~Years Later~

Light footsteps were heard running from upstairs, Taeyong was still in deep slumber from their conference meeting that ended up late last night and adding some fuel to his tiredness, he just came back from a week-long business trip in New York. Ten was heard shushing a few giggling sounds from outside the master’s bedroom, their house was expanded and it was now twice the size than it was before. Ten had designed everything when they renovated their house, he was very careful when picking the materials that were going to be used and he wanted their house to be exactly as he envisioned it to be. He was proud of the outcome of their house; it really looked like it was made from all the love and dreams that the two had when they were still studying. Ten is currently the most sought after architect right now, businessmen who want new buildings after their previous ones but even though he had all those projects on his grasp he never forgets to spend time with his husband and their kids. When the renovation of their house was finished, the two talked to their parents about the thought of adopting and they were excited and happy with the couple’s news. They had everything prepared for a legal adoption and they also brought their lawyer with them when they were about to pick a child to adopt. Despite of the couple’s plans of having only one child, Ten took everything back and they had adopted two instead. When the kids had arrived in their lives, everything became even more perfect than it was before. The two were satisfied that everything happened according to what they had planned but now they just let everything be and they would just go with the flow. No plans, nothing to chase and to fulfill except to keep their family.

Ten was now sweating from running from the second floor of their house, “Lami wait!” he called out for the little girl who was running around with Ten’s newly finished blueprint clasped in her small hands. He kept on running after the girl who went inside her bedroom and locked the door from inside, “Lami open the door please! I need that!” Ten wailed from the other side of the door but he just heard fits of giggles from the little girl’s room. Taeyong woke up from all the noise and he stepped outside from their bedroom only to see Ten in his cute pink PJs and bunny house slippers, “why are you guys being noisy this morning?” he asked while stifling a yawn. Ten looked at the older and apologized, “I’m sorry, it’s just Lami took one of my blueprints from our work room and she started running around” he puffed his cheeks. Taeyong chuckled and nodded, “let me try~” Ten stepped away as Taeyong knocked, “Lee Sungkyung give daddy his blueprint right now” he said in an authorative tone. Seconds later the door was opened and the little girl quickly jumped to Taeyong’s arms to kiss her father’s cheek, “she always listens to you but she never listens to me” Ten grumbled as he went inside his daughter’s room to get his blueprint. He sauntered down to his and Taeyong’s work room, “why did you take your daddy’s blueprint?” he asked the little girl while they went down towards the kitchen. “Because daddy didn’t sleep last night because he’s working again… I want daddy to rest” Lami pouted, “appa, what does daddy do? He’s always drawing. Is he a drawer?” the little girl asked curiously as Taeyong rummaged through their kitchen to make breakfast. Her father just let out a hearty laugh and shook his head, “daddy is an architect, he designs buildings and houses for people and other stuff” he tried to explain, “did daddy de…design our house?” the girl asked while twirling around the kitchen and Taeyong hummed, “it was designed from our hearts…everything is how we planned it to be.” Taeyong finished cooking breakfast and went to his and Ten’s work room, “baby our breakfast is ready” he pecked his husband’s lips before pulling the younger up. “Where’s Taemin?” Taeyong asked as he was curious about his 1 year-old son’s whereabouts. “Didn’t I te- Oh, right you were too tired” Ten said, “eomma borrowed Taemin because she was alone last night…because appa had this huge reunion with his college buddies in Jeju” Ten replied while walking towards the kitchen with his husband. Taeyong’s father retired early from being a pilot a couple of years after Taeyong had graduated from college, it was Taeyong’s request telling them that he’ll be the one to take care of them from now on together with Ten. Taeyong’s phone rang and he looked at the caller I.D “it’s Jaehyun” he told his younger husband and Ten just continued to feed Lami. “Hyung! Don’t forget later, 3pm okay? Tell Ten hyung too” Jaehyun said from the other line, “are Hansol hyung coming later? How about Yuta?” he asked, “Hansol hyung had to perform immediate surgery today, WinWin’s assisting him. I don’t know how long will the surgery go but Yuta hyung will finish early today after doing checking his patients” Jaehyun told the older. Ten asked for Taeyong’s phone, “Ten wants to talk to you” he said as he gave his phone to his husband and started eating. “Are Johnny hyung and Taeil hyung coming? Did they come back from their vacation in Chicago?” he asked while putting Lami down,  “Johnny hyung called and their plane just landed” just then a knock was heard from their front door and Lami just stared at the door, “daaaaaddyyyyyyy! Someone’s at the door!” Lami called out for Ten, her father stood up and kept Taeyong’s phone on his ear. He opened the door revealing a happy Johnny and Taeil, “uncle!” Lami jolted towards Johnny and gave the older a hug she then went to Taeil to hug him too. “Where’s Taemin?” he asked as they were invited inside the house, “why are you asking about our son when you can ask how your friends are doing first?” Taeyong shouted from the kitchen, Johnny just laughed and shook his head. “So how was the second honeymoon?” Ten asked curiously before going inside the kitchen to fix two cups of coffee for Johnny and Taeil. “We had fun” Taeil nonchalantly answered, “why are you not telling everything?” Johnny nudged his husband. Taeil rolled his eyes, “because Sungkyung is here and we wouldn’t want to taint her mind, now we?” he told his husband. “Plus if we taint Sungkyung and Taemin’s minds, Ten is going to murder us” Taeil added and thanked Ten for the coffee. “Jaehyun just called us about later” Taeyong said as he emerges from the kitchen, Lami went up to her room to play with her dolls. “We know~” Johnny smiled while crossing his legs, “so how are Chairman Lee and Architect Lee these days? Are you two adjusting well with the kids?” he asked. It’s been almost a year since they adopted Lami and Taemin, the two couldn’t adjust well at first. Taemin kept on crying and the first time parents didn’t know what to do, Lami was a cheerful and handful girl. She would bother Ten who wouldn’t sleep until dawn would break, she would constantly nag her father to sleep early as she had seen Taeyong do that. Taeyong smiled and held Ten’s hand, “never felt so complete in our lives…we finally…FINALLY adjusted and everything seemed fine right now” he answered.

