Part 3

The first day was spent cruising around the harbor, getting the four newbies to stretch their sea legs and really get a feel for the motion of the boat, and there was also some practice diving, because as Kangin had said, the real ocean was a lot different from a pool. Taemin perched on the deck and watched the others sway on the boat and in the water, reminiscing about his own first adventure on Heechul’s yacht. Everyone had been worried about his poor balance on land, and so they’d all hovered and fussed over him until Taemin had gotten so fed up he’d actually threatened to jump overboard if they didn’t let him breathe. Right after that they’d gotten rocked by a sudden wave and he’d taken a headfirst dive to the deck. Taemin rubbed his forehead at the memory of the bump he’d had afterwards, but he’d learned a lesson—keep an eye on the water, never underestimate it.

The first trip out was short, and they returned to the hotel soon. The second day was much more fun, as the group ventured out further to a small reef, though they were just going to snorkel. This time, Taemin would join the group in the water. As everyone got ready, pulling on suits and checking goggles, Taemin was sure that his limp had been noticed, but nobody said anything, and if they’d had plans to bring it up later Taemin was sure that the reef would drive all other thoughts from their minds. Though small, it was a gorgeous area that teemed with all kinds of aquatic life, from small fish to octopus and if you were lucky you might even see a few rays.

It turned out that they were doubly lucky, not only did they see stingrays, they also glimpsed Tarpon—a fish that was rarely seen in high traffic areas such as this, as Taemin told the group later. Jonghyun had brought with him an underwater camera that took pretty high quality photos, and he had taken about three hundred pictures on that dive. Once they got back to the hotel, they all spent the evening in Jonghyun and Key’s shared room going through the photos. Taemin was surprised to see that Jonghyun had not only taken photos of the animals and reef, but also of his fellow divers. Taemin noticed that he seemed to come up quite often in those pictures.

“What are you, the paparazzi?” Taemin teased, both flattered and nervous at the attention.

Jonghyun flushed and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, you’re just really amazing in the water. I’ve never seen anyone swim like you before.”

“He actually got a few shots of you when you were in the pool,” Key piped up, throwing a sly grin in Jonghyun’s direction.

Jonghyun waved his arms around. “That was before I knew who you were!” He yelled.

“Stalker,” Minho coughed.

“Are a professional?” Jinki wanted to know. “You sure look like one.” The other three went quiet and waited for an answer.

Taemin could feel himself blushing under the attention. “Well, I’m actually training for the Olympics in Swimming,” he confessed shyly.

“Really?!” Minho gasped. “No way! That is so cool—wait, I need your autograph now so that when you win I can sell it on ebay—OUCH!”

Jonghyun had whacked him on the shoulder. “Now who’s the creepy- stalker?” He cried triumphantly.

“So you are a pro,” Key confirmed. “How long have you been swimming for?”

“Since I was twelve,” Taemin said. He didn’t elaborate, and he wasn’t asked.

“Wow,” Jinki sighed, awe in his voice. “That’s amazing, that you got to be so good in just five years. How long have you been diving for?”

“This will be my third year, and really I only started that thanks to Heechul.”

“Oh,” Minho said suddenly. “I’ve been meaning to ask—Is he your brother?”

Taemin laughed. He would never get tired of that question. “No, he isn’t.”

“Stupid,” Jonghyun said, whacking Minho again. “I told you, they have different last names.”

“It’s okay,” Taemin assured, “I get asked that a lot. We’re really not related at all, though.”

“He’s your coach, isn’t he?” Jinki asked.

Taemin jumped. “Yeah…how’d you know that?”

Jinki grinned. “I did some research on Kibum, Kangin and Ryeowook before I signed up for this program, and everything I found mentioned Heechul, so I looked him up too. I knew he was a swimmer and that he retired to coach, so I just put two and two together.”

“And I’m the creepy stalker,” Minho muttered.

Jinki blushed. “It was basic research! You all are lucky I did it because Lord knows that for all you cared, we could have been on the ocean with an axe murderer,” he said defensively.

Well, Taemin thought to himself, they kind of were surrounded by a bunch of crazy murderers anyway. Heechul was certainly axe murderer material, and if you pissed Ryeowook off enough he could get pretty nasty, and if you pissed off Ryeowook then you had definitely prompted Kangin and Kibum’s fury, and Heechul would do anything Ryeowook asked especially if it was for revenge. Not to mention Heechul had Siwon and Hankyung at his disposal, both of whom were pretty good fighters and would also do anything for Ryeowook…

Taemin pulled himself back to the conversation. He needed to get the attention off himself, it was getting too personal for him. “So it sounds like the four of you knew each other before this whole trip?” He asked innocently, and just as he’d hoped the conversation turned around.

