"You mean to say that Jinki hyung's been acting that way because Taeminnie had a date?" Kibum confirms.

"Yea, he was still at the arcade when I called, with that Minho gym guy who stares at his ," Jonghyun affirms. "And now Taemin's on the way here."

"Well, that's a good thing, isn't it? If Taemin is willing to come here for Jinki without a second thought, that date mustn't have gone too well," Kibum tries to reason.

"But the thing is, Jinki hyung is drunk out of his mind right now, do you think he'd be okay with Taemin coming over? What if he starts spouting nonsense? You know, like the dramas where the guy drunk confesses and stuff."

"Are you insane?" Kibum smacks Jonghyun from the back of his head, hard. "Is that all you're thinking about? If that happens, then praise the father God! That idiot in there would never confess any other way."

But dramas don't happen in real life, and Taemin took another two hours to arrive. By then, it was well close to midnight.

"Yah, Taemin, what took you so long?" Kibum nagged as the younger pushed through the door.

"Aish, don't talk about it. That Minho hyung took my wallet from the start as if I was some girl because he wanted to pay for the date, then refused to return it when I wanted to leave so I had no way of making my way over.  Then he started getting all jealous over how I was distracted all day because of hyung and then wanted to ditch him for hyung once again. I mean, I can't help it when hyung had left me looking so upset, then refusing to pick up my calls or respond to my texts,” Taemin sighs, and shakes his head in frustration. “Anyway, enough of that. How's hyung?" Taemin asked, placing his shoes by the rack.

"We didn't want to disturb him. He's still cooped up in his room; though he's probably passed out cold by now with the amount of alcohol he's been drinking." Jonghyun explained, pointing towards the elder's door.  

"Got it; thanks, hyung," Taemin passed the duo towards his best friends room. True enough, when Taemin opened the door carefully, Jinki was still huddled in his comforter on the ground, only this time, fast asleep. Taemin sighed at the upsetting sight, eyes glancing across the numerous empty bottles of alcohol sprawled around the room. He switched on the light to the room and made his way pass all the bottles to get to the curled up figure in the corner. Squatting before him, Taemin could still see the dried up tear tracks marking Jinki's cheeks and in some way, he felt his heart squeeze. "I'm sorry I took so long, hyung," he whispered, drawing his thumb across the tear tracks. Jinki seemed to whine a little, nudging against Taemin's comforting fingers, but remained asleep.

"Jonghyun hyung, could you help me get him up on the bed?" Taemin turned to ask the duo watching him by the door. "Kibum hyung, if you don't mind, could you throw away the empty bottles?"

"Yea, sure," the both answered.

As Taemin and Jonghyun lifted the eldest upon the bed, Jinki murmured something non-understandable in an annoyed tone

"Yea, yea, hang on a moment," Taemin soothed.

"What?" Jonghyun blurted out in confusion.

"He can't stand having any lights on when he sleeps," Taemin answers casually.

"How did you even make out what he was saying?" Jonghyun questioned in disbelief, but he proved to be too loud when Jinki made another loud whine of complain. Taemin simply shrugs.

"Let's go out to talk," he proposed. The two housemates made a move to leave the room first, but Taemin lingered back to make sure Jinki was properly covered under the comforter. The younger once again, brushes his thumb across Jinki's cheek where tear stains still remain. Shaking his head, he tucks Jinki in once more before leaving the room, making sure to switch all the lights off before he closed the door.

"We've never seen hyung this upset before," Kibum started, eyeing the empty bottles he placed out in the corner for disposing. Taemin just sighs.

"Do you think I could stay over for today, just to make sure he's okay? He only told me that it was a family emergency but I have no idea what it is about either," Taemin explained. "If I knew it would be this serious, I would have insisted on accompanying hyung."

Jonghyun and Kibum looked at each other, the both knowing well that the family emergency was just an excuse that Jinki had made. "Of course you can stay over. It's late too, we wouldn't send you back at this time." Kibum welcomed, turning back to face Taemin.

"Did hyung know about your date? Was that why he didn't want to call you about this?" Jonghyun eventually asked, curiosity eating at him.

"I guess so," Taemin replies idly. "We were out together in the park as always when we bumped into Minho hyung and he asked me out then. I was distracted with Minho hyung when Jinki hyung got that phone call from his mum and we parted ways not too long after."

"Oh damn..." Kibum muttered softly to himself. Fortunately, it seemed like only Jonghyun who stood next to him had heard those words. Taemin remained oblivious as he started gathering his belongings from the entrance where he had left them before.

