„Hyung …“

I sighed when I heard him calling me again.

“Onew Hyung …”

He was whining real badly right now, so I got a little worried. I peeked through the opened door just to see him cuddled up on the couch with a blanket wrapped around his body.
He was still just the same as when I had left him about five minutes ago.

“Just a second, Taeminnie!” I called out loudly so that he'd hear me over the sound of the TV. “I'm almost done.”

“Hurry …” he whined more and I heard him sniffing and blowing his nose. His teeth clattered so loud that I heard it straight into the kitchen – I felt sorry about him being so sick lately, I really did.
Whenever Taemin got sick he was always self-pitying himself to the extreme and would sit in front of the TV all day long. Since he was usually quite contagious the others always left me with him and would only return in order to sleep in here … so it was always me who got sick right after my poor, young boyfriend.

As soon as the instant soup – which I had bought just a few hours ago – was boiling I told Taemin to give me two more minutes to get dinner ready for him. He only groaned in response but also thanked me, which made me smile.
I put the soup into a bowl, grabbed a spoon and rejoined him on the couch.

“Here you go, honey.” I said rather quietly and handed him the bowl as he sat up. “Get well quickly, will you? It's troublesome with you being like this.”
Taemin sniffed only and nodded as he started having dinner. I got a bit closer to him, ruffled his hair and put my arm around his shoulder. He leaned against me immediately and seemed to like how we were being together now, so I just let him rest his head against my shoulder.

It had been quite a while since Taemin last got as sick as this.

And it would have been a lie to say that I didn't like it.

Not the fact that he was suffering though.

No,more likely because I could look after him like this now.

“Are you feeling a little better by now?” I asked and looked at the TV. What I saw surprised me though. “Since when are you watching Pororo again?”
Taemin shrugged, ate a little more and said: “Since I feel like I am going to die I don't mind what I'm watching.”
I laughed at that and his arm. “You're not going to die. You heard the doctor yesterday, didn't you? He said you only caught a bad cold.”

“Tell the others that I love them, Onew Hyung.” Taemin groaned as he coughed. “I'm about to die.”
I held him a little tighter and didn't reply to that. Instead I made sure that he kept on eating the soup – because I had put his medicine in there since he wouldn't take it on its own – and continued watching the kids shows with him.
However, even though he said he wasn't particularly tired he soon fell asleep, still resting on me.
He looked really peaceful like that and I was happy about that. His nose might have been red while his cheeks were white, but he was not sweating as much as before, which meant that his fever had gone down slightly by now.

It was a little uncomfortable, sitting like I was doing it now, but I didn't get up whatsoever. Since the remote for the TV was buried underneath of Taemins thigh I couldn't change the channel and just continued watching Pororo and other childrens shows that followed. It was actually quite cute but got annoying after a while – because of that I was relieved when I heard the front door open and Keys upset voice, arguing about something with Jonghyun.

Minho was the first to come into the living room and see Taemin asleep, so he turned back to the hallway and told the other two to be a little quieter.

“Hey, Hyung.” he greeted and sat next to me. “How's it going?” he leaned forward and pinched Taemins cheek carefully. “He's still hot.”

“Yeah, but his fever's gone down.” I told him and pecked the top of Taemins head. “He fell asleep just a little while ago.”

“Did he take his medicine?”

“Yup. Not that he noticed though.”
Minho chuckled at that and nodded just as Jonghyun and Key entered the living room. They were glaring at each other, but as soon as Key saw his so-called baby son sleeping on the couch his expression softened and he came over.
“Poor baby.” he said and knelt in front of him. “Is he better already?”
I shrugged and said: “He told me to tell you that he loved you.”

“That's sweet, but why?”

“Because he feels like he's going to die.”
Key awe-ed at that and grinned so widely that I couldn't see his eyes for a moment. “We should get him to bed though. If he's so sick that he can't stay awake then he should sleep some more.”

“Good idea.” Jonghyun said and I found him next to Minho as I looked up. “We still need to talk though, Kibum.” he was sounding rather annoyed and I could tell that these two had fought again … just like they always did.
“Stop bothering me about it.” Key snapped quietly as he got up to his feet. “I think everything was said, wasn't it?” he Taemins hair gently before turning away.
“I think there's a lot unsaid.” Jonghyun insisted and grabbed him by his wrist. “Let's talk about this in our room.”

“If we must.” Key rolled his eyes and let Jonghyun intertwine their fingers. “Good night everyone.” he waved at us before looking at me again. “Make sure that my baby gets into bed safely, yes?” he furrowed his brow at me. “I'll punish you if he gets hurt.”

“I know, I know.” I said and smiled at him as they left the room. “Good night.”