“Well,” Key began, “I’ve known Jinki here since I was five and he was six—and even back then I was running around saving him from himself all the time, thank God I have Minho now to help me,”

“And Key had just as big an attitude back then as he does now,” Jinki remarked snidely.

Key shoved Jinki off his chair and continued “And Jonghyun met Minho at a swim meet after Jonghyun beat him to a pulp—”

“I did no such thing!!” Jonghyun yelped. “It’s not my fault the kid’s nose bleed like a faucet, it’s his own for being a !”

Minho punched Jonghyun in the arm. “The chlorine dried out my nasal cavity and I’m not a !”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Jinki muttered as he hauled himself back onto his chair. “What are you grinning at?” He asked, spotting the look on Taemin’s face.

Taemin put his hand over his mouth as he began to laugh. “You guys are so funny!” He gasped. “You literally sound just like the Kim cousins.”

“We do? Really?” Key asked.

“Makes sense, I mean we do have two Kim’s here,” Minho pointed out.

“It’s so weird, though,” Taemin said, more to himself than anything. “People call me Heechul’s clone—they need to meet you lot!”

“Well anyway,” Jinki went on, “We all came together in this dysfunctional group about three years ago when Kibum met Jonghyun and Jjong started following him around like a lovesick puppy, and Kibum got all flustered because he wasn’t at all used to being romanced, and it was totally because of Minho and I that they got over their blushy-crushy stage and went out.”

“And here we are now,” Minho finished proudly.

“I was not following him around like a lovesick puppy and we weren’t blushy-crushy,” Jonghyun protested weakly.

“Shut up,” Key said playfully. “All of that is true,” he told Taemin, lacing his fingers with Jonghyun’s.

“That’s really cute,” Taemin sighed. “And a lot more romantic than how Heechul met Hankyung.”

“Who’s he?” Minho asked.

“Oh, you’ll meet him tomorrow,” Taemin assured. “It’s kind of funny to watch him. I think he’s got dual-personalities or something, because sometimes he can be really serious and quiet, and other times he’s a total dork. I think that’s all Heechul’s doing, though.”

“How long have they been together?” Key asked.

Taemin counted backwards. “Well I think Heechul would kill me if I gave away any information about his age, so let’s just say that they met in high school.”

Jinki grinned. “Sounds exactly like Key and Jonghyun,” he sang.

Minho laughed. “We should watch them and see how they act, I bet these two will be just like them in the future.”

“Oh god I hope not,” Taemin gasped. “One pair of them is enough for the world.”

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

Heechul got Taemin up brutally early the next morning—5 AM. That was a surprise, as Heechul rarely woke up before 9, but he ignored Taemin’s sleepy questions and ordered him into the pool for nearly four hours of drills. Heechul then told him to go on down to the dock with Siwon ahead of him. It wasn’t until he finally got down to the dock that he remembered Hankyung’s flight was getting in that afternoon. Heechul had just gotten the entire day of training out of the way so he could spend  the day moving his bags into the room he would now share with Hankyung and bossing Hankyung around to help him…among other things.

Worn out from the drills, Taemin decided to stay out of the water that day. He lounged on the deck, using the time to read a book for his literature class. He managed to read about 20 pages before he dozed off.

Taemin would later decide it had been the lack of sleep coupled with his nerves over the last few days that caused him to dream about his accident for the first time in months.

Well, it wasn’t actually the accident, it was the aftermath; the feeling of waking up in pain and the fear that came after it. He rarely ever saw anything in the dream, he just felt. It was always disorienting, and when he woke up he had to take a minute to remind himself that he wasn’t in the hospital anymore.

Taemin was shaken awake halfway into the dream and he shot up, half expecting to be in the hospital with an IV coming out of his arm. Instead he found Jinki standing over him with a glass of water.

“Ryeowook told me to get you to drink something,” he explained, looking a little worried. “Are you okay?”

Taemin nodded and reached for the water. “Freaky dream,” he muttered.

Jinki nodded seriously. “I have those all the time, once I dreamed that I was a marshmallow heading towards a fire. I could actually feel the heat and the stick through me and everything! Then I woke up and realized Jonghyun had his knee in my stomach and he was breathing on my face.”

