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The night was almost completely silent, save for the sleeping noises of five boys, drifting through the world of dreams. A low hum, the sound of Jonghyun’s sleep-singing, drifted through the bedroom, settling in the air like a cloud. Shifting from Kibum went unnoticed, just another regular noise that contributed to the proof that there was someone alive underneath the mound of blankets.
Everything was peaceful. Everyone was fast asleep. But not for long.
Taemin jerked awake when he felt something collide against his side. He sat up straight and knocked his head against the bottom of Jonghyun’s bed.
“Oww!”
Instantly a chorus of voices rose up at the loud ‘thud!’ and subsequent pained cry.
“Taeminnie?” Kibum’s worried voice rang out.
“What’s going on?” Jonghyun’s sleepy one sounded next.
“What happened?” Jinki’s muffled words were heard as he sat up and looked around blearily.
Minho’s reaction was to switch on the large lamp behind Jinki’s bed, instantly flooding the room with light. Jonghyun groaned and hid his head in his pillow from the sudden brightness. Everyone else waited to let themselves adjust and then looked for the cause of the commotion.
“Hyung...” Kibum’s eyebrows creased as he peeked over the rim of his bed. “Why are you in baby’s bed?”
Jinki blinked again, still three-fourths asleep. He gazed uncomprehendingly at his bed which was right beside him then turned towards Taemin, who was staring at him with wide eyes.
“...Dunno,” said the leader finally. He clambered off Taemin’s bed and back onto his own.
“Are you okay, Taeminnie?” asked Jonghyun, sticking his head out so he could see the magnae. “What happened?”
“Sounded like you hit your head,” said Minho, peering around Jinki, who was rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes.
“I did,” said Taemin with a grumble. “I felt something hit my side and woke up. I hit my head on Jonghyun-hyung’s bed.”
“Does it still hurt?” Kibum questioned. He looked like he was ready to jump out of bed and fuss over the magnae. “Do you want an ice pack?”
“I’m fine, hyung.” Taemin waved his hand to emphasise it. “It’s just a bit sore, that’s all.”
“Did you roll into his bed, Jinki-hyung?” Jonghyun said, bringing his eyes towards the leader.
“I guess I did,” said Jinki, looking confused. “I didn’t notice anything.”
Minho gazed at him with pursed lips.
“You must’ve been having a dream or something,” said Kibum decisively. “That’s probably it.”
Jinki looked up at him and shrugged. “I don’t remember anything if I did have one.”
“Whatever, can we just go back to sleep?” Jonghyun cut in. “We have a big day tomorrow, remember? Shooting the goodbye video and stuff?”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Jinki smiled sheepishly at the magnae as he got out of bed. “Sorry, Taeminnie.”
“That’s okay, hyung,” Taemin replied, returning the smile. ‘It must’ve been an accident,’ he thought.
“Where are you going, hyung?” said Minho, frowning as Jinki shook of the blanket wound around his ankle.
“I usually can’t go back to sleep after I wake up,” said the leader, managing to free himself and at the same time skipping backwards just short of tipping over. “So I’m going to look over tomorrow’s script.”
“Yah, hyung, it’s four in the morning,” said Kibum, mimicking Minho’s frown. “It’s too early.”
“That’s okay,” Jinki assured him with a bright smile. “Go back to sleep. I’ll come wake you guys up later.”
“Hyung, you have to sleep, too,” said Jonghyun. “You’ll be dead tomorrow if you don’t.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Jinki with a careless flip of his hand. “Now go to sleep.”
He walked out of the room and shut the door firmly behind him. Everyone stared.
“Workaholic,” Kibum muttered, digging back under his blankets.
“We should probably try to fix that,” Jonghyun said through a yawn. “He’ll faint again one day.”
Taemin winced as he laid back down. “That isn’t a good joke, hyung.”
“It wasn’t a joke.”
Minho’s frown didn’t fade as he reached over to shut off the lamp. He snuggled back under his covers and stared up at the darkness of Kibum’s bed. He rolled over to stare at the wall.
‘Why did Jinki-hyung roll over into Taemin’s bed?’ he thought darkly.
“Yikes!”
