Aftermath

Part 5

"I think that's all I can get through for right now, Jisung. I'm sorry," Taehyun rubbed his eyes, trying to stop the tears. Jisung sat patiently on his own bed, hands folded, smiling.

"It's okay, Taehyun. I'm just happy you are beginning to open up to me." Taehyun smiled in response and went back to writing down numbers and thoughts in his journal.

I'm going to have to check that journal, aren't I? Jisung thought to himself.

~

Taehyun came back from lunch to see his roommate's side of the room completely empty. A sharp panic rose up in his chest. He wasn't told Jisung was leaving! After months of rooming together, Jisung was now the only thing keeping him afloat!

He had come to love the NCT members visiting since his own never seemed to have the time to check-in on him. He loved getting to meet the 20 members over time as more and more gathered up the courage to join Renjun and Chenle.

He loved Jaemin's motherly instinct, immediately fawning over Jisung's doe-eyed roommate; he loved Haechan who tried his best to make the sad boys smile; he loved Taeil acting like the maknae when he was indeed the oldest; and he loved Johnny's older brother personality, always making sure to tease Jisung and Taehyun equally.

Taehyun loved the Thai idol, Ten and found that their personalities meshed well together. He even found himself beginning to enjoy Jungwoo's clingy affection since he found the doll-like boy irresistible. Even tough Yuta had his heart won over by the small, sassy boy.

Taehyun sighed, remembering all of the fun moments they had together, especially on their birthday.

~

Jisung grabbed Taehyun's hand and the two walked back together after their group session. It was February 5th, the boys' shared birthday.

"Happy birthday, Taehyunnie!" Jisung smiled, the boys finally comfortable with sharing small nicknames with each other.

"You too, Sungie!" Taehyun smiled back. He had been here three months now, and it was the first time in a while he had felt happy.

"Are you excited to be going home this weekend to celebrate with your members?" Taehyun asked. Jisung squirmed a little since he didn't want to respond too cheerfully since Taehyun hadn't been given permission to leave for his birthday.

"Yeah, it should be good. Hey, when am I finally going to meet your team? At this rate I'll be leaving before they come!" Taehyun just sighed in response to Jisung's question.

The boys remained quiet for the rest of the supervised walk to their room. Taehyun kept seeing the nurse send weird, smiley glances at the two boys and he had no clue what was going through her head.

Jisung reached forward to open the door, dropping Taehyun's hand in the process, and the two were met with a loud SURPRISE by the other boys in the room. Jisung and Taehyun halted in their tracks, appreciating the decorations.

"Happy 18th birthday boys! You two are finally adults!" Johnny moved forward to envelope both boys into a big embrace, lifting them off the ground and giving them a little swing. For the next few hours, Taehyun enjoyed the company of such a big and diverse group. At one point, he found himself seated in a Chinese boy named Winwin's lap.

"Wow! Taehyun-sshi," Hendery, another Chinese member exclaimed, "Winwin hyung never lets people sit in his lap!" Taehyun could feel Winwin's face growing warm from the attention but he didn't move Taehyun.

"He just looked kind of sad," Winwin sputtered out. The rest of the group laughed and chatted as they listened to Taehyun's stories with his small group, while they shared stories of their own crackhead 20-member crew.

"Hey, Taehyun-sshi, how come we've never run into your members before?" Jaehyun asked from Jisung's bed. The maknae was currently resting against him with Chenle's head in Jisung's lap.

"Oh, I guess they've just been busy, heh," Taehyun responded.

"Even on their member's 18th birthday?" Doyoung whispered to no one in particular.