“Hyung! Taemin hyung’s stomach hurt,” Kai shouted while he descended the stairs to enter the kitchen. He rounded the corner to see his big brother Key and his so called "friend" Amber working on breakfast.

Key stopped washing rice immediately and looked at him concerned. “He is? But he was fine when he came home last night.”

Kai grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and shrugged. “You should ask him, hyung.”

“No, he didn’t seem fine to me. He walked stiffly as if he was trying to hide his discomfort. I didn’t want to pry so I didn’t ask,” Amber added while she continued cutting strips of beef for a stew.

“Why didn’t you say something?” Key complained before wiping his hands off and heading up the stairs.

Amber apologized by kissing Key on the cheek before getting back to work on the food. Kai picked up where Key left off.

Kai felt bothered by his brother’s late night entrance the night before and wanted to talk to someone about it. He figured Key's "friend" would be as good as any.

“Say, Amber-ssi, do you think hyung and his friend got in a fight if he left him alone on his first night back after three days in Seoul?”

Amber stopped what she was doing and thought hard on the matter. The three of them were there when Taemin suddenly turned up near midnight and he just went straight to his room after greeting them. She did feel something off about his disposition but preferred to leave him alone. Now that Kai asked though, she didn’t know for sure. “It could be something as simple as bad food or constipation and he didn’t want to be around because of the smell, maybe nothing like that happened.”

“Oh.” Kai nodded, but still didn’t feel completely satisfied by that suggestion. Another thought came to him though and he decided to ask. “Wait, do you think hyung can suffer from constipation?”

Amber watched him thoughtfully. “Why wouldn’t he be able to suffer from constipation?”

Kai started setting the timer on the rice cooker. “Well, he’s gay.”

Amber still didn’t get it. She stopped what she was doing to look at Kai. “So?”

Kai stared back at Amber. “Well, when you think about how gay people have , do you think they’ll ever suffer constipation?”

“KAI !.....” Amber was taken aback, she had no clue.

Neither one did.

XXXXX

“Taemin-ah?”

Through the door Taemin could hear his brother's knock while he called out his name. “Come in!”

The man entered with such a worried expression on his face he wanted to tell him he was fine. Key’s the type of person who would act like they were dying from a mosquito bite. While he sat up on the bed with his legs crossed, Key sat beside him and felt his forehead.

“I heard your stomach hurts, do you know why?”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine in a few hours, don’t worry about me,” Taemin chuckled, trying to dodge the subject.

Key stared at him. “Did Onew make his chicken sup too spicy last night? You came home rather late so if you ate late your stomach....”

Taemin laughed. “No, hyung. We didn’t eat late and it wasn’t too spicy, he made it perfect as usual.”

“Well, do you need to use the bathroom?”

Taemin grimaced as a bolt of discomfort shot through his lower body. He rubbed his stomach. “No, that’s not it.”

Key sighed. “Taemin?”

He looked at Key, worrying as usual. “Why did you come here so late last night, did you and Onew have a fight? I swear I'm going to smack that-”

“No, that’s not it either.”

“I’m here worrying about you, please tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON. You told me he came back from a three day visit to his father in Seoul last night, so why wouldn’t you spend the entire night with him? Something isn’t right here.”

Taemin sighed. “It’s nothing for you to worry about, we didn’t have a fight. I just need some rest.”

After agreeing, Key hesitantly left his room. Taemin sighed and plopped down in the bed, wishing he was with Onew but not wanting to be at the same time. His boyfriend was too much sometimes.

XXXXX

Still worried and in no way placated, Key left Taemin's room and went down to his. He pulled out his cell phone and dialled Onew’s number immediately.

“Hello Hyung, is Taemin alright?”

Onew asking about his brother’s welfare first and foremost warmed his heart, but not long enough for him to forget why he called. “Hello, Onew. He says he is, but I need to know why he left you in the middle of the night to come here. Did you two get in a fight?”

“No, we didn’t,” Onew supplied hurriedly.

“His stomach hurts, you didn’t hit him, did you?”

“It still does? No, hyung, I didn’t touch him to hurt him, it just happened that way,” Onew answered.

Key became alert.He really wanted to know what was happening with his brother. “Then explain to me so I can stop worrying since you know what the problem is.”

Onew’s voice became low. “If Taemin finds out I told you...”

“I won’t tell him. Now Spill.”

Onew sighed on the other line. “I was too excited after three days without him, hyung. I really didn’t want to do it like that but I couldn’t help myself. He left after I was about to...”

“Oh.” Key said when he realized exactly what he was implying. He was happy it wasn’t something more serious, but he didn’t know what to make of the situation. “Well... can you ..... go easy on him next time? God is this awkward!”

“Yes, hyung. I just wish he would come home now. He doesn’t even want to stay in the guests room.”

“I don’t blame him,” Key chuckled and Onew laughed.

“I don’t want him to leave me alone again so naturally I’ll stop. Please convince him to come home, hyung. I beg you.”

“I...see what I can do. Hang up now.”

“Bye.”

After the conversation, he made his way to the kitchen to put on a kettle of water to make some root tea for Taemin. He passed Amber, Kai and Baekhyun sitting at the dinner table having a steaming cup each. The food was simmering on the stove.

“Key-hyung, you don’t have to, we made you some,” Baekhyun said while pointing to another kettle on the kitchen counter.

“This is not for me, it’s for Taemin,” he answered.

“Taemin’s here?” Baekhyun asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh, did you find out what’s wrong with him ?” Kai asked.

Key smiled. “Just a regular stomach ache, he’ll be fine.”

The other three nodded in acquiescence.

XXXXX

At sometime around mid-day, Onew went to answer a knock on his door. He was surprised to see a disgruntled Taemin standing there, but happy none-the-less as the man barged into his apartment.

“Welcome back.”

Standing akimbo, Taemin scoffed. “Do you know how embarrassed I was that my hyung was begging me to have leniency on you for that. I wanted to kill you at that moment.”

Onew smiled. “Well, you’re here and that’s all that matters.”

He walked over to his discontented boyfriend and hugged him gently.

“Do you know how much you seem to fit into my family right now? Even more than me, stop making them like you.” Taemin complained.

“Well, I really like Key-hyung and I don’t like keeping things from him. When he called I couldn’t help myself but to be honest.” Onew kissed Taemin along his neck and his sensitive boyfriend shivered underneath him.

Taemin sighed. “He said you promised.”

“I promise,” Onew answered. The mood was good. “Is your stomach better?”

“My hyung can fix any ailment,” Taemin admitted with a smile.

Onew smiled when his lover wrapped both hands around his waist. “Let’s go have a glass of wine in bed. I didn’t finish telling you about the time spent with my little sister.”

Taemin felt relaxed. “Fine, let’s go.”