After they helped him get through the tour, Jinki didn’t really interact with Jonghyun, Kibum, Minho and Taemin for a couple of weeks. He met up with Sunyoung for lunch a few times but other than that he kept mostly to himself. He needed the crutches everyday he had to leave the house and he was always so tired after a few hours at uni that he just wanted to get to his bed.

 

In other words: he had almost no way to establish any friendships. The other students in the law courses seemed to perceive him as reclusive and since he always hesitated when they asked him to go out with them, he could totally understand that perception.

 

On the third Wednesday of the semester Jinki knew immediately after he left the house that it would be a hard day. His right leg was the usual – not quite painful but unable to hold him up. But every time he put pressure on the left leg, a sharp pain flared up in his hip. He resolved to relying on the crutches completely to move him forward by putting all of his weight on his arms and then moving his legs. It was slow and painful but it got the job done. He would not go back home. He knew, once he started taking days off it would just result in a downward spiral and all his hard work to get into SKY University would have been for nothing. He had the next day off; he would just lay in bed all day then. But this Wednesday he would get through.

 

He managed to get to his extra-credit Japanese class on time, but just barely. He had originally planned to go to the bakery beforehand to get some breakfast. He didn’t have the energy to go grocery shopping lately so he didn’t have anything in his apartment that would constitute as a breakfast. But he was so slow and really didn’t want to move any more than he absolutely had to that he directly went to the class.

 

He had been even slower than expected and needed over 15 minutes for a distance that he usually did in 7 minutes (with the crutches so the other students needed about 3 minutes).

 

The next lecture was right after the Japanese class and while he had over 20 minutes to get there, Jinki didn’t want to risk it and went there directly.

 

The lecture was in a room that was only accessible over a small flight of stairs. Jinki hated it. He stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked at them with a deep sigh. It was only 4 steps but it looked like so much more.

 

“Uhm, excuse me?” A soft, unsure voice jerked him out of his contemplations. Lee Taemin stood at the top of the stairs and looked down at him with a concerned look on his face. “Can I help you?”

 

Jinki debated with himself for a second, since he didn’t want to give off the impression that he was dependent on anyone. But just in that moment his hip throbbed in an especially nasty, burning pain and he nodded. Taemin skipped down to him and smiled widely.

 

“What do I do?”

 

“Uhm… Could you take one of the crutches? And then I can pull myself up on your arm or shoulder?”

 

Jinki felt uncomfortable.

 

But Taemin just nodded and let himself be directed to the side that would help the most. It was surprisingly easy for Taemin to get a hang of it and they reached the top of the stairs with surprisingly little pain on Jinki’s part.

 

“Why didn’t you already go into the room?” Jinki asked when he saw Taemin’s backpack lean against the wall next to the door.

 

“Oh, errm, I,” Taemin fiddled with his fingers. “I like to wait for Jonghyun, Kibum and Minho. It feels weird to just go inside on my own. The others always stare so much.”

 

Jinki nodded. He could empathize with that sentiment.

 

All of a sudden, Minho, Jonghyun and Kibum appeared next to them. Taemin lit up. “Hey!”

 

“Hey Minnie,” Jonghyun ruffled his hair. “Did you wait for long?”

 

“Hi Jinki!” Kibum interjected pointedly.

 

Jinki smiled. “Hi.”

 

Minho and Jonghyun greeted him too and as five, they entered the lecture hall. Almost all heads moved as one to look at them. Jinki tried to make himself small. He didn’t like the attention, but he knew that he was just as recognizable to their fellow students as the four famous young men next to him – and being together with them just doubled his peculiarity.

 

He followed the other four into the room but when they started walking up the steps to the rows of chairs and tables, he stopped. A sharp pain laced up his right arm and into his chest every time he put pressure on the crutches. He couldn’t breathe.

 

Minho turned around to smile at him but his friendly expression quickly morphed into one of concern when he saw that Jinki was still at the bottom of the steps.

 

“Jinki, are you ok?”

 

Jinki shrugged helplessly and then his mind went blank and tears spilled over. “I can’t move.” He pressed out and suddenly Kibum was there, enveloping him in a careful but protecting embrace. His mind registered briefly that he and Kibum really weren’t on that level of friendship but he didn’t care.

 

He sobbed.

 

Three foreign hands started his back. They just made him cry harder.

