“This is Lee Taemin-ssi,” Shin said, introducing Taemin to his unwilling roommate, “he’s in your care now.”

            “Why do I have to take care of him?” Key asked. He pouted at Taemin. Taemin wasn’t used to this look. Usually, as Taemin had observed, Key used that fake smile on all the girls who followed him around. But at that point, he seemed genuinely put off. “Can’t he take care of himself?”

            “Taemin-ssi has frail health and needs someone to live with while he’s in university who can take care of him. You are the only certified paramedic in this dormitory, which is the closest one to most of his classes; therefore he is in your care.” Key frowned. Taemin looked up at him nervously, suddenly remembering just how much he missed Onew’s warm smile. “Well, good luck, Taemin-ssi, Key-ssi. Here are Taemin-ssi’s papers; I would look through them, Key-ssi, if I were you,” Shin said. “If you need me, go to the main office and ask for Shin Jongwoon-ssi.”

            “Thank you, sunsaengnim,” Taemin said as Shin left the room. He turned to his new roommate. “Sorry to impose, hyung.” He didn’t mean to call Key “hyung,” it just sort of slipped out. He felt like he already knew Key.

            Evidently, Key didn’t like the way Taemin had addressed him either.

            “Don’t call me hyung; we’re not familiar enough. Call me sunbaenim,” he spat. Taemin lowered his head. He’d hoped to become friends with Key.

            “Sorry to impose, sunbaenim,” he corrected himself, looking at Key with wide eyes. Key glared at him, looking him up and down. Finally, making an annoying noise, he turned to flip through the file of papers Shin had given him.

            “So what are you, a high school student taking classes here?” Key asked disparagingly. Taemin sighed quietly, knowing for sure that, like almost everyone else, he thought Taemin was younger than he actually was.

            “No, but I skipped a grade in middle school, so I’m ahead now,” Taemin explained. “I’m a freshman here. “Um, sunbaenim,” he said hesitantly, wanting to know where he’d set up his base, “which bed is mine?”

            “That one,” Key said, pointing to the messier, less-comfortable looking bed. “You can sleep on it like that or you can redo the sheets yourself. But don’t put my pillows on the floor.”

            Taemin didn’t like where this was going. He had so wanted to get Key to like him, to get Key to make friends, but it was hard when Key was so mean.

            “Hyung…thank you,” Taemin said. He tried to make sure that Key didn’t know he was getting to him already.

            “Call me sunbaenim,” Key warned.

            “Thank you, sunbaenim,” Taemin repeated. He had to push through Key’s sharp tongue, but suddenly he was missing Onew and his gentleness again. Before he knew it, and before he could stop himself, tears began to spill out of Taemin’s eyes.

            “Whoa, wait, why are you crying?” Key said spastically, hopping up from his chair. “Don’t cry, stop crying, I hate it when people cry.”

            “It’s just that, hyung is so nice to me!” Taemin said, struggling with overcoming Key’s nagging tone.

            “IT’S SUNBAENIM,” Key cried, and Taemin started bawling. He’d never missed Onew more than at that moment. But he knew he had to push through to get his plans to work.

            “Sunbaenim…is…so nice…to me…” he said through his tears.

            “Just…be quiet, okay? Stop crying, I have work to do,” Key said. He took Taemin by the shoulders, steered him towards the messy bed, sitting him down. Key went back to his desk. Taemin stopped crying and sat down at his own desk as well. He tried to study, but he couldn’t. He eventually drifted off to sleep.

            Suddenly he smelled something absolutely delicious. He woke up from his very uncomfortable sleeping position and whipped around, watching Key make himself some ramyeon. Taemin looked to see if there was any left, and he noticed that his bed skirt was tucked up underneath his mattress, revealing boxes upon boxes of instant ramyeon. Taemin was hungry.

            “Hyung, can I have some?” he asked, letting “hyung” slip out again. Key opened his mouth, but Taemin corrected himself right away. “Sunbaenim, can I have some?” He made his pleading face that always worked on Onew.

            “I don’t have any more,” Key said, turning his nose up haughtily. Taemin was surprised to hear such a blatant lie, but he really shouldn’t have been. He was going to overcome Key’s meanness.

            “But I found tons of them under my bed!” Taemin said, hopping over to his bed and pointing at the boxes he’d found. Key sighed, and Taemin heard the exasperation in his voice. It wasn’t going to be this easy to manipulate the Almighty Key, was it?

            “Fine, just take one then,” Key said exasperatedly.

            “Thank you!” Taemin said. Taemin prepared the ramyeon himself, knowing full well that Key wouldn’t do it for him. He sensed Key watching him for a few minutes before sighing heavily and turning back to his work.

            Several hours later, Key had wordlessly started getting ready for bed, and Taemin took that as a sign to do the same. He put on his favorite Keroro pajama pants and the oversized t-shirt that he’d stolen from Onew before he left.

