Taemin watched with morbid fascination as the tubes for drawing his blood were connected to his catheter. It didn’t take long for one to fill and as it was being replaced with another, he looked up to the hyungs.

Who were all looking away from the blood draw. He couldn’t help but give a little smile at them. When the cookie and juice were offered, he took them and started munching away as his blood tubes were carried off and the others looked at him. “Are you okay Taemin? You seem really pale…”

“Aren’t I always?” He gave Key a smile as he nodded, finishing off the cookie and starting on the juice. “I feel like I do after every other blood test. Nothing to worry.”

“If you say so…” No one else seemed to feel like something was wrong, so Key let it pass. But he still couldn’t shake the feeling.

If only he had listened. “It is June fourteenth and Taemin’s sick with a cold.” Jonghyun was the one speaking to the camera, but the other three were not too far back on the couch, watching him and the television at the same time. “According to his doctor, we have to make sure his temperature doesn’t get too high or he doesn’t get much worse or he has to go to the hospital. For a cold. I never knew chemo could do something like this… I always thought you were just easier to get sick, not making it this bad…”

He shook his head and looked over his shoulder at the others when there was a bang from behind him. Minho was now sitting on the floor, rubbing his head and glaring at Key, who only stuck his tongue out at the younger boy. “There’s not much else going on at the moment beside that, so I guess I’ll leave this here. Until tomorrow…” Just as the camera shut off, coughs came from the bedroom and Jonghyun and Key were the first ones up, grabbing a bottle of cough medicine and an inhaler on the way to the bedroom.

They ended up getting there after the other two because of the need to get the medicines, but Taemin was still coughing even as Jinki tried holding him up to help. It hadn’t even been a full day of him being sick and they were already used to the routine as Minho stepped back to let Jonghyun closer with the inhaler. He pressed the mouthpiece between the slightly-blue lips and pressed down, letting the medicine in to try and calm the coughs. Once Taemin was slightly better, a small hand clamped over Jonghyun’s, telling his it was okay to do it again.

The coughing settled down within the minute and Taemin caught his breath before taking a water bottle from Minho, eventually having to hand it to Jinki to help him drink since his hands were shaking so badly. The leader complied and the room was silent even as Taemin gulped the water. It was only after he opened his eyes again and saw Key with the cough medicine that he spoke. “Do I really have to take that?”

“It will stop the coughing for a while Minnie…” He didn’t give much room for protest before sticking the spoon in Taemin’s open mouth, closing the boy’s jaw with his hand and plugging his nose. Forced to swallow so his mouth would be open again, Taemin did, choking on the fowl-tasting liquid. “Good boy. Now wait a little and you can have some strawberry milk. Okay?”

There was a lazy nod as his eyes slipped closed again and Taemin snuggled closer to Jinki holding him. “Why don’t you come out to the living room with us?” Taemin’s head moved against Jinki’s chest and they all gave a small smile to the tired boy before Jinki lifted him easily. “You’re so light Taemin.”

“I know…” The reply was half-mumbled as he tried to sleep, but he gave up on that almost as soon as they got to the living room. “The doctor said I was around 45 kilos.”

“You’re so tiny I could lift you!” Key jokingly grabbed for the boy, but didn’t bother actually trying. “Is there anything you want?”

“Blanket… I’m cold.” It seemed like seconds later that he had two blankets over him and another ready for if he wanted it, but none of the others seemed to care that he couldn’t do that on his own. “Thanks…”

“Not a problem Minnie. Do you want strawberry milk now?” Key was already halfway to the kitchen to get it, but Taemin shook his head, shocking all of them. “Are you sure?”

“My stomach doesn’t feel that great…” That was all it took to have a bucket by him as well before the others were cramming onto the couch with him. Clinging onto Jinki and having Key holding him from the other side, Taemin wasn’t that cold anymore.

But he still didn’t feel great.

“I feel worse…” Taemin barely managed to stumble to the kitchen the next morning, not even greeting the other members as he sat at the table and put his head down on it, sighing at the coolness.

