Forgotten Memories

Remember Those Days

9: Remember Those Days

“Taemin,” his Umma cooed consistently.

“Umma,” Baby Tae squealed as any other 1 year old would.

“I want you to meet someone,” Umma gestured to a small boy hiding from behind her leg. “His name is...”

Taemin spaced out, as all children do when they get distracted by sparkly lights above them. What would it feel like to touch those bright orbs?

“...he's your Hyung,” Taemin returned to reality as he heard those words.

His Umma left to check her cooking after setting her infant on the carpeted floor.

Baby Taemin struggled to stand up on his chubby legs and was surprised to find a hand waving in his face. He glanced up to find the friendly, smiling face of his Hyung. “Need help?”

“Taemin, it's time to wake up,” Jonghyun Hyung sang soulfully as he entered his dongsaeng's shared bedroom and woke the boy who had been dreaming peacefully a moment before.

“Ugh,” Taemin groaned groggily and scratched his head as he thought back on his dream. Every happening was burned in his mind. The only thing he couldn't remember was his childhood Hyung's face and name... And the confuzzled dongsaeng didn't understand why.

“Taemin,” Jonghyun lightly thumped the back of Taemin's head as he made his way to the bathroom. “We've got the music video shooting to attend!”

“Aish,” the maknae sighed and got ready for the day. “Ne, Hyung!”

Today had been a tough day for the SHINee group.

Three hours of continuous filming for their debut song and they were only halfway done with the music video.

The car drive to and from home was tense and composed of awkward silence. By the time they had all gotten home, every single member of SHINee knew that there was some type of issue between the two maknaes, Taemin and Minho. Things had obviously gotten much worse than before. Even Manager Hyung got the hint that there was some type of internal conflict.

As the van came to a stop, Taemin was the first to jump out. He then proceeded into his room like Death was chasing after him. Minho walked into the dorm and made a bee line to their library. Onew headed straight into the kitchen, in search for his best friend: Chicken. Jonghyun sand Key lounged on the couch, both of them thinking the same thing: This can't last.

“Jonghyun, Key, enjoy every minute of peace you have! Because we're leaving soon. You two are the only ones who haven't been fitted for your debut performance costumes,” Manager Hyung called out to the middle members before he left the dorm to grab some snacks for the exhausted soon-to-be idols.

Now, nobody was there to see the famous JongKey in action.

“Jjongie~” Key sighed as his head automatically made it's way to his lover's shoulder. “What are we going to do about this?”

Jonghyun knew exactly what Key was talking about and he had absolutely no clue how to fix their torn band. “For once, I have no idea...”

Silence followed. A comfortable silence for the two, but a silence, it was.

“You know, we've only heard Taemin's side of the story... We've never heard Minho's...” Jonghyun pointed out in a last attempt to come up with a plan.

“I already tried to hear his reasoning. And failed. All he said was that he dislikes our Taeminnie because of what happened when they met. But Taemin doesn't remember meeting him from before,” Key wrapped his arms around the older's shoulders.

“Well, then that's it,” Jonghyun pointed out. “Taemin doesn't remember him. That's the problem.”

“Yes, but how can we get him to remember Minho when we know almost nothing about their pasts?”

“We'll have to dive deeper, then...” Jonghyun muttered, a scheme forming in his head.