The next six days passed for Taemin a bit slower than what he had wished for. The upscale house filled with nothing but the stubborn silence of both son and father. Walking past the other was what Taemin hated and eating the mandatory family dinner together was loathed. There was no way to get out of the house either, since his best friend had graduated ahead of him and was already residing in Seoul. And through every single day, Taemin prayed for it to be short. He really needed to get out of this damn country and back to where he belongs, and wants to be: Seoul, Korea.

There was the place of birth of both Taesun and Taemin, but shortly after their mother's death, they moved out to Osaka, Japan to start a fresh and new life. Starting out in a Japanese school was hard at first with having to learn a new language at a young age plus practicing Korean at the same time. But his first friend ever was Kim Jongin, or Kai is what he liked being called. He was also a full Korean boy, but was born in Japan. To Taemin's relief he was fluent in both languages which made him an easy friend and tutor. 

Of course Jongin and him became very close, sort of like the (nice) brother that Taemin never had. One that would listen to his feelings and be protective, unlike his real brother Taesun who was an on-an-off kind of guy. One day he'd be offering Taemin to ride on his back if he was exhausted, and the next he'd be pushing all of his chores onto Taemin while he lounged on a couch like a bum. As Taesun got older, he became less caring than he was the day before, which hurt Taemin a whole lot. Losing his brother to the dark side of the town.

When Taemin was a freshman in high school, his girlish facial features caught much attention from the senior jocks of the school. The older guys guided the clueless young boy to the side of the school because they wanted to "talk" to him. 

"Who do you think you are coming to this school and thinking you can get every girl here?!" One of them said shoving his shoulder to the wall. "Are you trying to get yourself killed by us? I suggest you stop fluttering your pretty little eyelids that my girlfriend has fallen for." With a nasty scratching sound in his throat, the older man gathered saliva and spat directly on Taemin's left cheek.

Taemin ran his sleeve across his face to soak up the gross, smoke reaking substance. As he was almost through with cleaning his cheek, another one of the guys grabbed his wrist, "Wait, if you do that, your make-up will come off. And god forbid we see the ugly thing that's been tricking all of our girlfriends." He said causing the group to crow obnoxiously.
"What do you say we give him a makeover boys?" A different one said as he cracked his knuckles. "But let's have this transgender boy have the first blow from his own brother."

"I'm not-" Taemin started to correct the misunderstanding. Sure he was a bit popular with the girls but its not like he begged for their attention. He actually hated the attention he received, from boy or girl, he would rather be alone. Before he could explain, the group of boys split in half to reveal a familiar face. The boy holding his wrist slammed it against the building, causing Taemin to wince in pain. When he looked up, his own flesh and blood stood before him with a stone hard glare and solemn face. The younger looked up to him with tears filling his eyes, knowing that this would be the definite end to him and his brothers bond forever. "Hyung- Ah!"

The older boy socked him dead in the gut and watched his younger brother slip down the wall wailing in pain. The first punch acted like a green light at a traffic stop and soon four of the other jocks had begun to kick and spit out insults to the cowering boy. Taemin could do nothing but make himself into a ball, protect his head, and pray for this beating to end as soon as possible. Through a thickening film of tears, between the small squint of his eyes, Taemin could make out his brother walking away from the whole scene to leave his younger brother, his family, behind to suffer.

To suffer from looking astonishingly close to his own mother was an utmost blessing, but described as a curse in times like these.

Although the beating lasted only for about a minute, it seemed like hours had passed before the jocks had taken out all of their anger. The kicking slowly declined in power and timing, along with the insults that began to travel away from the boy's limp body.

Keeping the tears inside of Taemin was a real challenge. It was important for him to remain, or even just appear, strong-willed and fearless to show-off to others, just as Choi Minho sings in one of his songs. But as soon as the cackling laughter had rounded around the corner, the boy unfurled himself from his position, feeling the dull ache of his rib cage. Allowing himself to cast away his fake resiliency he sobbed so, so loudly, unknowing if it was the result of physical pain or the pain of betrayal.

So what, he had a reason to cry right? Besides, nobody could hear him anyway. That's what he thought, until Jongin came running to Taemin's side. 
"Taemin! What happened, are you okay? Can you get up?!" He exclaimed raising Taemin's head and torso up a little, earning a weird choke/groan as the boy's tears trailed down his neck. "Oh sweet-" Jongin began, before cutting himself off. "We need to get you home." He said with urgency. Jongin instructed Taemin to try his best to use his energy to stabilize himself for just a second, so Jongin could get low enough for Taemin to ring his arms around his neck.

