Yeah so basically I can't leave this universe alone. It's still marked as complete though because it's not really an ongoing story. I will just revisit it once in a while.

It was on his way to his home when Minho heard the sound of someone sniffling. Instantly concerned, he looked around trying to find the source. Sniffling was never good. It either meant someone was trying to hold back or had just come down from a breakdown.

It was a boy, sitting cross-legged on the pavement, next to a big green bag. Summer was coming so Minho didn’t need to worry about the boy getting cold, sitting on the stones. As he hesitantly approached, he checked whether the boy was injured in any visible way. He couldn’t see injuries of any kind but you could never be sure.

“Hey,” he greeted in a tone that he hoped was between friendly and cheery before he squatted down to be on the same level as the stranger. “Can I maybe help you?”

The other looked up, his red-rimmed eyes only slowly coming into focus. “Do you have painkillers?” He grit out through obviously clenched teeth.

“On me right now? I’m afraid not.” Minho admitted. “But I could get some from home, if you’d like?”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to, I’ll be fine.” The boy smiled a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“You look like you’re in pain. I will get you some.” Minho announced. “Will you still be here when I come back?”  

The look he got in return was downright sarcastic. “Don’t worry, if I had somewhere to go, I wouldn’t be able to. I’ll be here.”

Minho frowned but decided not to ask the boy to elaborate on the matter. The stranger would tell him if he wanted to and if not that would be alright as well. With an awkward “I’ll be right back,” he got up and hurried towards his home. Jinki was humming to himself in the kitchen as he put the groceries away and turned around with a smile when Minho entered.

“Minho! Welcome home.”

Minho felt some of the tension in his shoulders leave him. “Hey Jinki.” He replied softly. “Do we have painkillers?”

Jinki’s cheerful expression immediately turned concerned. “Painkillers? What for? Are you hurt? Did Minseok-“

“No, no! I met someone on the street, a boy, and he asked for painkillers and looked like he really needs them so I promised I would get him some.” Minho quickly explained, his eyes darting around the room to maybe try and see where they could be.

“Oh.” Jinki hummed and went over to the small cupboard over the sink to get a package. He was just about to hand it to Minho when he stopped his movements. “You know what, I’ll come with you. I would like to see this boy and maybe we’ll be able to help him. Did he say anything else?”

“That he didn’t even have anywhere to go if he could so I shouldn’t worry about him disappearing.” Minho recalled, watching as Jinki’s eyes widened.

“I’m definitely coming with you!” He announced. “Let’s go.” Grabbing a water bottle along with the painkillers, Jinki walked ahead. Minho couldn’t do anything but follow and once outside stir Jinki in the right direction.

The boy hadn’t moved at all since Minho had left. Actually, his whole posture was exactly the same. It was a bit unnerving in Minho’s opinion. But his tired eyes lit up when he saw Minho, just to narrow suspiciously at the sight of Jinki.

“What did you bring an adult for?” He asked sharply.

Jinki ignored the question and squatted down, much like Minho – who was now fidgeting in the background – had done earlier. “I’m family.” Jinki assured with a gentle smile. “And Minho here told me that there is someone who needs help. What is your name?”

“Taemin.” He said warily, obviously uncomfortable.

“Ok Taemin, I brought you painkillers. But may I ask what they are for?”

“Because everything hurts.” Was the reply. “Breathing, walking, laughing and I would like it to stop. I don’t know why it’s like this, it just comes and goes as it pleases. And I guess I’ve been walking too much lately and my body isn’t happy about that. Please, I really need them.”

Jinki frowned deeply but handed over the water and the drugs. “Minho said you suggested you had nowhere to go.” He explained, ignoring Taemin’s angry expression at the other boy while he swallowed down two pills. “And trust me, I don’t want to force you to anything, but I would like to offer you to come to our house for a bit. You could have dinner with us.”

Minho’s eyes widened at the suggestion, secretly hoping Taemin would say no and immediately hating himself for the thought. He really needed to work on his jealousy if he hoped to one day be even half as great as Jinki and Kibum were.

Jinki and Taemin discussed for a while until the boy finally agreed. “Splendid!” Jinki exclaimed, hopping into a standing position. “Let’s go!” He grabbed Taemin’s bag and started walking. Taemin looked at Minho.

“Could you maybe help me up? I don’t think my legs carry me enough to get up on my own right now.” He blushed as he said that, looking down onto the stone of the pavement.