The talk they had was quite long; they had a lot of catching up to do since Johnny and Taeil spent a month in the younger’s hometown in Chicago. The two seemed to work out through these years despite all the bickering they had when they first got married, Johnny’s life style changed when he and Taeil became a couple. He wouldn’t binge through a series of dramas the entire day and actually be productive, the two would take long walks on their days off and they would never talk about business whenever they spend time together just how they liked it. Hansol and Yuta were quite successful after graduating and getting their PhDs, Hansol was the head surgeon of the hospital that he and Yuta were working at. Yuta had his clinic within the hospital and he is currently the sought after Internal Medicine doctor, the couple worked hard right after graduating and managed to pull-off a simple yet elegant wedding filled with their friends and families. WinWin and Kun got married nearly two years ago; the two had their wedding in China following their tradition just like how the couple’s parents wanted. WinWin is Hansol’s assistant but he would sometimes lead the surgery when Hansol would be busy with another surgery case. Kun managed to start a business from scratch and just a year after he graduated from college, he bought a huge land in China and turned it into a resort with Ten’s design and now he and WinWin own a 5-star restaurant in Seoul that is usually filled with rich people and sometimes local and foreign celebrities. Jaemin and Jeno recently got married and the two were keeping everything under control. They’d still fight over silly things and Jaemin or sometimes Jeno would barge inside Ten and Taeyong’s house for a good rant, before their partners would come to talk it over to them then they’d eventually make up.

Taeyong was busily styling his hair inside their bathroom inside their room while Ten was running around with Lami again. He was holding Lami’s dress on his right hand and her shoes on his left, the little girl ran downstairs and Ten groaned before placing his daughter’s clothes on his and Taeyong’s bed. “I give up!” he said before dragging himself towards their bathroom, he locked the door not even minding if Taeyong was there or now, “Lami is too hyper…. I feel like I’m going to snap at her any moment but I don’t want that. I don’t want to scare our daughter. She only listens to you, how do you even to that when I myself can’t even stop our daughter from running around our house. He sighed before taking off his clothes took a warm shower. Taeyong looked at his gloomy husband and decided to join the younger in showering not even minding that he just fixed his hair. Taeyong made Ten look at him and the younger did, “our daughter just wants to spend time with you…you barely spend time with her. It’s either you’re working or you're busy, our Sungkyung just wants your attention” Taeyong explained then leaned forward to kiss Ten’s forehead. “My baby Ten has been occupied from work so much that you barely spend some time with our kids, they only want your attention” Ten sighed and nodded, “I’m sorry…I was just- ugh” he groaned in frustration. “It’s okay baby, we understand. But baby, free yourself next week” Taeyong said “why?” the younger asked. “Well, since we barely have time to spend with each other, maybe it’s time to have our third honeymoon? In Maldives?” Ten’s face lit up and nodded enthusiastically. “Mom and dad will watch the kids for us” Taeyong said. Ten basically jumped towards his husband and kissed him right then and there not even minding their daughter who was knocking loudly at their bathroom door.

