“Jinki-hyung, get up!” Taemin’s almost whine-like voice pierced through the veil of Jinki’s sleep, but he didn’t react to it in any way. “We have to go see your doctor today…”

“So what?” He groaned into the pillow, realizing he just gave himself away, and then stilled again.

“You could be getting the cast off today hyung! Aren’t you excited?” After an unwavering pull on his one arm from Taemin, the eldest finally sat up, his hair ruffled from countless hours spent tossing and turning in the bed.

“Shut up Taemin!” Jonghyun’s groggy voice cut through the shared bedroom, followed by a half-asleep groan. “Some of us are trying to sleep.”

“Sorry.” But the maknae didn’t seem to be, pleading with Jinki to get up in whispers now, eventually getting him up and into the kitchen. “I made you breakfast since we have to leave so early!”

“Thanks Minnie.” He barely saw the boy freeze slightly at the nickname, but before Jinki could even be sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, Taemin was back to his hyper and wide-awake state.

“Great! You eat and I’ll get some clothes ready for you in the bathroom so you can shower before we go. Sound good?” When he got a nod, Taemin gave a killer smile and left the room with a bounce in his step, not trying all that much at being quiet when he reentered the room with the three other sleeping hyungs.

“Has he always been like this?” There was no one for Jinki to ask to know. He knew it would break any of the others if he did.

Once safely inside the walk-in closet with the door closed behind him, Taemin let the first of his tears fall as he sunk to the ground. “He called me Minnie again… And he doesn’t even realize it.” With a sniffle, he wiped his nose and eyes with his sleeve and stood in a single motion, not letting the thoughts dampen his mood too much. “I still need to pick clothes out for him… What should he wear?”

“Try sweatpants and a t-. Not much fits over the cast besides shorts, but it’s going to be rainy today. And if it comes off today, he’s going to want comfortable pants.” Taemin couldn’t help his jump of fright when someone spoke from behind him. It could have only been Key because of the ease he spoke about fashion but, not knowing if there was anyone else with him, Taemin gave his eyes a final wipe and turned around with his biggest smile on his face.

“Thanks Key-hyung!” There wasn’t anyone else in the room with him, but if Taemin squinted to look through the doorway, he swore he could see movement from outside. “I’ll just bring Jinki-hyung some clothes then and you can go back to sleep. Sorry for disturbing you.” He grabbed a random pair of sweats from a drawer and an equally-random t-shirt to match, starting to walk past Key.

And just like he expected, once he entered the main room, Minho and Jonghyun were both sitting on the bed in the middle. He gave the two a smile and started to walk out, only to stop when Jonghyun called his name out. “Yes hyung?”

“Come back here when you are done.” And there wasn’t another option, so Taemin nodded and scurried out of the room, putting the clothes with some towels in the bathroom. After telling Jinki that it was all set for him, he returned to the room with the three now on the bed, all looking at him.

“I’m sorry if I woke you all. I know I wasn’t being exactly quiet…” He bowed a little in an apology that was accepted by the elders. For a few seconds, there was complete silence in the room, and Taemin shuffled his feet nervously against the floor. “I’ll leave you to sleep then…”

“Wait!” He paused before he could even really move, looking over at Key again. “We… we heard you crying.” Taemin’s innocent, child-like eyes hardened slightly as he watched them like a bird watched prey now, waiting for the next move.

“And?”

“If you want to talk about it…” Jonghyun hadn’t even gotten the sentence out completely and Taemin cut him off in a tone much curter than that had ever heard from him before.

“I don’t.” He headed for the door, not speaking until his hand was on the handle. And then, it was only a whisper they could only hope to have gotten correct. “I’m sorry…”

The maknae sat alone in the living room, the television on but muted as he listened to the shower running from one end of the hall and the not-so-quiet arguing from the other end. With a sigh, he leaned back, closing his eyes and wishing things were anything but how they were then, but no amount of wishing and hoping was going to change anything.

The arguing quieted down after a few minutes and relaxing in the peace, Taemin tried his best to not jump when the door opened and someone stepped into the hall, staying in the shadows so he wouldn’t see who it was. “If you want breakfast, it’s sitting on the kitchen table. Just stick it in the microwave for a minute.”

“I don’t care about breakfast right now, Taemin.” The deep voice could only belong to Minho, but it didn’t have the reaction on the boy as the room had hoped. When they had expected him to be happy and excited that his “favorite” hyung was talking to him after the fight, he was only dead-sounding, as if it didn’t matter. He didn’t move at all from the couch, still watching the silent screen as the rapper walked right in front of him and sat down. As an arm was placed over his shoulders, Taemin moved away, as far as he could on the small seat. He huffed a little but otherwise didn’t let his disappointment show. “Why were you crying earlier?”

“Why do you care?” The words cut into him, making slashes no amount of bandages would heal. “I said it before, just go back to sleep. None of you want to be up at four when you have schedules late into the night.”

“You’re more important than being a little tired.” Minho tried to get closer to the maknae again, but he was rejected once more; Taemin even went as far as standing and walking away from the couch. “Can you please tell me? We are all worried.”

