I’m going to apologize ahead of this chapter for any people (aka Hanbyul and Kyumin from LED Apple) that act differently from how they normally do. Most of the bands not under SM that I mention in here are bands I personally don’t follow much or only listen to the music and don’t know about the members. Information/personalities are made to go along with my story and the situation, so do not expect them to be accurate and please don’t hate me. Thank you!

“Look at you!” Taemin’s eyes widened as a person he didn’t even recognize came practically flying in front of him. “Don’t they feed you anything?”

He didn’t even answer before another stranger appeared, grabbing onto the shoulder of the silver-haired boy in front of him. “Sorry, he always like this.” After giving Taemin a small smile, he turned to the boy he was holding. “Kyumin, he’s older than you!”

“He is?” He turned to look at his friend, eyes wide. Taemin only stood there awkwardly while Jonghyun laughed beside him, not helping the situation any. “But he’s so tiny!”

“It’s only by a month, Hanbyul.” Jonghyun finally stepped in instead of just laughing. “Taemin-ah, this is Hanbyul,” he gestured to the second man that came and Taemin got a wave that he returned. “And that’s Kyumin. They are from LED Apple.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” He gave a little bow—acting like it didn’t hurt at all—to the two before smiling at Kyumin. “And they feed me better than I could ask for. It’s just my medicine…”

And that explained it to the slightly-younger boy and while Taemin expected sympathy or pity like he had been getting from everyone else, he only got a light hand on his shoulder. “Well eat some more! Come on, there are the best cupcakes ever here!”

As Taemin was dragged away by the maknae of the other group, Jonghyun looked at his friend. “Is it safe to let them go alone?”

“You might want to start searching for him in about five minutes if you can’t find him.”

Taemin had lied when he said there was no reason he wouldn’t have been able to see people, and he was beginning to regret that. Because barely an hour into the little get-together the others had planned, he wanted to do nothing more than lay down and sleep. His chest hurt even though he had taken the pain killers and he was just tired and sleepy and feeling sick.

But he wasn’t going to let them down.

So he only sat with a smile on his face talking to people he couldn’t even remember the names of. All he knew was Key had been talking to him with Infinite and Jonghyun had brought LED Apple. MBLAQ had been there from Jinki but besides talking to them quickly by the food with Kyumin, Taemin hadn’t seen them again. Besides those groups, he hadn’t seen anyone not from the company. “You want to get out of here?”

Mir was the one that asked him, right next to his head so close Taemin didn’t know how he hadn’t realized the rapper was there. Behind him stood Joon, as if on watch. “What?”

“Jinki-hyung asked us if we would take you before anyone realized. He said you were tired but that you didn’t want the others knowing. We have to go past your apartments anyways and apparently there is someone meeting you there.” He didn’t know how Jinki knew that but wasn’t questioning the elder or the person that was supposedly meeting him at the apartment. Instead, he stood carefully with the help of both Mir and Joon and the trio disappeared through the crowd.

Only one person noticed their leaving. And Jinki couldn’t help but smile as a practically-asleep Taemin was led out by the two friends. He would have to thank them later.

When Taemin reached the apartment, he didn’t even think about the fact that someone was supposed to be watching him or that the door had been locked when they left, only walked in without having to unlock it and stumbled right to the couch. He’d barely laid down when a voice broke into his sleep-induced fog. “I’m pretty sure they said you aren’t supposed to lay down.”

“I don’t care… I’m tired…” Taemin didn’t move, but he felt gently hands guiding him until he was half-laying-half-sitting on the cushions that made his bed the night before.  He didn’t even have the strength to hold himself up and started tipping to the side again.

Only to land on a soft shoulder. “Just sleep then. I’ll keep you up.” He didn’t even have the time to protest before his eyes slide closed and he was out.

Amber looked down at the sleeping boy on her shoulder and couldn’t help but smile a little as he snuggled closer for warmth. After fixing the blanket on him, she turned the TV on but left it muted as it was.

The next few hours were going to be long.

When the other four walked into the apartment, it didn’t surprise any of them to see Taemin asleep on the couch with Amber. It did surprise them to find the girl asleep as well and Key being Key took out his camera to take a few pictures before using his phone and posting it online.

Amber would kill him when she found out, he figured, but it was still cute to see and that didn’t matter then.

The four went about their things as silently as they could in the dorm, but it was inevitable when Amber blinked her eyes open to come face-to-face with Jonghyun as he was taking a picture for his Twitter. “What are you doing?”

“I was posting it on Twitter. It’s probably the only time a picture like this will be posted and not cause a scandal. You’re a special person.” He gave a little smile and ruffled her hair like they all missed doing to Taemin. “Go back to sleep. You seem tired.”

“I’m fine…” She glanced down at Taemin as he shifted a little and both held their breaths, but he stayed asleep on her shoulder.

“We have to wake his for his medicine anyways.” Key came out from the kitchen with a bottle of strawberry milk and a variety of pills in a small cup. He gave a smile to Amber. “Thanks for being his pillow.”

“Not a problem…” She moved a little so that Key could get closer to Taemin, but the boy’s head never left her shoulder.

“Minnie… Tae, it’s time to wake up and take your medicine…” He kept his voice quiet, but Taemin still flinched from it and hid his face in Amber’s shoulder a little more.

“I don’t want to. It tastes bad…”

“I have strawberry milk to go with it.” It took everything to not laugh at the simple things that made them all happy as Amber saw Taemin’s eyes open wide immediately to check and felt him move off of her to take the bottle and cup. One by one, he took the pills in it with a sip of the flavored drink and finished it off before handing it back to Key. “Good job. Do you want anything to eat? We brought back some food from earlier…”

Taemin gave a little shrug, but it Key’s mind, that was a yes. “I’ll heat up what needs to be and then anyone can eat what they want. You too, Amber, since you didn’t get to go.”

“You didn’t go?” Taemin turned to look at Amber, eyes scrunching together a little in confusion. “Why? I know I saw Victoria-noona and Luna there…”

“I was at a schedule and on my way over, your hyungs called me to ask if I would come here to meet you.” She explained it simply for the half-asleep boy before looking up at Key. “I’m fine with that. Thanks hyung.”

“When are you going to get over that?! I was sick when I said it, okay?!” Taemin immediately burst into laughter at Key’s outburst and tried his best to not hurt himself, but it was too funny to not laugh and he accepted the pain for that. Jonghyun wasn’t far behind him, but Amber only smirked.

“Whatever you say, hyung.”

“You called me oppa in the hospital…”

“Right after having a pint of my blood drawn. You claim you were sick when you said it, I was lightheaded as hell and stuck trying to distract you.” Amber stuck her tongue out at him to show she was just joking around, but Key was still fuming.

“Bummie, you lost. Just go make some food.”

“I’m not your wife!” Key turned to Jonghyun to take his anger out on, but it was Amber that started laughing then.

“ist much? I could be and I barely know how to work a stove!”

“Then why don’t I teach you?”

“I feel like you’re going to set my hair on fire with how you’re talking…” Amber eyed him carefully, not agreeing nor disagreeing.

“Don’t worry. It’s too short for that. Besides, it looks like my old hair, so I’d never ruin it.”