Taemin didn’t return that night. No amount of searching in the area around the building nor calling his friends to possibly find out where he was worked. And for one of the first times since their debut, none of the members could go to sleep, all kept awake by their anxiousness. They had started off in their respective rooms, but soon the three that shared a room decided Jonghyun would have been lonely alone and planned to camp out in the living room together.

There might have been some hope of the maknae walking in during the night as another reason for that.

Before they could even get to the dino’s room to tell him their idea, he was already out, sitting on the couch and staring at a muted TV but not seeing it. “It was too hard seeing the empty bed,” was his only explanation, but it was unanimously accepted. So they did the same thing he had, only together. Not a word was spoken that night, but they could all feel the hope of a small body walking through the door, trying to sneak in without waking his hyungs.

That never happened.

When the knock came on their door the next morning, it was Jinki that answered it. Before they could even see the person standing there, they could see the shaking of the eldest’s head, telling them it wasn’t Taemin. They started to lose hope of seeing the maknae before the schedule or even at it, but the conversation soon caught their attention. “Care to tell me why Taemin was sitting on my door stoop this morning?”

“He was at your house?” Immediately, the others were behind Jinki, their eyes all wide as they stared at the manager there.

“Didn’t any of you know?” He couldn’t help the sigh when they all shook their heads. “Get inside and I’ll explain. And didn’t any of you sleep last night? You all look like raccoons.” There was another round of head-shaking, but they still returned and sat around the small kitchen table. With Taemin, there would have not been enough seats, but now the manager took his chair without a care as he looked around. “You all stayed up waiting for him?”

“He stormed out and we couldn’t find him anywhere and he left his phone, but none of us could sleep…” Kibum passed around mugs of coffee as they were made, knowing they were all going to need it after the night Jinki was talking about then. “But he went to your house? Where is he now?”

“Passed out on my couch sick as a dog. Why did none of you call me?” There wasn’t a logical reason for why they didn’t, not even an illogical one, but he let that pass. “I guess he got there at some point during the night and couldn’t get in. He was sitting on my front step leaning against the wall and dead-asleep. I had to carry him in.”

“Why aren’t we going to see him right now? Don’t you realize how worried we were last night? Can you take us to him?” Despite not having a sip of the coffee yet, Jonghyun was more hyper than a kid on a sugar rush, shooting the questions off without giving time for answer. “Why aren’t you answering me?”

“Someone take away his coffee.” And Kibum listened, grabbing the cup from the dino’s shaking hands against his protests. “Right now, all of you are supposed to be getting ready for schedules. Once those are finished, I’ll think about it.” He glanced at the time above the stove and then back to the group. “You guys are going to have to hurry to be ready in time. We’ll talk in the car.” There was no room for arguments and they were forced to let it drop for the moment, but the same thing was on all of their minds.

Taemin was safe.

Jinki was the first ready, and he—against Jonghyun’s wishes—entered the messy room of Taemin and Jonghyun to get the bottle of pills for the boy along with the pamphlets. Hiding them behind his back, he entered the living room where the manager was waiting on the couch and sat in what was typically Jjong’s chair, hiding the things in the side. “Did Taemin tell you why he left last night?”

“No, not a word.” He looked at the leader curiously. “Do you happen to know?”

Jinki only gave a little smile as the others walked in, having planned that perfectly. He stood and held the bottle and papers out, shocking the manager with them. “Tell him to remember to take his vitamins and to read these while he’s bored. It’s important for him to know.” And before he got an answer, he dropped the things on his lap and walked out, leaving a stunned manager with the other members.

“Who knew Jinki-hyung had it in him to do something like that?” Kibum was the one who said it as they looked at where their leader had left from, but all of them agreed.

When Taemin woke, it felt like a bus had hit him full-force. His whole neck and back hurt not only from sleeping on the couch, but from sleeping in the cold leaning on a wall during the night. And his chest felt like there was a fifty pound weight on it, which didn’t help his feeling of not being able to breathe at all. Every part of his body was stiff and sore, yet he still managed to sit up and look around at the manager’s living room. It had changed a lot from when he was last there, but at least he recognized it and knew he wasn’t kidnapped. It was stupid falling asleep outside in plain view of people when he was a star, but he had done it anyways. It hadn’t mattered at all to him.

“Ah, Taemin-ah! You’re awake!” In that moment, Taemin decided their manager was too preppy for talking to a person right after they woke up, especially when they were sick. “How are you feeling? You’ve been sleeping for a while.”

And from how bright the sun was, he had to agree. Why am I still so tired then? “Horrible.”

