The next day was probably worse than the previous. Taemin hadn’t gone to bed the night before, deciding that he’d rather brood in the bathroom than sleep. What was the point of going to bed when he had to wake up in four hours?

Come five o’ clock in the morning, he decided it was time to start the coffee and get ready for school. He walked into the kitchen, his stomach burning with every breath he took, and started a pot of coffee. Once it started brewing, he went to change into his uniform. He did so in the bathroom, as to not let the others see the bruises. It wasn’t worth the fight with his hyungs.

He brushed his teeth and ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t bother using a brush or a comb. There was no point, it was just going to get messed up later. He splashed some water on his face, trying to make himself feel more awake.

When he was done, he walked back into the kitchen, pouring some coffee in a mug. He pulled himself up to sit on the counter, taking a huge gulp of the hot drink. He groaned at the pain he was trying to endure, and got a couple of painkillers, downing them in an instant.

“Why are you taking those?” He nearly dropped the mug on the floor when he heard the voice. He turned and saw Kibum hyung staring at him, somehow wide awake.

“Headache.” He said it fast, clearly not convincing the older man. Thankfully, he didn’t push it.

“Do you want me to take you to school today?” Kibum walked over to the counter, pouring himself a cup of the coffee Taemin had made. “And get off the counter.”

Taemin rolled his eyes, putting his feet on the floor and sitting down at the table. “If you want. We would have to leave in fifteen minutes, though.”

“That’s fine. You’re teacher called, he wanted to talk to one of your guardians. I figured now would be a good time.” Taemin resisted the urge to groan. “You should eat something before you leave, Min.”

“I ate earlier.” Taemin lied through his teeth. He had been doing that a lot, lately. Lying, that is.

Taemin wasn’t going to eat breakfast. He had been reading stuff from fans, lately. They have been saying how his cheeks looked chubbier. He couldn’t get ‘chubby.’ He wouldn’t let himself get ‘chubby,’ and if that meant not eating regularly, then so be it.

Kibum narrowed his eyes at him. Taemin wasn’t in the mood for this. “What?”

Kibum glared at him, “You best watch it, little boy.” The older walked out, going to change to take him to school.

“Bite me.” Taemin had whispered it under his breath, but Kibum turned around, glaring at him full force.

“What the hell has gotten into you, Lee Taemin!” He wasn’t about to be scolded by someone that was only two years older than him.

“I think I’ll walk to school.” He put the mug down, standing up to get his bag and leave.

“Lee Taemin! You come back in here this instant!” Kibum had shouted, and Taemin heard someone else walk in.

“What’s going on?” . It was Jinki hyung. “Lee Taemin! What on earth do you think you’re doing?”

“Just leave me alone!” Taemin shouted, slamming the front door.

__________

Taemin looked at his watch as he opened the door to his chemistry class. 6:01.

“You’re late, Lee-ssi.” He let out an angry breath.

“I’m sorry, sir. I had to walk.” His teacher glared at him.

“I don’t care.” He pushed a bucket towards Taemin with his foot. “I want you to scrub my floors. They better be spotless. And if you finish early, start on the windows.”

Taemin glared at him. “Yes, sir.”

He put his bag on a lab table, and grabbed the bucket. He rolled up his sleeves and knelt down, pulling out the damp cloth that was inside the bucket. He suppressed a groan and started washing the floors. He swore that the man must have dirtied the floor even more just to make his life hell.

“You missed a spot.” Taemin closed his eyes and let out a breath. He couldn’t lose his temper, it would just make things worse.

“Well, I said you missed a spot!” He heard the door open, and figured it was just another teacher.

“Sorry, sir.” He didn’t see a spot that he missed. He wasn’t even done yet, dammit!

“Yah, what the hell is going on here!” Taemin squeezed the cloth hard when he heard the voice, causing excess water to spew out. He chose to ignore it, continuing to wash the floor as if nothing happened.

“What do you think you’re doing, barging into my classroom like you own the place!” Songsaenim was probably going to blame him for this.

“Taemin, get up off the floor! This has got to be against the rules! This is child labor or something! Taemin, get up!” Kibum was really pushing it.

“Child labor? Him singing and dancing on stage and doing everything else that you do is child labor!”

“He gets paid for that! You’re just doing this to spite him!” The two started arguing, and Taemin was gonna crack any moment now. He backed into the corner, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his head in his arms.

He tensed when he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Taeminnie, are you okay?” It was Jinki hyung’s voice. When did he get here? Were the others here, too? What about manager hyung? Why was the room so quiet?

