Minho had waited so long for this moment to arrive. This moment where the dance performance which took two weeks’ worth of practice with Yuri but only lasted 3 minutes on stage had finally came to an end. Boy was he both happy and relieved that the performance was finally over. And of course, Minho wasn’t the only one who was overjoyed; his dance partner was too, albeit for an entirely different reason.

“Minho! That was fantastic! We were perfect! You were great!” Yuri squealed, unable to contain her joy, as she threw her arms around Minho’s neck and jumped up and down excitedly once they were safely backstage, going unnoticed among the busy crew.

With adrenaline pumping through his veins as well since they had just put on a near perfect performance, Minho let out a chuckle and naturally placed his hands on Yuri’s slim waist to calm his noona down.

“You were wonderful too, Yul noona.” Minho returned the praise sincerely and smiled gently at an ecstatic Yuri.

“Thanks Minho, our dance was just…” As Yuri searched for the words to describe how perfectly smooth their performance went, her hands slipped to Minho’s shoulders and moved to casually adjust the collar of the actor’s crisp white button-down shirt.

Yet, at that exact moment in time when she held Minho’s collar between her fingers, Yuri instantly lost her train of thought. Her eyes widened in shock as she suddenly let out a gasp before raising the pitch of her voice to question, “What’s that?!”

“What’s what?” Minho asked back confusedly as he looked down at himself, trying to follow the direction of where Yuri was staring at, only to fail terribly because it was a blind spot for him.

“This!” Losing her cool, Yuri pulled Minho’s collar aside and exposed the skin beneath to point at the conspicuous spot that had caught her full attention. “Is this a… a love bite?!”

In a split second, Minho was out of Yuri’s reach, stumbling backwards in a haste to create some distance between the actress and him before she could notice more things she wasn’t supposed to see including the scratches that marked his chest.

“Noona, you must be kidding. How could it be a love bite?” The only thing Minho could do was laugh it off as he pulled his collar together in an attempt to cover the skin that Yuri had exposed. “I think it’s just a mosquito bite or something…”

“That’s definitely not a mosquito bite, Minho.” Yuri shook her head and narrowed her eyes at her close friend. “I saw faint teeth marks, Minho, so don’t lie to me.”

Minho gulped. “Noona, I-”

“Sorry to interrupt...”

The eye contact between Yuri and Minho broke as they both looked towards the owner of the voice that had cut their conversation short. There, appearing like an angel sent from above to Minho, was Kibum walking closer towards them and looking rather apologetic for disturbing their private moment together.

“I know this probably isn’t a good time but I have to get Minho changed into his next outfit… and Yuri noona, your manager’s about to come looking for you as well.”

Under orders from Minho’s manager, Kibum had no choice but to interrupt the conversation between Yuri and Minho once he found them huddled in a corner backstage. From the looks of it though, it seemed as if Minho was more than relieved that Kibum had arrived to take him away. However, the same couldn’t be said for Yuri since Kibum noticed that the actress was unable to hide her displeasure as well as her helplessness at the situation.

Nodding to acknowledge that she heard what Kibum said, Yuri sighed, “Thanks Kibum. I guess I have to get changed too… Minho?”

Upon hearing his name, Minho moved his eyes away from Kibum to look back at Yuri.

“You owe me an explanation.”

And with that, Yuri shot Minho a stern look before she hurried off towards the dressing rooms, leaving the actor alone with his personal assistant.

‘What was that all about?”

Sensing that something about the atmosphere wasn’t right, Kibum couldn’t help but question as he and Minho left the backstage as well.

“We need to talk, Kibum.”

“What has this got to do with me?”

“Do you recall how, last night, we were in bed fooling around and-”

With the memory of what they did last night fresh in his mind, Kibum immediately reached out to hold Minho by his arm and squeezed the actor hard enough to cause him to wince in pain. “Your point, Minho?”

Picking up the pace as they walked down the hallway, Minho pulled Kibum into his assigned changing room and locked the door behind him before he answered the question.

“That’s exactly my point, Kibum.” Minho finally replied as he pulled open his collar and exposed the bruise-like mark his dear personal assistant had accidentally given him when they were getting physically intimate with each other the night before. “You see this masterpiece you created? Well, Yuri noona wants me to explain how I got this to her.”

