Key had the weirdest dream last night. He dreamt of being surprised with a farewell party by his friends at one of the hottest clubs in New York that you couldn’t get in without having connections and then getting high on vodka shots, squeezing with everyone else on the dancefloor and losing himself to the beat. Right, nothing weird about that… until he finally returned to his dorm just before sunrise and found someone who strikingly resembled Minho sitting outside his door like a watchdog. Scratch that. Because even with a whole lot of alcohol in his system, Key’s vision was clear enough to recognise that it was truly Minho who was glaring at him when he walked up towards his dorm. In his dream, Minho spared him no mercy and began shouting at him, lecturing him like his mother would and demanding to know where he was all night, coming back smelling like he swam in alcohol. Key remembered that apart from being absolutely shocked by seeing Minho right in front of his eyes, he also blocked out his boyfriend’s voice and chose to shut him up with a rough kiss. And well, things heated up after that with lips, tongues and hands immediately working full speed ahead, Key using his free hand to unlock the door, forcing Minho inside his room, straddling him on the bed, tugging both their clothes off and pushing their hips together. The remaining part of the dream was just too explicit for Key to describe so he would sum it up in three words - Mind. Blowing. .

Without a doubt, Key was suffering from a hangover but he had a smile plastered on his face when he woke up. What a wonderful dre- Wait a minute! Key’s eyes flew open upon the realisation that he was in actual fact suffering from a hangover. If he was having a hangover now, wouldn’t it mean that the surprise farewell party wasn’t a dream? And if the farewell party wasn’t a dream, then wouldn’t seeing Minho outside the door of his dorm in New York be reality instead? Key gasped and immediately got up from lying down, except that he couldn’t because there was a weight on his bare chest that caused him to fall back on the mattress. Key instantly looked down as he held his breath. His eyes widened at the sight of an arm stretched across his torso, an arm that he could recognise but couldn’t believe he was seeing in New York.

Key’s heart was drumming hard. His expectations were so high till he couldn’t imagine the disappointment if what he believed was happening right now turned out to be wrong. Key bit his lip as his eyes trailed from the arm on his chest, moving on to the shoulder, up to the neck and finally reaching the face of the person that was lying next to him. And when Minho’s face registered in Key’s mind, Key could swear he wanted to scream out loud (not in horror of course). If only he hadn’t stopped breathing for a good 5 seconds. A thousand, if not more, questions flooded his mind. He was supposed to catch a flight back to Seoul in three days so what on earth was Minho thinking when he flew to New York? Why was Minho even in New York in the first place? Or was he still dreaming?

With that thought, Key didn’t hesitate to pinch the arm that lay comfortably on his chest. When he felt real flesh and heard a grunt from beside him, Key let out a hearty laugh.

“Kibum…” A groan so deep and familiar sounded in Key’s ears and continued into a mumble. “I need more sleep.”

Key quickly turned to lie on his side and stared disbelievingly at Minho who still had his eyes closed, seemingly drifting back to sleep. “Choi Minho, what are you doing here?!”

Minho kept silent, moving his arm down to Key’s waist instead to pull his boyfriend towards him and hug him like a bolster.

Key pushed Minho on his chest to create some distance between them, enough for him to see his face, because there was no way he was going to let Minho fall back asleep at a time like this.

“Minho!”

“Hmm?”

“Did we have last night?”

Minho’s eyes flew open. Key grinned.

“You don’t remember?” There was a threatening tone in Minho’s voice.

Now, it was Key’s turn to keep silent, very much on purpose. Minho was wide awake now.

“See! Didn’t I tell you not to have such an active nightlife? I trust that you know your limits Kibum but why did you get yourself drunk? What if you ended up being taken advantage of by some other guy who wasn’t me?”

Key burst out laughing. “You know, it doesn’t count as taking advantage when I’m a willing party and the one who initiated it…”

Minho glared.

“Alright alright, I’m sorry.” Key forced himself to swallow his laughter. “My friends threw me a farewell party last night and it would be rude of me not to drink… I didn’t want to spoil the mood by holding myself back. It isn’t right.”

Minho made an indifferent noise that sounded very similar to a ‘hmph’.

“Plus I didn’t know you would spring a surprise visit on me as well!” Key punched Minho on his chest. “If I knew, I would have stayed in the dorm… how did you even get in?”

“I planned everything well, Kibum.” Minho proudly replied. “Thought it’ll be nice to surprise you here so I contacted one of your friends in New York through Facebook, think her name’s Min, and she was nice enough to help and get me access to your dorm. But I obviously overlooked the fact that you might not return straight to the dorm after class.”

“Aww, baby…” Key cooed, touched by what his boyfriend did for him. “And just for the record, I do remember the mind blowing we had last night.”

Minho chuckled. “Yeah, it was really good…”

Key smiled in reply and tapped Minho enthusiastically. “We should get up! Go grab something to eat and then I can bring you around New York!”

Minho shook his head. “Not now, let me catch some sleep first.”

“You’re in New York, Minho, and all you can think about is sleeping?!”

“I don’t care if I’m in bloody New York, all I care about is being with you... physically.”

Key was stunned into silence.

“Now can I go back to sleep?” Minho pleaded like a child who wanted a toy from his parent.

Key sighed in resignation. “Fine.”

Minho could sense the disappointment in Key’s voice. He knew his boyfriend was excited that he was in New York with him and wanted him to experience whatever he had been enjoying for almost half a year, without wasting any more time. Yet, Minho really couldn’t find it in him to get out of bed and allow his boyfriend to do what he wanted. And so, before allowing sleepiness to overcome him, Minho leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Key’s forehead.

