Eunmi slowly backed out of the doorway and she tip toed to her room.

She wondered what on this planet could cause a tear to leak out Lee Taemin’s eyes.

A couple of seconds later, Taemin walked out of his room, “Jongin!”

Jongin stepped out of his room, “Hm?” Eunmi stopped walking and turned around to face the two of them.

“Let’s go to the studio,” Taemin said, any hint of that tear was gone.

“Right now?” Jongin looked out the window, it was getting dark.

“Let’s go,” Taemin went downstairs.

Eunmi and Jongin exchanged looks before Jongin shrugged and went downstairs behind Taemin. Eunmi quickly scrambled after both of them.

“You boys heading out?” Hyunki asked as he watched Taemin put his jacket on and Jongin slip on his shoes.

“Dance studio,” Jongin replied.

“Right now? It’s getting dark,” Hyunki said, looking out the living room window.  

“We’ll be back soon,” Taemin replied shortly.  

Hyunki stared at Taemin but then nodded, “Okay.”

He gave Jongin a secret look that meant ‘Take care of him.’

Eunmi watched them leave, Taemin didn’t even shout an insult at Eunmi before he left.

Something is wrong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Why the sudden want to come here?” Jongin asked after they completed the intense routine they had been practising.

Taemin shrugged.

“Is there a reason?” he asked.

“Not really.”

There was obviously a reason.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was Friday and Eunmi was diligently working on her physics review for their next test in class. Taemin was playing on his phone and Daehyun was sitting with his hands in his pockets.

“Tell me,” she slyly whispered to Daehyun.

“No,” Daehyun whispered back.

“Why?”

“It’s not my story to tell.”

“Of course it is!” Eunmi darted a glance at Taemin to make sure he couldn’t hear. He hadn’t even caused any trouble all day.

“Just do your work,” he nodded his head at the textbook.

Eunmi sighed and continued to do the review. Daehyun glanced at Taemin and at that moment Taemin turned his head; they met eyes.

Taemin gave him a hard glare before shooting up from his seat to go to the bathroom.

Daehyun sighed and turned away.

At the end of class, Daehyun tried to confront Taemin but he was the first one out of class.

“See you,” Eunmi smiled as she and Daehyun stood up from their seats. “When’s the next practice?”

“Huh? Oh, not for a while,” Daehyun replied distractedly before dashing out of the class.

Eunmi blinked but then shrugged and walked out of class as well.

There was a commotion outside, kids were gathering in the grade 11 hallway. Eunmi furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to squeeze her way to her locker.

“Get away from me,” Eunmi saw Taemin glowering at Daehyun when she had a view of what was going on. “or I’ll do to you what you did to him.”

“I’m trying to tell you-”

“Don’t try to tell me anything after what you did!” Taemin yelled. More people were gathering to watch what was happening, confused and excited that there might be a fight.

“Just listen to me-”

“You mean listen to you and-” Taemin stopped when he realized the amount of people that had assembled to listen to he and Daehyun’s conversation.

Eunmi could tell Taemin didn’t like how there were so many people gathering and Daehyun looked uncomfortable about saying what he wanted to say with the crowd.

She squeezed past the people.

“Yah, Lee Taemin!” she said, giving him a look. “Jongin is calling us! Didn’t you check your phone? Why are you so lazy and annoying?!”

Taemin gave her a weird and annoyed look, “What? Look, not now Fat-”

“He’s calling us,” she said pointedly.

“What are you-”

“Let’s go! There’s no time to waste!” she walked over and grabbed his arm.

“Oh,” he caught on. “Right, better go see what he needs.” he looked in Daehyun’s direction, “I was doing something unimportant anyways.”

Eunmi dragged him away and the crowd dispersed.

“Thanks,” Taemin muttered.

“You owe me for saving both of your butts,” she crossed her arms.

“Only mine, I could care less about his,” Taemin scoffed.

“Are you, perhaps, going to tell me now?” she asked hopefully.

“Nice try,” Taemin said, before walking away.

Eunmi puffed her cheeks. That’s what I get for saving him from all those people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That evening, Jongin and Taemin were playing basketball at the court near the park. Ms. Kim, Hyunki, Eunmi, and Taeyeon were in the park. Jongin had only agreed to play with him to try and find out what was wrong with Taemin.

