Title: Of Tennis Ball and Memory Loss
Type: Chaptered
Chapters: 1/?
Pairing: Minho/Taemin
Rate: PG13
Genre: Romance
It was another one fine spring day when Taemin walked out of the company building, heading towards the van, before was hit by a tennis ball.
Hard.
ooo
He woke up by slowly opening his heavy lids, his eyes took time to adjust with the white surroundings beamed by the neon light, and when he finally could fully open his eyes, he saw four faces looking at him worriedly.
And they all started talking at the same time.
"Taemin-ah!"
"How do you feel, dongsaeng-ah?"
"You're awake!" Obviously.
"Shut up you all! He doesn't need the lot of us talking loudly at the same time!" Thank you for that, but fyi, you' re the one talking the loudest, so no thanks to you at the end. Taemin groaned, it felt like someone was knocking his skull with a rubber hammer.
A big, warm hand reached to pat his head, Taemin tilted over to get a clearer view of the owner. He was now looking at a very good-looking boy with calming smile, although some bigger part of his face clearly shouted his worries and confusions.
"Kibum-hyung," Taemin forced a smile in reply to his kindness. "I'm fine, still trying to gather back my consciousness." He hoped for his lips to stop trembling, he hated being so weak.
Suddenly, a dead silence.
The youngest looked at the four people around him, they were looking at him as if he had eaten something radioactive.
"Did he—" a husky voice cracked. "Minho, did he just call you Kibum-hyung?" Four pair of eyes glared at Minho, then Kibum, and back to Taemin.
For the second time, all four voices shouted in unison, "DOCTOR!"
ooo
Minho stared at the youngest helplessly, the latter was scanning through a clipping of articles that Jonghyun had given to him, his expression was a mixture of confusion, shock, and sadness. The other three members were sitting, circling him. Minho felt his chest ached at the sight, and at the memories of what happened earlier that afternoon.
"Amnesia?"
"Mr. Lee's latter parts of brain suffer the most from the hit, amnesia was inevitable. Whether it is permanent, or not, has yet to be determined." The doctor scrutinized the shocked-turned-angry faces in front of him, or the four eldest members of SHINee, to be exact.
Jinki regained his composure the fastest, and turned his gaze right to Minho, whom he would think had just died with eyes opened if his chest hadn't been up and down from the heavy breathing.
Taemin, his Taemin…
"Doctor, is there anything we can do to gain his memory back?" Jinki asked cautiously.
"You have to remind him about himself. His habits, for example. What he likes and what he doesn't. He also may have names and places confusion, so make sure one of you stick around him in case he needs to be helped," the doctor sighed, he could go for hours explaining the clueless four young men about ways to help people who suffers from memory loss, but he decided to go straight to the most important point.
"Amnesia could very well affect the sufferer's mental," his voice was low. "In most severe cases it can lead to self-disowning then suicide. Don't push him to remember everything quickly because it can cause mental instability, he would feel disappointed towards himself, for disappointing you," the doctor said. "The way you treat him in his recovering state would affect his success in his treatment."
ooo
"That was one time when we had to perform with company's other artists," said Jonghyun cheerfully while pointing at a photo in the clipping. "Every year we hold a joint concert with our seniors and juniors, we travel a lot too. You liked it, Taeminnie, travelling. You loved being in new places and meeting people."
"You do most of our group's dancing part," Kibum's laugh was heart-warming and Taemin couldn't help but smile. "We're always so proud of you, our dancing machine maknae. Though the rest of us are pretty decent dancers too, except for this chicken…" the third youngest ruffled the leader's hair and chuckled at Jinki's pout. Taemin looked down in embarrassment, not sure how to take the compliments from his bandmates. Maknae did have maknae's problems, seriously.
"W-What about you?" he dared himself looking at his three hyungs, and quickly realized that his question was kind of unclear, but the elders seemed to understand.
"Jonghyun here, he is the lead vocal," explained Jinki, Taemin looked at the second eldest, who was raising his brows up and down to him (and grinning very smugly, but he quickly removed his thought because a good dongsaeng shouldn't think badly of his hyung), he knew that that husky voice was something the moment he heard him speak.
"Kibummie is in charge of both rap and vocal," Jinki patted Key's back affectionately, Taemin observed quietly. "And he cooks too, he's the band-umma. God, he even walked you to school, Taemin-ah!" Taemin blushed, he felt like being spoilt too much.
"Onew—Jinki-hyung, somehow, was pointed as our leader. Whether sajangnim's head was knocked on something or not when he made that decision, nobody knows," Jonghyun grinned very, very devilishly towards the eldest. Jinki smacked him lightly. "He's the sub-vocalist. Oh, he does Donald Duck beatbox version too," that line successfully brought laughter to the room. "And Minho—Minho what are you doing, you've been staring into space for some time there. Come sit here," Jonghyun patted the empty space beside him. Minho walked to them hesitantly, but joined them anyway, without not noticing a slight uncomfortable shift from Taemin's sitting position.
He could tell the maknae had a particular guilt toward him, for calling him wrong name that afternoon. He wanted to tell the adorable boy that it was okay, well, he was very not okay with Taemin didn't remember his name, his boyfriend's name for heaven's sake, but he understood.
"So, Minho," Kibum playfully wrapped an arm around Minho's waist, earning him a warning glare from the latter, but didn't care. "Why don't you tell Taeminnie about… yourself?"
Minho gulped. This is exactly what he needed, another awkward moment, he thought angrily. But remembering what the doctor said earlier, he decided to deal with Kibum's snare and suck up Jonghyun's knowing smirk. He would get his revenge later.
"I'm the second youngest," Minho started. Taemin looked at him anxiously. "I, uh, do the rap. I…" he was lost for words. I am the tallest of us? I'm good at sports and moving watermelon seeds with straw? Dream Team's ace? I care about you so much, I even said it on a radio program? I love you? It was weird, talking about yourself to the person who once knew you better than yourself.
Awkward silence.
"Were… were we close?" Stupid stupid stupid, Taemin soon regretted his question. Why did he burst out without thinking?
But, to his surprise, he saw a faint urge to laugh on Minho's handsome face, which was quickly replaced by a sincere, comforting smile. "Yes, Taemin-ah. Yes, we were."
