You had initially thought that it would have been at least slightly awkward to live in such close proximity to the SHINee members but it really wasn’t at all. You did get a shock on the first morning of staying at your new place when Jonghyun, Kibum, Taemin, and Jinki turned up one-by-one, in that order, and sat at your kitchen counter to watch you. You could feel their eyes following your every move as you bustled around the kitchen to make breakfast for yourself and Minhyuk. They didn’t say anything but you could see the hunger in their eyes. In the end, you gave in to them and got started on extra portions of food for their breakfast as well, much to their silent delight.

Now, you were no longer surprised by their morning visits, which became a daily ritual for them. Even if they were busy and had a schedule to rush to, at least one of the members would magically appear every morning while you were in the kitchen preparing breakfast to collect breakfast for the others. Sometimes, they had time to sit down and eat; other times, they just came to pack their breakfast before thanking you and leaving. Minho was about the only member whose breakfast was perpetually being packed because he was always either waking up too late or rushing to somewhere.

You didn’t mind the extra work every morning. In fact, you hardly even noticed the extra portions that you had to make after a while. It felt good to have extra company over in the morning and things felt almost like before.

One thing that you did take notice of, though, was the sudden halt of texts from Junhyung. You weren’t exactly sure when it happened but when you finally realized that you hadn’t felt like dropping your phone into a bucket of water or burying it in the ground, you felt a little strange and decided to check your phone.

There was still a large number of unopened texts but you just chose to read the most recent text, which said that he was heading overseas for a schedule for a few days and that the company was taking all their phones during those few days so that they wouldn’t be distracted.

You stared at the text for a few moments, trying to decide if you should reply him or not. After a moment of hesitation, you decided to go with your gut, even as you were already typing out your reply to him.

To: -random ten digit number-

Take care of yourself and please stop sending me so many texts.

You re-read the reply several times to make sure that the message didn’t sound too kind or too harsh before clicking the send button. You dropped your phone back into your bag and continued with your work.

You conveniently forgot about that message until you got a reply from Junhyung while you were at the hospital filling out your mom’s discharge papers. You pulled out the phone from your bag and opened the text.

From: -random ten digit number-

Hey! You finally replied. I’m back in Korea. Don’t take this the wrong way, but can we meet up? I really need to talk to you.

You couldn’t control your immediate reaction, which was to roll your eyes, as you sighed inwardly, mentally admonishing yourself for replying him in the first place. You ignored Junhyung’s text, burying your phone in your bag and continued filling out the forms laid out in front of you.

“Omma, this is the new place that I was telling you about a few days ago. I know I didn’t do a very good job with the description but isn’t it just wonderful??” You exclaimed excitedly, happy that you finally got to show your mom your new place.

“Yes, sweetheart, yes. It is wonderful.” Your mom smiled as she glanced around the living room.

You carried her bag and headed to one of the 2 unoccupied bedrooms, setting the bag at the foot of the bed. “Omma, this is your room.” You informed, adding in a hushed tone, “Kibum is the one who picked out the sheets.” The both of you eyed the multi-coloured striped sheets for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

Your mom suddenly reached out and took your wrist in hers, tugging you towards the bed to sit beside her. “Sweetie, I’ve been wanting to ask you something for while a long time now. But before I ask, you must promise me you’d be completely honest with me.” Your mom looked at you expectantly.

Your eyebrows furrowed a little in worry but you answered anyway, “I promise, omma. What is it?”

“Who is Kibum to you?” She asked seriously.

“He’s my friend, omma. I introduced you to him remember? He even visited you while you were in the hospital.” You answered.

She patted your hand comfortingly. “I know, I know. I remember.” She replied. “But I meant… is he, by any chance, your… special friend?” She quirked her eyebrow at you.

“O-omma!” You sputtered, not knowing how to answer and feeling awkward as your face heated up. “I don’t know. We’re just friends for now.” You bit your bottom lip and fiddled with your necklace.

