Taemin flopped atop the leather sofa with a relieved sigh. As he sank into the comfortable seat, his weary limbs were somewhat consoled by the soft cushions and the expensive fabric, practically a massage to his aching joints. He stretched his arms above his head, before dropping them to his sides limply and stifling what would have been a catastrophically large yawn.
He was so, so tired.
Thankful to have a second to himself for the first time in three weeks, Taemin gingerly rubbed an eye and cast his mind back over the events of the past fortnight; their comeback had dropped, their album had been a chart-topping success, they'd won on all the music shows and had participated in various variety appearances. Fan-signings had consumed their days, and rehearsals had consumed what would have been free time, and now Taemin was finally allowing the toll of their activities to sink in, to captivate him and refuse to let him go.
It'd been the first day off all of his hyungs had been given in weeks; whilst they'd all returned to family homes, or had gone out to do whatever they could to relax, Taemin had returned to their shared apartment after visiting his bemused mother. He didn’t know why he'd returned to the place all the others had been willing to escape – maybe, because, inexplicably, it was the warmest home he'd ever known. Taemin just had very little idea why he thought this.
As he let his eyes flicker shut, a smile fluttered into being as memories resurfaced from all the time he'd spent with the members over the past month. Although it was forceful company, Taemin didn’t mind, for his hyungs were family, not business associates, and as such they'd acted like so. There'd been several childish arguments – when Jinki had misplaced Kibum’s favourite shoes in America, or when Jonghyun had ‘accidentally’ broken Minho’s new earphones so that he'd stop being anti-social on the airplane – but they'd all been overshadowed by the happiness of the trip. Taemin drummed his fingertips atop his stomach and smiled contently.
As Taemin lay, there was suddenly a gentle knock on the door. He frowned and opened his eyes, narrowing his eyebrows. Had he been hearing things? People rarely visited their dorms. If someone did, their manager was often there to answer, only their manager wasn’t home and so this left Taemin to decide whether he should answer or not. It couldn’t have been the members – they simply would have waltzed in, treating the apartment casually. But, as the knock resounded for a second time, slightly firmer, Taemin sighed, groggy, and rolled from the sofa. He didn’t know how to handle such a situation. What if it was a stranger? What was he supposed to even do? He rubbed an eye and padded towards the front door, fixing his sweatshirt as he did so. The apartm