Chapter 3

Kai came barrelling over to his friend, not bothering to slow when he saw that Taemin was in the middle of his therapy, before diving onto Taemin, knocking him off the chair and onto the floor, barely missing Taesun.

“Taemin-hyung!” He exclaimed, holding him tightly. “You’re here again!”

Taemin coughed slightly, wiggling his way out of his friend’s grip. “Yeah, I’m here Kai... and a little busy right now, do you mind?”

Kai stood, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as he put his other hand out for Taemin, pulling his old friend to his feet. “Ah, right, lost control of myself for a second there… you look great though!”

Taemin frowned as he stared at his friend as though Kai had grown another head, sitting himself back down on the chair although he didn’t really want to continue the disguising therapy with his friend watching him. “I look great? Jongin-ah, I just got out of hospital yesterday.”

“Exactly! You look amazing with all things considered!...and don’t call me Jongin.”

Taemin laughed slightly. “We can catch up soon, okay? Just…let me get done with this… do you want to go wait in the kitchen with my mom?” He offered, looking visibly uncomfortable as Taesun rested his large hands back on his brother’s back.

Kai frowned. “Why? Are you alright?”

“I just don’t think you really want to see the gunk that comes out of me, the therapy isn’t pretty…”

Kai shrugged, sitting on the floor beside Taemin’s backwards kitchen chair. “Oh well, I’ve seen it all before.”

“Yeah, when we were 6…”

“Your point?”

Taemin sighed, shaking his head as he leant forward again, rolling his eyes. “Fine fine, if you’re sure.”

Taesun began his rhythmic pounding on Taemin’s back again, once more dislodging the thick gunk of his lungs and forcing it out of his body into the bucket.

Almost another half hour had passed before Taesun sat back with a sigh, massaging his hands. “How’s that?” He asked with a smile, resting his chin on Taemin’s shoulder to look at his baby brother’s face.

Taemin took a deep, steady breath, enjoying the feeling of his clear lungs after the issue he’d had not long before. “This is great, hyung, thanks.”

“I didn’t hurt your back or anything?”

Taemin shrugged a little, his back ached and felt bruised, but it pretty much always did. “No more than normal,” he commented, getting to his feet and giving Kai a small smile. “Wanna come to my room?”

Taesun laughed slightly. “Don’t get up to any funny business in there, alright, Taemin?”

“Hyung!” Taemin exclaimed, eyes wide in shock. “I would never!”

“I know, I know, go ahead.”

Taemin huffed, turning his back on his older brother and grabbing Kai’s hand, pulling him into the too plain bedroom that he’d just unpacked his stuff into. “It’s not too much right now and it’s a bit of a mess, I’m sorry about that.” He sighed, sitting down on the white sheets.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kai commented with a smile, “You’ve just moved after all. So…” He trailed off, looking around the room. “Your brother’s comment, he knows then?”

Taemin sighed in response. “Unfortunately, yes, it was kind of hard to keep hiding it from him when he walked into my room to find me getting it on with the British exchange student.”

Kai high fived Taemin with a grin. “Dude! The one you sent me a picture of? Right on, get in there!”

Taemin laughed slightly  at his friend’s response. “Yeah, Harry was cool… he sort of lost interest in me though, so nothing else really came of it.” Kai frowned, looking slightly offended that someone had lost interest in Taemin.

“How could someone lose interest in you?”

“That would be because he found out I was sick and I wasn’t going to get better. He didn’t want to ‘deal with it’ and his friends were convinced that he was going to catch it from me.”

“That !” Kai suddenly exclaimed, standing up. “You can’t catch Cystic Fibrosis, and you can’t lead someone on only to drop them when you find out that they’re sick! That’s unfair!”

Taemin laughed nervously, pulling on Kai’s arm. “Sit down you idiot, it’s fine, I’m alright, really.”

Kai grumbled as he sat down, crossing his arms in annoyance.

“So…” Taemin trailed, picking at a loose thread on his pillowcase. “What have I missed?”

