It wasn’t often that SHINee would have an entire week free.  Even more unlikely was that any of them would be bored, least of all Taemin.  Ever since their manager had told them about their break, the maknae had spent every bit of free time planning things to do.  He’d thought of everything.  Movies, shopping, amusement parks, you name it and he already had it mapped out in his notebook.  In his excitement, he’d even gone so far as to plan a schedule.

Unfortunately, he made the mistake of not telling his hyungs anything about it in advance.  The idea was to surprise them with everything but, quite simply, his plan backfired.

“But hyung,” he begged, tugging on the back of Key’s shirt as the elder pulled on his shoes and grabbed his wallet.

Key turned to the maknae and pulled him into an apologetic embrace, gently ruffling Taemin’s hair.  “I’m sorry, Tae, but I promised Amber and Nicole a week ago that I’d hang out with them today.  I can’t go back on my word now.”  He pulled back and smiled at Taemin, shaking his head.  “I’ll spend time with you tomorrow, alright?”

Reluctantly, Taemin nodded and let Key go, turning around and trudging over to Jonghyun.  He looked at him pleadingly, debating whether to pull out his aegyo weapon.  But as he saw the older boy frowning and shaking his head, he decided it wasn’t worth it.  Folding his arms, he let out a huff and rolled his eyes.

“Fine, go hang out with your boyfriends,” he teased.  When Jonghyun made a move to protest, Taemin stuck out his tongue and ran away.

Jonghyun was completely straight, as far as anyone could tell, and therefore didn’t have any ‘boyfriends’.  But Taemin liked to about it, because whenever he went to hang out with his buddies from SM The Ballad, he’d light up like a hot air balloon, and none of them could get him to come down from his excited high until well after he’d come home.

Besides, the way he saw it, Taemin had a pretty good excuse to pick on Jonghyun today.  His hyungs were all going out to have fun with their friends, and leaving him all alone.  Needless to say, he was upset, but he wasn’t going to give up just yet.  He still had two more hyungs to target, and he had another ace up his sleeve.

Aegyo.

And as he approached Minho, he smirked.  This particular hyung was the perfect target for his weapon of absolute cuteness.

Taemin rubbed his eyes, making them appear reddish to create the illusion that he’d been holding back tears (which was absolutely ridiculous, because Taemin was a man, and men don’t cry).  To perfect the image, he held his eyes open for a minute, then blinked them repeatedly, drawing moisture into them as his tear ducts overcompensated for the dryness of the air.  When he felt his pathetic guise was up to par, he stepped up to Minho and tapped him on the shoulder, grabbing his attention.

The rapper turned to face Taemin and frowned as he was met with damp eyes and a powerful pout.  “Taemin!  What’s wrong?  Are you alright?  Did something happen?”

It was a challenge in itself not to chuckle at how naïve Minho was, but Taemin kept himself composed.  He leaned on Minho, hugging his arm.  “Hyungie, what are you doing today?”

He could feel Minho hesitating.  Yes, that’s it, he thought triumphantly.  My plan is working.

He missed the warning look Onew shot Minho from the couch.

“I’m sorry, Minnie.  I’ve, um…”  There was a suspicious pause that Taemin couldn’t help but feel offended by.  Was his hyung making something up to avoid spending the day with him?  “I promised the TVXQ hyungs I’d catch a soccer game with them.”

Taemin sighed and let go of Minho, dropping his act.  “It’s fine.  Go have fun, hyung.”  Faking a smile, he turned and headed to the kitchen to bury his sorrows in some food.  What use was trying?  Even acting cute had no power over his hyungs anymore.  He grabbed an apple and sank his teeth into it, breaking off a large chunk of the juicy fruit as he headed toward the back room, bumping shoulders with Onew in the hallway.

I guess he’ll be leaving me too, Taemin thought bitterly, seating himself at the computer for his best attempt at self-entertainment.

After an hour or so of surfing through mindless junk on youtube and laughing his head off at the stupidity of it all, Taemin got up to get himself a drink, only to find Onew in the kitchen digging through the fridge.

“Hyung?  I thought you’d left.”

Onew’s eyes peeked over the door of the fridge.  “No.  Did you want me to?”

“I-”  Taemin paused, frowning.  “Of course not, pabo!  But didn’t you have something planned?”

