16:

“Hey Minho-oppa!” Sulli said as she dropped into the spot beside her brother, eyes darting around the table. “Where’s Taemin-oppa?”

The question was innocent enough, but it was enough to make Key worry.

“What do you mean? We thought he’d be coming with you.” His voice sounded light, but to anyone who knew Key it was clear that he was worried.

“He was, but we had to stay after class.” Amber said. “Teacher Kim wanted to thank us for being so kind to Taemin because he’s new.”

“Yeah, we told him that we’d meet him here and that he should come find you guys.” Sulli said, standing up and searching around the room.

“Maybe he had to go to the bathroom?” Jonghyun suggested, hoping to alleviate any worry the girls, and Key, were starting to have.

“Minho, go look for him.” Sulli said, turning to stare at her brother.

“No.” He said without looking up from his food. “I’m sure he’s fine. How would you like it if you were trying to take a sh...”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” Sulli said, holding up a hand and looking at her brother in disgust.

“Minho.” Key’s voice sounded light, but Jonghyun’s eyes widened as he stared at his friend, understanding the dangerous tone in the younger’s voice. “Go find your roommate, or feel my wrath.”

For a moment, it looked as if Minho would argue.

He didn’t though, setting down his chopsticks and getting to his feet.

“Check the bathroom closest to us first!” Key shouted as Minho walked away, grumbling about his lunch going cold. “If anything, he’d go there first.”

“How do you know that?” Jonghyun asked in surprise.

“Because I’m his umma.” Key stated simply enough.

Minho couldn’t hear what Jonghyun’s reply was, and thought that it was probably best not to care.

People were starting to move around more in the hallways, some stepping around puddles of water.

Minho thought nothing of the strange, random puddles. They were probably remains of snowballs that the older classes had brought inside.

Sighing as he reached the first men’s bathroom, Minho headed inside. He felt stupid looking for his roommate like this.

Shouldn’t the boy be able to take care of himself?

Why did the girls, and Key, care so much if Taemin suddenly decided that he wanted to skip lunch?

Maybe they had forced their friendship on the poor boy and he didn’t even want it.

Yeah, Minho told himself, that was probably it. Taemin was just too polite to say that he didn’t want to hang out with them and had gone off when he had the chance.

Lost in his thoughts, Minho didn’t notice the abundance of water covering the normally dry bathroom floor. Sure boys were messier than girls by default, but that didn’t mean that the janitorial staff let their bathrooms run into messes like this.

Groaning as he splashed through little puddles, Minho made sure to check if all the stalls were empty. God forbid he forget one and Taemin was laying there bleeding to death.

Or so his internal voice said, in a tone much too much like Key’s.

“Empty.” He muttered to himself, wondering where he would be required to check next. “Maybe he’s with the others now and I’m just wasting time.”

Pulling out his phone he prepared to text Jonghyun when something caught his eye.

Lying on the floor, soaking wet, was the hair-tie Key had scavenged from Minho’s things earlier that morning.

He knew it was the same one because of the elaborate black on black design.

Curious he bent over and picked it up between two fingers.

It was still half tied, as if it had been forcefully removed, not having come undone on its own. As well there were strands of black hair tangled in the knot, a large enough clump that would have stung upon its removal.

Holding the tie in his hand, Minho stood back up and giving on last glance around, headed out of the bathroom.

His feet moved quickly down the familiar path to his room.

If something had happened to the younger boy, Minho figured he would want to get somewhere safe quickly.

At least, that’s what Minho himself would do.

People stared as the popular jock hurried through the hallways. It was an unusual sight to see.

Minho never hurried anywhere.

He walked with purpose and he ran when desired, but he never hurried.

The walk from the school to the dorms had never felt longer and Minho couldn’t figure out just why he was so worried about some kid he had only just met.

The only reason he could think of was because of what had happened to Jinki.

He still felt responsible for what happened to the older boy and maybe those feelings of protectiveness were filtering through to the new kid, reminding him of what he could have done.

Hair-tie still held tight in his first, Minho dug around in his pockets for his keys.

There was no need for them, Minho found when he reached his open dorm door.

The sound of rushing water carried out of the bathroom and to the main door as Minho went inside, closing and locking the door as he went.

Steam poured out of the bathroom, the door not even attempted to be closed.

What sounded like muffled sobs made Minho’s stomach turn as he rushed forward.

All he could see was fog as he made his way into the bathroom. Water poured out, unhindered by the open shower curtain, soaking the floor.

If the door hadn’t been open, the temperature of the room would have been astronomical and as if was, Minho could already feel himself sweating.

“Taemin?” He called out softly, not wanting to scare the younger. He didn’t get a response.

Not wanting to disturb Taemin’s privacy but knowing that he couldn’t stay away, Minho moved slowly closer to the shower.

Sitting there, hunched over as if he was trying to curl into himself, was Taemin. He was still dressed in his uniform and the weight of the water in the material made him look smaller than ever.

Minho’s instinct kicked in, and with no regards for anything other than comforting his roommate, he stepped into the shower and dropped to his knees. “Taemin?” He asked softly, reaching out a hand to touch the smaller boy.

The water was scalding hot as it touched his hand and quickly he withdrew it.

Taemin had yet to realize his presence.

It was then that Minho saw how red Taemin’s exposed skin was. It looked as if he was boiling.

He had to reach over Taemin to turn down the water, not wanting to turn it off for fear of really frightening his roommate.

The change in temperature made Taemin shiver and once again Minho reacted before thinking, drawing the smaller boy into his arms.

The action jerked Taemin out of his thoughts and he started screaming and thrashing.

“Taemin!” Minho shouted, tightening his hold, “Taemin, its Minho! Its me!” He shouted the same words over and over until the boy in his arms stopped struggling.

“Minho?” The small voice asked, croaked more like it, exhausted and hurt from both screaming and the too hot water.

“Yeah, Minho.”

“Please don’t hurt me.” Taemin’s voice was small and sounded very meek. “I’m sorry I wasted water, I’m sorry I used the hot water. I was just so cold.” The apologies continued.

He was sorry that Minho was wet.

He was sorry that the door was open.

He was sorry that Minho had to be bothered with him.

He was just sorry.

“Its alright.” Minho said, trying to be comforting. He felt awkward, unsure of what to do, while wishing that it had been Key who had found Taemin because he would know what to do.