A/N: second last chapter. Then it's finally over (after something that will be 70+ pages... How have I even written that much? For those of you who are still reading, thank you so much and I hope I don't disappoint you.

Minseok honestly, with all his heart, thought everything would be quiet from there on. He thought that wow, things were okay, it was going to be great and they would be able to live in peace. He would smoothly graduate, and avoid his mother while working in the coffee shop. He would live a quiet life while enjoying the small things in life, like concerts and sunny days and peace. Maybe move out with Luhan and get a house with a white picket fence and a cat. But then again Life hated him and he realized he should have known by now that nothing would go his way, ever. Why did Life hate him? He had no idea. Would it ever stop hating him? Probably not. Was it disturbing his life? Yes.

It all started three days after the re-opening of the coffee shop. He was serving a couple of customers he’d come to recognize as regulars, but also because they supposedly went to his university. When Tao and Sehun had visited, they had seated with the two people, who Minseok later came to know as Byun Baekhyun and Park Chanyeol: both music majors. No wonder he didn’t know them.

Nonetheless, as he gave them their orders and a quick smile, before returning to the counter where Yixing was juggling between taking and making orders. The re-opening had gone rather smoothly; the stream of customers was about the same, and after a day it was like it had never closed down in the first place.

Minseok was about to take the next customer’s order when he looked up. He thought he saw someone behind the person currently ordering, but he decided it must have been a trick of the light, as that person by no means could be there. Surely some coincidence. Brushing it aside, he continued as before but now with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

As it turned out, it hadn’t been a trick of the light. The person Minseok thought he had been was one of his mother’s bodyguards: the same who he would see a couple of days later.

The following Friday at ten p.m., Minseok and Luhan were settled in Minseok’s bed, laughing at an old video of Yixing from his high school days that Jongdae had sent them earlier. They were both in their regular sleeping clothes already, having decided that they would go to bed early that evening seeing how they needed to get up early the next morning.

Yixing was doing an impersonation of some animal when someone knocked on the door. Minseok wondered who it could be: he knew that Yixing had dragged Jongdae out on a dinner with his parents, so it couldn’t possibly be them.

Luhan pressed the space-button on his computer, and Yixing froze as the video paused. Sitting up from the bed he grabbed a random t-shirt from the laundry-pile, walking out of the door. Along the way he found the front of the shirt and was about to put it on, but in the end never got that far.

“Minseok,” he called from the living room, his voice suddenly strained. “You – you should probably come here.”

And as Minseok walked out, he understood the change in Luhan’s voice very well.

"Kim Minseok, could you be so kind and tell me who that boy is?" Minseok's mother demanded, sending a judging gaze to Luhan. Her face revealed that she was not pleased, and probably wouldn't accept any excuse no matter what it was. She was currently standing in the living room, balancing on her sky-high heels as she tapped her arm in irritation. Two bodyguards stood on each side of her, and Minseok recognized the guy on the left as the one who had appeared in the coffee shop days before.

Luhan shifted his gaze to the ground, and didn't know what to do. He knew he had to come up with a story - the lady now standing in the living room would never accept them together, he was sure. It was pretty obvious by now that she was Minseok’s mother, and although Luhan hadn’t really believed his boyfriend’s rather off-putting descriptions of her until now, he now did. Luhan could say they were friends, housemates while Luhan was moving or something. But she had seen him come out of Minseok's room in only his pajama pants, so he doubted that would work. He was about to open his mouth and deny what he thought the lady now believed was going on, but before he could do it Minseok stepped forward.

“That’s Luhan, not ‘that boy’,” he said. His voice was calm, but in a cold way – Luhan could feel Minseok’s resentment towards his own mother very well. “And he’s my boyfriend.”

His mother’s eyes widened in surprise at the blunt confession, and so did Luhan’s. Minseok had always avoided the topic, so why was he so open about it now?

“Do you now who I am?” his mother’s breath hitched in shock. “I am Kim Minhee, wife of the CEO of one of the biggest companies in Seoul! And you are my son! No one but me is to decide your significant other.”

In anyone’s ears that had to sound wrong. Minseok’s mother was literally forcing him into a marriage he did not want, making him unable to decide his own fate. It was so wrong on so many levels; Luhan couldn’t even start to explain it.

Minseok was about to object, but Minhee did not seem like she was done yet. “This was not even the reason I came here! I was casually checking your profile in the government achieves when I something new. According to this, you are the co-owner of a café downtown? I don’t think I ever agreed to let you do that? You have to graduate at the top of your class and take over the company!” as she spoke she got out a paper from her mini purse, which should not be able to fit anything. It was the registration for the shop Yixing and Jongdae had filed weeks previous. Minseok wondered how she had managed to get her hands on that as it was classified information, but then he was reminded that money could solve anything in her world. At the same time, Luhan’s eyebrows crept together in worry. This woman, Minhee, only grew worse with every second that passed. No wonder Minseok detested her like she was the plague.

Minseok sighed, his patience coming to an end soon. “I don’t need you to agree on anything, because it’s none of your business. You’ve never cared a about me, and now you’re going to pick my spouse? What kind of reasoning is that? And what mother checks the government achieves for her son’s profile anyways? You’re crazy!”

At the last statement the bodyguards tensed up, seemingly ready to fight any second. Minhee just waved them off, and they relaxed again. “Close down the shop. As of now you are going to concentrate on your studies, and you are not allowed to work. Also, break up with this no one of a boy,” her voice dripped with disdain in the last sentence.

