There are times that Jinki was as hopeless as little Taemin when he was not able to open up a jar of cookies during his first year of school. That times when Jinki made all the brothers (yes, including little Taemin) pay attention to their eldest brother more than he could’ve asked for.

And that is…

When Jinki is on his slump mode. Yeah, you read it right. There are times when Jinki was not able to do anything just because he doesn’t even have the will to. He would just roam around the house, empty handed without those cream puff that he ordered days ago from the bakery nearby, walking in his goddam awful pajamas, hair as messy as a bird nest, with his own comforter covering his own body like a cocoon.

Sometimes he would just stand near the window and stare outside, watching the outside world that is filled with happiness and bright, cheerful lights…

He closed the curtain immediately.

Then at some point, he would be staring at the wall for hours and hours, doing nothing, like meditating. But with walls. Like doing a staring contest with it.

It took Jonghyun to turn on the lights in his room to break him out from the zone. Jinki hissed at the burning pain of lights reaching into his eyes for staring at the wall for so long, he might think that his eyes are dried out completely and he could go blind forever.

Exaggerating much?

(Jonghyun was only there to put Jinki’s laundry on his bed where he had lost the bet to do the laundry before, and Jonghyun was simply finishing his duty as the loser of the bet)

At first, it went unnoticed to the other brothers. Jinki was unpredictable sometimes, but he meant no harm to the rest. The others thought that the eldest would go back to normal the next day, and making sure that he’s crumbling biscuits in his soup to be eaten together. (Be gone with the damn ethics, food is food; Park Jinki, 2017)

But after a few days, that’s when the brothers noticed how the eldest wouldn’t snap out of it. It got worse too. Jinki went to school, dressed like he had slept outside with mismatched school shoes, and he didn’t even care. Kibum cringed at the sight of his brother’s walking fashion disaster. Jonghyun thought that Jinki was bitten by a zombie but tried to hide it from the world by doing so.

And once, Minho agreed with his brother, which made Kibum disowned him for an hour.

“hyung! Look at this picture!” little Taemin rushed too his brother to show the picture of a school building that he had precisely drew in the art class to the zombie Jinki. Usually Jinki would responded and give a cheerful feedback towards the little one, but today, Jinki walks straight, motionless and slowly too his room, without even stopping by to see or even tell the little one anything.

Taemin stopped and blinked at his brother, pouting because he had never been treated that way by his older brother, especially Jinki, just like that. Taemin pouted cutely before looking down at his detailed drawing of a school building before putting it down and went back to his colouring place.

That didn’t go unnoticed by the other three brothers. When Jinki did not even acknowledge the baby of the family, that means it’s serious.

“this is getting out of a hand.” Kibum sighed, walking towards the youngest to join him for a colouring session. That made Taemin very, very happy.

“come on, it’s just exam season.” Jonghyun declared, before sitting down on the couch, joined by Minho later on.

… … …

Eh?

Exam season?

Yes, you read it correctly.

“he’s always like that. The Jinki phase. More dangerous than the puberty phase, when he starts getting one.” Jonghyun mumbled, pushing the buttons on the tv, trying to find something to watch.

“should we do something about him though?” Minho suggested, getting interested in some commercials about chocolate cereal. It was fascinating… to him.

“should we? How bad can it be for him to react like that?” Jonghyun shrugged.

warning, not a filler, just wait for another chapter XD

thank you to the reader who requested chapters on Jinki! and thank you to the another reader who asked about Jinki's part that will be revealed later on! i will quote their name later, please bare with me!

xoxo