The night before…

“Taemin ah, please don’t trouble Minho when you are staying in Seoul later. His family is already generous enough to offer you a place to stay while you are studying there. With the scholarship and a free lodging, a big burden is off you shoulders. Mine as well.” Said Taemin’s mother with a sigh of relief.

“Yes, uhmuni.” Taemin whispered back in the darkness to his mother who was lying down next to him in their cramped living room. He stared at his mother’s silhouette, and his love for his mother grew to the point that tears started pooling in his eyes. He was leaving her tomorrow to pursue his studies in culinary arts in a university in Seoul. A part of him feels elated with the thought of finally being able to pursue his dreams and become someone, while the other part is depressed with the thought of leaving his mother, the woman who brought him up single handedly since he was 2 years old after his father death in an accident.

“Uhmuni….why didn’t you remarry? Was it because of me?” Taemin asked, feeling heavy with the thought of leaving her alone. His mother was a beautiful woman with a personality that matched her looks. She deserved to be happy.

“What brought this on Taeminnie? You don’t go thinking thinks that are only going to make your head spin. You need your sleep as you are going to have an early start tomorrow. Minho is leaving in the morning from his parent’s house.” His mother hushed him. Her little boy, well not so little anymore, tends to be a worrier. Sometimes, Taemin reminded her of his father so much that she feels clogged up with emotions in , just like now.

“No matter how briefly we were married, there was no one else for me after your father. I loved him and still do with my everything.” She answered at length. “And now you have made me sound like a love sick teenager.” Laughing, in order to mask her real emotions, she continued, “I wonder who is the teenager here. Now, go to sleep.”

************************************************************************

“Bye uhmuni, master and madam Choi.” Taemin bid his farewell to his mother and her employers, while their son, Minho waited in his black Porsche. Taemin has a high regard for Minho’s parents as they were kind and generous employers who hired his mother as their help without any hesitation once they knew she was a single mother.

Due to her own merit and their fair judgment, her mother was raised to the position of their housekeeper in the following years. Minho’s parents were always kind to Taemin, never forgetting his birthdays, always supporting him emotionally and occasionally financially as well after looking at his hard work. It was Minho’s father who helped Taemin by inquiring about scholarships in many universities and submitted Taemin’s applications.

He entered the black Porsche, and in a few seconds the car started moving smoothly. Taemin saw his mother who was still standing at the entrance at the side mirror until her image faded.

“Time flies, trust me.” Minho said looking ahead. Taemin glanced at the man sitting beside him. Darkly brooding looks with an aura of sophistication. The man who was Taemin’s first love, a one sided love that Taemin has learned to keep it buried inside. He was indebted to the Choi family, for everything they have done and he could never ever betray their trust with mixing feelings that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

It started when he was 14, when he started wanting to be closer to his Minho hyung, to be the one hyung relies on, to wanting to be kissed by his hyung. He started having unspeakable dreams of himself and Minho that made him feel guilty in the daylight. Unable to handle the guilt and shame of his thoughts for Minho who has always been there for him taking the place of an older brother, Taemin chose to avoid him. At least until he was able to have a grip on his feelings but that proved to be a wrong move as his relationship with Minho deteriorated even worse. Minho started treating him with cool politeness which almost broke Taemin apart. Unable to explain the reason Taemin originally avoided Minho and thinking it was better this way, the barrier between them went further and further to the point that they were just one step away from being strangers. During his holidays, Taemin started helping out in a pastry shop to escape the bleakness he felt, and that’s when he found his second love, to be a pastry chef.

But life was funny in many ways because after so long running away from Minho, he was now going to live together with him. Alone. Being with him in a close proximity was definitely going to be a wondrous torture. Heaven and hell both mixed together.