Age 5

“Taeminnie~”

“Minho hyung~”

Taemin was not going to let his hyung win. Definitely not. There was no way he was going to allow Minho hyung to catch him, even if his Minho hyung was taller and faster. Taemin just had to focus all his energy on his legs, and he’d be fine. He’d be able to get away and hide and his hyung wouldn’t find him. And then tomorrow morning when they got up, it’d already be too late. His hyung would’ve missed his chance, and he’d be free. It couldn’t be too hard right? He just had to be really quiet when he hid, and really fast.

Taemin did not want to take a bath.

He wasn’t dirty anyway. He didn’t play much outside today, and when he did, Key umma cleaned him up right away. So why did he have to take a bath now? He didn’t think it was necessary. He had a bath last night anyway. How dirty could one get in one day? Plus, bath time meant sleep time, and Taemin did not want to go to sleep. He wasn’t sleepy at all. He wanted to stay up and play some more, or watch more Pokemon. There was a Pokemon marathon going on right now and he was missing it because Minho hyung was trying to make him take a bath!

Officially, baths were evil. Anything that got in the way of a Pokemon marathon was evil. A monster in it’s most basic form.

Which is precisely why he couldn’t take a bath. Baths were evil monsters, and he couldn’t just willingly give himself up to an evil monster. Much less one that interrupted his favorite show. Nothing anyone could say would get him into that bathtube.

“I’ll give you extra banana milk if you take a bath.”

Except maybe that.

“Hyung~” Taemin whined. “Not fair!”

“How is that not fair? I think it’s a perfect trade. It’s simple really. Banana milk, or no banana milk. You choose,” Minho hyung said. His hyung really knew how to get to him. This was a losing battle. His hyung had probably planned this from the start. His hyung had clearly gone to the evil side and joined the bathtub in making his life so difficult. But what could he say? Banana milk was his kryptonite. His ultimate weakness!

“It’s not fair hyung! What about Pokemon? W-What if Ash is in a battle right now and.. And we’re missing it! Hyung! We can’t miss it!”

“Well, if you’d taken a bath earlier like I told you, you wouldn’t be missing that battle. So, how about you take a bath now, so that you don’t miss another one?”

“Baths are evil hyung.”

“Taeminnie, please just get in the bathtub.”

Taemin grumbled a bit and pouted, crossing his arms. He really didn’t want to do this. It was already bad enough he was missing a battle. What if his hyung made him go straight to sleep after that? He couldn’t allow that! The Pokemon were waiting for him! But there was clearly no getting out of this. Minho hyung had already cornered him.

No, Minho hyung was already picking him up and holding him over his shoulder, giving him no choice but to go to the bathroom. He really didn’t like how big and strong Minho hyung was sometimes. It simply just wasn’t fair. You don’t see him going around, picking people up and throwing them over his shoulder. Then again, he was still too small to do that. The point was he was being carried around like some rag! He would not stand for this. He would get his revenge.

But how was the question. Would Minho hyung fall for any of his tricks? He doubted it, but it was worth a shot right? In the end, he would get his Pokemon marathon and banana milk. No problem right? So long as that water was nice and warm, there would be no problem. He’d take his bath, get his revenge, get his banana milk, and watch the marathon. Plus, Minho hyung would get what he wanted, and get to watch the marathon with him. It was a win win situation. Nothing about it could possibly go wrong.

They made it to the bathroom, and before Taemin could even think about running when Minho hyung put him down, his hyung closed and locked the door.

There was really no getting out of this. Evil bath. Evil hyung. Evil banana milk for being his weakness!

“Already Taeminnie, arms up,” Minho hyung said. Taemin complied, but the pout never left his puffed out cheeks, and his eyes narrowed. He was not happy, not in the slightest. “Now now, don’t pout. You’ll be happy after you’re done. You’ll be squeaky clean and I’ll even let you stay up later since it’s Friday and the Pokemon marathon is still going on.”

Okay, that was enough to make the pout go down a little. Not fully, but just a bit.