“Sure I did.”  Onew grinned and ducked back into the fridge to pull something out.

Taemin was confused.  If he had something planned, then what was he doing hanging around here like a bum?  Not that Taemin put himself in that same category, of course.  He’d planned plenty of things to do, but had been unable to carry through with them due to unforeseen obstacles.  That wasn’t his fault.  Their leader hanging around the dorm like this, however, was another story.

“What was it, then?”

No answer.  It took Taemin a minute to realize why.

Onew’s lips were on a bottle of his precious banana milk.

Within seconds, Taemin’s legs were around Onew’s waist and he had the elder in a headlock.  “That’s my milk!” he shrieked.  “You’re not allowed to touch that!”

“It’s…too late,” Onew coughed, trying to breathe around Taemin’s chokehold.  He willingly gave up the bottle, and Taemin loosened the arm around his neck, allowing his hyung to breathe again.

Taemin sniffed the milk, then stared into the bottle and pouted.  “You’re right.  You drank some already.”

Onew gave a sheepish half-grin.  “Sorry…”

“It’s okay,” he sighed, “I prefer strawberry anyway.  Here, you can have it back.”

Onew took the banana milk gratefully, giving Taemin a quizzical look.  The maknae blinked.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing.”  The older boy grinned again.  “Just wondering when you’re planning to get down.”

Of course.  He was still clinging to Onew, his heart speeding up at the realization of how close their faces were.  A blush crept onto Taemin’s cheeks.  He unwrapped his limbs from Onew’s body and stood, ducking into the fridge to hide his embarrassment.

A chuckle came from behind him.  “My plan was to spend the day with you,” Onew said finally, answering the maknae’s question from before.

Taemin grabbed a bottle of strawberry milk and closed the fridge, turning to face his hyung with widened eyes.  “Really?” he asked, voice laced with genuine surprise.  He didn’t know why he was surprised that his hyung had thought of him, though.  He shouldn’t have been.  Onew was the kindest member in their group, after all.  Their leader had said a while back that Jonghyun was the kindest, but he was just being modest.  In Taemin’s eyes, no one could beat Lee Jinki.

Onew nodded.  “Of course!  And even if I’d had something else planned, do you really think I could leave my favorite maknae here all by himself?”

Slowly, Taemin shook his head.

“Great!  Now that we have that settled, what do you want to do?”

He smiled and held up his arm, closing his hand into a fist.  “Brofist!”

Onew obliged, chuckling and rolling his eyes.  “You’ve been watching Pewdie again, haven’t you?”

“You bet!”

Taemin and Onew spent the next few hours playing video games, breaking only for snacks around lunchtime.  It was nearing three o’clock when the boys got tired and decided to stop.  Taemin lay stretched over the couch, his limbs hanging over the armrests, leaving Onew sprawled on the floor.

“What now?” Taemin asked.  “When did the others say they’d be home?”

“After eight.”

“So we still have five more hours to kill.”  He let out a long sigh, drawing it out as long as possible.

Onew propped himself up on his elbows, looking at Taemin.  “Are you bored?”

“No…but I might be soon.”

“I could entertain you.”

Taemin looked at him.  “How?”

The elder thought for a moment, then smiled.  He got to his feet and, holding his hands up above his head, he hopped from one foot to the other.  Taemin stared blankly, trying to figure out this strange act that was apparently supposed to be entertaining.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m a bunny!”

Taemin blinked a few times, then laughed.  “You do look a bit like one, hyung.  So if you’re a bunny, then what am I?”

“Hmm…”  Onew stood still and tapped his chin thoughtfully, squinting as he scrutinized Taemin’s appearance.  “A cat?  No, no…a puppy!  Definitely a puppy.”

“But that’s Jonghyun!”  He laughed again, but got off the couch, crawling on his knees across the floor toward Onew.  “You know puppies are dogs, and dogs hunt rabbits.”  He smirked, narrowing his eyes menacingly and baring his teeth a little for good measure.

Onew’s eyes widened.  “Eep!”  He turned and hopped away.  “You won’t catch me!”

Taemin bounded after him on his hands and knees, making playful barking noises.  He chased his rabbit around the dorm for a few minutes, until the two boys found themselves collapsed on the floor again, leaning on each other and laughing.  Taemin wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

“I love spending time with you, hyung.”

