An hour later, after a quick stop for coffee and in Jonghyun’s case food, the foursome found themselves in the entrance to the prestigious hospital. 

“And you’re sure that Jinki’s parents aren’t going to be here?” Taemin asked, not ready to truly acknowledge them as his parents yet. It made him nervous that he might have to see these people that he was quite possibly born from and yet had no memories of meeting because of horrible circumstances. 

“They don’t usually come on Saturdays. Jinki’s mom visits every day during the week and they both come on Sundays.” Minho explained, picking up a visitors pass for each of them as he signed their names in the record book at the reception desk. 

Taemin nodded, throat tight and not trusting himself to actually get out an answer. His stomach felt in knots and he was grateful that his friends didn’t push him to eat that morning. Key had only made one little comment but had been shut down by Minho almost as soon as the words left his mouth. 

Key and Jonghyun remained silent as they all trooped towards the elevators. No one spoke as they rode up and then exited, looking around for anyone they may deem as suspicious looking. They were on high alert now, understanding that anyone could be the person who threatened Taemin and they had no idea who they were and who they were working with. 

They turned the corner in the private section of the hospital and leaving Jinki’s room was a tall woman with dyed blonde hair, she had a friendly smile as she greeted the boys .“Hello boys.”

“Hello noona.” They greeted, sounding eerily alike and in unison. 

“I’m afraid that nothing has changed.” While she wasn’t supposed to be giving them updates, with the knowledge that they were going to grow into powerful positions, she wanted to make sure to have them on her good side. “The date has been scheduled for next Sunday.” She had also developed a soft spot for the older three after seeing them for so many weeks.

She couldn’t imagine being so young and having such a horrible and tragic thing happening in their lives. 

The nurse knew that they would have already been informed of what was going to happen, but she wanted to make sure that they knew when. It wouldn’t be surprising if their parents neglected to tell them out because they wanted to spare they children the sight of their friend passing away. 

They were made of stronger stuff than most, although she didn’t know about the new face, but she assumed that if he was a friend of theirs he was made of the same stuff. 

“Thank you.” Minho said politely as he gave her a small bow. He fought to keep his emotions off his face. If their plan went the way they hoped, Sunday wouldn't have to happen.

She nodded back and stepped away from the room allowing the boys to enter. “I’ll be back in about an hour, but feel free to stay as long as you like.” She was use to working around the boys, they were likely some of the most considerate visitors to the hospital, and tried to stay out of her way while they visited around her checks. 

Taemin swallowed hard as he entered the cool sterile room. It looked the same as it did the week before and the boy in the bed still looked like he was asleep. He moved over to the bed, closer than he had gone the week before. 

Sitting on the bed, mindful of wires that curled around the pale face of his brother. 

His brother. It had to be true. 

While they didn’t look identical, he could point out features that they shared. 

Gently, he touched Jinki’s cool right hand. He intwined their fingers and held on tight. 

Lost in his own mental world, he didn’t even notice that the other three leaned against the wall next to the closed door. They were going to give him space, give him a moment to greet the brother he didn’t know he had. 

“Hi Jinki.” Taemin began softly, eyes watching the older boy’s closed ones. He prayed for a twitch, any sign of movement. “I’m Taemin. I was here last week, we didn’t really get the chance to talk much.”

His throat felt scratchy with emotion but he carried on. “I’m Taemin.” He began again. “I’m 16 years old and I spent most of my life growing up in America. It wasn’t as nice as people say it is, but I was bounced around the foster care system so maybe that’s just me.”

He chuckled drily. “I just moved back to Korea after the funding to keep me in America stopped, and I think its because someone was being bribed to keep me away.” He paused, never having expected to let those words out of his mouth, but once they came he had to continue. “There is so much that I don’t know and so much that I can only imagine, but I need your help.” He took a shaky breath. “I need you to tell me what you’ve found out about your brother.” 

One of the machines next to the bed let out a high pitched beep causing the four boys to jump. In all the weeks and months they’d been visiting, not one of the monitors or machines had let out a single sound. Only the comforting steady beat of the cardiac machine was ever heard. 

Taemin continued. “I need you to help me make sense of everything that you’ve been researching. Don’t be mad at Minho for showing us your binder. Its my fault really. Someone threatened to kill me after my visit here last week.” The words were beginning to spill out of him now. 

As he talked more and more about his childhood and his first weeks in Korea, he could have swore Jinki’s fingers twitched in his but it was so small he couldn’t know for sure. 

“I… I… I …” He started and stopped as he tried to piece together what he wanted to say, trailing back to the reason he was there in the first place. Hoping that his voice, his words would wake Jinki up, praying that the doctors were wrong or even just plain lying. 

Swallowing hard he said, “I saw a picture that Minho says is you and your brother. I have a picture of me from when I was small. The only picture of me that I’ve ever seen, at least until I came here and can’t seem to get away from Sulli or Key or Jonghyun and their cameras.”

“In my photo… In your photo… there is a baby, I think it's the same baby.” He used his free hand to brush away a tear that he hadn’t felt until it was slipping down his cheek. “I think its me.” 

“I think that I’m your brother. You found me hyung. You found me.” He started crying in earnest then, hearing the sounds of his friends sobs in the back ground. “You found me and now you need to come back to me. I need my big brother. I need you.” 

He leaned over and whispered in Jinki’s ear, voice choked with tears. “Please hyung, Taemin is here. I’m here.”

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Another week another update! 

I'm super exhausted after a super busy weekend getting ready for Christmas, so I will just stop this here! 

Thank you my lovely readers for being my readers. Comments are loved and always welcome! 

All my loves

Kat