“I don't think they heard that.” Minho said, causing me to chuckle. “Do you need help with Taemin-ah, Hyung?”
I shook my head and waved him off. “But it'd be really great if you could make some tea with honey for him, please?” I made a cute face at him, hoping that he'd fall for it even though it was quite late already. I was not the cutest in our group – that honor belonged to Taemin and Minho themselves – but I sometimes tried to use Aegyo on my friends as well … it didn't work most of the time, but that didn't matter.

“Aegyo won't work on me, Onew Hyung. But I'll get it for you anyway.” he nudged me and got up, walking over to the kitchen. I thanked him before I turned to Taemin who was still sound asleep and snoring quietly.

“Come on, Taeminnie.” I whispered and pulled him up into a sitting position – he groaned a little, but didn't wake. “Time for bed.” as I lifted him off of the couch, with the blanket still wrapped around him, his eyes fluttered open and he looked at me for a split second before deciding to sleep again.
Huddling his face into my chest he exhaled deeply, sniffed and fell silent. “You must be really exhausted, huh?” I mumbled and tiptoed out of the room, right past the two bedrooms that we had downstairs. As I walked pass Kibums room – which he shared with Jonghyun ever since they had started dating – I could still hear them arguing over something stupid, but decided not to bother them.

There was silence in Minhos and mine old room – but that was obvious – and so I just walked up the stairs and entered the only room that we had there, Taemins bedroom.
I bumped the door open with my hip and closed it again with my foot.

“There you go.” I whispered into Taemins ear and let him down on the bed that the two of us shared. “Now you can sleep peacefully.” I removed the blanket from the living room from his body and covered him with it properly. “Is it warm enough now?” I asked when I noticed how he was peeking at me through his halfway-opened eyelids. He shook his head slowly, so I put his normal blanket onto his body as well. “Now?”

“Onew Hyung …” he breathed out and raised his arms, asking me to hug him. “Sleep with me tonight … please?”

“Give me a few minutes, yes? Minho-ah is making some tea for you. I'll join you afterwards.”

“Neh …” Taemin sighed and blinked a few times before sniffing coughing a little. I leaned down, kissed his forehead and looked up when I heard Minho knocking on the door.

“Here's the tea, Hyung.” he whispered as he entered the room. There was steam coming out of the cup he was holding, but I could already smell that it was a good flavor. “Sorry, but I can't stay long now.”

“That's alright.” I replied and took the cup from him. “But what are you up to?”

“Yuri is sleeping over tonight.” he said with a shy grin and pulled something out of his pocket. “By the way, Onew Hyung, you forgot to take these with you.” he handed me a pair of pills and I gasped out of surprise. Minho chuckled at that. “I figured that you'd forgot them since Taemin-ah's so ill. But please don't forget to look after yourself, alright?”

“Thanks, Minho-ah.” I said and put the pills into my mouth. I swallowed them by taking a sip of Taemins tea and waited for a second before adding: “I really did forget about them. Sorry.”

“That's alright. But I don't think any of us would want you to get depressed again, okay?”

“I know. Thanks again.”
He winked at me playfully and excused himself because of his girlfriend coming over soon.
I waited a little before I lay down next to Taemin. He was already napping, but woke up when I removed the blanket from him as I crawled underneath of it myself.

“Are you still awake?” I asked quietly as I put my arm around his shoulders. He hummed a Neh and put his head onto my shoulder.
“Are you well, Hyung?” he whispered and closed his eyes completely again. “You got your pills now, right …?”

“Yeah, don't worry.” I soothed him and held him tightly so that he'd be warm. I could hear the doorbell ringing downstairs and smiled so myself at the thought of Minho and Yuri finally being able to spend time together. “I'll be alright.”

“I'm glad.”

I was relieved that he was so worried about me. He had been the one who accompanied me to the doctor a few weeks ago as well. When I had been diagnosed with depressions Taemin had been the most worried out of all of our members. He took care of me a lot and always went with me to the doctors appointments and sometimes even accompanied me to my therapy sessions. And when he couldn't come with me he'd pick me up from there and walk me home.
Since SHINee was having a break lately – since we were planning to release our new album in only a few months there was not a lot to do – Taemin and I managed to spend lots of time together. If it were up to me, then this break could have lasted forever.

“Thanks for caring for me so much, Hyung.” Taemin then mumbled and I felt his body getting heavier and heavier in my arms from then on – I knew that he was going to fall asleep quickly. “I love you.”

“Don't worry, Taeminnie.” I replied and closed my eyes as well. “I'll be there for you through good and bad times … just like you are doing it for me as well.”
Taemin didn't reply, but that was alright. He was probably just really exhausted from his illness.
I coughed a little and felt a weird feeling in my throat.

I was probably getting sick myself now …

I sighed and hummed a melody until I felt like I was tired enough to fall asleep.

“I love you, too, Taeminnie.”




*




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So this is really short and quite boring I think, but I had fun writing it C:
I decided to just upload the Foreword earlier so that some people might get a first look at it before actually uploading the story itself ... so ... yeah ... I hope you enjoy it C:

Thanks for reading!!~