Taemin almost choked on his water from laughing. Jinki grinned at him.

“That’s better,” he murmured. “When you’re by yourself you always have this blank look on your face, I can’t decide if you’re thinking seriously or not thinking at all.”

“Oh,” Taemin said, not sure how to respond. “I never knew that.”

Jinki looked away and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry,” he sounded frustrated. “I shouldn’t have said that…Key is always telling me that there’s a time and place for deep statements and I always pick the worst ones.”

“You were just being honest with me,” Taemin said, patting Jinki’s arm. “It’s okay, I’m not offended or anything.”

Jinki smiled at him. “So…” he said slowly, “What was it about? Your dream.”

Taemin put his empty water glass down and adjusted his towel before he answered. “It’s not all that pleasant,” he warned.

Jinki snorted. “The things that scare us rarely are.”

Taemin fidgeted. “I’ve also never really talked about it to anyone besides Heechul…”

Jinki’s gaze softened and he put his hand on Taemin’s shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me. But I promise that if you do, I won’t go around telling everyone else about it. I can keep a secret.”

Taemin could hear the honesty in his promise. Jinki wasn’t being nosey or voyeuristic, he didn’t want to psycho-analyze Taemin and he certainly didn’t want to make him do anything that would make him feel uncomfortable. Jinki just wanted to be a friendly ear, to support him. So Taemin finally let his guard down.

“It’s about how I got this limp,” he began.

Sometimes Taemin would start talking too fast and his words would get jumbled up, and Jinki would have to ask him to slow down or repeat himself. Once or twice he had to stop entirely to take a few deep breaths, and Jinki would tell him he could stop if he wanted to. But Taemin plowed on, because he just wanted to talk to someone who wasn’t Heechul, who hadn’t heard it all before. He didn’t stop at the accident, and Jinki didn’t seem to mind hearing the whole thing, so Taemin felt even more at ease telling the story.

The thing was, he’d been so young—he was only twelve when it happened. That winter had been brutally cold and snowy, and one day when walking home from school he’d slipped on a patch of ice. All Taemin really remembered from the impact was a flash of light and a feeling of dread. He’d woken up in the hospital with a deep, throbbing ache in his leg, and then he learned he’d hit his head and damaged the part of his brain responsible for muscle control. He had hypertonia in his leg and hip, and the damage would be permanent.

At first Taemin didn’t believe the doctors when they told him this. How could he have injured his brain when it was his hip that hurt? Wasn’t it just a bad bruise, he’d asked, wasn’t it something that could heal and get better? No, he was told. The only thing to do was try physical therapy, which would hopefully help with his mobility.

Taemin had wanted to be a dancer. He’d practically breathed dance from the time he was five years old, and he had been so good at it, and now that dream was gone. Taemin had been so depressed at the time that his parent talked about therapy, not that they could have afforded it. That was salt in the wound, really—hearing his mom on the phone with the insurance company, who would only cover parts of the bills, begging them for more help. Taemin’s parents had tried to shield him from the worst of it, but they could only do so much. And anyway, he’d seen the strain on his parents faces, and he’d hated himself for getting hurt, for ruining everything. It didn’t matter that he was told over and over it was a freak accident, some part of him would always blame himself.

Taemin threw himself into his physical therapy, figuring that if he was going to cost his parents an arm and a leg he’d better give them their money’s worth. The stretches were painful in the beginning, but Taemin forced himself not to complain or cry, at least not when anyone could see. Aside from stretching, his therapist had thought that swimming would be a good idea. Mobility was easier in the water, he’d said. Taemin had never been big on swimming before, but he decided to give it a try. It turned out he was really good at it. so good that when he was fourteen, he broke his school’s record in the 100 meter Relay. The paper even ran an article on it, and that was when Heechul came into the picture. He’d just retired from pro Swimming, and he hadn’t been planning to coach until he read Taemin’s story. He came to Taemin’s house and offered to make him an Olympic gold medalist, and he offered to absorb all of Taemin’s training and medical fees. Taemin couldn’t have said yes fast enough.