“Can it be a bubble bath?” he asked. Minho hyung smiled and nodded, having already taken out a bottle of bubbles. His shirt was lifted and pulled over his head, before Minho moved to turn on the water, making sure it was warm enough and letting it fill the tub. Bubble baths were enough to make the pout completely go away. “Hyung, you should join me.”

“You want to take a bath together?”

“Yeah! That way we can play more games and it’ll be more fun!”

Minho hyung chuckled, giving his consent before removing the rest of Taemin’s clothes and lifting him up into the tub. Once the bath was full and Taemin was in, he added the bubbles, splashing his hands around a bit so that the foams would form and fill the tub. Minho hyung followed soon after, getting in on the other side of the tub. Luckily, it was big enough for the both of them, not that Taemin took up much space. Minho hyung took up most of the tub because of his long legs.

“First you need to wash up, then we’ll play, okay?”

Taemin wanted it to be the other way around, but he knew he didn’t have much of a choice. “Okay hyung.”

He let Minho hyung take the cloth and wash him, cleaning under his arms and his tummy. His favorite part was when Minho hyung would wash his hair. Minho hyung always played with his hair and he loved the feeling of it. Minho hyung was always so gentle. A nice, gentle giant.

And then Taemin got curious again, just like he always did. He had noticed this a long time ago, but he always got distracted and forgot to ask. It wasn’t his fault there was always something just waiting to take his attention, like banana milk, or Pokemon, or puppies. He really liked puppies, and he wanted one. Would Minho hyung let him get one? They were so cute! How could he say no to it? It just wasn’t possible. Besides, Key umma always said Jonghyun hyung was like a puppy, so if Jonghyun hyung was let in the house, why couldn’t they have a puppy?

He was getting distracted again! He shook his head, going back to his previous thoughts.

“Minho hyung, why do you have squares on your tummy?”

Minho hyung looked thoroughly confused, looking down at his stomach to see what Taemin was talking about. As far as he knew, he had a normal stomach, nothing out of the ordinary, much less squares. Maybe he had gotten a cut out stuck on him when he and Taemin were doing arts and crafts earlier?

“What squares?” Taemin moved closer and put his hand on his stomach, tracing the lines of his abs, and that was when Minho finally understood. Taemin had been wondering about his abs, those were the squares. “Oh, those aren’t squares Taeminnie. Those are abs.”

“Abs? What are those?”

“Abs are something you get when you work out a lot.” Truthfully, Minho couldn’t imagine Taemin with abs, but anything was possible right? Taemin moved his hand away from Minho’s stomach before placing it on his own, a pout forming on his lips as he let a huff escape him.

“I don’t have abs hyung. I want abs.”

“Not everyone does. Jonghyun hyung does, but Key doesn’t.”

“What about Onew hyung?”

... What about Onew? Minho actually had no idea if Onew had abs or not, he’d never seen them. Onew was always covered up. Jonghyun didn’t show his off much, but he had no problem saying that they were definitely there. He had stumbled upon Key once when he was changing–he regret it dearly because Key kept yelling at him and hitting him–and knew for a fact that he didn’t have any. Key hated sweating, there was no way he would work out to get abs. The most he would work out was lifting his shopping bags, and most of the time he just made Jonghyun do that for him.

But Onew was sneaky. No one had seen his stomach. He was strong yes, so Minho assumed that he did, but then again, there were strong people that didn’t have abs. Onew could be one of those people.

“I have no idea. How about we find out though?”

“How?”

That was another good question. How indeed?

“Well, he is a heavy sleeper. We could always sneak into his room while he’s sleeping and check.”

“Okay! Let’s do it hyung!”

The questions ended and the continued with their bath, occasionally joking around here and there. At one point, Taemin splashed him, and how could Minho not respond to the declaration of war? It was Bath War One for them, and both sides were splashing frantically, trying to beat the other. At one point, Taemin picked up the bucket and was able to gather a bunch of water to throw at his hyung. It was the battle of the century! Needless to say that by the end of the battle, the floor was covered in water. No actual treaty was signed, but they agreed to peace. The rubber ducky soldiers fought long and hard, and peace was declared between the sides.

