Minho strode leisurely, almost lazily as he scaled the green expanse looming between himself and Taemin. The birds twittered songs of love, the winds danced rhythms of joy and the trees swayed with gentle forbearance. Minho increased his pace almost involuntarily as a vague sort of urgency erupted in his mind. It was as though his mind was earnestly trying to tell him something, earnestly trying to make him understand but he was unable to read between the lines. His mind felt foggy and sudden, blurred flashes of memories seemed to rumble across the screen of his inner mind. He smothered them as a throbbing headache emerged in his temples. It was almost theatrical.

          Taemin extended one slender arm and pulled Minho gently closer. Minho smiled at the angelic being before him before scanning his surroundings with a forced gaze. “This place seems so familiar,” Minho said slowly, “but I can’t remember a thing about it.”

            His gaze was fixed on the far distance when the words rolled out of his tongue, slipped through his crimson lips and fell on the ears of his beautiful listener. Had they been on Taemin, perhaps he might have noticed his sudden intake of breath, his sudden averted eyes, his twitching lips and his beautiful light blush that seem to make him glow in the light of the kindly evening sun that dipped low behind them. “It’s the same time of the day too.” Taemin murmured so softly that the strains of his revealing conversation eluded Minho’s occupied mind.

               Taemin swallowed a little and ran his fingers through his long, windswept hair slowly. Resting his palms on the grass, he lay back gently and began following the journey of the sweeping clouds with his eyes. Anything, he thought, anything to get him away from the blushes of knowing exactly what happened there perhaps thirteen years ago. Minho promptly lay down beside him too, their knees slightly touching, their palms grazing but their heads turned away. There was a strange, curious, almost al sort of intimacy in their pose. There was something beautiful about them.

“What are you doing?” Minho whispered softly. Only whispers seemed appropriate to go with the beauty of the world just then and Minho’s whisper was akin to sweet seduction doled out in teasing amounts.

         Oh how Taemin would have liked to, just then, tell Minho that his mind was reliving the sweet precious moments of when the two of them, at that very moment thirteen years ago, shared their first kiss. How he would have loved to ask Minho if he felt the same way now. How he would have loved to wrap his arms once more around the other and perhaps share another one of those precious kisses. But he couldn’t. So instead he answered, “I’m watching the clouds.” His voice was almost flat, expressionless and Minho looked at him worriedly, “Is everything alright, Taemin?”

“You know something? We came here for our first playschool field trip.” Suddenly, almost of their own accord Taemin found words slip out of his mouth, “We rolled down those hills; they seemed so huge back then. We nipped out of the group and ran away!” His eyes were shining, his breathing hitched but the joy of reliving was clearly etched on his face. “We had a wonderful time, such a wonderful time.” And his voice dropped to an awed whisper.

         Minho didn’t know what did it. He honestly didn’t. In the later years, he would perhaps say, it was his subconscious mind flirting with the powers of the surroundings and the beauty of Taemin himself. Perhaps, in reality, he had never released his memories and lost them. Perhaps, he had only let them hibernate, slowly and beautifully under layers and layers of other bitter-sweet memories to curb the pain that came with them. And each time Taemin uttered a word, he would open up a new avenue of Minho’s mind, push open all the forcibly closed doors and coax his memories out of the niche carved for them painstakingly by Minho.

           Minho had always thought, in the earlier days, when his life hadn’t been b to the cup with the presence of Taemin, that if he ever did get back even a portion of his memories, he would never be able to get over the pain that was sure to come along with it. But somehow, Taemin could bring them up almost gently and Minho would forget the pain and focus only on the beauty.

            But strangely enough, it wasn’t even a memory which propelled him to do what his did. The atmosphere surrounding them, the greenery, the beauty, the childlikeness that seemed to thrive in the very blood that coursed through his body made him act involuntarily. There was no question of his mind being involved in what happened just then. It was pure heart.

           Because just then, right in the midst of the garden, reliving his the very childhood he couldn’t remember, Minho leaned in. His eyes fluttering, his fingers quivering and his heart beating erratically, it seemed as though his mind had no control over what was happening. He stood up suddenly almost as though he were shot. His hands were balled into fists almost forcibly at his sides. He gazed at Taemin who lay so serenely on the ground, his eyes closed and his stance relaxed. He didn’t know why he did it, but he suddenly bent low and gripping Taemin half by one arm, half by the waist, he easily pulled the slender boy up. Taemin’s eyebrows shot up in surprise and his mouth opened slightly to express his bewilderment. But he stopped short when he noticed the burning gaze with which Minho seemed to be regarding him.

               It was slow, beautiful process, Taemin would describe later. Minho leaned forward and stared deep, deep into Taemin’s eyes. The very intensity of his gaze seared through Taemin’s emotions. His gaze was one of affection, with a generous measure of adoration in it. Taemin didn’t even blush this time, because there was something so different about the gaze. They was no playfulness, no searching probe, but rather a curious mixture of love and passion which scared Taemin just as much as it thrilled him. Minho raised up his right arm slowly, almost hesitatingly and placed it on Taemin’s neck, grazing the collar of his shirt. Taemin flushed, but his eyes remained locked in Minho’s gaze furiously with mad anticipation and eager temptation.

