“We just seem to attract bad things, don’t we?” Taemin looked around the living room, from Kibum and Jonghyun still babying them three days after the elevator incident, to Jinki and Minho playing a video game together and ignoring the two completely. His question had everyone stopping to look at him and he shrugged, focusing on a spot on the floor as he continued. “Jinki-hyung always seems to get hurt, I get sick, and the elevator breaks on us. There was the time Jinki-hyung, Jonghyun-hyung, and I all got H1N1 in the same year. Minho-hyung has been hurt a few times from sports. Jonghyun-hyung hurt his ankle from fans. Jinki-hyung almost had a light fixture fall on him… The only one to not suffer the curse is you, Kibum-hyung.”

“You might want to start being careful there Bummie. He has a really good point.” Jonghyun patted the diva on the shoulder with a little smirk before turning to Taemin. “You’ve been thinking about that this whole time?”

“Well…” He realized it was strange to admit, but he nodded. “Yeah. We seem to have a curse.” After looking around, his eyes turned innocent. “Am I the only one to think about this before?’

“Yeah.” He got nods around the room. “Most people don’t go thinking of times their friends got hurt. You know?” Glaring back at Minho was all Taemin could do.

“It is currently four-oh-seven on Wednesday, the seventeenth of April.” Taemin held an iPod in front of the camera to show the time before sitting back in the cushion chair he made by the computer. “There’s apparently some sort of meeting with a lot of the bands in the company tonight to talk about the upcoming concerts and I don’t get why I have to go if I’m limited to something like three performances a month and won’t be able to take a bigger part than sitting there talking for it, but I am.” He let out a sigh as he looked out the window, and then back to the camera. “I wish I wasn’t sick. I wish none of this was happening and that I was allowed to dance and sing and perform and just be normal again. But I guess I can’t be selfish since I have wonderful hyungs taking care of me through this. They should be the ones I am wishing aren’t suffering, not me. I deserve this for being a selfish child and being selfish even now….

“I started writing a note a day to each of you. In case something happens to me, there’s going to be a letter for every day starting yesterday. I don’t know how many there will be, but I promise there will be one for every day left in my life. I know I’m dying. I can feel it. I don’t know how long it will be or how it will happen, but I can tell it will.” He choked back a sob and let the tears fall silently down his cheeks for a few seconds before continuing. “If anything happens and you guys watch this while I’m still alive—if I’m sick and I’m not really there and just kept alive on machines, just pull the plug on me. Please. I don’t want to be kept alive artificially and cause more pain with hopes that I would wake up. Even if I did, I would never be the same…”

Taemin looked around a few times, trying to clear his mind enough to stop the tears from pouring down. “I wrote this all down for you in case the letters are found first. But I don’t want this whole video to be so sad. So… I’m not really sure what I was going to say. I don’t want to end this here.” He glanced down at the iPod and then back up to the computer. “It hasn’t even been five minutes… You know what I really want? A puppy. Or a kitten. My dogs aren’t allowed to stay here and Roo and Comme Des aren’t here often either anymore since you guys had to move them back to your houses… But animals are fun! Maybe you guys will get one when I’m not here. You can only deal with one hyper thing at a time, can’t you?” He gave a smile to the camera, reaching up for the power button. “I love you guys.”

“Aish, I can’t believe I forgot!” Kibum ran a hand through his hair as he started to turn away from the others waiting for the elevator, before stopping and turning back around. “Taemin-ah, can you come with me to get something from Soo Man’s office for the meeting?”

“Why can’t you just get it hyung?”

“Because his office is scary and I don’t want to go alone.” He grabbed onto Taemin’s hand and squeezed it as he looked in Taemin’s eyes, focusing on acting scared. “Please? You know I hate going there alone…”

And just like that, his resolve broke and he gave a little nod that was returned with a huge smile from Kibum. “Come on then! We have to hurry to not be late!” As he jogged down the hall pulling Taemin with him, Jonghyun turned to Jinki and Minho with a smile on his face.

“He’s a good actor after all… His musical must have paid off.” They both nodded a little as they got on the lift, Minho and Jinki looking a little more than hesitant to be inside one again. “This one won’t break on you two, I swear.”

They both gave a nervous laugh, trying to brush it off, but as it lurched to life, Jonghyun saw their hands clasp into each other’s for comfort.

“Why were you running?” Taemin was sitting in Soo Man’s chair as he tried to catch his breath, watching as the diva dug through piles of folders on the desk for what he was looking for.

“Because we are going to be late. Where is it?!” He hit a stack, sending them flying across the desk. Taemin quickly straightened them up for the fuming elder, eyes catching on one in the pile.

“Is this what you are looking for?” He held up the light blue folder with the band name written on it and saw Kibum’s eyes light up immediately. “I take that as a yes.”

“Yes, now come on. We are already late!”

“Please don’t run!” But he wasn’t heard as the other took off running and he was forced to jog to keep up even a little. “First I complain when you baby me and now that I can’t do some stuff, you guys act like I can… I don’t win.”

“Taeminnie! Hurry!” Kibum was already in the elevator and the maknae managed to run and slide in just before the doors closed. Panting heavily, he sat down with his head between his knees gasping for air. “Are you okay?”

“Never… run… again.” His glare would have been scary at any other point, it was now ruined by the look on his face of someone who had just run a marathon twice. “Water?”

Kibum held out his unopened bottle from dance practice earlier, watching at the boy chugged the whole thing in seconds. “Doesn’t that taste bad to you?” There was only a nod in response and he couldn’t help the little smirk as the maknae closed the empty bottle.

“Like crap, but better than nothing.” He finally stood on shaky legs just as the elevator reached its stop. As they got out, Kibum made sure to walk slower this time, in step with the maknae. “Where are we heading?”

“The only conference room big enough for all of us. We’re already late.” He showed his watch to Taemin, proving they were a few minutes past when it was supposed to start. “But since you’re with me, I won’t get yelled at.”

“That’s why you wanted me to come.” If it were anyone else, he probably would have been mad, but now Taemin only laughed. “All of your rushing was for nothing.”

“Whatever. Come on.” They stopped outside a door and Taemin barely noted how silent it seemed as Kibum opened the door.

“You are late.” But Kibum was right and nothing else was said as he and Taemin scrambled to seats by the rest of the members.

The whole time, Taemin barely paid attention. None of it concerned him anyways. More than one person around the room looked at him the same way and at one point, he was even given an iPod by Jin and told he could just fool around on that for the time. And he did.

“Taemin? Can you hear anything? Anything at all?” There was no response from him after the earbuds were put in and Jin nodded to the others in the room. Almost immediately, chaos broke out.

“Are we doing it or not?” Kai’s voice cut above everyone else’s, silencing the room. “We are, right?”

“Of course we are.” Around the room, people nodded along to Amber’s statement. “We already agreed on this.”

“Everything you need to know is in your group folders. Discuss them with your groups later.” Soo Man nodded to the color-coded folders everyone had before putting his hands on the table to push himself up. “I believe that is all we had to discuss, so you are all free to leave whenever. Just be out of here by eleven.” Taemin didn’t even realize that he was gone or that people were talking to him until an earbud was ripped from his ear by Kibum.

“You really can’t hear through those?” He only looked at the eldest in confusion before looking around at everyone.

“What did I miss?”