Minho and Jonghyun came back from their shopping trip and they brought way more than Jinki had ever expected. They even carried toilet paper. Toilet paper.

 

Jinki was almost tempted to take a picture of two of the most sought-after guys of their university groaning under the weight of groceries. He bet it would make them even more popular.

 

“We thought we’d get all the stuff that was necessary and then both, kinda, went overboard?” Jonghyun explained, rubbing his neck sheepishly. “But we got a lot of foodstuffs that will last so you won’t have to worry about food. We even got cereal and soy milk, because soy milk lasts for ages if you don’t open it.”

 

Jinki was speechless.

 

“But, where is Taeminnie?” Minho asked after he had put a carton of eggs into the fridge.

 

“Taeminnie,” Kibum stressed the ‘minnie’ part, “is taking a nap in Jinki’s bed.”

 

Minho’s and Jonghyun’s heads swivelled around to look at Jinki. “Oh.”

 

Jinki shifted uncomfortably. “I honestly don’t mind.”

 

Jonghyun opened his mouth to reply, but a small voice in the door interrupted him. Taemin stood there, hugging Jinki’s pillow to his chest. “Appa, you’re back,” he said sleepily and smiled. He made his way over to Minho and sat down on his lap. “I missed you.”

 

“I missed you too Minnie.” Minho cooed and joined Kibum and Jonghyun in their staring at Jinki.

 

Jinki was at a loss what to do. He was a tolerant person by nature – he had never understood discrimination based on anything uncontrollable. In school, when he learned about the segregation in the USA, it had taken him weeks to understand the root cause of it. The whole historical sequence of events to lead there was easy to get. But why would people actively oppose the Civil Rights Movement? Jinki didn’t understand. Same with discrimination against homouality or transuality or anything else that fell on the spectrum. Jinki was aware that racism and bigotry existed. He just didn’t get why.

 

But how would he be able to convince his new friends that they didn’t have to worry about anything malicious from him?

 

He cleared his throat into the tense silence (only unnoticed by Taemin who was happily snuggling into Minho’s chest). “Uhm, Taeminnie?” Taemin perked up with eager eyes. “Would you like a chocolate lolly? I have the bunny shaped ones?”

 

Taemin squealed in excitement and Jinki made to get up to hobble over to the pantry since his hip felt bearable again but Kibum stopped him. “Don’t worry, I’ll get it. I think I saw them earlier when we put the groceries away.” His voice, his eyes and whole body language had warmed up considerably –  just like Minho’s and Jonghyun’s.

 

“Onew?” Taemin asked into the room once he had the lolly. The other four shared confused glances.

 

“Onew?” Jonghyun echoed.

 

Taemin groaned like only a 7-year-old could groan when his parents didn’t understand him. “Onew!” He declared, pointing at Jinki.

 

“… Okay?” Jinki answered, not so intelligently. Minho, Kibum and Jonghyun just shrugged in response to his questioning look.

 

“Wanna sit on your lap to eat.”

 

“Oh, um, Taeminnie, I would love to but my leg is hurting and with someone on my lap it would be worse.” Taemin’s eyes started to fill with tears. “But!” Jinki rushed to say. He could not handle tears. “I have a sofa in my room. How about we cuddle there?”

 

His words had the desired effect. Taemin squealed again and jumped up to run to the room. Minho sighed quietly as he got up to push Jinki after him. Jinki suggested he could probably get up and get there by himself but neither of the other boys even considered that possibility. So he got pushed to his room and mentally cringed when he saw the chaos it was in. Clothes were everywhere, along with empty wrappers of sweets and crisps and random papers and books. But Taemin had freed the small sofa by what seemed like the simple method of just dumping everything that had been on it on the ground. Jinki sagged. He hated bending down to pick up stuff when his body wasn’t in good shape. But Taemin looked so happy as he sat on the sofa, wiggling with excitement and with a still wrapped chocolate lolly in his hands that Jinki couldn’t be mad.

 

“Onew, Onew.” Taemin chirped and Jinki chuckled.

 

“I’m coming, I’m coming Taeminnie.”

 

Minho helped him get up and slide onto the sofa. It hurt, his hip burned and his chest compressed in protest to the movement. He was glad that nobody had let him get up before. Trying to actually stand and walk would have been way worse if not impossible once again.

 

As soon as Jinki sat somewhat comfortably, Taemin slid up to him and sat sideways so he could hide his face in Jinki’s neck and have his legs over Jinki’s. The pressure on his thighs hurt a bit but it was bearable. Having someone cuddle with him was worth it.

 

It was only a matter of minutes until both Taemin and Jinki were fast asleep.

 

 

Kibum gently shook their shoulders to wake them up again 20 minutes later. Jinki grumbled in his sleep, too comfortable in his dreams to be torn from them.

 

“Dinner is ready.” Kibum announced.

 

And Jinki was wide awake.

 

Taemin’s blond head was still nestled into his neck, his roots but a dark shimmer under the gold. The younger was not showing any signs of waking up soon and Jinki almost regretted it, but his legs had started screaming at him to remove the weight (funny how sometimes even pain needs time to become fully awake) on them, so he carefully manoeuvred Taemin’s legs off of his. As expected, Taemin started muttering and mumbling and then he yawned widely and stretched his arms and opened his eyes.

