Taemin glanced up from looking down the neck of the violin as the last note of the song he was playing still rang through the air. Henry was smiling at him and a few of the other Super Junior members were there with nothing better to do before they had dance practice. When he finally lifted his fingers off the strings and ended the note, the small crowd clapped and he gave the smallest of bows with a smile on his face. “You’re really good Taemin-ah!”

He didn’t even know who said it so he only dipped his head in thanks and looked at his teacher. “Thank you for teaching me so well for these past few months hyung.”

Henry’s smile grew a little more and he stepped forward to help pack up while the others went to get set in their studio. “Thanks for being a great student. But why do you make it sound like it’s goodbye?”

“I… At the moment, playing an instrument is one of the last things I should be doing. Even if my hyungs try and hide what the doctor says from me, I know I’m getting sicker.” A lone tear fell from his face onto the case but before Henry could do anything to comfort the boy, Taemin was looking up at him with a sad smile. “I get tired from just little things like this now… I’ve had a lot of fun and learned a lot, but I think I should take a break right now.” He looked up back down, afraid of how the elder would react.

“I understand, Taemin-ah.” Taemin couldn’t help but jump at the hand placed on his shoulder, looking back at Henry suddenly. “Just get better soon, okay? I really like teaching you. But we’ll still do other things until then, right?”

“S-sure hyung.” He nodded hesitantly. “Yeah, we will.”

“Then I’m okay with it.”

“It’s August twentieth around five at night.” Taemin briefly glanced at a clock to make sure he was right. “Or… six at night. Where’d the last hour go?” He shrugged to himself, looking back at the camera after a few seconds of thinking. “Anyways, I had a lesson with Henry-hyung today. My last one for a while. I’m going to miss learning violin, but I get tired too easily for that now…” He gave a yawn then, smiling at the end. “See? My body agrees with me. The hyungs aren’t home yet, but they should be here any minute. Jonghyun-hyung called a little bit ago to ask if I wanted chicken. All I heard was Jinki-hyung talking about it.”

He gave a little laugh, stopping only when his chest hurt too much to continue. “I haven’t said this to them or anyone, but I don’t think the surgery helped much. I still feel the same besides not having the coughing attacks anymore and if anything, my chest feels tighter. But maybe I’m just worrying too much. That could be from swelling, because Jinki-hyung said that the doctor said there was still a lot. So now we have to wait for the x-rays to find out if it helped…” He stopped when there was a bang from outside the door, followed by voices drifting through it. “The hyungs are home now so I’ll go. I’ll talk some more tomorrow!” With a smile and a wave, he turned off the camera just as the door opened.

None of them would know anything going through the happy maknae’s mind until they saw the videos. By then, he was most likely going to be dead.

His smile covered anything that would have told them anything at all about it.

“It’s less than a month to your birthday, Key-hyung! Aren’t you excited?” Taemin sat on the kitchen counter, smiling at Key as he made breakfast. “This time next month, you’ll be 22.”

“Yeah.” But will you be there to see it? “Do you want blueberries or chocolate chips in the pancakes?”

“Whatever you want.” He swung his legs out to tap Key, still in his baggy blue pajama pants. “You don’t really seem excited…”

Because I want to know that you will be better by then. “It just seems really far away. It’s only the twenty-fourth and my birthday is the twenty-third. That’s a whole month.”

“Exactly! That means you’ve passed eleven months of being twenty-one!” Taemin’s mouth was wide as he spread his arms to exaggerate the time and Key gave a smile. Taking a handful of chocolate chips and berries, he dropped half in the open mouth and ate the other half himself as Taemin pouted at him. Only after the boy finished chewing did he speak again. “What was that for?”

“You were going to catch flies if you left your mouth open.” Key gave a little smile and tapped Taemin on the nose with his spatula. “Why don’t you go wake the others?”

“I’m going to get a drink… Anyone want anything?” After weaseling his way out of the blanket-cocoon he had made and away from the four watching TV with them, Taemin stopped to take requests.

“Can you bring me a water bottle?” The maknae nodded to Jonghyun and looked at the others, but the three were all entranced in the show that was on so he didn’t even bother.

Jonghyun went back to watching as well, only perking up when he heard a little clank of glass as Taemin got a cup from a high shelf and then the sink as he filled it up. A closet squeaked as he got the bottle as well, but after a solid minute, the boy still hadn’t returned. Just as Jonghyun went to stand to go see what was taking him so long, the sound of glass shattering broke through the dorm, sounding louder than the TV and getting everyone’s attention. By the time the three in the living room even realized where it had come from, Jonghyun was gone.

He’d barely reached the kitchen before he’d seen the shards of the cup Taemin had gotten across the floor. That would have been what he would have worried about first, if Taemin wasn’t frozen completely still standing there, pale white and hand pressed onto his chest. The water bottle was on the ground with the glass as well, but Jonghyun didn’t care as he saw Taemin start to go down. He didn’t even think before diving forward to catch him, stopping the boy from hitting the glass. Kneeling on the shards himself, Jonghyun bit back a scream as he felt his legs get cut, only focusing on Taemin in front of him. “Jinki!”

Their roles were reversed for once, the eldest being the one with the phone as Jonghyun held Taemin. Already, he was paler than normal, his lips and face colorless. His eyes were closed and for one of the first times, he was unconscious as his body was put through the pain cause by itself. “Is he breathing?”

Jonghyun leaned closer, ignoring the bites of glass in his legs, to put his ear on the bony chest. “Barely.” He heard the eldest repeating it into the phone and then the silence as he listened to what to do, but that didn’t matter in only a matter of seconds. “Hyung… it stopped. He’s not anymore…” There wasn’t even time for the shock of that to set in, let alone any pain that would have come with it, before Jinki was on the ground in front of him, lips pressed against Taemin’s own as he tried to help the boy. The phone was on the floor beside him, speakerphone on so that the lady on the other end could give him directions on what to do.

The dino looked up from the scene in front of him for only the smallest second, but he met eyes with Minho in the doorway. The rapper’s wide eyes were even wider and he stood frozen in shock and fear at the youngest looking so close to death right in front of him. There wasn’t anything he could do to help the boy though, as Jinki began directing him to do things to help. Only after there was nothing else he could do did he look back up. The tall frame was sitting on the ground, back against the doorframe, with Key’s arms wrapped around him. It seemed so strange seeing the normally calm and collect Minho sobbing into Key’s chest as the diva only cried silently.

But that was what Taemin was doing to them. Bringing them closer and showing their weaknesses.

If the maknae died then, there was no telling what would happen to them.