Once again the peace of a night was sent into a flurry as everyone was jolted to reality by the sound of a muffled shriek. Jonghyun blinked unseeingly at the darkness in front of him, wondering what had woken him up. Kibum was muttering under his breath while Minho, yet again, reached to switch on the light.
“Now what?” Kibum said grumpily as he pulled his tired body upwards. He peered down only to see a lone leg, stretched out over the sheets of the middle bed. The leg proved to belong to a certain SHINee leader currently passed out on Taemin’s stomach.
“YAH, HYUNG!”
Jinki jerked straight up at the loud exclamation and, predictably, banged his head against the underside of Jonghyun’s bed. He immediately groaned and cradled his poor, injured skull. Jonghyun stifled a chuckle and clucked comfortingly as he reached his hand down to pat Jinki’s shoulder.
Kibum’s eye twitched.
“Is there any particular reason why you’re in Taeminnie’s bed again?” he said, tone level.
Jinki looked up and blinked. He looked around and met the glowering gaze of one sullen magnae.
“Your head poked my ribs, hyung,” said Taemin petulantly.
“Uh...sorry?” Jinki shook his head, eyebrows creasing with confusion. “I didn’t mean to.” He looked around again. “I didn’t mean to roll into your bed either. Again.”
“Are you having bad dreams, hyung?” Minho asked.
Jonghyun laughed. “You sound pissed, Minho,” he said. “Don’t like your beauty sleep disturbed?”
Jinki looked at Minho worriedly as the lead rapper glared at their lead vocallist.
“I’m disturbing, aren’t I?” he said. “Go back to sleep. I’ll try to keep myself in check.”
Kibum’s lips twisted. “Why did you roll into baby’s bed?” he pressed.
“I don’t know. I didn’t even realise it.” Jinki turned to Taemin, who was still glowering. “Sorry, Taeminnie,” he said apologetically, impressively managing to look like a kicked puppy worthy of Jonghyun.
Taemin sighed. He’d never been able to stay mad at anyone for long, particularly his leader whose clumsy antics weren’t anything new. “It’s alright, hyung,” he said tiredly. “It’s not like you did it on purpose.”
Kibum’s eyes flashed. “Right, hyung?” he said dangerously. “You aren’t doing it on purpose, are you?”
“Of course not! Why would I want to do that?”
“Maybe you have a secret crush on my son or something!”
“I do not!”
Minho’s eye twitched.
Jonghyun collapsed in his bunk in a fit of laughter. Taemin rubbed at his side discontentedly and looked at his ‘parents’ in exasperation.
“Kibum-hyung, I’m sure Jinki-hyung was just restless or something,” he said. “He wouldn’t do it on purpose.”
“Sleepwalking is a sympthom of serious crushes, Taeminnie,” said Kibum, nodding his head sharply to himself. “It could be that if hyung has a big crush on you, he’s unconsciously getting into your bed to get closer.”
“Kibum!” Jinki was a bright red with dismay and embarrassment. “Stop it. I don’t have a crush on anyone, and especially not on Taemin.”
Kibum frowned. “What’s wrong with having a crush on my son?”
Taemin groaned silently and plopped onto his back. Jonghyun gasped, trying to breathe through his endless laughter and struggled to sit up. He took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself but his efforts only partially worked.
“Guys, guys.” He paused and buried his face in a pillow, shoulders shaking uncontrollably. Jinki glared at him. Minho debated whether it would be worth it to chuck the lamp at Jonghyun’s head.
No, they needed the light at the moment.
Jonghyun exhaled and counted to ten. Then he resurfaced with a huge grin on his face.
“I’m sure it’s just an accident,” he managed to say. “What’s important now is that we all get enough sleep. There’s still a lot of stuff to prepare before we go to Japan.”
There was a murmur of agreement from the other boys. Taemin snuggled into his blankets in much the same way Kibum was doing. Minho was still up, eyeing Jinki who was slowly crawling out of bed.
“Hyung,” he said. Everybody looked towards them.
“What?” Jinki said, looking over his shoulder.
“It’s one-thirty in the morning.”
Jinki glanced at the digital clock on the dresser. “So it is.”
He made no indication that he received the message Minho was trying to silently send him and continued his journey off his bed. Kibum peeked out from underneath his mountain of blankets and promptly flung one of his feather-stuffed pillows at the leader.
It hit Jinki directly on his head.
