Chapter 2

To: Kim Jongin
From: Lee Taemin
Message: Hey dude, guess who’s visiting again?

Taemin sat in the back of his parent’s car, staring blankly down at his phone.  He didn’t want to move, and he’d made it very obvious to his parents that he didn’t want to.

“It will be good for you, Taemin,” His mother told him from the front seat. “And yes, you were thinking out loud again.”

Taemin groaned. He really needed to get some control over that.

“It won’t be good for me at all, mom,” he sighed, rubbing at his face. “All my friends are back in Seoul, my school, my doctor, everything is there! I don’t see why we’re moving back here after 11 years in Seoul.”

“The air is cleaner in Yeoju, son.” His father told him, watching him through the rearview mirror as he drove. “It will be better for your lungs not to get so clogged up with that dust and pollution.”

“I was doing fine. What about my friends? School? Doctor Park?”

“You have friends back in Yeoju, I know you do. What about Kai? You still text him all the time as far as I know, I bet he’ll be happy to find out we’re moving back after so long. Plus, you can enrol in his school and see him every day!”

“I’m free to leave school soon, I’ve almost graduated.”

“I know you have, but even so. You will have a new doctor who’s just as good. Don’t worry, Taemin, it will be great.”

Taemin slumped back into his chair, coughing slightly into his hand. They’d left quite early in the morning, so he hadn’t had his therapy yet. Despite hating it being done, he really felt the effects when it hadn’t been.

Taesun quickly turned to look at him. “Are you alright?”

The younger sighed, rolling his eyes. “I’m fine. Are we nearly there yet? I’m bored.”

“Not too long now, Minnie.” His mother smiled.

Taemin looked down at the phone in his hand as it buzzed. ‘1 new message!’ flashed up at him.

To: Lee Taemin
From: Kim Jongin
Message: Hmm… shot in the dark, but you? ;) How long are you visiting for this time?

To: Kim Jongin
From: Lee Taemin
Message: Too long.

Taemin frowned at his phone, slipping it into his pocket and staring out of the window at the scenery that flew past. After all, it was a lot less…built than Seoul was, it was still a city, but not as developed, not as much to explore and there was more grassy areas in it.

As long as they let him explore as much as he could, he’d survive. Hopefully, they lived near a forest or some Greenland that he could find places to visit inside.

“Ah, here’s our street!” His father exclaimed as the car turned, pulling down the street ahead before his father indicated he was pulling in by a block of flats. “Here we are, boys!” He announced happily, getting out of the car and putting his hands on his hips, staring at the large block of flats ahead of them. “Home sweet home!”

“It looks like a dump.” Taemin commented, earning a gentle elbow to the ribs from his older brother and a hissed comment to be polite.

“It looks great, dad, what floor are we on?”

“Apartment 405 is ours, so I suspect the 4th floor, it’s not too bad.”

His mother looked worriedly over at Taemin. “Will you be alright going up the stairs or do you want to go in the lift?”

Taemin gave his mother a glare, to which she put her hands up in defence. “Okay okay, stairs it is.”

They pulled their suitcases and bags from the boot of the car… their clothes and a few prized possessions was all they’d brought along with them, everything else having been sold to pay for the move. Again, Taemin wasn’t happy.

The climb up the stairs wasn’t easy, especially since Taemin hadn’t had his therapy yet today. His lungs ached, trying to dispel the mucus that was building more and more in his chest, trying to force coughs out of his mouth. But Taemin refused to give in, because if he began coughing, his mother and father would fuss over him, tell him over and over that it was a mistake to let him go up the stairs, that they should have made him go in the elevator to the fourth floor like some sort of…invalid.

He could walk, his legs worked perfectly, so he didn’t see a reason why he shouldn’t walk up the stairs alone.

By the time the small family had made their way up to the top floor, Taemin was wheezing desperately, trying to pull oxygen into his starved lungs, coughing and gasping in his attempts. He distantly heard his brother dropping his luggage and rushing to his side, smacking on his back to dislodge the mucus that was trapping his airways.

After a few hard thumps, mucus finally dislodged and escaped his mouth, landing a few feet in front of him on the floor of their new apartment. He began gasping in air, easier now that his lungs were slightly clearer, feeling his vision slowly clearing so the darkness faded away, his eyes now able to focus.

Taesun had his arm wrapped around Taemin’s chest, holding him upright firmly but being gentle while handling him, while his mother had both her hands resting softly on either one of his cheeks, rubbing gentle circles into the soft flesh and hushing him gently, her eyes slightly glossy with tears.

“Are you okay, baby?” His mother asked gently, wiping the few tears that had escaped Taemin’s eyes away from the strain of coughing and choking.

He gave a weak nod, too exhausted after the little episode to be snappy or embarrassed over the questions. He hated being treated like glass, but at that particular moment in time, he felt like he was made of it, felt like he was weak enough to shatter at any moment.

