This is his story. The one he didn't want to tell you. This is my story too, so unlike the one he told you..I promise not to leave out any details. 
    My name is Choi Minho, and this is the story of how I met Lee Taemin...

    Firstly, in case some of you reading this haven't read Taemin's blog, his story of our two friends..Kim Kibum and Lee Jinki. The Blind Man and His Eyes. Let me give you a short version.
    Lee Taemin is the most wonderful and amazing person on the face of the earth, and by an exceptional turn of fate he became friends with Kibum and Jinki. He did something selfless, something wonderful and amazing. He gave up his eyesight so that Jinki would be able to see once again. 
    Taemin loved Jinki. I think I'd known that from the first time we'd met. Maybe not, I'm not that observant. But I knew there was something special about him. 
    I was lounging on the couch in just my sweatpants when my roommate walked in. He threw a shirt at me, toothbrush in his mouth.
    "Get your lazy off the couch and get ready. We've got to go meet Jinki and Kibummie in like twenty minutes." I could barely understand his muffled words.
    I groaned, pushing up from the couch and going back to my bedroom. It was nine in the morning on a Tuesday. I had just gotten back from training and now I had to go spend the day watching Jonghyun make a fool of himself.
    I picked a simple grey shirt and changed into some of my comfortable jeans. My hair was too short to need brushing, unlike Jonghyun who hogged the bathroom trying to straighten his fringe to perfection.
    When we finally left and got to the cafe where we were meeting them, they hadn't arrived yet. Jonghyun ordered us both something to drink, coffee for me and orange juice for himself since he hated coffee.
    I  leaned against the window, just waiting for them to show up. "Why couldn't they just come to the apartment?" I asked. 
    Jonghyun shrugged. "They want us to meet this new friend of theirs."
    I'd forgotten. I always regretted that, even though I know it wasn't like I'd done anything wrong. I had just forgotten I was supposed to be meeting Taemin for the first time. Even though I'd forgotten it that day...it's a day that I will remember until I die.
    I do recall now, though, that no one's ever explained how we all knew each other. Everyone knows now how Jinki and Kibum met. Jinki walked in front of Kibum's car and became blind. From then on, Kibum had become Jinki's eyes and the two loved each other.
    I never knew who either of them were until I became roommates with Jonghyun. Jinki was a painter and Kibum was a writer,  but me. I play Soccer. I'm an athlete, not an artist. When I first came to Seoul, I was staying in a crappy dorm with some of the other members. I quickly found a room to rent in an apartment building near the soccer field. 
    Jonghyun, a few years older than me, was the person I rented from. He was a very unusual person. He liked music. I used to love to listen to him play his guitar and sing. I won't lie, he was pretty good, but he had this friend of his. Kibum. They had grown up together. That's how the four of us became friends. The Painter, the Writer, the Singer, and the Athlete.
    And then we met the Flower Boy. Lee Taemin. Even Kibum's words don't do his beauty justice. When he walked in the cafe that day, I won't lie. It felt like I was in some kind of TV drama.
    The way the sun hit him through the wide windows, his edges glowed. His long auburn hair had a golden red halo around it, pulled up behind him in a ponytail. His face was slender and round and his eyes twinkled as he smiled up at Jinki, saying something. 
    He was tall, thin, beautiful. The most beautiful person I'd ever seen in the entirety of my life. When he greeted me, I couldn't even form proper words. I felt like a fool, the way he looked at me. 
    I kept silent, gave him a little nod, and leaned back against the window. I was trying to appear calm and mysterious instead of like the nervous fumbling idiot that I felt inside. 
    I watched him as Kibum introduced everyone and the three sat down. Taemin ordered a chocolate milk. I still remember to this day the way he pouted when he saw they didn't have banana flavor on the menu.
    I found out a lot of things about Taemin in the next few months. He wasn't from Seoul. He owned the flower shop he worked at and it was attached to his house. He didn't have as much money as the rest of us did, but he still had everything he needed. He was kind and gentle and carefree. He was wise beyond his years and retained his childlike innocence in a way that made my stomach twist into knots when he would do something cute without realizing it.
    I had become a lot more comfortable around him, too, through the months. However, I had never gotten up the nerve to ever ask him to hang out without the others around. Sometimes we would hang out with just me, him, and Jinki...but mostly it was all five of us. 
        
