There was probably some unspoken rule about not answering the door if you weren’t the owner of the house and believe him, Jinki tried to abide by it, knowing very well he had the choice to neglect the early morning visitor. Yet, Jinki eventually gave up and dragged his feet to the door because the incessant knocking was getting on his nerves. And that was saying a lot because patience was one of the many virtues Jinki prided himself with. Besides, seeing that Kibum didn’t even have the slightest clue that someone was knocking on his door since he was rushing to get ready for work having overslept, Jinki didn’t have much choice after all. So here he was now, standing at the door he had just opened and looking at a young man who was good enough a reason for him to suddenly have an inferiority complex. Well, let’s just say, besides looking like a work of art and having a certain air about him, the man’s height was rather intimidating to Jinki.

“You… I know you from somewhere…” Jinki muttered out loud as he assessed the familiar stranger from head to toe, rubbing his chin in thought.

At the same time, the stranger who looked startled upon seeing Jinki at the door, quickly turned his attention to his phone, thumb swiping the screen as he too mumbled, “Sorry, I think I got the wrong address…”

“Oh!” Jinki snapped his fingers and exclaimed as he pointed at the familiar stranger. “You’re Minho! Choi Minho!”

Upon realising that he had been recognised, Minho (because really, who else could it be?) instantly looked down, hid half his face in the high collar of his jacket and shook his head, deliberately changing the pitch of his voice as he said, “Sorry, I’m not Minho. You’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

With his flight response triggered, Minho was about to turn away and quickly escape back towards the lifts but he was held back by a hand on his arm.

“You are Minho!” Jinki insisted as he boldly gripped Minho’s arm and pulled the actor back before he could go anywhere, “That’s why you’re here at Kibum’s place.”

Upon hearing his personal assistant slash boyfriend’s name, Minho instantly stopped resisting and finally took a proper look at the man who had answered the door.

“You are?” Squinting his eyes, Minho asked with a definite tone of hostility in his voice, “And why are you at Kibum’s dorm?”

Jinki smiled as he answered a little too enthusiastically, “Kibum got drunk last night and as his-”

“He got drunk?!”

A suddenly agitated Minho made Jinki nervous and the older of the two instantly released his grip on the actor’s arm and said, “Okay, Minho, calm down-”

“Hyung! What are you doing by the-” At that exact moment, Kibum came walking to where Jinki was standing and upon seeing how his house door was wide open and that his boss slash boyfriend was the reason why his best friend was standing there, he ended his question with an, “Oh.”

“Well, uh, this is, umm, awkward.” Jinki couldn’t help but comment as he tried his best to subtly escape the current situation by slowly shifting his feet across the floor so he could move out of the couple’s way.

Ignoring his best friend with a roll of his eyes, Kibum looked at Minho and raised his hand, saying as he turned back into the dorm, “Give me 5 minutes and I can leave the house, I just need to grab my bag...”

Minho hurriedly stepped into the house, walked past Jinki and called after his personal assistant, “It’s okay, Kibum, I cancelled the morning schedule.”

Kibum instantly turned around and widened his eyes at his boss. “You did what?”

“I cancelled it...” Minho shrugged indifferently like it was no big deal, “Besides, shouldn’t you be relieved I did considering you had too much drinks last night?”

Kibum’s jaw dropped and he immediately looked past Minho to glare at his best friend who had just closed the door. “Lee Jinki! You’ve only met the guy for what, 5 minutes, and you managed to tell him that?”

“I should probably get going…” A regretful Jinki realised he shouldn’t have closed the door so soon…

“Ah, so you’re Lee Jinki?” Came Minho’s assertive voice and Jinki found that all attention was on him now.

“That’s Jinki hyung for you…” Jinki couldn’t help but mutter as he looked away, finding Minho’s gaze rather threatening.

“Right. I should probably introduce you two…” Kibum thought out loud before he formally introduced his boss/boyfriend and best friend to each other. “Minho, Jinki. Jinki hyung, Choi Minho, my boss.”

“And?” Minho urged, obvious that he was dissatisfied with the introduction.

Kibum stared at Minho questioningly; honestly unsure of what else the actor wanted him to say.

“You forgot to add that I’m your boyfriend as well.” Unhappy, Minho crossed his arms and reminded Kibum matter-of-factly.

Kibum raised an eyebrow, still staring at his boyfriend but now as if Minho had grown another head.

Jinki laughed to himself, not knowing that his laugh had brought all attention back on him as both Kibum and Minho were now eyeing him with puzzled expressions.