            “Aren’t you like seventeen years old internationally?” Key asked, looking at Taemin’s outfit with disdain. “Shouldn’t you be wearing something less childish?”

            “This is childish?” Taemin asked, suddenly insecure. Was he childish? “But I like it!” He looked at Key’s gray wife-beater and black pants. Maybe he should dress more like Key. “Should I wear something more like yours? Do you have anything I can borrow?”

            “No, you cannot borrow my clothes,” Key said. “Just go to bed.”

            “Okay, hyung,” Taemin breathed. He didn’t really want to wear what Key was wearing at all.

            “Sunbaenim,” Key corrected him.

            “Okay, sunbaenim,” he said. Key turned off the lights and climbed into his bed, and Taemin did the same.

            He should have redone his sheets. And perhaps he should have brought a blanket with him as well. It was incredibly cold. Sleeping in a cold bed reminded him of that time in the hospital, where everything felt cold even if it wasn’t.

            “Stop fidgeting,” Key hissed, and Taemin flipped around.

            “Hyung, I’m cold,” Taemin whined, hoping that maybe Key would take pity on him.

            “It’s sunbaenim. And too bad, I don’t have any other blankets.”

            “Sunbaenim, I’m cold,” Taemin repeated.

            “I just told you, I don’t have any other blankets,” Key said.

            “I’m cold though,” Taemin persisted, on the verge of tears. He absolutely couldn’t stand being cold. It gave him horrible nightmares about the accident.

            “There’s nothing I can do about it! Why can’t you understand?” Key cried angrily. “Let me sleep!”

            “H-hyung,” Taemin said. Key opened his mouth again, but Taemin continued. “Onew-hyung.” He found himself missing Onew again. Whenever he was cold, Onew would always take him into his bed and wrap his arms around Taemin’s shivering body, singing him a lullaby that would make Taemin fall asleep right away. But Onew wasn’t there.

            “What?” Key asked, interrupting Taemin’s train of thought.

            “I miss Onew-hyung.”

            “Who?”

            “Nobody, hyung, you don’t want to talk to me,” Taemin said stubbornly through chattering teeth.

            “Sunbaenim,” Key said. “Just tell me who this dude is. I’ll listen.”

            “I’m cold,” Taemin said, an idea forming in his head. Key sounded extremely curious. Maybe this could work.

            “What do you want me to do then? I seriously don’t have any other blankets and I’m sure as hell not going to give you mine, because then I’ll be cold too.”

            “Onew-hyung let me sleep with him when I was cold,” Taemin replied.

            “I’m not Onew-hyung,” Key said.

            “Come on, just tell me who he is.”

            “I’m too cold,” Taemin said. Key heaved a sigh.

            “Fine. Bring your blanket.”

            “Yay!” Taemin cried, once again successful in his endeavors. He hopped into Key’s bed and snuggled up into both blankets.

            “Thanks, hyung, ah, I mean, thanks, sunbaenim!”

            “Okay now, hurry up and tell me who this guy is so I can sleep before I change my mind about letting you in my bed.”

            “Onew-hyung…he was like my appa.”

            “What happened to him?”

            “He’s studying abroad right now. That’s why I’m with you next semester.”

            “You said he was like your appa? How long did you know him?”

            “Oh, I lived with him ever since my parents died, so…” he counted on his fingers. “I guess it’s almost seven years now.”

            “Your parents…I’m sorry,” Key said, suddenly sounding kind. Taemin guessed that it mean that his aegyo was working. “So that’s why you’re here.”

            “Yup, but it’s okay; it’s been a long time. I don’t really remember much from before then because of the amnesia from the accident. I hit my head!” he giggled, pointing at his head and going completely overboard with his cuteness.

            “I can tell,” Key said gruffly. Taemin chuckled to himself and closed his eyes, knowing that he was finally getting to Key. “So when the semester is over you go back to him, right?”

            “Yeah,” Taemin said. “I go back to appa!”

            “Excellent. So I have to last until May with you. It’s the beginning of January. Oh boy,” Key sighed.

            “Thanks for taking care of me, hyung,” Taemin yawned, snuggling closer to Key.

            “It’s sunbaenim,” Taemin heard Key say as he drifted off to sleep.

A/N: Yup so this is where Things I Never Knew I Wanted officially started. Now you get to see Taemin's point of view! I know a lot of the wording is exactly the same, but I did change the things that were necessary. 

I've decided to update this story on Saturdays and Wednesdays, same as Things I Never Knew I Wanted, and I'll update my new Exo fic, Simple, every Monday and Thursday. And of course I'll update 366 every day.

Guys! Talk to me on tumblr. 

@AmythystJade: Kekekeke that gif is cute, right?

@AsianNoodles: Yup! Of course. I love making friends~

@naznew: :) Yay.

@AlmightyShawol123: I already replied to you but I cannot thank you enough! <3

@citylights: AW YAY I'm happy :)

@myYEOBOisDJ: Aw that makes me happy, thank you!

♥ Exie