Why would Love do that?

They sort of rushed through the dark streets, Minnie was obviously trying to avoid as much as light as possible.

Minho pulled him to a stop outside the gates of a small park with a slide, roundabout and set of swings.

“Hey” He whispered, pulling the younger into the side of him, by accident.

“Let’s go in here”

“No... We have to keep going, she’ll see us, she’ll come....” Taemin was panting

Minho clasped the boys face in between his big hands “Minnie, no matter what happens here, I’m going to protect you from whoever that is”

Taemin looked up at his Hyung with big eyes, had he just called him Minnie? Damn, that had been the first time he’d said it out loud... He thought, had he let it slip before?

Either way Taemin slowly nodded and allowed himself to be dragged into the park

Minho sat down on the roundabout and Taemin did the same, allowing his cold little hands to be clasped by Minho

They looked at each other for a long time, just soaking in the silence of being with one another; before Minho finally took a big breathe

“Who was she Minnie?”

Taemin pulled his hands away from Minhos’ and plonked them into his lap, watching as he twirled his own thumbs

“Her name is Rim. Rim-Hye Sung.”

Minho gulped back the tears in his throat, letting out a low cough instead

“She was my ex-girlfriend”

Minho looked up at Taemin in alarm, wait, why was he alarmed? He wasn’t sure what jumped out of the sentence more, EX or GIRLFRIEND.

“Ex?” Minho asked, deciding that was the most important, he would get to the girlfriend but later.

“Yeah...” Taemin gulped; oh god- was he making him uncomfortable? That was the last thing he wanted.

But just like in the coffee shop, Taemin continued to talk to Minho; he just couldn’t stop a story after he started it, no matter how uncomfortable.

“I got bullied at school for being gay. Everybody thought I was, everybody still thinks I am. Rim is my ex girlfriend, I dumped her before I realized I was gay. When she saw how much stick I was getting, she put her neck on the line for me. We pretended to be going out again so that everybody would shut up and get off my back about the entire thing” Taemin chuckled to himself “Which is stupid I guess, now I’ve met you” He said, looking back up at Minho

Minho beamed, ah. Good, that was...

Great? Is it?

Minho gulped again “So, when she said break up with you...?”

“She meant she would make a fool of me in front of everybody and tell them it was all a lie all along. It’s sort of our code for it”

“Oh” Minho smiled

Inside he was screaming at himself. How could he of doubted Taemin? How could he have even thought that Love was that stupid, that it had not sense of timing, that it had no choice of who it is directed at, had no opinion or ideas or purpose, it just went around charging at two or more random people...