“You all had better get your together now,” their manager yelled, slamming his hand on the floor. The twelve exhausted boys looked everywhere but their manager, frustration evident on all their faces. With their debut showcase less than a week away, the boys had been practicing nonstop. All of them were working a minimum of 12 hours a day, but some, like Lay, would practice over 14.

“Do you think this is acceptable? Not one of you is moving in sync, you’re all in the wrong positions, your movements are sloppy, and to top it all off your voices are weak and off pitch. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Your fans are expecting perfection and you can’t even give them mediocre. Kris, Suho, I suggest you get your teams under control quick before you get scolded by KimYoungMin. Am I understood?”

“Yes sir,” they all said in unison. When the manager had walked back out of the room, the leaders moved in front of them. Suho and Kris looked at each other, both trying to figure out what to do, what to say to their members and friends who stood before them drenched in sweat and close to collapsing. After a moment both the leaders nodded once, hardened their faces and moved towards their respective teams. It would just be a little longer…

~~

‘Where are you?’ Kris wondered as he made his way through the halls of SM. He had been looking for him about 10 minutes now and couldn’t figure out where the tall boy had gone. ‘The poor kid,’ he thought as he continued his search. He had only been here a week and had yet to make it through a single hour of practice without some derogatory comment made about his intelligence, appearance, voice, or heritage. It made him angry. The other trainees never treated him particularly well, but they certainly weren’t this cruel. Couldn’t they see how hard he was trying? So what if he didn’t know oppa was only said by girls. Who cares if he didn’t know what clothes were popular in Korea.

Kris’s thoughts were abruptly cut off by three muffled thuds followed by a loud “ you all.” He all but ran to the door a few feet down the hall from him. When he looked through the window his heart sank. Tao was sitting in the middle of matted room on his knees. Tears spilled from his eyes as beat a wushu stick against the ground half-heartedly.

Kris instinctively reached out, but paused when his hand reached the doorknob. What was he doing? Why did he care so much about this kid? He had seen many trainees just like him come and go in the three years he had been at the company; why was he any different? Why did he have such a strong urge to take care of this boy, protect this boy? Kris bit his lip, confused. He had never taken an interest in any of the other boys like this…

All of a sudden Tao threw the stick against the wall. The clash of wood and wall snapped Kris out of his thoughts and turned him into a creature of instinct. He quickly opened the door and made his way towards the crying martial artist. Not knowing what else to do he simply sat beside him, ignoring the boy's initial look of confusion and fear.

Tao, not understanding why the tall boy was there, immediately began to wipe the wetness from his eyes and stand up to leave. But just as he started to get up, he felt a hand pull him back down. Tao looked down at his hand and then back at the black haired boy beside him. It was the one who had given him his shirt that first day. His name was… Kris?

“W-W-Wae?” Tao asked, fumbling for the correct Korean word.

Kris didn’t respond. Instead he continued to sit, legs crossed and eyes focused in front of him. Tao huffed in frustration and tried to pull away. Kris held on tight.

“What?” Tao shouted, anger filling his voice.

“What the do you want? Why are you here?” Suddenly his voice cracked and hot tears again began to run down his still wet cheeks.

“Why… Why won’t you just ing… ing let me go?”

Kris’s heart continued to sink lower and lower as Tao’s tears fell more and more freely. All he could think to do was rub his back and his thumb over and over and over. When only shaky breaths remained, Kris said they only thing he could think to say at the time.

“Just a little bit longer. It will just be a little bit longer.”

~~

Their faces didn’t soften for the next two hours of practice.

“Lu Han, that’s the third time you’ve missed that step.”

“Baekhyun, you’re one count faster than everyone else.”

“Chen, you’re two counts slower than everyone else.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re knees are bruised Chanyeol, we still have to fall.”

“Tao, you can’t… can’t finish your pose like that,” Kris said, all the strength gone from his voice. The moment his name was called Tao's head had dropped in misery. He had given every last ounce of his strength for the final pose of the dance, and it hadn’t been enough.

Suho looked at the time and the members, all of whom were collapsed on the ground. “Alright guys, let’s call it a night,” he said, collapsing himself. Murmurs of thanks were heard throughout the group as they tried to gather the strength to leave.

Tao continued to lie on the ground and closed his eyes. He would just sleep here and move when we had the energy.

“Ouch!” Tao shouted, rubbing his forehead as he sat up. After opening his eyes he saw Kris crouching in front of him. Looking around, he saw the rest of his group mates had already left the practice room.

“Time to go,” Kris said smiling as he held out his hands to the boy who continued to rub where he had been thumbed on the head. Tao scoffed and looked at the boy in front of him. His wet clothes still clung tightly to his lean body and he had dark circles beneath his eyes. His hair was matted and he moved slowly from the soreness in his body. Despite all this, Tao couldn’t help but think his smile was perfect. It was the smile of a genuinely happy person.

“You should be too tired to smile,” Tao said, taking the leader’s hands.

“I’ll always be able to smile if you’re around,” Kris responded, winking. Tao couldn’t help but laugh as he stood up.

“Well that’s wonderful, but hopefully you’ll sweat a little less, yea?”

“Hey! You love my sweaty, sweaty self!” Kris teased, pulling the magnae in for a tight hug.

“Get off me,” Tao laughed as he half-heartedly pushed the other rapper away.

“Never,” Kris stated as the two finally began walking towards their dorms, arm-in-arm. It only took a minute for Tao to be practically laying on Kris, head on his shoulder, both arms glued to the older’s bicep, and eyes closed.

“You should really tell that awful leader of yours to stop working you so hard,” Kris joked.

Tao smiled at the comment.

“He only does it because he cares about us,” Tao responded, squeezing his arm tighter.

‘If you only knew…’ Kris thought as walked away from the magnae’s door. 

Lord, I should really stop staying up until 3 in the morning to write this... but the feels... I just can't stop them. 

To everyone who said this story was sweet: AHHH Thank you so much. If I am honest I have pretty much only written before, so fluff and agnst are very new to me. You're comments are so wonderful and encouraging. I really appreciate it XD

Chigre: Thank you so much. and yes there shall be more chapters. Write now i have this outlined for 20, so we shall see how that turns out lol. hahaha and that line was actually from the song Wicked Games by The Weeknd. I always listen to him when I write and he just so happened to sing that line as I was finishing the chapter... I thought it was appropriate lol

Kpopism: Muahahaha be prepared for what is to come my dear. I think you shall like it. 

Juliana: hehehe I love when people say Krisus. 

jjingbang: You wonderful creeper you. Unni loves you. The end. (Words would be insufficient for my feels for you *insert eyebrow wiggle here*)

2minshipper: AHHHH REALLY!?! Its your favorite?! Why are you such a wonderful human being for saying that? Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

Crimson4moon: OH NOOOOO! Please don't die. I shall update promptly, promise. lol

IWKeyLove: I really couldn't agree more even though... Secret time: Tao is my Bias