2 years later 

____________________________________

  It had been 2 years since that night in the hospital, the longest 2 years of Song Minho’s life. After the media had caught onto his scandal his father threw him out of the family, threw him out of the will, it was the only way he could save himself from being disgraced by the media himself. He thought he was leaving Minho with nothing, but in fact he left him with everything he could have ever needed, and that was Kim Jinwoo. Jinwoo’s name had been mentioned in the press but somehow this had only strengthened his career instead of ruining it. Although in Korea Jinwoo wasn’t welcomed with as open arms as he had been before everything. But he had never intended as living as a closeted man, he had never had a problem with who he was as a person. He had never had a problem with being gay, and he always hated the thought that he was going to have to live a closeted career, with censored painting of a life he would never be able to live. 

 “Are you ready?” Minho opened the bedroom door and stopped at the top of the stairs looking down at Jinwoo who was leaning against the bottom of the railing smiling up at him. 

 “Why are you hurrying me?” Minho replied with a smile on his lips as he made his way down the winding metal stairs his fingers trailing along the handrail. He still couldn’t believe that they owned an apartment together. Every morning when he woke up he expected to be looking at the blank white ceilings and black comforters secretly covered with blood. But he was meant with Jinwoo’s arms wrapped tightly around him, his body curled up perfectly around Minho’s as if they fit together like puzzle pieces. 

 “No of course not, take as long as you need this day is about you.” As Minho got to the bottom of the stairs he drew Jinwoo into him, and kissed him lightly. 

 “Ah 23 is not that important of an age.” Minho wrapped his arms around his boyfriends neck and looked down at him smiling.

 “We live in America now, here you are technically only 22.” It had been over a year since they had moved to New York City, and Minho was still getting used to it. The only thing he was grateful for his father for was forcing him to learn English growing up so that one day he could take over the company and strengthen their ties overseas. Jinwoo had a harder time learning the language after growing up on the remote Imja island only hearing the local version of Korean. 

  “I like it when you dress like that.” Minho said absentmindedly as his eyes moved over the simple grey hooded sweater Jinwoo was wearing. His thumbs had worn holes in the fabric and stuck out from the sides like kitten paws. As Minho’s eyes continued analyzing Jinwoo’s outfit they stopped on his ripped black skinny jeans and paint-stained hightop shoes. On anyone else it would have looked ridiculous but Jinwoo had a way of making anything work. 

 “Is it to casual? I could go change, I just didn’t know if..” Minho silenced Jinwoo by pressing his mouth against his and wrapping his finger up into his soft brown hair. 

 “No. It’s perfect.. but..” 

 “But what?” 

 “It needs that black leather backpack to complete it, I mean unless you want to carry around that book without a place to keep it..” Jinwoo blushed when he realized he had still been holding his book in his hand. But walked over to the closet anyways and pulled out a small black backpack and put the book inside anyways. 

 "Since when have you become a fashion expert?" Jinwoo teased Minho shrugging the bag onto his shoulders. 

 "It's a side-effect of homouality. Now come on we're going to be late." Minho smirked and began playfully shoving his boyfriend out the door. 

 "Late? I didn't know you already had made plans.. You should have told me.."

 "No because you would have insisted we do something else. Besides I want to enjoy the look on your face when we get there." Jinwoo looked over at Minho and frowned slightly. He never liked surprises. Especially considering it wasn't his own birthday. But when he saw Minho's mischievous grin paired with his round rimmed glasses everything inside him melted away. 

 "It's your birthday, so shouldn't it be me planning surprises for you?" Jinwoo inquired holding the door to the stairs open for Minho as he did so. 

 "Well, do you have anything planned for me?" Minho smirked back stepping through the door and making his way down the stairs faster than Jinwoo could follow at a walk. 

 "Isn't the definition of a surprise the fact that the other person doesn't know what's going to happen? If I told you it would ruin the whole purpose." He ran to catch up with his taller boyfriend looking down at his shorter legs and scowling slightly. He had never minded his height much until he had moved to America and discovered that even most of the women were taller than him. 

 "I feel like you're just avoiding the question by trying to outsmart me. You're an artist not a scholar stop acting so pretentious." 

 "Excuse you I graduated top of my class." Jinwoo replied with a huff as they had finally reached ground level. 

 "Wow. And imja island has so much competition right?"  

 "Just tell me what direction I need to be walking." Jinwoo rolled his eyes as he said this and stared at Minho with a look of fake impatience. 

 "No no, that would ruin the fun. Wait here I'm going to call a cab." Minho walked towards the busy road and whistled loudly until a yellow taxi cab pulled up to the curb. 