They played sea monsters instead. Minho was the ship, and Taemin was the monster. His ship was just casually floating, minding it own business, the fishermen all peaceful. Then, out of nowhere, a sea monster appeared, roaring loudly with his sharp teeth bared and claws at the ready. The crew screamed, pleading for mercy, when Batman appeared to save them!

“Hyung! Batman can’t just do that! He doesn’t have his plane!”

“He can do magic now?”

“No no hyung. Batman can’t do magic.”

Minho huffed but complied, putting Batman away and pulling out Superman instead.

“Better?”

“Much.”

The battle continued, Superman flew around his enemy, trying to confuse him. He fired his laser, causing the monster to scream in pain. A few punches and kicks, and the monster was knocked out–Taemin leaned dramatically on the edge of the tub. The crew cheered and thanked Superman for his work, and the ship continued on peacefully, the sea monster now unable to attack them ever again.

“I still don’t understand why Batman couldn’t fight the sea monster.”

“Because we’re in the middle of the ocean hyung. Batman can’t fly. Superman can.”

The games continued until they had no choice but to get out, their hands getting wrinkly. Taemin actually kind of liked when his hands were wrinkly. It felt cool touching them when they were like this. They dried off, changing into their pajamas before heading the to tv, turning on the Pokemon marathon that luckily had not ended yet. Just as promised, Minho had given him a bottle of banana milk, and he sat snuggled into his hyung’s side, Onew hyung and Jonghyun joining to watch Ash and his friends on their quest to be a Pokemon Master. Key umma refused, saying that he had better things to do. And in all of this, Taemin had completely forgotten about getting his revenge.

It was the middle of the night when his Minho hyung had woken him up. He was very much confused, and still half asleep when he was forced out of bed. Minho hyung had practically dragged him down the hall. He had absolutely no idea what was going on, but he was sure he was going to find out soon.

“W-What are we... what are we doing hyung?” he mumbled, struggling to complete his sentence in his sleepy state.

“We are going to find out if Onew hyung has abs or not,” Minho whispered to him. Taemin nodded, half remembering their conversation in the bath some hours earlier.

They ended up at Onew hyung’s door, and Minho put a finger over his lips, signalling for him to be quiet. Taemin imitated his signal and nodded, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with his little fists before yawning. Slowly, they pushed the door open, careful not to make too much noise. Taemin clung to Minho, because it was very dark, and he didn’t like the dark. They couldn’t turn on any lights and risk waking everyone up, so his eyes had to adjust to the dark a bit.

The krept into the room, tip-toeing slowly, careful not to trip on any of the clothes on the floor. The stood the edge of Onew hyung’s bed, looking at their hyung who was laying under the covers. Luckily he was on his back, so this would be easier for them.

“I’ll list the covers, you lift his shirt. Okay?” Minho asked, his voice as quiet as possible. Taemin’s hands were at the ready, waiting for his hyung to do his part. The blankets were slowly removed, no at their hyung’s hips before he reached over, carefully lifting his shirt. Because he couldn’t really see much of anything, he lightly placed his hand on his hyung’s stomach feeling around for a bit before looking at Minho and shaking his head.

Minho nodded back at him and they left, putting everything back the way it was before going back to their own room and going back to sleep. Though the sleep had gone away a bit, it was slowly come back with every passing yawn that escaped his little mouth.

“Minho hyung, why doesn’t Onew hyung have abs? He’s strong right?” He’d seen Onew hyung break a walnut with his finger. Needless to say that he ran whenever Onew hyung threatened to flick his forehead. What if his head ended up like the walnut?!

“I blame all the chicken,” Minho said. Taemin giggled quietly before snuggling up against Minho hyung’s chest and letting one last yawn slip out.

“Night night hyung.”

“Night night Minnie.”

Short chapter. Sorry guys. I was running low on ideas for this one. 

Well, Taemin is finally growing up! Don't worry. I'll still be as cute as ever. Taemin is always cute, even now. 

So, I'm off! I need to get started on that new oneshot called "Home" and the new chapter of "Those Unspoken Words."

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!

PLEASE COMMENT and tell me what you think!

Bye bye~