After Taemin fell asleep again, the occupants of the room kept their talking to the quietest they could while keeping watch on him. Not that it was really necessary with the drug-induced slumber, but it was still a courtesy.

“What exactly happened, hyung?” Kibum reached out to place his hand on Jinki’s shoulder, stopping only slightly away from him before actually touching him. “Do you know?”

“He wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and he just flew into the seat in front of him when the car stopped short…” Jinki shuddered, a sigh heaved from his body as his eyes flew shut. “There was just this loud crack when he hit it, but he was still trying to make sure I was okay before he cared about himself… If he hadn’t been caring for me, he would have put on his seatbelt and it wouldn’t have hurt him as much and—”

“It’s not your fault, hyung.” Jonghyun crouched in front of the eldest, a hand resting on his good leg. "You heard the doctor too, right? Minnie already had a small break in his arm from before all of this. It’s not your fault that he has weak bones, and it’s not your fault the car got cut off or that the car hit you. It’s not your fault none of us wear seatbelts—because no matter who was sitting there or the circumstances, we wouldn’t have been wearing a belt. So don’t blame yourself for little things. He’s going to recover and be okay just like you are.”

“But he was so excited to play guitar for a song and now—”

“Now he’ll just wait a little longer to do it. Taemin can be patient when he wants to be.” Jonghyun gave a gentle squeeze, smiling up at the eldest. “But it’s not going to do him any good to see you all mopey, now is it?”

The next morning, after a night of observations and pain-fueled sleeplessness, Taemin was fitted was a sling and a proper explanation of why he had “a hunk of plaster from shoulder to fingers” and was released. Zombie-like, he shuffled after the other members to the van and clambered in as always, sitting and immediately closing his eyes to catch even a wink of sleep. “Seatbelt, Minnie.”

There wasn’t any response at first, but eventually he turned to glare at the device, trying and failing multiple times to put it on himself before Kibum helped him. After that, he didn’t want to sleep anymore.

Not that any of the others seemed to want him to, anyway. “Why didn’t you tell us your hurt your arm before, Tae? How’d you even hurt it?”

He gave a shrug at first, sighing and looking out the window with half-closed eyes before turning slightly to face the three in the back. “Remember when you guys threw me during the dance and I fell? It’s hurt since then.” That shut all of them up. “I figured it was nothing.” Taemin turned back around, leaning his head on the window and just watching the buildings fly past outside. “Don’t we have a schedule today?”

“Yeah…” Jonghyun shook his head to clear it, focusing only on the still form of the boy. “A variety show recording.”

“You don’t have to go if you don’t feel like it,” the manager added in from the driver’s seat. “I’m sure everyone would understand.”

“What’s the point in me missing it?” He gave another sigh before throwing a small fake smile on his face. “It’s just a broken arm, anyways.”

“A broken arm that you had surgery on,” Minho glanced at the time on his phone, “sixteen hours ago.”

“It’s still just a broken arm. It’s not like I can’t walk.” As soon as the words left Taemin’s mouth, he was shooting straight up and turning towards Jinki with his face completely covered in regret. “I didn’t mean it like that, hyung. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not like it isn’t true.” Jinki gave a small smile, waving off the apology. “But I’ll have you know that I’m recording too, so…”

“You are?” Taemin’s eyebrow shot up in wonder as the eldest nodded, the most animated he had been since the accident. “I’m definitely filming the show with you guys.”

“Just like that? Just because Jinks is going, so are you?”

Taemin nodded, leaning back in the seat again without much energy to do anything else. “It’s the first show where all of us will be together. I can’t disappoint fans just because I’m a little tired.”

“I think you’re more than a little tired, Minnie.”

“Give me some coffee and I’ll be just a little tired.” He yawned, casted arm trying to go up and cover his mouth before he realized. “So what exactly did I do to my arm? I wasn’t listening to the doctor…”

“You snapped right through where there was a crack in your ulna, as well as the radius, and broke your humerus in two places.” Kibum couldn’t help but smirk when Taemin’s eyes widened slightly. “They used metal plates on your lower arm and put a rod in your upper arm so that it will all heal properly.”

“And that will take how long?”

“A few months at least, Taem.” His head whipped around quickly to face Jonghyun, eyes wide as he stared at him in disbelief. “And then you’ll need some physical therapy too.”

“You mean hyung might get better before me?” He turned to Jinki, not saying anything at first before suddenly laughing. “Really?! Management is going to hate me.”

