I'm sorry that this has taken so long to come out. I have been sick almost all week after having to attend my sister's graduation. You'd think that it would be fine to have an outdoor graduation at the end of May...but aparently not in Chicago. I was siting on football bleachers in my winter coat, gloves, hat and scarf for 3 hours watching her 1000+ class walk across the stage. I woke up the next day with a runny nose and cough that is STILL lingering on over a week later now. Combined with that is the fact that I've actually written this chapter about 4 times (fully written and then deleted because I didn't like it or it led me away from something else that I wanted to happen). I hope you guys like this one because I know you've been waiting.

Funny sidenote:  At one point, instead of writting JONGhyun, I typed HOGhyun - now this may have been (and still be)s the Nyquil talking, but I thought it was HILLARIOUS....so I wanted to share.

Chapter 11

Jonghyun finally made his way back to the dorm and was surprised at the bright atmosphere that he came into.  Minho was loudly trouncing Key at a fighting video game, while Onew was in the kitchen checking over Taemin’s homework, and Taemin was reading a manhwa while waiting for his hyung to finish looking over his last assignment.  Jonghyun felt as though he had walked into the Twilight Zone.  It was like they had re-wound their lives 24 hours and was as if nothing at all had happened – no fights, no revelations, no hard feelings at all. 

He was so thrown that he just stood there staring for a while, long enough to catch the attention of most of the other members, with the exception of Onew who was focusing on the schoolwork in front of him.    

Minho looked at him with anticipation.  Jonghyun noticed that the athlete had shifted somewhat so that he was partially in front of Key, as though he was placing himself as a barricade from Jonghyun’s wrath.  His grip had tightened on his controller and though it remained down at his side, the singer could only describe the feeling as though it was being aimed at his head.

Key on the other hand had placed his controller on the floor.  He had unconsciously drawn his legs under himself and into a slight crouch, as though readying himself to launch.  His eyes darted quickly between the entering member and Taemin, who caught his eyes and with a soft smile that spoke volumes, just gave a small shake of his head and turned his gaze to Jonghyun, eyes tightening and face hardening – a look that the singer would never have thought possible to form on the innocent Maknae’s face. 

In that moment Jonghyun realized one important fact, Taemin was not the child that he had been, and while he could play that image up all he wanted, he had grown up in an environment that forces you to mature as quickly as possible to maintain your own sanity.  That little child that he had thought to protect from everything had hardened himself to those he knew would or could hurt him, and it pained Jonghyun to know that he was now included in that category.

All of this occurred in a matter of moments, faster than it likely seemed to those involved.  But the sudden silence – the lack of Key’s protests of unfairness and Minho’s shouts of victory, the lack of pages turning from Taemin had clued Onew in and caused him to raise his head and take in the scene in front of him.

Gone was the cheery atmosphere of the afternoon.  It had felt like old times again for a few hours there, but they had just been avoiding reality.  Cut off and in their own little world they had attempted to ignore the forces that were working against them, and for a few hours they had succeeded.  But with the return of Jonghyun the reality of the situation is thrown back in their face.  The mood had plummeted and the tension could almost literally be cut with a knife.  In any other situation Onew might have actually voiced that joke, but this was no time for Onew Condition – it was time for Onew the Leader to step up. 

Onew sighed, breaking the horrid silence that seemed so alien to their home.  All eyes him and the chair he was in squeaked in protest as he stood up and forced it to skid backward.  He put on a false smile and looked at Taemin, “I marked a few mistakes that you can work on now, and I’ll look the rest of it over in a few minutes okay?”  He held out the papers for the young dancer to take.

Taemin looked at Onew with questioning eyes, knowing that there was something going on in his head, but unable to figure it out on his own.  He was about to ask, but had barely opened his mouth before Onew jerked his head with a quick shake and simply placed the assignment in his hands.  “Just work on it okay?”

Onew looked up and met Jonghyun’s eyes.  The joking, gag-Onew was gone for now.  The laughter had left his eyes and the word-play-puns were left behind.  This was what they had jokingly called “leader mode” in the past and they didn’t see it very often, only when something serious had come up. 

Jonghyun visibly gulped and almost looked like he was going to bolt for the door again but Onew was too quick for him.  In a tone that allowed for no defiance, Onew told Jonghyun to join him in the bedroom because they had to talk.  When Jonghyun hesitated, Onew merely raised an eyebrow and pointed, but Jonghyun new that he could not disobey.  It would be like disobeying his father; at least it would broker the same feeling within him, which would just not do.

Jonghyun, head hung, shuffled into their shared bedroom, while Onew gave the rest of them a small smile that did not quite reach his eyes.  “We’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said, gave a small nod, and strode off after Jonghyun.  He closed the door behind him with a quiet but solid ‘click’ and left the remaining members to wonder about what was going to happen. 

The three shared a look between them that spoke of endless questions before Taemin shrugged and just turned to look at the corrections that Onew had made to his homework.  He couldn’t do anything about what was going on right now in that bedroom, so he would focus on something that was within his power to change.  Stiff-backed and tense, Taemin got to work on the math problems that he had screwed up and tried to fix something wrong in his life that was under his control.    

Minho and Key watched as Taemin resumed his focus on his work with the same intensity that he had before their farce was interrupted.  Minho found himself both impressed and concerned for the Maknae, for he knew that his “little brother” was probably more concerned than anybody as he had been the catalyst of all of this drama and was probably placing a lot of blame on himself right now for what was going on.  But Taemin never wanted to bother people; they even had to convince him to allow their help on his homework, so Minho knew that Taemin would never ask for his assistance or to talk anything out with anyone.  If confronted with it, the dancer would deny thinking that way, but Minho still knew that that was the case.    

A sigh from Key next to him drew his attention away and his saw Key sitting, completely drawn up into himself, knees under his chin and the heels of his hands pressed hard into his eyes – something Key only did when he was very stressed.  Minho patted his hyung’s shoulder, like he had done dozens of times before, but it didn’t seem to portray his feelings of comfort or understanding.  Rather, Key just shook his hand off without looking up.

Minho shook his own head; they didn’t want comfort right now.  They didn’t need someone to baby them and protect them from the world; they just wanted to know where they stood with someone that they both considered very dear to them. 

Minho looked at the wall, behind which he knew that Onew and Jonghyun were confronting this very matter away from their prying ears.  Please Onew, Minho thought, work a miracle in there.  Make him understand.

So there is chapter 11 - I almost cut it earlier, because there is a perfect spot to stop as Onew enters their bedroom, but I thought you guys deserved a longer chapter after the wait that you've had.

The next chapter will be completely from Onew's POV (which I haven't really done yet) and it is him in "leader mode" with Jonghyun.  I'm going to start writing it literally as soon as I post this chapter so it might be able to get up soon.

I'm wondering about the escalation with of tensions with their manager (which has to happen at some point) so if you guys have ANY ideas about things that could happen between the manager and them, or specifically Taemin (as he doesn't know about Key yet) please feel free to share them with me.  I have a few but I'm not sure if they will be that entertaining.  I do know the finally escalation though, and you guys might hate me when I write it, but it is something that will be based on what has happened to a friend of mine in real life so there will be no changing that.

Another side note: A while ago I said that I was interviewing for a job in Korea, well I have passed the interview!  Now I just have to get all the paperwork together and send that over to Korea and hope that they like everything and will offer me the job!  Come August I might be in Seoul!  Wouldn't that be cool?!