“I can cook for the army.”

The looks Kibum received after those words left his mouth were indecipherable at first. Priceless even, for it was obvious that neither had expected this from him. Soon, the men started showing some real reactions. Minho looked stupefied while the other man simply looked Kibum up and down, as though measuring him.

“Boy, do you hear yourself? Do you hear what you just volunteered for? You’re a boy, why would you want this for yourself?” the man asked all at once.

“It’s just cooking. There is no rule that says that only women are supposed to do the job. I have been doing it for years now,” Kibum answered him calmly, despite his unsure feelings about this. Why would one be ashamed to do something that sustained their own living anyway? It’s one of those stereotypes Kibum hated among his people; that the women belonged in the kitchen.

The leader was taken aback by Kibum’s boldness in answering. It was obvious that he was not liking Kibum’s open-mindedness. Fortunately, just at that precise moment, a whiff of the abomination the army men called their lunch entered the tent. Kibum played this to his advantage.

“And I’m pretty sure that you are not enjoying your arrangements for meals currently. I’m just offering this as a…-“ Kibum swallowed thickly, trying to get the next word out without sounding revolted, “-service…”

Well, if the man was hesitating earlier to make a decision, he had just received the one reason that would be enough for him to change his mind. Good food is, after all, the way to a man’s heart.

“Are you any good?”

“Very, sir. I’ve had a good teacher,” Kibum immediately thought of his grandmother’s delightful dishes, that he had been enjoying for so many years despite their poverty and their lack of resource.

“Very well… But be warned, you are now under the service of the British army and hence, sworn to secrecy of keeping all that you see and hear to yourself only. Step out of the line and the consequences will be grave!” the man warned in a cold tone. This was the first time the man was showing just how fierce he can be and Kibum had to admit, that it did scare him a little.

Kibum didn’t remember how exactly he was led out of the tent after that by Minho. He remembered bowing and then, staring at the man for a bit. Minho must have led him out somewhere between that. All Kibum knew was that now he was standing with Minho at the edge of the army base, ready to go home. Several men had greeted Minho while they were walking here (more like letting out a string of curse words to show their brotherly affection and punching Minho’s shoulder, much to Kibum’s dislike.) They had all given Kibum a weird look but none had really acknowledged him. Kibum had just tagged along behind Minho, who was dodging them left and right so that he could go send Kibum off.

“Why did you do that?” Minho asked when they were out of earshot but not nearly out of the army men’s sight. Kibum assumed that they didn’t get to see outsiders often, which must be why they were so interested in Kibum (yet not interested enough to approach him.)

“Do what?” Kibum asked back.

“Volunteer to cook,” Minho said, looking straight into Kibum’s eyes. His hands were obviously itching to reach for Kibum’s but they didn’t do anything of that kind. They were being watched. It’s too dangerous.

“I had to have a reason to come take care of you. And I figured that everyone would want good food to eat, even if they were in the army,” Kibum said, pulling a face at the last word.

Minho smiled. It was honest but just a little sad. Kibum wondered why.

“You have to go now, Kibum. It’s getting dark. I don’t want you out there alone in the dark,” Minho said after a while. Kibum nodded, looking up at the sky that was turning orange with the setting sun.

“Bye Minho,” was all Kibum could manage out.

Kibum actually had a lot of things to say. To let Minho know. Even more than all of that, he wanted to just stay there with Minho, just to be by his side. They had just gotten together. Kibum whined childishly on the inside that it was not fair for him to have to leave the other so soon. But Kibum had responsibilities and so did Minho.

There was no need for Kibum to feel depressed, though. He would be seeing his lover tomorrow again, wouldn’t he?

Minho, who had just been looking at Kibum silently while Kibum was having this internal battle, moved to stand in such a way that his front would be somewhat hidden from the army men’s eyes.

“Are they still watching?” Minho asked ambiguously.

“Some are. Why? What are you-“ Kibum was shut up when he saw Minho raising his hand to pat his cheek in a loving way, disguised as a friendly gesture. Kibum took a step back, away from the contact. As much as it was physically painful for him to lose the warmth of the former’s hand, he couldn’t risk raising suspicions where Minho is concerned.

Minho looked disappointed as he lowered the hand slowly. But he understood why Kibum was acting that way.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Minho,” Kibum said, before turning to walk away, Minho’s disappointed expression engraved into his memory.

“YOU DID WHAT?!” Jonghyun exclaimed, causing Jinki to turn in their direction from where he was standing near the car.

“Shut up, hyung!-“ Kibum hinted to Jonghyun that Jinki was aware of their conversation. “-Just one more night until I get things under control, alright?”

