“I give you an hour to with as you please and this is what you choose to do?” you said, crossing your arms over your chest and walking a few paces ahead of Xiumin. The young idol laughed in an attempt to cover up his embarrassment at having chosen such a place for a half-hour break. Previously, the two of you were in an instruction room at SM Headquarters where you were acting as his language tutor. But after nearly three hours of straight studying, the younger boy suddenly tossed his head back and complained of boredom. And because you, too, were feeling pent up inside the stuffy room, you allowed him to persuade to go for a little outing.

You hadn’t known Xiumin for a terribly long time, but you knew that he was among the oldest in the huge lot of boys known as EXO, and as such you had expected a more sophisticated personality from him. Instead, he showed himself to be just as playful and easy-going as the rest of his brothers. Living up to this first impression, he had chosen to take you to a nearby gaming center and arcade. You stood in your pencil skirt and v-necked blouse, feeling awkwardly out of place amongst the swimming crowd of teenaged boys and girl in their t-shirts and skinny jeans.

“This is where I spent a really good portion of my trainee days and my childhood,” he began to explain to you. He looked dreamily at the large collection of video games, skee ball booths, and foosball tables. “I’ve been too busy with work and language instructions to visit and, well, I’ve missed this place too much.”

“You’re such a kid,” you said, but smiled anyway and Xiumin took a step forward to be beside you. A small blush crept up onto your cheeks and you tilted your head down to hide it. “So,” you said, clearing your throat. “A promise is a promise. I did say you could have an hour to do whatever you wanted, so go off and do whatever it is you did when you visited arcades as kid.”

Xiumin smirked. “You did say that,” he said. “But you did also say you would come with me. So, for the next hour, noona has to play some games, too.”

You scoffed. “Me? Run around in an arcade? I don’t think I’m dressed for the part.”

“I think noona looks very pretty,” Xiumin said, making you blush again.

“Uh… thank you,” you said. “But, seriously, I am wearing professional clothes and you’re wearing what everyone else in this place is wearing. It would look weird if I went around playing video games dressed like this, wouldn’t it? Pencil skirt, heels, blouse, and all.”

“If you’re just embarrassed because you’re no good at games, you could just come right out and say it,” Xiumin said with another smirk. You turned your face toward him and gave him a dirty look, wondering how many more times you’d have to explain your case.

“Yah, you watch those words coming out of your mouth, Kim Min Seok,” you said. “I happen to be very good at arcade games, for your information.”

Xiumin guffawed and your jaw dropped at his reaction. At first, when Xiumin has shown you his playful personality, you thought he was making fun of you. Unlike the other dongsaeng students at SM Entertainment, Xiumin was able to joke around with you whilst still maintaining a respectful outlook. But soon you decided that you liked him that way; the informal atmosphere that hung between the two of you made it easier to instruct him in a classroom setting. But outside of business, the closeness that had developed and surrounded your previously platonic relationship was slowly changing the way you viewed him.

Before, he was just another one of your pupils. Though only slightly older than him, his lighthearted nature made it seem as though he were much younger… made you feel as though you were much younger, too. It used to scare you, who was not used to feeling such things towards younger boys. When Xiumin found out that he was only younger than you but a slight margin (whatever a slight margin was, in his opinion), he had excitedly asked if he could call you by your first name. But the uncertainty of the moment made you insist upon being simply called “noona”.

“Noona?” he said again, gentler this time as though trying to wake you. When you awoke from your daze, you saw him standing by an air hockey table in the center of a room that was lined with video game screens. You followed him.

Actually, you were quite pleased that he had walked over to an air hockey table. You were not necessarily lying when you told him you were good at arcade games. Air hockey was your favorite, and still is. Taking initiative, you grabbed the play-held mallet was closest to you and the red puck. Xiumin smirked and followed suit.

“So I guess we’re going to be playing air hockey, then?” he said, placing his hands at the corners of the table and leaning forward. “Arasso,” he said. “Just don’t expect to me to go easy on you.”

