Part 1

Sometimes Taemin found himself forced to take a step back and count his blessings. He knew he was lucky, oh boy did he know he was lucky.

He was lucky to be alive.

He was lucky to not be totally confined to a wheelchair, or dependent on crutches.

Most especially he was very, very lucky to have Heechul as his coach. Actually, Taemin was very grateful to Heechul for a multitude of reasons.

In front of him, Heechul turned in a graceful circle, letting Taemin see his outfit from all angles.

“Well?” He demanded. “Is it not the greatest costume in history?”

Still, it didn’t make life with Heechul any easier.

“Is this really appropriate for someone your age?” Taemin deadpanned.

Heechul let out an indignant squawk. “Ya! You hush your mouth!” He crossed his arms huffily over his chest. “I am not that old!”

Taemin turned away, burying his face in his hands. He would gladly be on dish duty for the rest of his life if it meant never having to see Heechul in a Lady Gaga costume ever again.

At 27 Kim Heechul was one of the most respected Olympic Swimming Coaches in South Korea, and Taemin was forever indebted to the man for taking him under his wing. When Heechul promised he’d make Taemin an Olympic Gold Medalist, he wasn’t saying it lightly. Taemin was further indebted to Heechul because the man offered to become Taemin’s legal guardian, and while this meant leaving his parents and moving to Seoul, it also meant that Heechul absorbed any and all fees it would take to get him to the Olympic games, as well as Taemin’s medical bills. This of course was a huge relief to Taemin’s parents, who were by no means wealthy people, and while they were hesitant to let their youngest son go, Taemin could not have jumped faster at the offer. He didn’t appreciate being a financial burden on his family- which was what he was, no matter how they protested.

In many ways Kim Heechul was Taemin’s fairy godmother, which made him even luckier. Not everyone could say that they had their own fairy godmother (or father) swoop in and grant every wish they had. Taemin was forced to remind himself of this fact at least twice a week, because while living with Heechul meant he had an Olympic qualified pool and all the training equipment he could ever need essentially right in his backyard, it also meant putting up with Heechul’s weird es.

Some of them weren’t too bad. Taemin very much liked Heechul’s fascination with Chinese things—like  food, décor, and people—because it meant getting to hang out with Han Geng, Zhou Mi, Amber Liu and Henry Lau, all of whom were incredibly cool and treated Taemin like a younger brother. He didn’t even mind Heechul’s apparent need to be surrounded by cats (Taemin agreed with Henry, Heechul was a crazy old cat-lady in the making). Taemin liked the cats, they were cuddly and didn’t drool all over him when they curled up in his lap (like Junsu’s cats did).

However Taemin was getting a little tired of Heechul dressing up like a woman for every single costume party he attended.

“Being able to squeeze your fat into leather outfits is not a skill to brag about,” Taemin informed his guardian crossly. Heechul flicked him on the ear.

“Don’t be fresh with me,” he scolded, somehow managing to look intimidating despite the blonde wig (Taemin would give that thing to Bangshin to play with one day, swear to God…). “Who taught you such language?”

‘You,’ Taemin would have said, but Heechul had just warned him not to be fresh so instead he limped his way over to the sofa, waving a hand behind him.

“Whatever, you look fabulous as usual,” he said, plopping himself down on the cushions. “Have fun out there, be nice to Hankyung-hyung, don’t drink too much, blah, blah, blah…” he trailed off, looking for the remote and groaning when he saw that it was on the other end of the sofa.

“Why is the other end so damn far away,” he grumbled, about to scoot over when Heechul grabbed the remote and held it out to him.

“Thank—” Taemin started, but Heechul pulled it back and held it above his head.

“Hey!” Taemin protested, reaching for it. Heechul put his free hand on Taemin’s chest and easily held him back.

“Are you sure you want to stay home?” He asked for the thousandth time.

“Yes,” Taemin sighed for the thousandth time. The only person Taemin would know at that party besides Heechul was Hankyung, and he would most likely be glued to Heechul by the lips.

“Okay,” Heechul relented, but he did not release the remote. “Siwon will be over in a few minutes. I want to hear from him that you did some stretching and for heaven’s sake finish packing your bags,” he said, the last bit a bit louder so Taemin would hear him over his disappointed groan.

“Really, hyung? Stretching? Do I have to?” He whined, turning on the pout.

“Yes.”

Taemin leaned back, muttering mutinously.

“I mean it though, pack your things before the night is over,” Heechul warned as he finally gave up the remote. “We’re leaving in 48 hours, don’t leave this to the last minute.”

“Yeah, I got it,” Taemin affirmed blankly, already absorbed in the drama he had on. He knew for a fact that Heechul’s many suitcases were only half full, he had no business telling Taemin to pack his belongings.

Heechul finally trotted off to retrieve his high heels and matching purse (good lord Taemin had no idea how he’d stayed sane for the last 3 years), calling over his shoulder that he wanted Taemin in bed by 11, to which he laughed. Heechul would likely be out all night, Taemin wouldn’t be sleeping much before him. Siwon was more likely to fall asleep than Taemin was.

On his way out the door, Heechul stopped to deposit Heebum on the sofa and to kiss Taemin’s forehead. “Love you,” he called as he walked out.

Taemin tore his eyes away from the screen. “I love you too, even though you dress like an alien,” he yelled back.

Honestly Taemin loved when Siwon babysat him, mostly because he never made it feel like babysitting. That was one of the downsides of being disabled though, you kind of needed a babysitter all the time—reason number 4 why he’d left home. His mother could focus on work rather than make sure it was okay for him to stay at the office until Taesun got out of school, thus, she could earn more money for Taesun to go to a better college.

