The sun’s rays light greeted him as he shielded his eyes when walking downstairs. His mother smiled as she said good afternoon to her son, placing lunch onto the table. The sweet aroma of food swept into his nose and he sat down beside his father.

            “How did you sleep? It’s already one, hun,” His mother perked, small conversation like always at the table.

            “Okay, I guess,” Minho replied. It was the honest truth, he wasn’t sure if that dream was considered a good thing or bad thing.

            “You know, you should get in touch with your old friends again! Like Kibum and Jonghyun, they’re still around here,” the aged mother suggested as she sat down with the rest of her family.

            “Sounds like a good idea,” Minho reached into his pockets, pulling out his phone and checking his contacts. As he scrolls down the list, his eyes bulged at the sight of a certain name… Lee Taemin. After the break up, Minho could have sworn he deleted his number, he didn’t want any memories attached, and he doubted that Taemin would ever want to talk to him again, so it made sense to not keep an ex’s number, right? So why was it here?

            After lunch, he sprinted back upstairs. Minho busted out his old journal and quickly flipped to the page of date September 27^th of his sophomore year. It was the very words he had written last night in his dreams, he could hear his heart pounding through his ear drums and his head spinning. It really wasn’t a dream after all. Pacing all over his room, Minho held his cell phone tightly. Was it really Taemin’s? What if it was just someone else named Lee Taemin? Minho slapped himself and banged his head against the wall countless of times already just to make sure that what he was seeing wasn’t a dream.

            Finally, he grew some balls and manned up, pressing the green button to call Taemin’s number. The anticipation felt like it was dragging on forever as he heard each ring on the other line, it made him nervous, he couldn’t control himself as he tried calming down.

            “Hello?” A lower voice rang from the other end, sounding a bit different from the alluring voice he had from over ten years ago. Minho gulped.

            “Taemin? It’s me…”

            “Yeah? It’s rare of you to call me, Minho… Is something wrong?”

            Minho’s heart felt like it was about to burst out of his chest. His voice sounded different, a bit of a dreary sad tone to it, however he still liked the sound of it—only because this voice belonged to Taemin. “Ah, no. I was just wondering what you’re up to since I came back to town and all,” this felt different than from last night in his “dream,” on the date he didn’t feel awkward at all talking casually with Taemin. But right now, he felt so nervous and embarrassed, he could just die from awkwardness, yet he was desperate to make conversation… “I mean, I was just thinking about you since I was looking through my old stuff from high school and the reunion—” How long am I going to ramble?!

            “I see…” was all was heard from the other line. Without having anything else to say, a moment of silence felt like it dragged on forever and it suddenly hit Minho then and there… they are both adults now, they both lead different and independent lives now and most importantly, they’re just strangers now. Things weren’t the way they were anymore.

            After the phone call ended, Minho sulked himself into the mattress, and he couldn’t control the thoughts he was thinking of in the silence. He thought about how Taemin didn’t sound like he had used to in the past, his spunky, stubborn, fearless personality that captured his attention. Placing his hand to his chest, he felt his heart pulsing rapidly still just from hearing his voice.But he also felt his chest squeezing, sad to know that the adult Taemin wasn’t someone he knew, and he didn’t like that—the fact that Taemin was someone he knows but became someone he knew.

            Rolling over to his side, he faced his desk, perking his head up, he caught a glimpse of his journal and decided to read it. As he flipped back to the day he had his date, the journal strained black and freshly written from last night, with the exact words he had printed into the pages. Could Minho believe that his journal was granting him a second chance?

            Curious, Minho decided to alter another date; the date of October 23 of their junior year—the day Minho took a short, brief break with Taemin because of their huge dispute about Lee Jinki, and it was the very day he made Taemin cry for the first time perhaps.

            October 23 (Junior Year)

Can you believe it? Taemin was flirting behind my back with some other guy name Jinki! Just because I haven’t been able to spend time with him because of soccer, he thinks he can just go around and play? That hurts… I was just so angry at him today… He says that Jinki was only a friend but I don’t know, I just can’t trust that Jinki guy. Whatever, I just have to be focused on soccer now because we have a shot at going to nationals. I can’t let this get to my head so I suggested a break, things will be all right, hopefully… Continued to the following day…

            October 24 (Junior Year)

This morning he stopped by my locker like usual, only this time he avoided my gaze and his eyes were red. Did he cry? I wanted to ask but couldn’t bring myself to.

            Taking the black pen he lined out his old words from his old self, hurt by his own words, he couldn’t believe how selfish he was back then. In small text, he scribbled in “If only I wasn’t blinded by jealousy, I wouldn’t have said such stupid things… I shouldn’t have suggested the idea of taking a break either, everything could have been better if I just told him how I really felt instead of just trying to blame everything on him.” After placing a period onto his last sentence, he set the pen down, hands shaking… His eyes dug holes into the paper as he stared intensely at it, waiting for something to happen… was this really going to work? Did he do something wrong to not make the words glow and make it eat him into the book? This is crazy…

            His palms met his face as he groaned in distress after a few minutes, maybe he was going crazy. He rest the side of his cheek onto his journal, the cold pages made contact with his skin, and he just closed his eyes, feeling like he was free-falling into a whole new world where things could finally just go right. Suddenly, he couldn’t feel himself breathing anymore and his body felt heavy, like gravity was pulling him, pulling him hard downwards—he was actually falling now. He couldn’t stay calm. Trying to find his voice, he tried to scream, his eyes wouldn’t open—they didn’t want to open.

            He jerked as his senses became clear again, staggering a bit he caught his balance, and before him was the boy with chestnut colored hair, his lover, the Taemin that he knows. Taemin’s brows were furrowed, eyes revealing pain that held back transparent tears, and fists tightly clenched that trembled with anger.

            “So it’s okay for you to talk to other girls and hang out with other guys from the soccer team but it’s not okay for me to talk to my childhood friend?! Do you realize how stupid and selfish you’re being?!” Taemin snapped, defending himself. It seems that Minho stumbled upon into the midst of their argument. “Is it my fault that he’s there for me every time you’re not?”

            The following scene, Minho remembered so clearly, the words Taemin threw at him were true, so true that the old him became blinded with rage since he didn’t want to accept the truth that he was being… well, a selfish douche-bag. Not to mention jealous because Jinki was there for him when Taemin was lonely. The old Minho just didn’t want to admit that so he blindly said things that he didn’t mean in the heat of the moment. Hearing these words a second time stung as much as it did the first but now, now he’s given a chance redo this moment. The words that formulated in his head vanished though, seeing Taemin’s teary expression pained him, made him lose his train of thought.

            Without thinking, Minho cupped Taemin’s face and pulled him forward to make contact with his lips. He muffled in a gasp, and was being clumsy and careless. He couldn’t help it since he hadn’t kissed his Taemin in years, well technically speaking. The younger male harshly pushed Minho away, confused and thrown off. Faces displaying the words ‘don’t think you can make up for this argument for a kiss.’

            Minho pulled his slender waist back against him, his lips tenderly touched Taemin’s lips, desperately wanting a response. Eventually, Taemin gave in, kissing him back, their lips moving in sync as he felt the electricity sparking through his veins. His hands circled Taemin’s back, greedy for more, as if he wanted to make up for all the years he hasn’t made contact with his beloved maknae. The taller male could feel himself getting lost in the heated passion of the kiss; he almost couldn’t believe that he had almost forgotten about how the boy he was embracing could set such blazing fires inside of him. Stopping to catch their breath, Minho leaned down to press his forehead against Taemin’s, apologizing softly over and over, sounding like he was begging to be forgiven for doubting and neglecting Taemin, and for leaving him in the future…