As they got changed, anyone could see how nervous Jinki was. And anyone could see how easily Taemin erased that nervousness from the eldest. It was like a role-reversal from their debut, yet it didn’t seem strange for the two.

When it came to walking onto the stage, Taemin batted away the hands of anyone else to help Jinki up with his crutches and cast. True to his promise, he stuck to Jinki’s side like a stamp on an envelope, never once leaving. Even with the cameras flashing at them, Taemin kept a hand on Jinki’s shoulder as they did their greeting to everyone and sat down, going as far as taking Jinki’s crutches and handing them off after helping the eldest sit. They all knew most pictures were focused on the two, but none of the five tried to do anything to stop that.

As the representative walked on the stage and attention finally turned from Taemin and Jinki to him, a gracious smile was given from the oldest to the maknae, but it was quickly brushed away. “Thank you all for coming.” The room quieted down almost immediately until the only noise was cameras clicking and the representative speaking. “As you can all see, Lee Jinki is in fact discharged from his military service following an accident. He was deemed too injured to remain in-service and is recovering with fellow SHINee members in their dorm.” Jinki nodded slightly along with the statement while the others mainly focused on smiling for cameras. Taemin’s hand was gripping his under the table and he felt the youngest give him a little squeeze.

Shifting a little to look at him, Taemin leaned back in the seat to whisper to him without the microphone picking it up. “How are you doing?”

“Fine.” He was lying through his teeth and from the look Taemin gave him, it was obvious. “It’s a little loud and too crowded for my liking, but I’m fine at the moment. You’ll be the first to know if I’m not.”

Taemin went to respond, but the representative must have finished talking while they were and the reporters started shouting out questions. “How badly injured were you?”

Everyone, even the other members, turned to look at Jinki and he gave Taemin’s had a final little squeeze to assure himself before leaning closer to the microphone. “I was cut across much of my chest, back, and arms from glass in the accident. My face and chest were burned,” he knew that wasn’t news to any of them, since no amount of makeup would cover the scars and still-healing wounds on his face and arms from it. “And my leg was also crushed.”

Reporters were writing down exactly what he said and the representative chose a different one to ask the next question. “How long will it be until you will return to the group?”

“Hyung is working hard to get back where he was before he left and will be back with us during performances as soon as he is able to sing again. It will be a while before he will join the dance routines, but he will when he can. Our next song won’t be released without him on the track.” Jonghyun answered it for Jinki and gave the eldest a smile before looking back at the reporters. So they can all tell I’m nervous too, then.

“There are rumors that you are taking training classes once again. Is this true?” Jinki saw their manager stiffen off the edge of the stage and saw the shaking of his head, but he still looked at the other members, who all nodded to him.

As he leaned into the microphone once again, he saw the manager run his hand through his hair in frustration and stalk off, but he wasn’t going to think of the punishment he would get for doing what he was right then. “It is.”

“Why is that?” The question came right after, and before Jinki could answer it, Key lunged forward and grabbed his own microphone.

“Why shouldn’t he be? Jinki-hyung had already been serving for a month and was in training for weeks before that, so he spent so long not practicing singing or anything during that time. And then he got in a major accident that sent him flying from a car and left him permanently scarred. Give me one reason why he shouldn’t be taking some training classes! We are all in some class of a sort, even now. I take public image, Jonghyun-hyung takes composition classes, Minho takes acting, and Taemin’s been taking singing. Just because we are famous, doesn’t mean we are perfect.” He would have said more, had Jonghyun and Minho not finally pulled the microphone from his hands. In a huff, he sat back in the chair and crossed his arms, pouting slightly.

“And that is why he takes public image classes. Sorry about him.” Minho’s joke made many of the reporters laugh at what could have just been very bad if he hadn’t done damage control as quickly as he had. Key glared at him, but it was soon returned playfully. “However, I do stand beside him in defending Jinki-hyung in going back to taking classes, since it is so easy to forget some things if you don’t practice them all the time.”

After Key’s outburst, the rest was rushed along as quickly as possible to stop another such thing from happening. Never again did Jinki have to answer a question, but it would have been impossible for him to have done so even if he was supposed to. From Key’s yelling to the loud crowd and the small room, it was all weighing on him too heavily and Taemin could tell, taking the time to comfort Jinki silently whenever he could. It just wasn’t enough.

The second they were off the stage and out of the room, Jinki broke down. Crumbling into Taemin’s waiting arms, he let the boy hold him while all he did was let the tears flow. It didn’t matter that the others could see him break down like a little kid or that there could have been people who saw, he just had to let it out. “It was too loud in there, wasn’t it?” Jinki just nodded into Taemin’s chest and he felt one of the arms around him move to dig around in the younger’s pocket. “Here. Maybe this will help.” Without warning Jinki as to what he was doing, Taemin put the earbuds in the elder’s ears with the music already playing. In seconds, his crying had stopped and he seemed to be completely absorbed in the music. “I’m glad that worked,” he whispered to himself before looking up at the others, who only stared at the two shocked. “You all look like you saw a ghost.”