Kibum finished feeding his cow before standing up to face Jonghyun properly. He now saw the astounded look on Jonghyun’s face.

“Oh my god! That is not the issue. Halmeoni can stay with us for as long as she pleases. She’s already having gatherings with the neighbor ahjummas so you can tell that she’s doing fine. Now, the real issue here is that you, Kim Kibum, that despises all men in uniforms, are telling me that you volunteered to cook for them! Are you sick or something Kibum?”

Jonghyun started checking his forehead for his temperature. Kibum waited patiently until Jonghyun was done with his inspection. He noticed that Jinki was staring at the both of them with a very curious look now. Kibum ignored this.

“You done? Now, I must get going. Tell halmeoni that I miss her and I love her and that I would come get her the first thing after I’m done with work tomorrow,” Kibum said, removing his gloves to put it away.

“Kibum, are you sure you’re not overworking yourself?”

Kibum stopped in his tracks when he heard Jonghyun’s concerned tone. He walked over to his best friend and smiled at him reassuringly.

“Hyung, you don’t have to worry about me alright? I’m used to it. Just take care of halmeoni for me for a while and I’ll be fine,”Kibum said convincingly to prove to the latter that he was really doing okay (more than okay actually because Kibum was in love and love is supposed to make everything better, right?)

“Alright…. But I swear if those men lay a hand on you, I will-“

“Get yourself shot in the head for doing something stupid…”

“Yah, you’re supposed to be on my side. I’m the one defending you here!”

“Sorry, hyung. Had to be said…” Kibum said laughing.

“Aish, this kid. Minho has really changed you , you know! You’re even doing things you swore never to do once!”

Kibum just allowed Jonghyun to continue complaining as he walked back to his house. He had things to do and places to go anyway.

“What have I gotten myself into?” Kibum whispered to himself, staring at the huge pot in front of him. He looked around him and saw that no one was paying attention to him. The initial show of interest must have worn off already. Kibum sighed heavily before getting to work.

Getting into the base camp had been quite easy for Kibum considering that half the men were missing while the other half seemed to be busy catching a few winks or just going about their businesses. The only perk of the day had been the short while he was allowed to see Minho before the latter had to go carry out his rounds duty. Kibum had been angry to find out that he was being forced to do his job even though he’s hurt. But Minho had just given him a blank look to show that he had no problem with it. Something about Minho’s behavior had been bothering Kibum ever since. He couldn’t wait for Minho to come back and bombard him with his questions because Kibum was sure that something must have happened.

After a long hour of preparing the ingredients as well as the cooking tools and another hour of cooking the large amount of food, Kibum was finally done with his task. He didn’t even need to announce that the food was done because a few were already gathering around the tent, attracted by the aroma. Sure their expressions fell a bit when they saw that it was only porridge. But they needed only one taste of the food to change their minds.

Kibum sat at the side of the tent, watching the hungry men lining up to get themselves their food. He saw each one of them take a spoonful into their mouths and watched as their expressions lit up. Kibum realized that these men must have been really deprived of home cooked meals to be this delighted by a simple rice porridge dish that was served with a lot of chicken meat. Kibum received looks of praises from a few men while the others preferred to just show their gratitude by wiping their bowls clean. By the time lunch hour was over, Kibum had almost forgotten that he was in fact in a base camp, the only reminder being the dreadful rifles the men were carrying on their backs.

The switch in the shift wouldn’t be until late evening but Minho had supposedly been granted permission to come back much earlier because of his injury. Kibum thought that this was a little dumb. Why send an injured man to do rounds when he wouldn’t be able to even protect himself well, much less watch out for intruders?

Kibum voiced this question to Minho when the latter was having his late lunch in the comforts of his own tent. His partner was still out doing his rounds so they had the tent to themselves.

“Because Tae-Jun-shii said that this is a form of a punishment for me. More awaits me when I’m fully recovered,” Minho said with a lack of emotions between greedy spoonfuls of porridge.

“Yah, slow down. You’re going to choke,” Kibum advised Minho, only for his words to fall on deaf ears. Kibum waited patiently until he was done eating.

“That was the best meal I have had in a long time, Kibum!” Minho exclaimed when he was done with three helpings of the porridge, much to Kibum’s utter surprise. But Minho had admitted once that he could eat large quantities of food and still not be full so this should not come as a shock.

“You were practically stuffing it down your throat. Were you that hungry?” Kibum asked, distracting Minho from the stupid grin that was threatening to break out on Kibum’s face at the compliment.

“Yeah! I hadn’t eaten since last night because of-“ Minho stopped abruptly before he could finish. Now it was obvious to Kibum that Minho was hiding something.

“Since last night? But why?!” Kibum asked, pressing for more.

