Taemin’s uncle stares in surprise. “Do you recall anything?”

Minho smiles in answer and shakes his head.

The old man laughs nervously. “So… Have you gotten use to your life here?”

“There are many things that should be new to me…” Minho answers. “But a lot of them seem familiar.”

Taemin’s uncle opened his mouth to speak, but Minho kept talking. “Take the motel for example… When I was helping the employees, I felt a sense of déjà vu.” He tilts his head up. “I can’t help but think… Did I work in a hotel industry, before I lost my memory?”

Taemin’s uncle smiles and leans back. “To me… I don’t think your memory loss was such a bad thing.”

Minho looks at him in confusion.

“It’s like… Heaven is giving you a chance to slow down, look around. Not everyone gets a chance like this.” Taemin’s uncle said wisely.

Minho pauses, but gives a small smile and nods.

Meanwhile, Jonghyun was in the car with Taemin, on the way to his house.

“So… Why do you suddenly want to bring me to your house?” Jonghyun asks curiously. Taemin smiles and turns to him. “You don’t seem to have a very good understanding of what “family” is. So I will show you my family as an example.”

“But!” Taemin adds. “There is no such thing, as a free lunch.” He rubs his index finger against his thumb.

“No way! You do this for a living?” Jonghyun said in disbelief.

“Of course not!” Taemin protested. “I wouldn’t make use of my family. This is called mutual cooperation.” He motions to him and Jonghyun.

Jonghyun chuckles at this. The boy was so silly. “Okay. But I have to feel the uniqueness of your family. Only then can it be mutual.”

Taemin nods happily and ushers for him to go straight.

Once they arrive at the house, Taemin tells his mother what’s going on, while Jonghyun takes a look around.

Jonghyun was surprised by the tackiness of the house and trails his finger on the counters, getting off layers of dust.

Taemin’s mother, however, was not impressed.

“Rich people are so different.” She scoffs to Taemin. “How can Minhyuk compare to him? What a loser.”

Taemin rolls his eyes. His mother clears and calls Jonghyun over. “Mr.Kim! Please come and try my ice-jelly.” She ushers to a large bowl of ice jelly as Taemin pours some into all of their bowls.

Jonghyun walks over and sits down on the chair. Taemin and his mother take their seats, Taemin starts eating some of the ice-jelly himself.

Jonghyun takes a slow, polite sip.

“What do you think?” Taemin’s mother asks. Jonghyun looks at up her and smiles. “It’s delicious.”

Taemin’s mother smiles back and glances at Taemin, who is stuffing his mouth with ice-jelly soup. She nudges him slightly, making Taemin look up with his full cheeks. He freezes but gives a chubby grin and swallowed the pieces.

Jonghyun smiles back and he notices something different. “Where’s your father?” He asks, looking around slightly.

“My father? My father!” Taemin was about to tell him that his father left them when he was just a child but he received deathly looks from his mom. “He passed away a long time ago.” Taemin lies instead.

Jonghyun’s smile drops and his eyes glaze with pity. “I’m sorry…”

Taemin’s mother smiles in response. “Don’t worry about it. Even though he’s gone, we don’t moan about the past. We learn to move on and try to live life to the fullest.”

Jonghyun nods slowly.

Taemin sits with Jonghyun at the front steps of the house, eating a Popsicle. “A family can be like this…Even without a father.” Jonghyun said. “A family can still be a happy one.”

Taemin takes the cold Popsicle out of his mouth. “That’s how a family should be.”

“When you guys talked about him, it was so heart-warming. It was as if he was still alive.” Jonghyun smiles at the memory of Taemin’s mother’s speech.

“Even if he isn’t I won’t forget him.” Taemin said, shaking his head. “He’s right here inside.” He touches his chest.

Jonghyun’s eyes start to glaze as his mind goes off-track.

“What are you thinking about?” Taemin asked curiously.

“Nothing.” Jonghyun smiles back.

Taemin decides to leave it. “If you have any unresolved issues, act on it immediately. Don’t regret it when it’s too late.” He warns.

Jonghyun pauses, taking the advice into consideration.

“Thank you for showing me what a family can be like.” Jonghyun said sincerely, handing Taemin the money.

Taemin takes it smugly, flipping through the bills until a yellow slip of paper falls into his hand.

“I gave you my number. I hope we can trade again sometime.” Jonghyun grins.