The younger pushed up Taemin's shoulders and propped him up against the wall in a sitting position. Jongin hesitated, because that was as far as he got in his plan to help his friend stand back up. But obviously that wasn't going to happen with the groans coming from his cut lips. Eventually, he found himself a way to hike Taemin on his back, and the two headed for Jongin's house. Luckily, nobody was home so they didn't have to sneak Taemin's blood-soaked body all the way to Jongin's room.

Taemin was set in a chair in the middle of the kitchen where Jongin then aided his best friend in all of his injuries, both physical and mental.

Taemin always wondered how that lazy -of-a-brother got so far in lawl school and made himself wealthy.

Thank god I'll be seeing him a lot more often once I leave tomorrow. Taemin thought as he stared down into his bowl rice. 
"Taemin-ah, please eat. You're going to need your strength for the plane ride tomorrow." His step-mother said scooping a helping of steamed vegetables to top the grain. Taemin looked up at her with a smile and thanked her for her concern, then looked over to his dad who bent over his food, stirring around his own bowl a bit mindlessly. He was so spaced out, that when he accidentally released his spoon, the clang against the porcelain jolted him into reality.

The other two at the table did the same and their eyes immediately flickered to the older man's. A cold gaze from Taemin was enough for his dad to break the stare in shame. He felt bad for being so selfish, but at the same time he still didn't want his son to fulfill his dream, if he couldn't be able to do the same. He felt jealousy and was ashamed of it. As a father, he knows he should be supporting his son, but there was something about the industry that he felt like he needed to protect Taemin from.
"Taemin," He said startling the boy. "Eat up." He shoveled broccoli and rice into his mouth, as if to set an example. Those were the first words exchanged between them within the last couple days.

The son only pierced his eyes through his dads head and tried to figure out his game. Why the does he care. Stupid . He thought. But considering that he hadn't eaten all day, and strength really was important for tomorrow, he began to spoon himself up some meat from the pot in front of him and began to eat. All the while he was eating, he could feel his step-mother's happiness radiating from her face. At least she was happy right now. Even if Taemin shared no exceptionally close or special bond with her, it made the boy feel good that she was smiling.

Once his bowl was empty and stomach was filled, Taemin sat back in his chair with a filling sigh. The boy patted his stomach and thanked his mother for the delectable dinner, like he did every night. Just as he grabbed his bowl and started to leave his seating, his dad stopped him.

"Taemin, we'll get it later. Let's talk for now." he said.

Taemin paused mid-air as if frozen in time. He blinked down at his father, then with a sigh continued taking his dishes to the sink saying, "There's nothing more to talk about." He set them gently inside of the stainless steel rectangular tub and walked casually towards the living room. 

"No, Taemin. Sit down." His father calmly ordered with authority in his voice. "We need to get some things straight before you leave tomorrow." He then added.

A sigh left Taemin's mouth as he spun around on his heel to stare at the couple still seated at the table. Well, he was going to have to hear him out anyway, Taemin's father would end up screaming his conversation if Taemin had just walked away. He didn't want to ruin his hearing, so he rolled his eyes and then braced himself for another session of yelling; expecting it to be like how it was almost a week ago. The boy planted, or better yet, dropped his bottom back into the chair and crossed both arms and legs, raising an eyebrow and sitting there like it was a complete waste of time for his father to be spewing from his mouth.

"If you want to be treated like an adult, then I suggest you drop that kind of attitude. What are you, 15 again?" A scowl emerged upon Taemin's face yet he stayed quiet and patiently waited for his father's words; knowing that this wasn't what he was called back to talk about.
"You're leaving to Seoul tomorrow. What money are you using?" The adult asked curiously.

Taemin gave a plain laugh and uncrossed his arms to latch his fingers together on his lap. "My own money that I have been saving up solely for this day." The boy smirked.

"Where are you staying?"

"A cheap apartment off campus." 

"How will you pay?"

"I'm getting a job."

"Do you really think that a part-time job will pay for you studies, food, and put a roof over your head? You must be crazy then. I won't give you one penny of mine unless you change majors." The older man said chuckling. Not because anything was funny, just because he had a feeling that his son will eventually beg for money. When he asks for it, there's no way he'll be giving it after he's done his best in trying to stop him from going. When Taemin has gone poor, he plans to fly him back to Japan where he will stay and constantly remind him that he is a failure. Yes, that day he will have the biggest smile on his face.

"I'll make it, I can promise you that. And once I'm successful, I'll be happily living my life with somebody, and treat them the way a human should be treated. I'll be a husband who equally loves his kids and respects his partner in life. You know what I'll be?" Taemin asked with a fake smile. He waited a couple of seconds before answering his own question, "Somebody totally opposite from you." He finished bitterly with a scoff and forced his chair back to exit the table. 

