Yes you have Taeminnie! We're back from our...two-day hiatus...! Hurray! Extra long chapter for you awaits oh my faithful reader! XP

Onew woke up to the same thing that woke Minho, Key screaming.

“Aish~” He muttered with his eyes still tightly closed, irritated that Key had to wake him up so early in the morning by being so noisy.

He forced himself to crack his tired eyes open and nearly jumped a foot in the air when he saw Taemin’s body next to him, still sleeping, Onew’s blankets pulled up to his chin.

“Holy-“Onew couldn’t help himself, clutching his heart. He had forgotten that Taemin had slept in his room the night before.

He chuckled slightly to himself before gently shaking the maknae awake.

“Taeminnie…wake up.” He called softly, sitting up and leaning over to shake him harder.

“Onew-hyung?” Came Taemin’s sleepy voice.

The younger boy sat up, making Onew move to the side so he wasn’t hit. Taemin’s hair was all over the place, dark bags sat under his eyes and he looked confused.

“W-what time is it?” He mumbled.

Onew yawned. “It’s…” He leaned over Taemin once again to see the time.

“…it’s freaking five in the morning!” He grumbled, now really annoyed that Key had woken them up so early. They didn’t have schedules till nine today! This was their first time in forever that they'd gotten the chance to sleep in!

Taemin seemed just as pleased as he was, scowling at the clock.

“Ugh!” Onew cried, falling back onto his bed with a huff – and cracking his head on the head board of his bed in the process.

“Aigoo~!” He whined, holding his head.

Taemin turned around, his eyes wide.

“Bwoh! Hyung! Are you okay?” He asked, concern in his voice. The both of them were now fully awake.

Onew felt tears well up in his eyes.

“A-pa~ that really hurt,” He grumbled.

“It was supposed to, hyung.” Taemin said smartly, blinking innocently.

Onew stared at him, surprised that Taemin could be so witty in the mornings, then his eyes crinkled at the sides and his lips turned into a smile, and he started laughing. Taemin joined in with him and it was the best feeling Onew had ever felt. It felt like the world had been lifted off his shoulders, just by laughing; it felt like everything that had happened recently had just blown away – never to be seen again and it was nice.

But it didn’t last long.

Minho threw the door of the room open, too worked up to knock, his eyes wide.

Onew’s laugh died in his throat upon seeing Minho’s face, and Taemin’s died a second or two later, not realizing the intensity of the situation.

“Hyung? What’s wrong?” Taemin asked, taking the words out of Onew’s mouth.

Minho gulped.

“…J-Jonghyun’s gone.”

Onew sat up like he’d been struck by a lightning bolt.

For a second, Minho felt his heart beat faster upon seeing the vacant look on Onew’s face, thinking maybe his friend and leader had gone into shock, but then was relieved when Onew looked at them all, and after a couple of long seconds, finally spoke, his voice calm but radiating worry, concern and stress underneath that no one but the people that knew him well would pick out.

“…Was this the only letter he wrote?”

Key, who was being comforted by Taemin, wiped his eyes on his pajama sleeve and sniffed, shaking his head no.

“There’s one for each of us.”

Minho swallowed.

Why did you have to do this to us, hyung?

“Let’s look at them all, then.” He said quietly.

Everyone silently agreed with him, Key detaching himself from Taemin’s arms to get the other three letters.

When Key returned with the letters in hand, Onew and Minho were seated on the couch, Minho staring at his hands and Onew silently, absently running his fingers through Taemin’s hair, whom had seated himself on the ground between the two, his head resting on Minho’s knee.

Key, who had forced himself to stop crying long enough that his eyes had almost returned to their normal white, gave the letters to each respected member – his already open.

Taemin sat up upon receiving his and glanced at them, as if asking permission.

“You open yours first, Taeminnie.” Minho said quietly. “Read it out loud, please, so the rest of us can hear.”

Taemin nodded and ripped the envelope open, revealing a hastily written note inside.

The maknae cleared his throat and began to read:

“’Taemin-ah,

You know, this feels really funny, writing to you all. I haven’t had to write a formal letter in a long time – because that’s what email is for right? And texting? Kekeke. It’s kind of fun, it’s making me think of those old movies and stuff. Anyway, I probably shouldn’t be joking in such a serious situation. I’m sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye to you, to any of you, but…I couldn’t risk the chance. You guys would have convinced me to stay and that wouldn’t have been good for any of us.

If you ask me now…why I’m leaving…I won’t have an answer, because honestly, I have no freaking clue. I just had the feeling I should, because it’s better off if I’m not pulling you guys down, getting you in trouble. I could get you fired today, for my stupid outburst yesterday, and I didn’t want to be around to watch your dream to dance and sing for everyone in the world,  blow up into a dust and get caught by the wind, you chasing after it forever, not able to reach it again because the wind is just too fast and you can’t keep up. I would hate myself, for ruining all your dreams for my mistake, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.  So I guess that would be my reason, to not watch the four of you go down because of me.

Taemin, I wrote this letter to you specifically, so I should probably say thank you first.