    I fell in love with him. I don't really recall how. I don't really recall when. I just realized one day. Just an ordinary day. Nothing special was going on. Nothing important had happened. 
    I just looked up one day while we were all hanging out at my apartment. Taemin was playing a game on the Playstation with Jonghyun while Kibum cooked us all something to eat and Jinki just sat next to me on the couch reading. (For those of you who don't understand the blind man reading thing, it's called braille google it) 
    Taemin had his hair down, falling around his face. His teeth showed when he laughed and his eyes crinkled and sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight. His too large shirt fell off his shoulder as he leaned over and pushed Jonghyun playfully to keep him from winning and he looked over at me and smiled.
    It was only a few seconds of eye contact and I don't even remember if I returned the smile, but I thought while he was smiling at me. "God, I love you." and it was just as simple as that. 
    There was no huge existential crisis, there was no denial, no regret, none of those other emotions that people always seem to go through in dramas when they realize they're in love with their friend. 
    It was just a thing, to me. Something that I felt. Of course, I knew it was something that Taemin didn't feel in return. I didn't have to confess and be rejected to know that his heart already belonged to someone else. 
    I've said before, that I'm not very observant, but when you've seen something over and over again for years...it becomes easily recognizable. I'd watched Jonghyun pining, lovesick, over Kibum for so long now that when I caught Taemin watching Jinki. Well, the look in his eyes was as familiar as the way his smile made my stomach flip.
    I pointed it out to him once. When he'd gone on vacation to Jeju Island. He told you about that in his post, so I don't really  have to explain much more. Of course, I told him that he hadn't been the only one the be drawn in to the relationship Kibum and Jinki  had. 
    It was a special relationship, after all. Taemin was right. A blind man has a special relationship with his eyes. 
    Jonghyun had fallen into it, being in love with Kibum. I had fallen into it once too, though that's not important. It didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't in love, as much as I longed for the kind of love the two of them had. Back then, I wanted more than anything to be able to have the kind of bond Kibum and Jinki did. 
    Maybe that's why I'd done it. I don't know. I don't think I'll ever try and think about why I let all of this happen. It's not important. What was important to me, that was Taemin.
     His smile was like oxygen to me. I can still close my eyes to this day and recall nearly every time he ever smiled at me. 
    Once, at the park with Kibum and Jinki. He was watching them walk around. Kibum was describing the scenery to Jinki, like he did every time they came to the park. Taemin was watching, and I didn't like the expression on his face. At that time, we still didn't really talk a lot. He looked a little surprised when I sat down beside him in the empty swing. 
    "What's your favorite flower?" I'd asked him. I felt stupid at the time, but it had been the first thing to come to my mind.
    He looked at me for a while before responding. "It's called a Plumaria Lava Flow."
    He went on to tell me about the flower, it's size, where it comes from, it's colors. How it got it's name. Later that night, I went home and googled the name. If a person and a flower could be described in the same way, it would be Taemin and that flower. 
    And as he talked about that flower, and we got into deeper conversation, he began to tell me why he picked flowers. Why he loves plants, and the smile on his face. Just like the flower that would glow in the sunlight like hot lava, Taemin seemed to glow with a light that came from inside himself. Sometimes I could forget he was human, like me. 
    And when Kibum and Jinki finally came back, ready to leave, Taemin looked at me once more and smiled again, softer, like a thank you. I returned the smile that time, I do remember. Because I made a vow that day to always do what I could to keep a smile on Taemin's face. 
    