Crossing his arms, Kibum huffed in annoyance, “How did your Yuri noona even get the chance to spot it?”

“Kibum, you’re not getting the point.” Minho said as he gestured for Kibum to pass him the next outfit he had to change into.

Grabbing the outfit off the clothes rack and stuffing it into Minho’s hands, Kibum shrugged indifferently and replied, “If you ask me, I’m only bothered by the fact that her eyes were looking somewhere she shouldn’t be looking at. Mind you, you were topless when I left those marks on you.”

“You know bummie, it’s cute that you’re jealous but I really need you to focus right now and help me figure out how I should deal with Yuri noona.”

Kibum narrowed his eyes dangerously at Minho who had just shrugged off his blazer. “One, we’re at work so don’t call me bummie. And two, I am not jealous.”

Tugging at his shirt that had been tucked nicely into his pants and then ing it openly in front of Kibum, Minho smirked, “I find that hard to believe.”

“Suit yourself.” Kibum looked away, a look of annoyance plastered on his face.

Seeing that his boyfriend wasn’t looking too pleased, Minho went against the rules and grabbed Kibum’s hand, pulling him close so abruptly that Kibum ended up losing his balance and falling directly into Minho’s arms.

With his hands on Minho’s chest, Kibum steadied himself and shot a glare at the grinning actor. “Choi Minho, what was that for?!”

“I can’t have my personal assistant unhappy at work…”

“It’s amazing how you still remember we’re at work conside-” 

The rest of Kibum’s sentence was muffled by Minho’s lips pressing firmly against his as the actor decided that kissing was the best way to appease his boyfriend.

True enough, Kibum sighed into the kiss but remained rational enough to only allow Minho to kiss him a couple of times more before he pulled away and punched Minho lightly on his shoulder. Seeing how easily defeated Kibum was, Minho couldn’t help but note that the night they shared before had certainly worked wonders on their relationship.

“You need to stop breaking the rules.” Kibum groaned as he created a safe distance between his boss and him.

Minho smiled, “You need to stop being so irresistibly cute.”

“Minho.” Kibum warned, “Wrong time, wrong place.”

“Alright alright.” Minho nodded reluctantly as he continued to change into his next outfit. “We’ll settle everything once we’re off work. For now, could you try not to look so pissed off? People would think I’m mistreating my assistant if you were to leave the room with your current expression.”

“Whatever you say, boss.”

And with that, it was back to work for both Minho and Kibum. Yet, just before they were back being professional, Minho and Kibum exchanged a brief look with each other, one that made them understand that their thoughts were running along the same line. The short interlude had them finally acknowledging the fact that it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to separate work from their personal lives. And indeed, Minho and Kibum had things to settle and problems to solve once schedules were over. They couldn’t escape reality anymore.

*

For the first time, in a very long time, both Minho and Kibum hated the fact that they were finally off work and alone by themselves in the actor’s comfortable apartment. The couple was supposed to be at complete ease where they could just be themselves, or at least, happily relaxed as they enjoyed the company of each other after working hours but right now, Minho and Kibum were actually wishing that they could be anywhere else but here as they sat next to each other on the sofa.

“Trust me Kibum, I’m hating this as much as you are.” Sighing, Minho rolled his head to the side and glanced at his boyfriend.

With Minho breaking the silence, Kibum did the same as he turned towards the actor. “If you had been careful, we would have one less problem to solve.”

“May I remind you whose fault it was that I ended up having marks on my body?”

“It’s not my fault you aren’t that skilful in bed and I had to direct my pain somewhere.”

“In my defense, you seemed to enjoy it a lot after you got used to the pain. If I remembered correctly, you even demanded me to go harder and faster.”

Upon seeing the smirk Minho was trying very hard to hide, Kibum pressed his lips in a thin line to prevent the profanities from leaving his mouth and took in a deep breath before he asked, “Where is this conversation going?”

Minho wiped the smile off his face and said in all seriousness, “Come on, Kibum, you can’t just push all the blame to me.”

Kibum nodded, not because he fully agreed with Minho’s point but more because he wanted the conversation to move on. “Fine. Point taken. Now what?”

