It has been such a long long time since I went into hiatus. Many things things had happened since then. Things have changed in my life and SHINee has changed too. The later is one of the reasons it became harder and bitter for me to continue. But believe it or not, I've thought of the ending since I started writing.

I don't think any of the original readers are still here but I want to give a closure. For the readers and for me. 

(Please do not expect too much. I'm not good with commitment but I'll try my best. Sorry.)

A year later

The speaker announcing the arrival of flights faded into the background as people from different nations buzzed in and out. They are either with partner, friends, family or travelling solo. A man pulled his luggages towards the wifi zone, trying to check his email. He agreed to transfer because they offered a good sum of money. He had always dreamt of retiring early and spend time doing his hobbies. Now, he was there, he felt slightly unsure. It was his first time at the country and he couldn't speak the language as well. He wondered if he would be able live well here. 

He walked briskly to the exit. They said they've sent someone to pick him up. He wasn't sure how he would be able to recognize this 'someone', but he thought he just had to wait and see. 

It took him less than 5 minutes to meet the 'someone'. 

"Minho, you've grown taller!" 

"Nice to see you again too, hyung".

They hugged for a brief moment. Minho filled the luggages into the backseat of the 4WD and let his senior get in the car. He went behind the wheel and drove away while the radio was playing a popular filipino song.

 "You can drive?"

Minho didn't answer him but he smiled without taking his eyes off the road. Jonghyun cannot drive. Even at the age of 26 years old. He said he didn't have time to take the driving license but Minho knew he avoided taking it. He never asked why. 

They drove for about twenty minutes before arriving at a jetty. Then, they proceed by getting on the ferry and sailed for another 30 minutes. When they reached at the island, Jonghyun was amazed by the magnificient sandy white beach. However, after they left the beach, he was less than estatic. There was no one there.

There were a few small houses near the beach but as they travelled along the bumpy road, all he could see was the greenery. Scratch that, it was a ing jungle. Jonghyun wouldn't be surprised if a tiger or Tarzan suddenly jumped out in front of them. Lucikly, after some times, a big man made structure came into the view. 

He was told that the research center in Philipines was huge, but he was not ready for the 5 meters wall separating the building from the rest of the island. They had to go through 4 guard posts and all of them were carrying somekind of firearms, which Minho casually flashed his ID card to pass through.          

There were three sections at the research center; the main building where the labs and office were; the hostel where the staff stay, cafetaria, gym and some shops were located; and the testing ground which Minho didn't elaborate further.   

"I'll report your arrival to the HR. You can take your time but please attend the meeting at 1pm, today." Minho said as he unlocked the door to Jonghyun's new room. 

"Sure, thanks. Is Onew coming?"

"He said he wanna drop by but I'm not sure if he can. If not, you'll see him at the office this afternoon. Call me if you need anything."

"You're leaving? Can't you stay? Just say I have motion sickness and you have to take care of me."

Minho cuckled and replied, "You should rest".

"Are you... still taking care of him?" Jonghyun asked carefully just before Minho opened the door. He had his hand on the door knob, so Jonghyun could only see's Minho nape from the back but somehow he could see Minho's smile dissapeared at the question. 

 He was quiet but he didn't leave.

Jonghyun's sighed. "Tell him I'll bring him banana milk someday, okay?" 

"Sure" Minho replied short and left the room, but Jonghyun knew he smiled. 

"RESTRICTED AREA. UNAUTHORIZE PERSONNLE KEEP OUT"

Minho went pass through the signage and showed his staff ID to the guards. He went through a metal scanner gate and had to change his clothes in the provided room. He went into disinfection chamber and had to had his eyes scanned before he was granted permission to enter the area. 

It was a closed area, but it micmiked an open space. It was at least 200 square feet wide, there were small garden with trees, a small pond and even small animals like ducks, birds, squirrels and rabbits. More so, the see-through roof allowed the resident of the place to receive real sunlights. Minho went straight to a cabin in the middle of it. He opened the door and it creaked. The man inside looked at him with a horrified look. He was a local staff who was responsible for the daily blood test. Minho showed an apologetic look and signalled to give him the syringe and blood tube. The man compiled, he left them on the table and rushed out as silent as he could. Minho picked up the tools and put them in his lab coat's pocket. He made his way to the only bed in the room.

A young boy was sleeping soundly.

Minho sat down at the bed's edge and watched him for a minute or two before he decided to wake him up.

"Teamin, wake up." he rubbed the boy's back gently.

Teamin didn't react at first but after Minho patted his back, he stirred. 

"Wake up. You said you want to feed the ducks today." 

"Minho?" Teamin muttered in a sleepy voice as he rubbed his eyes.

Minho smiled. He remembered him. "Good morning, angel", he kissed Teamin's head gently and helped him got up from the bed.

A year ago, after Taemin had fully awaken his power, he destroyed a huge part of the research center in Seoul. He wrecked havoc and even caused deaths among the staff and civilians. The army had to put him down because of it. Fortunately, Taemin survived. Seeing the danger, the government decided to only allow Taemin to be kept alive as long he was not in South Korea. The institute agreed and transferred Taemin to one of its oversea center. Onew was transferred along as he was the main researcher in the project (after he had recovered from his injuries). The institute didn't plan to bring Minho along, but Onew pulled some strings (mostly he threatened the director). 

It was difficult - for all of them. Taemin went into a coma for the first six months. Onew was stressed as the project has no progress but the higher ups kept on demanding updates. For the first time in his life, Minho didn't have a purpose or goal in his life. He didn't know what more he wanted. He cannot think of the future., at least not without Taemin. Everything became a blur to him. He only kept going forward by believing that Teamin would wake up someday and he would need him. 

