“Wow.” Taemin gasped, looking at the message he had received from his manager, “Guess who we are collaborating with for the competition tomorrow?”

Kibum shifted his eye mask and sat up, interested, “Who?”

Seeing Kibum interested, Minho looked up from his game too, paying attention.

Taemin looked to Jinki who was yawning in the seat beside him, totally uninterested as he watched the view from the van’s window as they drove back to their dorm. He gave a little kick to his thigh and Jinki looked at him, frowning but before he could scold, Taemin uttered, “Kim Jonghyun.” He smirked, noticing how the name changed Jinki’s expression, “We are going up against Jonghyun.”

Minho started chuckling and Jinki threw his pillow at him before muttering curses. Kibum intercepted his throw and caught the pillow, putting it behind his head before pulling his eye mask back on, smirking as he said, “Finally, something interesting has come up.”

Jinki just settled back, disgruntled, closing his eyes and resting his head against the cool window, isolating himself from the teasing.
 

It was no secret that Jinki harbored a crush on the rising solo artist, Jonghyun. They had debuted around the same time and their genres matched, despite them being a band of 4, Dynamite, and Jonghyun being a solo artist. Jonghyun composed his own music, wrote his own songs, played the guitar in his performances and usually gave new talent a chance to support him during his live performances.

Jinki was a fanboy despite them being rivals. He was looking forward to the collaboration, imagining Jonghyun sing beside him…that intense furrowing of his brows, his eyes closed as he hit his notes, the vein in his neck bulging out, his plump lips too close to the mic. Damn, despite that being a sight he really wanted to see, he also was nervous because he knew he might have a real hard time trying to not be affected by Jonghyun when he sang with him on stage.

It wasn’t his first time seeing Jonghyun; they had met before on sets of other shows. They had even grabbed coffee together once when they happened to meet in front of the studio one early morning. They once had dinner too when the shooting of a variety show had been canceled (but the rest of Dynamite was present too). Jinki’s crush had been intensifying during these meetings, seeing the humble and soft side of Jonghyun, a heavy contrast to the strong and sensual presence he had when he performed. His voice, especially, was so cute when he spoke hurriedly or when he laughed. His whole face scrunched up into this silly adorableness whenever he laughed and Jinki found that too endearing.

His daze broke when Taemin elbowed him, “Hyung we’ve reached, get off.”

Jinki got off and sighed on reading the posters that filled his view. Everyone was quiet and not teasing him now because they were nervous as well. This competition was no piece of cake. They had been informed of their collaborating artist just a night before the actual competition. Jonghyun and Dynamite had never performed together before so no one knew if the collaboration would work. Also, the song choice wasn’t up to them either. They would be given a song randomly by the judges and they’d have around an hour to prepare it. That would mean, just verbal preparation.

When they reached the stage, groomed and ready, Jonghyun was already standing, earphones plugged into his ears, watching the stage being set up. When he turned to them, Jinki’s heart skipped a beat before getting wild. Jonghyun was wearing a choker. A ing choker. What more? He had a casual suit to go with it- just black and off-white, but his shirt had a plunging neckline and his hair was ily fluffy. Jinki was speechless. At first, he thought he might just feel shy and self-conscious singing with him, but now he was sure he was going to have a hard time finding his voice.

Kim Jonghyun was dressed to kill and Jinki could feel himself dying over and over again.

His only salvation was the audience. He would have to watch them or just close his eyes, to keep his gaze from trailing towards Jonghyun.

Everyone exchanged greetings and Jinki was awkward, trying hard not to meet Jonghyun’s eyes, trying not to let his gaze drift to him, afraid that he might be caught ogling.

His wild heart and panicking mind made the time they had for preparing their song (it was a love song; Jinki: God, why oh why?!), pass in a jiffy and soon Jinki was standing in front of his mic, tuning his guitar to distract himself. Jonghyun came and stood before him, making him realize that they were facing the crowd sideways and facing each other entirely. He looked around, wondering why the mics were arranged that way and Jonghyun immediately answered his question, “I’m sorry, I asked it to be set up like this; I feel like if I watch the crowd while performing this, I might screw up. Please bear with me?”