“It’s nothing. Just a few problems. I had no mood to eat after that. Aren’t you going to change my bandages?” Minho asked, obviously to distract Kibum. But Kibum is never easily distracted. So as he watched Minho remove his shirt and turn to lie on his front, Kibum thought of a way to get Minho to tell him what exactly were those problems.

“What happened last night, Minho?”

Kibum opened his bag full of everything he would need to change Minho’s bandage, keeping an eye on Minho to judge his reactions. Minho did not answer for a few moments as Kibum got to removing his old bandage.

“My uncle visited last night. He heard that I came back after going missing on the last night he came to visit the camp…,” Minho began as Kibum started peeling the old bandage off. The wound that ran diagonally down Minho’s back looked an angry red with the some flesh showing underneath the stitched, healing skin. Kibum was still horrified by the wound although he has seen it many times by now.

Minho only winced once when the cold air hit his open wound but he remained calm otherwise. Kibum remained silent, listening carefully.

“He was furious with me. He got angrier when he found out that I went to see you. He said that he regretted saying anything about your grandmother to me.”

“Wait! My grandmother?” Kibum asked, shocked by the mention of his grandmother in this irrelevant subject of matter. Minho craned his neck to look at Kibum.

“Yeah, didn’t I tell you? I heard about your grandmother collapsing from my uncle, who heard about it from Jonghyun’s father, who in turn heard about it from Jonghyun himself. Didn’t you ever wonder how I knew about your grandmother?” Minho asked seriously.

It just struck Kibum that he never once thought of how Minho possibly knew about his grandmother fainting when the latter was supposed to be far away in the forest. That would mean that Minho had run to him as soon as he heard about it that night, right? Kibum had been too distraught at the time to even question this and all he had cared about was having a shoulder to cry on when he was breaking down.

As clichéd as it may sound, Minho really was Kibum’s knight in shining armour, isn’t he?

“Anyway, he had gotten really mad at me, even more than I have ever seen him. Usually he would wait until we were alone before he started outright yelling at me for something. But he didn’t last night. He did it in front of all the men that were around. Needless to say, I think now the bad relationship between my uncle and I has been revealed to everyone,” Minho continued explaining.

“And that’s why you didn’t eat?” Kibum asked carefully, applying the herbs that had been given to him by the old man on Minho’s now cleaned wound. Minho hesitated to answer for a while.

“People here always hated me for being treated special because I’m the General’s nephew. They only held their tongues back for that very reason too. But after last night, they knew that they didn’t have to hold their tongues back anymore,” Minho finished with a sigh.

Kibum felt very sorry for Minho. He was constantly being judged by people for what he was. Kibum himself had once judged Minho for what he was, although his reasons were different from the other army men.

“I think I really crossed the line this time to have him so pissed off at me…” Minho said, chuckling darkly as Kibum was finishing up by placing a new bandage over the wound.

“Well, you should have come back with Songdam noona when you had the chance. You wouldn’t be in all these problems now. You wouldn’t even be injured now” Kibum said. He felt guilty that his selfishness to be around Minho had landed the latter in so much trouble.

Minho sat up after that, pulling his shirt back on but not buttoning it. He took Kibum’s hand and tugged gently for him to come closer.

“Yah, what if someone finds us? Don’t. Let’s just stay this way,” Kibum’s hand slithered out of Minho’s grasp. Minho looked determined as he reached for Kibum’s hand once again.

“I don’t care. I wouldn’t have left you in that situation no matter what the consequences were going to be, Kibum. I don’t regret a thing. Besides, at least my uncle actually cared enough to yell at me this time rather than giving me the cold shoulders like he usually does. That’s good, right?” Minho sounded so optimistic but it didn’t change how guilty Kibum felt.

“I’m still sorry, Minho,” Kibum admitted in a small voice, not quite used to owning up for his mistakes so easily since his pride never allows him to.

“It’s not your fault, Kibum. Now, are you going to waste the little time we have by sitting so far away from me?” Minho asked cheekily, a total change of emotions on his face in just a split second. Kibum pried his hand off from Minho’s hold once again just to spite him for the fun of it.

“Yes I am. What are you gonna do about it? Shoot me?” Kibum said, sticking out his tongue. Minho grinned slyly, approaching Kibum on his hands and knees until his face was close enough for them to be breathing each other’s breath.

“Speaking of which, I need you to bring me my rifle that I hid in your room, Kibum. Meanwhile, I have different kind of tortures prepared for you,” Minho said, his fingers tracing the side of Kibum’s neck. Kibum needed a few seconds to actually understand what Minho was saying.