When Teamin woke up, Minho was there. But he didn't know him. To be fair, Teamin didn't know anyone or anything. He became a blank canvas. He suffered a major amnesia. He forgot everything, even how to speak, walk or eat. Minho almost broke down when he heard the news. Taemin had to learn everything from zero, like a newborn baby.

Looking at this situation, Onew suggested to give a "mother" to Taemin. Someone who would act as the parents, someone whom Taemin will trust and rely on. However, it was not easy. They had five female staff took up the job but all of them resigned in less than a month. The thing is, even though Taemin had lost his memory from the awakening episode, he had gained something else - the ability to control his wings. The wings that Taemin could control was not as huge or as powerful as what Minho had witnessed during the destruction day, but he was still dangerous. Taemin was sensitive, restless and nervous in his early days of losing his memory. In addition, his wings could change shapes and density, making as soft as cotton candy at one time and on the other time, as sharp as knives. None of the staff was injured seriously, but no one dared to hug an agitated porcupine-bird-teen and thus, "mother-child" bonding project failed.          

Miraculously (even though Onew somehow had expected this), Taemin was able to bond with Minho just fine. He was calmer and more accepting with Minho around. Regardless of this result, Onew refused to give the "mother" role to Minho (but everyone would seek Minho if there's something wrong with Taemin).

Minho watched Taemin learnt to walk, to speak and to smile. It was quite heart-breaking to think that someone who he used to know became a complete stranger, but Minho believed he found his old Taemin in this new Taemin - that they were the same person. There were some similar traits between them; food that he like, music that he like, his personality and his smile. 

The institute was still aiming to study Taemin - the first winged man in the last 200 years but the approaches were a lot more humane compared to before. Onew said Taemin was a precious test subject, he didn't want to risk losing him. Minho didn't like how Onew and the institute was treating Taemin as a mere test subject rather than a human being but he knew his argument would lead to nowhere. Moreover, he was thankful that at least Taemin was cared for and he was allowed to see him. 

After six months and a couple of unfortunate incidents, Taemin was more stable and tolerable. He was okay not seeing Minho up to a week (even though he would complain a lot), he could run simple tests with the other staff without Minho, he had favorite staff which were not Minho and he didn't explode suddenly anymore. However, there were still a few things that could tick him off and made him injured people unconsiously; like being injected or drawn blood, being woken up with a loud noise, being touched suddenly, being bathed in cold water and allergies. Because of this, the staff were still wary around Taemin.   

"Why can't ducks fly?" Taemin asked while Minho was drawing his blood for the daily test.

"You mean these ducks?" Minho referred to the ducks in the pond.

Taemin nodded but still closing his eyes because he was afraid of the needles. 

Minho muttered "it's done" as he put away the blood tube and Taemin automtically opened his eyes. "There are ducks that can fly. They can fly high and far. But these are domestic ducks. They didn't learn how to fly." 

"So they can fly if they learn?" 

"They are too old for that."

"Old? They don't look old."

"How does an old duck look?" Minho asked testingly.

"They should have grey hairs - I mean feathers. And... wrinkles!"

Minho laughed and ruffled Taemin's hair. Taemin closed his eyes in delight at the action - he loved being petted. 

"Can I fly? If I learn it?"

Even though Taemin's wings varied from 4 to 8 feet in length each, Taemin couldn't fly. They had tried asking Taemin mimicking bird's movement, but he couldn't do it. There were several problems. First, the number of his wings were random, sometime its three, sometimes it's ten. Next, the feathers were in the wrong shapes and structures. He still haven't learn how to control the shape of his feathers. Lastly, he had no muscle to do so. Minho knew it was not possible for Taemin because he had seen him fly before, but it might take some more time for him to be able to fly freely.

"I think so." 

Taemin's face lit up and his wings were glowing - it's what he did when he was excited. Minho loved seeing Taemin happy and what he loved more is to see the new things that Taemin had learnt everyday. Truthfully, he too, was excited about the possibilities of Taemin's wings power. He wonder what else could Taemin do. Maybe some day he could do things that help others and perhaps by then, he would be able to show the world who he was and be accepted as a human. 

"I miss you." Onew hugged Jonghyun as soon as he came into the meeting room. Jonghyun smiled awkwardly when the hug was a bit too long that the other were side-eyeing them. 

"I miss you too... and I brought some soju like you asked." Jonghyun whispered carefully. Onew tighten his hug excitedly and Jonghyun struggled to escape.

"Just don't drink too much. Tomorrow is still not weekend". Minho reminded them light-heartedly.

"You must join too" Onew pretended to glare at Minho.

"Oh I will" Minho smirked. The three of them laughed.

"Onew-shi, please take your seat. We will start shortly." A female staff told him politely. Onew compiled and took his seat next to the director. There was an unknown man on the other side of the director. The man appeared to be in his late 30s or early 40s. He looked like a fellow Korean man and he had a dashing face with a fit body. He smiled politely at everyone but Minho found his smile was a bit unsettling.

The meeting started with the director's welcoming words and porceeded with the montly progress report, discussion of the new findings and finally the course of action for the next month. Before he ended the meeting, the director introduced the new staff.

"We have two new staff today. The first one is Kim Jonghyun-shi. He's from Korea's center before this for... how many years?"

Jonghyun signalled four with his fingers.

"Yes, four years. He will be our new data manager. Please give him a hand."

Everyone clapped for Jonghyun and Jonghyun waved thankfully. 

"Next, we have a great person joining us. He was working with the US army, Phaton company and Stanford Institution before I invited him to join us." The director patted the person next to him. "He's Choi Siwon and he will be the co-team leader of Azrael Project with Onew-shi."

Everyone was surprised by the announcement, but Minho felt something nasty was coming from the bottom of his stomach.