When Taemin signed up for parenting class he thought it was going to be easy, not expecting to do any actual work and just talk with his friends Kibum and Jinki while pretending to listen to their teacher and ignore Choi Minho’s advances towards him (the boy wouldn’t take no for an answer to matter how much Taemin rejected his lunch date invitations).

 

It’s not that Minho is a bad person of any kind; he’s simply very caring, charming and handsome so Taemin can’t help but be annoyed by him, even when he sits next to him to talk about his plans on taking Taemin to the Summer Festival when they’re on vacations, and no matter how Taemin pretends not to listen to him, Minho just continues talking to him.

 

When Mr. Kim announced that Friday morning that for one weekend they’d be taking care of a robot baby, he couldn’t have been less excited.

 

“Everyone settle down!” Mr. Kim says, trying to calm down the students who, just like Taemin, signed up for this class for an easy A and didn’t bother keeping their voice down, “Listen to the rules very carefully, I won’t repeat them! The baby might seem like a doll, but it’s programmed to react like a real human baby. For example, if it’s hungry or needs a diaper change, it will cry. If there’s too much sound, he will cry. He might just cry because he wants to, so take care of its necessities before going to sleep if you don’t want to wake up at two a.m. on a weekend. If the baby remains unattended for more than five minutes, the cries will get louder and louder.” Mr. Kim finishes, and looking at some of his students’ smug faces, he adds, “and no, you can’t turn it off.”

 

Everyone whined about the amount of work that they’d have to do instead of going out during the weekend, including Taemin who tugged on Kibum’s sleeve to get his attention, the latter being too busy talking with Jonghyun, another senior they met in class, that he had to tug hard enough for him to almost fall off his chair to get his attention.

 

“What is it!”

 

Taemin noticed the cheek-to-cheek smile Kibum had while talking to Jonghyun immediately disappeared when he turned to him. Geez, so much for a best friend. “Let’s be partners.”

 

“And how do you know we can choose our partners?”

 

“Well Mr. Kim didn’t say anything about—“

 

“Another thing, I will be making the partners for this project. Some of you don’t leave your circle of friends, so take this as an opportunity to make new acquaintances.”

 

Oh no. “See, I told you.” And with that Kibum turned to continue talking with Jonghyun and Jinki, the latter having joined their conversation of possible baby names and attractions around the neighborhood.

 

Taemin couldn’t help but be nervous, chewing on his pen cap for a minute until Kibum took it away from him, wondering what would happen if he was paired with Minho. Considering that he didn't know how to express his feelings, maybe Minho would end up thinking he hated him, if he didn’t already. He could be paired with Jinki, or even his dance class friend Jongin, or even anyone in this class; there are 24 students in this class, what are the chances of him being paired with him.

 

“Kibum with…Jonghyun!”

 

Having forgotten about his best friend who was having an existential crisis next to him already, Kibum moves to sit next to Jonghyun, both equally happy to be paired together. I hope they burn with baby milk, Taemin thought, narrowing his eyes at both of them while he was playing with the odds of being paired with Minho.

 

“Taemin with…Minho!” Well, the odds had always hated him.

 

Letting out a sigh, he gets up to sit next to Minho, who looks like he had just won the lottery.  Jinki smiles at him and mouths ‘Good luck’ while patting him on his back before sitting properly to talk to his partner.

 

Approaching Minho and sitting down next to him, he didn’t wait one second before speaking, “Listen, I don’t want any trouble, I just want an A in this class.”

 

Minho ignored the unenthusiastic tone in his voice and smiles even wider if possible before nodding his head, “I agree. Let’s not fight.”

 

 

***

“Kwangsoo?”

 

“What kind of name is that for a baby, Minho? Chihoon?”

 

“How about Myungsoo? Taeminho?”

 

“I’m not naming my baby Taeminho! What’s wrong with you!”