The boy then knocked the furniture to the floor, causing his mother to release a suprised shriek at the loud sound. But he didn't care. He didn't care about anybody at all right now. Leaving to Korea is the best thing for him, to go ahead and start on his own. Reaching his life goal all by himself was going to be worth the struggle he's been through once he's smiling at an awards ceremony, walking up and accepting choreographer of the year. Yeah, definitely worth the hardships.
With his back turned from his family, Taemin stood in the door way between the kitchen and the living room as the last words of his father echoed within his brain.

"It's too late for that. You're already just like me, Taemin."

Taemin fought back the urge to disagree and calmly walked out of the room with the intent to resume packing the rest of his necessities.

~~~~~

Making his way up the staircase, Kibum hummed a tuned that his grandmother used to sing. Using the same melody but changing up the words he chirped, "Minho, you little ! Wake the up because we have a schedule today!" through the long corridor heading to his idol's bedroom. Being in an unusually happy mood today, he skipped across the red carpet and pushed open the door which was cracked open a centimeter. "Hey, Minho-ah!" Kibum called while skimming through the pages of paper clipped to his clipboard now.

There was nothing but silence. Well, that excluded the barely audible snores coming from a huge wad of blankets and pillows in the middle of the bed. The manager clicked his tongue in an unapproving way and set his clipboard on the coffee table as he made his way to the ball of soft fabrics. Kibum raised his arms over his head to stretch out his back and then cracked his knuckles. After, he got into position, ready to leap and tackle the rising and falling wad of fabrics. On the count of three, he used all the effort he could to jump and flatten the top of the pile, decreasing the size instantly and revealing a fatter version of Minho's outline.

Once topping the pile, Key started belting out song lyrics (screaming would be a better way to describe it) and began rocking the entire bed post.

Downstairs in the foyer talking to a butler-in-training was Jinki, or Onew as a nickname, the head butler of the estate.

The new worker looked up at the direction of the racket and wondered out loud, "What's going on up there?" Kim Jonghyun asked giggling a bit at the absolutely wonderfully hilarious mix of singing (screaming), cursing, and groans.

"Oh, just the manager and master. Happens pretty much every morning. You learn to get used to it around here." Onew laughed. "Welcome to Team Choi Minho." He said smiling and patting the younger on the back.

Back up the stairs in the extra-large master bedroom was Key who was repeatedly bashing the back of Minho's head with a pillow, as the younger let out groans of annoyance. "You're such a prick Key!" The idol screamed as he took Kibum's ankle and pulled it. The pull startled the man and sent him timbering down into the bed like a tree being chopped down in a forest. Then the tables were turned. Minho took advantage of the falling time to rise up from his spot and claim a pillow. Minho then beat his friend multiple times before Key rolled off the bed and found a stray cushion. 

"Did you just call me Key?!" He asked acting disgusted and surprised. "It's hyung, to you, you little !" And with that comment, Kibum launched the pillow right into Minho's face. 

And this is how Minho's room looks like a hurricane comes through every morning.

By the end of the fight where both men were tuckered out, it was 15 minutes later when Kibum looked at his watch. "Damn it Minho, you're going to be late to your appointment if you don't get dressed right now. Hurry, hurry!" He urged while jumping over piles of clothes and out the door, shutting it behind him. Instead of leaving down the hall after shutting the door, Kibum stood by the door and walkie-talkied the chauffeur to bring the car around front and to be ready to leave.

"What's this appointment for?" Minho asked as he chose a random shirt from his drawer along with a pair of pants. As he stripped and dressed himself again, Minho listened carefully for details about his organized day. "You're going to be meeting the director of a drama that you'll be participating in. It's called 'To The Beautiful You' and your co-star/love interest is-" Kibum paused to look through the papers he was faxed this morning. "Choi Jinri, or Sulli as her stage name." He finished. 

"Nice, she's cute." Minho smiled thinking of that face he's seen only once or twice before in person.

"Sure. And your entertainment agencies wanted to talk over some other important things, so dress nicely." Key replied.

Minho made his way to a full mirror, and studied the black v-neck and jeans. "." he whined, as he lazily made his way to a separate closet filled with suits.

A/N: Just a bit more character development? Well it's pretty much done. Kekeke. This chapter contains important things everybody, so I hope you all weren't so bored that you guys just skimmed through and missed everything ><;; I apologize since character development isn't that fun to read. Kekeke. Taemin's dad is making me mad everybody! Grr, but he will never crush Minnie's spirits ^^ Until next chapter! (P.S. Sorry I rushed at the end of this. I needed to use the bathroom, but i refuse to break my train of thought by getting up ><;; More like lazy queen kekeek)
                       Annyeonghigaseyo!~ Queen S