 

“Hey Jinki, Kibum,” He smiled.

 

“Good morning sleeping beauty,” Kibum teased, ruffling Taemin’s hair. Then he looked at Jinki. “Should I get you back into the wheelchair?”

 

Jinki nodded. His hips hadn’t stopped screaming yet.

 

Taemin pushed him back to the kitchen where Minho and Jonghyun were already seated at the set table. “We just rummaged through the cabinets to find the stuff, I hope you don’t mind.” Minho looked apologetic but Jinki quickly reassured him that, “don’t worry, it’s fine, thank you so much!”

 

While they ate, one of Jinki’s flatmates came home. She looked into the kitchen, clearly recognized at least one of the boys, squeaked and went to her room. After two seconds of silence, Jinki started giggling first, then Minho joined him and soon all of them were chortling, trying to keep on eating.

 

As Taemin did the dishes (“But Kibum, I was little when you cooked!” “Yes, that’s why you didn’t have to help then.”) Jinki realized he didn’t want the four to leave. Not just because he honestly wondered how he would get ready for bed and into bed on his own, but also because he felt like part of their group. He was still awkward talking to them and they had lots of people and memories to talk about that Jinki never heard of but still. He felt comfortable around them.

 

But everything had to come to an end and all too soon, they were putting on their shoes and coats. Amber was on her way to pick them up and would arrive any second.

 

“Thank you again.” Jinki repeated for the 10^th time in three minutes. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

 

“Again, you’re welcome.” Jonghyun grinned. Then he sobered up a bit. “Do you have uni tomorrow?”

 

Jinki shook his head. “Tomorrow’s off for me. I’m just gonna lie in bed and watch Netflix probably.” He shrugged.

 

Kibum opened his mouth to reply but he was interrupted by someone honking outside. “That’ll be Amber.” He said instead. “We’ll see on Friday then Jinki. Please take care, ok?”

 

Jinki promised he would and said goodbye to them all. Taemin looked at him shyly and just waved as a goodbye. But Minho, in contrast had a wide smile and waving hands for him.

 

Jinki sighed and closed the door. They had to take the chair with them because it would be needed the next day. And he wasn’t able to navigate the chair through the flat and his arms were not able to push him anyway. But his hip and chest had relaxed considerably during dinner so he was back to his regular limping. He still hated it but in comparison to his state earlier that day, he felt almost thankful.

 

---

 

“Jinki!” Minho cheered as soon as Jinki had managed to push the door of the small classroom open. It was a small group of students – only 12 in total. Jinki didn’t know how he managed to get into the group with Jonghyun, Minho, Kibum and Taemin but especially after the Wednesday he couldn’t be happier.

 

Kibum immediately got up to hold the door open. Some of the doors were heavy and fell closed as soon as you let them go but since Jinki needed both hands for the crutches he had quite a lot of bruises on his shoulders. Jinki would never understand how Kibum just seemed to get those problems.

 

Taemin pulled out the chair next to him for Jinki and smiled when he sat down.

 

“Jinki, um, about Wednesday,” he began quietly as soon as nobody was looking at them anymore. “I didn’t think about it then but I’m sorry, that must’ve really been a shock to you.”

 

Jinki patted his arm. “Don’t worry about it. I am curious about one thing though.” He waited for a few seconds to watch Taemin grow increasingly more anxious. It was cute. “Why Onew?”

 

Taemin huffed a relieved chuckle and shrugged. “I don’t know. It just kinda came to me. Are you alright with it?”

 

“I don’t mind. I like it, I think. I’ll just have to remember that you mean me.” Jinki grinned. Taemin seemed to want to answer but right then someone bumped against their table and the crutches that had been leaning against it clattered to the ground. Everyone jumped in their seats and turned to see what had caused the disturbance. Jinki felt himself grow scarlet. “Sorry.” He mumbled and ducked down to pick them up.

 

The teacher cleared his throat. “Alright guys, let’s start. Please take out the text you were supposed to read.”

 

40 minutes into the seminar Taemin, who had been completely silent until then, turned around and looked at Jinki. “Onew? Do you have a bunny shaped lolly?”

 

Jinki swallowed. That couldn’t be good. “I don’t have a lolly Minnie but just normal chocolate. Is that ok too?”

 

Taemin pouted but nodded eventually. He looked adorable. Jinki quickly gave him a piece and reminded him that he needed to be quiet – like a snake before it attacked. Taemin nodded with a serious look on his face and happily chewed his chocolate. Kibum turned around to look at them. Jinki made a hand gesture to signal that Taemin was little (he held his out next to him and lowered it). Kibum understood immediately. His brows furrowed and he looked concerned. A minute later Jinki received a small piece of paper with hastily scribbled directions on it.

 

Ask him to help you get to the bathroom. Get him out of here for a bit, maybe it’ll pass soon.

 

“Taeminnie, could you help me get to the bathroom? But remember, we are still a snake so we need to be quiet.”