Minho didn’t even question it and after a slow process of Taemin’s obviously being in a lot of pain and Minho hating himself for ever hoping he would turn down Jinki’s offer, the boys stood side by side. Taemin was a lot shorter than Minho. With Taemin’s arm tightly locked around Minho’s to keep him up, they slowly made their way to the house. Taemin was limping badly, a flash of pain crossing his face every time he had to put pressure on his right leg. Minho’s offer to carry him was shot down immediately – “that would just make it worse, don’t worry, I’ve had worse days than this”. The words worried Minho but he didn’t say anything. Every sentence could be the wrong sentence.

When they finally arrived at Jinki’s and Kibum’s house, Taemin was breathing heavily and his grip on Minho’s arm was so tight, Minho was sure he’d get bruises. Jinki waited at the door with Kibum’s office chair.

“I thought this might be a good idea?” He asked awkwardly, scratching the side of his head. Taemin let out a noise that, Minho was sure, could count as a sob and slowly lowered himself down onto it.

“Thank you,” he said sincerely. “This is much better.”

“So, who wants to play cards?” Jinki smiled. Minho just rolled his eyes affectionately and wheeled Taemin into the kitchen.

Jinki had sent Kibum a message about Taemin, so Kibum was not surprised when he saw the third person sitting at the dinner table when he came home from a meeting. He was, however, slightly suspicious. Jinki hadn’t said much – forever inept at anything technological – but what he had written seemed a little strange: Minho found him on the street and the first interaction on Taemin’s side had been a question for painkillers? And Jinki had just taken him into their home?

“Honey, you’re home!” Jinki greeted him with a kiss. He then immediately whirled around to look at Taemin. “Sorry, I forgot to tell you that Key stands for Kibum. Minho gave him that nickname a year ago and some people find it confusing since it’s gender neutral and-“

But Taemin just waved his hand in a careless gesture. “That’s completely fine, my boyfriend has just started transitioning so it would be really weird for me to be weirded out by you guys.”

Kibum quickly looked at the dumb founded expressions on Jinki’s and Minho’s faces and quickly established that that topic had not been discussed yet. And, judging by Minho’s expression, the boy didn’t understand what Taemin was talking about. Kibum almost snorted. Where would he have heard about transitioning anyway? It wasn’t an issue discussed in broad public, especially in the parts a 16-year-old boy was interested in, and his parents sure as hell wouldn’t talk about it.

“How about we eat dinner? Did you guys already prepare some? Or did you just play cards?” He asked, looking pointedly at the mess on the table.

Minho had not missed the look between Jinki and Kibum when Taemin had mentioned his boyfriend. He may not have understood exactly what the boy had said but he bet it wasn’t as casual as Taemin had made it seem.

It was weird with another person his age in the house. Of course, their roles were very different, with Minho practically living there and Taemin being a complete stranger over for dinner. But still, he wasn’t the only teenage boy anymore. Not the youngest. Not the one who needed the most attention. He watched as Taemin carefully used his left leg to push the office chair towards the kitchen counter to ask whether he could help.

“Minho? How come you’re letting the guest help without doing anything yourself?” Jinki called over softly and something in Minho’s chest area righted itself and he felt warm again. Jinki and Kibum wouldn’t forget about him. He would not be replaced. He wasn’t considered a guest anymore.

Dinner was filled with a conversation that mostly revolved around Jinki’s and Kibum’s work. Taemin was highly interested in both, and especially impressed that Jinki was already a professor. “I really liked to dance.” He admitted. “But now I can’t.” There was so much sadness in his voice, so much grief, that the dinner continued in silence for the next minutes.

“So, Taemin, how old exactly are you?” Kibum asked after he had given them each a bowl of chocolate pudding for dessert. “I feel like we shamefully neglected getting to know the basics about you.”

“I’m thirteen.” Taemin answered after he swallowed a mouthful of pudding. “I’m gonna be fourteen in two months.”

“Isn’t that awfully young for having a boyfriend?” Jinki raised an eyebrow. Minho agreed in his head, at thirteen he had been way too pre-occupied with his parents and his own identity to even think about any form of romance.

“Probably,” Taemin admitted, “and I know that we are not boyfriends in the sense of the words adults use. But I like saying we’re together and Jonghyun loves being called boyfriend. So we’re just going with it, I guess? And I liked him when he was still Junghee, at least to me, the others still call him that, even though he hates it, and why should that change if he’s a boy? He’s still the same person, right?”

“You don’t sound like a 13-year-old.” Kibum smiled his sad smile, the one that always came when Minho complained about his parents’ house. “Minho could you come with me for a minute? There’s something I need to show you.”