“Don’t expect me to go easy on you,” you said, putting a coin into the machine and then stepping back to hear the table hum as air rushed out of the sides, lifting the puck slightly. A pair of digital numbers appeared on a small screen above the table, set to 0:0. “I already warned you; I am very good at arcade games, and air hockey in particular. Watch noona play, little boy.”

Xiumin laughed. “Wait wait,” he said, waving his hand. “Just playing like this is going to be boring. Let’s attach a wager or a prize or punishment to make it more interesting.”

“A punishment?” you said, tilting your head. What could you make Xiumin do if he happened to lose the game? Nothing necessarily came to mind. Because it took you so long to think, Xiumin suddenly spoke up.

“How about this?” he suggested. “If I win… you have to dance to MAMA… and you have to call me ‘oppa’ for a whole 24 hours on any given day that I choose. And on that day, I will only answer to that title.”

“What?” you said, caught somewhere between laughing at the outrageousness of it and being shocked. Xiumin already knew that you could not dance if your life depended on it. He had chosen the most suitable punishment for you there, and even added the ‘oppa’ bit to spite the fact that you had asked him previously to call you ‘noona’.

“What’s wrong, noona?” he asked. “I thought you said you were good at this. Are you scared of losing?”

“Pssh,” you said. “Nope, not at all. Fine, fine, that’s good enough for me, I can do it. But what if you lose?”

“Me?” Xiumin said. “If I lose… I’ll carry you on my back all the way back to the headquarters… and sing Noona Neomu Yeppeo, too. Even if I don’t know all the lyrics.” He smiled preciously at his suggestion and you took one look at his face and let out a small laugh. You grabbed onto the mallet tighter, blushing slightly at the thought of Xiumin carrying you on his back. Not that you doubted he could do it; you just couldn’t comprehend being that close to him.

“Settled, then?” he asked. “Alright, come on, let’s play now.” He got into a ready position and waited for you. A small crowd of people, maybe no more than five or six, began to form around you two and you weren’t sure if it was because they wanted to watch the game or were waiting for their turn on the air hockey table. Smiling, you placed the red puck on the humming surface of the table and hit it with your mallet.

The red puck raced over to Xiumin’s side of the table, bouncing and ricocheting off the sides of the table and making noises as it did, until he hit it back over to your side. You blocked it from entering your goal and then hit it back to the other side. The spectators over by Xiumin’s side of the table craned their necks and shifted their sights wherever the puck happened to be, effectively appearing as though they were nodding repeatedly. But in your observation of the bystanders, Xiumin hit the puck and because you were so distracted, the last thing you saw was just a fast blur of red as it avoided your mallet and sank straight into the goal. The digital numbers on the screen then read 1:0

“Dammit,” you cursed lightly, slamming your fist on the side of the table while Xiumin just smirked and looked over at you. You squinted your eyes at him and took the puck in your hands again.

“That game’s not over yet,” you said, and another rally took place. The puck flashed back and forth, back and forth, occasionally finding its way into Xiumin’s goal or yours, and the digital numbers continued to flash – 2:0 and then 2:1 and then 2:2 and then 3:2 and so forth. The time ticked away as the two of you continued the game, and the competition only got more intense.

Xiumin couldn’t help the smile on his face and much it widened as he continued playing. He grew happier with each passing minute as well, as he always felt happy when he was around you. Despite the unorthodoxy of the relationship he was trying to pursue, he couldn’t doubt the fact that you were special. He continued to hit the puck back and forth, and truth be told, he wouldn’t have minded the punishment that was waiting for him should he lose. Xiumin only enjoyed the fact that he was allowed an hour to spend with you.

But as the game proceeded, he had not taken notice of the people who were beginning to stand by and watch the two of you play. A majority of them were boys, he noticed, as he slowly surveyed the room. And a few were… laughing? No. Laughing wasn’t quite the word to properly describe the sounds of amusement coming from them. Perhaps “snickering” was a better fit. There was a slight pause in the game when Xiumin scored a goal on you and the puck was stuck somewhere and you tried to retrieve it.