    Of course, it's not like secrets ever stay secrets for long and Jonghyun ended up finding out about my feelings. He didn't tease me, like I thought he would. He just sat there, staring at me, for so long I started to think he'd broken.
    "You love Taemin?" He repeated the question, finally. 
    I nodded. 
    "He's in love with Jinki." Jonghyun  said, again.
    Again, I nodded.
    "Jinki's in love with Kibum." 
    And again, I nodded.
    "Kibum and Jinki love each other." This time, his voice wavered a little.
    Still, I quietly nodded.
    "I'm in love with Kibum." And his voice broke completely.
    He looked up at me like a kicked puppy, eyes watering at the edged and freshly dyed blonde hair. I grabbed a beer off the table, still cold, and handed it to him.
    "We're just a messed up group of people, aren't we?" He asked, popping the top and taking a long swig.
    I sat next to him and drank some more of my own beer. "That's not even the half of it, Hyung."
    
    Of course, he'd promised to keep my feelings a secret as long as no one else realized it. I knew Jinki would never figure it out. As bad as it is to say, it's not like he could see it and I sure as hell wasn't going to say it outright. Kibum, on the other hand. He could see past anything.
    Maybe it's because he was a writer. Details were his job. If you've ever read anything he's written, you'd easily be able to see that. There's nothing Kibum can't do. So I can see why everyone fell for him. Jonghyun, Jinki, me at one point (but as I said that's not relevant.)
    So when Kibum came up to me to ask about my feelings, I knew I couldn't lie. With a sigh, I just told him how I felt. 
    Kibum smiled and patted my shoulder. "Right now, his eyes are showing him a different love, but one day his heart will see this love. Never give up, Minho." And those words stuck with me to this day. Because Kibum knew. He knew all along. He knew everything.
    He knew Jonghyun loved him. He knew Taemin loved Jinki. He knew I loved Taemin. He knew it all. Sometimes, I even thought he knew the future, however unrealistic that is. But there was never any denying. Kibum knew. Sometimes, he knew too much.
    
    I remember the phone call. It was something thirty in the afternoon on some day of the week, who knows. I don't really think the date was important. Jonghyun was out at the studio recording. I had just gotten in from an afternoon jog and the phone was ringing.
    "Jjong?" Kibum's voice wavered on the other end of the line.
    "Hyung?"
    "Oh..Minho..Minho..is Jonghyun there?" Kibum asked again.
    "Ani." I shook my head even though he couldn't see it. I heard him sniffle. "Hyung, are you crying? What's wrong?"
    I didn't know it at the time, but Jinki and Kibum weren't as perfect as everyone seemed to think they were. This was my first glimpse into the flaws their relationship held. Kibum had called to talk to Jonghyun because he and Jinki had gotten into another fight. Another.
    I didn't even know they ever did fight. I'd never once seen it. I'd seen the two of them turn their noses up at things normal people would fight about and not have a problem with it at all. 
    Like one night when Jonghyun got wasted and tried to seduce Kibum. If Jinki had been anyone else, he would have tried to kill Jonghyun for touching Kibum. Instead of fighting, they just never spoke of it again. Events, thing like that. It made me, and everyone else I guess, think that stuff like jealousy didn't phase this couple. 
    This phone call changed everything for me about that assumption.
    "Just...come over, Hyung." I told him, after he'd finished whining to me about him and Jinki fighting over a broken plate. 
    He said he'd be right over, but it had taken him almost four hours to get there. When he did, he had a box with cake from the bakery down the street as an apology. 
    I told him that Jonghyun had called to say he was staying at the studio late, so he wouldn't be home for several more hours. And Kibum told me something that I would never forget for the rest of my life. 
    "If Jinki ever leaves me, I think it'll be for Taemin." Those words rang like bells through my head. A different kind of bell from the sweet ringing sound Taemin's laugh called up. A loud angry clanging, like church bells clanging all around you all at the same time. It hurt. 
    Kibum and Jinki had gotten over their fight from earlier, but what had happened next caused Kibum to expose a side of himself I'd never seen. He was insecure. He was afraid. He really thought Jinki would leave him for Taemin.
    "Why wouldn't he, though?" Kibum asked, resting his head on my shoulder as he continued to rant about the situation. He'd come back from talking on the phone with me to find Jinki sitting on the couch with Taemin. 
    I didn't see what the big deal was, though. Jinki had sat down like that with both Jonghyun and I, running his soft fingers over our features in an attempt to get a sense of what we would look like. 
    "It's different, though." Kibum had said when I voiced these opinions. "Taemin's beautiful and kind and pure. He's not even human. It's impossible for someone like that to exist. If Jinki left me for anyone, it would be Taemin...and Taemin would take him..."
    "Taemin would never do that, hyung." I patted his back. "Jinki would never do that, either. Jinki hyung loves you, and Taemin would never betray your friendship."
    "Thanks, Minho."  Kibum mumbled to me after a while. I didn't know if my words had made him feel any better or not. His had caused knots in my stomach. 
    I was even glad when Jonghyun got back. He immediately pulled Kibum off the couch and into a hug. Kibum had long since stopped crying and his cheeks had return to their normal color, but somehow, Jonghyun could tell that Kibum was upset. He pulled Kibum into his room so they could talk. I went for a run to clear my head.

