Wolfburglar is a lazy bum so I am posting this for you all. Please let her know you love it!

Kibum knew what it meant to be strong. He was strong enough to withstand the blows to his face that his mother said he had to "endure." He was strong enough to hold back screams every time he felt himself being pinned down, intruded, spat on while he was still bleeding and covered in sickening release. His "lovely" wife would be in the corner, her eyes barely slits as she watched with cruel disdain. Kibum did his best to remain strong, to get up and put on his clothes and limp to cook for the woman he was chained to, but he hated it. He hated being strong. He hated it all. Every family dinner when he'd have to smile and hold hands with the monster he'd been forced to marry made Kibum feel weaker and weaker. According to his mother, who hastily treated the bruises and scratches once a month, it was only a sign that he needed to be stronger. Kibum was weak. A nobody. What would he be without his wife? Without her dowry, without her influence, without everything she had provided, what would he be?

He would be worth even less. He would be nothing. So he'd better be strong now.

~

Minho knew what it meant to be strong. He was a good man. He worked his normal, everyday job as a factory cook. He gave the "real men" food as they took breaks from making their table legs and screws and watches. Minho stood behind the wok, resisting the outside world, living as just another man in the factory's machinery. He didn't like this war that was raging outside. He was strong. He stayed uninvolved. He was no soldier, no rebel for any cause. He had a side, but to endorse it would be foolish. No, he'd be peaceful. He was just a man here to do his duty. No more, no less. So when he heard that the war was drawing to a close and that the wrong side was winning, he tried to be strong and do what he believed. So he left.

He was going to be strong all the way.

~

Kibum knew what it meant to be strong. Even when everyone was yelling and screaming that he was running away and not being a man, he was strong. Once the divorce was finished, no one wanted to speak to him. He was the weak coward. He was the one who broke the unwritten rule that made it impossible for him to be happy. He had to be strong enough to break those rules, he told himself as he ate alone. The restaurant was full of steam, fogged up with musky smells and oily smoke. Kibum looked up and connected eyes with the cook, his chopsticks halfway to his mouth.

There was no question, as the cook came closer. Kibum was becoming weak again.

~

Minho felt stronger with Kibum. He didn't know that he could be strong again, after the way his father had threatened him, called him worthless, called him a coward for abandoning the Party. Yet, he'd spotted Kibum, who was just as in need of strength of him. He'd spoken to Kibum, who had been strong like him, and now they were getting stronger together. They did it quietly, secretly. They were strong but silent. They drank tea and ate after hours at the restaurant, or read books together in the light of the street lamps. Their skin would touch, their eyes would meet, and Minho knew that life was with living again.

He knew that Kibum made him strong, in every way possible.

~

Kibum told himself to remain strong as the months turned into years into decades. Decades. In time, Minho was living in the small house next to him. They would talk secretly through the windows, exchange books as the world grew older and them with it. In time, Kibum would tell Minho how he felt. Minho would reply that he felt the same way. They would tell themselves that they could love each other by themselves, but they would feel urges that the world had always told them was wrong. They would stop before a kiss, pull away before their lips could meet. They would cut every embrace short, bite their tongues and hold their bodies back from any expression of love. They could be in love as much as they wanted, but they had to be strong and tell themselves that this was enough.

Kibum had to be strong for both their sakes, until the day their love was freed.

~

Minho tried to be strong when the doctors told him that he was going to die. He knew that his time was coming. He was old, with time enough to have lived his life. Yet, he had a regret. Just one, and it was one he could not die without resolving. And so, Kibum was brought before him. There was that Western traditional wedding song in the background, some sniffles here and there, but of that mattered. All that mattered was Kibum, clutching his aged hands together. They could be strong together, because they could love together now.

"Do you want to marry me, Kibum?"

"You know that I do."