It was soft and warm, he could feel hot breath on his face and when he looked to the side he could see blonde hair.

When he realized that the maknae was kissing him he felt like he was falling down a cliff.

Heat exploded within his body, he clinched to the maknae and stared at the side of his head.

The kiss was held for a while and when Taemin finally broke it there was a tiny red spot of where the lips had touched Onews cheek.

The music kept on running and when the song was over at last the next started.

Luckily for Onew, it was “Stand By Me” which made him feel a whole lot more comfortable.

“That's one of your favorites, right hyung?” Taemin whispered with a giggle and Onew noticed the way the boy had blushed. “You were singing it a lot lately ...”

Onew chuckled and nodded. “Neh, it's one of my favorites.” he answered and smiled at the CD-Player. “Always glad to hear it.”

“It's a nice song.”

They stayed in that position until the song ended. The next song was their debut song “Replay” and Taemin started laughing when his part started. He lip-synched it with a bright smile.

“Good memories, Taemin-ah?” Onew asked and examined his face. He nodded and looked at his leader.
“You know, hyung ...” he whispered. “I'm really happy to be with you and the others. SHINee is the best thing that's ever happened to me.”

“Awww, Taemin-ah.” Onew smiled brightly and patted his head with the hand he had at the boys back. “Same here.”

Taemin laughed a bit and looked at the ground slowly.

Onew couldn't help but keep on staring at the young boy. “Taemin-ah?” he said and leaned his forehead against Taemins. “You're cute.” Onew felt the vibration of Taemins laughter and enjoyed being so close to him.

“Thanks.” he answered and pushed a bit against the leaders head.

Onew pushed back, and the Taemin started laughing all over again. They kept on doing this until Taemin couldn't handle it anymore and let himself drop to the floor. He was giggling like hell.

The leader lowered himself next to him and tickled him.

“Yah!” Taemin screamed and curled into a tiny ball. His face got as red as a tomato as he continued laughing. “Yah, hyung! Stop it!” he shouted and rolled onto his other side.

Onew smiled brightly and tickled him harder. The maknae screamed and shouted between his laughter until Onew finally stopped and let him roll over again.

“Yah ...” Taemin gasped when he rolled to Onews side. He hit his nose against the leaders knee. “Don't tickle me, hyung. You know I'll die of laughter if you do.”

“But you're so adorable when you laugh.” Onew insisted and nudged the boys nose gently.

“Neh … why is everyone saying that.” he pouted and steadied himself on his elbows. “There are people who are much cuter than me out there.”

Onew chuckled and shook his head. “If you asked me you're the cutest person on this planet.”

After a few seconds both of them blushed deeply and smiled at each other uneasily.

There were sparks in the air – it seemed like they were touchable. But then, out of nowhere, there was a ringing from behind them.

Onew started to hate the world for disrupting him and Taemin like that.

The maknae got to his feet quickly and ran over to the table to grab his cellphone.
“Hello?” he asked when he picked up. “Oh, Manager-sshi ...” he mumbled and walked back to Onew slowly. “Yes, I know.” the leader gestured for Taemin to turn on the loudspeaker – he did and sat down next to him again.

“Seriously, where the hell are you!?”

The manager asked angrily and they could practically feel him staring at them.

“You were supposed to be home an hour ago!”

“I'm sorry, Manager-sshi.” Taemin mumbled and avoided looking at the cellphone. He had started trembling slightly. “I-I was practicing and Onew hyung was helping me ...”

Onew put an arm around his shoulders – he knew it wasn't easy for the maknae to talk to their manager. They had a pretty bad past.

“Didn't you get Minhos message!? I told him to leave one for you!”

Onew narrowed his eyebrows when he noticed that he was leaving out the honorifics again. He hated this guy.

“I received it but … I told Onew hyung that I wanted to finish practicing first … I didn't think it would be this important.” Taemin answered and leaned against Onews shoulder.

