"See! I told you al it wouldn't go bad!" If none of the members had seen Taemin breaking down before, his smile and bubbly attitude would have easily fooled them into thinking nothing was wrong. Yet they had, and they knew. It was all just an act.

"You had one of your worst attacks yet!" Kibum tried to protest it, but Taemin shook his head at the diva quickly, before he was even finished.

"That would have happened no matter where I was. And it isn't that bad. I'm used to them already." He turned to the manager in the front seat now, putting on a pleading look with his smile. "Can I continue with activities? Please?"

"I'm not done talking to you mister!"

"But umma!" The whine was much like a little kid's and it got all of them smiling. Taemin won the fight with just that and turned back to Jin. "Please?"

And even though the members were all looking at him in the mirror telling him to saw no, Jin decided their anger was worth making Taemin happy. "As long as you are careful. Just do like you did today and tell someone when you don't feel well."

"But he didn't tell anyone!" Jonghyun jumped forward to accuse the boy, but they all could tell it was because he cared. "All of us were scared out of our minds when he started hacking because we had no idea!"

"I told Jinki-hyung!" It they hadn't been in a car, it was almost definite Taemin would have stamped his foot against the ground to drive in his point. "I didn't feel well so I told him right away..."

"When did that happen?" Three glares the leader, but the chicken-lover held his hands in the air in surrender.

"Right before he started coughing. He did tell me and I just didn't have time to react at first." He rubbed the head of the maknae sitting next to him, ruffling the hair of the boy who allowed it. "If he hadn't told me, do you think I would have been so calm?"

None of them had an answer to give back to him, knowing it was true.

The next day, Taemin did not want to get up from bed at all. He had slept longer than ever before, from almost immediately after they got back from the recording and through the night and day until it was almost dinner. But he didn't even have to open his eyes to know he was still tired. But he had to get up, so using all of his will-power, the maknae finally sat up in his bed and looked around the pitch-black room. Anything that made light at all was off or covered by something, yet he didn't know if that was on purpose or not. And all the blinds were closed and stapled together. Who staples curtains? Kibum-umma would kill whoever did that...

Waking up had brought him new feelings as well. He hadn't quite realized it laying down, but his whole body hurt like he had never felt before. Just moving made his stomach do flips, yet he still got up and shuffled across the room to the door. Someone had been nice enough to change him from the day clothes he had fallen asleep in, but there wasn't much time to think about who when he opened the door and was hit with the smell of an almost-finished dinner. Three people sat in the living room oblivious to him walking out and Kibum was busy running around in the kitchen, but they all knew Taemin was out of the bedroom the second his pounding feet were heard on the ground as he rushed down the hall to the nearest bathroom.

Before any of them even reached the doorway, the sound of a stomach being emptied into the toilet hit their ears and all of them grimaced, but still went to help. Jinki went to tell them he would handle it, but before he even could, Kibum snuck right past him and into the bathroom. Crouching beside the boy hunched over the porcelain throne, he wrapped an arm over shaking shoulders and rubbed his back in comforting circles until the boy was done and then some. After a few minutes of making sure the end was really the end, he flushed the contents of Taemin's stomach down and helped the boy sit properly on the floor, running water for a cup and even preparing his toothbrush for him. "Are you feeling a little better now Taemin-ah?"

There was a weak nod and "thanks" as the two things were taken from him and Taemin didn't even seem to really be paying attention as he scrubbed out his mouth and then stood with Kibum's help to spit into the sink. Only as they walked out did both of them realize the three others were still standing there, having watched and heard the whole thing. Taemin gave a small smile, too weak to do much else, as he was guided into the living room and seated on the couch. "I'm going to finished making dinner now, okay?"

"You guys don't have to act like I'm going to break..." His voice was weak even as he protested their treatment of him and gave up right as he realized that, sitting back into the couch. "Okay umma."

"Good boy." There was a pat on his head before Kibum returned to the kitchen, leaving him in the living room with Minho, Jonghyun, and Jinki just standing there and looking at him.

Anyone could have seen the worry in their eyes. But Taemin didn't want that, not even the slightest. "Aren't you guys going to sit back down? The game is back on..." They listened and sat, but none of them were paying attention to the game. Taemin at least tried to act like he was, but that was hard with three stares on him.

