Happy New Year to everyone! As a gift, here's a new chapter to hold over until I can get back to writing this!

“Can you help me with this, hyung?” Jinki glanced up at Jonghyun above him, a pile of papers clasped in a folder in his hand. “We used to work out voice parts together, so I thought, maybe…”

“Sure.” He moved over on the couch as best he could, making room for Jonghyun to sit next to him and still have access to the table. “I might not be much help, but I’ll try.”

“It’s more-so to make sure I don’t forget someone…” The comment was quiet, as if he wasn’t meant to hear it, but Jinki still did.

“Have you done that before?”

“What?” The younger seemed almost surprised with the question, but it faded in seconds and he soon nodded. “Yeah. A few times.”

“Like who?” It was like an interrogation, the amount of questions Jinki asked about everything. But they were used to it, as the eldest used all he got to try and piece together some picture of that huge whole, try to complete the puzzle with the entire middle missing.

“Everyone.” He shrugged as he opened the first song-book, seemingly more focused on that than anything else. “I would forget Taemin a lot… I wasn’t used to him getting many parts.”

“He didn’t?”

“No…” Having to explain everything all over again to Jinki was like teaching a child for the first time—he seemed as interested as he could possibly be. “Taemin was only 14 when we debuted, you know. Right? He was just the dancer then… The company said his voice cracked too much as he grew up. He didn’t even have proper singing lessons for a few years. That’s why he is in them now.”

“What about improper ones?” It surprised Jonghyun that Jinki picked up on that one slip of his tongue, but he also expected as much from him.

“You taught him a lot…” A small smile grew on Jonghyun’s face but he looked back at the paper, looking at it but not seeing. “I think that is something you should ask Taemin about yourself, though. None of us know as much about then as he does.” There was a pause, silence between them as the younger started to work. Suddenly, though, something dawned on him and he needed to know, then and there. “You and Taemin are really close, right?” Jinki hummed in agreement, confused but listening. “When did that happen?”

“He was here a lot when you guys had schedules…” There was no hope completely masking the hidden joy in Jinki’s voice. “Since it was just us, I guess we just talked a lot? He was always telling me so much that I hadn’t even realized I had wanted to know until he told me, and I guess that just made us closer… Was I not like this before?” The question was innocent, and there wasn’t a reaction from either anymore. “Was I cold to you guys before all of this?”

“Not at all… Just…” Jonghyun paused as he scribbled a note of his out, marking something else down instead. “You were close to all of us, but this is… more. Different.”

There was no reply from the other and after a few minutes, Jonghyun glanced over his shoulder at the elder. And Jinki was only staring out the window, a small smile on his face even looking at nothingness. “He… I don’t know why, but whenever I had a nightmare or was afraid of something, it was always Taemin that was there, telling me exactly what I needed to hear. As much as you and Key tried to help as much as you could, it wasn’t the same as when Taemin did it. You guys were struggling to find a way to help ease the pain—Taemin made it go away without a thought. So I guess… I just needed to be around him more, I think. And from that, we got closer.”

Knowing there wasn’t much else the other would say about the topic, Jonghyun nodded and accepted what he got. And then it was back to work.

Jinki hated how tired Taemin was starting to look from all the early-morning wake-ups caused by him. Even if he couldn’t remember from before, he could feel that he had to care for the boy.

Yet, here he was, the cause of the pain. Taemin gave a too-large yawn as he pour a cup of coffee, managing to spill some over his hand because of it. With an almost-silent curse, he place both things down—making sure to not spill more, even though Jinki could tell he was in pain doing just that—and immediately had the hand under cold water. “Are you okay?”

He jumped a little at the other voice before recognizing it at Jinki, and then he just nodded. “Just missed the cup a little… Probably because I don’t have my glasses on.”

“You wear glasses?” Taemin had forgotten that the elder had never seen that, so his first nod was a little more confused. “Really?”

And then it dawned on him through the sleep-deprived haze and he nodded again, more understanding now. “I just wear contacts more than anything.”

“Because you lost them?”

