“100.” After what felt like an eternity, Taemin finally finished counting. While he knew that his attacker was long gone, he had once again learned early on to never ignore an instruction. Especially when the threat of pain accompanied it. 

He had barely begun to pull himself up off the floor, cursing his body’s reaction to terror when the sound of keys hitting the lock on the door made him freeze. He didn’t want to look at the door,  but he had to make sure that no one unwarranted was coming back to get him. He had counted all the way to 100 right? The fear was illogical but he couldn't help it as he thought back. 

He knew that he hadn't missed any numbers. Right? He hadn’t skipped any numbers and would find himself on the business end of something dangerous? No, he told himself, that would be an amateur mistake. Something that he wouldn't have done since before his 10th birthday. The sound of the key clicking in the unlocked lock and the scrap of the hinges as the door begun to open, jolted Taemin up onto his feet. 

The opening door framed Minho as he stepped inside, but Taemin only saw him briefly. He had to hide the wetness of his pants before his roommate would see, fearing that he would demand answers for the disgusting happening. He wasn't embarrased by his body's reaction, not really, but it would be humiliating.

It wasn’t the first time he’d wet his pants like this, but the last time he’d still been a child and hadn’t been in America very long. This time, he was nearly an adult and had a roommate that already knew he was pathetic enough without becoming the kid who wet himself. He stood bolt upright and ran for the bathroom before Minho could take another step away from the door. Once again grateful for his speed, he was in the bathroom, slamming the door shut before Minho had closed their dorm room door. 

Slumping against the door, Taemin took several deep breaths before he was ready to move again. He could hear Minho moving about in their room, heard different things being shifted but the older boy never came near the bathroom. Stripping off his dirty clothing, Taemin balled them up and shoved the bundle deep into the laundry basket under the sink. He’d make sure to do the laundry after his shower. The last thing he’d want would be for Minho to find the smelly, gross clothing that Key had spent so much money on. 

It wasn’t just that he’d wet himself now that he was thinking about it, but the fact that he had dirtied clothing that his friend had bought him. It felt as though he wasn’t being grateful and careful with the new things. 

He the shower, testing the temperature. It was hotter than he normally enjoyed but not nearly as hot as the day Minho had found him with nearly first degree burns. He wanted to be clean and this time was at least more rational about his actions. 

The acidy smell that filled his nose vanished as he stepped into the water and spilled body wash into his hands. Some scent called “mountain air” filled the steamy bathroom. Minho had told him just to share his shower products the first week when after using the generic, cheap school supplied soaps, Taemin had broken out in hives from a bad reaction. 

Grateful that he wouldn’t spend the next year itching, Taemin usually tried to use the bare minimum necessary. This time, he must have used half the nearly full bottle in his bid to be clean. 

He couldn’t hear Minho moving around with the drumming of the water hitting tile, but when he stepped out of the shower barely 10 minutes later, he couldn’t hear a sound in the other room.Wondering if Minho had left again, Taemin grabbed a towel from the cupboard and dried his hair. Muttering a curse under his breath at not grabbing anything to wear in his mad embarrassed dash, he was then forced to wrap the towel around him and head out into the bedroom. 

Minho routinely wandered from living area to sleeping area to bathroom in only a towel, but Taemin had never felt that comfortable. He sighed, squared his shoulders and walked out, hoping that at least Minho wouldn't say too much about it. 

Meanwhile, while Taemin was showering, Minho had been in their room looking for the source of an odd smell. He’d come back from his alone time not exactly looking forward to having to deal with and apologize to his roommate, only to just catch the ends of Taemin’s hair whipping at warp speed into their shared bathroom. 

Great. He’d upset the younger more than he originally thought. “I’ll have to make it up to him now.” Minho mumbled under his breath as he kicked off his shoes, tossed his keys and wallet onto his desk and ran a hand through his hair. As he moved over to his bed, looking to just lay down and try to stop thinking for a while, an odd smell hit his nose. It was almost a sour smell, like bad body odour but nose wrinkling sweet at the same time. He started to move around the room, investigating the source of the smell to hopefully do something about it. 

He couldn’t quite pin down what it was, the garbage was empty but his gym bag was open. Doing a quick sniff test, the tall boy guessed that the odd ammonia like smell was from his unwashed things. He made a mental note to do the laundry later. 

Having determined what the weird smell was, Minho allowed himself to sink down onto his bed. Maybe a nap would give him the freedom from his thoughts.

He heard the water turn on and knew that Taemin was about to get into the shower. He would have at least 20 minutes to himself before his roommate was out. The younger had began to take longer and longer showers when he realized that Minho didn’t care how long he took and the school didn’t complain about his water use or risk of running out of hot water. 

He was tired, it had been a long day and he was feeling so many emotions that he was trying to block them all out. Most of all though, the only feeling he couldn’t push aside was guilt. He knew that he had made Taemin feel bad when he forced him to get out of his car, but rationally he knew that he would have been even worse to the younger had he stayed or allowed Taemin to stay. 

Or heaven forbid, he’d get the younger dragged into Jinki’s mess and he couldn’t let him get hurt. 

The last couple hours he had spent wandering Jinki’s last route. Jonghyun had had the gps on his phone hacked after Jinki had been found and over the last 4 months, Minho had walked, ran and drove that route no less than 3 times a week. 

He hoped that there would be some scrape of something that would tell them who did this to his older friend, but even two days after, there was nothing. It didn’t stop him from looking, and with the news that Jinki was to be taken off life support, Minho felt it necessary to double down on his search efforts. 

He wasn’t ready to give up yet. 

He didn’t think that he ever would be. 

The water shut off sooner than he was expecting, less than 10 minutes after it came on. 

If Minho had been thinking properly, he would have determined that that meant that something was wrong. But with his head overflowing with Jinki, he couldn’t process anything else. 

Not really wanted to deal with the roommate that had filled Jinki’s space and filled him with guilt, Minho quickly shucked his pants and crawled under his covers. It was still early, too early for bed really, but Minho turned to face the wall and closed his eyes. He really would try and take that nap. He didn’t see Taemin emerge in only his towel since in his mad dash he hadn’t grabbed a change of clothing. 

He didn’t see Taemin get dressed, stare sadly towards the lump that was his roommate and he didn’t see the tears that still sparkled wetly in his eyes as he curled up himself in his own bed. 

Going to bed early seemed like a good idea to Taemin too, everything that was too much to handle just needed to be put on pause for the time being. Letting the tears fall once he was tucked safe in bed, Taemin bit his fist to try and keep from making a sound. 

He now had bigger things to worry about than Yunho and his buddies bullying him, or Sulli spilling his secret. 

He now knew that what happened to Jinki wasn’t an accident.

He had come to that conclusion in the shower, along with one other one. 

Taemin shivered in his bed as he thought it over again, he now knew that he was going to end up just like Jinki. Laying dead in a hospital, but unlike the elder, Taemin was worried he wouldn’t know what he had done. That the person who had appeared once, would appear again and this time, he’d be done.

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Kat