“For now?” She arched her eyebrow even higher. “Is there anything else that you want to tell me?” She encouraged, trying to get you to tell her more about your relationship with Kibum.

You didn’t form the link between the two though, and honestly thought your mom was asking if you were hiding anything from her. “Well, there is this one tiny thing. Umm, Kibum is… legally Minhyuk’s father.” You revealed instead, making your mom gape at your sudden revelation.

“Wait. What?!” Your mom sputtered, clearly not expecting a surprise of this scale and magnitude. “When?!”

You pressed your lips together in a tight line and fiddled with your fingers. “It was actually decided the day after Minhyuk was born. Kibum suggested it and I didn’t agree to it at first but he-” You paused and let out a sigh, “he’s just really good at convincing people.”

To your surprise, your mom actually snickered. “Well, this is certainly interesting. Does his managers and management company know about this decision of his?”

“Yeah, they do. I don’t know how they took the news because Kibum never told me about that part but I don’t think it went that badly since Kibum still managed to debut with the rest.” You cringed slightly when you thought about how badly things could have turned out.

Sensing your change in mood for the worse, your mom quickly decided that it was better to end the conversation for now. “Hmm, alright, don’t think too much about it now. Let’s continue this talk another time ok?”

“Ok, omma, I’ll leave you to unpack. I’ll go get Minhyukkie now.” You said appreciatingly as you left your mom’s room. You had left Minhyuk in the care of Minho and Taemin as they didn’t have any schedules today. In fact, the both of them had insisted on helping you look after him while you went to bring your mom home.

You hadn’t wanted to trouble them at first but after lots of pouting on Taemin’s part and countless reassurances from Minho, you finally gave in to their request and dropped Minhyuk off with them before you left for the hospital.

“Hyung! I don’t think I’m doing this right!” Taemin’s voice was the first thing you heard when you entered the house after being let in by Minho.

You cocked your head slightly and whispered because Minhyuk was asleep against Minho’s chest. “What is Taemin doing?”

“Trying to prepare Minhyuk’s bottle. He’s been at it for the past 10 minutes though.” He revealed.

“Hyung?” Taemin called out again, having not heard the door bell ring since he was in the kitchen.

You gestured to yourself and nodded, telling Minho that you would take care of it as you walked towards the kitchen where Taemin was.

“Need some help?” You said as casually as you could manage, leaning against the doorframe.

“Noona!!!” Taemin momentarily forgot about the milk bottle that he had been preparing and pulled you into a hug.

“T-taemin.” You forced out, tapping his shoulder urgently as you were struggling to breathe, and took in a huge breath of air when Taemin finally loosened his grip around you and stepped back.

“Did you need help with something?” You repeated when you had finally caught your breath.

“Umm… I forgot how to make Minhyuk’s bottle.” Taemin admitted sheepishly while ruffling the hair at the back of his head.

You laughed and reached out to pinch his cheek when you were close enough. “How many scoops of milk powder have you put in here?” You asked as you took the bottle from his hands and lightly shook it.

“One?” He said hesitantly.

“Don’t worry, Taeminnie. I’m not going to get mad at you.” You turned to face him and reassured him with a smile. “This needs another scoopful of milk powder, then just shake it well and you’re done!” You gave him another smile. “Isn’t it easy?”

“Not for him, noona.” Minho added, having appeared sometime while you were busy talking to Taemin. “He won’t even remember this after a few hours. He forgets and misplaces things so often that I don’t think any of us are surprised anymore.”

“Aww, is it really as bad as he says, Taeminnie?” You asked.

He nodded in agreement, not even bothering to deny it, before adding in a low whisper so that only you could hear. “Even though Minho hyung complains, he still always helps me to find my things when I misplace them.” He grinned.

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Ok, not much to say so I'll just leave this picture of Key and Jjong. If you haven't seen the pictures from this event. PLEASE DO! (Well, that is if you like SHINee :P)