“He…doesn’t love me anymore?” you ask, heart deflated.

“It’s not like that, ___________, I promise. He wanted me to tell you that so you wouldn’t want to worry, or so you’d hate him or something if something went wrong. He doesn’t mean it. I swear to you. You’re everything to him, and all he wants to do is protect you.” You can tell Taemin is being honest.

“What about when he comes back?” you ask, voice dead. “Does he not want to be together then?”

“I don’t think hyung is thinking ahead very much…” Taemin says thoughtfully. “I think he just wants you to hate him and not care if something bad happens. He really means well. Everything he’s doing is so you can be happy, or so you’ll have the best life. He never wants to lose you, but he doesn’t want you to hurt. That’s why I wouldn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to believe it, because it’s not true, and I swore I’d never lie to you. Telling you that Kai-hyung doesn’t love you would be the biggest lie in the world. All he does in this world is love you, and everything’s for you,” Taemin says, and you believe him.

It still bothers you, though, the fact that your husband wants you to hate him. It’s supposed to be love until death do us part.

I’d rather die today loving him, then die old and comfortably in my bed without loving him. Honestly the only thing getting me through life is the hope I have that he’ll come home better. Hope is such a strong thing in life, and without hope I have nothing, you think.

You finally understand what Kai was going through, feeling like he had no hope. You’re sad though, that you aren’t a source of hope for him. The pain he’s feeling, though, is so horrible you can’t hold it against him. You just want your Kim Jongin back.

“_________--ah?” Taemin asks, searching your face. “He loves you. I promise.”

You nod. You know. The love that Kai conveyed to you in the past was something that can’t be faked. Even if he didn’t love you, you could never hate him. You will only ever love him...Forever.

You and Taemin leave the ice cream shop and go home. You invite him in to watch a movie and work on some homework, and he sighs when he looks at you. You tuck your hair behind your ear, and look at him questioningly.

“What is it, Taemin-ah?” you ask.

“You’re so pretty, ___________-ah, but you haven’t smiled in a very long time.”

“I smile all the time!” you say, defensively.

“Not a real smile, _________. Your fake smile isn’t nearly as pretty as your real smile,” he says sadly. “Your real smile is what makes everyone fall in love with you, and it’s gone now. I can tell it’ll be gone until the moment Kai-hyung comes home.”

Another rush of affection for Taemin courses through your body.

“I couldn’t get through this without you, Taemin-ah,” you say. Not knowing what you’re thinking, you lean over the table and give Taemin’s soft cheek a gentle kiss. “Thank you,” you say.

“Y…you’re welcome, __________-ah…” he says. He stands up. “I should go, I have to go help Key-hyung with the gossip column,” he smiles at you. “Bye!”

He leaves and the house instantly feels empty again. You walk into your bedroom, and pull out your photo album. You flip through some old selcas of you and Kai at random places he took you and surprised you with. You look at all of your wedding photos, and smile at how handsome Kai looks in every picture he takes.

You find your favorite picture ever taken in one of the albums. It wasn’t in any way an attractive picture, but it’ll always be your favorite.

-------------Flashback-----------------

“Come on, ____________-ah! EXO’s working on a project for singing and dance class, and we really really need a pretty, y girl to grace our music video for our project,” he says innocently.

“Okay, ask Taeyeon or something!” you say, refusing to be a part of this.

“No no noooo,” Kai whimpers. “I want you. Please? I’ll do anything!”

“Anything?” you ask, a wicked, evil grin on your face.

“Anything!” he expresses.

“Like…going out into the middle of a public place and dancing to Wolf shirtless?” you ask, hopefully. Wolf is the new song EXO is working on, and they’re very excited about it, hoping it will be picked up by a company wanting to make them better known. Plus the idea of Kai dancing shirtless in public is too good to pass up.

“Fine,” he says, dejectedly. “But I’ll warn you, I might not be able to control the LADIES,” he smirks.

“You’re such a dork.”

“But I’m a hot dork.”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna lie, you are,” you agree with a laugh.

You and Kai head out to the middle of a market, and Kai takes off his shirt. Every girl stops dead and stares. Some guys stare too, wondering what this dude was doing. With evil glee, you switch on your iPod, and EXO’s Wolf starts playing. Kai playfully glares at you, and starts dancing.

He keep his eyes on you, and his stage face full of passion, power, and okay, you’ll admit it-extreme iness, sways the whole crowd watching. Girls videotape and giggle, and guys admire his dancing ability.

To your horror, Kai pulls you up close to him and dances with you. You quickly give him a bop in the nose, gentle enough not to hurt him, of course. He lets you go and laughs, smirking the whole time.

You look around, and basically see the other girls undressing him with their eyes. You promptly shut off the music. They all groan, disappointed.

“Keep dancing!”

“No, don’t stop!”

“I LOVE YOU!” They all cry out to Kai.

Kai smiles at them and shrugs, smirking at you.

“Sorry! I have a jealous girlfriend!” You think the girls are all going to pass out, and you grab his arm, rolling your eyes.

“Babo,” you say, arm around his waist while his arm wraps around your shoulder.

“Too bad,” he smirks. “They loved it. They loved me.”

“No, that’s my job,” you growl at him, “and you’re MY babo,” you say.

He laughs and you go back to his house.

“Yah,” he says, cracking up looking at his phone while sitting on the couch.

“What?”

“Look who just made it onto Twitter?”

You glance over at his phone.

Pure horror crosses your face and Kai laughs at you so hard tears start to form in his eyes.

“It’s not funny!!!!!” you wail.

“It’s pretty funny.”

In the horrible picture on his phone, you see a shirtless Kai pulling you close to him while dancing. On your face is the most disturbed, confused, and shocked look that a face can possibly make.

You groan, “I can’t believe this,” you whine.

Kai laughs and gleefully runs off to print it and sticks it in the album.

“You’re the worst, Kim Jongin,” you cry out.

“You’re the best and I love you!” Kai informs you, with a face so overjoyed he looks like a little boy who was just informed Christmas is coming early.

“I love you too, babo.”