Hi~

I know it's been a long long long time but here is a new chapter (yay!)

Btw, some of you may receive an update notification when I reupload chapter 13 -15 but they're not new chapters.

I kind of forget the story and decided to rewrite it so there are some changes on several chapters, please re-read if you have the time.

Minho comes an hour before Taemin shifts end. He is with Changmin, who spends most of his time talking to Jihye. He doesn't mind it, though. That way he is free to pay a full attention to Taemin. He could look at the way Taemin stands behind the counter and smile to the customers approaching him. He thinks Taemin is cute when he interact with the customer, especially when he help them with their orders. Also, he likes the way Taemin's lips form a little pout when he counts for the change.

When it's time to close up, Taemin patiently tells all of the customer, except for him, that they're closing. Knowing that they might need to have some private time, Changmin insists to Jihye that they would wait outside, in his car. Once everyone has left the cafe, Taemin locks the door and makes his way to Minho's table.

"Do you mind if we talk in the staff room?"

"No, not at all." Minho immediately gets on his feet and follows Taemin behind.

He waits for Taemin to switch the light off and gets some stuff from the counter before going inside the staff room.

It is empty there, seems like the manager and the other waiter are already left.

Minho stands awkwardly by the door as he watches Taemin take off his apron and hang it near the locker.

"Come in, no one's here."

Minho carefully walks toward Taemin and stops just a few feet away from the younger man. He isn't sure if it's okay to get close to him or better maintain the distance as he might be in the mood for more punching.

"You really have a lot of explaining to do." Taemin starts.

"Taemin, I'm sorry for -"

"You should be! You should be sorry after what you've done, Minho." Taemin cuts him off right away. "But I don't feel like hearing that. Maybe you want to start with why you lied to me?"

"I didn't mean to lie to you. I didn't mean it in a bad way. This is the best way that I can think of to save you."

"The best way? You should've told me and we could have planned something together and maybe we could come up with something that didn't require us to be apart from each other."

"Taemin" Minho pauses as he takes a deep breath before explaining the long version of his reason. "My parents can be strict and intimidating sometimes. When they started talking about you and your family, I was so afraid of what they are capable to do. I wanted to protect you. That's why I agreed to leave Seoul and move here. I thought that was the best for us at that moment, you know. We might have to be in a long distance relationship but once school is over I could go back to you. But happened. I didn't know my parent would cut me off of my phone. I didn't know they would force me to stay here for college. I'm sorry things didn't go the way I thought it would but please know that I do this because I love you and I have always thought of the way to reach you. Look, I just got myself a cellphone and called you but your number couldn't be reached so I call the hyungs instead."

"Oh, nice. So you now can call me. But you get to call her even before you have that!"

"That's different, Taemin. That's my parent. If it's not because of the long time relationship between her and my parent, I wouldn't even get to talk to her whenever they call her. It was rare ocassions. It's not like I get to call her everytime I want to."

"That doesn't make it hurt less to know that my boyfriend got to talk with a girl when I didn't hear from him at all."

"I'm sorry, Tae."

It's almost inaudible but Taemin could still catch the pain in his voice when he apologise. This time, Taemin runs out of things to say.

Taemin just stands there, eyes fixated on the concrete floor, waiting for anything to come across his mind so he can say something but to no avail. The anger is just not there anymore. The frustration, the pain, that have been pented up inside of him just disappeared, leaving him wanting nothing but to embrace the man in front of him.

"I hope my fist hurt you enough."

Minho chuckles when he hears that. And it's more than just chuckling because something is funny, but chuckling because he knows that the boy in front of him isn't mad anymore. He knows. He could tell. "It hurts, but maybe not as much as the pain I give you."

He reaches out for Taemin's hand, the one that hit him on his face yesterday.

"I didn't expect that. You have strong hands." He notices Taemin grimace a little when he caresses his knuckles. "Does it hurt, your hand?" He asks as he examines Taemin's hand carefully.

Taemin nods a little. Minho sighes and pulls Taemin in a hug. "We will do something for that hand." He says as he buries his face on Taemin's hair.

"I had to do that. I promised the hyungs I would do that. I was so mad at you" he mumbles on Minho's shirt.

"It's okay. You can be mad at me and punch my face if it makes you feel better."

"I hate that you talked to her. I hate that eveyone knows but me. I hate being here alone, looking for you who could be anywhere, and not having the hyungs around. I hate that all of it just go away when I see you."

"You know I'd rather talked to you than her. I'm sorry I left you, Taemin. But I'm here now. You won't be alone anymore, I promise."

"I miss you a lot."

"I miss you too Taemin, every single day."

Taemin breaks the hug to stare at Minho with his teary eyes.

"I love you."

"I know, Tae. Please don't cry." Minho cups him face and wipes the tears with his thumb.

"What are we going to do now?"

"We're going to be together. We're going to finish college and go back to Seoul and live with the hyungs again."

"Are you sure your parent would let you go after you graduate?"

"I don't know but I can always try." Minho assures. "Or you can help me to run away." He smiles and that makes Taemin smile too.