Zitao squirms a bit under the scrutiny, used to having people stare at him but somehow never quite as intense as this. He silently begs Wu Fan and the rest of his group to hurry up, but when he’d texted them two minutes ago they hadn’t even left the house yet. For the hundredth time he curses his decision to live alone—it may be peaceful but damn it all he’ll move back if it means that he will be able to kick their collective into gear. Zitao is nothing if not punctual, if it mean dragging Lu Han and Jongdae out in their pajamas then so be it.

Maybe it’s his growing agitation with the rest of s, maybe it’s the awkwardness of the situation, but something finally compels him to speak.

“Should I call you sunbae?” He blurts, far less gracefully than he intended, stumbling a bit over the pronunciation.

Minki looks taken aback, but only for a second before he readopts his blank look. He shrugs and finally drops his eyes.

“You don’t have to,” he says, examining his nails as though he’s never seen them before. “I’d say we’re about even in that respect.” He looks up again and flashes a cheeky grin. “Should I call you ‘hyung’?”

Now it’s Zitao’s turn to be taken aback. “Um…I guess not,” he mumbles. The fans took one look at his teaser and pictured him as some kind of gladiator, b with confidence and possessing the ability to pin anyone with his sharp gaze. Well, his sharp gaze may work on his older friends when he’s pushing them out the door screaming about schedules (it seems he’s permanently terrified Joonmyun), but it seems as though now he’s met his match in that respect.

The smile that Minki flashes at him is sweet though, it makes him calm down enough to inquire about how Nu’est’s promotions are going (like he hasn’t been following them religiously).

“We’re having fun with it,” Minki responds with another, more enthusiastic, smile. “Which is really the best thing to hope for. What about you?”

“We’re faring well,” Zitao answers. There’s a brief pause in which Zitao wonders if he should say something.

“I saw your videos,” Minki informs him at the same time “I saw your music video” spills out of Zitao’s mouth.

“You did? ‘Face’?” Minki asks, leaning forward excitedly. Zitao nods, fight a blush.

“Which video’s did you see?” He asks, a bit shy.

“All of them,” Minki gushes. “You guys are really good!”

“Thank you, you’re really good too!” Zitao says in equally gushy tone, fighting not to mention that he’s been keeping up with their reality show, online interviews and that he has their album.

Minki thanks him just as his phone rings. He excuses himself and read the text, Zitao also takes out his phone and sends a message to Wu Fan, promising that if he doesn’t get everyone assembled at the restaurant in the next 30 seconds he’ll take pictures of everyone sleeping in their boxers or something equally embarrassing and spam it all over Weibo.

‘RESCUE ME GEGE, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING’ He begs.

“Well, my group is at least twenty minutes off yet,” Minki drawls, snapping his phone shut. “Yours?”

“Oh, um…” Zitao struggles for the words. “Probably longer, they wouldn’t be able to get out even if the house was on fire.”

Minki laughs at that and Zitao grins. Hoping he’s laughing at the joke and not his accent.

“Is it really that bad?” He asks, and Zitao promptly launches into the tale about how yes, he did indeed have to pour a bucket of ice water on Lu Han to get him up at one point. *

“Everyone made me do it at first because I was already scary, so it wasn’t like I was losing face by become the one who makes everyone wake up,” he grouses, still stinging a bit at the unfairness- isn’t Wu Fan the leader? Isn’t this his job? He’s supposed to be the cute maknae, not the fire-breathing “GET OUT THE DOOR” nag. He doesn’t even live with them, why should this be his job?

He’s so caught up in his mini tantrum that he doesn’t notice the surprise on Minki’s face until he hears it in his voice. “’Already scary’? What do you mean by that?”

Zitao nearly gapes at him. “I-I flip people onto their heads. I play with swords. I leap in the air and kick things,” I’ll shut up before I start about how I look like a serial killer.

Minki buries his face in his arms to muffle his laughter, which only makes Zitao more miffed. “What?” he demands.