Taeyong held Lami’s hand while he and Ten were looking from Jaehyun through the crowd. It was almost 3pm and there were reporters everywhere, “Ten hyung!” Jaehyun called out as he spotted the Thai boy with his husband and their daughter. He looked at where the voice came from and he saw a pair of hands waving at him from the crowd, “glad you made it hyung” Jaehyun said while taking Lami from Taeyong. “Uncle Jae, where’s uncle Dodo?” the little girl asked, “he just took Jaeyoung to the bathroom” upon hearing the name, Lami lit up. She was very close with Doyoung and Jaehyun’s adopted son and they often had play dates together when both parents were not busy. “Lamiiii!” a shrill voice called out and she turned to look at Jaeyoung who was running towards them, the kids went to their own worlds to play with Jaeyoung’s nanny watching over them. Johnny who was just watched the scene tried to open his mouth but Taeyong had beat him to it, “no, we’re not going to have the two pair up against their will” he said  before heading to where Ten was standing as he was talking to Yuta and Kun who had just arrived. Soon when everybody was there, Jaehyun looked at Ten and signaled the older to stand behind the red ribbon in front of them. “Ten hyung, if it wasn’t for you and everybody else. My dream would have never come true” the younger smiled showing his dimples.

Jaehyun and Ten would spend their free time during college to work on something. Jaehyun was instructing the older as Ten would busily draw everything Jaehyun asked him to. It took them a week to finish a mere exterior and interior drawing but it was all worth it. They were sketching Jaehyun’s dream of building a children’s hospital, which was Doyoung who had initiated the idea. When Jaehyun started working in a small clinic after graduating, he and Doyoung started saving up for their dream after Ten had estimated how much everything would cost. Taeyong and Ten offered to help them financially but the two declined and worked extra hard but still it wasn’t enough. So they talked to the two and asked for help which the two gladly gave them, Taeyong told the two that he and Doyoung should be business partners and that he’d invest in their hospital until the two would pay him off if they can. Jaehyun was very grateful that even Yuta and Hansol offered some help and the others as well. And with their friends’ help, the construction for their hospital had started earlier than they had planned it to. And within months, the hospital was already built and everything was according to how Ten drew it back in college. Ten was extra careful just like how he did with their house so everything turned out beautifully.

Today was the grand opening of Jaehyun and Doyoung’s new hospital; it had garnered a lot of attention since it was the first children’s hospital in Seoul. After giving a short speech and thanked the people who were involved in this project, the group of friends held the ribbon and Jaehyun had cut it officially opening their hospital. Just a couple of months after opening it, they already had a lot of patients coming. Jaehyun would give Taeyong and Ten free check-ups for Lami and Taemin which the two were very thankful for.

The Lee Couple was walking on the sandy shores of Gwangalli Beach in Busan as the sun was setting; Ten and Taeyong were walking hand in hand. Finally some time for their family was spared through their busy days. The both took a seat and talked about random things while their kids were back at the hotel sleeping from today’s adventure. Taeyong held Ten’s hand and looked at the younger, “I would have never done it without you, Ten.” Ten smiled at his husband, “we had each other’s backs that’s why we made it through all those challenges that came before us” he said. “Just promise me that you’ll be there…we’ll be right here for each other every day, every hour and every minute of our lives” the older said and Ten nodded, “we’ll always be there for each other, promise. I’ll be right here, always~” the younger closed the gap in between them and their lips touched. The salty sea breeze filled up the cold summer night air and the two didn’t even notice the fireworks up in the sky as the two were caught up in the moment in their own world, securing each other that’ll be there for each other in the challenges they’d have to face in the next days to come.