“Hey!” Jinki yelped and somehow managed to loose his balance, tumbling to the floor in a stunning disarray of pillows, blankets and limbs. He coughed, wincing at the soreness in his backside. He glowered at Kibum. “Yah! Why’d you do that for?”
“Get back into bed, hyung,” said the blond wryly. “There’s no script for you to study and Manager-hyung’ll murder us if he sees you dropping off again like you did earlier.”
“That was because I was just a bit tired! I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.”
“Hyung.” Jonghyun stared at him with a raised eyebrow. “Get your ass into bed or we’ll join you in whatever it is you’re planning to overwork yourself over.”
“But you guys need sleep!” Jinki protested.
“Exactly. So shut up and get back into bed.”
Jinki looked around at them all helplessly. For a moment he looked like he was about to go against them but then Taemin pushed off his covers in a sign of threat. Jinki sighed.
“You guys are unbelievable,” he grumbled, climbing back into bed. “I won’t be able to go back to sleep.”
“Stop talking, hyung,” Kibum mumbled, turning over to face the wall.
“But I’m serious,” Jinki whined.
“Don’t worry, hyung.” Taemin smiled over his blanket at the eldest. “You worked hard today. I’m sure you’ll be able to fall asleep.”
“But I usually can’t. It’s never worked before.”
“At least try, hyung,” said Jonghyun, dismissing the leader’s worries as he laid back down. “I bet you’ll fall asleep before we do.”
“Fat chance.” Jinki snorted into his pillow.
Two minutes later, he was drooling into previously-mentioned pillow. Minho lay awake on the bed beside him, and it was only the surrounding darkness that hid his rather prominent scowl. He stared at his slumbering leader darkly. Jinki turned, bringing his back into the rapper’s line of view, much to the other’s displeasure.
Minho’s scowl deepened. Then his eyes narrowed when Jinki suddenly started to roll over, body inching closer towards Taemin. Instantly his hand shot out and clasped Jinki’s elbow, gently jerking him back then froze. Jinki mumbled softly but otherwise remained fast asleep.
Minho exhaled and this time the darkness hid the vein throbbing on his temple. He settled on his back and stared stormily, for the second night in a row, at the bottom of Kibum’s bed.
‘Why is it always Taemin’s bed?’ he thought grumpily.
Dismissing it and reminding himself that tomorrow was going to be even more tiring than today had been, he closed his eyes. It took a few seconds but he finally managed to put the late-night incidents out of his mind. He was now calm enough to fall asleep.
Then Jonghyun started to sing again and Minho felt that maybe chucking the lamp now wasn’t such a bad idea.
“Alright, now there’s no doubt; something is definitely wrong.”
Four pairs of eyes surveyed the slumbering form of the SHINee leader, curled up around a pillow beside Taemin in Taemin’s bed. Key seemed bemused while Jonghyun, who had climbed off his own bed to sit cross-legged on Jinki’s, was the exact opposite. He had yet another huge grin stretching his lips. The situation was clearly a source of great amusement for him.
Minho, on the other hand, looked like the frown spread across his face would take permanent residence there.
“Shouldn’t we wake him up?” he said, and his voice conveyed none of his annoyance.
“Let him sleep; he had an exhausting day,” said Kibum, crossing his arms. He eyed Jinki thoughtfully.
Taemin looked resigned to his fate and elected to just lie back down and snuggle against his leader. At least Jinki was soft and warm, and didn’t take up too much space. And he didn’t snore. Taemin supposed he had to be grateful Jinki didn’t snore.
“You look like you want to murder someone,” Jonghyun said to Minho, his grin widening. “Does losing beauty sleep bother you that much?”
The tall rapper merely glared at him, knowing any sort of reply would just give way to more teasing.
“We have to figure out why he keeps doing this,” Kibum interrupted. “I mean, he has to stop.”
“Why?” said Jonghyun, leaning back and balancing his weight on his palms. “Do you really hate it, Taeminnie?”
“Not really,” said the magnae, looking up. “I just don’t like waking up in the middle of the night or getting poked by hyung’s head. It’s kind of annoying.”
“Maybe we should tell Manager-hyung,” Kibum suggested.
“I don’t think so,” said Jonghyun, shaking his head. “He might want Jinki-hyung to sleep somewhere else.”
