Taemin still remembered the day his father kicked him out of the house.

“You’re saying I will live with Minho after the wedding? Alone?” Taemin’s eyes widened in horror.

“Yes,” his father calmly answered.

“Dad! You’re kicking me out of the house?” Taemin asked him dramatically with a betrayed look.

"I'm not kicking you out, son," despite his only son's outburst, Mr. Lee still spoke in a calm demeanor. "I just give you a chance to spend your newlyweds days privately, that's why I gift you and Minho an apartment."

"There's no need for it, Dad," Taemin whined as he took as seat beside his father. He turned to his father and gave him his puppy eyes, "I want to spend more time with you."

His Dad automatically smiled seeing Taemin's endearing act, "I promise you, we will spend a lot of time together."

Taemin looked at his Dad in anticipation, clinging to his old man's arm.

"But you'll still live with Minho in that apartment," Mr. Lee finalized his decision. Taemin already opened his mouth to argue his father again, but before he could say anything, Mr. Lee cut him off, "Just a few months. After you two become much closer, you can move in back here."

"But Daaad...we're already close," Taemin tried to reason again.

"Much closer," his father stressed the word 'much'.

And that was the first time Taemin was kicked out of his house by his father.

So, here he was, standing awkwardly with Minho in the middle of their 'newlywed' room in their new apartment, still wearing the suits from their wedding reception earlier.

"Should I sleep at the guest room?" Minho offered in a gentle voice, but Taemin was still startled by the sudden words breaking the silence.

"Or maybe I can sleep there?" Taemin offered back, actually feeling bad because the guest room was much smaller than the main room.

"It will be such a hassle to move your stuffs there," Minho looked around at the neat room that was already filled with a lot of stuffs, Taemin's stuff. Taemin's father was so eager with the fact that his son finally got married that he himself, using his long forgotten knowledge as architect, preparing the apartment. He forced Taemin to move most if his stuffs there a few days before the ceremony so he could work with the interior designs. He also told Minho to do the same, but Minho didn't really have time to pack and he politely refused the moving agency Mr. Lee offered because he didn't want his family saw it. He just wanted to leave the house quietly. So, just yesterday night he sent his big suitcase and a few of boxes there, still unpacked, as he didn't bring and didn't really need much.

"But..." Taemin trailed off, something clearly bothered him.

"Hmm?"

"Dad said that he will send Auntie Im, our house's caretaker, twice a week to help cleaning the house. If it's too obvious we sleep at the different room...and if Dad hear about that..."

"Should we just sleep here together, then?" Minho suggested, and it kind of ticked Taemin off because the older guy seemed very unbothered. I bet he used to sleep around...

"Just leave your stuffs here," Taemin said, "So it won't look suspicious," he explained. "I promise I won't touch it."

"Okay, it's fine with me," Minho agreed right away, and Taemin was glad that despite the hard he went through to convince Minho to marry him, Minho was overall an easygoing and unfussy person.

So after washing up, they worked together to unpack Minho’s stuffs, to make sure the arrangement of their belongings was convenient for both of them. Taemin expected it to be a little awkward, so when it’s not, he was surprised. Minho asked a lot about Taemin’s company, eager to learn because he was just naturally a responsible person. While sharing every little bit he knew about it, Taemin felt relieved knowing Minho would definitely do a good job taking care of the company.

“Oh, you can put those in the study room. You know, the spare room near the guest bathroom,” Taemin said when he noticed Minho opened a box full of his work documents.

“Okay, I’ll be back in a sec.”

After Minho left with the box and his laptop bag, Taemin went back to the unpacked stuffs. He opened one of the sealed box. A smile appeared on his face as soon as he opened it, finding an old frame with a picture of young Minho in it.

“He doesn’t change at all,” Taemin commented. “But how can he grow so tall?” Taemin pouted as he put the picture on the bedside table, beside the picture of his family. But his clumsy hand really couldn’t read a room, because his hand accidentally knocked it off when he was about to get up. Luckily, it didn’t fall on the floor. Taemin quickly took the frame and inspected it closely, didn’t want to break his husband’s stuff on the very first day.