“Well take your temperature.” Key pulled the thermometer from a drawer and handed it to the closest person at the table to give to Taemin. With a small pout, he pressed the button and waited a few seconds before sticking it under his tongue and leaning back in the chair, watching the others begin to eat breakfast as he waited. Eventually, it beeped and Taemin hadn’t even reached up for it before Key was grabbing the stick from his mouth.

The small smile on the diva’s face dropped when he read it and he not-so-gently elbowed Jonghyun next to him, showing the number on the screen. “Is something wrong?”

They both looked up at Taemin and back down at the thermometer, not giving an answer at first. Jinki and Minho both looked from the two to Taemin and then tried to glance at the thermometer. “Taemin?” Jonghyun voice shook the slightest as he finally spoke while looking at the boy. “We’re going to take you to the doctor today, okay?”

“Is it really that bad?” He grabbed the plastic stick from Key’s hands, looking at the number before it was stolen away from him. “38.5? That isn’t bad…”

“The doctor said to call him if it got above 37. Since you’re on chemo, it can get a lot worse…” Jinki tried to explain it for the others while still trying to not say much to Taemin. “It’s better safe than sorry.”

“It’s just a cold!”

“But it can get worse!” Key rarely glared at Taemin, but this was one of the times he went all-out with it. “Just listen to us. Please…”

“I’m fine!” The yelling seemed to have done him in though, because the yell wasn’t nearly as loud as the previous one had been. Before anyone could say anything back, a first cough came through his lips parted so he could breathe. In seconds, that one became many and Taemin could only let them take over his body as he simply tried to breathe.

Minho was the one to grab the inhaler and press it to his lips, but Taemin couldn’t keep still enough for it to work and Jinki ended up hitting the rapper’s hands away to do it himself. Holding the back of the maknae’s head with more force than he actually needed, he steadied the boy’s head and held it there as the inhaler was pressed between his lips and the medicine was released. The coughing barely calmed and he gave another puff of the inhaler, but even that did little. “Did you take your cough medicine this morning Taemin?”

The grip on the boy’s head loosened enough for him to shake it and Jinki gave a sigh before handing the inhaler back to Minho. After directing Key on how to help Taemin breathe easier, he and Jonghyun went for the medicine and the one thing that would let Taemin take it then.

By the time they got back to the kitchen, Taemin’s coughs had only calmed a little more and his lips were an even darker blue than they were used to. Jinki wasted no time in opening the bottle and filling the needleless-syringe to the dosage for Taemin. Replacing Key’s hand on the back of Taemin’s head again, he held the medicine in the other. “Open your mouth just a little and be ready to swallow.”

For all the times Taemin would have protested against cough medicine, he only did as Jinki said and the tip of the syringe reached all the way to the back of his throat before Jinki pressed down on the end, letting it get down his throat and slowly stop the coughs. And though they were still coming, they weren’t nearly as harsh as the ones before and Taemin was able to breathe between them. The color slowly came back to his lips and his pale skin became red again before Jinki released the grip on his head and stood back. “Better?”

There was a nod from the boy before he tried to reach for a cup of water on the table, just out of his reach. Key grabbed it immediately and held it to Taemin’s lips, letting the boy drink without working for it at all. “Hyung?” Jinki glanced at Key and the diva continued with what he was going to say. “How’d you think of that?”

“Didn’t your parents ever give you medicine like that as a kid?” Key wasn’t the only one who shook his head, Minho and Jonghyun joining him. He shrugged putting the medicine-dispenser that had just saved Taemin in the sink to wash before answering. “I never liked the taste of liquid medicine so my parents would always do that as a kid so I could get it down. I figured it was the same sort of thing…”

“Thank you…” Taemin’s voice was hoarse, but he got it out loud enough for everyone to hear and look at him. “I thought nothing was going to work… I was just choking and…” Not even sure where he was going with it, he let the sentence hang unfinished. But even if he’d had more to say, Key wouldn’t have let him finish with the hug he gave the boy then.

“You don’t have to thank us for helping you when you’re sick!” He rubbed the boy’s back with a small smile before turning slightly more serious. “But do you get why you have to go to the doctor now?”

And when the boy nodded, the phone was already out and dialing a number they all were beginning to know by heart.