Thank you for everything, Taeminnie, my little dongsaeng, my maknae, my mushroom head. I’m sorry I’m calling you by all the little cutesy names, but hey…I might not be able to call you those again, besides it’ll be fun to annoy you one last time, right?

I want to thank you for everything you’ve ever done for me, and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Thank you for making my days brighter, for making me laugh,  for making me smile, and for being there when I need a hand or a shoulder to cry on. Thanks for the memories, Taem. I appreciate it a lot and I’m so glad I got to meet you. You have so much talent…you’ll go really far, farther than SHINee, one of these days and I’ll be rooting you on the whole time, going: ‘Yeah! That’s Lee Taemin! That’s my brother!’

Because we are brothers, in a way. Just the last name and the blood issue…

Anyway, I know you’ll achieve greatness in your lifetime. You’ll meet a really pretty noona and have baby Taemin’s (you’d better name one after me ^^) and you’ll be happy!

I loved being able to help you with your homework when we first debuted, hanging out with you when we didn’t have schedules, singing and dancing alongside you, laughing with you, teaching you how to sing better, listening to you play the piano, and teaching you how to be uber Y when you’re posing for pictures! (like me! Kekeke ^-^)

But yeah, I don’t have much time, so I’ll leave it here, even though there is so much more I want to say.

I love you, Lee Taemin!! Take care of yourself and the others! Make me proud! Eat healthy and work out more!

~Jonghyun

(P.S. Um…you remember that phone you lost a couple years ago? …Well…it’s under my bed. I found it there a couple weeks ago. What where you doing under my bed? Never mind. I probably don’t want to know. OH! And…take care of Roo and my Kibummie for me, okay? They both will get lonely without me…) ‘”

Taemin set down the paper after he was done reading.

It was quiet for a second or two, before Key broke the silence.

“’Take care of Roo and my Kibummie for me okay?’” He quoted in a voice sounding almost exactly like Jonghyun’s. He snorted, though it was a half-hearted attempt, for he was smiling. “How dare he put Roo before he puts me…”

Minho looked up at him and smiled slightly, acknowledging and appreciating that Key was trying to lighten the mood.

No one had noticed that Taemin’s hands were shaking horribly or noticed that the maknae was crying silently until he managed to choke out a couple of words.

“It feels like he’s died.” He whispered, balling his hands into fists. “He’s making it sound like he died! He’s not planning on seeing us again!”

The three remaining members of SHINee were left speechless. Taemin rarely ever cried so it took them a second to comprehend what was happening.

Without really knowing how he got there, Minho found himself on the floor, hugging Taemin to his chest and letting the boy cry into his shirt, his small frame shaking with suppressed tears. Onew sat hopelessly from the couch, wishing that he could comfort Taemin more, and Key was kneeling beside the two younger members of SHINee, rubbing circles on Taemin’s back comfortingly.

“Why did he leave us, hyung!” Taemin asked Minho, his fists clenching the front of the rapper’s shirt.

“I don’t know, Taemin-ah, I don’t know.” Minho whispered, his own voice choking with emotion.

Key had started crying again while comforting Taemin.

“Jjong left me,” Onew heard him whimper once.

Onew placed his head in his hands with a sigh, putting pressure on his eyes, trying to relieve himself of the second headache that was trying to form.

Jonghyun…why did you have to do this to us? Don’t you know that we’ll get in far more trouble now that you’ve left? Don’t you know that we’re suffering more because you’ve left than we are with you here? Don’t you know that, even if we do get fired, that we could always go to another company? That we’d solve the problem together? As a team? As a family?

Hello again everyone :D I'm really sorry for not updating the past two days, so I made up for it with a longer chapter than usual. I tried to incorporate a little more humor into this chapter, mainly between Onew and Taemin in the first section, but also a little bit with Key. I'm sorry if the letter sounds...Un-Jonghyunish, I didn't really know how to write a letter like that which would portray Jonghyun's feelings like that but still be completly HIM, he doesn't really seem to be super serious all the time XP It's kind of hard to write him serious. It's kind of like...not writing Taemin as CUTE or Key not being Diva-ish, or Onew not liking chicken, or-or Minho not being uber Flaming Charisma! So yeah, I tried to put un-serious Puppy Jjong in there a little bit just so we're not like: "OMG, who is this person? It can't be Jonghyun!" But yeah~ anyway! Do you like the new poster I made earlier today? It's nothing special but it'll have to do for now, until I figure out a way to make a better one XP All I really did was find a good picture of Jjong (which really fit with the story I think, 'cause he's looking kind of sad), find a picture of Onew (I really like that picture of him ^^ He looks so serious!), layer it, then put that picture (I'm not sure if you all have seen it yet) of Taemin with his hands bound:

I

I think it fit with the whole Escaping concept, right? Hands tied?

Anyway, once again, I'd really appreciate any more ideas for the story XP I'm kinda running on a red light here...not really sure what I want to do next, I'm just winging it now. 

Thank you so much for reading/subscribing/commenting! It makes my day! :D