That was when Minseok’s already thin patience snapped. His gaze grew intense with anger, fixated on the woman trying to decide every aspect of his life. For once, he would protect something from her.  “I ing love him and you can keep your abnormally large, surgically fixed nose away from this. I owe you no explanation!" He seemed furious, in a way Luhan had never seen him before. Did he care this much about him? This much, to go against his own mother? Luhan doubted Minseok had ever spoken to the woman that way, because she seemed shocked and terrified. The elder took a few steps back, and intertwined his fingers in Luhan's.

"I love him mom, and I don't want to take over the company," he declared. No more subtle hints, like before. No more directing the question to his brother when it came to business-stuff. It came right out, clear as the day. And for a second, Minseok's mother's face softened, her eyes showing something that could be... Acceptance? No, sympathy.

But her face hardened, and she snapped her fingers. "Mingi, Yoongi, take him away. You'll be taking over the company Minseok, I will see to that," she was ice-cold. She always acted out to be this superficial, harmless woman, but in reality she was hard as stone. Her two very, very tall bodyguards came forward, lifting Minseok right off the ground. Minseok's eyes widened as he tried to resist, holding on to Luhan as tightly as he could.

"NO!" Minseok shouted, trying to wriggle himself from their grip. "Let me be! I want Luhan, not one of your plastic dolls! Goddamn it, I hate you! Let me be, put me DOWN!" he screamed of all his might, as the two bodyguards carried him forward. In the end, they were pulling the lower part of his body, while he was clinging to Luhan with all his might by wrapping his arms around Luhan’s slender shoulders and chest. "I will escape from that hell house and tell all the gossip magazines that you do fat surgeries! I'll tell them that you stopped feeding me when I was a kid because you thought I was fat! Leave me alone you old hag!" He hollered, sure half the city heard him. "I hate you, you wench! You old, wrinkly, way-past-the-expiration date witch!"

Both Luhan, who was holding on to Minseok like his life was depending on it, and Minhee, who stood just like she had since she came, looked wide-eyed at Minseok's resistance. Neither of them had seen him like this, and neither of them was expecting the scene that was now going on. He had always been a lenient, obeying kid. He did as he was told, and never defied anyone’s decisions on his behalf. Until now, that was. But while one of them was terrified because of this, the other one was thankful. Luhan had never doubted Minseok, but seeing him like this just kind of confirmed everything he had believed so far.

However, in the end, it was the beefy and bulky two meter tall Yoongi and Mingi against skinny Minseok and Luhan, and it was obvious who won the tug of war. Luhan tried the best he could, but could do nothing but watch as Minseok was carried out, his feet not even touching the floor. The latter wriggled and kicked and tried to free himself, screaming every bad word he knew, but to no use. He was greatly overpowered and just looked like an angry child, being carried between the giant bodyguards like that. "Let me ing down! Luhan, don't you dare leave the coffee shop, do even better in my pla – hey, keep you dirty hands off me – I will ing come back, I bet my mother's fake face on that!"

As the rebelling one was carried out, only Luhan and Minhee was left in the room. One could still hear Minseok's screams in the hallway and down the stairs, but they slowly faded away. And it was about then that Luhan's knees finally gave in and he dropped to the floor, looking at the door where Minseok had disappeared. His mind couldn't collect itself, and he stared into the blank air in front of him. .... What? It became silent for a while, with only the sound of Luhan's still quickly beating heart. Was Minseok really gone now? As the screams in the end silenced, he wondered if he had ever been there… yes, he had to. That witch was still standing there. Two members of the Kim family had switched places, and Luhan had gotten the worse end of the deal.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Minseok's mother cleared , walking in front of Luhan. For a second he just stared at the expensive high-heeled shoes, without realizing something was there. Then he noticed the gold and leather, and looked up. Somehow, the woman seemed even more cold and calculating now.

"As you probably understand, my Minseok is irreplaceable. And as you may now realize and as I did the second I stepped inside, you are not someone suited for Minseok. I don't know what he has been doing up until now, but he certainly won't anymore. Please write him off as that puny coffee shop's owner, because he will not come back, not ever. And you will of course be prohibited from seeing him, for the common good. As a - what do I say? - Understanding between us, I will let you live here. Also… You're in college, right? I'll pay off your tuition. Now, I shall excuse myself," and before waiting for Luhan's reply, she walked out, her heels clicking against the wooden floor. She had just traded what Luhan loved most in the world for a college-tuition and an apartment. But why the hell would he need the apartment now, if there were no one to come home to? No one to cuddle up to in bed, no one to share longing gazes with, laugh, or have the late night serious talks?

Luhan just sat there. During her whole speech he knew he should have spoken up, resisted as Minseok did, but he couldn't. He was devastated, the shock preventing him from doing anything. What was he going to do now? Without Minseok, where was he headed? He couldn't even picture his life before that evening in the dark alley where they had met. Was he losing everything he had ever gained? He could never go back there. But at the same time, would he be able to work in the coffee shop when everything would remind him of someone that would never return?

And that night, the only sounds going through the apartment were the muted sobs from Minseok's room, where a broken Luhan was lying curled up in the bed with one of Minseok's t-shirts that still held his scent.

I didn't include the horrible mother for nothing ._. might not seem like it, but this actually had a plan.