“Since you’re so sincere, I’ll give you a free little gift.” Taemin offers. “Give me your hand.”

Jonghyun slowly moves his hand closer to Taemin in confusion. Taemin takes it and traces a heart on it.

Jonghyun stares at it. “Why did you draw a heart on my hand?”

“When I was little… Whenever I was troubled, my dad would draw a heart on my palm. He would ask me to listen to what my “heart” was saying.” Taemin smiled at the memory.

Jonghyun looks at his hand, grinning slightly before turning back to Taemin. “Thanks, I’m off. Goodbye.”

Taemin watches until Jonghyun’s car was out of sight before dancing back into the house with his cash.

Taemin’s mother was washing the dishes, whistling to herself. She glances out the window. “Looks like it’s going to rain… Wait, does Minhyuk have an umbrella?”

Right on time, Taemin shows up beside her. “Oh, Taemin! Go deliver an umbrella to Minhyuk. It looks like it’s going to rain.” She said, looking out the window in worry.

Taemin nods, grabbing an umbrella before dashing out the door.

Pretty soon, the clouds got darker and it started pouring. Minho stood underneath the roof of an empty house. “Aish…How will I get home?” He mutters to himself.

A girl suddenly appears, holding an umbrella and walking down the road; she doesn’t seem to notice him.

Pop!

One of her heels sinks into a mud hole, making her body jerk down in surprise. “Omo!” She exclaims, tugging on her heel, but it won’t budge.

Minho heard the cry of despair, peering until he noticed the girl through the thick rain. He dashes quickly beside her, crouching down next to her foot to help her get the heel out.

The girl looks at him in surprise. When Minho managed to get it out, he looked up at the girl, shielding his eyes from the rain. He gives a small nod before dashing back to where he came from.

“Wait!” She called. Minho halted and turned around in confusion, running back under her umbrella. “Yes?”

“You need an umbrella right? I have a spare in my bag anyway, so you can use mine.” She offers, smiling.

Minho smiles back in surprise. “Really? Thanks so much!”

Taemin walks quickly down the road, eager to greet Minho until he froze at what he saw. Minho was standing under an umbrella with an unfamiliar girl, a large grin on both their faces.

Taemin felt a pang in his chest as he bites his lower lip in frustration before stomping back home in annoyance.

Taemin’s mom walked out of the house once the rain had stopped, eyes widening slightly when she saw her son coming back home alone.

“Where’s Minhyuk?” She asked as Taemin hung the umbrella on the rack. “Dead.” He put simply before walking to his room.

She stared in shock after him, turning back and making eye contact with Minho who just arrived. “You!” Her eyes darted to a pink umbrella Minho was holding. “Where did you get that?”

Minho looked down at the umbrella. “A girl on the street gave it to me. She was really nice.” He smiled innocently.

Taemin’s mother scoffs, now knowing why Taemin was in such a bad mood. “You should go apologize to Taemin who wasted his time going to deliver an umbrella to you.” She said, walking past Minho and into the kitchen.

“Taemin? How come I didn’t see him?” Minho said quietly to himself. He decided to go check anyway, making his way to the door of Taemin’s room.

He knocks gently. “Taemin-ah… You in there?”

“Go away.”

Minho chuckled at the childish voice. He leaned his back against the door. “I heard you ran all the way to give me an umbrella.”

There was a pause before Taemin spoke again. “Pabo. Who would go check up on you?”

Minho turned to face the door. “Taemin, please let me in. I’m so cold…” He fakes a shiver.

“Go ahead and freeze to death. Who cares about you?”

Minho pouts playfully before knocking on the door again. “Please? Let me in~ Come on Taemin-“

The door flings open with a pissed off looking Taemin. “Aish! You’re so annoying…”

Minho smiles smugly. “But you still answered.” He slipped himself past Taemin and into his room.

“Yah! Get out of my room.” Taemin said, his patience growing thin.

“But I get so lonely…” Minho whines, lying down on Taemin’s bed.

The rest of the night was filled with the two arguing back and forth.

Finally it’s done :DD I hope it was worth the wait and I love 2min’s relationship right now <3 Even this series won’t be updated very quickly, I still hope you’ll continue supporting me as I try my best throughout the series :3 I love you all so much and I shall see you at the end of chapter 11, PEACE!