“You’ve not lived here for 11 years, Tae, you’ve missed a lot.”

“Now now, what did we say about sarcasm?”

“Sorry, sorry… well there is this new teacher…” Kai started, staring up at the ceiling. “He’s called Lee Jinki, he’s our new Korean Literature teacher. He only started working here at the beginning of the year, but he brought his brothers and their friends with him so they’re in our classes… Choi Minho, Kim Kibum and Kim Jonghyun… I think Kibum is his brother, Minho is his cousin and Jonghyun was Kibum’s best friend so he came too.”

Taemin frowned slightly. “That sounds interesting, why did they all come with him...?”

“I have no idea, Taemin, no idea.”

-------

Taemin walked through the school yard, rage bubbling in his stomach as he clutched onto his backpack.

He was sick of it, he thought that moving would bring a change… but nope, everyone still treated him like he was going to shatter at any given second. The teachers were terrified to even touch his shoulder in case he broke under their fingers, the students kept their distance and the head teacher was constantly coming to check on him, asking if he was alright every single lesson.

He had his medication, he had his special inhaler with him, he was fine. He didn’t need a body guard or someone with him at all times.

Well, Kai had decided he was going to be with him at all times, but somehow, Taemin didn’t really mind that. It was nice to have someone who actually knew their way around the school with him.

“What have you got now, Taemin-hyung?” Kai asked, practically skipping beside his friend as they walked. Kai was just as happy and jumpy as he had been 11 years ago when they were 7.

“I believe I have lunch right now, then I have…” Taemin pulled out his timetable, checking the words printed on the crinkled piece of paper. “Korean Literature…”

Kai’s eyes widened. “Dude, me too!” He exclaimed, sitting down next to Taemin at a table. “Who with?”

“…Lee Jinki,” Taemin read, remembering what his friend had been telling him the night before.

“Dude, he’s my teacher too! We have almost exactly the same time table, this is great!” He laughed, before climbing to his feet again. “I’m going to go grab some food, I’ll be back in a second, okay?”

Taemin nodded, watching as his friend hurried off while pulling out his lunch from his bag. He was on quite a controlled diet due to his illness, so he wasn’t allowed to get food from the canteen. His diet was quite simple, it couldn’t have too little fats in his food otherwise he would begin losing weight since he didn’t absorb the calories well, so he had to be quite careful with what he ate… so instead he was sat with a little pot of Kimchi and rice, hating the world as he saw people around him with much more elaborate, unhealthy and tastier meals.

“Hey there!” An unfamiliar voice said as a body dumped itself beside him. “I’ve not seen you around before! I’m Park Chanyeol,” He was told, a hand instantly in front of him to shake. “You’re Kai’s friend, right? Oh, sorry, I mean Jongin… well, whatever you want to call him!”

Taemin nodded slightly, reaching out to shake Chanyeol’s hand. “Yeah, I’m Kai’s friend… Lee Taemin.”

“Nice to meet you, Taemin-ah!” Chanyeol grinned before pulling out a box with sandwiches in it.

“…sandwiches?” Taemin asked with a frown.

“Ah, yeah, my mom’s been adventurous recently, we’re on a ‘no rice’ diet, which I’m hating by the way! Oh well, it means I get meat on my bread instead…”

Taemin nodded slightly, a bit taken back by how happy and friendly Chanyeol appeared to be.

“Chanyeol-ah!” He heard someone else exclaim, three more bodies dumping themselves around his table.

“Suho-hyung, Baekhyun, Sehun-ah!” Chanyeol grinned. “Here, this is Lee Taemin, he’s Kai’s friend!”

Sehun scoffed slightly into his chopsticks. “Friend? Kai doesn’t have any friends.”

“I resent that!” Kai huffed as he sat down beside Taemin, holding a tray of food and two bottles of water, one of which he handed to Taemin. “I have more friends then you, Sehun!”

“Yeah yeah, whatever you say.”

“Where’s Kyungsoo?” Kai asked with a frown, looking around the crowded room and seeming to not notice that Taemin was feeling extremely uncomfortable surrounded by people he didn’t know.

