Title: Super-Hyung
Author: erodedveins
Rating: PG-13 (to be safe)
Genre: Angst
Pairing(s): Broken!2min, Jongtae, Hinted!Minkey
Wordcount: 1048
Warning: Implied!Mentally-challenged!Taemin
~~
I didn’t feel strong at all, though Taemin always called me his ‘super-hyung’. In fact, I felt oh-so-fragile when he announced to his family that he was going to get married and have lots of babies. Everyone but me laughed it off. Who wouldn’t fall for Taemin, after all? He was as charming as they come, despite his obvious handicap.
Gender, race, sexuality… None of that mattered to Taemin. Probably because he couldn’t grasp the concepts, but it made him so much more humane. No one had the heart to tell him that in the real world those things did matter. You wouldn’t either if you ever met him.
I smiled and patted him gently on the back, after congratulating him on his upcoming wedding. He beamed at me in response and I felt my heart swell with hidden love. Even if I did tell him about my feelings, it wouldn’t do any good. He doesn’t love me the way I love him. He only saw me as a ‘super-hyung’. There was nothing I couldn’t do, even though that was so, so far from the truth.
“Minho-hyung, when are you going to get married and have babies?” Taemin joked, and I got choked up enough I couldn’t answer. I wouldn’t have children unless I adopted them, but I don’t think Taemin would understand why. “Hyung? Are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you sad.” He sounded increasingly distressed over the situation. I wiped the few tears I’d shed and smiled weakly.
“I’m fine, Taemin. You just surprised me,” he beamed and went back to drawing pictures. I wish he knew it was never his fault. It was mine. I was the one who’d stupidly fallen in love.
He brought a new friend over to hang out the next day. I tried to grab his attention some, but he was completely absorbed in his new friend Jonghyun. I smiled sadly. I felt ashamed of myself, but I couldn’t help it. I was jealous of Jonghyun, though I was glad Taemin was making friends. Someone would have to be there for him, because I wasn’t going to be for a while.
I didn’t tell Taemin I was moving until the day before I had to leave. I had received a scholarship to study abroad and I was going to take the chance to forget. It wasn’t a matter of wanting to anymore, I needed to get over Taemin. It was a love that was going nowhere. Fast. It was starting to affect me physically. I lost nearly 2 kg in 3 weeks. That was not healthy at all.
Taemin lost it when I finally told him I was leaving. He started crying and begging me not to leave. When I told him that I couldn’t help it anymore, that I was leaving the next day, he got angry. It hurt me so much to hear that he hated me and never ever wanted to see me again. He kicked and punched at me while still crying. I begged him to forgive me, but he was deaf to my voice.
I stepped onto the plane with a heavy heart. Taemin had flat out refused to come to the airport and say goodbye. His mother apologized repeatedly, but I brushed it off with a smile and said it was fine. It was understandable. Taemin was still a child, after all. I think she knew, though, by the way she squeezed me extra hard and smiled sadly at me before I headed into customs.
The first few weeks in a foreign country were unbelievably hard. In addition to being homesick, I worried myself silly over Taemin. His mother assured me he was fine, happy even, thanks to Jonghyun. He was still mad at me, though, much to my disappointment. She said to give it some time and he would be back to calling me his ‘super-hyung’. I wasn’t sure at all.
I hadn’t managed to make any friends in the month I’d been away from home, but that all changed the day I bumped into Kibum at an exchange student meeting. He looked up to my face, probably prepared to tell me off, but that changed and instead he asked me what was wrong. A total stranger had noticed that I was upset. I couldn’t even tell him ‘I’m fine’ before he was wiping tears out of my eyes in a motherly way.
After that, we actually became close friends. He made me tell him about my problems with Taemin and he introduced me to his circle of friends. He said I could have my pick of them to try to get Taemin off my mind. I liked Changmin and Nichkhun in particular, but I couldn’t bring myself to flirt with them. I still felt like I was betraying Taemin, which was beyond frustrating.
At least my time there was enjoyable thanks to Kibum. He was always in the spotlight, and he dragged me into it frequently. I was popular thanks to him. It successfully got my mind off of Taemin as long as I was in school. I had girls coming up to me left and right asking me to be their boyfriend. As much as I didn’t want to hurt their feelings, I couldn’t say yes.
The school year regretfully ended, and me and Kibum headed back to our home country. He lived in Daegu, while I lived in Incheon. Despite the distance, we made promises to visit each other as often as possible. He’d become my best friend. I had a feeling he’d developed a bit of a crush on me, but he knew I’d never return his feelings so he didn’t act.
I hadn’t expected to get off the plane and see Taemin standing there. The last I heard, he was still mad at me. He was holding up a sign he’d made himself (by the looks of it) that read “Choi Minho” in childlike handwriting, and he was smiling widely. Jonghyun was next to him, holding him around the waist and kissing his lips. I was glad they couldn’t see me yet, because my heart had smashed to pieces at the sight.
I wasn’t Taemin’s ‘super-hyung’ anymore. I didn’t think I ever would be again.