    So, I couldn't say I was surprised when Kibum showed up at my door in tears one day. Of course, Jonghyun wasn't around. Of course, it was because of Jinki. But this time, it was good news. Or, it should have been, but Kibum was not crying happy tears.
    "What if he doesn't need me anymore?" Kibum asked, sniffling and wiping his eyes. They had just gotten the news that Jinki had been approved for the transplant list and would be getting a new set of eyes as soon as an applicable donor could be found.
    "That's not going to happen, Hyung. He loves you." I responded.
    Kibum just looked at me, the edges of his eyes rimmed in red and tears making him look angry when he was just scared. "But what if he stops? What if he takes one look at me and can't stand to see me anymore? What if He gets tired of having me around because he doesn't need me to help him anymore? What if...what if he thinks Taemin is prettier than me and wants to be with him instead?"
    I groaned inwardly. Kibum had never been able to get past the idea that Jinki would leave him for Taemin. Which would never happen. Even if Jinki could see again. Kibum was an amazing, beautiful person. He couldn't see it in himself, but he was. And I told him this. I told him a hundred times, until he finally stopped suggesting Taemin would steal Jinki from him. 
    I always had to applaud Kibum, though. Even though his biggest fear was Jinki leaving him for Taemin, he always treated Taemin like a son. He was always kind, always caring, and never once ever made Taemin feel bad just because of their feelings. Kibum really was an amazing person, even if he didn't see it.
    