“I have no idea,” Suho replied, shrugging into his coat. “I think he said something about going to a singing lesson in our lunch hour, no idea why though, it’s not like his voice is going to get any better, it’s already too good to be true.”

“Oh hyung, let him have this,” Baekhyun laughed, opening up his own food while Taemin took a sip of his water.

“Kai, I’m going to go to class, alright?” Taemin finally spoke up after 15 minutes of having no clue what was going on around him.

Kai frowned, looking worried. “Why? Are you feeling alright? There’s still ages until we have to be in there!”

Taemin smiled weakly. “I’m fine, I just want to meet the teacher and explain everything so I don’t have to do it in front of everyone later. I’ll see you in a bit, alright?”

Kai nodded a little, seeming to feel uncomfortable with the thought of Taemin being around school without him next to him, but turned back to his friends to continue the conversation.

Taemin vaguely heard Chanyeol ask “Explain what?” as he walked away.

-------

Walking to the classroom he’d been assigned, Taemin quickly realised that the teacher wasn’t the only one in the room. He heard hushed voices coming from behind the classroom door as he stopped in front of it, furrowing his brow and listening. Of course, he didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he didn’t want to interrupt an important conversation if it was one…

“He’s here now, I’ve seen him around.”

“Maybe so, Kibum, but we can’t just pounce on him and try to pull him into our lives instantly, he needs time, especially to get used to the area.”

“Key! It’s Key, not Kibum, damn it Onew.”

“Fine fine, sorry Key. But even so, he’s going to be on edge and confused for a while, so we can’t just pull it out of nowhere.”

“It’s not exactly going to be an easy conversation no matter what time we talk to him about it. What will we do? Walk up to him and go ‘oh hey! I know people say it’s not possible, but we’re angels and we’ve literally come here to stop your death or take you to the after life, one or the other, let’s wait and see shall we!’ We can’t exactly do that, can we?” Another voice scoffed.

“Jjong, we won’t be telling him that brashly.”

“I don’t see why we’re here at all,” Another voice that Taemin didn’t recognise spoke. “It’s not like we can change anything. Why didn’t we just come when he dies?”

The first voice, Onew, spoke again. “It’s not that easy, Minho, I don’t want him to die.”

“No-one wants anyone to die, hyung, but there’s nothing we can do.”

Taemin had heard enough confusion for one day, so gently knocked on the door, pulling the group inside out of their hushed conversation. “Come in?” Someone called as Taemin slowly opened the door.

The teenager walked in, bowing slightly as he did so. “Hello, I’m Lee Taemin, I’m a new student in your class next lesson, I thought I’d come introduce myself beforehand to prevent any embarrassing questions happening in front of my classmates.”

Inside of the room, four men stood. One of them turned, walking towards him and bowing back. “Hello there, Taemin, I’m Lee Jinki, I’m the teacher.” Taemin recognised him as the one the others had been called Onew, but decided to say nothing on the matter.

The second man came forward, bowing himself with an eyebrow raised. “Kim Kibum, but just Key will do. I’m your classmate.”

“Choi Minho,” The tallest smiled, while the shortest stepped forward.

“Kim Jonghyun, nice to meet you.” He smiled at him. “We’re all your classmates, apart from Jinki-hyung of course.

Jinki stood taller, coming out of his bow. “You’re the new student who has a health issue, correct?”

Taemin nodded slightly, his chest swelling slightly in hope that the teacher didn’t seem to be pitying him. “That’s right, I have a problem with my lungs.”

Jinki smiled at him. “I see, well if you have any problems, let me know. I’m sure you’re sick of being coddling you, so just come to me if you need me.”

Taemin grinned, liking this teacher already. “Thank you,” He bowed, before going and taking  seat by the window.

The small group went back to talking, very obviously on a different topic than the angelic one previous, keeping their tones hushed and stealing glances at Taemin every now and again.

Taemin felt his chest tighten, his time not with hope or happiness, coughs beginning to force their way out of his mouth.

Crap.