“You can wake me up in time for lunch, and then bring me around New York later alright?”

“Sounds good!” Key’s eyes lit up with joy. “I’ve so much to share with you, so much to ask you as well and we need to-“

“I know, baby, I know.” Minho had to cut Key off before he deprived him of more time to sleep.

“Aish, fine! Go sleep all you want! I’ll wake you up later.”

“You should get more sleep too, Kibum. Shouldn’t you be having a hangover?”

“Oh. Right.” The headache that he woke up with suddenly became apparent again. “I should sleep too.”

“Exactly.” Minho let out a satisfied sigh and nuzzled his head into Key’s neck. “Night, baby.”

“I can’t believe you’re here…” Key couldn’t help but say.

 “The things I’ll do for you…” As he replied, Minho purposely moved his lips to Key’s neck so that his boyfriend could literally feel every word he said.

Key stretched his neck to allow Minho easier access to place open mouthed kisses over his skin. “Seems like there’s something else that you want more than sleep...”

Minho smiled, now brushing his lips against Key’s jaw. “I wouldn’t mind a round two of last night.”

Key bit his lip to stop himself from smiling. “What happened to catching up on sleep?”

“Do you really want to be talking about this now, Kibum?” Minho moved his body over Key’s without breaking eye contact and held Key’s cheek in one hand, the other slowly travelling down from his collarbone, over his chest and finally to his hip bones.

Key shuddered under Minho’s touch, closing his eyes in pleasure as his back arched into Minho’s chest.

“I’ll take that as a no.” Minho smirked.

And well, the only sounds that followed the end of their conversation consisted of only those that were obscene. Let’s just say, those sounds would make anyone who could hear them blush unknowingly…

Later (like MUCH later since they took forever to get themselves out of bed), when Minho and Key were walking hand in hand along the streets of Times Square and taking in the city lights, a random thought struck Key.

“Do you realise how we always use to shut each other up?”

“Now that you said it…” Minho smiled. “Seems like it… but I’m not complaining.”

Key hummed in agreement. “Another random thought…”

“Yeah?”

“We’re always out to get each other.”

“I would like to think of it as… spicing up our relationship.”

“Hmm.” Key nodded along before continuing with what was his analysis of their relationship.

“You know… if I didn’t spot you in the cafeteria that day, we wouldn’t have met each other… and we wouldn’t be here right now.” Key held onto Minho’s hand just a little tighter as if he was reassuring himself that Minho was indeed there with him.

“Right… about that…” Minho cleared his throat uneasily and turned to face Key, pulling him to the side of the streets so that they wouldn’t end up blocking the way.

“What? What is it?” Key was slightly taken aback by Minho’s sudden nervousness.

“Kibum…” Minho began after taking in a deep breath. “Have I ever told you that I actually noticed you before?”

“What?”

“Yeah, I noticed you before, during our first year in uni, and well, you stood out, as usual, and for a period of time, I just kept thinking about you, but it was only that one time so it went away because I never got to see you again and I-“

“Wait, you’re telling me you noticed me before, and perhaps might have already been attracted to me then but you let it pass and didn’t do anything about it?”

“Umm, something like that?”

“Choi. Min. Ho.”

“It’s not my fault that I only remembered this when the memory suddenly came back to me not too long ago and it hit me that you’re that guy I was attracted to at that one point in time…” This was Minho’s attempt to defend himself but the sceptical look on Key’s face told him he failed terribly.

“Oh god, please tell me this is not happening right now.” Key looked up to the skies.

Minho laughed nervously. “I just thought, you know, since we’re talking about interesting facts about our relationship, that I should be honest with you.”

“Is it legal to murder someone in New York?”

“Of course not.”

“Even when the person deserves to be killed?”

“Kibum.”

“Damn it.” Key finally returned his gaze to Minho, but it was a rather unfriendly one. “You’re lucky I love you enough to accept your stupidity.”

“I know.” Minho sighed, agreeing that he was stupid for letting Key go before, and then asked hopefully with widened eyes. “So all is forgiven?”

“You wish.”

“Guessed so. Never mind… I’ll have forever to make it up to you anyway.”

Key rolled his eyes. “We really have to do something about that mouth of yours.”

Minho shrugged. He really wasn’t bothered with what Key was saying because the smile that his boyfriend was trying to hide proved otherwise.

“Hey Kibum?” Minho wrapped his arm around Key’s shoulders and led him forward to continue their walk down the street.

 “Am I talking to you?” Without sparing Minho any eye contact, Key placed his attention on window shopping.

“Wanna know something interesting about us?”

Key shot Minho a this-better-be-good expression.

“In the future, you can tell our kids that I kissed you openly on the streets of Times Square.”

“What rubbish are you-“

To make his words a reality, Minho decisively cut Key off with a kiss that really shouldn’t have lasted for as long as it did.

Yet, an unforgettable kiss that was since in the future, roughly 10 years down the road, Key was indeed telling a bubbly and curious little girl all about the story of her two appas, how they almost didn’t cross each other’s paths and how one of them was, and still is, a hopeless romantic (no prizes for guessing who).

Author's Note: THE END. (and that's all i'm going to say for now because i feel like writing a proper thank you and a little reflection on the "journey" of writing this story.) so i'll just say a simple thank you first, to everyone who loves this story and sticking through 16 chapters! to all my subscribers, my commenters, my silent readers, everyone who dutifully reads Never Speak Too Soon everytime i update a chapter... THANK YOU!! my love goes out to all of you! i hope i didn't disappoint with the ending! ^^