    All of my friends were amazing. Jonghyun, who spent every day of his life watching the man he loved love another man and still kept a smile on his face. Kibum, who was so full of compassion and power but still retained a soft and fragile heart. Jinki, who despite everything that had happened to him continued to live his life and do what he could to show the people around him -and especially Kibum- how wonderful they all were. And Taemin, who made the bravest and most selfless decision of all. 
    I admit, I had been against it at first, when he told me. It was not long after we'd gotten the news that Jinki was on the list. Taemin came to me, at my apartment. Jonghyun was out with Kibum. 
    "I want to give him my eyes." Taemin stared hard at the floor, hands balled into fists at his sides. "I've already been to the doctor, they did all the tests. I'm a match. I can do it."
    "Don't." I found myself saying and Taemin looked up at me with wide eyes. "Don't do it, Taemin."
    "Hyung...I've got to. I've got no other choice."
    "Let someone else do it, Taemin. They'll find a different donor soon. You don't have to give up your eyes for him."
    "But I want to, Hyung." Taemin had said. And I watched the tear fall from his eyes, making a trail down his cheek. "I have nothing else I can give him. Nothing else I can do for him. But I can do this. I can give the person I love most in the world the ability to see the person he loves most in the world."
    "What about you, then?" I asked, aware that my voice was rising. "What are you going to do when you can't see anymore? When you're alone and blind? Because when Jinki finds out what you've done, how do you think he'll react? Do you think he'll be able to look at you every day without feeling guilty and hurt?!"
    Taemin said nothing. He just looked at me, the determined expression still on his face. Tears still streaming down his cheeks. His entire frame trembled just so slightly. I sighed.
    "No matter what I say, you're going to do it anyway, aren't you?" I asked.
    He nodded.
    The silence that drew between the two of us made my stomach lurch. I felt like I couldn't breathe, the air was too thick with tension. And my mind was racing.
    That's when I made the decision. It was selfish of me. If I hadn't wanted it for myself, then none of this would have ever happened. But still, I don't regret it. I don't regret the words I told him next, and I don't regret the path they  lead me down.
    "If you do this, you'll never be able to see again. You won't be able to meet with Jinki again. It'll break his heart."
    "I know."
    "So then, come with me." I told him.
    He looked up at me with wide eyes. Even his sad, shocked expression was beautiful to me.  I repeated myself.
    "Come with me. When I move north to play for my new team. Come with me. Let me take care of you."
    "Why would you do that?"
    I my lips. It was now or never. "Because I love you, Taemin. I've loved you for a long time. So if you're going to do this, then please let me help you."
    There was a long silence. Taemin shut his eyes and looked at the ground. "You know how I feel, Hyung..." He started to speak. "But we both know that you're right. If I do this, I won't be able to stay here. And I can't do it on my own. I'll never have a shot with Jinki Hyung, I never have...."
    He paused, I looked up at him from beneath my lashes, heart pounding in my chest as I waited for him to finish speaking. My smile nearly stretched past the edges of my face when he finally finished speaking.
    "It might take a long time, I'm not sure I'll get over him easily...but I'll give it a try..if you want. I think...I think I'd like to try.."
    I hugged him, then. It was the first time I'd ever hugged him. He fit in my arms perfectly, like a missing piece of a puzzle. When I kissed him, I could see the fireworks. 

    So that's how it happened. That's how we met, how I fell in love, and how  we began our relationship. And a few months later, that's why I was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital with Jonghyun and Kibum. 
    "Where's Taemin?" Kibum had asked me. He'd shown up for a moment to say good luck to Jinki and then disappeared again. He had never told them what he was planning to do. 
    I didn't tell them either. It hurt to lie to my friends. To know that Taemin was in a recovery room on the floor just above Jinki's. It hurt to watch them take the bandages off Jinki's face and be the only one to recognize Taemin's eyes looking back at me. 
    It didn't hurt, however, when Taemin took my hand and let me lead him out of the hospital in the middle of the night. It didn't hurt to watch him clumsily stumble around the hotel room trying to get used to not having his sight. How could it hurt, when he was walking around with his arms out in front of him and he'd stump his toe and whine, reaching out again to find me. I'd pull him into a hug and hold him until the pain stopped.
    It didn't hurt to have him clinging to me while we boarded the train to our new city. It didn't hurt to watch him becoming used to our new shared home. 
    A house by the water, like Taemin had wanted. With a balcony so he could sit outside and feel the ocean breeze on his face. Those moments didn't hurt. They were beautiful.
    In only a few weeks, he'd memorized the pattern of the house. He could walk around without help and not run into anything. He quickly learned braille, took up reading instead of watching the television...although a lot of times the two of us would sit in front of the TV together and I would tell him what was happening on the show.
    