The boy lifts his head, grins widely. “You’re about as scary as a six week old kitten,” he says bluntly.

Now it’s Zitao’s turn to gape. “A what?” He asks, wondering if his Korean isn’t worse than he originally suspected.

“You heard me right,” Minki insists, leaning his elbows on the table, cheeky grin firmly in place. “You’re like me in that respect, except I think I have more of a kitten-look about me, you look more like an adult cat, but you act like a kitten.”

No conversation, Zitao thinks to himself, could ever possibly be weirder than this.

“A…kitten?” He repeats weakly.

Minki rolls his eyes. “Fine, maybe a baby tiger. Either way, you’re too cute to be scary.”

Koreans and their skinship. That’s what he will blame this on.

“Anyway,” Minki says, “Don’t you know it’s Murphy’s Law that all maknaes must be adorable? The trait will manifest itself one way or another.”

Zitao finds his voice again. “I’m pretty sure that’s not what Murphy’s Law is.”

Minki puts a his hand over Zitao’s mouth. “Sh, it is now,” he says, dead serious. Zitao blinks at him, half of him wondering if he shouldn’t have made this kid call him hyung after all and the other half flailing inwardly because of how many fans would die to be in his spot right now.

Minki pulls his hand back and for the next ten minutes or so they make small talk about their lives, but Minki’s phone rings again and he stands up.

“I have to go, we’ve decided to eat somewhere else,” he says abruptly, gathering his things.

“Oh,” Zitao says, hurriedly getting to his feet as well and bowing. “It was nice to meet you,” he says. Minki grabs his hand and shakes it. “It was nice meeting you too,” he says, smiling brightly. “I’ll see you around, and then you have to tell me more about your home.”

“I will,” Zitao says, but Minki is already running out of the restaurant, already too far gone by the time Zitao spots the wrapped package left behind on Minki’s seat. He grabs it and is about to run after him when he sees that is has his name on it. Zitao sits down and stares at it for a long time, unable to really comprehend what it is he’s seeing. Finally he puts it down on the table; it’s a simple box, like something a shirt would come in. he wonders if maybe he shouldn’t open it, but it has his name on it after all…

Before he can lose his nerve he pulls the top off. Inside is a card and a small package wrapped in black tissue paper. He reads the card first.

‘I heard that you’re a fan. Remember this when my birthday comes around!’

Now his heart’s hammering out of his chest. Zitao tears the paper off the package and it takes everything in him not to squeal in the middle of the restaurant. It’s an autographed copy of ‘Face’. Each member has also written ‘Happy Birthday’ in Mandarin, along with ‘For our #1 fan’ in Korean.

He’s close to tears by the time the rest of the group gets there, and he’s clutching it so hard that he’s lost feeling in his fingers. Wu Fan claps him on the shoulder.

“What did we miss?” He asks, while everyone else muffles giggles into their hands. They good-naturedly later that night when they take him back to the dorm and he finally bursts into tears, alternating between screaming at the lot of them for not telling him and sobbing that it’s the best gift he’s ever gotten.

He vows to give every member of Nu’Est TWO autographed copies of their mini album for their birthdays.

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asdfghjkl of course I have no way of knowing if Tao really is a Nu’Est fanboy—I think he should be. And he should be Ren biased because maknaes have to stick together!

My judgment of characters is based off of Nu’est's reality show and various fancams of EXO’s showcase (ING AEGYO BATTLES. THEY ALL FAILED OTL IT WAS ONLY SO CUTE BECAUSE THEY WERE SO EMBARRASSED. SOMEBODY GIVE THESE BABIES LESSONS.) and this tumblr post that I fangirled over for about 10 minutes http://exokm.tumblr.com/post/20231362205/summary-of-what-exo-said-at-the-showcase-today

*A/N: I HAD NO IDEA THAT LU HAN REALLY LIKES SLEEP IN WHEN I WROTE THIS.