Minho caught the slight frown on Jinki’s face before he smiled and nodded in Kibum’s direction. The professor did not say anything but to Minho it felt like he witnessed a silent conversation between the couple. He got better at noticing the signs of those. Kibum led him into the small room the couple had sectioned off from the rest of their bedroom. Officially it was the guest room. Kibum claimed they had needed it from the start but it was really just for Minho. Kibum made Minho sit on the bed and pushed the chair closer and sat down so they could look at each other comfortably.

“Ok Minho, I’m quickly going to explain something to you now, alright?”

Minho nodded. He was sixteen now, he could listen. He had always been able to listen.

“Did you understand what Taemin was saying earlier about his boyfriend? What he meant with transitioning?”

This time Minho shook his head.

“Thought so…” Kibum leaned forward to peer into Minho’s face. “Let’s say it like this: some people are not born into the right bodies. They feel like another person that their body tries to tell them they are.”

“You mean those men my dad calls disgusting because they walk around in skirts and high heels?”

Kibum smiled bitterly. It sent a chill down Minho’s spine. “In a way but not really, no. There are people, men in this case, who feel comfortable with their and just have fun dressing up as the other gender once in a while. And that’s not disgusting, no matter what your father say. Expressing your identity can never be disgusting as long as you’re not hurting anyone. Back to the topic: There is for example Taemin’s boyfriend. He was born in a girl’s body and treated like a girl but he probably never really felt right. He’s a boy in every regard except for what his body looks like.”

“Wait,” Minho frowned. “I thought that’s what defines it? You’re a boy when you have a pe-“ He flushed. “You know what I mean. Isn’t that right?”

“For most people it is. But sometimes the body doesn’t feel like it should be yours and people don’t treat you like you feel you should be treated.” Kibum tried to explain. “You don’t have to understand it now. But you have to accept it. Acceptance over understanding. That’s important. You probably can’t understand it anyway, if you’ve never lived it. A good friend of mine, she went through the transition a few years ago and we were really close so I kind of know about her struggles. But I cannot pretend to know everything she went through. So if we ever meet Jonghyun and he looks like a girl usually does, do not call him out on it, alright? He is a boy, even though you wouldn’t immediately recognize him as one.”

Minho nodded. He could do that. He remembered his own confusion about himself when he was fourteen. “And what exactly is transitioning?”

Kibum was just about to answer, when Jinki’s voice wafted up the stairs. “Bummie? Minho? Would you like to watch a movie?”

Patting Minho’s knee, Kibum smiled and stood up. “I’ll have Jinki explain this to you later.” He said. “He’s better at that more scientific not so emotional stuff. Movie?”

Minho just made a noise of approval and followed Kibum down the stairs. Jinki was already on the sofa, having a quiet conversation with Taemin who was still seated on the office chair. Minho could see that Jinki’s laptop was hooked up to the TV screen the couple had bought last Christmas to be able to watch movies. It didn’t allow them to watch TV but it was enough to just use Netflix over the laptop and letting it show on the big screen. Minho never understood why Kibum and Jinki were so against TV until he witnessed his parents watch a supposedly scientifically informative show that claimed to prove why gay relationships could not work out. When the host compared lgbtq activism with terrorism, Minho had left and slept at Kibum’s and Jinki’s house.

Taemin declined Kibum’s offer to help him onto the couch. (“It’s too soft. That would just make it even worse later, trust me.”) Minho went to make popcorn while Kibum gently convinced Taemin to pick a movie. His choice turned out to be Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

“Tomorrow,” Jinki told Minho quietly after he had joined him in the kitchen, Minho still waiting for the popcorn to stop popping and Jinki preparing drinks. “We are going to find out what happened to Taemin and why he has nowhere to go to. But I think today, he needs to be spoiled. I’m gonna put him into your bed later. Do you want to sleep in my and Kibum’s bed or will you go to your parents’ house?”

Minho loved that Jinki and Kibum didn’t refer to his parents’ house as his ‘home’ anymore. It had stopped being one a long time ago. “Is it ok if I stay?” He knew it was selfish but he did not want to be in that cold house knowing there was someone else with Jinki and Kibum.

“Of course!” Jinki explained and pulled Minho away from the microwave and into a hug. “You’re always going to be the most important one Minho. Don’t doubt that, alright?”

Minho bit his lip and nodded, failing to keep his tears in.

The popcorn ended up slightly burnt and later that night, Jinki carried a sleeping Minho up the stairs, followed by Kibum who carefully helped Taemin get up the stairs.