“That was a good one,” Taemin commented after Jongin made a nice shot into the hoop.

“Thanks.”

They continued to play some more and the only sound that could be heard was their panting and the bouncing of the ball.

“I heard what happened at school today,” Jongin said as they took a water break.

Taemin paused, “Yeah, and?”

“How come you don’t like that Daehyun guy?” he asked.

“I just don’t.”

“Right,” Jongin rolled his eyes. “There’s got to be a reason.”

“I don’t have time to discuss worthless things,” Taemin said, closing the lid of his water bottle and picking the basketball up. “First one to make a basket has to buy the other a smoothie.”

Jongin noticed his attempt to change the subject, but let it slide.

When Taemin wanted to talk, he would.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Saturday, Taemin was back to being his jerky self and was all ready to bother Eunmi at the amusement park.

Unfortunately, Chen’s grandmother was sick and he couldn’t come so he promised Eunmi to go with her another time.

Instead, Eunmi decided to go shopping with Sara.

 “Where’s my pink beret?!” Eunmi looked through her dresser, trying to find her favourite beret. It was one that Jongin had gotten her for her birthday once and she loved it very much.

Then she remembered she was letting Taeyeon use it for the day, so she decided to just tie her hair up. She was wearing a red shirt under a thick white sweater and black jeans.

She grabbed a black bag and slung it over her shoulders as she went down the stairs.

“Morning,” she smiled as she entered the kitchen. Taeyeon was at the table eating a bowl of cereal and reading a book. Ms. Kim was drinking coffee beside her and looking through the weekly flyers.

“Taeyeon, eat first and then read,” Ms. Kim reminded as she took a sip of her coffee.

Taeyeon closed the book and waved at Eunmi, “Unnie, sit beside me!”

“Sure,” Eunmi replied as she grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and sat down beside Taeyeon. She poured herself some cereal and milk and began her breakfast. As she was eating, Taemin and Jongin entered the kitchen.

The doorbell rang and Eunmi looked up, “Oh, I think that’s Sara.”

She stood up and went to the door to open it for her. Taemin shrugged and sat down in her seat, “Can’t let it get soggy and wasted,” he began eating her bowl of cereal.

Jongin dumped some yogurt in a bowl, topped it with granola and blueberries and sat down beside Taemin.

“No strawberries?” Taemin pointed to the bowl, taking some of the yogurt granola fruit parfait.

“I hate strawberries,” Jongin wrinkled his nose.

“Jongin hates every single fruit out there except blueberries, bananas, and mangos,” Ms. Kim shook her head.

“I like grapes too!”

Eunmi walked into the kitchen followed by Sara.

“Hello, Ms. Kim,” she bowed at Eunmi’s mother and ruffled Taeyeon’s hair.

“Hi, noona,” Jongin greeted.

“Hey kiddo,” Sara smiled at him.

“Ahem,” Taemin cleared his throat.

Sara laughed, “Hi, Taemin.”

“Hey! You stole my breakfast!” Eunmi pointed at him.

“I was doing you a favour. You didn’t want to come back to soggy cereal, did you?”

Eunmi sighed and looked through the cabinets for something else to eat.

“You want anything, Sara?” she asked as she took a granola bar out of its box.

“No, thanks. My mom always fills me up with breakfast,” she shook her head.

“She’s a good girl, listening to her mom,” Ms. Kim nodded.

“Just like me,” Taemin nodded as well.

All the people in the kitchen turned to look at him.

“What? It’s true,” Taemin shrugged.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, hyung,” Jongin patted his arm.

“Since we’re not going today, when are we going to the amusement park?” Taemin asked. “I have to clear my schedule to make your day miserable.

“You’re so sweet,” Eunmi sent him a sarcastic smile. “Next Saturday.”

Taemin’s grin fell from his face and he closed his mouth.

Eunmi waited for him to say something, but he didn’t. She shared a weird look with Jongin but shrugged and continued to eat her granola bar.

“Um, let’s go now,” Eunmi said to Sara when she finished. “Be back in a couple of hours!”

Strangely, Taemin didn’t shout out an insult after her. Nothing like ‘Hope you don’t come back!’ or ‘Bring me something!’ or ‘Try not to block the doors with your fatness!’