“Well, what do you think we should do? Jinki-hyung can’t keep falling into Taeminnie’s bed forever.”
“He could just start sleeping there,” said Jonghyun with a shrug. “Change beds or something.”
“He won’t want that. Remember when we chose beds? He said that it was the final decision and we couldn’t change it no matter what.”
“Hyung looks all nice and innocent,” said Taemin dryly, “but he knew we were going to complain about the bunk beds. That’s why he let us get first dibs; he knew we’d choose them.”
“Still, if you complain to him, he’ll definitely do it.” Jonghyun wiggled his eyebrows. “Hyung’s a big softie.”
Taemin grimaced.
“And feel guilty for the rest of my life for taking advantage of him?” he said. “No freaking way in hell.”
“Watch your mouth,” said Kibum automatically, glaring. Taemin winced and nodded meekly.
“Well...” Jonghyun pursed his lips as he thought, clutching his ankles and rocking back and forth slightly. He brightened. “Why don’t both of you just start sleeping together?”
Kibum threw a small pillow which struck him square at the back of his head.
“Oi!” Jonghyun yelped loudly, much in the same way Jinki had the night before. Immediately the other three shushed him, afraid he would wake the slumbering leader.
Jinki made a small noise and everyone froze. But the eldest only curled a bit more around his pillow, causing Taemin to shift slightly to accomodate him. Kibum narrowed his eyes at him before transferring the gaze to a glaring Jonghyun.
“What was that for!” the vocallist hissed, rubbing the spot of impact.
“Filter your words, dino-idiot,” Kibum snapped in a low voice. “There are minors here!”
“Yah! You can’t speak to me like that; I’m older than you!”
“Exactly. So act your age!”
“Says the boy who acts like a—”
“Say girl and I’ll cut off your—”
“What happened to your worry over minors?”
As Kibum sneered, Minho leaned around Jonghyun so he could see the exasperated-looking Taemin.
“I don’t think it’s the best idea,” he said, just loud enough to be heard over the quiet argument.
“What is?” Taemin asked, looking away from the squabbling pair.
“Sleeping with Jinki-hyung. Your bed’s too small to fit both of you.”
“We’re just fine right now.”
Minho raised an eyebrow. Jinki’s body took up half of the bunk bed and Taemin was already pushed back against the wall. The magnae noticed the look and shrugged slightly.
“We just need to find a good position,” he said. He shifted again and laid his head on Jinki’s pillow, tucking it undernearth Jinki’s chin. He hooked a long leg over Jinki’s hip, pressing their bodies close together with the pillow in between. Jinki didn’t wake, only snuffled into Taemin’s hair.
Minho’s eyes drew short of scorching holes into the bedspread when he looked away.
“Taeminnie!” Kibum shrieked, just barely managing to control his voice when he spotted the position his ‘son’ had gotten into. “What are you doing!”
“Getting comfortable,” said Taeminnie, smiling as innocently as possible.
“Where’s a camera when you need one?” Jonghyun muttered, patting around for a cell phone.
“How is that comfortable?” Kibum shook his head. “What if Manager-hyung comes in and sees you?”
“It’s not a big deal, hyung,” said Taemin. “I cuddle with Jinki-hyung and you all the time. Manager-hyung doesn’t say anything then.”
Kibum opened his mouth but there didn’t seem to be anything he could say. Minho silently pleaded him to do something or separate the two, by force if necessary.
“Alright, that’s enough,” said Jonghyun decisively as he got to his feet. “It’s time to get back sleep.”
Minho didn’t miss the cellphone that had suddenly appeared in Jonghyun’s hand. He glared at the vocallist’s back.
“But...what about that?” Kibum pointed at the pair in Taemin’s bed.
Jonghyun glanced at him as he climbed into his bed. He poked his head down so he could see the magnae.
“Are you comfy, Taeminnie?” he asked.
Taemin nodded.
Jonghyun straightened up. “Problem solved,” he said cheerfully and burrowed under his convers.
Minho’s jaw dropped internally the way Kibum’s did externally.
“We can’t leave them like that!” the ‘umma’ squawked. “What if Jinki-hyung takes advantage of my son?”
Everyone sent him incredulous glances.
