Kibum never knew he could find so much joy in watching Minho eat. It sounded so stupid but he was literally smiling himself silly just seeing how his boyfriend was thoroughly enjoying the simple breakfast he had prepared for him. Kibum was smiling so hard that he even had to cover his mouth to hide his smile since he couldn’t force it away. Minho failed to notice this though because he was too busy savouring the dubu jjigae along with a bowl of fluffy white rice Kibum had begun cooking early in the morning.

“So good, Kibum, so good.” Minho hummed in approval after he finished the last of his rice and placed the now empty bowl back on the table, “You’re amazing, you know that?”

“You’re just lucky I visited the supermarket yesterday.” Kibum grinned, feeling rather proud of himself for making his boyfriend this satisfied, “And FYI Minho, it’s really not that difficult to make.”

“You’re still amazing to me.”

“Alright mister, you already got me into bed when you woke up, what else do you want from me?”

“To get you into bed a second time?” Minho smirked.

“You know, I’m actually fine with that, but sorry baby, we don’t have the luxury of time.” Kibum said as he swiped at the screen of his phone and pointed at the time that had appeared on the home screen.

Noting that he only had about a half an hour to go, Minho let out a groan, refusing to accept the reality and for the first time, wished so badly he could be irresponsible, “Can I just skip work today? Call in sick or something?”

“Sure, if you want to get into trouble… by all means, go ahead.” Kibum said with a shrug of his shoulders before he got up and began clearing the table.

“One day wouldn’t hurt, would it?” Minho asked as his eyes followed his boyfriend’s movement.

After placing the bowls into the sink, Kibum spun on his heels to face Minho with his arms crossed, “What do you think, oh professional actor Choi Minho?”

Getting off his seat, Minho walked towards Kibum and trapped his boyfriend against the kitchen counter, hands resting on the countertop, naturally pressing his body against Kibum and showing blatant disregard for the concept of personal space. “I haven’t had enough time with you…”

Kibum stared at the childish brat, that is his boyfriend and threatened, “Minho, don’t make me smack your forehead to bring you back to reality.”

Minho sighed, “Why do you always have to be so cruelly rational?”

“I don’t want your career ruined because of me.” Kibum simply said as he kissed Minho once on his lips before continuing, “And don’t forget, you promised to take care of me. What’s going to happen if you lose your job?”

Minho leaned his forehead against Kibum’s and shared his fear that had been bugging him ever since his boyfriend quit his job, “But this career of mine may just destroy what we have…”

“You won’t lose me, Minho.” Kibum assured the actor, not wanting their conversation to continue in that direction, and then gently nudged Minho away so he could create some distance between their bodies, “Be good alright? Get your cute out of my house and head to work.”

“You think my is cute?” A smile grew on Minho’s face as he gave in to Kibum’s efforts to escape his embrace and took a few steps back.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Kibum gasped exaggeratedly instead, “You mean you didn’t know that this is the main reason why I’m with you?”

Minho chuckled as he quickly played along and lifted up his shirt to proudly show of his mouth watering abs, “I thought it was this that stole your heart!”

“Ahh~ That too.” Kibum nodded as he shamelessly appreciated his boyfriend’s toned body, eyes travelling up his boyfriend’s figure, “And let’s not forget that handsome face of yours…”

Minho let his shirt fall back down to cover his exposed skin and narrowed his eyes at Kibum, “You’re having fun teasing me, aren’t you?”

“You started it.” Kibum laughed out loud and decided enough was enough as he walked towards his desk and gathered Minho’s cap, shades, wallet, phone and car keys one by one, “But I’ll end this right now because you have to go.”

“Kibum…”

Shaking his head, Kibum first put Minho’s cap on for him before he squeezed the wallet in the back pocket of Minho’s jeans, his phone in his front pocket, and stuffed the remaining two of Minho’s belongings into said owner’s hands, “No. Don’t make this more difficult than it already is.”

Minho leaned forward and hugged his boyfriend close with one arm so he could get a proper kiss from the lips that were his ultimate weakness. The actor had told himself he would stop once he was satisfied, but let’s face it, he would always want more when it came to Kibum and that made it impossible for him to ever be satisfied. So it was only when he felt Kibum’s hand firmly on his chest that he finally broke their kiss reluctantly, cursing under his breath as he did. Kibum could only look at Minho amusedly as the actor stiffly arranged his cap properly and then wore his shades to complete his simple disguise. When he was done, Minho and Kibum naturally walked towards the door to say their goodbyes.

“I don’t know when we can meet again but always keep in touch with me alright?”

“I will.”

“And you know I may be busy to check my phone but I’ll-”

“I know, Minho, don’t be such a nag.”

“Are you going to be fine?”

“Are you going to be fine?”

“No, I’ll be missing you every day.”

“I guess that means we’ll be in the same boat.”

“I guess so.”

Smiling bitterly, Kibum nodded as he pushed Minho on his back, “Go, you idiot, you’re going to be late. And be careful out there alright?”

“I will.” A stupid smile appeared on Minho’s face.

“God, I hate you.”

“I love you too, bummie.”

And with that, Kibum watched as Minho finally opened the door and stepped out of his apartment, even making the effort to push down his shades just so he could send a knowing wink to Kibum along with his usual captivating smile. Kibum rolled his eyes as Minho laughed and turned away to walk towards the lift. Still, the ex-personal assistant held the door open and kept his eyes on his boyfriend until he disappeared into the lift with a final wave. And when Minho was out of his sight, Kibum let out a sigh. Even if it might not be for long, it was truly never easy to say goodbye.