    I had been waiting for the phone call. I knew it wouldn't take long before it finally came. And it was Jinki who spoke when I answered the phone.
    "Why did you let him do it, Minho?" He sounded angry, obviously.
    "I didn't have a choice, Hyung." I told him, honestly. "It was his decision. He wanted to do it."
    "Why did he leave without saying anything? Why didn't you tell us? Minho, we had to find it all out from  the internet!"
    "I'm sorry, Hyung. He didn't want you to know until he was already gone. He didn't want you to be upset."
    Jinki sighed on the other end of the line. "Just...how is he?"
    "He's doing well, Hyung. He's getting better. I think he likes it, to be honest." I couldn't help but chuckle. As we were speaking, I was standing on the balcony, looking out on the beach. 
    Taemin was sitting in the sand with another boy. He was a little older than Taemin. He lives next door with his boyfriend, Changsung. Taemin and Cheolyong had become very good friends since they met. Cheolyong was in a fire a few years ago, and his face was scarred. Most people  avoided him because of his now scary appearance. Even though I knew Taemin wouldn't have avoided him even if he could see the scars, Cheolyong was thankful for a friend who wasn't afraid of him.
    "He's got friends." I told Jinki.
    "Good..Good.." I heard him mutter on the other side of the line. He sounded like he had something else to say, but I don't think he could get the words out. 
    It didn't much matter, because Kibum had stolen the phone from him then and cursed me out for the next hour and a half for "Allowing his baby boy to do something so absolutely stupid and selfless" and "If he ever saw me again he would throttle the life out of me with his bare hands." And something about "Never being able to repay Taemin for the wonderful gift that he'd given them and that they'll always love him and they miss him and one day hope that he'll want to see them again."
    Jonghyun spoke to me too. Of course, he didn't have much to say like the others. He had known. Some of it, at least. He had known about Taemin's feelings. He'd known Taemin was going to come with me. He'd been the one to show the blog post to the others so they could find out what had really happened. 
    
    They all promised to keep in touch. And we all tried, really.  Jonghyun had come to visit a few times. The first time, Taemin had been visibly upset. I apologized for a month after that, but he told me it was alright. He'd just been afraid of what the others would think. He was happy when he found they didn't blame him.
    But Kibum and Jinki never made the trip up. We emailed and called, but that died eventually too. Until the only news I heard from them was on the news. 
    Jinki had begun to paint again. I saw his paintings online in the exhibit. They really were beautiful. One in particular. It was a painting of a flower. A Tiger Lily, but it was unfinished. The petals had been brought to life in vibrant orange, but that had been the end of it. The rest of the canvas remained unpainted. 
    Kibum had written another book. I hadn't read it, but he'd dedicated it to Taemin. The news had announced that he was planning to be married. Of course, it had been two years since I'd last seen or heard from them. I didn't expect to be invited. 
    Taemin and I had settled into our own life, and those memories were only that now. Memories. Taemin had finally told me he loved me. 

    He said it one night, when we were sitting on the balcony. I was watching the sunset and he was leaning against my arm. I had been describing the scene to him. My words would never be as good as Kibum's, but Taemin smiled as I described the colors that painted the sky and the way the image of the sun glittered off the water. 
    "I love you, Minho." He had whispered. I wasn't even sure I'd heard him properly.
    He smiled when I asked him to repeat what he'd said. And he did. He repeated those words every day for a month. For a Year. For two years. Every morning when we would wake up, and every night before bed. 
    Things were perfect. We were happy. I had become his eyes the same way he had become my heart. I thought it would be that way forever. I was wrong.

    I was so wrong. I can't describe in words how wrong I was. Four years. It had been four years that we'd been together. Four years since we'd seen Jinki or Kibum or Jonghyun. Four entire years. Then the world fell apart.
    It was a regular day, just like any other day. A Tuesday. The sun was going down on the horizon and the last bits of daylight were shining into the house, casting a golden glow on everything. 
    Taemin was sitting on the couch with his dog, still a little bundle of white fluff but older now. He patted the dog's head with a soft smile on his face. I was doing push-ups on the floor by the fireplace. 
    "There's someone at the door." Taemin said, two seconds before the doorbell rang. I chuckled, shaking my head at him. "Heard the car pull up." He admitted. "I'll answer it."
    I watched him shoo the dog off his lap and stand up. He walked around the couch and towards the door as if he could see exactly where everything was. I smiled, not realizing what was about to happen. 
    I bet you can guess, when he opened the door. I couldn't hear anything, craned my neck to try and see around the corner, but I couldn't.
    "Whose there?" I heard Taemin ask, when no one announced themselves. 
    "Taemin?" And the world came crashing to the floor, just like my body as the familiar voice said his name.
    
