A/N: I'm officially back from my trip! Whoohoo! I'm updating this chapter again - since before it was all screwy. I've changed a few tiny details in the part with Taemin (Happy late birthday by the way baby Tae! :D ...Or really...NOT so baby Tae. I was at my grandparent's house when it was his birthday, with no internet, so I couldn't make a video for him like I usually do for his birthday. So instead, I'll dedicate this chapter to him! Hurray for being 20 in Korea!) but they're not really important parts so if you've already read the chapter, then it won't really change anything. I don't have the next chapter planned yet (sad, yes...) so I'm not sure when I'll update next. Hopefully sometime soon. 

Update: I would like to thank SHINeeRoxx from EXOTIC GROUNDS Poster And Review Shop for this amazing review!  here 

Seriously, I didn't think that I would get that great of a review~! I was literally dancing around my cousin's house, I was so happy. So thank you a bunch! The reason this is an update is because, before AFF had that big crash, this chapter had been updated with this thanks on it but got deleted. TT_TT So I'm thanking them again~! :P 

---

Taemin couldn’t stop the tears from flowing, despite how hard he tried to keep them in, when he exited the stage and saw the banners showing Jonghyun’s name and the words “Get well soon!” from the corner of his eyes.  He heard Jonghyun’s name being shouted from the crowd too, but couldn’t understand the rest since they were currently in Taiwan.

He hated that they had to lie for the company’s sake. He hated that the fans had no idea that Jonghyun was gone and they they’d never see him again.

He wanted to tell them all so badly, because he hated lying, but he knew he couldn’t. They would possibly stop supporting them or get so mad at the company that they refused to buy anything related to SM – which would affect everyone under their label, not just the big shots of the company.

Taemin hid his tears just long enough to step under the cover of darkness the backstage offered. He let his tears flow freely then, not even bothering to hide them. He was too busy trying to stop them to notice that the others were doing pretty much the same. Key was full out sobbing. Onew was trying to put on a happy face for them, thanking the staff and the stage crew for their support, but the tears where in his eyes too. Minho was shaking, clenching his fists. He was faced away from Taemin’s sight, so Taemin wasn’t sure if he was or not, probably not though. He had never seen Minho cry. It felt weird even thinking about it.

Taemin felt Key throw his arms around him from behind and he turned and launched himself into the older boy’s arms, desperately needing a hug. He knew that Key needed his comfort too, so he rubbed his back and told him it was going to be okay.

Why is this so hard?! We’ve done a bunch of concerts without him!

Then he realized why. This was their first concert when Jonghyun wasn’t sick. This was their first concert truly without him.

Taemin clung to Key tighter; in lung-full's of shaky, shuddering air. He tried to calm himself, but it didn’t do him any good. He just kept crying.

They stayed that way for several minutes, drawing comfort from one another. The stage crew was almost done pulling the microphones and background for the stage down.

He didn’t even notice that Onew had gone back onto the stage again, tears streaming down his face now too.

His return made the fans squeal again and they clapped, yelling his name, which was what made Taemin look up from Key’s shoulder and step away, confused.

Key was confused as well, wondering why Taemin had stepped away. Before Taemin could answer Key’s questioning gaze, Minho slip to a running stop next to him, his eyes wide.

“What is hyung doing on the stage again?! Did something happen?”

"What?! Why?! Did he forget something? The security are already thinning out from the stage to make sure nothing happens outside, where the fans are! What if he gets mobbed by fans?!"

Taemin hurriedly shook his head, frowning as he answered Minho's question. “No, no. I don’t think anything happened…He probably would have told us if anything did." 

“Quick, let’s get to the TV!” Key cried while taking a hold of Taemin’s wrist and dragging him towards the small monitor displaying the stage live.

They arrived just in time to see their leader take a cordless microphone that hadn’t been taken off the stage yet from a member of the stage crew, who looked confused. They watched as Onew bowed to the young woman. He looked to be apologizing.