As he let out a little laugh, Taemin helped steady Jinki back on his crutches and led the way through the three and into their dressing room. After they were gone, Key turned to Jonghyun, but the dino beat the diva to speaking. “Yes, he has grown up a lot.”

“I know.”

“What the hell were you thinking, pulling something like that?” The manager was right in Jinki’s face the second the two walked in, ripping the earbuds from his ears as he yelled. “If I tell you not to say something, you don’t say it!”
“Why shouldn’t he have?” Taemin pushed the manager’s shoulders back to make room to get between him and Jinki. Before the target of their manager’s anger could do anything though, the door opened again and Key walked in, followed by Jonghyun and Minho.

And suddenly their manager wasn’t in front of them but in front of Key. “What type to trick were you trying there? Huh? If Minho hadn’t covered for you, you could have just ruined you career!”

“I spoke the truth.” As soon as he said it, a hand was raised to hit the diva. Jonghyun, Minho, and Taemin all went to catch it before it could connect with skin, but all of them were too late. Yet when Key cracked his eyes open after squeezing them shut in anticipation for the hit, he was surprised that he wasn’t hit. Instead, Jinki stood in front of him, one of his crutches abandoned on the ground and the other being the only thing that kept him standing when the hand connected with his face.

Even through the makeup on to cover his scars, the red could already be seen. A few tears sprung in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall as he glared at the manager. “You can hit me as much as you want and yell at me until your voice turns hoarse and then some, but the second you try to do anything to one of my dongsaengs, I won’t stand still and let it happen.”

“The second you are without that crutch, you will.” He kicked the metal that was letting Jinki stand from under his arm and away from him, but he still stood on one foot. With a growl, he pushed the leader towards the side with his casted foot and Jinki fell onto it, letting out a cry in pain as he started to fall a little.

“Hyung!” Jonghyun and Taemin went to catch him at the same time, but neither got to him before Jinki was standing on his own, eyes locked on their manager as he raised his hand to hit Key once again. Key was looking at him with worry before his eyes flickered to the hand as it started to come down.

Only, once again, it didn’t hit him. When he looked again, Jinki was standing next to the two, his hand gripping tight around the manager’s wrist. “I told you not to lay a hand on any of them.” Taemin went to pull Jinki back, but the leader only looked at him with a fire in his eyes that none of them had seen before. “Stay out of this. All of you.”

Not wanting to experience the cold fire of his glare again, all of them back away as Jinki turned back to the manager. “You think we are going to listen if you hit us? If you yell at us, you think we will just back down? It might have worked on me before, but I’m different now. I’m not going to stand by as you terrorize my friends and dongsaengs and let you get away with it. You have to go through me before you touch any of them.” He twisted the arm in his grip until the manager crumpled to his knees to release some of the pressure. Only when he felt a crack did Jinki let go of the hand and drop it, spitting on the broken man on the ground. “You disgust me. Get out of my sight before I use some of what I learned in the military on you.”

Only after the man had picked himself up and scurried out of the room did any of them speak. “Jinki-hyung, why’d you do that?”

“He shouldn’t hit any of you. Nobody did anything wrong.” After answering Minho, he immediately turned to look at Key, who was still frozen in place behind him. “Are you okay?”

“You took a slap in the face for me. Shouldn’t I be asking you?” As soon as it was brought up, Jinki brought a hand to his face to cover the bright-red hand print on his cheek.
“I’m fine if you all are.” He looked around the small area and got nods from the others, so he smiled. “Then I’m perfectly fine.”

“No you aren’t. How’s your leg?” Taemin handed him the crutches he had collected from the ground and saw how Jinki immediately leaned heavily on them. “And don’t try lying.”

“It hurts, okay? I’ll be fine though.” He looked around the room that was empty of anyone but them before letting out a sigh. “We should probably start heading back to the dorm.” Without waiting for an answer from anyone, Jinki started to walk out of the room, knowing the others would follow. While Minho walked next to Key to make sure the diva really was all right, Jonghyun and Taemin stood together at the back, watching their leader hobble along on his own.

“He should get his leg checked out as soon as possible. What if he screwed it up falling on it like that?” The little bit of fear was evident in Taemin’s voice, but Jonghyun’s arm around his shoulders calmed him down a little.

“I’ll make the call to his doctor as soon as we get back to the dorm. You just get him to stay in the living room and we will go tonight.” He smiled at Taemin a little when the younger boy looked up at him. “You really are like a parent with how much you care for him. Key was right.”

“I am not!”