              Minho’s palm caressed his neck gently, softly. His thumb moved in the rhythm of music unheard and sent tingles of thrill run down Taemin’s spine. Taemin tilted his head ever so slightly to his left and saw with an unwavering glance Minho’s palm resting so perfectly in the crook of his neck. Minho leaned further, further, almost enticing Taemin to do the same. Somehow in that span of a few minutes, they had let gone of their inhibitions. In that span of a few minutes, they were both five again.

          Of their own accord, their heads tilted, their eyes closed and their breathing whimpered in the anticipation of a moment they would treasure and soon call their own. Even as the evening sun illuminated the sky in a flourish of gold, red, orange and yellow, their lips met and they kissed a kiss so soft in its texture, so sweet in its taste and so chaste in its feeling. Minho’s lips settled on Taemin’s softly, exerting but a slight pressure, refusing to break the chastity of it. Taemin’s lips seemed to mould into Minho’s and they kissed in pure innocence almost glowing in the rays of the setting sun. Minho’s hands cupped Taemin’s chin while his fingers caressed Taemin’s neck and cheek softly. Taemin’s own arms raised up automatically and clutched Minho’s neck, arousing fleeting bouts of tingling excitement and creating a strange sort of euphoria.

          It was a beautiful kiss, an innocent kiss, a kiss free from ersion of every kind, a kiss free from the thoughts that one entertains as they grow up. It was a kiss that marked the blooming of a new love, a silent love, a strange sort of enlightening love. In that moment, their minds were bereft of all the worries, the tensions and the flummoxing situations that adulthood seemed to provide. At that moment, there were only two souls in a beautiful world. And the two souls, they were in love.

            It was akin to a magic spell, a trance but its beauty could only last so long. A sudden realization and a gasp later, Minho was pulling apart, shaking his head in evident discomfort and waving his hands in front of him whilst incoherently muttering apologies. “I don’t know why I did that. I didn’t mean to. I-It just happened somehow.” And a more cryptic sort of remark which said, “I shouldn’t have done that. I wish I hadn’t.”

           Taemin was lost for a few moments, perhaps in the beauty of the kiss, perhaps in the way the world seemed so lovely afterwards. It took him a while to get back on his feet, to understand the situation and to make sense of Minho’s fumbling words. The smile that had been implanted on his face seemed to widen as he took in Minho’s apparent distress. He found it rather endearing that a man of Minho’s stature and masculinity could be so shy and so apparently bashful after a kiss. He laughed a beautiful laugh that seemed to settle in the very crooks of Minho’s lonely heart and said, “Minho, it’s quite alright. Don’t apologize.”

Minho opened his mouth to say something, but his mind refused to articulate. Taemin continued softly, coyly with a al blush covering the pale expanse of his beautiful skin, “I-I liked it.”

            That sentence tore through Minho’s wrecked mind, because he didn’t know how to tell the other boy that he had had no intention of doing such a thing and that he had not thought it completely through. He didn’t know if he was ready, whether this was the right path. It seemed to him almost as though he knew nothing in certainty. He found himself shrouded in darkness again; the same darkness from which Taemin has rescued him now seemed to smother even the glow of Taemin’s happiness. He stared silently at Taemin and watched as Taemin’s petal-like lips curled into another question, “Did you, well, do you remember then?” And a curious blush and strange shyness accompanied the question.

“Remember what?” Minho asked wretchedly.

“It was here, Minho. It was here that we shared our first kiss.” The words dropped out of the sanctity of his mouth so softly, they seemed as precious as pearls. Even as Minho strained to catch the low words, his mind clicked into place and he understood why he had done what he had. But somehow it had him all the more miserable because he didn’t know what to think. He stuttered, “I-I’m sorry, but I really didn’t mean to.”

“It’s alright, it really is.” Taemin said happily, “I like you too.” And that strange blush indicated much more.

Minho’s wretchedness seemed to increase by the minute. In a desperate attempt to not inflict further pain on himself and to not let Taemin bring his hopes up high, he blurted, “Bu-but that’s the thing. I’m sorry, Taemin, I don’t know if I-if I like you that way.”

He saw the happiness in Taemin’s eyes replace itself with that awe, shock and then utter dismay and he felt he could just wring his own neck just then. “Why did you kiss me then?” Taemin asked softly. It wasn’t a playful question, or the kind love-struck couples ask each other while trying to act silly. It was a pure genuine question that required a clear answer which Minho couldn’t give.

He slapped his palm on his smooth temples and said, “Honestly, Taemin, I just don’t know.”

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Ahahaha. I'm such a mean person. Sorry! Anyway I actually updated on time see? I'm changing for the better. =D

Love to the subbies and those who commented. And Namri2min and Maknae_HeeRin, your upvotes made me so happy. I love you two. /virtual hugs