The fans, those of them who hadn’t had the chance to exit the auditorium yet, were still screaming Onew’s name.

Taemin and Minho shared glances.

What in the world was he doing?

Onew bowed to the fans next, several times actually, smiling and waving. He waited for them to quiet down before he made his announcement.

Taemin could see Onew’s hands shaking as he opened his mouth and spoke his mind.

“Jonghyun! If you’re watching this: Get better soon! We’re waiting for you. We’re waiting for you to come back and join us on stage again! Feel better! I love you…and I’m sorry – that you’re sick. Geez…for once, I’m in better health than you are!” Onew laughed through the tears Taemin was only able to see for a second, due to a bright flash of light from one of the stage lights shifting ever so slightly as whoever manning them bumped against it.

Taemin could read the message in between Onew’s words and his eyes welled up again. He hugged Minho’s arm. The older boy smiled sadly at him before wiggling his arm free of Taemin’s grasp and putting it around his shoulders, hugging him to his side.

“Fighting!” Onew finished, and then hurriedly bowed to the cheering audience who echoed his speech. He raced back behind the curtains, forgetting to return the microphone to the lady he had snatched it from.

Taemin turned his head and saw Onew making a big scene with the curtains, struggling to close them. Taemin would have laughed if the time were more appropriate, but all he could do was look at the trembling form of his leader. It was no wonder Onew could not close the curtains; his hands were shaking so badly that it would be nearly impossible to do so.

Taemin bit his lip, traveling the four long strides to Onew. He stood behind him for a second, watching him, then hugged him tightly around the waist.

Onew’s whole body racked with giant, hiccuping sobs that both sounded and looked painful.

“It’s okay, hyung. It’s okay.”

Onew continued to cry, not even noticing the presence of Minho and Key.

Key pulled Taemin away from Onew after a while, tears in his own eyes, and told him that they needed to head to the van.

Taemin reluctantly allowed himself to be dragged away, seeing Minho take Onew in his arms and guide him outside.

Before they stepped out into the cool air, having exited through one of the back doors so they weren’t mobbed by fans, Taemin heard Onew ask Minho quietly “Do you t-think he he-heard me…? D-d-do you t-think he cares?”

Taemin eagerly awaited Minho’s response, as did Onew, but the second youngest stayed quiet for a long while, thinking over his answer.

“Yes, hyung, I think he did.”

If Onew realized that Minho had only answered the first question, he didn’t say anything about it. He kept quiet and allowed himself to be led to the van.

Once they were seated, it was silent, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Taemin debated between himself on whether or not he should try and comfort Onew or not. He didn’t want to bother Onew – he wanted to give him his space if he needed it, but he wanted to be there for him too if he wanted it.

He rose from his seat beside Minho and squished in between the small space between Key and Onew. Key smiled comfortingly at him then returned back to his IPod after scooting over to allow Taemin a bit of room.

Taemin studied Onew for a little bit, watching him peer out the window with squinted eyes, then opened his mouth a couple of times, trying to think of something to say.

“What is it, Minnie?” Onew finally asked tiredly, though not unkindly, after the third attempt Taemin made of speaking. His eyes remained focused on the darkness outside the van, watching the taxis pick up their fans and carry them away to their homes.

“Um…” Taemin swallowed.

He stayed silent for a second, and then spoke again, surprising Onew with his serious and mature tone of voice.

“I think he cares. I think Jonghyun-hyung cares."

Taemin rose from his seat, placing his fingers atop Key’s head lightly to get his attention. When Key looked up from his IPod and plucked the headphone from his left ear, Taemin smiled cutely at him.

“Hyung? Could you make steak for dinner?”

Key nodded distractedly, though he was smiling. “Anything for you, Taeminnie."

Taemin grinned at him and gave him a tiny hug. "Thank you, Umma Key!"

Key smiled and reached up absently to ruffle Taemin's hair as the boy pulled away.

Taemin watched him return back to his IPod, and then walked back to his seat beside Minho, curling up in his lap, just as the manager stepped into the van and sat down.