“Oh, please, Kibummie,” said Jonghyun, shaking his head. “This is Jinki-hyung we’re talking about. It’s more likely that Taemin’ll be the one to take advantage of hyung.”
Taemin aimed a kick at the ceiling of his bed. “Don’t be disgusting, hyungie.”
Jonghyun grinned. “Just go to sleep,” he said to Kibum. “Nothing’s going to happen.”
“But...”
‘Come on, Kibum,’ Minho thought at the other rapper. ‘Say something!’
Jonghyun spoke again. “Kibummie, don’t you want to see how Jinki-hyung reacts tomorrow when he wakes up like that?”
Minho officially hated Jonghyun right now.
Kibum brightened. “He’ll freak!” he said, looking excited.
“Exactly.” Jonghyun looked smug, certain he’d convinced Kibum. “Now go to sleep. We’re going to Japan tomorrow.”
“We can sleep on the plane.”
“Shut up and go to sleep.”
Kibum grinned but said nothing more as he pulled his covers up. Jonghyun rolled over onto his side and lifted an eyebrow at Minho.
“What’s your problem?” he said. “What’re you sulking for?”
Damn. Jonghyun had always been the one who could sense whenever Minho was upset.
“Nothing. I’m fine.” Before Jonghyun could reply, Minho reached over and shut off the light. He waited until he was sure the vocallist wasn’t going to say anything before lying down.
Then he glowered at Kibum’s bed right until he fell asleep.
As expected, Jinki completely freaked out when he woke up only to find himself wrapped around the magnae of SHINee. He jerked away so fast he managed to slam his head against the rim of Jonghyun’s bed. Flailing, he fell backwards with a screech and a great crash and poked himself in the eye when he tried to grab something to steady himself.
Minho instinctively shot up and violently knocked his head against the underside of Kibum’s bed. He groaned, clutching the injured spot as worried, sleepy voices permeated the dark room. He crawled out from under his covers and onto Jinki’s bed, trying to figure out what had happened through the dull, throbbing pain blanketing his senses. Unable to do anything, he sat, cross-legged, waiting for the pain to reside.
Minho blinked in the darkness when a head cushioned itself on his thigh.
“It hurts...” a quiet voice whined, souding watery.
For a moment Minho thought it was Taemin but then his brain registered the softer voice as opposed to the magnae’s higher-toned one.
Jinki sniffled and Minho instantly started groping around for the elusive lamp. Light suddenly flooded the room, causing disgruntled groans to erupt.
“What happened?” their manager’s voice rang across the room.
Jonghyun’s eyes squinted as he pulled himself up, peering at the door. Kibum and Taemin didn’t even bother, instead pulling their covers up over their heads. Minho’s eyes watered slightly but he waited patiently for them to adjust, blinking to clear them. Jinki, on the other hand, whimpered and pressed his face further into the rapper’s thigh.
“I heard a yell,” Manager-hyung said, taking his hand off the light switch and walking in. He spotted SHINee’s shining leader and his eyebrows rose. “Onew-ah. What are you doing?”
Kibum and Taemin peeked out from under their blankets, looking eerily alike as they did so, to see what the manager was referring to.
“Hyung?” Jonghyun’s eyebrows creased together. “What...are you doing?”
Jinki mumbled something into Minho’s thigh, words completely incohorent. The younger boy blinked down at him, unsure of what he should do.
Their manager came forward and touched Jinki’s shoulder but the singer refused to look up. He mumbled something again but no one could understand. He sniffled but Minho was pretty sure he wasn’t crying. Nonetheless, he rubbed the leader’s back comfortingly.
“Do any of you know what happened?” Manager-hyung asked, glancing at them all.
Jonghyun shook his head. “I just heard a loud noise,” he said. “It woke me up.”
“I think Jinki-hyung fell again,” Taemin’s sleep-laden voice spoke up. “I heard him hit something.”
Kibum poked his head out fully. “I think Minho hit his head, too,” he commented sleepily. Minho winced when he was reminded. The pain hadn’t really left yet.
Manager-hyung sighed but he was already used to this. He knew exactly what to do.
Ten minutes later — after Kibum had managed to pry Jinki off Minho — the leader and the rapper were both sitting at the table, ice packs held to their injured heads by Jonghyun and Taemin respectively. Jinki had a spectacular pout on his face, a testament to his moodiness.