 "Hi, can you take me to Imja Studio's please. Oh and I am going to bring a blindfolded man in here in a second, but I am simply just trying to surprise my boyfriend, so please don't be alarmed." The cabbie blew air out of his nose in what Minho assumed to be a laugh and nodded at Minho through the rearview. With this Minho walked back to Jinwoo, who was engulfed in his book, pulling a tie out of his back pocket and pulling it over Jinwoo's eyes. 

 "H-hey!" Jinwoo screamed flailing his arms uselessly towards his attacker. 

 "Shh it's just me. I don't want you to guess where we are going." 

 "And why is that." Jinwoo replied with more annoyance in his voice than anything but he didn't resist any further. 

 "Because you'll make the cab go somewhere else." Jinwoo didn't bother to implore anymore, since it was Minho's birthday after all and let him guide him towards the backseat of the taxi.

 When the taxi finally came to a stop Jinwoo felt his heart lurch into his throat. Although they hadn't traveled far from their apartment the darkness was something Jinwoo hadn't had to become accustomed to in a long time. The blindfold with the added movement of the taxi made him feel more like a kidnap victim than a willing participant in his boyfriends games. 

 Minho paid the driver and opened the door holding out his hand to Jinwoo so he could find his way out. When his feet landed unsteadily on the pavement Minho reached behind his head and untied the blindfold.  

 "Okay are you ready?" Jinwoo nodded absentmindedly not exactly knowing why he had to have a feeling of readiness. Minho dropped the blindfold and Jinwoo blinked adjusting his eyes to the light. When they finally came into focus he blinked again to make sure he was seeing things correctly.

 "Minho.. Why are we at my studio?" It was a better reaction than Minho had expected from his little artist and he smiled over at him. 

  "Well, you haven't been letting me see what you've been working on for the past few months, and when you appointed me as your manager I think you forgot that sometimes other members of your team may feel entitled to call me about your coming gallery openings.. This one was scheduled for my birthday. I know you probably wanted me to see this after hours, but I wanted you too see the people's faces as they viewed your work. You never let yourself go to your gallery openings. I think you deserve to see how talented people think you are."

  Jinwoo put a hand to his forehead realizing how stupid he had been to neglect the fact that Minho was technically in charge of the entire business section of his Studio. He had never seen people view his art since the gala all those years ago, because the art he was creating was different from that period of his life. It was like every brushstroke was apart of his soul that he was putting on canvas. It was personal to him in such a way that he could hardly look at the paintings after he finished them himself, let alone watch other people viewing and critiquing them. The feedback was prominent in the sales of his works, and in the amount of people who paid to walk through his gallery openings, and yet. He still found himself afraid of the criticisms of others. 

 "As long as you think that was the only surprise I had planned for you... Yeah we will stick with that." This was the only way Jinwoo could see fit to respond, he even added a smirk for good measure. But that had never worked well with his youthful features. At 25 sometimes he still very much looked like he was in his teens. 

 "Oh my god. You planned for this to happen didn't you? How can I be in love with such a devious mind." 

 "It's not your fault really. When you first met me I was broken and didn't have the mental or physical energy to be particularly devious. But now I'm mentally doing relatively well, and it's too late for you to back out now." Jinwoo played along with Minho, he decided letting him believe he had this entire thing planned out would make him feel better about himself. And if he thought it enough maybe he could will himself to believe it. 

 "Well Mr. Kim Jinwoo of Imja Studio's we don't want you to be late for your own gallery opening now do we." Minho smirked back at Jinwoo and held out his hand towards him which he took tentatively. He tried to hide the fact that his hands were shaking by tightly gripping Minho's, while the other hand was in a balled fist in his  sweatshirt pocket. 

 He looked down with a frown at his dismal outfit, one that he would have never chosen for himself if he was going to interact with the public during his own gallery. But it struck him that this may have been Minho's plan from the beginning. That he would go through disguised from the public. He had been dropping hints at what he liked seeing him wearing for days now, so Jinwoo felt inclined to dress like that for Minho on his birthday. But it had all been apart of a larger plan. Yeah and I'm the devious one. Jinwoo thought to himself trying to disguise his scoff as a cough. With Minho's fingers intertwined with his he allowed himself to be pulled up the steps in the direction of the studio, his studio. Although he dreaded the reactions of the public, he had been working on these pieces for once, and all of them were tailored to fit a single theme. And that was his love for Song Minho, and the man himself. 

 ******Authors note*********

         I am so sorry for this wait guys, I have been very busy with school and my other projects that are still ongoing. But I recently went to Chicago on vacation and my love for this story was reignited. I was planning on this being the last chapter, but then I decided that I was going to write a couple more before it was really over. I hope the time jump is okay, I didn't want them to have to struggle anymore it didn't seem fair. The next chapter will be up very soon I can promise you that. Thank you all so much for your patience with me, I hope this chapter leaves you interested for the next one. (: 

        - Author Cai >.<