“Lee-ssi?”

“Why can’t you all just leave me alone?” He just wanted everything to go away. He wanted to go home. He wanted to see his umma and his appa and his hyung. He wanted to sleep for a full eight hours.

“Minnie, what time did you get to bed last night?” What did that matter?

“I didn’t.” He couldn’t start crying. Not in front of his hyungs. Definitely not in front of his most hated teacher.

“Why not? What did you do?” Why was everyone suddenly so interested in every little thing he did?

“What was the point? Manager hyung wouldn’t shut up ‘till like, one. I stayed in the bathroom.” Why was he telling them this?

“What were you doing in there?” Why did Jinki hyung sound nervous? It’s not like he would say anything…inappropriate.

“I was reading.”

“Reading what?” Why can’t they just leave him alone!

“School stuff. What else would I be reading?” Everyone just needs to go away. Maybe if he got up he could leave quickly.

, did his stomach really need to let him know that it needed food now.

“Taemin, you told me that you ate before you left.” Why was Kibum being so naggy lately. It was even more so than usual.

“I-I did. W-why can’t you all just leave me alone?” Why were none of them answering his question, but he had to answer all of theirs?

“Why do you want to be left alone so bad?” Jinki hyung was oblivious. They all were.

Taemin got up, grabbing his bag, “Because I’m sixteen! Now get off my case!”

He ran out of the school. His family didn’t live too far away from here. Maybe if he hurried, he could catch them before they left for work and school.

About five minutes later, he was only a few blocks away. But then the van pulled up next to him.

He broke out into a run. He couldn’t let Jinki hyung know what was going on with him. It would ruin everything.

“Taemin-ah!” Why is it always Jinki?

The eldest got out of the van, running after the maknae. “Where are you going, Minnie?”

The leader ran up behind him, grabbing the youngest around the stomach. Taemin let out a whimper, his stomach burning.

“L-let go!” He stopped, trying to get Jinki’s arms off.

“If you come back to the van with me, I’ll let go. We won’t go back to school, okay? We’ll go home. You don’t have to go to school today.” Jinki was worried about his youngest member. Something was wrong with the boy, but he couldn’t figure out what.

“F-fine!” Taemin shut his eyes tight, the pain becoming nearly unbearable.

Taemin pulled himself out of Jinki’s grasp, walking into the car and lying down on the back seat. He took his jacket off and pulled it over his head.

They brought Taemin back to the house they had with Yoogeun, and Taemin immediately went into the back room, changing his clothes and going to sleep. They had a schedule this afternoon, and Taemin wasn’t going to be able to do his best if he was dead on his feet.

__________

“Can’t I have a shirt that’s, I don’t know, a little bit longer?” Taemin was pulling his shirt down as far as it could go. This wasn’t good. It was going to ride up while he was dancing, and everyone would see his stomach.

“Stop complaining, Taem, you look fine. Now come on, we have to go practice.” Jinki put an arm around his shoulder, guiding the younger to the stage to practice their performance.

Maybe no one would notice while they practiced, and then he could beg a coordi noona to give him a longer shirt before their live performance. Dammit, where were his painkillers?

They had been dancing during rehearsals, and suddenly everyone else stopped. Even some of the crew had stopped to look at Taemin.

“W-what?” He started fidgeting with the hem of his shirt, sure that everyone had seen.

“Taem, what happened to your stomach?” Jonghyun walked over to him, but Taemin stepped back.

“Nothing, you must be seeing things. I’m assuming we’re done rehearsing, considering you all stopped.” He ran off the stage quickly.

He was running down the hall to their dressing room when Jinki grabbed his arm, pinning him against the wall. Taemin closed his eyes out of habit, holding his breath. He seemed to forget where he was, and he opened his eyes a crack when no one started hitting him.

“H-hyung?” Jinki looked concerned.

“Taeminnie, what happened? Who did this to you?” Taemin grew angry. Now he cared? It was only because he now knew that Taemin was physically hurt. It didn’t matter if he was an emotional mess, it only mattered if you could physically see it.

“What do you care?” He snarled, trying to pull his arm away, but to no avail.

“Let go of me!” He was gonna start hyperventilating. Why was Jinki being such a jerk? Oh great, now the others were all here.

“Taemin, just tell us what happened.” Minho was trying to calm him down.

“I get beat up everyday! Okay? Are you happy now?” He couldn’t start crying. Not now. Not. Now.