“It’s in my room? I hate that thing, you know?” Kibum said, stilling Minho’s fingers with his own hand.

“Yeah, right at the back of your closet. Just do this once for me and I promise you that you won’t have to touch it again,” Minho said.

Suddenly, he tugged Kibum’s collar to one side, exposing his shoulders. Kibum’s eyes grew wide at the action, only to close soon when he felt Minho press a chaste kiss there.

“Y-yah! Seriously, what if someone comes?”Kibum stuttered. He was learning that trying to be sensible while your boyfriend was introducing a foreign kind of pleasure to your body was a bit difficult to do.

“No one’s gonna come, Kibum,” Minho said, trying to lead Kibum into lying on his back, which Kibum was resisting strongly despite his crumbling self-restraint.

“But if they saw-“

“God! If someone were to come, they are going to see me teaching my boyfriend how to relax, alright?” Minho said, pushing Kibum onto his back.

“Who said I’m your boyfriend?” Kibum asked, finally giving in. Minho was hard to say ‘no’ to, anyway.

Kibum only remembered seeing Minho smiling slyly before the latter closed the distance between their lips in one swift motion, chasing all other thoughts out of Kibum’s head.

(A/N) So here is chapter 18!!! More drama between Minho and his uncle while Kibum's learning to divide his time between all his responsibilities. I was planning to update this story twice a week but seeing my hectic schedule now with college and all, I can only manage once a week... So sorry guys!! I hope you can be patient with me!!! :)

Thank you so much for commenting and subscribing!! I'm feeling sick so I don't really know what to say... My brain's all fuzzy now.. OTL

Thank you for reading and PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT!!! Have a good day guys!! <3

On to the comment replies ----->

@atkluna~ Hahaha glad you noticed that I used Taejun's name in this story!! I just kinda thought of doing it for the heck of it.... :) Kibum is one crazy boy, isn't he? Well, Minho made him that way soooo... Not his fault! hehehe... I'm glad you're liking this!! Thank you so much for commenting!!!! <3

@anata_wa_shinda~ First of all, I'M SO SORRY FOR KEEPING YOU WAITING FOR SO LONG!! I feel so bad for my readers but I have tests and stuff to study for so i have to dedicate my time to that... i hope you understand!! :) And yes, Almighty Kibum is capable of multi-tasking but keep reading to find out if it ever becomes too much for even him!! Things are going to get intense in the next few chapters so expect more intense drama and also more intense FLUFF (if that is even possible.. hahahaha...)

I'm glad we eye to eye about the Jongtae issue. Jonghyun is definitely one of a kind, isn't he??!! GAAH I JUST LOVE HIM AND ALL OF SHINEE SO MUCH!!! heehehehe... Thank you so much for commenting!!! <3

@clockworkangel151~ Hello and welcome my dear new reader!! I'm glad you're enjoying this story so far!!! You're just like me- I started out with Jongkey as well and now I'm a diehard Minkey shipper!!! hahahaha.... I've heard about Minho switching rooms and first I was like, "Really?" cause Minho doesn't seem like the type. And then I was like "OMG THEY'RE SO CUTE!!!!'

On a sadder note, it turns out that I can't go to the concert now. My parents had a fight and neither are speaking to each other and there's a lot of drama going on in my house that I don't even have the courage to bring up anything to them... It's so stressful!! But I'm praying hard for a miracle, for everything to get better soon.... :'( I'm sorry I'm being so irrelevant. AND NO YOU'RE NOT BOTHERING ME WITH YOUR COMMENTS!! PLEASE LEAVE ME LOTS CAUSE I LOOOOOVE THEM!!! hehehehe... Thank you so much for commenting and I hope you get to Shinee live soon!!!! <3

@lostmytrinhofthought~ You took the words right out of my mouth....  :) Thank you for commenting!!! <3

@jess_mmam~  Cook Kibum!! hahaha I love it!! Yeah, the soldiers know him. They have been hiding out in the jungle together for months now..Actually I don't plan on developing the characters of the soldiers... I was just trying to picture the hostility at the base camp.... 

Thanks for saying that about my updates!! That's so sweet of you!!! Thank you so much for commenting!! <3

@aucklandnz91~ Hi!! I'm glad you're liking this story so far!! Yeah, Kibum's willing to go to great lengths for his Minho... hehehhe... Thank you so much for commenting!! <3

@kutunakal~Hi and welcome new reader!! Also welcome to the Minkey shipping world!! I watched Taxi too- it gave me more reasons to love Minkey (with their love-hate relationship being revealed and all!!)  Thank you so much for reading and commenting!!! <3

@shinestarsky~ Unnie!! :D Any comment is loved so thank you so much for taking the time!!! <3