"Fall has passed, yet again," Jonghyun sighed, laying down on Minho's bed as the younger threw a small squishy ball at the wall, bouncing it over and over again.

  "I lost track after the first couple weeks," Minho scrunched his mouth up, throwing the ball a little harder than the last, "Looks like a bad birthday year."

Jonghyun looked over interested, watching the ball Minho threw unceremoniously, "December birthday? How old are you gonna be?"

  "Twenty-two," he nodded, eyes straight on the wall, "Twenty-two for the first time, that is."

Jonghyun reclined and chuckled, looking up at the ceiling, "Good one."

  "Thanks."

Minho surely wasn't feeling excited at all at the thought of his birthday. He was spending it in a prison, how could he even muster the emotion towards it? Back in the summer, Taemin said he had big plans for Minho's birthday this year and it went to waste all in a matter of seconds.

He still wanted to know what it was, though.

  "How old's your boyfriend?"

Minho felt a small sting into his chest at the mention of Taemin. The sense of hoplessness, lost, despair, and apologetic-ness wrapped up into a ball was shoved down his throat for him to uneasily digest.

How was Taemin doing?

Was he doing alright, at all?

  "He turns twenty-one in July," Minho replied with tight lips, "I plan to be out of here before then."

Jonghyun partially scoffed, but refrained from mocking Minho's words, "Good luck with that."

  "I guess."

Minho left the rest of the conversation up to the patter of the ball hitting the wall and into his hands. He wasn't feeling it in him to talk much. He didn't feel good at all.

  "Hey," Jonghyun broke the silence, proping himself on his side to talk to Minho, "Tell me, what would you think had happened if you just . . . naturally showed Taemin who you were?"

Minho held on to the ball and squished it until Jonghyun couldn't see it at all, shriveling up in Minho's palm.

Minho looked down at the floor and sighed. The truth always hurt, didn't it?

  "I wouldn't have, so I don't know," he ran a tongue over his teeth, "Humans don't react well to huge things, right? They get stunned for years until science kicks in to solve the mystery. I'd never want to lose Taemin to be a scientific rat. Although, I think I did anyway. Pleasant place this is . . ."

Jonghyun nodded thoughtfully, a sincere hand gesture pulled out, "What if Taemin was okay with it?"

  "If you saw his reaction back a few months ago," Minho let the ball breathe, harshly throwing it at the wall, "You'd figure out fast that he would've never been okay with it."

Jonghyun sat up and let his feet hit the cold floor, hissing at the contact, "But not all humans are like that."

Minho held out his free hand, "Take it. Heat will spread."

  "Thanks, but that's not the response I was wanting out of you," he took Minho's extremely warm and waited for his body to feel the same.

  "If you prove to me they aren't," Minho threw the ball, "I might just change my mind."

Jonghyun scoffed, tapping on Minho's hand with his thumb offered as a slap, "It would be a miracle to change your stubborn mind."

Minho threw the ball a last time at Jonghyun's forehead, raising his brows, "At least I'm not the dog who chases his own tail because he can't even think."

Jonghyun's brows shot up and eyes popped out, "Wow, you really have the winter blues, my friend. I guess the Sun really is your happy-source."

  "I'm not in the mood, Hyung," Minho sighed, "I'm feeling really off today."

  "My point about winter blues," Jonghyun shook his hand, "You got to get peppy. We all may hate it here, but hey, you plan to be out of here? Get that up and do a jiggle. You can't do anything with a sore ."

Minho scoffed, "I hate you sometimes and I barely know you."

  "I love you too, man," Jonghyun smiled wide.

  "By the way, happy birthday."

----Note~----

This is really a far away memory compared to where we're at now!

The first couple months in the prison and Minho picks up his dramatic character before his birthday! Poor, guy, really.

Before he was really friends with Onew, Luna, and Jonghyun. Before he started much work. Before he started really planning. . . and picking up that awful sad-drama characteristic. :|

But yeah.

Not much to say, but sorry it's short. xD

Heads up, if anyone reads this before tomorrow/Wednesday (2/19), be prepared for an update. I plan on starting to write a ton more because, as of now, I have less than four chapter left of ETR and I'm totally set on getting it done before March, or at least March 30 to end the story at the one-year mark.

And I apologize for Author V Characters chapter.

I was literally so bored and procrastinating so hard I came up with just gibberish. Literally. That's not even crack.

I promise I won't do that again. I'm embarrassed of it, but I'll keep it for the sake of reminding me not all my ideas were meant to be official. xD

Anyway, thank you to all and to all, I love you! <3

~FlaMinhoe