Taemin pulled his arm out of Jinki’s hold and ran away from them. There was no way he was going to go into their dressing room, so he went to another one. He turned left instead of right, and knocked on the third door.

“Taemin-ah? What are you doing here?” Sunny opened the door.

Taemin smiled, tilting his head to the left slightly. “What, I can’t come see my favorite noonas?”

She smiled at him, inviting him inside. “Annyeong, noonas~” He sat down on the couch next to Taeyeon, and Sunny sat down on his other side.

“Now, what brings you to our neck of the woods, Taeminnie?” Taemin pouted.

“I can’t come say hi?” Sunny looked at him with a knowing smile, and pointed at the tv in the corner of the room that was focused on the stage. , he forgot about those.

“Wanna try to tell us the real reason?” Why were they all looking at him like that?

He sank down in his seat, “Not particularly.” He started twiddling with his fingers.

Sunny waved the rest of them away, and she wrapped an arm around Taemin’s shoulders. Taemin sighed, leaning against her side.

“Can you keep a secret, noona?” He was whispering, afraid of everyone hearing him.

“Of course, kiddo.” He pouted at the nickname, but took in a shaky breath before he started talking.

“What would you do if…hypothetically speaking…I said I…liked..boys?” He bit his lip, afraid of what she would say.

She only smiled at him, “Then I’d say, hypothetically of course, that you like boys. There’s nothing wrong with that, Taemin. Not in my eyes, anyways.”

“Then…what would you do if I said that I liked…Jinki hyung?” She sighed, rubbing his shoulder.

“Then I’d say go and tell him. I’m sure he’ll understand, sweetie.”

“I’m scared.” She frowned at him.

“What are you scared of?”

“That he’ll hate me. He’s been really hard on me lately, and I don’t know what I did. Do you know what I did, noona? You talk to him, right? What did I do wrong? Everyone’s been so disappointed in me lately, but I’ve been trying really hard, and no one seems to notice.” He let out a strangled sob. “I don’t know what I did.”

“Oh sweetie.” She hugged him close, letting him cry. “Just tell him how you feel, sweetie. You never know, he might feel the same way.”

A couple minutes later, there was a furious knocking on the door. Jessica went to open it, and Kibum was standing there looking frantic.

“Noona! I’m really sorry to bother you, but have you seen Taemin? He just ran off and-” Jessica cut him off, smiling.

“Come in, Kibum, he’s right here.” His eyes went wide when he saw that the maknae was crying.

“Oh God, Taemin!” He ran over to the couch, kneeling down in front of the younger boy. He brought his sleeve over his thumb and wiped the tears off of Taemin’s cheeks.

“Please don’t cry, Minnie. Hyung hates seeing you cry.” Taemin shook his head, leaning over to hug Kibum.

“I’m sorry, hyung. Please don’t be mad at me!” Kibum rubbed his back.

“It’s okay, Minnie. Hyung could never be mad at you.” He lead the younger back into their dressing room, being sure to text the others that Taemin was alright.

He sat down on the couch with Taemin, “Will you tell hyung what’s been bothering you lately?”

Oh what the hell, everyone was bound to find out. “I think I’m gay.”

“Did you think we wouldn’t like you anymore because of that? Sweetie, there’s nothing wrong with that!” Taemin shook his head, ready to cry again. Why was he being so emotional? He blamed the lack of sleep.

“That’s not all, hyung.” His bottom lip was trembling.

“Minnie, just tell me. I won’t get angry with you, I promise.” Taemin nodded.

“I-I think I’m in love with J-Jinki hyung.” He let out a sob. Kibum’s eyes softened.

“Taemin..” The door opened, and the other three came barging in.

“Taemin!” Jinki ran over to them, kneeling in front of Taemin like Kibum had earlier.

“I’m gay!” He practically yelled it at his leader, whose eyes went wide.

“T-Taemin, I-” Taemin shook his head.

“I’m gay, and I love you!” Kibum, Minho, and Jonghyun left the room, leaving the leader and the maknae alone.

“Is this why you’ve been acting so off lately?” Jinki was talking softly, placing his hands on Taemin’s shoulders.

“Please don’t hate me, hyung.” Taemin whispered, tears running down his face.

Jinki wiped them away, and leaned forward to place a soft kiss on the younger boy’s lips.

Taemin’s eyes went wide, and he stared at the leader as he pulled back.

Jinki smiled at him, “I love you, too.”

_____________________

A/N: yay for sequels! I hope it's alright :)