2009-B

Cafés, mall, shopping, bowling, ride in the park, cinema and amusement park. Those were few of the things they planned on doing during the vacation but instead they just stayed in Minho's apartment and enjoyed each other's body, the time passed by too quickly.

"Minho…?" Taemin whispered into the darkness, it was late and in few hours he should be at the airport, he knew he should get some sleep and honestly he was exhausted but his heart was pounding fast in his chest and his brain won't stop thinking.   

"Hmmm" Minho hummed and inhaled, he was already asleep.

"Are you awake?"

"Hmmm…"

Taemin couldn’t see a thing in the darkness, he reached his hand and touched Minho's cheeks softly, his thumb ran over his lips and he giggled quietly when the older kissed it.

"What happened, Taeminnie?" Minho asked sleepily, he opened his eyes slowly and tried to focus "can't fall asleep? Want to go for another round?" he teased.

Taemin giggled again, even if he wanted his bugged him, like telling him to take it slow for awhile.

Soft lips fumbled his with a small kiss but Taemin pulled away "Minho…"

The older frowned but Taemin couldn’t see, he got on his elbow and placed his hand on the boy's neck gently up to his ear "what's wrong?" he asked worriedly and could feel him gulping underneath his palm.

Taemin was nervous, he placed his hand on Minho's wrist and the older stopped him.

"What's wrong Taeminnie?" Minho asked again.

"I don’t want to leave…"

Minho smiled, it was just as usual, every time their vacation ended Taemin was saying that "I know, I don’t want you to leave either"

"I want…to be with you"

"I want to be with you too and-"

"No" Taemin cut him off "I want to be with you as…you know, together, as a couple, not just as my best friend but as my boyfriend" his voice became small with each word.

Minho looked at him but barely saw his face, his smile disappeared "Tae-"

"Why not?" Taemin cut him off again without even wait for his decision.

"Tae-"

"We could be perfect-"

"Would you let me talk!?" Minho raised his voice making him shut and move away from him. Sighing he sat and reached his hand to the small lamp on his nightstand, the light hurt his eyes but Taemin's sad face were hurting even more "mianhae, I didn’t mean to raise my voice like that"

"Never mind forget about it, it was stupid thing to say…"

"It's not stupid" Minho said quietly and reached his hand to hold on Taemin's, the boy turned his head from him and pulled his hand away, he held the blankets to his body defensively.

"Taeminnie…"

"Let it go Minho"

"Aniyo-"

"I asked something stupid and-"

"But you didn't let me answer"

Raising his gaze at the older he bitten his lip and waited for Minho to talk.

"I love you, you know that-"

"But as a friend, a brother?"  

"Let me talk…" Minho almost begged "I love you more than you could imagine and there were days I thought about it but it can't work"

Tears sprang in Taemin's eyes as he asked "why not?"

"We see each other once in two years, how can we have a relationship like that?"   

"I'll come more often…I'll work and save money and come more often, you can come to Wisconsin in your semester breaks, we can do that"

Minho looked at the 16 years old boy and saw only seriousness in his eyes.

"I love you Minho and I want to be with you, I don’t care how far we are from each other"

"That won't be easy"

"I don’t care"

Minho sighed "and what if it won't work?"

"Then we'll be friends again…like always"

It took him time but a soft smile eventually crossed his lips, he cupped the boy's cheeks as he drew him to his lips with a gentle kiss "Taeminnie…"

"Please"

"Stubborn"

"I know"

"I love you"

"I love you too…be mine" Taemin mumbled against Minho's lips before he glued them together with a passionate kiss.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Please! Please…pretty please. Debbie, please!"

She couldn’t say no to him and he knew it…and they needed workers anyway… and he was making the puppy eyes thing…and "oh god! OK, OK, just stop whining"

"Thank! You're the best!!!" Taemin jumped over the counter and hugged the woman.

At the moment Taemin came back from Korea finding a part time job was the only thing on his mind, his parents disliked it thinking it would distract him from school but he begged them to give him a chance to prove differently, eventually they agreed.

Today was his lucky day, he came to have lunch at the diner and saw a little sign on the front door 'help needed', he ripped the sign and rushed in waving it in front of Debbie. To be honest he never washed dishes in his life but that wasn’t going to stop him.

"When can I start?"

"Tomorrow"

"Yay!" the boy thrilled. 

"Now go and take a sit I'll bring you some lunch"

Taemin did as been told, when Debbie brought his food he ate as fast as he could, he paid and thanked her before he rushed home- can't wait to tell Minho the great news.

Working and studying wasn’t easy but Minho was always on his mind and he knew that as hard as he'll work the faster he'll see him, every day after school he came to the diner for lunch and homework before he started his shift, washing dishes, cleaning and sometime even helping with food serving, he done everything Debbie asked him to.  