“Do you know that because you know me so well, or because you remember it?” He took the burned hand out from under the water, wrapping a towel around it as he grabbed the cup that caused it all and finally made his way to the table. And even doing all that, he still caught Jinki’s shrug out of the corner of his eye.

“I lost a pair a while ago, and since then I have worn contacts. There is a pair of mine somewhere around here though…” He took a sip of the hot drink, coming alive the same second the whole inside of his mouth got burned as well. “What about you? Where are your glasses?”

“I… I forgot I have glasses now.” Jinki tried to give a little joking smile to lighten just what was implied with the comment, but it wasn’t even needed with Taemin. He didn’t seem the least bit fazed at it, instead smiling and nodding back in understanding. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds and, like a mirror reflecting the other side, the two glanced at the same clock at the same time. While Taemin seemed okay with the too-early 2-am that stared back, Jinki couldn’t help but feel bad that, just like every other day, the boy was up so early with him. “You should go back to bed. You guys have a busy schedule today.”

But Taemin only shook his head. “I’m fine staying up with you.”

“I’ll be fine alone. I’ll just watch TV or something.”

“Then I’ll watch with you.” There was no room for argument in his voice and he even placed the cup down as he stood. “Come on. Let’s go.” He held the crutches out for Jinki and helped pulled the larger man up onto them, and then grabbed his cup and led the way to the living room.

“You should really go to sleep, Tae.”

“With every that has gone on already, I don’t think I possibly could.” He let his hyung take a seat first, practically pushing Jinki down onto the couch. And only then did he sit down, coffee cup going on the table and the remote in hand. “What do you want to watch?”

“Anything is fine.” And so, Taemin began the search through the hundred or so channels, sighing when he reached the end.

“Do you want to watch some fluffy kittens or the news?”

“What are the kittens doing?”

“Just laying there.” Taemin flipped to the channel to show, and a screen of puff-balls greeted both of them. “So which one?”

“How about the news?”

Although he expected it, Taemin’s head slumping onto his shoulder still made Jinki jump when it happened. He thought that would have made the boy wake, but by then he was too tired for anything to get in the way of his sleep. If anything, it only made him curl closer to the elder, snuggling into his side so he knew Jinki wouldn’t leave.

Even in his dreams, he was still attached to his hyung. Jinki didn’t know how to feel about that.

It was still a few hours of just sitting there was a passed out Taemin on his shoulder before someone joined Jinki. Key wasn’t even surprised to see him awake by then anymore, only glancing slightly at Taemin and stopped, raising an eyebrow. “Is he okay?”

“He’s really tired. I don’t know if he will be able to do any schedules…” Jinki tried to keep his voice as quiet as possible, but with his ear pressed to the elder’s chest, Taemin heard the talking enough to wake slightly. His eyes cracked open, only to slam shut against the light and he let out a groan. “Just go back to sleep, Taemin.”

He shook his head a little at the voice, waiting a few seconds before opening his eyes and seeing Key standing there. “When’d you get here?”

The sleep-laced tone of voice got a small smile from Key. “A minute ago.” Taemin gave a little nod, eyes falling back shut before he could stop them. They could both see the fight the youngest tried to put up against his body, but he was losing badly. “Go back to sleep. I got breakfast today.”

And for once, he didn’t even bother arguing back, just nodding and curling into Jinki’s side once again. In just a few minutes, he was dead to the world once again.

It was only their second manager that came later that morning to the apartment with the boys, telling them what they had already figured—the other had quit. All Jinki could think was that they were free from him. He couldn’t even remember from before, but it the little while he had seen the man, he had hated him. And it seemed the others did too, because they all barely held back their excitement at the news as well.

“We are going to start pre-recordings today, so you guys should go get ready to leave.” It wasn’t a harsh command like they had, but a soft suggestion. Suddenly, they were more willing to comply. When the four left, it was just Jinki and the other manager. “Aren’t you going to get ready too?”

“What?”

“You can sing, can’t you? Don’t you want to come?” He was starting to feel he was actually part of SHINee again.

It felt great.