“Stupid boy.” the manager cursed. “Stop thinking and do as you're told.”

Taemin sighed quietly and answered: “Yes, Manager-sshi.”

“Is Onew there?”

“Yes.”

“Onew, watch your maknae. He's getting a bit too distracted.”

“I think Taemin-ah is behaving perfectly fine.” the leader asked, trying to keep his cool. “I'm sorry for being late though. We'll head home right away. Good night, Manager-sshi.”

“You better do.” and he hung up without saying another word.

There was another awkward silence spreading around them now.

Taemin was staring at the floor, clinging to his cellphone and trembling slightly.

Onew hated the manager for what he did in the past. When SHINee was still very new and the had only recently got themselves a good manager they had had a lot of trouble. He found Taemin undisciplined and cocky, so he had started hitting him quite badly. He said it would teach him some manners. And Taemin had only told the others when Key noticed the amount of make-up he put on everyday in order to cover up the bruises.

Onew wished for nothing but to fire that horrible man – but he couldn't.

The leader was standing next to him, examining his small figure. “I'm sorry, Taemin-ah.” he said after a while. “You know I'd love to fire him … but I can't.”

“Neh, it's fine hyung.” Taemin answered and kept his gaze at the floor. “At least he stopped hitting me.” Onew patted the blondes head and couldn't help but smile gently. “What do you think about actually going home now?”

“Neh.” he said and looked up at him. There it was again – that true smile. Not the fake one.

The maknae held out his hand and Onew pulled him up. The hand was so smooth and seemed really untouched. He now wondered why he hadn't noticed the smoothness before …

'Damn get it together.' the leader thought to himself and shook his head without dragging Taemins attention.

“Want me to call a Taxi?” he asked and walked over to the coat hook where his jacket was. “I don't think we should take the bus.” Taemin giggled and agreed.

“Taking the bus is fun though ...” he said and picked up his own jacket from the floor in front of the mirror. “The noonas always start screaming when they see us.”

Onew chuckled and agreed silently. True, the noonas always used to recognized them.

“Yeah, but we'll take a Taxi now.”

The truth was that he didn't really want Taemin to be outside at this hour. There was so much that could happen. And if something happened to the maknae it was definitely Onews fault – and he couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to Taemin.

He wasn't like Key who could just talk bullies off. Key had managed to scare some bullies off a while ago. His y side sure could some in handy at some times.

With a quick glance on his watch he realized that it was almost midnight now and he cursed inside of his head – Taemin had to go to school tomorrow …

They called a Taxi and waited in front of the SM-training building.

“Taemin-ah, put on your hood.” Onew said after a few minutes of waiting and nudged the boys shoulder gently. “It's cold.”

“But I feel warm.” he insisted and raised an eyebrow towards his leader. “I don't need the-” he stopped talking when Onew pulled it over his head.

“I know you're feeling warm but it is cold.” he disagreed. “I don't want you to catch a cold.”

Taemin sighed and nodded. He pulled the hood over all of his head. Onew smiled at that sight.

When the Taxi finally arrived, time had already moved onto past midnight.

Both of them had already received a bunch of text messages from Key, asking where they were. Though they weren't in the mood of answering since they'd be home soon.

Onew told the driver where they wanted to be brought to and sat down next to Taemin on the bench in the back part of the car. They didn't talk at all and Onew was glad they didn't.

He was quite tired and knew that Taemin was, too.

Their schedules were way too busy … it really was a pain to work this much. The leader took care of the schedules as well as he could and he made sure that everyone got as much sleep as possible, especially Taemin. But he was glad that most of SHINee got to sleep in tomorrow. Taemin was the only one who had to get up early because he had school. And Key was probably getting up early as well because he said he'd drive Taemin to school once more.

Onew twitched when he felt something hitting his shoulder and looked to the side.

He chuckled when he noticed that Taemin had fallen asleep already. He slowly leaned over and kissed the young boys forehead gently.