It was times like this where Taemin realised just how sick he was, and how sick he was always going to be. The fact that no amount of drugs, no cocktail of different medicines could make climbing up the stairs easy like it was for someone who was healthy.

“Okay baby, as long as you’re okay. How about you go unpack and then we’ll do your therapy, okay? Go and find your special inhaler too, it might help.”

Taemin nodded again, slowly finding his feet below him despite the shaking weakness in them, and slowly walking behind his brother, just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. He hated how badly the episodes affected him. One second he could be fine, feel like a million dollars, but the next he was curled up in a ball, struggling to breathe through the thick liquid that had built up in his lungs, shaking and weak from oxygen deprivation once it had finally expelled itself from him.

He tried to act all high and mighty in his every day life, like no-one and nothing could bring him down… but the truth was that things could bring him down. A flight of stairs had brought him down in mere minutes and he hated it.

“Taemin-ah…” Taesun started, grabbing Taemin’s attention as they made their way down the hallway. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

He nodded slightly, his voice slightly slurred and without any of the usual sarcastic bite he usually had when asked that particular question. “I’m fine, hyung,” He sat down on the bare bed, where Taesun placed his luggage carefully beside him. “Really, I’ll be okay. See you in a second?”

Taesun nodded slightly before leaving the room towards his own next door. Taemin was happy the two didn’t have to share a room at least.

He began unpacking, putting the small amount of clothes he’d bothered to bring into the wardrobe and chest of draws and laying out his prized possessions.

A picture of he, Taesun and his grandmother, a picture of he and his friends at their school dance… various pictures he had taken with all of his friends, even a few with Kai himself on the times where he’d visited his hometown.

Suddenly remembering, Taemin decided he better check his phone.

To: Lee Taemin
From: Kim Jongin
Message: Too long? What do you mean?? :S

Taemin sighed, rubbing at his head in annoyance… He really needed to break that habit.

To: Kim Jongin
From: Lee Taemin
Message: I may be here forever it seems.

He typed his new address into the keypad and sent it to his old friend before continuing to unpack his things, putting his several bottles of pills on the bedside counter. It made it look like hospital room with the bare walls, the bare covers and the pills everywhere… it just made Taemin miss his home back in Seoul more.

His phone buzzed.

To: Lee Taemin
From: Kim Jongin
Message: No way?! That’s my apartment building! I’m in 507!

Taemin’s eyes widened as he read the message. Kai was living as the same building as he was? His life may have just gotten a little bit brighter.

Finally pulling out his little inhaler, Taemin made his way into the main room. “Mom,” He called, frowning slightly as he looked at his phone. “Did you know that Kai lives in this apartment building?”

She grinned at him from where she was putting food away in the cupboards, wiggling her eyebrows at him. “I may have known that when I was talking to your father about getting his one.”

Taemin laughed slightly, giving his mom a grin of his own. “You could have told me, you know? That you knew he literally lived a floor above us.”

“Now where would the surprise in that have been? I wanted you to have something to cheer you up!”

He smiled slightly, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “Yeah, thank you…”

“Don’t worry about it, Taeminnie, I just want you to be happy. I know you didn’t want to move, but this will be better, okay? I promise you this will be better. You can still keep in contact with your friends in Seoul, it isn’t too far away after all. We’ll sort something out for you to see them.”

He bowed low. “Thank you, Mom, really, I’m sorry I’ve been such a brat recently.”

His mother put the tins she was packing away down, approaching Taemin and pulling his bowed head into her chest, nuzzling her nose into the back of his long, brunette hair. “Don’t worry about it, Minnie, really. I understand you’ve felt awful recently, so I don’t blame you for being short with everyone… just try to keep the formalities up here, okay? Not everyone we come into contact with here will be as knowing about your condition and how it affects your moods, so be nice…”

He nodded. “I will, don’t worry.”

“Now, when Taesun comes back from unpacking, you two get your therapy done, alright? You need to not have those sessions where you can’t breathe, they scare the poop out of us.”

Taemin laughed slightly at his mother’s choice of words, before grabbing a dining room chair and turning it backwards, sitting on it and leaning over to a bucket placed in front of him. His back still felt bruised from the nurse doing his therapy for him the day previous, but she was always rougher with him than his brother was.

Taesun made his way back into the living room, rolling his sleeves up with a small smile. “You ready  for this, Minnie?” Taesun asked, grabbing a stool and sitting beside his younger brother. The two brothers had always been close, there being only 2 years between them after all. Taemin gave a small nod in response to his brother’s question, wincing slightly as the rhythmic beats on his back began.

Five minutes into his treatment, his special inhaler clutched in Taemin’s hands, a knock at their apartment door snapped him out of his dazed, unfocused state that he often went into, his eyes slowly lifting to focus on the door as his mother answered it.

“...Kai?”