“A huge part of it was me wanting to feel like I wasn’t totally helpless,” Taemin admitted. “When I couldn’t dance, I felt like my whole future was just gone. All I was ever going to be was the guy with the limp, the cripple, the disabled one. I had no idea swimming could be the thing that gave me purpose again…sometimes I wonder if I decided too quickly. I missed my family so much in the beginning—I still do, of course, but not as horribly as I did in the beginning. But then there was the other part, the one that meant I wouldn’t be a burden on my family anymore. They would never think of me that way, but it didn’t stop me from feeling like it. My nightmares kind of encompass all of those feelings—helpless, lost, pain and this awful feeling of being worth nothing.”

Jinki put his arm around Taemin’s shoulders. “But you know that it’s not true, right?”

Taemin gave him a weak smile. “I do know that,” he said quietly.

“But you have trouble believing it,” Jinki told him.

Taemin nodded and Jinki went on.

“Well listen here, I can tell you right now that one day you are going to impact the world. You’re going to inspire thousands, maybe even millions, of people around the world with your story. You’ve already inspired me, to be honest. I think you might be the bravest person I know, and I really admire you for not giving up, even though I bet you’ve wanted to a hundred times.”

Honestly, Taemin had gotten the same pep talk from Heechul at least once a month. But hearing it from Jinki, who’d known him for a week and had only had one decent conversation with him, who owed him nothing and had no reason to lie to make him feel better…it was different hearing all that from him rather than Heechul.

“Thanks,” Taemin told him. “That means so much to me…I can’t even begin to tell you what it means to hear that.”

Jinki smiled widely and clapped Taemin on the shoulder. “Good, I’m glad to hear that. Now, let’s go dive!”

Taemin grinned at him and jumped up. “I’ll race you to the masks!” He yelled.

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

That evening Taemin made his way over to Heechul’s room. He hadn’t seen his coach all day, nor had he seen Hankyung, and he was a little reluctant to go disturbing them, but he felt like he’d waited reasonably long enough.

He knocked on the door—a little harder than was perhaps necessary but he wanted to be heard—and after a few seconds Heechul came to the door. Taemin was relieved to see that he looked pretty well put together, not like he’d just been interrupted in…anything.

Heechul ruffled Taemin’s hair. “Hey there, kiddo! How was the water?”

“It was nice, where’s Hankyung?” Taemin asked distractedly, peering around the room. Heechul rolled his eyes and tugged Taemin further inside.

“He forgot to pack a bunch of things. Siwon took him out shopping.”

“And you didn’t go because…?” Taemin asked, already knowing the answer.

“Because the two of them were rubbing their Mandarin in my face,” he sniffed haughtily. Taemin scoffed, because Heechul could act bothered but he knew Heechul wasn’t at all jealous of the connection between Siwon and Hankyung. They were like brothers, and at the end of the day it was always Heechul who Hankyung came back to.

“You hungry or something? We could order ridiculous amounts of take-out if you want,” Heechul offered.

“I’m good with whatever,” Taemin said. Heechul leaned against the back of the sofa. Behind him the city lights glittered from between the shades on the window. Heechul loved the view of the city-any city. He and Taemin could spend hours staring out of windows watching buildings glitter.

“What’s on your mind?” Heechul asked. Taemin stepped forward and folded into Heechul, tucking his head under his chin. Heechul was used to this; at least twice a month Taemin would get into a clingy mood where he just wanted to be hugged, or sit on the couch and cuddle with someone. He was never too busy for Taemin’s moods, nor did he ever sigh or tell Taemin that fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year olds weren’t supposed want hugs. Taemin wondered if Heechul needed the feeling of closeness just as much as he did.

“I fell asleep on the boat today,” Taemin said. “I had the dream again.”

Heechul maneuvered him over to the couch and sat, and Taemin curled into his side, legs thrown across his lap. “Jinki woke me up from it,” Taemin went on after a minute. “I told him everything.”

Heechul tensed up slightly. If Taemin hadn’t been so close, he wouldn’t have noticed at all. “And?” He asked.

“And the world didn’t end,” Taemin said, a smile twitching across his face. “He gave me pretty much the same pep talk you give me, and then he asked me to go diving with him.”

Taemin could feel the tension evaporate from Heechul’s body.

“I was so surprised that he just let it drop like that. He acknowledged it, made sure I was okay, and moved on. He didn’t try to make it a big deal, he didn’t want to talk me into telling everyone else…it was really like it didn’t bother him at all.”

“That’s because it didn’t bother him,” Heechul murmured.

