“Anyway, I need to tell you that I can’t fulfill the promise.” Mino supplied softly cutting through the thick air of awkwardness and silence.

It was barely a whisper but Taehyun heard it clearly.

~~~~~~~~~~

Taehyun remained silent, digesting his words, feeling a slight painful twitch in his chest. Maybe it was getting pretty late because he felt his mind may not be quite functioning anymore that was making him imagine things.

“I mean we can still be friends right? After all, you have a life and I have a life. Ten years is a really long time plus you are an idol now so you know we should not be complicating your situation or interfere with your life.”

“I see, I mean yes 10 years is a long time. You have changed and I have changed too. I think you are right we should be friends again, get reacquainted with our present selves, Mino.” Taehyun nodded pensively.

“Minho, it is Minho.” Mino snapped making Taehyun a little startled. Mino was always cheerful and hardly got mad. He wondered how much more did the person in front of him changed.

It struck him then that he has not called him by his name or nickname. No more Taehyun or Taehyun-ah or his favourite pet name in his entire language, Nammie. He was just addressing him like he was supposed to be there in front of him.

In his mind, Taehyun wondered how the person sitting in front of him became such a stranger to him but just that his face was that of the boy he used to know. There was something hard about the way he was holding himself in and it made him wonder if Mino even cried when he learnt of the news.

“Do you have someone? Is that the reason?” Taehyun asked softly. As the words left his lips, he realized that he did not exactly wanted Mino to answer.

“Yes I do have someone. His name is Jinhwan, we met when I was in Japan. Do you have anyone?”

“No, I don’t. Well it is against company policy anyway to date openly. That said, I am not with anyone. So it is just my members which are more then enough.” Taehyun shrugged his shoulders.

“I never thought you will be a singer. I mean I thought you wanted something more to production.”

“My mum dragged me to an audition. You know how persuasive and hard headed my mum can be.” Taehyun answered making Mino laughed in memory.

“So you will report back tomorrow?”

“Yes, I have too. Father and mother will be worried. They will want to meet you soon too.”

“I know. It has been a while since I last saw them and Jiyong huyng too.” Taehyun nodded in understanding.

“It is late, we should both turn it. It was good to you again.” Mino gave a curt nod before he headed to the makeshift couch bed that s put together hastily.

Taehyun did not get much sleep that night and just kept replaying the day’s events over and over again at the same time his thoughts could not help but drifted to the guy outside in their living room on their couch.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Nammie, Nammie, Nammie!”

“Yah! Stop giving me weird nicknames! It sounds so cheesy!” Taehyun whacked Mino’s arm, earning a loud laughter from the boy.

“It is a nice pet name. My Nammie! No one in the world except me is going to call you that!” Mino stated proudly.

Taehyun covered his face with his hands knowing the guards are within earshot and probably could hear every single thing.

“This is not something to be proud of, Song Minho.”  Taehyun muttered exasperatedly.

~~~~~~~~~~

Taehyun woke up to music and muted noises coming from one of the members rooms. After finishing his morning routine, he made his way to Seunghoon’s room where the noise was emitting from.

Pushing the door that was slightly ajar, he sees Seunghoon and Mino busy rapping into the microphone. It has been a while since he heard the deep, low raspy voice. Taehyun smiles while leaning against the door jamb, his rapping used to annoy the hell out of him now it is different, a good kind of different.  

“Oh Taehyunie, you are awake. Did you hear this dude? He is awesome. I was stuck and then he came along and solved it for me.” Seunghoon exclaimed proudly.

“Yes that is why we are all gathered here at 6.30am in the morning.” Taehyun muttered before he turned around and returned to his room.

“Don’t mind him, maknae is not a morning person so he gets a little diva-ish and grouchy.”

“He never was.” Mino muttered softly under his breath. Some things never changed he mused.

Mino left shortly around 8 am after Jinwoo’s badgered him about having breakfast before leaving. Thanking them for letting him stay the night and taking care of his wounds Mino left the dorm. However, the members noticed how Mino and Taehyun kept staring when the other was not paying attention.They knew there was something between their maknae and the supposed stranger and they were being kept in the dark about their actual connections. However, they decided to not press on the issue for now and decided to wait until their youngest was willing to share.

Mino was dead tired when he reported back at the palace, letting the Queen fussed over him as though he was 12 instead of 22 just like how all mothers do. He was half listening to Kyuhyun, his personal guard, gave him a rundown of what was happening. He was instantly alert when he learned that the internal security are investigating the late crown prince’s death and suspecting of foul play.

He was even more shocked when Kyuhyun handed a plain white envelop with his name on it. Mino’s face paled with worry when the content was a picture of Taehyun and himself just before he left for Japan.

~~~~~~~~~~

Hihi back with an update... Love to hear your thoughts! this fic is starting to get out of hand... i hope it will be entertaining in the later chapters...