuckled and placed his hand on his nape, he pulled his hair gently making him raise his head and glued their lips together in hunger, tongues mingled together and teeth clashed as they tasted each other.

"Taeminnie…" Minho said quietly when they separated and looked deeply into his eyes, the boy hummed and smiled at him his eyes were lidded and full with love.   

"I have something for you"

"What is it?" Taemin asked and narrowed his eyes suspiciously.  

Chuckling over the boy's reaction Minho tapped a kiss on his forehead "it's… something pretty big, something we wanted but couldn’t afford for long"

Taemin frowned and tried to think what they wanted to do for long, was his husband talking about their honeymoon? Because he still had doubts about taking a flight but on the other hand they could afford it so he wasn’t sure what Minho was talking about "what is it?" he asked again.

"…I know I should have done it along with you but I really wanted to surprise you"

"Minho!" Taemin said seriously, the curiosity messed up with his head, he stopped moving his body to the rhythm of the music and demanded "what is it, tell me!"  

The older couldn’t erase the stupid grin from his face as he pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a little key chain, he waved it in front of his husband who stared at it confused for a brief moment before his eyes bulged and his jaw almost hit the floor "you didn’t!"

Minho nodded and laughed when Taemin snapped the key from his hand.

"You…oh my got you didn’t! Minho!"

"It's not a big place but it has 2 bedrooms and a nice living room, you could finally have your own study room instead of working in bed with your laptop. The kitchen and the bathroom needs a little painting job but other than that everything is fine, we'll even have a little yard"

Taemin bitten his trembling lip, tears of excitement already blurred his vision as he threw himself over the older with suffocating hug "I love you, so much!"

"I love you too Taeminnie"