Jongin made his way up the apartment building in where Taemin lived, door two on the third floor. The rich, young model found the place very, very disgusting and ruined, and he would be much more pleased, if Taemin had chosen another place to live and have his small “business”, Jongin even frowned at the smell of hash, rot and blood in the stairway. He was pretty sure, that disgusting, homeless people were sleeping there at night – people who were junkies and high on drugs. He had gotten pretty used to it, though he still believed that Taemin should stay at a better place – a place where he might actually be safe. The building looked like it could crumble at any moment, the doors to the apartments nearly hanging loose, and the stairs creaking for every step Jongin took, the handrail looking like it could fall off at any moment, which would just make it a very bad idea to hang on to.

The walls were all grey - they used to be white - the smoke from cigarettes and joints in the stairways had completely stained it, which made it impossible for the smell to go away.

“Ugh, it’s so disgusting here,” he frowned for himself, as he had finally arrived at the third floor and the second door. He felt slightly uneasy, since he had never really visited Taemin without telling him beforehand. Would the elder get mad or upset with him? And what if he was having another customer? Maybe some old, disgusting, rich man…

“Hyung, please take care of yourself on your way home~…” the voice of Taemin said from behind the door to his apartment, and the words made Jongin freeze slightly in shock as he realized that Taemin was having a customer at that very moment, and was about to tell him goodbye.

“,” Jongin whispered quietly, and quickly started running up the stairs, hiding himself behind the worn, dark handrail where the stairs winded slightly up. He could see Taemin’s door from there, but he just hoped, that the lack of light in the stairway would make it impossible for Taemin and his customer to see him.

The door opened, finally, and Jongin could feel a small tug in his heart, as he held his breath and watched as Taemin’s customer stepped out from his apartment, and ended up standing in the stairway, smiling at the .

“I’ll be careful, don’t worry about it, Taeminnie,” the customer said, making Jongin’s insides twist a little bit at the voice.

The voice was ing beautiful, and incredibly y.

It was deep, yet young, which just made Jongin’s heart ache even more than it already did.

“That’s good to know… See you in a week, mmh?” Taemin hummed and planted a small kiss on the customer’s cheek, who just smirked back at him.

“Yeah, of course. Same time,” he replied and finally turned around for Jongin to be able to see his face – which was absolutely handsome and stunning. His face had a lot of very masculine features, his jaw was pretty thin, his nose a bit broad, and his eyes big and dark brown, like a puppy’s. His lips were pretty full, too – but not as full as Jongin’s. However, the guy was a bit shorter than Taemin, hence why he was clearly wearing shoes with pretty high soles on them.

Jongin didn’t even want to look at his upper body – it looked too muscular, and Jongin even started to pinch his own arms, which were far from as big as the older guy’s.

So Chanyeol was actually right – Taemin did have some very handsome customers anyway.

Just the thought made Jongin’s stomach twist and turn – he didn’t know why, though, because he did know that a lot of other guys and men were doing Taemin when he wasn’t, but he still felt very weird, because he saw how handsome some of his customers actually were.

And that customer probably wasn’t the only handsome one he had.

“Pai, Jjong hyung,” Taemin hummed as the older guy went down the stairs, all the way down to the entrance. Jongin’s blood was still as ice, making the young model completely frozen in place – because Taemin was still standing in the doorway, waiting for the customer to leave the apartment building.

As the door at the bottom finally sounded after some time, Taemin started chuckling lightly all of a sudden.

“You can come forth now, Jongin.”

Jongin’s eyes grew wide as he looked down at the , who was suddenly looking directly up at him, even though it was too dark to actually see him.

“H-How did you know?” Jongin asked, raising an eyebrow at the elder as he slowly got up from his crouched hiding place, and started walking down the stairs once again. Taemin just chuckled.

“I could easily smell your cologne from far away, Jonginnie,” he laughed softly, “I could smell it despite the smell of drugs and smoke.”