For minutes, they just sat there in silence until a head came out from the kitchen. "Dinner's ready!"

Taemin watched them stand like a machine and go through the motions of every other day they had dinner, but now he wasn't a part of it, just an outside piece with no job other than to look pretty. The table was set without his help and if he tried to do anything, it was taken from him by any one of the four so that they would do it, leaving him just standing there. Every single time he took something, it was taken from him in seconds.

"Will you all just stop this already!?" His voice took on a screech-like quality that had everyone freezing in the room. Attention was on him in less than a second, standing there with the water pitcher, as if ready to throw it on them. Minho stepped forward reaching for it as they had with everything, but Taemin pulled away before he could grab it, eyes aflame as he looked at all of them. "Stop acting like I can't do anything! Like I'm a broken doll!"

"Taemin, listen..."

"No, you listen, Jinki." There was no honorifics, no formal or polite speech as he spoke, something he had never done to his hyungs before without it being a joke. "All of you listen! I don't need to be treated like a child that can't do anything! Other people already do already act like I'm the weakest thing on the planet, just because I'm sick. I was thinking I would be able to come back here with you guys and be free of the babying, but you continue to do it worse than the others! I hate it! I hate that you all think I am weak, that you all think you have to do everything for me because I won't be able to." He was panting, turning pale white as he struggled to breathe, but he flinched away from any of them that tried to touch him for comfort. "I'm not dying! Stop acting like I am, or I won't stay here anymore! I'll find somewhere else where I don't get this. It only makes me feel worse..." His voice wasn't so strong anymore and his hands were shaking the pitcher, sloshing the water out a little. "Please..."

He placed the pitcher down on the table before walking out of the room, leaving the four behind in stunned silence. After a few seconds, there was a slam or a door that shook the whole apartment. The dinner that followed was relatively silent, and one chair was completely empty the whole time.

Taemin never came out from the room.

"Taemin-ah, can I come in?" Jonghyun was slumped on the ground by the door to what was supposed to be his room as well, but was mainly Taemin's by now. There was a muffled reply, but he never heard any foot steps to unlock the door. "Please? I have to talk to you."

Finally, he heard steps softly pad to the door and the click of the lock. When he opened the door, Taemin was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, eyes bright red from obvious crying. "Lock the door behind you." And Jonghyun did before he walked until he was a few feet away from the boy and sitting. He only got a confused glance before the maknae slid closer to him and laid his head down on the elder's lap, closing his eyes almost immediately after he did.

"Are you tired?" A little hum answered him and he took it as a yes. "Then I'll make this quick."

"If it's about what I said earlier, I already forgive you guys. I was never really mad..." Taemin's mumble was a little hard to understand, but with how close they were, Jonghyun got every word of it. "I just was upset in the moment. But I know where you guys are coming from with it..."

"We all talked about it though..." Jonghyun began running a hand through the younger's hair, only to stop when a little more than the normal amount came out with his hand. He didn't let it show to Taemin though, making a little ball of the hair and stuffing it in his pocket to throw out later. "None of us realized we were really doing it, but we can stop if you want..."

"Can you do that again? Running your hand through my hair? It felt nice..." It was as if he felt Jonghyun's hesitation to do it again and gave a small smile, still keeping his eyes closed. "I know my hair is starting to fall out. You don't have to worry about scaring me with it." Now the dino lifted a hand to begin again, going softer than he had before though. "You guys don't have to stop if it makes you feel better... It doesn't really matter to me. I just haven't felt good today and then all of you watched as I got sick and I could tell all of you were worried and all and it just all added up on me. I exploded over something that had never mattered before."

"But do you want us to stop?" After a minute without a reply, Jonghyun finally looked down at the boy to realize he was asleep in his lap. With a little smile, he lifted the small body effortlessly and carried him across the rom. After tucking the maknae into bed, Jonghyun turned around to leave again, only for a frail hand to clamp around his wrist.

"Please... Stay."

It was just sleep talk, but Jonghyun gave a little smile as he sat down on the ground next to Taemin's bed, rubbing the hand grasped around his hand. "I'll stay then, Taemin-ah." And as if the boy had heard him in his sleep, Jonghyun got a smile from him.