The hard mask he wore seemed to fall the slightest and just as Taemin went to speak freely, a loud thud was heard throughout the apartment, followed by a yelp and a curse. By the time Minho had even registered what had happened, the youngest was gone and at the other end of the hall and knocking on the bathroom door. “Jinki-hyung! Are you okay? Did you fall?”

“Y-yeah.” Anyone could have heard the pain in his voce he tried to hide and Taemin’s hand was turning the handle without any warning. “Don’t come in! I’m not wearing anything!”

“Like I haven’t seen you almost before.” And he didn’t listen, pushing the door open and waltzing in like he owned the place before Minho could even get there with the other two. It slammed shut behind Taemin with a kick of his foot as he entered, followed by the click of the lock that kept them all out. The boy didn’t even hesitate as he took the few steps to the tub, reaching in a fully-clothed arm to shut off the water, not minding at all as his sleeve was soaked by the stream. “Are you hurt?”

“Nothing more than bruises.” He ignored the hand held out to help him up, trying a few times on his own before realizing it was useless. And by the time he reached for the hand, it was gone. He hadn’t even had time to react before Taemin was crouched in front of him, grabbing him under his arms like one does a small child and lifting him effortlessly.

Jinki had barely gotten his foot under him and Taemin let go, returning a second later with a towel to wrap around him. Gently, the youngest dried him off, never once speaking a word about it all or anything. Once he deemed the eldest sufficiently dry, he lifted him out of the tub like he was a feather, even despite the protests to be put down. Taemin seated the man on the toilet seat, grabbing another towel as he did and using it to rub the excess water from the short hair. “Are you sure you are okay?”

“Yeah. And I can do that, you know.” He tried to reach up for the towel, but Taemin swatted his hands away while continuing his work, a growing smile on his face.

“I know.” The soaked towel was discarded in a hamper behind him, but when he turned to face Jinki, the smile was still there. “But I wanted to.” He grabbed the clothes from the counter before helping Jinki stand again, letting the man hold his balance on his arm. “Come on, time to put on your clothes.”

“I’m not a little kid, you know. I can do this myself as well.” Jinki tried to make a grab for the outfit in Taemin’s hand, only to stumble and be caught by the boy, their faces so close their noses were almost touching and he could feel Taemin’s breath on his lips.

He didn’t let go of Jinki though, smirking as he looked into the eyes of the oldest, his gaze then flickering down to his lips and then back up, only to repeat the cycle again. “I know,” he breathed, enjoying the shiver that ran down Jinki’s back at the feeling of the warm minty breath tickling his lips. “But I want to do this too.”

Without warning, the towel around Jinki’s waist fell and Taemin stepped back to glance down at it, his gaze then travelling back up Jinki’s body at a pace too slow to not be taking it in. With another smirk at his elder, he leaned close to the injured man’s ear, even going as far as it when he did. “I understand were talking about with ‘dubulge’ now, my dubu leader. But shall we get you dressed?”

The tone and actions didn’t match the normally calm-and-collected front Taemin had been putting up recently, and nodding was all Jinki could do in reply. He didn’t know what ‘dubulge’ was or why he was being called tofu, but he could act like he would and go along with it. Yet it seemed like that was what Taemin was waiting for, since the boy grabbed the boxers from the pile of clothing and crouched down until he was face-to-face with Jinki’s crotch. In the middle of pulling the cloth up, he looked up at the leader with playful eyes, so different from how he had acted a minute before. “Don’t act like you understand if you don’t, Jinki-hyung. It is easy to just look either of those up and know in a matter of minutes. Or you could ask any of the others, but I doubt they would answer you through their laughter.”

He grabbed the pants next and slid them onto Jinki’s feet with so much force that he fell back onto the makeshift seat, landing on his lower back with a thud he knew would make a bruise for the next morning. Taemin only gave him the same smirk and pulled the pants up in one motion before stepping away, patting Jinki on the head as he did. “I don’t know if I want to put the shirt on or not…”

“Taemin, what’s gotten into you?”

The taunting and playful look left his eyes in less than a second; the brown orbs returned to their normal innocent-yet-grown-up state as his smirk turned to a frown of confusion. “Nothing, hyung. Why are you asking? I was just having some fun…” He looked down at the shirt, carefully scrunching it up in his hands until they were completely inside the shirt and wrapped around the whole thing, locked together around the collar. “Come on, we still have to put this on.”

It was placed over Jinki’s head with the same gentleness that had been missing from Taemin the whole time, and like a mother dressing a little kid, he guided the still-healing arms through the holes and pulled it down softly, patting the eldest’s stomach once he was done. “We better hurry so we aren’t late. Are you done in here?” Jinki nodded and they walked out together, Taemin talking about random things and completely ignore the other three who stood shocked obviously having heard most of what had gone in there. He would have said something to five some sort of answer to the questions he knew were going to come.

But Jinki didn’t even know what had happened well enough to begin.