"I wanna go to the fair," Taemin called to me from across the room. I was lying on my bed typing up my essay, and he was watching that anime of his. 

"Sure," I said, not looking up from my typing. "Go." Taemin threw a pillow at me and it almost toppled my laptop over.

"I wanna go to the fair with you," he said, a little huffily. I glanced over at him, and realized how tired he looked. He'd been doing a lot of promotional work lately, and he had had a performance yesterday. There were some shadows under his eyes, and I could see him trying to stifle a yawn.

"Okay," I said, turning off my laptop. "Let's go then." Taemin brightened and just about dragged me out of the room.

Every time I looked at Taemin, I felt like I was going to burst out laughing. He was wearing a pink hoodie complete with black panda ears on the hood, and a black wig that seemed too big for his head. For the record, the disguise was Key's idea. 

"Uh oh," Taemin said as he tried to start his car. The engine spluttered and died within a few seconds and I was engulfed in a cloud of fumes. Coughing, I looked to Taemin for an answer. "I think I need to get this checked out. It's okay though! We can still go to the fair; there's a bus station right by here." 

So Taemin and I set off, with him in his ridiculous costume that was getting stares from everyone, and my fingers linked in his. The bus stop was actually pretty crowded, and we had to watch a couple of buses drive off completely filled with people. I didn't mind the wait too badly; back where I was from, it was considered lucky if you could get onto a bus before the tenth one. Taemin on the other hand, seemed to be pretty impatient; he was tapping his foot and glancing at his watch every few seconds. Then he groaned...loudly. The people who weren't staring at him before were all staring at him now. 

"Taemin," I said quietly, "Shut up before I punch you." Taemin stuck his tongue out at me but settled down beside me and took to staring at random passerby. When we finally got on a bus, there were no seats left, and we were stuck in the middle of a mass of sweaty strangers. Funnily enough, Taemin didn't seem the least bit claustrophobic in the bus, and I stared at him suspiciously.

"You seem awfully calm right now considering how well you handle tight spaces," I said sceptically, trying to avoid a girl's overflowing shopping bag. Taemin didn't reply but he bit his lower lip and rubbed his jaw.

“It must just be the cozy atmosphere,” he said nonchalantly. Yeah, right…cozy my . I didn’t miss his smirk when I got pushed into his chest. I tried to turn around, but something distracted me. Taemin’s stomach was…hard. I cautiously probed his stomach and my brain just about crashed when I discovered he had abs.

“Why are you touching me?” Taemin said loudly, and I blushed. The guy to my left looked at me like I was some sort of ert and tried to inconspicuously edge away from me. Then, Taemin got jostled into me. He blinked, and I swear I saw a light bulb go on in his brain. Silently, he mouthed something and I saw his eyes go to my chest. And people thought I was the erted one.

“Why are you staring at my chest?” I asked loudly, exaggerating every word. Now, the people around us gave accusatory glares at Taemin, and he flushed, further proving my point. Even though he shut up the rest of the way to the fair, I still caught him trying to watch me from the corner of the eye.

“Can I have some cotton candy?” Taemin asked me, as soon as we walked into the fair. He didn’t even wait for me to reply before he ran over to the cotton candy machine stand. A boy was manning the station, looking bored as he texted on his phone. He kept running his hand through his incredibly greasy hair.  I blanched as I thought of that hand making food.

“I need money,” Taemin said, as he nudged me. I rolled my eyes and gave him my wallet.

“Don’t spend all of it, or else I’m going to sell your stuff online,” I warned. The boy behind the stand perked up and looked at me.

“We have a special offer today,” he said, addressing me. “It’s really good.” Wow…this guy sure knew what he was talking about.

“What flavour should I get?” Taemin asked me, putting his hands on the stand. The guy behind the stand winked at me. Ew, ew, ew…I internally cringed as I tried to smile at him. Suddenly, Taemin looked up and stared at the guy.

“Get the raspberry flavour,” I said, edging away from the stand.

“Anything for you, beautiful?” the guy asked, once again touching his hair. Okay…this guy reminded me of one of those sewer gators, and I smiled weakly at him. Before I could reply, Taemin butted in.

“Let’s go, jagiya,” Taemin said, as he grabbed my hand and glared at the guy behind the stand. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

Taemin was uncharacteristically quiet as we walked past the various stands. Suddenly, he stopped and scratched his head.

“You didn’t like that guy right? I mean, he was really creepy and gross and probably breaks the health standards twice a day. You’re not into those types of guys, right?” Taemin babbled, adjusting his wig. I had to admit, it was pretty cute when he was jealous.

“Why? You jealous?” I teased, as I straightened his wig for him. He scowled, but let it go. “Let’s go play some games.” I’ve always had a thing for carnival games; the stuffies get to me. We stopped by one of those ring games, where you had to toss rings onto bottles. Behind the counter, there was a giant stuffed tiger, and I looked at it longingly.

“You want that tiger?” he asked, standing next to me. “I’ll win it for you!” Taemin handed over five bucks and stood at the front, with the rings hooked on his left hand. He squinted with his right eye as he tossed a ring onto a center bottle. Well, at least that was what I thought he was aiming for. What really happened was that the ring landed on the floor. I guess his tossing skills were questionable. Taemin looked shocked, as if he couldn’t believe he’d failed at such a simple game. Thus, with more determination, he threw the next four rings harder and faster than  he did the first. It was a shame that none of them actually touched a bottle.

“This game must be rigged,” Taemin grumbled to me when he stepped back empty handed.

“Let me try,” I offered, giving the manager my money.

“You won’t win anything,” Taemin warned me, “Even I didn’t get anything.”

Needless to say, he wasn’t very happy when I walked away with the giant tiger stuffie.