Even more strangely, Eunmi felt weird with no insult or mean remark being made by Taemin before she left. He wasn’t even finishing her cereal and had dropped the spoon in the bowl, staring at the table blankly.

“L-let’s go,” Eunmi gave him a weird look before pushing Sara out of the kitchen.

Jongin glanced at Taemin.

That was really weird.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Eunmi got home from her shopping day, Taemin and Jongin were in the living room watching TV. Ms. Kim and Taeyeon were still out and Hyunki was at work. She hadn’t bought much from the mall, she and Sara mostly roamed around with their smoothies.

“No Saturday plans?” Eunmi asked, taking her jacket off and setting it down on the sofa before sitting on it.

Jongin shook his head and Taemin didn’t do anything.

“Hyung,” Jongin said, turning the TV off. “Let’s go play.”

Taemin blinked as he looked at Jongin, “Uh, okay.”

Both of them stood up and Jongin went upstairs to get his basketball.

“I want to come too!” Eunmi stood up as well.

“Please don’t.” Taemin pleaded as he walked out of the living room.

Eunmi didn’t listen and put her jacket on again. She went to the kitchen to grab two water bottles from the fridge and put them in her bag. When Jongin returned from upstairs, the three of them left for the basketball court.

“You,” Taemin pointed at Eunmi. “sit over there quietly.”

Eunmi made a face but sat down on the bench he pointed to. She watched both of them play, they were both really good. It was obvious Jongin was better, but that was because he really liked the sport.

“Did you bring water?” Taemin asked, panting.

“No, I thought you did,” Jongin shook his head, as he stopped the basketball from rolling away with his foot.

“I did,” Eunmi took them out of her bag. She threw them to both of them and they hurriedly drank it.

“Wow, you think FatMuffin,” Taemin remarked.

“Yeah, maybe you should try it sometimes,” Eunmi shot back.

“Excuse me? I am not the one that ate a chocolate that I’m allergic to.”

“I didn’t know!”

“Exactly-”

“Oh, shut up!” Jongin rolled his eyes as he put the water bottle beside Eunmi.

“So while we’re talking about Daehyun,” Eunmi began.

“We weren’t talking about him,” Taemin said flatly.

“Well since he’s in the conversation now, why is he not liked by some of us?” Eunmi looked at Taemin.

“No.”

“A hint?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“Did you actually think that would work?”

“No,” Eunmi sighed.

They heard loud laughter coming from a distance. A basketball was bouncing towards the court, the laughter becoming louder with every second.

Daehyun and his friends appeared, Zelo was the one bouncing the basketball.

Taemin picked their basketball up, “Let’s go.”

Jongin and Eunmi watched as the boys finally took notice of them.

“Lee Taemin, I didn’t know you played ball,” Yongguk said.

“You don’t know anything about me,” Taemin spat.

Yongguk put his hands in the air, “Hey, don’t hate on me.”

Taemin glowered at him before beginning to walk away. Eunmi and Jongin followed him as they walked past them.

Eunmi met eyes with Daehyun but looked away quickly.

Daehyun grabbed Taemin’s arm.

“Let go. Right now,” Taemin glared at him.

“Why won’t you listen to me-”

“WHY WON’T I LISTEN TO YOU?!” Taemin bellowed. “WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO YOU?!” he breathed heavily as he sent him a sour glare and whispered, “You’re a killer.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hiya!

I had so many things planned out to say but I forgot all of them now...

Well first things first, remember the appendicitus thing (Jongin had appendicitus the day of the game)? I got the idea from a show, well that's where I discovered it, and then I did more research on it at this site: http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/stomach/appendicitis.html who knew sitcoms were good for discovering diseases to put in a fanfic? I was gunna do asthma at first, but you need dust for most cases and you don't really find dust on a basketball court.

You know what I realized, there are a lot of fics where the stepbrother and sister don't get along, I did not think there were that many but I've read quite a few now that I think about it.

I'll try to make mine different -thumbs up- I tend to go the opposite direction of most people  

Have you guys ever had a yogurt granola fruit parfait?! IT'S SO GOOODDD! I really want one right now T_T At first I was like, ew I hate yogurt and fruit and I've never even had granola before...... but it tasted really good! :D

Well, byee~

I see the eye first, this is so cool!