Never had in Taemin’s imagination he would ever meet his grandfather for the first time like this, in a grand party at the backyard of his husband’s family’s house.

But there he was, smiling from ear to ear while talking with the guests, not giving Taemin even a single glance.

Taemin was one hundred percent sure that he would never ever meet his mother’s father. And his opinion was supported when the old man found his way out to not to attend the wedding of his daughter’s supposedly first born. That was why Taemin was in pure surprise seeing his grandfather actually came to Minho’s (step) mother birthday party, despite knowing that the newlywed would come. It seemed that the party was too a pity to be missed out, the chance to mingle with a lot of important people.

To be honest, Taemin wanted to meet him. Knowing what his grandfather had had his mother went through, Taemin wanted to spite on him. So bad.

Yet Taemin held himself back. He wasn’t there to cause any chaos. There were too many enemies there while he was there by himself. No Jinki, only him.

He was doing a good job there, in the shadow, with knuckles turning white while staring at a whole team of people who had ruined him, his mother, his father, his parent’s hardwork, and Jinki.

“Hey.”

A sudden warm touch enveloping his clenched fist startled Taemin.

“Are you okay?” Minho’s worried face filled Taemin’s vision, blocking the evil ones’.

“Hmm?” Minho’s soft voice rang in Taemin’s ears. “Taemin?”

Collecting himself, Taemin put on a fake smile. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? You’ve been tense since we arrived and you looked pale. And look,” Minho tried to open the clench of Taemin’s hand. “You’re gonna hurt yourself if you keep doing this.”

Taemin pulled back his hand from Minho’s. “What a lovely husband I have here,” Taemin’s teasing tone made Minho sighed tiredly.

“Can you be serious once?” Minho mumbled, but loud enough to be heard by Taemin. He sighed once again before pushed Taemin towards the house.

“Hey! What are you—”

“Just go inside and rest for a while,” Minho said, still pushing the resistant Taemin. “I’ll bid everyone goodbye and we can go home after that. You don’t look too well.”

Taemin succeeded to stop his steps and turned around to look at Minho properly. “I’m fine. And what will they say about you if we leave the party early like this?”

“They…will be grateful the unwanted ones leave, I guess,” Minho said, as a matter of fact, which made Taemin can’t help but laugh, and it kind of contagious because Minho chuckled as well.

“But no,” Taemin said firmly. “I’ll just freshen up myself a bit. We don’t need to leave early. I’m really fine.”

Minho shook his head. “It’s not like it’s fun here anyway.”

“It is not fun, but let’s not give them a chance to critique you. Let’s torment them more by staying till the end.”

Minho wanted to argue again, but Taemin quickly cut him off. “Go, I’ll rest inside for a bit.” He pushed Minho away, to make him turn towards the party. “I hope they haven’t had turned your bedroom into a storage,” Taemin joked for the last time. Minho’s light laugh made Taemin’s step inside the house lighter as well.

Where was Minho’s room again?

Looking around, Taemin scratched his head confusedly. He should at least let Minho to show him the way. Yes, his husband had shown him his room once, but the house was quite big and it was confusing. Taemin decided to turn at the corner to see it was there, and if he wasn’t able to find it, he would just go back to the backyard.

Taemin slowed down his steps, as Taemin got closer to the corner, he heard people arguing.

Taemin sighed, and turned his heels around.

Well, no need to meddle—

A sound of something being thrown stopped Taemin. After that, he heard loud steps coming towards him. Instinctively, Taemin quickly hid himself behind a big curtain covering the huge window. He peeked and he saw Kim Ki Yong, Kibum’s father went past him. As soon as he heard sound no more, Taemin went out of his hiding. He was hesitant, but still, he approached the corner where he heard Mr. Kim arguing with someone.

That someone was still there. Her handbag was on the floor, which Taemin was strongly believed as the thing he heard being thrown earlier. She stood there, trembling, but she wasn’t crying, although there was a blood seeping from the cut on her left cheek.

Taemin only ever saw her in person once, on his wedding, but he saw her pictures a lot, mostly when he was investigating the Kim Family, because she was the woman of the family.

Mrs. Kim was shocked when she realized Taemin was there. She tried to cover her wounded cheek, but there was no use because Taemin clearly had seen it. She took her handbag from the floor and was ready to leave, but Taemin quickly stopped her.

“You shouldn’t leave like that,” he said softly. He looked around and realized it was restroom at the end of the hallway. It seemed that Mrs. Kim was just from the restroom before she ran into her husband and got into a heated argument with him. Taemin remembered there was a first-aid kit in that restroom.

“I’ll clean your wound. Would you mind following me?” Taemin asked. When Mrs. Kim shook her head, Taemin led her to the restroom. He told her to sit on one of the chair while he took the first aid kit. Taemin was glad Minho’s house had this kind of restroom. It seemed like they had a lot of party and guests here that they built a full package restroom like this. Taemin’s house never had ones, well, they never really had any guests anyway.

Honestly, Taemin was uncomfortable with the stare he got from Mrs. Kim when he tend her wound. So he was glad when he was done. He quickly tidy up the kit he used, but his fast movements stopped when Mrs. Kim finally spoke.