Xiumin decided to use this opportunity to put his curiosity at rest. He turned around and confirmed his suspicions. There was a group of three or four boys standing behind him, watching him play. But maybe he wasn’t the one they were watching. He traced their gaze and realized that they were looking at the person on the other end of the table, at you. Xiumin didn’t deny that he thought you pretty, but that didn’t explain the snickers. He turned and got a better look at you and then saw what it was they all so amused over.

The v-neck blouse.

Maybe you were too engrossed in the game to have noticed, because usually you were neat as a pin and much too modest. But in the intensity of the game, you had forgotten you were wearing such a blouse and forgot the amount of skin that would have been exposed if you leaned forward. But were moments in the air hockey game when the puck was much too far in the middle of the table for you to reach and leaning was your only way of getting to it.

 Xiumin cleared his throat, bowed his head, and blushed slightly at having seen that part of you. But his mission now was getting you covered up and getting the peeping toms behind him to stop looking. Finally seeing no other way, he dropped the mallet and began to shed his jacket.

“Uh, noona,” he said, walking over to you with the jacket just as you had finally fished the red puck.

“Ha! Got it! Oh, what are you doing?’ you asked when you saw him walking over to you with his jacket. Instead of explaining, Xiumin just held the jacket firmly out to you.

“Put it on,” he said. “And zip it up.”

“What? Why?” you asked, not seeing what the problem was, and backed away from him as he held it out more firmly.

“Just put it on and don’t ask questions,” he said. You weren’t quite sure why he was suddenly acting so bashful. “They… they issued a new rule and you have to wear a jacket now.”

You scoffed. “A new rule. Yah, Kim Min Seok, I thought you’d come up with a better story than that. If you want me to wear your jacket, you’ll--,”

“Will you please just do it?” he said, and with the sudden use of this forceful tone, you took the jacket from him. He waited until you had put it over your shoulders and had slung your arms through the sleeves to walk slowly back to his side of the table. You watched him walk back with a confused look on your face. You held the collar of his jacket and pulled it further up to your neck, still wondering why he’d been so insistent on your wearing his jacket. But then, instead of walking back to his side, he stopped and turned back to you.

“You know what?” he said. “I think we should just go back to headquarters now.”

“Mwoh?” you yelped, dropping the air hockey mallet and watching him walk back toward you. “Uh, why the sudden change in mind? I mean, you were winning anyway, why suddenly stop?”

“I think we should be continuing that lesson anyway,” he said.

“Pssh,” you said. “Just as it was starting to get fun. This wouldn’t be some cheap trick to end the game and win quickly, would it? If it is, I’m not doing the punishment.”

“You can forget the punishment, then,” he said.

“Yah,” you said. “What’s wrong?” Xiumin looked at you and then turned away and cleared his throat.

“Nothing,” he said. You weren’t buying that answer from him and you were about to say something more. But before you even had that chance, Xiumin did something he hadn’t done before. He reached over and slipped his hand in yours, intertwining your fingers and then dragged you back towards the doors of the arcade. In a situation like this, you would have protested. But you were slightly in shock. In shock that he had actually enough courage to reach out and intertwine your fingers the way he did. And then slightly in shock that he had taken the initiative to you out.

It was normally uncharacteristic of him. Xiumin had always been something of an outspoken student, but he always maintained his boundaries. This was a different side of him. When he had marched over to give you his jacket, he’d been protecting you. And he still was. For a moment, you had almost forgotten the between you two. For a moment it was as though you caught a glimpse of the relationship that the two of you were dancing around. And the glimpse was perfect and beautiful and nothing like you were used to. But you smiled anyway. You liked it.

Author's note: Oh my, this is really short. So this was to fulfill a request for Xiumin that features a noona that he has fallen for. In reality, Xiumin is my oppa (by a lot, actually) so writing it was a bit of a step into unexplored territory for me. So I treated it as though I were writing for Sehun since he is my dongsaeng and then later changed it to Xiumin. idk. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. On one hand, I actually quite liked my writing style here. But the story itself doesn't seem complete. I didn't think too far ahead when I came across this premise :/ but thank you for reading anyway