Taemin knew he had confused and stunned Onew with his sudden maturity and just as quick return to cute, innocent maknae.  He chuckled under his breathe, being quiet so he didn’t wake Minho who had already fallen asleep. He loved doing that to his hyungs.

 

 

 

Jonghyun held his breathe, hardly daring to even breathe through his nose. He feared that even the smallest movement would alert the person, whom he knew was not anyone he knew, to his presence.

He heard the noise from the TV suddenly cut off, making him miss Onew’s message, and knew for sure that the person was in the living room now – which also meant that the person had to be at least three feet away from the door to the room he was hiding in.

Please don’t come in here…Please… Jonghyun squeezed his eyes shut, trying to make himself sink into the wall. He wished he were able to fit between the small space between the mattress and the wall.

“Now, where are those papers…?” The voice, obviously male and fairly young, muttered only just loud enough for Jonghyun to hear past the blood pounding in his ears. The man was just outside the door now. Jonghyun could hear him pace the room for a second, before, he assumed, making his way towards the small end table by the couch in the living room, probably shuffling through the folder of papers located there.

Jonghyun had glanced through that earlier, while the commercials were on for a show he was watching, and the only thing in there had been sheets of paper listing the specific diets for each member.

What was the man looking for?

He could still hear the man mumbling to himself, even though he couldn’t make out the words, and was almost positive, after thinking it over for a second and matching the voice to his memories, that it was Super Junior’s manager, like he had suspected. He had never personally met Seunghwan, but he had heard his voice before and was almost certain now that it was him speaking.

Jonghyun opened his eyes again and took a slow, deep breathe out then back in, trying to calm his racing heart. He was suddenly glad he was young and was in good health. If he had heart problems then he was sure he would have had a heart attack by now; his blood pressure was probably sky high from the nerves.

From outside the door, he heard more shuffling of papers. Super Junior’s manager was probably in the kitchen by now, shuffling through the papers scattered there. 

Then, the dorm was quiet, eerily so.  Jonghyun bit his lip. This was a vital moment. If he made any sound at all, the manager would hear him for sure.

He lay as still as he possibly could, squeezing his eyes shut tightly again.

Just a little longer…

He ignored the throbbing, piercing pain in his broken leg. He hadn’t realized it then, but he must have hit it against the side of the bed when he had dove onto the mattress.

He had never broken a bone before in his life – now he really wished he had survived the wreck without it.

I was so stupid to race out in front of the car like that. Gosh…I wonder what Onew-hyung would have said if he knew?

Jonghyun lay in silence for a little while, allowing himself to breathe normal, quiet breathes again when he realized that Seunghwan was too busy looking for the papers to look for him.

With a start, he found a memory buried deep within the recesses of his mind that fit with his current situation.

“5, 4, 3 –“Jonghyun heard his sister counting from her room, where he’d left her. “Jonghyun, are you hiding yet?”

Jonghyun had to stifle a laugh, biting his lip. He knew that trick. Their father had played that on him a couple times, tricking Jonghyun into saying yes thus revealing his location.

“2, 1! Ready or not, here I come!”

Jonghyun squished himself between the mattress and wall of his parents’ bed, as far as his small body would allow, trying not to laugh and give himself away.

It was hard to stay still and quiet when you were six.

He sat as still as he could when he heard his footsteps just outside the bedroom door. He had tricked his sister the couple of times they had played before, by hiding in the same spot over and over again. This time though, he was hiding some place he was sure his sister wouldn’t find him. She would never think to look between the bed and the wall…right?

Since it was nearly ten o’clock at night, WAY past his bed time (thank goodness Grandma was watching them. Mom and Dad would have never let him stay up this late.), he started to feel tired. He yawned as quietly as he could, blinking back sleep. His tired eyes began to droop and close. He snapped himself awake a couple times while he was waiting for his sister to find him. He would surely give himself away if he began to snore.