Frown appeared on Taemin’s forehead when he noticed the lid on the back of the frame couldn’t be closed properly. It was a very old frame, after all. He needs to change this, Taemin thought. He fumbled around the lid, tried to close it, but unluckily, he made the lid opened instead.

As soon as it was opened, a folded picture fell off. Surprised finding a hidden picture inside, Taemin took and opened it without much thinking. He didn’t expect to see Minho with a very beautiful woman on it. A woman who looked familiar to Taemin.

“What are you doing, Taemin?”

Minho’s voice startled Taemin that he dropped the photo as he turned around. Minho, who was already by Taemin’s side, bent down to help him picking it up. He was about to give it back to Taemin, but he immediately stopped when he realized the photo was his.

“Where did you get this?”

“Your frame is broken…” Taemin’s voice got smaller as he pointed the broken frame on the table.

“Ah, I’ll change it later,” Minho said nonchalantly. He took the frame and shoved it along with the photo back to the box.

There was an awkward silence after that, until Taemin finally dared to ask, “Is she…your mother?”

Minho didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to answer because the resemblance the woman held with Minho already gave the answer away.

“Are they…” Taemin started to ask carefully, “…your family…they forbid you to save anything related to her?”

“No,” Minho replied curtly.

“Then why…” before Taemin could finish his words, Minho already cut him off.

“I’m the one who don’t want to display it or see it.”

Liar, Taemin said in his mind. If you really don’t want to see it, why do you bother to keep it safely in that frame and bring it with you?

“Have you met your mother again after becoming part of Choi Family?” Taemin couldn’t stop himself to ask.

“The last time I saw my mother was when she sent me off to the Choi Family,” Minho didn’t bother to look at Taemin as he spoke.

“Do you want to? I can help you to—”

“I don’t want to see her!” Minho’s voice started to risen, made Taemin shut up immediately.

“I’ll just finish unpacking tomorrow. Go rest,” Minho spoke again after a moment of silent, with a calmer tone.

Liar, Taemin mumbled as his eyes glued to the closed door after Minho left the room.

It was already past 3 a.m. but Minho was still busy turning left and right on his bed. He sighed, feeling annoyed because his body was very tired but his eyes and mind didn’t want to cooperate. He couldn’t sleep at all no matter how hard he tried.

Giving up, Minho got up from the bed. He took his sleeping pills with him and made his way to the kitchen. But his steps immediately stopped when he heard a sound. A whimper, to be exact. Minho knitted his brows and tried to listen more closely. After awhile, he realized the sound came from Taemin’s room.

Minho couldn’t help but feeling worried so he decided to check on him. Is he sick? Minho wondered.

Minho tried his best to open the door silently. He was welcomed by the sight of Taemin sleeping on the bed, his blanket covered him carelessly, a hint of Taemin slept restlessly and tossed around.

“Help…help…help…” Taemin’s voice was so frail that Minho quickly approached him without thinking. He sat on the edge of the bed. He watched Taemin spoke in his sleep, his face looked like he was in pain.

“Hyung…help…help…” Taemin spoke again.  “I’m sorry…I’m really sorry…please…please…”

This time, a tear rolled down. Minho took Taemin’s hand in his right away. It was sweaty.

“Ssh…ssh…Taemin…it’s okay…” Minho tried to soothe the younger guy. He kept caressing Taemin’s hair softly and held Taemin’s hand tightly. Slowly, Taemin’s cries lessened until finally he stopped talking in his sleep. But Minho didn’t stop brushing Taemin’s hair, afraid Taemin broke down again. He hummed some lullaby as he watched his new husband sleeping, while his mind wondered of what exactly made Taemin have restless night as well like him.

So...hello...

I'm really sorry that my hiatus got longer than expected.

I'm not done with my hiatus yet but I'm almost done with it (I hope)

I have some spare time, just a little, so here's a very very short update.

And it's a little rush, sorry...

See you again soon (I wish)

XOXO