“You really resemble your mom.”

Taemin was surprised she brought up his mom first. She thought everyone from his mom’s past had abandoned her, had erased her from their memories.

“We used to be best friend,” Mrs Kim spoke again. Her stare became unfocused and sad smile appeared on her beautiful face. “And I used to envy her so much.”

“She was always the center of everything. She was smart, she was pretty, and she was kind. She was too perfect that I was always a shadow beside her.”

“She was made to be perfect,” Taemin couldn’t help but answer. He felt a little nauseous, he wasn’t there but he had read his mom’s diary that described every bit of her painful memories.

“You’re right,” Mrs. Kim’s eyes focused on Taemin’s again. “I knew but I still envied her. So maybe, this is a karma for me.”

Taemin waited for her to explain.

“When she ran away, I was chosen to be the bride of Kim’s Family. Such a powerful family wanted me to be the lady of their heir. I was very proud. She contacted me in secret after it, told me he was dangerous. That the family was dangerous. But I was blinded by jealousy that I ignored her kind warning. And here I am now, in a living hell.”

Mrs. Kim took a deep breath, like she was holding back tears. “Now whenever I think about her, remembering the awful feeling I had for her before, I can’t help but feeling so g—.”

“Don’t,” Taemin cut her off. “You may feel regret now, but don’t feel guilty. You may feel regret for yourself to marry such a monster, at least you still have a way to fix your regret. But don’t ever feel guilty about everything,” Taemin looked at Mrs. Kim directly on her eyes, and he saw how a tear finally fell from her eyes. “Because living in guilt is more painful, than anything.”

Mrs. Kim broke down into a sob. Taemin took some tissues from the table, offered her some. He wasn’t sure how to comfort her, and he wasn’t sure if he himself in a place of comforting someone. Thankfully, the door was suddenly opened.

“Mom, are you there?”

Kibum’s eyes were quick to widen when he saw his teary mom and Taemin there, side by side. He didn’t really knew the whole picture, but seeing the wound on his mom’s cheek, and how he saw his father’s eyes outside, he knew it. His father did it again.

“Mom,” Kibum worriedly called his mom, holding her hands, but she seemed can’t stop crying.

“I think it’s better for you to bring her home,” Taemin suggested softly. “I’m sure you know your way around this house to get out of here without being seen by the other guests.”

Kibum nodded. He helped his mother to stand up and led her out of the restroom. Noticing the tended wound, Kibum stopped to turn to Taemin.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

Taemin shook his head, showing it wasn’t a big deal.

As Kibum left his best friend’s husband in that room, he believed he had found the answer of his question to Minho before.

Taemin spent a good 15 minutes in the restroom before he decided to come back to the backyard. But his luck was rotten that day because Minho was nowhere to be seen. On top of that, Kibum had gone home, which meant he was really alone between his enemies.

Giving up, Taemin moved to a secluded area on the backyard and pulled out his phone. He was looking for Minho’s number, wanted to call him, but his eyes caught a figure approaching him. He put away his phone, thinking what the hell this man wanted from him.

And it was exactly what he asked.

“What the hell you want from me?” Taemin asked, annoyed.

“I saw you lurking around the house,” the man eyed him suspiciously.

“And what then, Minhyuk? Do you think I will steal from this house or anything?” Taemin snickered mockingly, actually not in the mood to provoke Minhyuk but he still did it anyway.

“Won’t you? Isn’t that your intention marrying Minho? What is it that you want to steal? The SHINee Inc?”

Taemin laughed. He wasn’t truly laughing but he just thought Minhyuk was very absurd. “Isn’t it mine from the beginning? Didn’t you people who steal it from my family?”

“Who steal from whom? It was your father who lost it because of his useless, stupid son, wasn’t it?”

The comment made Taemin froze. His eyes moved from Minhyuk to the one who stated the painful fact.

“There’s no need to mind this failure, Minhyuk. C’mon, your mom is looking for you,” the old man gestured Minhyuk to go back to the party, in a tone that was very different from how he talked to Taemin.

Taemin chuckled. “So because I’m a failure, you won’t even look at me, Grandfather?”

Park Kyung Min looked at Taemin in disbelief. “How dare of you to call me like that!”

“Why?” Taemin asked innocently. “Although you erased Mom’s name from your family’s register, isn’t it amazing I still become your grandson like this?”

Taemin saw it. The hand was ready to slap him, but he stood still, because if he cowered, he felt like he had lost.

But the slap never came, another hand held back the old mans’.

“Grandfather, let’s just go, before people looked,” Minhyuk coaxed him. Mr. Park took a glance towards the crowd of the guests, and felt relieved no one had realized the ruckus they had.

They were about to leave, but Taemin didn’t want it to end like this. He would be more glad if he had just been slapped, rather than to have Minhyuk help him like this.

“How kind of you to save me from our grandfather’s wrath,” Taemin said. “You’re my cousin, indeed.”

“Don’t,” Minhyuk snarled. “Don’t call me that, it disgusts me.”