 

Kibum managed to get the problem out of him and Minho immediately took his backpack off his back. Someone asked him, if they should carry him to a seat. Jinki shook his head. He was slowly becoming aware of the rest of the students again and traces of embarrassment started climbing up his neck. A bunch of mostly-strangers just watch him have a break-down. Great.

 

“I’ll sit in the first row with you Jinki. Can you make it there?” Kibum asked quietly. Jinki nodded.

 

The very first row of seats in the lecture hall was level with the ground, but it didn’t have desks. The first chair was three steps away from where they were standing.

 

Jinki collapsed into it very carefully and closed his eyes. He was exhausted. Both sides of his hips were on fire. His chest only let a very little amount of air in. He sat on his chair with a straight back, his hands in his lap and his feet firmly planted on the ground. There was movement and shuffling noises next to him but he was too scared to move his head to look.

 

Kibum’s voice was suddenly in his ear. “If there’s anything you want noted down, just tell me, yeah? I’ll write it down.”

 

Jinki smiled and his breathing got a small sliver better.

 

---

 

 

 

 

Once the lecture was over, Jinki could move again. The two hours of sitting perfectly still had helped (especially after he made the others stop moving in a way that made his chair shake) and while neither of his hips could hold him up, his chest had relaxed again. He sighed in relief but then remembered that somehow, he had to get home and his good mood, as faint as it had been, flew away again. He had enough money for a taxi home, but that would still mean getting out of the building and to the street. In his current position, he would probably need 15 minutes for that – the other students usually needed three. Maybe if he called a taxi right then, it would arrive at the same time he exited the building? Then he wouldn’t have to stand for too long…

 

But before his plans could take on any shape or form, Kibum next to him cleared his throat.

 

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

 

“It’s better.” Jinki turned to smile at him. “I don’t think I can really move but I can breathe.” He finished with a wide grin but it faltered when Kibum frowned.

 

“You couldn’t breathe?”

 

“Oh, uhm, that’s kinda why I couldn’t move. Every time I put pressure on my arms, my chest hurt.”

 

Kibum frowned even more. “I was going to ask for your approval on this but now you don’t have the right to refuse, to be honest.” He turned to look at Jonghyun. “Is she here yet?”

 

Jonghyun looked up from his phone. “Did he say yes?”

 

(Jinki was so confused.)

 

“I didn’t ask. He couldn’t breathe. I won’t let him go on his own now. Tell her to come in.”

 

(Jinki was actually getting suspicious.)

 

Kibum turned back to Jinki. “Kibum texted his housekeeper to send a driver with his great-grandma’s old wheelchair. We’re bringing you home with it.”

 

(Oh.)

 

Jinki didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded. He couldn’t really wrap his mind around the idea that someone sent a driver to get him a wheelchair. Just like that. Without having to be asked.

 

Almost all other students were gone (some had lingered to stare some more) and Jinki was in the middle of listening to a story Minho was telling him about his team’s latest soccer game, when the wheelchair arrived. The woman pushing it grinned when she saw the five young men and hurried to them.

 

“Your wheelchair, as wished.”

 

“Thank you Amber.” Minho beamed. Kibum narrowed his eyes and looked at Jinki.

 

“How do you get up?”

 

Jinki blushed slightly. “Is it ok if I hold onto your forearms?”

 

Kibum looked him up and down for a second, then turned to look at Minho. “Minho, can you help Jinki up? You’re taller and stronger than I am.”

 

Minho laughed. “Wow, that’s the first time you admitted that.” He teased and his smile was so open and affectionate that Jinki couldn’t help but smile back.

 

He gripped Minho’s forearms just underneath his elbows and Minho instinctively supported his arms as well. He held onto him until he was slowly lowered into the wheelchair. His legs shook so hard they almost vibrated.

 

“Dude, that looks uncomfortable.” Amber commented behind him. Jinki laughed.

 

“You could say that.”

 

 

 

 

The way home was not comfortable (the inevitable shaking of a moving vehicle was awful for the hip) but still nice. Jinki didn’t say much, he just listened to Jonghyun, Minho and Kibum bicker back and forth, with random inputs from Taemin and Amber. Jinki wasn’t sure whether Taemin was just quiet or was a bit awkward and couldn’t quite judge when to contribute to the conversation. Every time he said something it seemed to relate to something that would’ve fit better a few minutes before – but most of the time what he said was good-natured teasing and he often managed to bring the conversation to a short halt when everybody laughed.