“Honestly,” said Manager-hyung, shaking his head in exasperation. “I thought you said you’d be more careful, Onew-ah.”
Jinki didn’t answer but his sulking seemed to increase. Jonghyun grinned. Both he and Kibum had figured out the cause of the commotion and their only mourning was for the fact that they had missed Jinki’s panic attack. They were sure it would have been hysterically funny. Minho was far from amused.
“Alright, never mind.” Manager-hyung sighed. “Maybe I shouldn’t leave you guys to your own section in the plane. Someone has to keep an eye on Onew-ah.”
Kibum snorted. “Yeah, sure,” he said sarcastically. “I mean, we’re so not used to taking care of Jinki-hyung when he’s being clumsy. Even though it’s like, every ten seconds since the moment we met.”
Jonghyun guffawed as Taemin’s shoulders shook with silent laughter and Minho didn’t dare look at the glowering Jinki.
“Maybe we should see a doctor,” Kibum suggested as he leaned back in his seat.
“I’m fine. I don’t need a doctor,” said Jinki.
“Well, we have to do something about this problem, hyung. You’re sharing the one of the double beds with Taeminnie, aren’t you?”
“He said he wanted to.”
“Minho-hyung keeps hogging the blanket,” Taemin explained from Jinki’s other side. “And he’s bunking with Jonghyun-hyung. Since you got dibs on the single bed, Jinki-hyung was the last choice left.”
“Thanks, baby. I feel so loved.” The leader pouted again. Taemin smiled sunnily and rested his head on Jinki’s shoulder, preparing to take a nap.
“We still have to figure out how to make him stop rolling into your bed,” said Kibum drily. “He’ll roll onto you next time, just watch.”
Jonghyun poked his head over the rim of his seat in front of them. Minho merely turned, since he was tall enough to see over it.
“You never had that habit before, hyung,” said the lead vocallist. “Why now?”
“I don’t know.” Jinki shrugged. “I’m not having any dreams that I can remember.”
“Maybe he’s just tired?” Taemin suggested. “Over-stressed or something?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t have more stress than you guys and definitely less that Dream Team Minho.”
“That’s why we should get him checked up,” Kibum said, nodding as he completely disregarded Jinki’s denial. “Who knows what kind of sickness is causing this?”
“It isn’t a si—”
“We’d have to ask Manager-hyung, though,” Taemin pointed out.
“Guys, I—”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” said Jonghyun with pursed lips.
“Aren’t you list—”
“He doesn’t really have to know,” Minho said, more than willing to help out in a plan that would stop Jinki’s late-night incidents. “Kibum could say he wants to do some shopping and we’ll stop at a clinic in the meantime.”
“Hey—”
“That’s brilliant!” Kibum exclaimed gleefully. “It’s not even a lie; I do want to do shopping. Because, hello? Japan!”
“Guys.”
Jonghyun nodded thoughtfully. “I guess that could work,” he said. “So we just—”
“GUYS!”
Everyone blinked at the outburst and stared at Jinki, who was glaring at them.
“Stop it; I don’t need a doctor,” he said in annoyance. “And that’s final. Final,” he stressed, when Kibum opened his mouth.
The blond closed it, looking put out.
“Did you ever consider,” Jinki said, looking around at his members, “that it’s just a habit I developed?”
They paused.
“Well...no, actually,” Jonghyun said, blinking again.
Jinki sighed. He loved his members, definitely, but sometimes they could induce headaches at a Richter scale of 10.0.
“That’s a sleeping habit as bad as Jonghyun-hyung’s,” he heard Taemin mutter into his shoulder. He ignored that and closed his eyes, intent on getting a nap before their hectic activities started for SHINee’s debut in Japan.
Taemin’s sudden gasp brought his members minus the unwakable Jinki out of sleep. But unlike the other times, the three only peered tiredly at their magnae. As expected, Jinki was happily snoozing beside Taemin, snuggling into his chest like a baby.
Jonghyun drew back and turned to face the wall. “Night,” he mumbled.
Kibum did the same, drawing his covers up high. “I give up,” he muttered. “Just sleep in his bed if you’re uncomfortable, baby. I’ll deal with him in the morning if he complains.”