That got a little smile from the manager, which confused Taemin more. We get yelled at when we accidentally get sick, but I sleep outside and I get smiles? Something is wrong here…

“I would imagine. It got pretty cold last night and you only had sweats and a t-shirt on. Your shoes didn’t even match!” A timer went off in the kitchen and the man jumped up. “Are you hungry? Lunch is ready if you want some.”

“Not really…” But he was already gone. In what seemed like seconds, he was coming back out with a bowl of chicken ramen on a tray and a glass of orange juice. That’s an… interesting… combination.

“Here you are!” The tray was placed on the coffee table for him and that pushed closer to the couch so Taemin could reach it easily. It was barely there, but he had gained the smallest bit of an appetite from smelling the food and could barely wait to have some.

“Thank you hyung. It smells good.” He looked down at the tray for the first time with an actual smile on his face, but that dropped in seconds. Sitting there, right next to the glass of juice was a giant pill he knew and the pile of pamphlets were tucked next to it, the one on top telling how important it was to take the iron with something acidic. The juice…

“Is something wrong Taemin?” The manager cocked his head like he had no idea and looked at the dancer with an innocent look that could rival his own.

But Taemin beat him at it. With the smile back in place, he looked up to stare into the elder’s eyes. “Not at all, hyung. I was just thinking about how lucky I am to have a manager like you who cares about me.” Yet his mind was elsewhere. He knows. They told him and he knows.

As it got closer to night time, Taemin couldn’t help but notice every time Jin checked his watch or a clock, seemingly every minute. At four, he finally stood and looked back at him from the TV they were watching. “I have to go pick up the others soon. Do you want to get cleaned up and come with me to go to the dorm after?” No. But he really wanted Taemin out of his house and the maknae knew it, so he nodded. “Then I’ll grab some clothes for you while you wash up. Okay?”

The clothes were a little big on Taemin, even if he pulled the strings on the pants tight, but wasn’t anything that wasn’t his? He put up with it as he got first pick of a seat in the van for the beginning—the very middle of the back row. When everyone piled into the van, they all looked at Taemin with expressions of mixed curiosity and relief, but besides typical greetings, no one said anything. Jonghyun and Jinki crammed in on either side of him and the close space did nothing to help the inability to breathe properly and the pressure on Taemin’s chest that was still there, but he tried to no let it show.

As Jinki’s breath blew over his ear, he couldn’t help but jump, not having realized the eldest was that close. “You okay Taemin-ah? You look really pale right now.”

“I’m fine.” He could barely hear himself over the sound of his breathing and the words were hard to get out, so he forgot about even trying to make them sound convincing. The others were all laughing and talking amongst themselves, but Taemin couldn’t pay attention to that, focusing on breathing and breathing alone.

Black spots swam across his vision, making him all the more sensitive to the car’s movements and causing him to become even dizzier. “Hyung!” Jinki’s voice sounded too far away for a person right next to him, as if he was at the other end of a tunnel whispering to him. “Pull over!”

“I’m on a ing highway Jinki, how do you expect me to pull over?!” He glanced in the rearview mirror to try and see the leader of the group, but caught sight of the sickly-pale Taemin before anything else. Immediately, his expression changed and they felt the whole van shift as he started trying.

Their yelling alone had silenced the whole car and the others were looking at Taemin with fear-filled eyes and no clue what to do to help, but soon body-racking coughs were filling the van. Everyone winced at the barking sound that came from Taemin with each hack, feeling the pain themselves from it, but the maknae was too far gone in the attack to even react to that. His body was practically limp in the seat, only moving from the force of the coughs and from the breaths he was trying his hardest to take in. It was almost impossible to tell if he was even still conscious by then, but when he lifted his head the slightest bit, his pain-filled eyes saw right into their souls. “Help. It… hurts.” He couldn’t even speak through the fit, his voice barely a whisper and hoarser than seemed possible.

Jinki looked back up at Jin, eyes wide. “Please hyung! Pull over so we can do something.”

“Don’t you think I’m trying?!” But trying wasn’t enough and Jinki gave up on that, reaching around Taemin’s shaking frame to unbuckled the belt that more than likely was choking him and shifting the boy until he could pat his back.

It was gentle at first, trying to comfort until they could help, but as Taemin’s already-pale skin started to turn blue, he got more forceful, practically hitting his back full-force to try and get whatever was choking him up. “Someone get me a water bottle.” There was a scramble for one from everyone, but it was Kibum who held one out to Jinki. He ignored it at first, still hitting Taemin’s back and holding the boy in place at the same time. “Open it.” In seconds, the cap was off, but Jinki still ignored it as Taemin gave his hardest cough yet.

Something splattered from his mouth and at any other time, at least one of them would have been disgusted by it and called him out for it, but not then.

Because the fact that it was bright red stopped them. Blood. It was blood that Taemin coughed up.