After a shift and a good shower he used to spend the late night hours to talk with his boyfriend, usually he was just falling asleep on the line but they couldn’t find some other times because they both had busy days. On weekends they talked on 'skype' for hours, they even tried to make it more intimate by using the video chat for cyber calls, sometimes it worked up fine, sometimes it ended embarrassingly when Taemin's mother walked in without knocking, the one thing good that the boy learned from it was- locking the door!

Now, after almost 5 months he finally got enough money for a flight…and even little extra, so he decided to surprise Minho.

The tattoo's shop located pretty far from his home, somewhere no one he knows could possibly ran into him, if his parents would ever find out he was going to make a tattoo- he'll be dead.

He read about the place on the internet, there were a lot of good reviews on it, however it wasn’t easy- he needed his parents' permission because he was underage and that was a little tricky to get but he managed to fake it on the papers.

"Hey…" pierced girl welcomed him as he walked in.

"Hi, I'm Tyler"

"Rose" she said with a smile "we talked on the phone"

Taemin nodded and she asked him to sit and wait for Alex, the tattoos artist. While he was waiting he looked around, on the walls there were a lot of pictures of tattoos that people had done, so many beautiful drawings.

"Tyler…" beard man came from the backroom while a young girl walked out toward Rose, Taemin glanced at her before he looked at the man, he was wearing a tee that hide tattooed arms "come in" he said and went back into the backroom.

Taemin followed him, the backroom was sterile with bright light, there was a big chair in the middle of it just like at the dentist.

"I'm Alex" the man said as he tapped on the chair, Taemin took a seat his eyes still looking at the room, suddenly he felt less brave then he felt when he decided he wants to have a tattoo.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen and half" Taemin said quietly.

Alex wore latex gloves and got closer to the chair "did your parents signed on the papers?"

Taemin nodded and pulled form his pocket the necessary papers, the tattoo artist looked at it before he nodded in approval.

"So, what do you want and where?"

"I want to write the name 'Minho' on my lower back" he mumbled and lay on the chair as he ed his jeans and lowered it to show Alex where he wanted the tattoo to be "over here" he pointed above his left buttock.

Alex took a pen and wrote 'Minho' in curly letters on his skin, he gave Taemin a little mirror to look on it as he did.

"Like that?"

"Yes…"  

Alex nodded and started to get the needle and ink in the tattoos gun, Taemin watched through the whole time, his body shook a little bit and at the back of his head a voice told him he could still regret it.

Alex sterilized his skin before he rubbed an ointment into it "tattoo is drawing" he said "but unlike a drawing I can't erase what's done, so try to stay calm and not move"

Taemin hummed and the tattoo artist the gun. At the moment the needle touched his skin a cry of pain echoed at the backroom, it was InG hurts.

"Don’t move" Alex asked again and placed his hand on him as he moved the gun against his skin, Taemin bitten his lip in order to muffle himself and tears sprang in his eyes from the pain, the letter 'M' lasted forever.   

When Alex cleaned the ink from his skin with a little napkin Taemin whimpered weakly "I don’t want to…"

The tattoo artist didn’t seem to be surprised by him, guess it wasn’t the first time a child came to his shop and his bubble burst when the needle touched his skin, he shut the gun and waited.

Taemin wiped the tears that escaped his guard and tried to in few shaky breaths, his skin burned and his lower back was hurts "I don’t want to…" he said again.

"You want to leave it like that?"

Taemin looked through the little mirror and saw a simple curly 'M' above his buttock, it looked lame. However bearing the pain through the 'inho' wasn't an option, it was too much.

"Can you make it…prettier, or something?" he asked with trembling voice.

"I can decorate it a little"

Taemin nodded weakly and when Alex turned his gun again he shut his eyes and fisted his hands, trying not to scream or move.

"Your girlfriend's name?" Alex asked as he moved the gun.

Taemin could barely talk, he felt paralyzed "m-my…boyf-riend"

Alex smiled "how long you two been together?"

Taemin groaned with pain and breathed the words "5 months but…we-we know each other for y-yeahhh! Years"

"He's at the same age as you?"

"Ol-older. Are yo-u done?"

Alex didn’t answer, he kept drawing on his skin and after what seems like eternity he shut his gun.

Taemin felt the pulse on his skin and he wanted to scream from the pain but held himself, he looked through the mirror and fell in love immediately with his new tattoo, the letter 'M' with two stars on his upper side, one star was bigger then the other, it made him smile.

"I like it" he said quietly.

Alex was already removing the needle from the gun as he explained the boy how to treat his new tattoo "6 hours from now remove the bandage" he said and placed one on his skin "when you do, wash it gently with soap, don’t wipe it too hard just tap with the towel, don’t scratch, rub the ointment I'll give you 3 times a day"

Taemin nodded and when the tattoo artist finished he got up from the chair slowly.

Alex walked him outside they boy looked a little pale "no pool, no sea and the most important no sun"

Taemin nodded again as he made his way to Rose and paid for his tattoo, he thanked them both and walked slowly outside the tattoo's shop.