Nobody knew what to say to that, and soon Taemin laughed himself out, falling back into his seat with breathless laughter. “I worked so hard convincing them that I could cover hyung’s parts too and now I’m injured and will be able to perform only after he can… it’s ironic, isn’t it?”

“But it’s better you recover too, Minnie.”

“But it’s not fair!” He turned towards Minho so fast that his sling got caught in the seatbelt, but even as shooting pain went through his arm, Taemin’s didn’t react to it. “I worked so hard and I knew I hurt my arm badly before the accident but I was still working through it without any of you knowing and I convinced the company that I’d do whatever I could to make it easier for hyung to come back. And now I got hurt even more because some driver was stupid and decided to cut off a car and I was too stupid to put on a seatbelt and I had to get some stupid surgery that probably wasn’t even necessary and I can’t perform because of it?! What about that rookie group that had some kid perform with a broken arm? Why can’t we be like them? It doesn’t make any difference if I use one arm or not, does it?” Tears were pouring down his cheeks as his eyes shifted across the three in the back, not staying on any of them for longer than a few seconds each. Before he could continue though, a soft hand was on his shoulder, rubbing it in the most comforting way he had ever felt.

“If they didn’t reset your arm, you wouldn’t be able to move it, Minnie… I was stupid for not stopping you and making you put on your seatbelt then and I won’t be able to make that up to you—”

“It’s not your fault that I didn’t hyung—”

“But the past is the past.” Jinki gave a small smile when Taemin glanced up at him. “You kept encouraging me to continue to improve and get better when I wanted to give up, so what do you think you are doing now? You can’t give in just like that. We still aren’t going on stage for a while and who knows, maybe by then you’ll be allowed to move your arm enough to perform. But before you care about that, you have to care about getting better.”

“Do you need help getting dressed, hyung?”

“I do, but you’re not the one helping me.” Jinki watched with a smirk as Taemin’s eyes widened and then shrunk, growing closer together before clouding in confusion—the whole process slowed into separate steps because of the boy’s still-hazy mind. “You’re injured too. Get Jonghyun or Kibum and then you can get dressed as well.”

“I can still help you, hyung.”

“But not without hurting yourself.” Taemin didn’t have a response to that, but slowly turned heel and walked out, clothes still dangling from his fingers that barely came out of the sling. He never returned to the room and Jinki, but Kibum did appear—with clothes clutched in his hand and a perplexed look on his face until he took everything in. “So how mad is he?”

“Huh?”

“Taemin. How mad is he? I told him he couldn’t help me because he was injured too.” Kibum started helping the eldest get the pants on over his cast, not answering at first as he focused on the task.

“He’s not mad. Just having problems handling the sudden amount of drugs in his system.” Once the pants were fully on, Kibum stood and held the shirt out to Jinki. “As soon as he saw me, he just threw the clothes at me and pointed towards here before turning to manager-hyung and literally begging for coffee and pain medicine.”

“Is he going to be okay for filming?”

“That’s for Taemin to decide. Even if we try and stop him, he won’t allow us to unless he physically can’t do anything.” Kibum shrugged, helping guide Jinki’s shirt over a few of the more sensitive spots that remained. “But the only way to find out is for us to go out there and ask him. He’ll probably need help getting a shirt on anyway.”

As soon as they got on the set, a large grin took the place of the pain-filled look on Taemin’s face. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, it was almost like he hadn’t been close to passing out only minutes before. But that was being professional, and the change did more than surprise Jinki. After all, it was one thing hearing about it and seeing it through a screen, and another experiencing it first-hand.

“Are you sure you feel up to recording, Taem?”

“Of course, hyung.” The smile stayed in place, but it wasn’t reaching his eyes. “I already told you; fans shouldn’t have to wait who knows how long to see us all together when we’re capable of showing them it now.”

“They won’t mind if you don’t feel up to it though.”

“But I’m fine.” All of them gave the boy disbelieving looks, but Taemin ignored them. “Besides, it’s just sitting there and talking about the concerns of different people. It’s not like we are running around or anything.”

“You do know you’re not going the intro dance with us, right?” The boy stopped short in his walking, tripping and just barely being caught by Minho before he fell. “The doctor said no unnecessary movement of your arm, and that’s definitely not necessary.”

“What are you guys going to do then? Dance it with just the three of you?”

“If they still ask us to, yes.” Jonghyun gave a smile to Taemin, ruffling the boy’s hair slightly. “But I doubt they will with how protective manager-hyung is being now.”

“But I wanted to dance!” Just the way he said it, with a pout and a small stamping of his foot, had everyone laughing. Maybe things won’t be so different after all.