“Oh, I guess I overused it, then,” Jongin said, biting his lower lip, but Taemin just shook his head.

“N-No, you didn’t. It’s just that you’re one of the only customers who actually bother to wear cologne when they come and visit me,” Taemin quickly said, his cheeks turning slightly pink, “I-I like your cologne the best, though…”

“Mmh? You do?” Jongin smirked, “Maybe I should get you one, then?”

“Just what are you saying, Jongin? You aren’t seriously thinking about buying such an expensive cologne to the you visit twice a week, are you?” Jongin thought to himself, but quickly shook the thought out of his head again.

“Oh, I would love that, Jongin!” Taemin smiled widely, but then quickly lost his smile again, “B-But… You don’t have an appointment today, do you?”

Jongin looked at the elder, who was now having a worried and concerned look in his eyes, and maybe a little bit of fear.

“D-Don’t tell me that I forgot an appointment,” Taemin stuttered slightly, his eyes growing wide, “I-I’m sorry, please don’t be mad!” The elder’s voice was suddenly very shaky, which almost caused some sort of blade to cut mentally through Jongin’s heart – leaving a small tug of pain behind.

“N-No, I don’t have an appointment, but… I just thought I would come by, anyway?” Jongin said carefully, biting his lower lip softly, “I-If you don’t mind…”

“O-Oh… Of course, come in,” Taemin said carefully, nodding a bit, “I-I don’t have any appointments right now, so…”

“I see,” Jongin said shortly before Taemin led him inside his apartment, where the young model was way too used to be. He did, however, take a small look around, realized what a bad state Taemin’s apartment was in. The wallpaper was peeling off in the edges, the floor creaked a lot, the windows to the outside were very dirty, and some of the light bulbs of the ceiling lamps didn’t work either.

Oh, and some of the furniture looked like it could collapse at any moment.

“S-So…” Taemin stuttered carefully as he walked to the younger, “Do you wanna… Do something to me, or?” His voice was a little quiet all of a sudden - he was usually never like this?

“I guess so?” Jongin said as he looked at his hyung, suddenly feeling a little bit awkward as the elder started ing his fine, white shirt – very slowly. ing every single button, one by one – Jongin used to just tear the shirt off him, whenever he came to see him, so why was he doing it so slowly all of a sudden?

The whole atmosphere was a little weird, and Jongin did see, how Taemin kept looking at the watch over and over again, a small hint of fear rising in his eyes by every look at the clock.

“Minnie, are you okay?” Jongin asked as Taemin took off his shirt and threw it in the floor, replying the younger with a small nod.

“Yeah, I-…” the elder froze as he looked at Jongin with wide eyes, “Did you just call me ‘Minnie’?”

“… O-Oh! I’m sorry,” Jongin said as he realized what he had just called the elder, “I don’t know why I did that…”

“N-No, it’s okay,” Taemin smiled warmly and took Jongin’s hand, leading him towards the bedroom with a wide smile on his lips, “I like being called Minnie…”

Jongin felt a funny feeling inside of him – as if a hundred butterflies were flying around inside of his tummy and chest, circling around his heart which was beating twice as fast as usual. His body temperature started getting slightly hotter, too, but he just thought, that it was because of the fact that he was about to get from Taemin, very soon.

Or well, at least he thought so.

But as Jongin turned his face to look at Taemin, who was still leading him by his hand – he saw his bare, milky back.

His milky, beautiful back, with all those long, thin lines of scars, covering the most of it – some of the scars were quite new, while others were older, and the rest of them were almost gone, leaving a small, never-healing memory behind.

_____________________________

A/N: 

Update~! n/////n 

Forgive me, I am indeed an evil, evil person, giving Taemin scars on his back... 

And even "thin lines" ... Guess how he got those~ TT TT It might or might not be revealed soon ... 

NONETHELESS~

I hope you still enjoy the story~ Do you want in the next chapter, or should I skip it? ~ You decide. uwu~ 

Comments are love~ !