Jinki shrugged innocently and explained like a model student, looking directly at Kibum because Minho still scared him a little, “Well, seeing that Minho's jealous now, I’m pretty sure he'll be able to understand how you were feeling the past few days, Kibum.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Lee. Jin. Ki.”

Both Minho’s and Kibum’s voice sounded at the same time, all statements directed at Jinki who was now blinking innocently.

“Did I say something wrong?”

Kibum face-palmed and shook his head in despair while an amused expression grew on Minho’s face.

“Kibum could never like you.” Minho suddenly declared smugly, his confidence level certainly reaching a new high.

“Why not?” Jinki questioned without thinking much, and then deciding to go one step further to play with fire just because he didn’t like the way Minho seemed to be looking down on him, “You should know, we do have a history together…”

“What history?” True enough, Minho tensed up as his curiosity was piqued.

“Wow, Kibum and I go waaaaay back.” Jinki emphasised with a smirk, exaggerating his expressions such that it made Kibum wonder for a moment who, among them, was the true actor.

The personal assistant understood what Jinki was trying to do but surprisingly, he remained silent and allowed his best friend to go on. A part of Kibum decided it was only fair for Minho to feel jealous once after all that he had to put up with the past month, which included his boyfriend pressing his lips onto Sulli and having a legitimate reason to feel Kwon Yuri up.

And add fuel to fire Jinki did.

“Sometimes, I even feel like he takes care of me like how a wife would care for her husband.” Jinki pondered out loud, very much on purpose, and then waited with anticipation for Minho’s reaction. What he didn’t know was that Kibum, too, was looking forward to seeing how his boyfriend would react to such a suggestive statement.

“You two are best friends.” Minho said robotically, his expression unreadable, but somehow, there was something about the stoic expression of the actor that frightened both Jinki and even Kibum.

“Well, you know…” Jinki purposely left his sentence unfinished, leaving it all up to Minho’s interpretation.

“No.” Minho simply replied, still a picture of calm as he continued to say in a dangerously low voice, “Over my dead body.”

The best friends exchanged looks with each other before Kibum looked back at Minho and cleared his throat, “Umm, Minho-”

Minho gave Kibum no chance to finish what he was about to say. “Kibum, I’m giving you the chance to walk out of our relationship now… if you can’t see a future with me, this will be your only chance to tell me, because after this, I won’t let you leave me.”

Kibum stared at Minho for a moment before he let out a breath and asked, “Could you be more dramatic?”

Before Minho could answer, Jinki pondered out loud. “Well, he does act for a living…”

When two pairs of eyes were on him for the umpteenth time that morning, Jinki laughed nervously and finally said the right thing, “Alright alright, I’ll send myself out now.”

Relieved, Kibum nodded in agreement. “You should get going anyway, hyung, don’t you have to get back to your beloved books?”

“Why do you have to make my life sound so pathetic?” Jinki asked miserably as he slipped his feet into his sneakers.

Kibum walked to open the door for his best friend and send him out. “The truth always hurts, Jinki hyung.”

“Is this how you treat your hyung who spent the whole of last night with you, Kibum?” Jinki questioned in all seriousness.

“I said my thank yous last night.” Kibum easily replied while he urged his best friend out of his house because he could feel Minho’s eyes watching them like a CCTV.

Jinki narrowed his eyes at Kibum and then suddenly turned around to address Minho, “You should probably give yourself a chance too. Escape while you can, Minho. Kibum isn’t the easiest person to be with.”

“Get out, hyung!” Kibum pushed his best friend out and was about to rudely close the door on his face when Jinki placed his hand on the door to stop Kibum from doing so.

“Wait!” Jinki exclaimed.

“What do you want, hyung?” Kibum whined out loud, close to stomping his foot in frustration.

Jinki smiled innocently and looked past Kibum to meet Minho’s eyes. “Could I take a photo with you?”

Kibum’s jaw fell to the floor while Minho could only blink in confusion as an awkward smile appeared on his face.

“Sure?” Minho answered apprehensively, fidgeting uncomfortably.

“Great!”

“Oh God.” Kibum cried as he quickly reached out to pull Jinki back by the neck line of his t-shirt. “No hyung, no pictures!”

Jinki pouted like a child who couldn’t get what he wanted. “But Minho said-”

“Why do you even want a picture with him?!” Kibum asked before he shook his head and said, “Scratch that, I don’t even want to know. Just leave, please?”

At the desperate tone in Kibum’s voice, Jinki let out a sigh and nodded reluctantly, “Fine. I’ll go.”

