“Is that Taemin?” Tao stopped walking, bringing Sehun and Kai to a halt with him. “Kai, is that Taemin?”

“Where?! I don’t see Taemin-hyung… You’re a liar.” The slurred words did little to help the panda and only got him a mumbled verbal beating. That was ignored.

“You two stay here. Don’t move.” He patted both of them on their shoulders as if they were dogs being told to stay. In seconds, he was down the hall.

“Hear the Hunnie? Panda says to stay…” Kai gave a little laugh and the rainbow-haired maknae joined him without even understanding why. Tao ignored that as well.

“Taemin? Are you okay?” They boy didn’t move when he called his name and his hat was over his eyes so Tao couldn’t even tell if he was awake or not. With no other choice, he crouched in front of the boy and tried to lift the bottom of the cap gently.

But a frail hand shot out to grab his wrist before the eye-cover was moved. “Please don’t… the lights hurt.”

“Where are your hyungs?” He pulled his hand back gently and the small one that had grabbed onto him fell back into the boy’s lap.

“Drunk at the party.” He gave a yawn, wincing a little as he moved too-sharply for his chest to handle. “Even if I got one of them, I wouldn’t trust them do be able to do anything with how much they’ve had.”

“I’m taking Kai and Sehun back to our apartment… You can come to. I’ll call you hyungs later to tell them.” The boy gave a weak nod and thanks and the martial artist looked at his drunk friends and then back to the boy on the ground. “Do you need help?”

And as much as he hated to admit it, he did. So Taemin let Tao lift him effortlessly and stand the boy, putting a gentle arm over his shoulders to guide him back to the other two. “What happened to them?”

Both watched the two playing airplanes in the middle of the hall, completely wild and not graceful in the least. “They got a hold of some sort of drink…”

“And you?”

“Just got here a while ago and didn’t touch anything. Probably the only sober one in the whole room.” He felt Taemin lean onto him even more but didn’t say anything. “Kai! Sehun! Didn’t I say to stay here?”

“But that was boring…” The dancer laughed a little when Sehun stuck his tongue out at the end.

And then he saw the boy by Tao. “Hyung! It is you!”

Before Taemin could even prepare for what was going to be a painful tackle-hug, a hand on Kai’s chest kept him away. “No touching and be quiet. We’re leaving now.”

“But the party is still happening!”

“But neither of you can walk straight. Come on.” He didn’t wait for them to answer, walking down the hall at a pace slow enough for Taemin and fast enough the two had to keep up or be lost. When they reached a car of one of the members, Tao helped Taemin into the front seat before stuffing the two into the back.

He started the car and not seconds later, the duo in the back were singing songs Taemin had never even heard before. His headache only intensified, but there was nothing he could do. “Put these on.” Tao held out an iPod with headphones to Taemin. “It shouldn’t be loud but they cancel noise. And those two will be loud.”

“Thanks.” He had barely gotten them over his ears before the singing raised to yells. And while Tao dealt with that, Taemin was just thankful that his headache could go away even a little. He was asleep before they were even off company grounds.

When the SHINee maknae woke, he found himself in a dorm he barely recognized as Exo’s from the few times he had been there with Kai. But his friend wasn’t there—only his savior from the party and a groaning rainbow-haired maknae. “That’s what you get for drinking a lot. You’re going to be sick from it.”

He knew all-too-well what was happening when the boy leaned over a bucket, but the sounds that came next only confirmed it. “Room temperature water and club soda help upset stomachs. And gelatin too.”

“You’re awake?” Toa glanced at him and then back to Sehun as he got sick even more. “What did you say helps?”

“Room-temp water and club soda. And gelatin when he wants to eat. Plain crackers too.” He had even realized he’d been sleeping in an arm chair until he crawled out of it to get on the ground by the sick younger boy. While he was still leaning over the bucket, nothing else seemed to be coming up. Still, Taemin took over rubbing his back a little. “It’s okay; you’ll feel better once everything’s out of your system…”

Tao only took one last glance at the two before standing and walking to the kitchen, searching for anything Taemin had said would help. After a few minutes, he came out with a few water and soda bottles and a box of crackers, putting them down next to Taemin. “If you’re okay with him for a few minutes, I’m going to go check on Kai. He had more I think.”

“I’m fine. Just do what you have to.” He gave a smile to the barely-older boy before turning back to the maknae when more of the foul liquid in his stomach came up. “It’s okay. It should all be over soon.”

“I’ll bring a new bucket when I come back.”

“A garbage bag might be best…” If there was one thing Taemin knew, it was getting sick. And Tao trusted his judgment, nodding to agree with the boy.

Taemin mindlessly petted the rainbow hair of Sehun asleep on his shoulder as he sat on the couch in Exo’s living room, watching the early morning news with Tao.  Kai was passed out on the floor in front of the, still clutching a bucket. A blanket had been draped over him and Taemin and Sehun were sharing another. “What did they even drink?”

“I don’t know.” The Chinese member shrugged, looking at the two as he tried to think. “I’m pretty sure they had something with gummy worms at some point…”

“This is why I don’t trust the parties anyone throws from our company.” Taemin gave a little yawn and rubbed his eyes with his hand before focusing back on the TV. His picture flashed across the screen and he didn’t even need to tell Tao to turn it up before he did.

“We are sorry to announce that accounts tell of Lee Taemin from the band SHINee’s passing late last night.” Both look at that and then at each other.

“Am I dead?”

“Thank god it was only the news at two in the morning that said that!” Taemin pouted as Jonghyun laughed at him loudly, the others joining in after a few seconds as the whole force of the story actual hit them.

“It isn’t funny! Do you understand what it’s like to watch a news broadcast say you are dead when you are sitting there talking to people?”

“Well were they responding?” Taemin didn’t answer, only looking at Jinki with confused eyes. “Because if they weren’t, then you’d have to worry about being a ghost.”

“It’s not time for your lame jokes either!” His yells weren’t enough to overcome their laughter. “At least I didn’t get drunk last night and forget about the person I was supposed to be taking care of!” All of them shut up immediately, looking at Taemin with his teary eyes. “None of you even knew I was gone until this morning!”

Four sets of eyes were on him, but no one said anything as Taemin continued his rant without interruptions. “I felt sick and tired and I hadn’t even had my medicine and none of you cared! You all got drunk and fooled around at the party and slept in the building without even realizing that I’d left hours before with Tao and Kai and Sehun because everyone let them get drunk when they weren’t allowed to drink. What would have done if I was the one that got drunk? Because I’m not allowed to drink with the medicines…” He stopped to in a deep breath, ignoring the pain as he looked at all of them with wide and wild eyes. “None of you cared!”

The tears were falling down his face at an unstoppable rate and he was gasping for breath, but Taemin still tried to push away anyone that came close to him. He couldn’t hear anything they might have said over the blood rushing in his ears and his struggling breaths and he couldn’t see anything but blurs through his tears. But he still pushed them away, because they didn’t actually care. It was a fact he had convinced himself of and he wasn’t backing down.

It was only when he grew too weak to fight back that the first person managed to grab him and hug him. Just from the big embrace, he knew it was Jinki, and that was the only person he somewhat trusted then. So he let his head fall onto the leader’s shoulder and just sobbed. “You didn’t care…”