From Now On || SHINee

06

"My love, is it alright if we go get food?" Minho asks, gently brushing a hand through Jonghyun's hair.

"Yeah, that's alright," Jonghyun replies and nuzzles against Minho's hand.

"I'll stay," Taemin comments.

"You need to eat, Tae," Jonghyun looks at the boy still in his arms.

"I'm fine."

"C'mon Taemin," Jinki interject. "You're too picky for us to bring something back for you."

"But I don't want to leave him," Taemin looks sadly at Jinki.

"I'll be fine, baby." Jonghyun gently turns Taemin's face back towards him and gives him a soft kiss. "Go with them, bring me back a cookie."

"Ok, fine."

Taemin rolls out of the bed to a standing position and immediately latches onto Jinki.

"Let's go, love, you need to eat."

Jinki leads the way out of the room and to the elevator.

They stand in silence, Taemin still very attached to Jinki's side and Kibum holding Minho's hand tightly.

Once in the cafeteria, Taemin switches adjusts to hold Jinki's hand with one of his and a tray in the other. He walks a little behind his soulmate and does his best to keep the tray steady as Jinki places food on it.

"Shall we eat here or go back?" Minho asks.

"Can we go back?" Taemin asks.

"Of course, my love."

Taemin releases Jinki's hand to pull Minho's face closer and kiss him on the cheek. He reaches to take Jinki's hand again and walks next to him back to the elevator.

As they get to Jonghyun's room, Jinki looks in to see a man standing way too close to Jonghyun and Jonghyun on the verge of a panic attack.

Jinki releases Taemin's hand and slams the door open, grabbing the reporter by the back of his shirt and throws him away from Jonghyun.

"If you don't get out right now, I will snap your tablet in half and throw you out myself."

"Jinki, what do-"

"1," Minho starts.

"You think about-"

"2," Kibum continues.

"The way your company is-"

"3," Taemin finishes.

Jinki takes the tablet from the reporter and snaps it over his knee before grabbing the reporter by the back of his shirt and throws the man out the door.

"I warned you." Jinki throws the tablet after the man. "Now leave."

The reporter runs away and Jinki waits until he's out of sight to go back in the room. He reenters to find Jonghyun mid-panic attack, not letting any of the others near him.

Jonghyun has one hand out, stopping the others from getting closer and the other on his chest, pressing where he can feel his heartbeat.

"My love." Jinki slowly approaches Jonghyun and gently grabs the hand outstretched towards him. "It's alright."

Jinki manages to help Jonghyun calm down and holds him as his breathing slows.

"I love you." Jinki presses a gentle kiss to Jonghyun's cheek.

"I love you, too. Did you bring me a cookie?"

"Of course I did."

Jinki grabs the napkin with the cookie on the tray and hands it to Jonghyun before sitting next to him.

"What happened?" Minho asks, placing another cookie on top of the one from Jinki.

"I closed my eyes to try and rest a little bit more and I heard the door open but I thought it was a nurse and when I opened my eyes, that man was standing there asking questions."

"What was he asking?"

"I don't think I actually heard anything he said, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, it's not your fault," Kibum replies. "Memories can often have difficulty forming properly because of anxiety."

"When did you get so smart?" Jongyun asks and bites into his first cookie.

"I did some research for Taeminnie," Kibum coos and pats Taemin's head. "Because his anxiety got bad."

"Aw, my poor baby," Jonghyun reaches for Taemin's hand and kisses the back of it when he receives it in his own. "You're so strong."

"You know what?" Kibum interrupts. "We need to do something about this!"

"About what?" Jonghyun asks.

"The media!" Kibum continues. "Like that thing with the reporter just now and the fact that Taemin couldn't walk outside of our house without a whole horde of reporters stopping him! I would love so much just to be able to take you all out on dates and not have reporters stop us. I would love to hold your hand as we walk down the street and not have people take pictures of us. I would love to be able to open my phone and not have comments from people that I don't know and that don't know us, talking about things that they'll never understand."

"Kibum, my love," Minho interrupts Kibum's rant.

"Yes?"

"The only way that would happen is if the media was completely reformed."

"Alright, then let's reform the media."