Jinki lowered his head, nodding, letting his hair fall over his face. His salvation was gone. He was not only going to sing with Jonghyun, he was going to be facing him while doing so. He can’t possibly close his eyes for the entire song just to avoid Jonghyun’s sight. The killer clothes and his singing expressions? His voice hitting him before flowing to the crowd? Jonghyun’s gaze on him when he sang? That was too much for anyone to handle, let alone someone who actually had a crush on Jonghyun.

When the music started playing, Jinki skipped his part, too lost in his nervous struggling heart and mind, but when he realized so, he ended up looking to Jonghyun, who just nodded, his eyes understanding and he skipped as well, giving Jinki a fresh start again. Seeing that Jinki finally took a deep breath and set the whirlwind of his heart and mind aside and started on the right beat…his words soft, yet growing confident when they melded with Jonghyun’s.

Something came over him when the mingling of their voices resounded in the hall. Every word, every note struck his heart. He was singing without holding anything back. His voice was strong, matching the pace of his heart. Jonghyun wasn’t holding back either, and they went on, beyond what they had prepared. They went on, without realizing that the others had stopped playing, the audience had gone silent and it was only their voices, filling the hall.

When the melody softened, Jinki stopped singing, and panted, breathless, his cheeks pink, his gaze meeting Jonghyun, who was looking back to him, his face aflush as well as he sang the rest on his own softly.

Jonghyun lowered his gaze, his lips curling up modestly and Jinki lost it right then.

Before Jonghyun could have finished, he took the step separating them, pushed their mics out of the way, sending a resounding screech into the air, as he grabbed Jonghyun’s collar to pull him close, kissing him.

Jonghyun gave into the kiss and kissed him back, his arms wrapping around Jinki’s neck and Jinki let go of Jonghyun’s collar to wind his arms around his waist, pausing for a fraction to breathe before continuing to kiss him.

The sound of the drums broke their kiss and Jinki stepped back, looking behind, finding Taemin wide-eyed and Kibum smirking. Minho had been the one who had interrupted by drumming, and Jinki knew why the moment he looked back to Jonghyun. His lips were swollen, his appearance askew, his shirt was no longer tucked in. Jinki blushed, realizing what had just happened and he rushed out, not even daring to look at the audience, cursing under his breath in embarrassment.
 

JINKI KISSES JONGHYUN BREATHLESS ON STAGE

Jinki paced around, hitting himself with the magazine that carried that headline and a huge and clear picture of the deed. He was trying to think straight, but he just kept reminiscing how Jonghyun looked that night, how tempting his sight was after they had sung, how more of a temptation he had become with those hazy eyes, those swollen lips, that messed up shirt…everything reminded him how ravenously he had kissed him, how good it had felt, and how his hands had their mind of their own…trailing under his shirt as well.

If it hadn’t been for Minho…it wouldn’t have ended there.

Everything was whirling in his mind, faster and faster...because Jonghyun had kissed him back. What did that mean? Did he like him back? Or did he go along with it because it would make a good publicity stunt?

He didn’t know what to do, what to think, his mind was all messed up, the only coherency being a trail of “, , , .”

“Hyung,” Taemin’s voice echoed into his room, “Someone’s here to see you.”

And the moment Jinki turned to his door, he found Jonghyun standing, all adorably dressed in an oversized hoodie and skinnies, his brows furrowed into a frown, his lips pursed, but his cheeks were tinted.

Jinki was speechless; there was a volcano of words, of apologies, of feelings exploding inside of him, but nothing was coming out; and he panicked more, seeing Jonghyun’s furious expression. “I-I-I can-”

“You better ask me out now,” Jonghyun said, his cheeks puffing up a little. Jinki noticed the little tremor in his voice- he was embarrassed too but trying to be strong and angry about it, “You can’t kiss and run.”

Jinki bit his lip, the panic in his heart calming a great deal upon seeing Jonghyun unable to control his blush from taking over the anger he feigned. “Do…you wanna get breakfast together?”

Jonghyun lowered his gaze, “Only if you are gonna change out of those striped pajamas first.”

Jinki blushed, looking to his clothes, his mind inwardly going, “, , , ,”

“O-Of course,” Jinki stuttered, walking to his wardrobe right away, ing his shirt.

“I’ll-I’ll wait outside!” and the next thing Jinki heard was the door slamming shut. He let the whole conversation settle in and a goofy smile came over his face as he put on proper clothes.
 

A few days later….

JINKI AND JONGHYUN REVEALED TO BE OFFICIALLY DATING