 

They kept yelling baby names back and forth, Minho starting the discussion after showing him a Baby Names for Expecting Parents book he had borrowed from the library on his way home.  Having passed by a baby shop to buy necessities, they had fought about what color they should get the baby’s stuff, Taemin would have been surprised if a discussion about baby names wouldn’t have ended with them yelling at each other. So far they had been throwing names back and forth for five minutes and there were no names they mutually agreed in.

 

“I’m just saying that Taeminho is a good combination of our names, we don’t have to use it if you don’t want to, but you’re not helping either!”

 

“How can you say that!”

                                                          

A sudden cry of the baby, who was sitting in its high chair, startled both of them, having clearly forgotten their teacher’s instructions about how the baby would cry if there were too much noise.

 

“Look what you did with your loud yelling!”

 

Taemin kept mumbling curses directed towards Minho while holding the baby as best as he could manage trying to calm it down. He was confident on his babysitting skills no matter what anyone said, having taking care of both his cousins when they were younger. His mother always reminded him that she took them away from him since he couldn’t hold them properly at the age of eight and just shook them up and down while they cried their hearts out, but he wasn’t about to admit that to Minho.

 

“Taemin, it’s not a ketchup bottle! Don’t shake it like that!”

 

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

 

“Let me—“

 

“No! It’s my baby!”

 

“It’s our baby!”

 

“It’s crying harder, it doesn’t like you!”

 

“Give me my son back!”

 

“It’s mine!”

 

Minho, getting exhausted over Taemin’s behavior, grabs the baby’s leg to pull it towards him but Taemin is quick enough to pull it back, and he gets more and more frustrated over Minho pulling the baby that he pulls the baby too hard accidentally to get it away from him, causing a leg to detach from the baby’s body.

 

Both of them stare at the baby’s leg in Minho’s hand in disbelief while the cries hit a new high to that they’re sure the entire neighborhood can hear it. The cries were hurting both their ears and no matter how much Taemin shook the baby, they never lowered and just went higher.

 

He unwillingly admitted defeat to himself, sighing while passing over the baby to Minho and ignoring his smug smile. The exhaustion of the day finally settled over him: he was heading straight to bed even if he hadn’t had dinner yet or if the baby needed him.

 

“What you said before…your son, you take care of it.”

 

“Wasn’t he yours?”

 

“Shut up, I’m taking a nap. Being a single father is exhausting.”

 

Minho scoffed at his comment but decided to just focus on feeding their baby, whose cries had significantly decreased since the attention was on it. Draping a blanket over himself, Taemin got settled to sleep for a few hours in his new temporal bed: the couch in Minho’s living room. Thinking about the amount of events that had happened in just a Friday afternoon with Minho, he looked at the person who he’ll be spending the next two days with, who was busy reattaching the baby’s leg while feeding it and smiling down at it. And maybe, he’s not that bad.

 

 

Believing that he was going to have a relaxing, baby-free sleep, Taemin was surprised when a baby wail woke him up abruptly, falling off the couch and landing on a startled Minho sleeping on the floor.

 

“OUCH! Get off me!”

 

“It wasn’t my fault! Why were you sleeping on the floor anyway?”

 

“I forgot to ask you before you fell asleep if you were comfortable with me sleeping on the couch with you.”

 

Taking notice of Minho’s sincere voice in his drowsy state, he felt the unmistakable feeling of a blush creeping on his face, and suddenly he was thankful of the dim state of lights in the living room.

 

“U-Um, thank you…but where’s the baby?”

 

“I put it to sleep a few hours ago, why?”

 

“What do you mean a few hours ago…I heard it crying just n—“

 

A loud cry coming from the dining room interrupts Taemin, who lets out a big sigh; it was 2 a.m. and he had barely gotten three hours of sleep.

 

“Great, you summoned it.”

 

“Don’t talk about our baby as if it’s a demon!”

 

Minho gets up to check on the baby with Taemin hot on his tail, heading towards the dining table where they set up the baby crib. The baby’s crib wasn’t an actual crib, considering that every single one at the Babies R Us cost more than they could afford, even the ones that were basic and plain. They settled for a basket they found in the kitchen when they came to Minho’s home yesterday and put a blanket over it.

