It was now fall break; only a week, but Taemin was grateful nonetheless. He could catch up on some much needed rest, hang out with friends that he was never able to get the chance to hang out with; he could do whatever he wanted, so as long as his mother would approve. Which would probably be impossible considering she kept him on a tight leash; even though, he was old enough now.

“Mom, he is only taking me to a movie with some of our other friends,” Taemin sighs in annoyance, following his mom around as she cleans. “It’s that new movie with that famous American actress, the one that Kibum hyung and I have been talking about.”

“Your father is coming home this weekend,” she replies flatly, cleaning the shelves from dust. “He expects that all three of us be home for all three days. I even called Taehoon down too.”

“Hyung didn’t even come down for your birthday; he sent a card and a cheap bottle of perfume. What makes you that he will come to see dad?”

“I don’t know, Taemin, I just believe he will come. And no more asking about going to see that movie, I already gave you my answer.”

“But-“

“No buts, Taemin,” she says firmly, moving onto the kitchen to start dinner. “Now come set the table and then go up and clean your room before your father arrives. I don’t want anything annoying him this weekend. You know what happened last time.”

“Why do you think hyung left?” Taemin mumbles, following her to the kitchen to grab the right amount of plates and silverware. He then walks back into the dining room and plates a plate and silverware in front of each chair, “I mean, I would have left too if I were him.”

“Don’t you say that, don’t you ever say that! Your father loves your brother, despite how he may show it. He would never hurt him or you for that matter.”

“Yet he did, mom, really bad, and I don’t mean just physically. He hurt him emotionally too.”

“Well, he shouldn’t have made him angry. I mean, what do you expect your father to do when he is told that his eldest son wants to be a beautician?”

Taemin jumped at the slamming of the door and looked over to see a fuming Taehoon. He dropped his bags and just stood there with tears his eyes, “Mom…”

“Hyung,” Taemin breathes, both regret and surprise overwhelming him. “I… I didn’t think that you’d come.”

“Yeah, well, I just wanted to see if a year would’ve changed anything. You know, see if dad hated me any less than last year.”

“Taehoon?” Their mother calls out softly, placing the hand towel that she carried down on one of the chairs. Before she has a chance to say anything else, or take any steps further, he turned and quickly ran upstairs, slamming his door shortly after. She turned back to look at Taemin and frowned, “he heard what I said didn’t he?”

Taemin nods slowly, “everything it seems.”

•

Taemin stood outside Taehoon’s door with a bottle of water and a cold ham sandwich. It  was too late to eat when their father came home, so their mother put everything away and told Taemin that he and his brother could eat something light before they went to bed. Fortunately, their father was too jet lagged to even utter a single hello, so both of their parents ended up going to bed early without any dinner.

As for Taemin, he was too worried about Taehoon to eat anything, and brought him up some food instead.

He knocked on the door softly and waited for any sound of movement before opening the door and going inside Taehoon’s room. He shut the door and made his way over to Taehoon’s bed, setting the water and sandwich down on the bedside table.

“Hyung,” he says hesitantly, nudging at the mountain of blanket, “I brought you a sandwich; a ham sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and that dressing that you like.”

“I’m not hungry,” he replies, poking his head out from under the blanket. “That was a waste of bread. I heard that bread products prices went up over here.”

“Only a little bit because of the season I guess, but you still have to eat something.”

“Would it be too childish of me to ask if you could lay with me like when we were kids?”

“That wouldn’t be childish at all,” Taemin answers, climbing into bed after Taehoon makes room for him.

•

“I heard that you go to school with Kibum now.”

Taemin looks over at his older brother and smiles contently, nodding his head slightly, “for a bit over two months now, it’s like an American school. At least that is what Kibum hyun told me and also mom.”

“Do you like going to school with him, despite his nagging,” Taehoon asks, rolling over on his side to face Taemin. “He isn’t causing you to get in trouble is he?

“No, actually, it’s the opposite. I’m causing him to get in trouble.”

“How so?”

“Making him skip gym and hang out on the roof top with me,” Taemin says smugly, earning a light punch from Taehoon. “Ouch… I was kidding. I only skip gym. I really hate that period.”

“You are dead if the school calls mom to tell her about it,” Taehoon says, trying to act very serious, only to burst out into laughter immediately afterwards. “Who am I kidding? You probably don’t even get caught.”

“Not really. I hang out in the bathroom until study hall. They never suspect anything that way.”

“You are such a bad influence, Lee Taemin. I ought to stop hanging around you so much.”

•

It really was just like it was when they were kids. They stayed up until the crack of dawn, filling each other in on what has been happening in each other’s lives, and laughing at how badly they sounded like a bunch of girls they way they were acting. But they honestly didn’t care. Their relationship was more than just your typical brothers, they were each other’s best friends, and nothing could change how happy they made each other when they were together.

Except their father; who still didn’t agree with Taehoon’s choice of career.

By the time Taemin made it downstairs for lunch, Taehoon had appeared to have left, and his mother sat on the couch, holding ice to her reddened cheek. He looked outside to find his father’s car missing and no signs that he was coming back.

This left Taemin utterly confused with what in the hell happened in the matter of the few hours that he had slept and he didn’t think that he would ever know, not right now at least.

Author's note:

If there are any spelling errors, or grammical errors, I will re-read this chapter, and fix it later.

I still haven't decided what Taemin's father is exactly, but I will try.

I also used Taehoon instead of Taesun because well.. i don't know. It's didn't feel right using taemin's real brothers name so I just changed it a bit.

There is a lot I wanted to say but I can't remember. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask. It might jog my memory about what it is that I forgot hahaha.

Thanks for reading and subscribing~