“How should I explain this to Yuri noona?” Minho waved his phone in front of Kibum and pointed at the screen which displayed the simple message that Yuri had sent a moment ago.

So? What happened, Minho?

Kibum raised an eyebrow at the message and pushed Minho’s phone away as he let out an indignant huff.

“Are you even accountable to her?”

“No, not really, but I think it’s safer if I clear things up with her.”

“Honestly, Minho, I don’t see why she needs to know so much about you so if you think you need to explain it to her, then you’ll have to figure this out yourself.”

“This concerns us, Kibummie.” Minho uncharacteristically sulked.

“Alright then, you want my opinion?” With Minho nodding his head, Kibum threw his hands up in the air and said, “Fine, you either tell her the truth that you slept with your personal assistant or lie that you partied too hard one night that you don’t even know how you got it.”

“I wish I could tell her the truth but lying sounds like a better option right now.”

“I’m warning you though, one lie always leads to another lie.”

"You can't expect me to be honest with her right?" Minho let out a weary sigh. “Hopefully, she won’t ask so many questions.”

Kibum hummed in agreement. “Are we done with that then?”

“Yeah. I’ll just reply her text later.”

“Good. So what’s next on our to-do list?”

“You.”

Kibum couldn’t deny that the mischievous glint in Minho’s eyes was sort of irresistibly captivating and so, he found himself playing along rather than giving his boyfriend a roll of his eyes.

Raising a hand to caress the actor’s face, Kibum teasingly rubbed his thumb against Minho's bottom lip and purposely his lips the way he knew would make Minho crazy before he replied, “Maybe later, baby, but right now, we have serious business to settle.”

“Serious business? What serious business?” Minho held Kibum’s hand in place and turned to lay gentle kisses on his boyfriend’s palm.

“We need to… figure things out.” Kibum answered distractedly as he tried his best to ignore the ticklish feeling that Minho’s kisses left on his skin.

“Let me ask you then, are you going to quit your job any time soon?” Minho questioned as he leaned towards Kibum, forcing his boyfriend to lean back against the sofa.

“No.” Kibum didn’t even hesitate to reply as he suddenly found himself trapped underneath Minho’s warm body.

With a satisfied smile, Minho placed his other hand on Kibum’s waist and adjusted their positions so they fit comfortably against each other on the constrained yet sufficient space on the sofa.

“And are you going to end our relationship in the near future?”

“Obviously not.” Again, there was only one answer in Kibum’s mind.

“What’s there to figure out then?” Minho continued asking as he looked down at Kibum.

“Umm, how we should draw the line between our work and personal lives?” Kibum placed his hands on Minho’s shoulders in a futile attempt to stop Minho from coming closer than he already was.

“Do you think we’re doing a terrible job at it?”

“No, but we’re not doing a terrific job at it either.” Kibum scoffed.

Easily closing the distance between Kibum and him, Minho placed a kiss on Kibum’s perfect jaw line and mumbled against his skin, “We’ll get by... for now.”

With his arms circling Minho’s neck, Kibum closed his eyes and finally succumbed to his boyfriend’s efforts to distract him from dealing with their problem once again.

And as their lips met in a slow and heated kiss, the thought of how their secret relationship could inevitably get them in serious trouble one day lingered at the back of Kibum’s mind. Kibum could only wish that day wouldn't come so soon.

Author's Note: sheesh, it took me for-eh-ver to churn this chapter out. trust me dear readers, i am frustrated with myself too. terribly sorry for the long wait. ): but yeah. i guess it's pretty obvious huh? the implied and more importantly (haha), all the foreshadowing in this chapter. i'm slowly building it up... so we'll see how minkey will deal with reality soon. on a side note, i hope you guys aren't seeing Yuri as a b*tch here, because i love her but i need someone to portray the overly concerned friend who raises suspicion of Minho's relationship status. i'm not sure myself how things will go since i haven't written the next chapter yet but yupp, as GG puts it, here comes trouble~ (wow, that was lame, hahah, ignore me.) thank you for reading, commenting and subscribing you awesome bunch of readers! hope you enjoyed the update and stick with me until the end! ^^

ps: don't forget to vote for shinee here on mcd every day!