 

“Now that I think about it, it is your baby...insufferable, but cute—OUCH!”

 

Taemin moves him aside, chuckling at the sight of Minho rubbing his arm while checking on the baby’s diaper, noticing it was wet.

 

“You hit me, now you do the honors of the first diaper change.”

 

Taemin takes the baby from him and starts changing the diaper, if he’s honest he has never done this before, only seen his mother changing his little cousin and as far as he knew it was, to say the least, dirty: his cousin ended up peeing all over his mom and him. To comfort himself, he tells himself that at least this baby’s pee isn’t real and just clear liquid from the ‘milk’ it was given earlier. He unfastened the tabs on the dirty diaper, pulled it down to remove it and set it aside. He fastened the clean diaper at both sides and finished by patting the baby’s tummy.

 

“All changed, now you can’t say I’m not a great dad.”

 

“Taemin…you put it backwards.”

 

--

 

After a successful sleep, with no baby interrupting him, Taemin wakes up later that day at ten a.m. to Minho feeding the baby and putting a green bodysuit on. Weird, he thought, he clearly remembered having bought a blue one yesterday—

 

“Minho! Why is it wearing a green bodysuit when I bought another color yesterday?”

 

“I thought green suited Fifi better.”

 

“Fifi? Who the hell is Fifi?”

 

“The baby...since we couldn’t pick a name, I chose the first one I saw on Google results.”

 

Deciding he was feeling too tired and that it was too early in the morning to argue with Minho, he decided to go along with it. There are way worst names than…Fifi.

 

“Yeah, okay, just hurry, Kibum and Jonghyun are waiting for us at the mall!”

 

--

 

Minho and Taemin finally arrive at the mall meeting up with an unhappy Kibum and an excited Jonghyun who had to wait nearly an hour for them. Minho blames it on Taemin suddenly changing his opinion about the baby’s clothes, rushing back into the house to put the green bodysuit on. Taemin blames it on Minho’s slow grandfather steps, taking double the amount of time that it would have taken him if he had come alone.

 

“Don’t be mad Kibum, we’re here!”

 

Taemin kept cuddling into Kibum’s side asking for forgiveness, ignoring his attempts to shrug him off and just clinging on harder while Minho and Jonghyun were behind them laughing at the pair of best friends and talking about their first evening with the baby.

 

Jonghyun shares with Minho that their night went excellent: their baby barely cried and they managed to always attend to it before it had a crying episode. When Jonghyun said that they had no problems deciding on a baby name, Minho got embarrassed remembering what had happened with Taemin and the detached baby leg, deciding to just say that it was a bit harder for them when Jonghyun asked.

 

The four of them spend most of the day at the mall, entering every store that caught their attention, including the dreadful baby store, the young assistants giving them weird looks, unusual to see teenagers checking out baby accessories. Taemin keeps trying to ignore the looks, thinking they were directed towards Kibum who was cooing at a couple’s baby near the clothing section, but after five minutes of a lady staring at Minho and him, he leans closer to Minho who was checking out pacifiers.

 

“Why are people staring at us?”

 

“Maybe they’re wondering how the baby didn’t get my handsome looks but yours instead—OW! Stop hitting me! It was a joke!”

 

“They’re not funny, concentrate on picking good gifts to donate instead!”

 

While Kibum and Jonghyun were having a uncomplicated time picking tops and bottoms to donate after the baby project was over, unsurprisingly it was the complete opposite for Taemin and Minho: fighting over things as simple as colors and patterns, ultimately getting kicked out of the shop for their yells that were interrupting the calm atmosphere inside the store, an annoyed Kibum following them out of the store with Jonghyun close behind.

 

“See what you did, you…you giant yelling baby! I should have just come alone!”

 

“Don’t put this on me Taemin, you were yelling too!”

 

“You know what, let’s just go home! See you Kibum!” Taemin yells over his shoulder already making his way to the exit, subconsciously hand-in-hand with Minho while holding the baby with his other arm.

 

“When do you think they will realize?”

 

“Soon enough.”

