As Taemin collapsed to the ground, the whole crowd went silent. A few moments later, the security pushed through the people and got to the centre, asking who was responsible for the assault as they spotted an unconscious Taemin with blood covering his face. Jonghyun was busy comforting a hysterical Key so Minho answered for him.

“It was Song Minjung and Eunjung, sir. I saw with my own eyes Minjung was the culprit.” Minho said while glaring at Minjung. Minjung cowered in fear and tried to escape but was stopped by the security. As they dragged her and Eunjung away, Minjung was screaming.

“Why are you doing this oppa?! We were only protecting you from the two fags!” screamed Minjung while Eunjung was weeping by her side.

“DO NOT CALL THEM FAGS!!” Jonghyuns suddenly exploded as Key continued to cry into his chest. He tightened his grip on Key and kept whispering comforting words in Key’s ears such as “don’t worry, Taemin’s going to be fine, we’re going to bring him to the hospital and he will wake up soon”. Jonghyun’s voice seems to have calmed Key down a little bit as all you can hear are whimpers and sniffles. Minho then gently lifted Taemin bridal style and hugged him close to his body, not caring about the blood getting on his designer clothes. That was the least of his worries right now. Immediately, they walked to the car as they crowd parted for them and headed to the hospital.

At the hospital

Minho, Jonghyun, and Key was waiting outside of the room for the doctor to be finished with bandaging up Taemin and to finish with the x-rays to confirm whether there were any injuries to his brain that was caused by the impact of the blow. The doctor opened to door and he was bombarded with question from Key and Minho.

“Hold on, one question at a time. Mr. Lee’s injury was only external so his brain was not damaged in any way. He did lose a lot of blood so he is now under sedation after receiving blood transfusion. We suspect that he will wake up when the sedatives pass, which will probably be later tonight or tomorrow morning. We usually don’t allow this but since Mr. Lee is still a minor and did not have any reported family members; we will allow one person to stay with him tonight. You can decide who gets to stay with him and just notify the nurse. Mr. Lee should be able to leave tomorrow morning after another quick check up to make sure everything’s fine” explained the doctor as he bowed and went to attend to another patient.

“As his umma, I think I should be the one to stay with him” Key stated as he started to walk towards the room. Minho tried to stop Key since Minho wanted to be the one to stay with Taemin tonight.

“Do you mind if I stay with Taemin tonight? You’ve been through quite a bit today and after being launched with garbage and who knows what, maybe you should go home and rest. You don’t want to wear yourself out and when Taemin wake up to have to take care of you instead” explained Minho who was starting to miss being away from Taemin more and more by the minute.

Key sighed and agreed that what Minho said was right.

“You’d better look after my Taebaby or else you will feel the wrath of Almighty Key!” threatened Key. Minho who had already seen a pissed off Key was scared to think of how the wrath of Almighty Key would be. He promised that he would and soon after Jonghyun drove Key home as Minho stayed with Taemin beside the hospital bed. Not long after, he fell asleep with his head on the bed and his hand tightly holding on to Taemin`s.

It was around 6:00 in the morning when Minho heard a whimper that sounded a lot like Taemin, thinking that Taemin was in pain, he got up and was about to run to get the doctor when he heard Taemin`s voice.

“Umma...”  Taemin whispered softly with his eyes still closed. Minho sat back down while gripping Taemin’s hand again as Taemin’s eyes opened.

“No, it’s me” Minho softly said as he caressed Taemin’s small hands.

Taemin suddenly sat up on the bed and held his head in his hands. His head was spinning and still hurted from the wound as the sedative wore off. Taemin’s eyes teared up and flowed down his face. Minho his cheeks and asked him what’s wrong.

“My head hurts” Taemin whimpered as he tried to take deep breaths to relieve the pain, but it did little to help. Suddenly Minho pressed his lips to Taemin’s head and kissed him softly.

“I told you that I would kiss away your pain” said Minho as his lips moved onto Taemin’s cheeks to kiss away his tears. Taemin gasped and was about to ask Minho what he was doing when felt something warm against his lips. Minho had pressed his lips against Taemin’s and it seemed like two puzzle pieces that fit perfectly with each other. Minho felt Taemin froze so he leaned back from him and stared into Taemin’s beautiful eyes.

“Was that your first kiss, Minnie?” whispered Minho. Taemin blushed and lightly nodded, avoiding eye contact with Minho as his face got redder.

“ Since I want to be by your side from now on, all of your first times will be with me and taken by me since I promised to always protect you” Minho lightly chuckled as Taemin suddenly looked up and found himself unable to move his eyes from Taemin’s.

“You still haven’t answered my question” Minho teased and Taemin did not need to think long before knowing what Minho meant.

“Yes” was all Taemin said before he leaned in and pressed his own lips on Minho’s. Minho froze for a second as this was the first time Taemin initiated a kiss, but soon relaxed and melted into the kiss.

Later that day

Taemin was discharged from the hospital and was allowed to go home, no matter how Taemin resisted, Minho insisted that he took Taemin home. Worried that he might faint along the way, Minho made Taemin hold his hand. Like their lips, their hands molded together perfectly and it felt right. As Minho entered Taemin’s neighbourhood, he was starting to feel a bit uneasy. The reason was that Taemin’s house was located in a neighbourhood that was known for robbery and assaults.

“Why are you living in this neighbourhood? Aren’t you afraid of walking alone sometime?” asked Minho as he looked around at the worn down houses, his own house was probably the size of ten of the houses put together.

“You get used to it after a while” smiled Taemin. This made Minho wonder how long it’s been since Taemin moved here. As they approached the house, the houses got smaller and were more worn down than the rest. They walked up to the front door and when Taemin unlocked the door and walked in, a surprise was there to greet both Taemin and Minho.