"Taemin, can we leave hyung to you?" Jonghyun requested. "We actually had quite a long day and we're quite tired now, so if you could take care of hyung, it'll put our hearts to rest."

"What are you-" Kibum hissed at Jonghyun.

"Of course. Don't worry and go to bed. I'll take care of hyung," Taemin assured with a smile. "That's what I'm here for after all."

"Thanks Taemin, good night," Jonghyun said in parting, dragging Kibum back to their shared room.

"What was that about?!" Kibum hissed at Jonghyun once again once they were in the privacy of their room. "We should do something to help too! Taemin's here just as a guest."

"Shush, I know what I'm doing. It's not as if it's the first time he has stayed over," Jonghyun assures, getting Kibum to sit on his bed so they could talk comfortably. "Listen, I think hyung's feelings might not be one-sided after all."

"I've never seen Taemin act like that before," Jonghyun emphasized. "I mean, sure, we don't know him as well as hyung does, but we've seen many sides of Taemin as it already is; never have I seen Taemin treat someone as gently as he handled hyung earlier - not even when he's interacting with a child. And it's almost like Taemin understands hyung so well that the words they speak doesn't really matter much anymore. Jinki hyung was clearly not speaking Hangul earlier, but Taemin just," Jonghyun snapped his fingers for effect, "knew what hyung meant."

"Did you really think that I wouldn't notice?" Kibum huffed and folded his arms across his chest. "The way he took care of hyung earlier, making sure he's all tucked in and comfortable... The way the two of them interact has never been normal to begin with. I would always catch Taemin staring at Jinki hyung with stars in his eyes as if Jinki hyung is telling the most interesting story on earth - and trust me, knowing hyung, it's usually just some random pun or a stupid fib. The way that kid laughs at Jinki hyung's jokes, oh forgive me, but it's just so painful to watch - the joke he tells aren't even funny! It's been like this since forever and they are still getting nowhere. Do you think that by simply doing this," Kibum gestured towards the door, as if Taemin were just there, "it would get them together? No! They'd dance around each other and at the end of the day, still say that they're just best friends."

"Well," Jonghyun glanced at Kibum. "I guess I can understand in some way. They've been best friends for so many years that they don't want to risk losing their friendship over a fleeting love when it feels like everyone around them seems to be breaking up all the time."
 

Meanwhile in the other room, Taemin gets a damp towel to gently clean away the dry tears from Jinki's face before he places it around the elder's flushed red neck. On the table was a glass of water and an aspirin for the coming hangover Jinki was bound to get in the morning. Helping himself to his best friend's clothes for the night, Taemin settles himself in the wide bed next to Jinki. His idle fingers finds their way to toy with Jinki's soft locks of hair, twirling it around his fingers.

"Taem..." Jinki murmured. Taemin tensed, his finger freezing in its motion; but when the younger looked at the other, Jinki was still clearly fast asleep. Knowing the elder's habit of sleep talking, Taemin eases up. Instead, he starts to wonder what his best friend was dreaming about that would have involved him. "I'm sorry..."

Taemin furrows his brows together, watching the distressed sleeping figure before him and despite not knowing the situation, he assures the elder by patting Jinki's head gently and soothing out the soft locks with his fingers. "It's okay, hyung; it's okay."

"I'm sorry..." Jinki murmurs again.

"Shushh, it's alright," Taemin soothed, tucking Jinki's hair behind his ear carefully.

"Taem..." Jinki calls out again in his slumber. Even though Taemin knows Jinki wouldn't hear him consciously, he hums along to urge Jinki to continue. "Don't leave me... Don't go..."

"I won't, I promise," Taemin assures. "I'll stay right here with you."

Wow, I'm such a lazy . I had the entire story written before I even posted the foreword but just never got to posting the chapters because I never my computer. The past few days however, I was sick with like a waterfall of runny nose and got a really y voice to add (sore throat, I mean), and I got on my computer... only to go on tumblr because I get distracted ever so easily. Yea, I'd better put the rest of the chapters up soon. If I remember correctly, there should just be 2 more chappies to go. 

Here, have some ontae love as compensation

I think I mentioned somewhere that I love it when Ontae leans on each other's shoulders with their chins. Onew's the one usually doing it but Taemin does it once in a while too. Here have more hugs while my cat is complaining becauseshe wants some love too. 

And these ones specially for jinkijeans

That last one is my personal favorite cos jinki booty booty.

Till next time, which hopefully is soon, Ciaos!