Forgotten Memories

Sleeping Together

5: Sleeping Together

It's been a month of relative peace in the SHINee dorm.

But that was about to end.

Just because the members were changing their dorm arrangement.

“Key, pack up your stuff! I can't take anymore of this! Taemin and his noisy games,” Onew rushed out of his past room, a box of his belongings in hand.

“Hyung, I kept quiet but all you don't want me to volume it down, you want me to silence it!” Taemin's flushed face appeared in the hallway.

“Sorry Taemin-ah,” Key said as he peeked into the room that Onew had just run to. “I guess we'll be roommates now.”

In response, Taemin's eyes widened in fear.

There were three bedrooms in the SHINee household. Key was the first to enter the dorm once their living quarters had been arranged and chose his room which held only one bed. Jonghyun and Minho had been told to share a room, and so had Onew and Taemin.

Now, though, the order was being jumbled. Due to Taemin finishing homework and practice quickly, he often spent time playing his video games. And Leader Onew didn't like the loud noises that came from them. After weeks of annoyance, Onew Hyung decided to switch rooms with Key.

“No,” Taemin muttered, his eyes wild. He knew that as soon as him and Key roomed together, he'd be tortured by the SHINee Umma's uncontrollable nagging. Pick this up! This shouldn't be on the floor! Why are your boxers on the desk? The frightened maknae could already picture it.

Scared of the mother-like Hyung, Taemin went to the only person he could imagine that could save him.

“Sure,” Jonghyun said casually. “Minho is so boring... At least once I room with Key, the room will be lively.”

Minho wasn't paying attention, for his eyes were all on the TV. A foreign soccer game had begun and he wasn't going to miss it. He was so absorbed, he didn't even notice the tiny maknae standing in the doorway.

“Thanks, Hyung!” Taemin smiled, happy to have a new option. “You saved me.”

“Hm,” Jonghyun grabbed a bag and began stuffing it with clothes and some of his other stuff.

When the commercial break came on, Minho finally noticed that his roommate had left the room. And then he noticed that his side of the dorm was bare of it's earlier contents. Like it was being emptied.

“Hyung?” Minho peeked into the hallway to find the maknae conversing with Jonghyun. Both holding bags over-filled.

“Thanks again, Hyung,” Taemin's bright smile blinded and confused him.

“No problem,” Jonghyun said, messing with the youngster's bowl-cut hair. “Just don't be a bother to Minho once you guys start rooming together.”

“I won't,” Minho was too focused on their conversation to hear the cheerfulness that faltered in his voice.

“What's going on?” Minho interrupted.

“Ah,” Jonghyun turned to inform him of the dorm switches. “So you and the maknae are sleeping together from now on.”

Jonghyun didn't realize how wrong it sounded, but the dongsaeng realized it at once.

“Why can't I just room with Key?” Minho didn't realize how rude it sounded until it came out of his mouth.

Taemin's expression fell, but nobody noticed.

“Yah,” Key intervened in his pink silk pajamas before Jonghyun could scold him. “Can't we just go to sleep already? Do you know what time it is?”

The wall clock said 1am.

“Good night,” Jonghyun yawned in unison to Onew's yell.

Taemin passed Minho silently as the lights in the 2 other rooms turned off. And Minho was left standing in awe at how everything had changed in such little time.

Suddenly, he was rooming in with his unrequited love.

After getting over the shock, Minho entered the room to find Taemin's stuff all unpacked and everything in order.

He was currently changing into pajamas.

It took all his control not to yell at him to change somewhere else. It never bothered him when Jonghyun stripped in their room, but when Taemin did, it brought a blush to his face. It was a surprise but Minho knew exactly why he felt this way.

The TV had been turned off and Minho went to change in his walk-in closet.

Taemin had finished preparing his school things for the next day and was about to jump in bed.

Taking a sweeping look around the room, Taemin realized the type of person Minho was.

All the books were in order alphabetically on the small bookshelf, the magazines included. The dresser looked as if everything inside it was neatly folded and the trashcan had been emptied hours earlier. The bed was nicely made, creases and all. The color scheme was mainly composed of white and some blues. Thinking over his personality as well, the only words that Taemin could come up with to describe his reserved Hyung were 'quiet' and 'cold'.

Minho came out of the closet in silence and laid on his bed, facing opposite of his new roommate.

Watching this, millions of thoughts passed through his brain. The first and most troubling, Taemin had been thinking a lot lately.

Does Hyung hate me?

Minho, on the other hand, had only two thoughts in his head.

Second: Am I the only one who doesn't know about Taemin's problems?

First: Is it just me, or has the temperature gotten hotter?

Taemin turned off the light which was closer to him than to Hyung.

After a few moments of silence, the maknae decided to break the tense silence. “Goodnight, Hyung.”

Another few moments of torture for the youngest until he got his rigid reply. “Goodnight.”

That night, Minho fell asleep after burying his head in a cool pillow.

Taemin fell asleep with a tear-stained face.