Taemin is stopped from walking straight into Jonghyun by Jonghyun himself, warm hands catching his arms and holding his clumsy body well in place. Taemin blearily blinks open his eyes to peer at Jonghyun in the dim illumination of the streetlamp coming in through a nearby window. “There you are,” he says. He leans more of his weight on Jonghyun in his own sleepy version of a hug, then leans back. “Why are you up?” he asks.
“I was getting a water,” Jonghyun says.
Taemin is riding a nice brown horse through a field of grass, lazily herding one single gigantic barn-sized cow back to the farm while the sun plays gently over his face, and then a moment later he’s awake, groggily blinking open his eyes in the darkness of the bedroom.
“Buh,” he mumbles. He lifts one hand from under the pillow to rub sleep crust from his eyes and looks around for the clock, confused. When he sees the time, he’s even more confused. Why the fuck did he just wake up at 3:47 in the morning. Gross. He slips his hand back under the covers and rubs his cheek against the pillow so he can go back to sleep. Reaching out for Jonghyun to nuzzle into, he opens his eyes again when his arm passes through air.
“Buhhh,” he mumbles, even more confused this time. Where the fuck. Is his babe. He props himself up on his elbow and feels up all around Jonghyun’s side of the bed, just to make sure that he’s not there, and then half yawns, half sighs into his hand. An emotion that he would delicately label as Distress settles over him and he slumps his way out of the bed. Sleepily steadying himself on his feet, he rubs his palms into his eyes and shuffles out of the bedroom and first to the bathroom on the other side of the hall.
Jonghyun isn’t there; their little mushroom shaped nightlight glows pleasantly under the mirror, smiling cutely back at him. Taemin grumbles in the back of his throat and starts shuffling down the hallway instead. Maybe Jonghyun’s raiding the kitchen for snacks. He leans his shoulder against the wall as he walks, keeping his eyes closed and letting it guide him. He’ll walk into the coat rack eventually, and then he’ll know to turn into the--
“Taemin.”
“Buh--oh.” Taemin is stopped from walking straight into Jonghyun by Jonghyun himself, warm hands catching his arms and holding his clumsy body well in place. Taemin blearily blinks open his eyes to peer at Jonghyun in the dim illumination of the streetlamp coming in through a nearby window. “There you are,” he says. He leans more of his weight on Jonghyun in his own sleepy version of a hug, then leans back. “Why are you up?” he asks.
“I was getting a water,” Jonghyun says. One of his hands leaves, but the other slides down Taemin’s arm to link their fingers. With his free hand he pulls out a water bottle from his hoodie pocket and shakes it a little. Taemin can see that it’s already half empty.
“Did you drink all of that already?” he asks. The fridge isn’t that far away from this random point of the hallway.
“I was thirsty,” Jonghyun pouts. “Why are you up?” he asks. Taemin snorts. Thirsty. At four in the morning.
“What, did you just stand there and chug half of it before you started coming back?” he asks. Jonghyun pouts even more.
“Maybe,” he says. “I gotta stay hydrated. Why’re you up?”
“Do you really need to be hydrated at four in the morning, though?”
“Yeah. Why are you here?”
“This is why you’re always peeing.”
“Taem.”
“Like, if you drank less, you wouldn’t pee for like a minute straight all the time.”
“Taem.”
“And you never even pee on me.”
“Taemin.”
“I woke up and you weren’t in bed and I got worried,” Taemin says. He brings Jonghyun’s hand up and brings it to his mouth to kiss, but he hasn’t exactly gotten all of his fine motor skills back yet so he mostly just holds it against his lips. “What if you were like. Kidnapped. Or something. I get nervous when I can’t find you at night.” He tries to pull Jonghyun’s arm around his shoulders, but Jonghyun takes it back, and then covers his face with his hand. “Oh,” Taemin says. He’s made him blush.
“Come back to bed,” he mumbles, reaching for Jonghyun’s waist to tug him closer. He feels Jonghyun nodding against his chest, and then Jonghyun’s hand in his again. He lets Jonghyun tug him back into the bedroom, then wiggles into bed under the covers and slips his arm around Jonghyun’s waist. Jonghyun pokes around on his phone with one hand, but the other he lays out for Taemin to rest his head on. Taemin snuggles close and rubs his cheek on Jonghyun’s sweater sleeve. With Jonghyun in bed with him again he falls right back to sleep, comfy and secure.
Does anyone think about the time when kpop stars kept getting kicked out of their groups and shawols and other frandoms said "we must protect SHINee at all cost " and then the worst thing happened. Something none of us thought would happen. I love and miss you jonghyun. We all miss and love you. You've done so well.