Anyway, Siwon was a lot of fun. He let Taemin stay up as late as he wanted, he would play card games all hours of the night and he never ever offered to help him with anything. Taemin hated when people offered him their help. If he wanted it, he’d ask for it.

Siwon was running late (traffic was a nightmare apparently) and so Taemin spent the wait petting the cats and yelling at the stupid girl in the drama to quite pining over the idiot who’d never notice her and go out with the guy who actually wanted her. Siwon just happened to come in at a time when his language was getting really colorful.

“Where did you learn that?” He asked tiredly as he dropped his bag on the floor.

“School,” Taemin said a little sheepishly; he didn’t even swear that often, people always just walked in on him at the wrong time.

“Heechul says he wants you to stretch,” Siwon said pointedly. “Have you done it yet?”

Taemin put on his puppy dog eyes. “It’s my night off,” he said, a hint of pleading in his tone.

Siwon shook his head. “No such thing. On the floor, now.”

Taemin whined a bit but he knew there was no use in protesting, so he slid off the sofa and inched along the floor until he had enough space to lie flat on his back.

The stretches were simple enough, basically just to keep his leg muscles from weakening too much. Still, they were boring and sometimes it hurt. The damage hadn’t been bad enough to take away his ability to feel the pain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just as Taemin had predicted, Heechul left his packing for the very last possible second- throwing the last of his clothes into his bag as they were walking out the door. Inevitably he would forget several things, i.e. pajamas, swim trunks and toothpaste, but he would shrug and insist that he needed a new one anyway and besides, the best part about vacation was shopping for new things.

Taemin disagreed, he thought the best part about their vacations was the ocean- the biggest pool in the world and he ruled it. No seriously, Heechul had crowned him “King of the Sea” last year- he had a seashell crown and a coronation ceremony and everything. And King Taemin was very anxious to get back to his kingdom, but first Heechul had to get his fat out the door.

“Move it, bubble !” Taemin yelled from the threshold, not caring that it was 4 in the morning and people were sleeping. “We have places to go!!!”

Siwon winced and sighed tiredly. “Not so loud, not this early in the morning,” he pleaded, but Taemin glowered.

“If he makes us miss the train I’ll never forgive him I swear it,” he growled, tapping his foot. They would have driven, but it kind of made no sense because they were leaving for Busan in 2 weeks and then what they do with the car? Or at least this was Heechul’s reasoning, the truth was Heechul didn’t feel like driving, he refused to let anyone else drive his car, and he absolutely refused to be seen in Siwon’s “20-year-old train wreck” of a station wagon. Thank god Heechul had already dropped the cats off with Yunho and Jaejoong last night, that would have taken another hour to do. “You already know you’ll just buy a million things once we get to Busan,” he yelled into the apartment. He heard a slam and Heechul yelled something unintelligible. Taemin took that as a sign of victory.

“We can go,” he said to Siwon, grabbing his suitcase (packed in 2 minutes that very morning while he waited for his toast to finish toasting). “He’ll be along shortly.”

Siwon waved Taemin ahead, which he’d expected anyway; Siwon wasn’t the kind to leave Heechul to fend for himself this early in the morning, even if the man was just going down 19 flights in an elevator. It was fine though, it gave Taemin a few minutes to celebrate in private.

This would be Taemin’s third summer with Heechul, and his third summer touring the ocean with Heechul’s cousins- Kangin, Ryeowook and Kibum. The three of them were Marine biologists and ran a Summer internship, which took college students on a 10 week trip that started in Incheon, moved to Busan and finished on Jeju Island. They spent most of the time scuba diving and snorkeling, studying the reefs and the various animals in the water. At the end of the trip the interns would present some kind of project (different theme every year) at the College of Ocean Science in Jeju National University.

The thing was that Heechul’s cousins used his boats when they went out on the water. Yes, Heechul owned a boat- 2 actually; he won one during his competition days and bought the other himself, but he let his cousins use them as long as they let him tag along on the trip. And since Taemin went wherever Heechul went, he got a free pass onto the boat too. The last 2 summers had been amazing, and while he wasn’t an official part of the program the interns had loved him and kind of adopted him into their program, he would go diving with them when he wasn’t drilling . He’d even helped them with their project, though he hadn’t presented it with them.

This year was promising to be even better than the previous two, because not only had Han Geng- Heechul’s boyfriend- gotten the entire 10 weeks off, Siwon had gotten the first 4 weeks on vacation as well. Heechul would be doubly distracted and more likely to leave Taemin to look after himself- and that meant more time to have fun!

By the time Siwon and Heechul made it to the lobby, Taemin had composed himself once more and loaded his bags into their awaiting taxi. He threw a predictably biting comment about lateness in Heechul’s direction and Heechul predictably responded with quiet muttering and dark glares, and with that the three of them got into the car and set off for the train station. By some miracle they were not late, and Heechul was very smug about it. They boarded safely and all promptly fell fast asleep on the short ride to Incheon.

The second they stepped off the train and onto the platform, Heechul looked at his watch and turned to Taemin with a wide grin.

“We have a good 3 hours before the other interns show up at the pool for their final scuba instruction,” he said conspiratorially. “You up for some 100 meter drills?”

Taemin laughed. “Aren’t I always?”

Siwon rolled his eyes at the pair of them. “Can you at least take your bags to the hotel and pick up the rental car first?”

This will be 3 Parts in total, all of which will be posted by the end of the week. Please review and subscribe if you like it ^^