Taemin had been in his room all day. Minho and Key were worried; it was a Saturday afternoon and Taemin hadn’t left his room at all. They knew that he would want more time to himself once he hit his teenage years, but the fact that their normally very talkative and hyper fourteen year old had stayed alone in his bedroom all day was just…odd. They knew he was awake, because they heard him leave to go to the bathroom a couple times.

At about two in the afternoon, they heard Taemin’s door open. They both wanted to sight in relief when he came into the living room, but grew even more worried at the look on his face. He was afraid of something, that much was obvious. It was what he was afraid of that they didn’t know.

“Hey Taemin, kind of a late start today, neh?” Minho teased the boy who sat down on the chair opposite of them.

“Neh..” The boy bit his lip, a nervous habit he’s had since he was a kid.

“Is something wrong, Taetae?” Key looked over at him, worry evident in his eyes.

“It’s just…you would never hate me, right?” Taemin looked at his feet, playing with his toes.

“Of course not! Nothing you ever do could make us hate you!” Key was very worried now, as was Minho.

“What’s bothering you, Taemin?” Minho inched forward on his seat.

“Well…I just…I want to find out who my birth parents are.” The boy held his breath, afraid of the reaction of his parents.

He looked up, confused, when he heard them sigh in relief.

“Jeez, Taeminnie! You had me scared there!” Key went over and playfully swatted his son on the shoulder.

“Y-you’re not angry? Or upset?” Key hugged the boy, chuckling.

“We knew that one day you’d want to find them. And we’ll help you as best we can, but I’m going to warn you now: just because you want to find them, is not going the mean that they want to find you. I know it’s harsh, baby, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up, only for them to come crashing down.” Key his son’s golden hair.

“I know, umma.” He leaned against his umma’s chest, and that’s how their search for Taemin’s birth parents began.

_____________

It took about six months to find his mother. She was a young girl who had only been fourteen when she had Taemin. Taemin freaked out when he read that information, not so much because he found out he was Russian, but because his mother had been the age he is now when he was born.

Minho contacted her, and she agreed to meet with them, and said that she would try to contact Taemin’s biological father. She would come over to their home in five weeks.

_____________

Those five weeks went by painfully slow for Taemin. The days seemed to go on forever, and his workload at school didn’t make it any easier. They hadn’t heard anything from his birth mother since Minho made the arrangement for them to meet, and Taemin was a nervous wreck when the day came.

She said she would be there around noon. Taemin forgot to turn off his school alarm the night before, and so he woke up at 6:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep. He took a shower and tried to pick out an outfit that his umma, Key, would be proud of.

He had to remember that, while this woman gave birth to him, she would never be his umma. Or any other variation of the word, such as mama or mommy, since he also loved the call Key those names.

His umma eventually came in and helped him pick something out, stating that he knew Taemin would be nervous and only wanted to help. Taemin thought that the real reason was because his umma just wanted to show off his taste in fashion.

Taemin let his umma play dolly with him, and eventually had been dressed in this. Taemin examined himself in the mirror, and decided to do his hair like this.

_______________

When she arrived at the house, she wasn’t alone. Taemin didn’t know whether to be scared or excited. Minho led them into the living room, where Key was sitting on the couch with Taemin, an arm slung around the teen’s shoulders.

“Don’t be so nervous, Taetae. Everything will fine.” Key tried to calm the fidgeting teenager down.

“But what if it’s not? What if she hates? What if that’s why she left me there, because she hates me because I’m a freak with this stupid hair and-” Taemin stopped when he saw his father leading two people into the room, a man and a woman.

It was his biological parents. What was really shocking, however, was the fact that the man didn’t have a trace of Asian in him; he was white.

“T-Taemin?” The woman, who was only twenty eight, walked over to the teenager. “Is that you?”

Taemin nodded, unable to speak. The woman smiled softly at him.

“You’re so big now. You were so tiny that day, when you were born; you were premature. My name is Lee Soyeon.” She held out her hand to the boy. He took it and shook it weakly. He never really thought that he would meet his birth parents.

The man stepped forward, holding his hand out to