    Jinki. It was Jinki. He'd shown up at the front door, just like it had been last week since his last visit. He sat on the couch, Taemin on the opposite, beside me. I could feel Taemin tremble, it broke my heart. 
    I knew then, that Taemin still loved Jinki. 
    "What are you doing here, Hyung?" I asked, trying to sound curious instead of worried.
    He looked up at me, then glanced at Taemin, then looked back at me. "Kibum and I broke up. He..he left me for Jonghyun.." He said after a while. "And I..I wanted to come see Taemin.."
    "Why?" Taemin spoke finally, his head tilted to the side.
    Jinki chewed his lip and sighed. I felt my stomach flip and my heart rise up into my throat. I wanted to push the thoughts away, but...what if Jinki had been there to take Taemin away from me?
    "I never got to thank you." Jinki told him. "I never got to tell you how much what you did meant to me. I never got to tell you that I don't hate you, that I'm not mad at you..I never even got to say goodbye to you..."
    "What took you so long?"  I couldn't help but to ask.
    "Kibum didn't want me to. He was afraid it would hurt Taemin..." Jinki looked over at him, to see if he really was hurting him or not. 
    
    I just...I can't keep telling that part of the story. I don't want to, but I know that I need to. It's the most important part. Because Taemin offered to let Jinki stay with us for a few days. 
    And it happened, just like I thought it would. With Jinki and Taemin sitting on the balcony one night and Jinki carefully taking Taemin's hand, not knowing that I was watching everything from inside. And he confessed. 
    I heard it all, but I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to believe that Jinki was holding my boyfriend's hand, that Jinki was telling him that he loved him. And I didn't want to hear Jinki asking Taemin to meet him that night at the bus stop so they could run away together. 
    And I pretended not to hear it. I pretended not to be awake that night, while I was really lying still next to Taemin, watching him. I watched him get out of the bed. I closed my eyes when his hand reached over and caressed my face. I fought back the tears when he got out of the bed, pulled a sweater on, and walked out the front door.

    And that left me where I am now. Sitting on the balcony, watching the sun rise six hours later, writing this story. On my fifth bottle of beer, slightly buzzed. The tears stopped flowing a few hours ago, I think I ran out of them. 
    I lost him. But I don't regret anything. The time that I had with him was good. If only for a while, I was happy. And Whether its with me or Jinki, as long as Taemin is smiling, I'll be alright in the end.
    So I can just sit here...writing this story..looking out at the beach and watching the sunrise. Watching the people, and the one boy running down the beach like he's being chased by zombies. 
    He's pretty, from a distance. His hair looks like gold in the early morning. He's not wearing proper shoes, though. He's running closer, though. 
    And it's Taemin...it's Taemin...

    Minho typed the last few words blindly, his eyes only watching the figure running towards him. He stood up, leaving the unfinished story on his laptop. 
    He staggered down the stairs, running to meet Taemin on the sandy beach. Taemin stumbled, but pushed himself back up to his feet and continued to run back towards the house.
    "Taemin!" Minho called out to him, finally reaching him and pulling the  smaller boy into his arms.
    "Minho!" Taemin was in tears, clinging to Minho with tears pouring down his face. "Hyung..Hyung..I'm sorry...I thought I could make it back before you woke up...I'm sorry..."
    "It's okay..Minnie..It's okay.." Minho whispered, pulling Taemin away to wipe the tears off his face. "But...I..I thought you'd gone with Jinki..."
    "I did..." Taemin muttered. "But..but when I met with him...I told him that I couldn't run away with him. Because I can't live without my eyes, Hyung..And that's you..I love you.."
    "I love you too, Taemin." Minho smiled, tears pouring out of the edges of his own eyes. He kissed Taemin, full on the lips, holding him tightly. "I love you too."