Taemin almost couldn’t imagine that. He was so used to people changing when they found out how much his disability had affected his life. He figured most people thought it was something he’d been born with, and when they found out that it had been something that interrupted his life and changed him forever they treated him delicately, as though they had to watch their speech and actions so as not to offend or upset him. But that wasn’t the kind of person he was, and Taemin hated when people didn’t see him like that. He didn’t judge those who could walk and run easily, or who had never known what it felt like to have something you wanted so badly taken from you.

He thought that was why he loved Heechul as much as he did. Heechul was not one to sugar coat anything, especially not Taemin. When they were training he never treated Taemin like he was disabled, he treated Taemin like he would any other kid in training for the Olympics. He pushed Taemin do to more, to go beyond what he thought his limits were. He was like all the dance instructors Taemin had had over the years—he saw something special in Taemin and that was what he focused on.

At the same time, Heechul didn’t ignore Taemin’s mobility issues. He made sure Taemin kept up with his physical therapy, he didn’t baby Taemin but he did make sure he was never alone for too long on the off chance that something did happen, and he was sympathetic to the little issues it created for Taemin. Not just the bullying, but the even smaller things. Such as times when Taemin couldn’t walk as fast as he would have liked, or when he stumbled in public. There were several instances where Taemin had been frustrated and close to a meltdown, and Heechul would pull him aside and help him calm down. There were also days where Taemin would come out of therapy with worse aches than a day in the pool would give him, or when a new set of stretches could hurt enough to make him cry. Heechul never once told Taemin to buck up or get a hold of himself, instead letting him whine or cry out the pain before taking him in his arms and assuring him that this was something they’d work on together.

Heechul really was so much more than his coach. He was like a brother, a best friend and a parent all rolled into one. He was quite possibly the best thing that had ever happened to Taemin. Which was why Taemin wanted his opinion first.

“Hyung?”

“Hmm?”

“What would you say if I told you that I think Jinki might have a crush on me…and I might have a bit of a crush on him?”

Heechul smiled. “I would say…” he paused, being purposely dramatic.

“What?” Taemin whined, leaning away so he could shove Heechul’s arm. “Tell me!”

Heechul grabbed Taemin and pulled him back into his arms. “I’ll tell you what I’d say,” he growled playfully. “I’d tell you that if you want him, you go ahead and chase that boy down, grab onto him with both hands and don’t let go.”

Taemin looked up at Heechul, shaking his hair out of his eyes. “Really? That’s it?” He asked.

“Well,” Heechul said with a thoughtful look on his face, “I suppose I’d also have to go into a very long and detailed lecture about safe and get you some—”

Taemin shrieked and scrambled away from Heechul. “Never mind! Oh my god, forget I asked!”

“Wait,” Heechul yelled as Taemin ran toward the door as fast as he could, “Do you need condoms or anything?”

Taemin slammed the door shut behind him and ran up to Jonghyun and Key’s room. He banged on the door and screamed at them to open up. Key was the one who came to the door.

“What—” Key started.

“Save me!” Taemin yelled, pushing into the room and launching himself into the arms of the closest person, who happened to be Jinki. “My guardian is trying to talk to me about safe !”

Jonghyun gasped and Minho leapt up to slam the door shut. “Barricade the entry way!” He yelled. “We must spare this poor boy from the horrors of awkward talks!”

Jinki kicked his legs a bit. “Could you move your bony a little to the left?” He muttered.

Taemin did as he was asked and then flung his arms around Jinki’s neck. “For a second I thought you were going to tell me to get off of you,” he whispered. Key, Minho and Jonghyun were making a big show of piling pillows up in front of the door, not paying any attention to the pair of them.

“Nah,” Jinki assured, wrapping his arms around Taemin’s waist. “You’re good where you are.”

Jonghyun made to whack Minho over the head with a pillow, but Minho ducked and the pillow wound up smacking Key in the face. Key screamed and tackled Jonghyun to the floor, looking very much like he was going to grab the nearest pillow and smother his boyfriend with it. Minho lunged for Key’s arms and somehow tripped, knocking into Key. Key fell flat on top of Jonghyun, Minho on top of Key.

“You three are going to kill yourselves one of these days!” Jinki hollered at them as they attempted to untangle themselves from the mess of limbs and pillows.

Taemin leaned back against Jinki and thought about how he’d be dealing with this for another nine weeks. He figured if he could handle Heechul, he could take this lot.

He was pretty happy with where he was.

I hope you enjoyed reading ^^