“Bye hyung.” Kibum was both satisfied and thankful.

“I’ll take a photo with you next time we meet, Minho.”

Minho could only nod with a smile as he watched Jinki wave goodbye and finally taking his leave, Kibum then closing the door after him, heaving a sigh of relief.

“Finally.” Kibum said as he turned back to face Minho and walked towards the actor to close the distance between them. “Now to deal with you…”

Minho frowned. “Am I a problem to you?”

“You’re not the problem, Minho.” Kibum answered, “It’s what’s going on now with our relationship that is.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t be both your personal assistant and boyfriend at the same time, Minho.”

“Are you saying that you want to walk out of our relationship now?”

“I don’t know, Minho, I really don’t.” Kibum bit his bottom lip and thought out loud, “If I quit my job, I wouldn’t know what to do with my life. I’ll have to start all over again, search for a job, somewhere I could live and figure everything out along the way. If I… if I stop what we have now, I don’t think I can continue working with you… and I don’t want to lose you either.”

Minho's heart had stopped when he heard Kibum talking about the possibility of breaking up so you could imagine how assured and happy he became after Kibum made it clear he didn't want to lose him.

“Quit your job, Kibum.” Minho replied decisively as he held Kibum by his arms, “I’ll take care of you. You can depend on me.”

“Do you not know me at all?” Kibum shot a question back at Minho, rather unhappy that his boyfriend even dared to suggest that.

“Right…” Minho dropped his hands from Kibum’s arms and mumbled an apology, “Sorry Kibum.”

Kibum shook his head as he got their conversation back on track. “We can’t go on like this… it’s bound to get out of control one day.”

“Could we just… let it be?” Minho proposed, “We should stop treating our relationship like it’s something that needs to be fixed because it's not. We're even forgetting how to actually enjoy being in one nowadays.”

“We haven’t had the time to enjoy anyway.”

“We do now.”

“You shouldn’t have cancelled your schedule.”

“One less interview wouldn’t hurt.”

“I can’t believe Gyeongshik hyung approved.”

“He hates that reporter.”

“Ah.” Kibum nodded in understanding and casually commented, “I wish he hated more reporters.”

A smile grew on Minho’s face as he hooked an arm around Kibum’s waist and brought their bodies together. “I wish I could spend more time with you too.”

“I didn’t say that.” Kibum rolled his eyes but made no move to push Minho away.

“I still heard it though.” Minho replied before he kissed Kibum softly on his slightly parted lips. “I missed you, Kibum.”

“We saw each other yesterday.”

“Yeah, as my personal assistant, I did. But as my boyfriend…” Minho shook his head as he rubbed Kibum’s bottom lip lightly with his thumb, his mind wanting so very much to taste those lips again, “It’s been too long.”

“It’s not my fault you’ve been awfully occupied with work.” Kibum huffed.

“I know… and that’s what brought me here.” Minho explained as he held Kibum tightly against him, “Let me make it up to you?”

“Hmm…” Kibum hummed while he deliberated out loud, “What can you offer me?”

“Anything and everything.”

Kibum’s wish was Minho’s command.

“Alright then!” Kibum made his decision as he happily said, “Let’s go get coffee.”

“What?” Minho felt like he had been splashed with a bucket of cold water. “That’s all?”

“I’m craving for a hot cup of Americano.”

“But I… I’m craving for you.” The volume of a grouchy Minho’s voice had decreased with each word he said that Kibum wouldn’t have heard his boyfriend if he wasn’t a hair’s breadth apart from him.

“I don’t know how you’re capable of saying stuff like that but fine…” Kibum released a breath before speaking like he was talking about the weather, “Just let me satisfy my craving first and I’ll let you satisfy yours later.”

With that, Minho’s entire being lit up with joy. And a happy boyfriend alone was enough to make Kibum forget about their troubles... for now. Sometimes, procrastination can be a good thing.

Author's Note: in Minho's words, it's really been too long. school's been a , i'm drowning in readings, assignments and presentations. been occcupied with celebrating the chinese new year too (it runs for 15 days)! other than that, my part time job as a fangirl is taking a huge toll on me. i can't handle all that's happening with shinee now. i'm sure you all know everything that i'm referring to so i'm not even going to start. all i shall say is that this comeback is going to be absolutely brilliant. the coming week is going to be awesome, i just know. right, back to proper A/N. a thousand apologies for the long wait, i do hope this update has made up for it! and as always, thanks for finding your way back here if you have, for giving this story a shot, and for accompanying me through this journey! ♥