What is taking her so long to find me?

He was asleep once again, not even bothering to wake himself up this time, when he heard his sister enter the room. He held his breathe and didn’t move a muscle.

He ended up staying hidden while his sister looked around the room, calling his name softly. His sister, only a couple of years older than him, was afraid of the dark still and wasn’t fond of looking around for him with only a flashlight as company. That was their rule with playing hide and seek; it had to be completely dark before you could play Hide and Seek and you had to use a flashlight to find the person you were looking for. It had been too easy for them to play out in the open otherwise.

“Jonghyun? Jonghyun are you in here?” Her voice was quivering slightly with fear and Jonghyun stored that in his memories to tease his sister about later.

Jonghyun’s heart was pounding, seeing the flashlight beam come extremely close to his feet (his big toe was sticking up over the bed just a little because his feet couldn’t fit that well). It missed though, making him sigh in relief.

He didn’t realize his mistake until a second too late.

“Aha!” His sister shouted triumphantly, hearing him and jumping onto the bed, which made it squish Jonghyun against the wall even further. She shined the flashlight right in his eyes, laughing.

“I found you, Jonghyun! I found you!”

“Yah! Nona, stop jumping on the bed! You’re squishing me!” He bawled, trying to squirm free. She didn’t stop though, too busy telling him how she had looked all around the house for him and how they had agreed that Umma and Appa’s rooms were off limits before they even started the game. “STOP IT! You’re hurting me! I’m stuck! Get me out!”

Jonghyun smiled pleasantly at the memory. That was when he and his sister actually had time to do things together. That was when everything was normal.

He just prayed that he wouldn’t make the mistake he had made in his memory, making a noise that alerted his presence.

The manager still hadn’t found what he was looking for, even after about ten minutes of searching. Jonghyun could still hear him cursing and shifting through things from the other rooms.

Jonghyun sighed quietly, wishing he could get out from between here already. The bed wasn’t large, so his legs were slightly cramped. Plus, the thought of being found out at any second was driving him crazy. He just wanted the manager to leave already.

His nose twitched and then it began to tickle.  He recognized the feeling with a sinking heart.

. I have to sneeze.

He scrunched his face up, fighting the sneeze as hard as he could, biting his bottom lip.

In just a split second, he remembered some random fact Taemin had once told him out of the blue. It had been a completely random thing to say, with no drive behind it or any reason for saying such a thing, but now Jonghyun was glad his friend had mentioned it to him.

If you have to sneeze and don’t want to, think of the word ‘Peanut Butter.’

Peanut butter! Peanut butter!! Damnit! It’s not working! Peanut –

 

 

Seunghwan was in a hurry.

Those papers had to have been turned into the representative under Lee Soo Man first thing that morning and they hadn’t been.  They were important papers, ones that held access into one of the small entertainment buildings in Pusan around where the boys would be filming their new MV.

Because of his mistake, five of the boy,  Shindong, Sungmin, Donghae, Ryeowook, and Kibum, were without schedules for the next couple hours (wasting precious time spent driving to Pusan) while the others were already on their way to begin filming.

These weren’t the usual boys he managed for, which was probably why he forgot their papers, but he was managing them for the next two weeks since their other manager was on sick leave. He hated that he had let them down – but at least they were enjoying their break; that was good.

I need to find those papers. I could get fired for this…

It took Seunghwan only seconds to locate the first stack of papers, the ones across from him, in the living room. He raced over to it, not even bothering to slip out of his coat and shoes even though it was disrespectful to wear ones shoes inside a house, and began to shuffle through the folders there.

If he remembered correctly, the contents of those folders were their schedules, yes, but they weren’t the access codes he was looking for. With a barely kept in yell of frustration, Seunghwan stalked back over to the kitchen when he found out he was correct, the only other place he could imagine those papers being. He had shoved the folders containing the five boy’s schedules under his arm, so he could take those back with him. Some luck had been on his side this morning when all of Super Junior had had all the same schedules, meaning he hadn’t needed those schedules just then which was a relief; until they were due to go to Pusan. Only after they arrived were they to split into separate schedules.