 

Jinki loved it.

 

Jonghyun pushed him into his flat (Minho ran ahead to open the doors) but because Jinki remembered the chaos his room was in, he directed him to the kitchen. None of his flatmates seemed to be home and Jinki appreciated it. He was not in the mood to explain the issue to another person.

 

He had expected the other four (Amber had driven off again, she was needed somewhere else) would just bring him home and then leave immediately but they. Stayed. They sat around the table and talked, once in a while asking Jinki about his opinion so that he got more and more into the conversation.

 

Jonghyun eventually asked what groceries Jinki had at home so he could make a quick dinner. Jinki stared at him, slightly flabbergasted, but then he mumbled that he didn’t really have much since he couldn’t go shopping lately.

 

Only two minutes later, Jonghyun and Minho had left (under protests from Jinki) to go to the nearest supermarket and get basic groceries.

 

The three remaining boys were enveloped in silence. Jinki was so overwhelmed by the situation that he didn’t know what to say. Taemin hadn’t said anything in a long time, he was just looking down and fidgeting in his chair. Kibum obviously didn’t want to start a conversation where he knew that he would be met by silence.

 

Just as the situation got uncomfortable and Jinki contemplated excusing himself to the bathroom (even though he had no idea how to get there, since his chest and arms probably wouldn’t allow him to push the wheelchair on his own), Taemin turned in his chair to fully look at Kibum next to him. His shoulders slumped and seemed to shrink slightly.

 

“Umma,” he mumbled. “I’m sleepy.”

 

A short, deafening silence, in which Jinki looked between the two, confused, and Kibum stared at Taemin, ensued.

 

Then Kibum smiled softly and Taemin’s hair. “Don’t worry Baby, you can sleep.” He turned to Jinki and his smile dropped. “Would you be ok with Taeminnie sleeping in your bed for a bit?”

 

“Er, yeah, of, of course.” Jinki stammered. “He can just put all the stuff on there on the ground. It’s the door with the picture of a sheep.”

 

Instead of just Taemin getting up, as Jinki had expected, Kibum stood as well and grabbed Taemin’s hand to lead him out of the kitchen. Jinki leaned back in his wheelchair, at a loss for words. He thought back to his interactions with the other four but he couldn’t recall a time where Taemin was either called Baby or where he called one of the other by anything but their names. And Kibum’s way of talking to him was strange as well – so soft and affectionate.

 

Kibum came back soon. He sat in the chair opposite Jinki and looked at him intensely.

 

“Uhm…” Jinki started. “Is he ok?”

 

Kibum sighed. “He slipped into Little Space. He wasn’t feeling very Big to begin with today and I guess the whole excitement around you tipped him over.”

 

“I’m sorry.” Jinki sagged in his chair. Guilt churned in his chest.

 

“Oh no, don’t be. It’s not a bad thing, just one that happens from time to time when he’s with us. His age never regresses that far – probably around six or seven most of the time – but if it does he just needs a lot of affection and love and care. I have the honour,” Kibum made a slightly sour face, “to be the Umma. Minho and Jonghyun both get Appa. Taeminnie can’t even explain why.”

 

Jinki grinned. “I think it suits you.” He said cheekily and Kibum chuckled.

 

“Just so you don’t get it wrong: this is not a ual thing. I know lots of people think it’s just a kink, but it’s not. Of course, for some people it works like that. But Minnie just needs some paternal affection sometimes and that’s the way his sub consciousness thinks it can get it best. Please don’t judge him.” Kibum looked vulnerable all of a sudden and Jinki distantly wondered whether this was just about Taemin.

 

“No worries, I don’t mind. As long as no one gets hurt, I’m fine with it.” Jinki shrugged.

 

With the ice broken, they easily fell into a conversation about university. Kibum told Jink about how the content of their classes related to the fashion business and Jinki was fascinated. He knew Law was versatile but he had never thought twice about the fashion industry.

 

“I can take you shopping one day!” Kibum offered, his eyes alight.

 

Jinki smiled bitterly. “I would love to. But I can’t even go groceries shopping, how could I look for clothes?” 

 

 

---

 

 

The Little Space thing wasn't planned it just... kinda happened. Please let me know what you think ❤