*

Recently, Minho realised he had lost a number of things. Consequently, he noticed his life had changed, for the worse, rather drastically. What, you may ask, were the things the ever responsible, well organised actor had lost? Well, the most obvious thing was his personal assistant (not that Kibum was a thing to him of course). A month ago (time flies!), he had to do without a personal assistant by his side 24/7. And a month later, it occurred to him that losing his personal assistant had brought about more damage than he thought it would bring. It wasn’t so much the tangible things in life that Minho lost; it was all about the intangible. Because not only did he lose his personal assistant at work, the actor had also lost precious time that he could spend with his boyfriend in person after work. Minho lost moments where he could actually feel Kibum, touch Kibum, when his boyfriend was always just an arm's length away, moments that he didn't treasure as much as he would now that he realized how much it meant to have the person you love always within reach.

Although they talked to each other every day, something that had become natural for them to do (it had come to the point that the first thing they would do every morning was to check their phone), it obviously wasn't the same as being able to be with the person in the flesh; something Minho realised was the hardest to deal with. See? Minho was absolutely right when he said he was going to be crippled without Kibum physically by his side. He was also right when he assured Kibum he would be fine because that was the truth; it seemed to Minho that Kibum was doing alright without him. His boyfriend never once complained about how his life (something Minho would always do) when they talked on the phone through Skype, FaceTime, Kakao, Line and whatever available app they could use. In fact, Kibum was always the one comforting Minho, telling him that even if Minho was free, he himself might not have the time to meet Minho since he was practically drowning in books preparing for the highly terrifying entrance exam. Minho understood that it was practically do or die for Kibum so he really wasn’t in the position to say anything more.

Still, Minho was upset. He had promised Kibum they would work things out, and that although it would take time to adjust to their situation, they would get through it eventually. Well, ironically, things were certainly working out for Kibum but it sure as hell wasn’t working out for Minho. Especially when the actor found himself not only juggling between being the lead actor in a drama that usually filmed at locations outside the city but also co-hosting two separate television shows that aired weekly. On top of all that, he also had the usual interviews and magazine shoots to attend as well as guest appearances to make at various large scale events in the entertainment industry. Even though Minho was supposedly just an actor, there was so much more to his job that he needed to do just to ensure he had maximum exposure to the public. True enough, he was certainly gaining so much more love from the public, his fan base gradually increasing each day. Yet, right now, although Minho’s career was at its peak, the same couldn’t be said about his relationship with Kibum.

This explained why Minho, who was well awake in bed because he had to prepare for a schedule at 8am, suddenly found himself calling his boyfriend on a whim before he had to get ready and leave for work. Since it was some ungodly hour in the morning, the actor had to wait until the call was almost directed to voicemail for Kibum to answer his phone.

“Minho… it’s like… what time is it?” Cue sounds of shuffling and rustling before Kibum’s raspy voice was heard on the phone again, “It’s 5.30 in the morning… did you really have to call me now?”

Completely forgetting that Kibum no longer worked around the same hours he did, Minho’s voice was filled with regret as he instinctively asked, “Did I wake you?”

Kibum let out an audible yawn before he replied, “What do you think?”

“I’m sorry Kibummie but we have to talk.” Seeing that he should probably end the call as soon as possible so Kibum could get back to sleep, Minho wasted no time in going straight to the point.

“Aren’t we talking right now?”

Minho knew Kibum wasn’t fully awake to understand what exactly he was driving at and so, the actor repeated himself, purposely emphasising his words, “No, I mean, we have to talk.”

“Oh.” It was then Kibum got the drift and suddenly found himself wide awake.

“Kibum…”

“You want us to talk right now? Over the phone?”

“No… not like this.” Minho quickly replied, wanting Kibum to know that he wouldn’t do something important when they weren’t face to face, “We need to meet, I will-”

“What, Minho? Don’t tell me you suddenly, miraculously have the time to come over just so we could have whatever talk you want us to have.”

“I don’t…”

“Well, , what are we going to do then? You want us to talk face to face but we can’t even find time out of your busy schedules to do it… well, isn’t this funny?” Kibum’s voice was laced with sarcasm… and that hurt Minho.

“Kibum, don’t be like this…”               

“Choi Minho, did you even think before you called me?”

Minho frowned, his grip on his phone getting tighter by the second, “Why are you-”

“Forget it, I don’t even want to talk to you right now.” Angry, Kibum cut Minho short and said, “Call me again when you finally have the time to meet me.”

And before Minho could even breathe, let alone make a sound, the line was disconnected. Minho could only stare at his phone and wonder what the hell had happened during the past few minutes of his life. Things weren’t supposed to go this way, he was supposed to have a calm chat with Kibum and agree that they had things to talk about before finding time for both of them to meet and talk about the things they needed to talk about. Yet now, the situation was bad… way bad; because suddenly, for no reason at all, Minho had made Kibum angry. Yet, he couldn’t do anything about it, not with all the schedules he had to attend to that day standing in his way. Damn it, Kibum was right and Minho knew, at that very moment, by hook or by crook, he had to find a way to appease his boyfriend as quickly as possible before things took a turn for the worse.

Author's Note: wow, this is terrible, it took a month for this update to come. :O first things first, i am truly very sorry for the longest wait, a thousand apologies aren't even enough to make it up to you lovely readers but do know that i never did want to make you guys wait this long. i didn't forget about this fic! in fact, it's always been on my mind. it's just that i love this story so much that i didn't want to rush things and wanted to properly decide where it was heading. but then came assignments, exams and immediately after, a holiday, and not forgetting all the other one shots i've posted in between... and regretfully, i pushed AAA aside. it makes me so happy though, to be back working on this! and i hope you guys are still here to read it, and hopefully enjoy! my <3 goes out to everyone who managed to find their way back here! enjoy the last of May~ ^^