***

 

It’s a little after two p.m. and Taemin is laying half-asleep in Minho’s living room couch, too lazy to fill out his report about Minho’s behavior this weekend while Minho is actually filling his, and by the unclicking of his pen and him putting the book down in the coffee table in front of them, he guesses he was done.

 

“Taemin, since it’s our last day with the baby, I say we stay home.”

 

“Good, I wasn’t going to move anyway.”

 

For the last few days Taemin has stayed here, he has had multiple ups and downs about how he felt about Minho, there are times he thinks he can be the most charming man on Earth, but sometimes he wants to slap him for his corny jokes and shameless flirting towards him after the put the baby to sleep and they’re just laying in the couch together waiting for sleep to settle in. He can’t disagree that Minho has been nothing but good to the baby, feeding it and changing it more times than he’s done and not complaining about his refusal to do it after his first failed attempt, secretly hoping he won’t write on the report anyway.

 

When they returned from the mall trip, Kibum and him spent almost an hour on the phone talking about his situation, Jonghyun interrupting their conversation and yelling  ‘Just date already!’, Kibum agreeing with him.

 

After this weekend, he can confirm he shares the same feelings as Minho, but he wasn’t sure if Minho was still interested in him. Jonghyun was quick to interrupt him again when he shared this with Kibum, yelling over the phone to ‘stop making assumptions and just talk to him’.  Knowing he won’t have other chances to express his thoughts, he decided to swallow his pride and just talk to Minho about it.

 

“Minho, can I ask you something?”

 

“Sure, go ahead.”

 

“I’ve been wondering if your flirting is real or just a joke.”

 

“Why would you think I’m joking?”

 

“Well…if you take this weekend in consideration, everything we did was just fight.”

 

“Taemin…if anything these past few days made me realize that I really do like you. I’m not joking when I say I want to take you out on dates, and you refusing me did upset me, obviously. I did consider if I should give up on you and pursue someone else, but that would’ve been the most ridiculous thing I’ve could have ever done.”

 

Taemin feels suddenly uneasy about the idea of Minho dating someone else, getting uncomfortable and even irritated just thinking about it. He really does like him.

 

“I promise if you say no I will leave you alone, so for the last possible time, will you go out with me?”

 

The sudden silence made Minho’s confidence about Taemin liking him back slip dramatically, fueled on by the way Taemin keeps evading looking at him and continues staring at his shoes. He thought he was going to be rejected but Taemin stands up and seats himself right next to Minho, facing him and smiling softly.

 

“Yes.”

***

 

“Taemin and Minho, you two did a great job; the baby is back in one piece with no malfunctions or scratches.”

 

Minho nods at his teacher before looking to the side to smile at Taemin, holding his hand discreetly behind his back, both feeling confident over getting a good grade after hearing their teacher’s praise.

 

“However, you two share the same grade of B+“

 

Mr. Kim almost chuckles over his students’ incredulous looks and gasps, both looking at him with shock in their eyes.

 

“What! Sir, you just said we did a great job!”

 

“Yes, you two did do a good job, but you see here?”

 

Their teacher turns the baby around, lowers the diaper and shows them a small audio recorder in the middle of the baby's lower back.

 

“It’s a hidden microphone, and when within 15 minutes the baby remains uncared of, it automatically shuts down and starts recording the surroundings instead."

 

Minho feels Taemin’s grasp on his hand get tighter, and he’s sure both of them start blushing furiously over their teacher’s revelation.  

 

“Judging by your faces, you two know exactly what you did, and I hope you two know that I would have lived just fine without hearing those sounds.”

 

---

 

welp, there it goes. I hope you all enjoyed this, it's quite different (?) in a way of how i've written before...hope it at least achieved 'meh' level and thanks for subscribing im lowkey crying....u are all v nice. I proof-read this multiple times but considering its 2 am...not a smart choice from me (sorry for any mistakes, if u see any kindly point them out!!!) see u soon again! let me know if you liked it:-)

(obviously taemin and minho were baking cupcakes and forgot to turn off the blender, smh both of you)