After digging through the papers on the table and still not finding them, much to his irritation, he stopped to think of where else he could possibly go.

Maybe I gave them to Jungsu…?

He really didn’t think he had, but he shrugged his shoulders and went to look anyway.

He had been just about to pull open the door when a hurriedly muffled sneeze interrupted the quiet of the dorm.

 

 

The five boys of Super Junior sitting in the van outside the dorm, started to panic once Seunghwan disappeared up the stairs into the building.

“What if he finds Jonghyun?!” Donghae cried as soon as he made sure Seunghwan had gone inside. The Mokpo boy was sitting straight as an arrow and as tense as a bowstring. His eyes were wide as saucers and his face was pale.

The others were in much the same state, extremely worried and concerned about their dongsaeng they were hiding, but a few of them were hiding it better than Donghae was – the two oldest boys of the small group currently there were trying to be calm for the sake of the younger ones even though they all were about the same age.

“I’m sure it’s fine, Donghae.” Shindong tried to reassure him, unclipping his seatbelt and turning around in his seat to pat Donghae on the shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Yeah, Jonghyun’s a smart kid. He’ll hide.” Sungmin added with a nod, also having turned around in his seat.

Ryeowook and Kibum, who were in the front rows of seats, were peering back at them – trying to figure out what they should do.

None of them looked really reassured by Shindong and Sungmin’s words.

The van went silent after that, though the air continued to radiate tension. The only movement in the five, agonizingly slow, minutes they sat was Sungmin nervously chewing on his lip from time to time and Ryeowook shifting in his seat uncomfortably. Everyone was too busy caught up in their own thoughts worrying about Jonghyun to really care about anything else or even try to come up with a plan to keep him from being found.

Finally, Donghae couldn’t stand the wait and worry any longer and started to take off his seatbelt, nearly ripping it off in his haste. The seatbelt flew off after a little bit of struggling, and when it did, the metal clip hitting the window and making a large cracking sound which startled everyone in the car.

Donghae stopped moving for a very brief second; scanning the window quickly to make sure he hadn’t cracked it on accident, and then wrenched the door open, back in motion again.

Sungmin reached back and snagged his arm before he could though, causing Donghae to grumble under his breathe and try and squirm free. “Hae! What are doing?!”

“I’m going to help him!” Donghae yelled, fighting Sungmin’s strong grip on his elbow.

“Donghae!” Shindong cried. “Be rational and wait a minute will you? He’ll be fine so chill out! Besides, it’ll be suspicious if you suddenly just race up there!”

“Then what do you suppose I do?!” Donghae screamed back, his fists clenched tightly as he scowled at Shindong, then at Sungmin when he was ignored by the former, who still had his arm.

Shindong paused and thought for a second, scratching his chin, the others watching him intently, awaiting his next words. “Hmm…I know! We should see if those papers manager-hyung was looking for are in here!  That way, if they are, he’s not inside for longer than necessary!”

“Good idea!” Ryeowook was already climbing through the seats up towards the driver’s seat. Kibum, who was in the passenger’s seat, began to dig through the arm-rest compartment.

Donghae seemed to realize that it was a good idea as well, for he began shuffling through the two pockets in the back seats where he was sitting.

Shindong and Sungmin, who were in the two seats in front of him, searched through the backs of their seats as well, chattering excitedly.

After a couple minutes of searching the ends and outs of the van and not finding anything but trash, Yesung’s missing IPod, and some half eaten stale chips, they were beginning to become flustered again.

But then, Ryeowook, who had traded Kibum spots earlier so he could look through the dashboard, found them shoved in the very back of the compartment.

After much celebration, they pushed Kibum out of the van with the papers in hand. They claimed that since he was the best at acting, and the best out of the five of them at making things up on the spot and being calm under serious situations, (though Kibum suspected it was merely because he was the maknae in that small group) that he should be the one to distract Seunghwan from Jonghyun.