Taemin gazed at Jinki but couldn’t bother to sit up. Sighing, he draped himself over the unconscious leader, thinking that he might as well get used to the new arrangement. It didn’t look like it would change anytime soon. He promptly fell back asleep.
Minho, although he felt a massive amount of displeasure, didn’t say anything. They were all too tired after the plane ride back from Japan and he was no exception. So he only gave a dark scowl at the entertwined pair and roughly turned away.
Just before sleep reclaimed him, he swore to himself that he would solve this problem no matter what.
The only one who woke up at Taemin’s slight grunt when Jinki bumped against him the next night was Minho. Even the maknae stayed asleep, automatically shifting around Jinki so he could lie comfortably.
Minho glared at them through the darkness but he could hardly wake them up.
‘There has to be something I can do,’ he thought, frowning.
But try as he might, he just couldn’t think of a way to stop Jinki’s strange new sleeping habit. He couldn’t even talk to Kibum and Jonghyun about it, since both had given up on the matter. If he did mention it, there was a chance they would grow suspicious which was something Minho didn’t feel like dealing with right now.
Sighing, the rapper surrendered for the night. They had a lot of work to do tomorrow and he didn’t really want to be dead-tired as he went through it.
Lying back on his sheets, he thought about a solution, any solution. But none came to mind and he finally called it quits. Rolling over, he stared at the wall sullenly. In view of the whole situation, there was actually only one thing that truly irked him.
‘Why doesn’t hyung roll into my bed?’
Minho has finally figured out what to do. He now has the perfect plan to solve the problem of Jinki rolling into Taemin’s bed every single night.
Taemin looked up with wide eyes when his tallest hyung planted himself right in front of the maknae, a determined expression on his face.
“Did...did you need something, Minho-hyung?” said Taemin uncertainly, setting his glass of milk down on the table.
“Change beds with me.”
Taemin blinked. “What?” he said incredulously, wondering if he had heard wrong.
“I want you to change beds with me.” Minho looked completely serious, negating the possibility that this was a prank.
“But...what for, hyung?”
“If we change beds, we can solve the problem of Jinki-hyung always rolling into you at night.”
Taemin looked at the rapper strangely. He wondered if he should call Kibum and make him check Minho’s temperature.
“Hyung,” he said carefully, “if we do that, then Jinki-hyung will roll into you.”
“I know.”
Honestly, Taemin had been doubting that. But now that he was sure Minho knew, he felt that maybe he should call Manager-hyung, too.
“I...I guess it’s no problem,” said the dancer hesitantly. The idea of sleeping uninterrupted for the first time in a long while was appealing, he had to admit.
Minho smiled, almost glowing with accomplishment. “Great,” he said happily.
Then he went to go look into the fridge, leaving Taemin to stare at his back whilst seriously debating if calling an ambulance would be overreacting.
Everyone had questioned why Minho and Taemin had suddenly decided to change beds. Jinki eventually dismissed it but Jonghyun and Kibum had continued pestering Minho until the rapper locked himself in the bathroom and refused to come out until they promised to stop interrogating him.
Still, they kept on sending him scrutinising glances and Minho was fairly sure he knew what they’re talking about when he saw them whispering to each other in the corner of the living room.
It didn’t matter, though. He had succeeded in his plan and that alone made him happy enough to ignore the nosy duo.
Minho’s eyes snapped open and he just barely stopped himself from shooting up when he was jerked awake by the gentle force of someone bumping into him. He blinked into the darkness for a second, confused as to what had awoken him.
Then a head lightly tucked itself into the crook between his shoulder and neck. Minho smiled and shifted as Jinki curled into him. He smugly threw an arm around the leader’s waist and a leg over his hip, pulling him closer so that they were pressed together. Jinki mumbled something and snuggled more into Minho’s chest, hand curving on Minho’s collarbone.
Tomorrow, Kibum and Jonghyun would raise an uproar the moment they saw Minho and Jinki. Jinki himself would probably go into a panic attack and hurt someone – most likely himself – when he realised the compromising position they were in. The next day would start out in total chaos, he was sure of it.
‘But,’ Minho thought contentedly when he felt Jinki’s nose softly nuzzle against his neck, ‘it’s totally worth it.’
END