“Where are you going?” Onew asked Minho who was tying his sneakers.

“To meet a friend.” Minho answered, putting the hood on his sweater. These days, there are paparazzis waiting,stalking them at the parking lot.

“You’ve been going out a lot lately. Usually you just stay at home and play your Xbox.” Onew tilted his head to the left. Jonghyun and Key were the ones who always went out. Minho usually stayed at home,sleeping most of the time. However for the past month, Onew noticed that Minho went out at every chance he had. Which wasn’t that much to begin with given their busy schedule.

“I have to go now.”

“Is it someone special? This friend you're meeting?”

“You could say so.” Minho smiled and skipped out of the house.

 ………………………………………………………………………………………......  

 “Hi.” Minho smiled, holding on to a bag filled with yogurt drinks. Mostly strawberry and banana flavoured since he discovered Taemin liked them the most. Taemin didn’t tell him that though. He never reveals anything about himself. Mostly Minho got to know him by observing his little subtle movements. Like they say, actions speak louder than words.

“You brought more?” Eyeing the bag. This would be the fourteenth time this month that Minho brought edible things to the house. He wanted to fatten Taemin up .He was awfully thin.

“You haven’t been eating. Have you?” Minho eyed the small fridge,still filled with food the same way Minho left it two days ago.

“I was full.”

“For two days? You were full for two days?”

“I drank the banana and strawberry drinks you gave.” Taemin defended himself. His voice started sounding a little more human. More each time Minho comes by.

“That’s not enough. You need to eat.” Taking out eggs from the fridge and heating up the pan. The only pan in Taemin’s house.

“What are you doing?”

“Cooking for you.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Then I’ll shove it down your throat if I have to.” Minho threatened.

 “Hey Tae.” Minho started. Taemin was just starting to fork himself the scrambled eggs Minho made for him.

“Don't you go to school? You’re seventeen aren’t you?”

“I don’t go to school.”

“Why not?” Concerned with the boy’s wellbeing.

“I just don’t .”

“Then I’ll put you into one. I know a good school somewhere around here.”

“Don’t .”

“Its just going to be for seven months till you graduate.”

“If I graduate.” Half the eggs already disappeared from the plate.

“What do you mean by that?” Minho asked. Taemin ignored his question and kept stuffing his mouth even though the heat from the freshly cooked eggs were burning his tongue.

“Answer me Taemin.” Minho looked at the boy. Taemin looked at the other side. Minho held Taemin’s wrist, firmly. To make a point he wasn’t going to back down.

“Answer me.”

“I can’t read.” the boy said. Barely audible but it caught Minho’s ear.

“You can’t?”

“No. I can’t. So stop asking.” Taemin picked up the plate and threw it into the sink.

Minho was too shocked to even respond.Why can’t a seventeen year old boy read?

 The next day Minho came again. Only this time, he brought a bunch of kindergarten books,pensils,erasers,notebooks and all sorts of stationary he could find.

“You know I can’t read.” Taemin said when Minho took out the books and placed on the table.

“I’ll teach you.” Minho smiled at the boy.

“Won’t it be too hard?”

“Don’t worry. We’ll start with the easy ones first.”

“What if I can’t do it?”

“You can’t be mocking my teaching skills? Are you?” Minho tried to sound mad.

“No. No I’m not.” The boy was convinced that Minho was really mad and Taemin didn’t like that. He didn’t like that at all.

“Good. Let’s get started.”

Minho started off with teaching the boy the alphabets first.

“This is the capital A.”Minho wrote in the notebook. Minho had to stand given that Taemin’s table only had one chair.  He made a mental note in his head to get another chair the next time he visits.Taemin nodded in response. Trying to copy back what Minho wrote.

“And this is a small A.” Minho wrote next.

“Why are there two A’s?” Taemin asked. His eyes looked confused.

“Well, we use this one at the beginning of a sentence and the small one in the middle of it.”

“Why can’t we used the same one? Will it sound different?”

“No. It’ll sound very much the same.”

“But, why?”

Minho had a lot to teach the boy but he wasn’t going to give up. He cared too much.

By the end of the day, Taemin did manage to recognized the letters well enough. Up till the letter M.  Minho was very unbelievably  happy and he didn’t know why the boy’s little progress made such an effect on him.

“I won’t be coming back until next week. I have to go to Japan.” Minho said. Vesper had a concert there and they had to fly out early for their practice and fan meeting.

“Okay.” the boy tried not to sound sad, but Minho managed to detect the slight break in his voice.

“You have to practice hard. When I come back, I want you to be able to say all the letters for me.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t you have anything else to say besides okay?”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t be . We still have lots to do. You can thank me later.”

Then suddenly, Taemin hugged Minho. The taller was too shocked to respond. Taemin wasn't the kind of person that showed his emotions let alone express them through skinship. He just naturally put his arms around the boy’s tiny waist back.His heart beating,fluttering too much. He hoped Taemin didn't hear the earthquake in his chest.

“Thank you for caring.”