 

 

Jonghyun swore a million times in his head.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

He was so screwed now. He would be found no matter what.

Why is my luck so horrible? What have I ever done?

His heart was hammering in his chest and his throat was suddenly dry. He clenched the pale blue bed sheets in tight fingers.

This was it. He was going back to the company…

When he was found, all of Super Junior would be punished, which made him want to cry. They had helped him and taken care of him when he needed it most – and he just let them down.

The only thing he could think of that would turn out good in such a situation was being reunited with SHINee again.

He missed them, missed their smiles and their laughs. He just wished he weren’t always such a bother to them.

Jonghyun gulped. Part of him prayed to not be caught, but another, smaller part wanted him to be.

 

 

Eyebrows narrowing dangerously, Seunghwan crept towards the direction the noise had come from – which happened to be Hyukjae and Siwon’s room.

He paled. He had heard about this before, from the managers of DBSK before the idol group split up. Fans would sneak into the dorms somehow, breaking the lock or smashing the windows, and rummage through the boys’ stuff.

Being as quiet as he could, Seunghwan changed his path to grab a broom from the closet near the room. He felt better having some sort of weapon in his hands.

Seunghwan walked back towards the door and stopped in front of it,  leaning his ear against the door for a second trying to see if he could hear anything from the inside. He frowned when he didn’t hear anything and was about to push open the door to the room, when the front door opened.  Freezing in his place with a frown, Seunghwan briefly wondered who it was before he slowly turned. It was Kibum, standing in the doorway, staring at him with raised eyebrows.

“Um…hyung? What are you doing?” Kibum’s eyes were wary and he seemed to be forcing himself to be relaxed, though he was hiding it so well that only Seunghwan, the other managers, and the members of Super Junior would ever know the difference. Why he was acting that way, Seunghwan had no idea, but he shoved those thoughts from his mind and focused again on finding the source of the sneeze he had heard earlier. “Are you trying to sweep the door? What’s next? Eating our toothpaste remnants  like the other manager-hyung?”

“I heard someone sneeze.” Seunghwan told him, shifting the broom in his hands, ignoring the teasing tone in Kibum’s voice. He fought a small smile though, remembering the time they had first caught the other manager doing it.

Kibum’s eyebrow rose higher at Seunghwan’s confession. “…How long ago?”

Seunghwan paused and shrugged. “A minute ago? I don’t know, Kibum!” Not giving the person hiding time to escape from the window in the room, Seunghwan threw open the door.

He peered through the darkness for a second, trying to spot  any sudden movement, before reaching for the lights. Before he could flip them on though, he was spun around a hundred and eighty degrees by a hand on his shoulder.

“What are you doing?!” Seunghwan threw Kibum’s hand off his shoulder, scowling at him. “There’s someone in here!” He hissed the words as quietly as he could, not sure why he was doing so when the person was obviously caught.

Kibum looked confused, slightly concerned, and a little exasperated. “Why are you being so paranoid, hyung? It was me! I was outside the door and sneezed…”

“It didn’t come from the door! It came from this room!”

“I swear it was me, hyung!” Kibum looked Seunghwan straight in the eyes, replacing his hand on Seunghwan’s shoulder. “You know I’ve been fighting a cold! I’ve been sneezing all day.”

Seunghwan studied Kibum’s face for several long seconds, trying to decide if he was telling the truth because he could never quite tell with Kibum, before giving up and sighing. He nodded dejectedly.

“Fine.” He finally said, convincing himself that it really had been Kibum and the sound of the sneeze had just sounded like it came from this room. “ – But,” Kibum winced, not liking the sound of that. “Let me double check, just to make sure.”

Kibum’s eyes widened and Seunghwan noted curiously that he looked baffled and slightly panicked. “Hyung! I told you, I was the one that sneezed! There is no one here! Plus, do we even have time?”