Onew smiled and ruffled the boy’s hair.  “That’s why I’m here.”

It took a moment, but the gears in Taemin’s head were certainly spinning.  “Don’t tell me…”  He stared into Onew’s eyes.  “You planned all this?”

The elder just shrugged his shoulders a bit, scratching his head, but the way his lips twisted into a sheepish smile told Taemin everything he needed to know.

Onew had planned it from the beginning.  No wonder his other hyungs all had plans already, even Minho who had obviously made his up on the spot.  There was no soccer game today, and Taemin knew it.  But he didn’t mind.  To be perfectly honest, he was glad it had turned out this way.  Onew was his favorite hyung, after all, and if he’d had to pick just one of his band mates to hang out with, it would be him.

Funny how these things work out.

“Thank you.”  He smiled and leaned up to kiss Onew’s cheek.  The elder turned toward him in surprise, but the blushing Taemin looked away to avoid those questioning eyes.  “Hyung!  Let’s watch a movie!”  He jumped to his feet and ran over to the shelf that housed their DVD collection.

The boys picked out two movies to watch and snuggled comfortably onto the couch together, accompanied by a bowl of popcorn and two sodas.  Halfway through the second movie, however, Onew glanced down to find Taemin fast asleep on his shoulder.  With the warmth of the way the maknae was nestled into his side, and the peaceful expression on his face, Onew couldn’t find the heart to wake the boy.  He pulled a blanket over them and, placing a soft kiss on Taemin’s forehead, he turned to watch the rest of the movie by himself.

It wasn’t until several minutes after the movie was over that Taemin finally stirred.  He lifted his head briefly, blinking in the dim light, before leaning on Onew’s shoulder once more.  He smiled and wrapped his arms around Onew, nuzzling his face against the elder’s neck.

“Was the movie good?” he mumbled quietly, the words nearly a hum.

“Of course.  Were your dreams good?”

He giggled softly.  “Only because hyung is so comfortable.”

Onew grinned.  “Did you know you’re really cuddly when you wake up?”

Taemin swatted his arm lightly.  “Shut up.  You know you like it.”

In response to that, Onew wrapped his arms around his dongsaeng, pulling him closer until the younger boy was practically sitting in his lap.  The two boys stayed like this for a while, until they heard voices right outside the door of the dorm.

The others were home.

Taemin moved to untangle himself from Onew’s embrace, but the elder stopped him.  He pressed his lips against the maknae’s for no more than a second before pulling back and releasing him, causing the stunned boy to stumble backwards, falling onto his back on the floor.  Onew’s eyes widened.

“Omo!  I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

But Taemin was already on his feet, leaning over Onew to steal a quick kiss.  Before the elder could react to the situation, the blushing maknae had retreated to his bedroom and Jonghyun was standing in front of him, asking why he had such a stupid grin on his face.

The words fell on deaf ears.  All Onew could hear was the pounding of his heart as he swallowed hard, trying to push down the butterflies that threatened to make themselves obvious.

Taemin had kissed him back.

The next morning, Taemin was up bright and early, and he couldn’t stop smiling.  “Hyung, what’s for breakfast?” he pestered, tugging on Key’s arm.

“Pancakes,” the elder replied, shaking him off as he pulled out the ingredients he needed.

The maknae grinned and seated himself at the table.  Onew joined him, scooting into the seat right beside him and leaning one elbow on the table, shooting a questioning look at Key.

“Pancakes,” Taemin supplied before their leader had a chance to ask.

“What do you want to do today, Taemin?”  Key looked over his shoulder to smile fondly at their youngest member.  “I’m all yours for the day, remember?  I promised.”

Taemin shook his head.  “Ani, that’s okay.  You can hang out with the others.”  He leaned toward Onew, nudging him with his shoulder.  “Onew-hyung and I are going somewhere.  Right hyung?”

Onew grinned.  “Right.”

Key looked upset, but only for a moment.  If any one of them was good at reading between the lines, it was Kim Kibum.  He caught their glances.  He caught the way they smiled warmly at each other.

But if there was one thing Key missed, it was the two hands intertwined, hidden below the table.

A/N - I hope you liked it, Bro. C:  If not...too bad. >:U ♥

To everyone else: I love comments~ jaebal? ;u; *aegyo*