Taemin’s POV

If I land Minho hyung as my boyfriend then I would consider myself to be the luckiest person on earth. I mean LOOK at him, flawless, smart, tall, handsome, kind-hearted, hot, attractive, sweet, just perfect. And he buys me whatever I want, like. ice-cream.. I keep thinking about him and staring at him randomly as we roam around. Sometimes he catches me look at him and just smiles in response. I fail to understand why someone like Key hyung that gets all the attention someone would want from Minho hyung wouldn’t be around him 24/7. I know right now the relationship between me and him is purely innocent but I’m over sighing and cribbing over the fact that it might always be like this and just plan on making all of what I can when I am by his side, even if just as a friend.

We walk around the mall for a little more time till we find just the perfect gift for Key hyung. It’s Minho hyung who spots it, of course.

‘Tae, I think I finally know what we should buy!’ He says as he creeps up behind me. My heart instantly starts beating a mile per second. I feel his hot breath on my neckline, and gosh are those Goosebumps. .

‘Tae!’ He pulls me by the arm because I didn’t really react the first time. React verbally that is.

‘H-hyung we’ I can’t really think straight or get myself to do anything so I just let myself be dragged by him.

We were walking through the clothes section and feel the need to tell him that we might not be getting to the ‘perfect gift’ if it were clothes.

‘Hyung, we are not buying him any clothes or shoes, he hates those kinds of gifts. Waste of money he says’ I tell him as we walk past the shoes to the accessories section.   

‘Hyung, no accessories either!’ He doesn’t reply and continues dragging me to the far end of the accessories section till we reach the glass display-counters. And then I see it, what we were headed to all this time, the wide array of watches.

‘I know he doesn’t like clothes and shoes and will never wear earrings and bracelets, but a watch would be perfect don’t you think?’ He looks at me with expectant eyes.

‘Of-of course, I think he will totally love it, have you picked out one already?’ I ask him as I look at the dials with diamonds, some of gold some silver.

He just nods and does a hand gesture to the sales women to show us the watch he had kept aside.

‘I’m sure he won’t wear it if it were to be very fancy, I particularly liked this one’

She hands him the watch and Minho hyung shows it to me. It’s an all black watch, the hands being silver and small diamonds in place of the numbers. Very classy and simple yet fashionable. It’s defiantly not the, attention-catcher-in-the-face-watch and serves the purpose perfectly.

‘Wow, I really like it! It’s something key hyung would use and wear well’, I say while I continue looking at it and the belt.

‘so should we buy it?’ I nod in response and hand over the watch to the lady so she can make the bill.

A feeling of contentment creeps up as we walk out of the store with our recent buy. I am a 100% sure Key hyung would like what we bought. I cannot wait to give it to him; it’s already the 20^th of September, few more days to go.

‘Hey, are you hungry?’ Minho hyung asks me as we start walking towards the exit of the mall. We have been walking around for a good 2 hours and the need for food has become evident after all that.

‘uhu, are we getting something on our way home?’

‘You can come to my place, I’ll cook us something’ he pauses before adding, ‘that’s if you want to, or we can get take-away’

‘No no, let’s go to your place’ I say with too much enthusiasm because he is looking at me trying to figure out why such a reaction so I can’t help give a lame reason. ‘I mean, we’ve been eating out a lot lately, a home cooked meal would be nice.’

~*~

Minho’s POV

I hang the home keys and the car key on the little stand by the door. We both remove our shoes and head to the kitchen. I excuse myself as I go to keep my wallet away and Key’s gift in my room. I’m happy with what we got, we couldn’t have found a better gift, if we had waited a little longer then it would be pushing too close to 23rd and with all the panic and rush we would have just ended up with a giftcard. This was a 100 times better.

I walk back out and I see Taemin scrunching in front of the fridge clearly trying to fish out something to eat. I pat his as I stand on his side trying to see what he’s getting. He yelps at the contact and I instantly regret doing anything. This, although being the first time he’s reacted to me like that. Weird I note to myself.

‘What are you in the mood of eating?’

‘Anything is fine hyung, just give me something, I’m getting really hyung now’

I take the rice cooker out of the cabinet and ask him to start that up.

‘How does Kimchi stew sound?’ I inquire because I know for a fact that my kimchi stew is of world class taste and that Taemin loves it, so there is no risk factor involved.

‘Ohh Kimchi stew,I love your kimchi stew, I’v been carving for it in a while actually.’

‘Great then, it’s decided.’

We make our selves busy by preparing everything that goes into making it. It takes about 15min till all the vegetables and spices are on the stove, the rice is almost ready. Taemin is setting up the plates while I stir the vegetables and meat so its cooks faster.

We are all set to eat almost 6 minutes later. I sit myself on the small dining table chair next to him. I see his eyes gleaming as I serve him the rice and top it with the stew.

I do the same for me, while he takes a spoonful of food.

‘How is it?’ I ask curiously, I hope I dint add anything more or less, let it taste good please, I pray inwardly while waiting for his reply. He gulps the food and speaks up.

‘It’s amazing as always hyung. You really need to teach me how to make this.’ He busies himself with another spoonful as I copy him and taste my cooking.

‘Why do you want to learn, if you ever feel like eating it, just come over, I’ll cook it for you.’ I tell him with a smile and it’s a fact, I would like it better if I could cook for him whenever he pleases.

‘Aniyo hyung, what if I want to eat it when you aren’t around’ He stops eating and looks at me directly before adding, ‘what if you are gone and I am all alone.’

The tone in his voice has suddenly changed and I’m sure this isn’t about the Kimchi Stew anymore. I take a second or two before replying and it gives him that much time to shift his gaze from my eyes to the foot of the chair.

‘Taemin-ah’ I say almost asking him to look up but when he doesn’t I act a bit brave and carefully nudging his chin up. He slowly bates his eye-lashes and looks into my eyes.

‘Tae, I will always be there for you, no matter what. You can always count on me. I would never let you be alone, don’t ever think that.' I assure him with all my will because every word I just said to him is true; I’m never planning on leaving his side. Be it like a friend or someone more.

He continues to look at me and I don’t see a change of expression, he’s stone still, I notice him shift his attention from my eyes to elsewhere on my face and things are getting out of hand faster than I think. I am inching closer to him completely involuntarily and the heartbeat pounding in my ears is starting to be audible even outside my body.

‘hyung I..’ Taemin utters, I’m torn between thinking why he said that, is it to break the moment or to really tell me something. I feel him make a tiny physical contact as he places his hand really close to mine on the table top. If I was to describe it as an electric jolt then it would be an understatement, it internally shook my body to the pit of my stomach. The butterflies that had seemed to gone to sleep since the past hour had been shaken to life because they are dancing around my stomach and it’s all making me dizzy. Just as anything could further, just as I was thinking of inching closer to him, my phone goes off, loud and clear. .

If the heart beat was pounding before then this must have been a world exhibition of how loud and prominent it can get. I was scared out of my skin, that noise of my phone was officially the most hated tone in the history of hated tones.

I grunt and look at the screen flashing +key calling+ very evidently. I don’t dare look at Taemin and just hear him mixing the left over rice and stew only to eat it a second later. I too waste no time silencing my phone by sliding my finger over the touch screen and holding it up to my ear.

I have never hater my phone, the ringtone or Key like the way I am ever before.