 

Taemin nodded and got up slowly. His movements were slightly exaggerated in their slowness and Kibum, Minho and Jonghyun raised their eyebrows as they watched them. But no one else seemed to notice.

 

Outside, Jinki went to a bench a few metres away from them in a secluded corner of the campus and sat down. Taemin bounced over to him. “Onew,” he whispered loudly. “Onew that’s not the potty.”

 

Jinki chuckled. “I know, I just thought you don’t want to be quiet anymore. Do you want to run a bit? Or should I tell you a story?”

 

In the end Jinki told him a story and Taemin acted out some of the fight scenes. He seemed to have the time of his life and even Jinki’s hip was quiet. It seemed quite content as well. Kibum, Jonghyun and Minho eventually joined them with their bags and it didn’t take long for Jonghyun to help Taemin with the fights. Jinki’s ideas started to run out. His two main characters had already defeated every monster he could think of and Taemin didn’t show any sign of tiring. Minho seemed to sense it and took over.

 

Jinki sighed and leaned back. He felt full of an emotion he couldn’t quite name. But it felt nice.

 

“We told the teacher that you needed to lie down for your hip. He told me to tell you to get better soon.” Kibum said to him quietly as to not disturb the massacre that was happening on the lawn. Jonghyun was begging for mercy on the ground but Taemin seemed way too enthusiastic to grant his pleas.

 

“Yeah, the one good thing about this,” Jinki grinned. “Nobody wants to be the to deny me stuff.”

 

Kibum laughed. “You know, I didn’t want to ask but I am too curious and of course you don’t have to tell me anything and that’s fine and I don’t want to be rude and-“

 

“I don’t know what it is.” Jinki cut him off. “The doctors can’t find a reason for me to have these problems. I’m apparently perfectly healthy.”

 

Kibum frowned. “That seems impossible.”

 

“I know. It’s .”

 

“I can only imagine.”

 

In silence, they watched the other three – specifically Taemin as he conquered the forest kingdom and defeated the seven-headed dinosaur. Jonghyun lay on the ground groaning while Taemin danced around him in victory. Minho led them through the end of the story and then sighed deeply when he could stop.

 

Taemin skipped over to Jinki and Kibum and squeezed himself between them. Jinki winced at the pressure on the outside of his right leg and scooted away. But Taemin didn’t notice. He immediately lapsed into telling Jinki and Kibum every single of his fight against the dinosaur and the kingdom he had just won. Jinki, who had listened to the story as much as possible didn’t call him out for all the exaggerations. Little ones were allowed to do that.

 

Jinki got home that night and sat at his desk and stared at his computer screen for an hour. He didn’t do anything but scroll through tumblr. He didn’t reblog anything. His mind screamed at him to read the assigned literature but he couldn’t. He just stared and felt empty. And then he went to bed. Sleep took him after over an hour of restless tossing around.

 

---

 

On Tuesday Jinki sat at his desk and tried to read the assigned literature for another class. But he couldn’t concentrate.

 

The next day would be a Wednesday again.

 

And by the way his body twitched slightly even when he didn’t move, he knew he wouldn’t make it through the day. The breakdown the week before had left its marks and Jinki was scared.

 

He prided himself on his ability to function in defiance to his rebelling body. But if he wanted to continue his studies he would have to admit defeat. His phone stared at him as he held it in one hand. He stared back.

 

Jinki did not want to be dependant. The idea of relying on anyone for basic issues made him uncomfortable. He had always been an independent person; his parents had made it impossible to grow up any other way. Asking for help was the first step to dependency and helplessness and Jinki was scared to go down that road. He didn’t know where it would lead him. But he could not imagine it would be a good place.

 

In the end however, rationality won out and he dialled Jonghyun’s number.

 

---

 

Jonghyun arrived early the next morning with Kibum in tow. They had apparently had a sleepover and decided to come together. Jinki was strangely touched. The wheelchair stood in front of Jonghyun, mocking Jinki with its appeal.

 

“Your ride is here.” Kibum said with a flourish.

 

Jinki invited them in for a cup of tea. “You guys are way too early.”

 

Leaving the crutches in the flat and being wheeled outside felt strange – like he left a part of him behind. His crutches were his means of independence. They were always in the way and a bother and he hated that he never had his hands free. But still. In the wheelchair, his arms could not move him for more than a few metres. He could only hope Jonghyun and Kibum knew how much he trusted them with this request.

 

They arrived at Jinki’s Japanese class. Kibum pushed him inside, to a table in the back. The heads of all students already present swivelled around to gawk at them and Jinki’s stomach sank.

 

“We’ll go for some coffee and pick you up once this is over. Minho is really good at Japanese, he needed to learn it for some drama he did once. He’d love it if he could help you at some point.” Kibum patted his shoulder and left the room. Jinki shrunk into himself under all the stares. But the wheelchair felt too comfortable and fitting for his situation and body feeling for him to regret the decision.

 

---

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I know it's been ages... I've gone through a rough patch but it's way better now :) This chapter is mainly intended to set the atmosphere and build more of the universe. Next chapter will have some bigger stuff happening.

Thank you for reading and please drop a comment ❤