Seunghwan’s face darkened. “We haven’t had time all day!”

Kibum nodded. “That’s what I thought. But…hyung. You remember those papers you were looking for?”

Kibum reached into his back pocket of his jeans and pulled out the slightly crinkled and folded sheets of paper that Seunghwan had been looking for. Kibum waved the papers in front of Seunghwan’s nose. “They were in the car the whole time, hyung. You must have stashed them in the dashboard earlier this morning and forgot. Wookie-hyung found them.”

 

 

Jonghyun couldn’t explain how happy and relieved he was to see Kibum through the small gap in the bed sheets draping down from Siwon’s bed. His hyung couldn’t have entered at any better time.

The two of them had never been very close, only talking a couple times but close enough to have dropped honorifics with one another. He was grateful that the older boy had protected him.

When Seunghwan had entered the room, Jonghyun’s whole mind had frozen over in fear and he could hardly think. He had been holding his breath for so long, trying not to be heard, that he had begun to feel light-headed and see spots.

He had been able to breathe again, finally, when Kibum had forced the manager around.

Even after the pair had left the dorm though, it took a long time for Jonghyun to find the courage to be able to crawl out from the push-out bed. Even then, he was still freaked out over just how close he had been to being caught. He’d have to thank Kibum a thousand times when Super Junior returned home later that night.

Eventually, Jonghyun managed to get himself to relax and opened up Eunhyuk’s computer, sitting on his hyung’s bed. His was very grateful to Eunhyuk for allowing him to check his emails and Me2Day. He hadn’t been able to do so since even before he left, they were so busy with promotions that they hadn’t time to do such things. He was surprised that he had so many emails.

All the emails where from his friends from SM. Most where from SHINee, which made him smile sadly.

The main percentage of the emails from SHINee seemed to be from Key, telling him to come back and informing him that he missed him a lot. The other half where from Taemin, filling him in on everything he had missed. There were a few from Minho, which didn’t say much except for the things Jonghyun had already been told by Taemin.

Jonghyun couldn’t help but feel disappointed and sad when he didn’t see any messages from Onew. He had been expecting that there wouldn’t be, after everything he had put him through,  but Jonghyun was still disheartened by the fact.

To ignore the pang in his heart, Jonghyun clicked on one of Taemin’s more recent messages. He read through the message slowly, drinking in Taemin’s words, and was relieved to find out that Onew and Key were both seeming to be taking things better and had made things up between themselves. Taemin also told him that Onew had promised them all that he would be making a better effort to be a better leader and do a better job of taking care of them and himself.

But…hyung…you were already a great leader. You couldn’t be a better leader to any of us.

Jonghyun reached the end of the email and smiled when he read what Taemin had written: ‘Hyung, I miss you a lot. Just know that, even though we want you back as soon as possible, that we will wait for you. Take as long as you need, Jonghyun-hyung. We’ll wait for you to return, even if it’s a thousand years from now. Just…come back to us, arasso? I love you, hyung. So do the hyungs, they love you too! Come back soon please!’

Taemin’s email made Jonghyun smile and chuckle, leaning his back against the wall beside Eunhyuk’s bed. It felt really good to know that he was missed so badly and that he was so loved by his band mates.

He slid his finger across the touch-pad, maneuvering the mouse so that it was hovering over the red exit button at the top right of the screen. Just as he clicked to exit out, a new email arrived in his inbox.

It was far too fast for Jonghyun to catch the sender, but he had a hunch on who the person would be.

He pulled the page back up, impatiently typing his email and password in again. It took him several tries to get them both right because he kept making mistakes since he was in such a rush, but he managed to finally get it correct. He drummed his fingers against his knee-cap as he waited for the page to load. When it did, he was pleased to see that his hunch was correct.

I large smile found its way onto his face as he clicked on the email. He didn’t scroll down though, not sure if he was ready to read the message. He just kept reading the sender’s name.

From: Lee Jinki

Subject: (no subject)

Sent: 2 minutes ago