With his lips against Jinwoo’s the fact that it was his rehearsal dinner completely slipped his mind. As the door flew open he barely had time to turn before he saw his little artist fly into the back wall and slump against the marble floor with crimson spilling from the corner of his perfect lips. He had even less time to react when his father lifted him by the neck and slammed him into the opposite wall. 

  “After all of the things I have ever done for you, this is how you repay me? After all the money I spent on you? You turn into some kind of ing homo, it could have been any girl Minho, why couldn’t you have just overdosed quietly like your brother.” His father’s screams bounced off of Minho like being hit with a feather. His eyes were on the man he loved lying lifelessly against the ivory walls, as he struggled to run to Jinwoo his father shoved him back against the coat rack slamming his head into the cold metal bars he felt the world around him fade to nothing. But before the world went black he reached out towards the man he loved and fell backwards with his name on his lips. 

   When Minho opened his eyes he was lying in a hospital bed with bandages around his arms and a light swinging precariously above his head. He went to closed his eyes but sat straight up quickly. 

  “Jinwoo?” Minho said in a ravaged voice. His eyes scanned the length of the hallway in search for his artist, and yet he found himself completely alone except for the occasional beeping of the heart rate monitor that was attached to him. He pulled out the IV’s and the wires and got to his feet, steadying himself on the beds edge as the world spun around him. I have to find him. Minho thought to himself stumbling dizzily across towards the white double doors at the end of the hall. As he opened the doors and nurse stepped in front of his path to block him but he hardly noticed as he pushed her aside. All he remembered was the blood that trailed down Jinwoo’s chin, and the way his head slumped unnaturally to the side. He opened every door to every room and yet there was no sign of his love. He became restless running down the hall screaming at nurses and doctors all of whom looked at him as if he had just escaped the psychiatric ward. 

  “Kim Jinwoo? Do you have a Kim Jinwoo admitted here please.” Minho grabbed onto the front of a nurses shirt and pulled her up so she was forced to listen to him. She had to listen to him. 

  “S-sir please calm down, it looks like you have been in an accident, I am sure you're brother is fine let me go look for you.” Minho reluctantly let her go and she ran to the nurses station and began frantically searching through the names sending nervous glances in Minho’s direction. Maybe he had really gone mad, but he was mad with concern over the condition of the only person he had ever found himself loving. Brother? Minho repeated to himself, assuming that he must have had some kind of deep concern in his voice for her to assume this. 

   “S-Sir we have a Kim Jinwoo in room 32 just down the hallway, but do you have any proof of ID?” Minho felt around on his person realized that everything had been taken from him. 

  “Uh no. My name is Song Minho, you may have heard of my family we own the Song Corporation. Just p-please let me..”

  “Mr.Song what is your relationship with this man I can’t just let anyone into the..” Minho stepped forward looking down at the nurse with flames in his eyes. He had never felt so much emotion before, and he had experienced a lot of it. 

  “He’s my boyfriend okay? Now godamnit please just let me see him.” With wide eyes the nurse began walking quickly down the hallway and motioned for Minho to follow her. She stopped in front of a room, and opened the door letting Minho in and then closing it after her. Minho ran to the side of the bed and immediately interlaced fingers with his little artist. The blood had been wiped away from his mouth, but his skin was a nearly translucent shade of white and the multiple IV’s running from his veins made Minho’s stomach churn. He looked into Jinwoo face and was finally able to see him without distraction. Without caring if anyone else would find out. Everyone he cared about knowing knew already and it was almost as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, even at such a cost as this. He didn’t know what would happen next but he knew he was finally able to hold those paint streaked hands he had been longing for, for so long. He heard the soft click of the door behind him and turned to see a doctor hunched over his clipboard. He looked up and stepped sharply back when he met Minho’s eye. 

  “Oh. I’m sorry you startled me. Are you his family?” The doctor asked awkwardly. 

  “Something like that. What’s wrong with him?” Minho took another nervous glance at the multiple IV’s coming from Jinwoo’s arm and looked back up at the doctor expectantly. 

  “Oh there’s nothing serious you need to worry about. He must have fallen pretty hard to hit his head like that. He has a severe concussion and may experience some memory loss, but we won’t know that until he wakes up. Feel free to stay in here until he does. Would you like anything? Coffee maybe?” Minho dismissed him quietly, and felt Jinwoo’s hand tighten around his. He turned and saw his eyes stirring underneath the paper thin lids, and he opened his mouth and groaned painfully. 

  “Minho? What happened what am I doing here?” Jinwoo muttered slowly opening his eyes and blinking in the light around him. 

  “What do you remember?” Minho said now placing both of his hands around Jinwoo’s and squeezing them tightly. 

  “Well. We were in that coat room.. you know. And next thing I know I wake up with IV’s sticking out of my arms, and aish.” Jinwoo grabbed his head and grimaced. Minho tried to quietly explain what happened and Jinwoo’s eyes widened double the size they already were when he noticed the bandages around Minho’s arms. 

  “Are you hurt? What is with the bandages..” Minho placed a finger against Jinwoo’s lips silencing him before he could hear anymore words of worry spill from them. If anyone should be worried here it was him, because he was the one that had to look down at the man he loved with various wires coming from his body.  

 “As long as you’re alive I will be okay. No pain in this world would compare to the pain of losing you. I don’t care if I lose everything else. Everyone else. I don’t care if I have to come out on live tv I don’t want to hide you anymore. I don’t want to keep you a secret. I love you. God, I love you more than I have ever thought I would ever be able to love anyone. I never thought I would allow myself anything like this. I always told myself I didn’t deserve it. Maybe I never will deserve it. But I need you. Please don’t leave me. I need you.” Minho started sobbing into his little artists chest and Jinwoo wrapped his arms tightly around him. 

“I am not going anywhere. And not just because I physically couldn’t in this state.” Jinwoo replied with a crooked smile. Minho put his lips lightly on Jinwoo’s forehead and moved them to his lips. You really don’t realize how much something means to you unless you almost don’t have it anymore. Minho didn’t care about what his parents thought, the only pain he felt was for Yumi. It would humiliate her, and he didn’t want to have to see pain on her perfect face. She deserved so much more than Minho would ever be able to give her, she deserved someone who would be able to love her every second and remind her how perfect she was. Minho would never have been that person for her, he would never have been able to love her like she deserved. But he planned on loving Kim Jinwoo as best as he could. Maybe he couldn’t promise perfection, because he was already so heavily scarred it wouldn’t have mattered. Maybe he hardly had anything left to promise. He told himself he could live through the scandal only if he had the man he loved by his side.

*** I want to apologize to all of you for this sub-par chapter and after so much waiting. I have been working on another story that I am extremely invested in and very proud of. But I feel so bad for neglecting this one in the process. I want to make it have a good ending for all of you. I am so sorry. I will try to do better. 

            - Cai.