“Right,” Mr. Park gave Taemin a detest look. “Don’t act like you’re on Minhyuk’s level, you ex-con.”

Taemin clenched his fists so hard that he could feel his nails tried to break through the skin of his palms. Despite that, Taemin still tried to sound calm. “Don’t forget that Minhyuk had shared the nights at the same jail with me, Grandfather.”

This time, Minhyuk was ready to lash out on Taemin, and this time, Mr. Park was the one who stopped him.

“Do you know what makes you two different?” Mr. Park whispered at Taemin. “At least, not like you, he didn’t kill someone, Taemin.”

Those words made Taemin’s head spin. His body was trembling, his vision started to lose its focus. His ear were ringing crazily, and the pain consumed his head fast. Soon he was drowned. Breathing slowly became hard. He wanted to run but he couldn’t. He was nailed in his place. The water was getting deeper. He wanted to hold onto something. He needed to hold onto something.

“…Taemin?”

That voice.

“What are you all doing here?” the owner of the voice asked, worry and anger could be heard clearly. “What are you doing to Taemin?”

“Taemin, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” the voice was close, a pair of hand was holding him.

They were holding him.

Taemin quickly held those hands, desperately. His eyes finally found those concerned eyes.

“I want to go home,” his voice was tiny. “Please, Minho. Please, take me home.”

Minho nodded. He put his arms around Taemin’s shoulder, as if he wanted to protect him from whatever Taemin was scared of, and pulled him from there.

Throughout the drive to home, Taemin was silent, as well as Minho. Although the latter kept glancing towards the passenger seat, worried was all over his face.

Actually, Minho had been worried for the younger all week long, especially because Mr. Lee’s health started to get worsen. Minho who had started working at SHINing Group, witnessed himself how Mr. Lee vomited blood once at the office. Mr. Lee had asked Minho to keep it from Taemin, but there’s a possibility Taemin found out.

At first, Minho believed that was the reason why Taemin had been acting like he was on the edge tonight. But he started to change his mind because of just happened.

What happened back there? What did they talk about? What’s wrong with Taemin?

He knew their families were sworn enemies, and he just realized tonight how he didn’t actually knew the story behind it. Was it really just because the relationship of Taemin’s parents? If that so, what did Minhyuk do in the picture? Was it because their marriage, which seemed like a threat for Minhyuk’s succession?

Minho had a million questions in his mind.

But still, he didn’t say anything about it, even after they arrived home. Instead, he told Taemin, “Go and rest. Do you want something to make you feel better?”

Taemin shook his head, eyes looking down at his feet. Minho sighed. He didn’t say anything anymore, just watching Taemin’s back as he made his way to his room.

But then, Taemin suddenly stopped. He turned around, strode towards Minho.

“Why? Is there anything—”

“Aren’t you curious?” Taemin asked, his voice was still very tiny, not like usual. “Don’t you want to ask anything? Don’t you want to know? Anything?”

Minho didn’t instantly answered. He looked closely at the shorter man in front of him.

Yes, Minho had a million questions in his mind.

But…

“It doesn’t matter,” Minho finally spoke. His voice was soft, shooting.

Minho reached out, his hands took Taemin’s hands in his. His touch loosened Taemin’s fists. Taemin’s face showed how the owner didn’t even realize how he had clenched his hands again, so hard that it hurt. Minho could feel the tremble resonate from all over Taemin’s body to his hands. And his eyes, which usually were full of teasing glint, looked as if he was lost in the middle of deepest ocean of tears.

Taemin was clearly hurting, yet he couldn’t really do anything.

So it didn’t matter. His curiosity, his questions, anything.

“It doesn’t matter,” Minho repeated his words in the same shooting manner as before.

And those foggy eyes finally closed their lids. Taemin took a deep, painful breath. Slowly, he placed his forehead on Minho’s shoulder. Once again that night, his hands desperately held on Minho’s.

And Minho held onto his just as much.

…I promise you that I will never let go of these hands….until death do us part.

Clenching on the blanket as it was the only piece covering her body, So Hee gathering her clothes from the floor. She was itching to take a shower. Her whole body was aching. She knew why Minhyuk had acted that way.

Because he was mad.

The party was a disaster. And painful. It was hard for So Hee not to notice the love of her life smiled at his life partner. So Hee definitely hated seeing him ran around looking for his husband, as if they were part for a long time, while in fact it was only for a while. And she was drowned in jealously seeing how the newlywed left the party, how Minho’s arm never left Taemin’s shoulders.

And if she saw all that, she was sure Minhyuk witnessed it as well.

So Hee’s steps were stopped by her own reflection in the big mirror beside the bathroom. She was a mess. She could see the bruise on her arms and wrists. It was more hurtful because she knew Minho would never treat her this way.

“You know what’s funny?” So Hee asked, looked at Minhyuk over her shoulder with eyes filled with resentment.

“…that no matter how hard you try to beat Minho, in the end…he still owns the one you want to have the most.”

...surprise?

I read every comments you all left for me. Thank you, they were so nice and I am very grateful.

To be honest I can't promise you anything. Just thank you for reading and commenting

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