When he heard the front door be shut slowly, Onew, otherwise known as Jinki, looked up from the novel he was reading in the living room. It was well past midnight, with what he thought the youngers all in bed and drifting to a well-deserved night off before the next week of schedules.

Blinking, Jinki tilted his head slightly. He had made sure all of them were sleeping before he camped out in the living room, quickly becoming addicted to the novel he was reading and forgetting that he too needed some sleep.

"Who's there?" He couldn't help but ask, putting the book down carefully and walking toward the door, where Minho walked in, holding onto his left shoulder. Jinki didn't even wait a moment and ran forward, seeing the blood stain that Minho was desperately trying to hide.

Minho turned and dodged Jinki easily, walking off toward his room as if the pain was nothing, but then stopped in the middle of the hallway and glanced to where the elder had been earlier, "Why aren't you asleep yet?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Came the elder's quick retort. Letting out a sigh and shaking his head, Minho continued walking, and knowing that the younger wouldn't want to talk about it, Jinki stood rooted in place with a hand out, as if he were going to grasp onto the back of Minho's shirt and refuse to let go.

Was he alright? How did he get hurt? Would he need Jinki to look over the wound to make sure he wouldn't need stiches? The questions were lodged at the back of his throat, just begging to be asked, but Jinki held them back and dropped his shoulders when he saw Minho retreating into the room he shared with Taemin.

He tried to go back to reading the novel that had interested him before, but was too lost in his thoughts, trying to recall any recent strange behavior emitted by the younger male, but if Minho had been pulling such stunts as this, Jinki was never there to witness them.

Jinki must have drifted off with the book sprawled on top of his chest, because he was awoken by Jonghyun, who was shaking him in an ungentle way.

“Seriously, hyung. If you’re going to read, do it during the day, because every time you read at night, you end up sleeping here, and then you wonder why your back is getting weaker.” Jonghyun pulled Jinki off the seat before plopping himself down, leaving the distorted elder to shake his head as he tried to absorb what just happened.

“Good morning.” Was all that slipped out of his mouth, and Jinki made his way toward the bathroom to start the day’s process. However, the second he got to the bathroom door, it had opened, and Minho stared at him calmly, his eyes piercing through Jinki. It was obvious that Jinki shouldn’t mention what he saw around the others, but he still felt so much worry after seeing the younger’s state, that he couldn’t look Minho in the eye as he slipped past the younger and all but slammed the door on him.

“Hyung, you’re taking too long in there.” That was Taemin’s tired voice, waking Jinki from his thoughts. Jinki had been brushing his teeth but his mind suddenly drifted back to the way Minho had been looking at him earlier, and Jinki didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Should he be a good leader and confront him in front of the other members? Or should he be a good hyung and silently let Minho finish whatever he was doing?

Quickly, Jinki stumbled out of the bathroom and dragged his feet to the kitchen, where the other three were sitting around the table eating a breakfast prepared by Kibum. Taemin had slipped into the bathroom the second Jinki had made enough space for him to do so, and when he sat down at the table, he could feel Minho’s eyes on him once more.

“Why are you staring at him?” Jonghyun asked skeptically, and Jinki slowly looked between the two youngers before fixating his gaze on Minho.

“Hyung looks tired.” Minho said simply, and Jonghyun and Kibum both deemed the answer to be appropriate.

“It’s true, hyung.” Kibum sighed, shaking his head, “You’ve been taking on too many schedules, and you’ve been sleeping a lot less. It’s not good for you if you keep it up, you know. If your eye bags get any bigger, you’ll be the new panda of SM entertainment.”

Jinki nodded, feeling like a scolded child as he lifted his coffee mug in his hands and took a small sip of it, “I’m sorry, I’ll try to sleep more.” He held some bitterness toward Minho, who had brought attention onto the unsuspecting leader, but when he looked up at Minho, the eyes of the younger were sincerely worried, looking into his own.

Taemin walked into the kitchen then and grinned sleepily as he sat down, “Good morning, hyungs!” He sat next to Jinki and rested his head against the leader’s arm, knowing he wouldn’t push the younger away. The elders were all used to Taemin’s attachment to each of them, and didn’t argue when he did such things, anyway.

Looking down at his watch, Jinki couldn’t help the small sigh from coming out of his lips. The youngers all had a day off, but as leader, Jinki couldn’t afford to lag behind and slow the other members down, so he carefully pushed Taemin off before standing and walking to his room. He could hear the sound of another chair being moved, but chose to ignore it as he continued walking.

“We need to talk.” Minho had somehow managed to get into the elder’s room right before the door was shut, and mind-blown, all Jinki could do was stare at him in curiosity, “What you saw last night, you can’t tell anyone.”

Jinki couldn’t help but get a bit frustrated as he crossed his arms, “Well, then maybe you should tell me exactly what happened.”

Minho groaned as if he had expected to be asked that statement and sat down on Jinki’s bed with his head in his hands. Then, slowly, Minho looked up at Jinki and Jinki could clearly see that the younger was exhausted and in pain.

“I can’t tell you, hyung.” Minho said, shaking his head and then making sure he wasn’t looking at the elder, “Maybe I’ll be able to tell you someday, but I really can’t tell you now. So please, don’t tell anyone, and don’t ask any more questions.”

“Is it illegal?” Jinki asked, bracing himself for an answer. If Minho answered saying that it was illegal, Jinki would definitely tell their manager what he was getting into, but Minho didn’t even look up, instead having his eyes glued to his lap.

“It’s not illegal.” And Jinki pretended to believe it.