Tao sat on the chair backstage, repeating the phrase the Kris hat taught him on the flight over to LA.

“Are you having a good time? Are you having a good time?! Are you having a good time. Are you having…” his practice was interrupted by footsteps entering the desolate green room mnet had provided them.

“Ayo what’s up Tao!” Kris greeted the youngest member, bent over in his chair.

“Just practicing…” he said switching into his mother tongue.

“Oh, that phrase I taught you? Cool. It’d be funny if you forgot a word or something out there. You’re Huang Zitao though, so you won’t probably.”

 

Tao looked up from the sheet of paper Kris had written down the phrase on, shock sketched onto his face. “Don’t say that!” he whined. Kris chuckled, patting Tao on the head.

“Just don’t think too hard about it and you’ll be fine!”

 

---

 

Camera flashes and screaming fans greeted them as they performed two of their hit songs, History and Angel. It was time to talk to the fans there, and Tao was feeling rather nervous. Unfortunately, for him, Kris had delegated the task of being first to him.

“Tao first.” He mutters into his microphone, looking down the line at the raven-haired male.

 

“Hello everybody, I’m Tao from Exo-M!” Tao takes his mic down a second, waiting for the screams of the fans to die down. “I’m happy to be here; Are you…are you…?” Tao looks to Chen for help, who can’t help but to laughs at Tao for forgetting the phrase he had been practicing nonstop. “Sorry…” Tao apologizes, he face reads mildly embarrassed by himself and the unhelpful Chen standing next to him. He tries again, his brain totally drawing a blank to the next word in the phrase.

 

“Um…” he mumbles after looking down the line at all of the other members a few times. With his attention now focused on Kris, he steps out of the line, so he can see him better. Switching from English to Korean Tao starts to ask Kris how to say what he’s trying to say. Kris however notes the informalities in Tao’s Korean, pointing out to him in front of thousands of people. Tao apologizes and corrects himself before asking the question.  “Are you 뭐뭐뭐good time?”

 

Kris ponders this for a second before replying with “Are you having a good time?” smiling sweetly at the youngest member at the end of the line.

 

A light bulb goes off above Tao’s head as he literally shouts the phrase to the gargantuan crowd there. The fans scream, mostly because Tao’s delivery of the phrase was so animated. He quickly closes his intro with a swift “I love you soo much, thank you!!”

 

---

After the concert, Kris finds Tao sitting in the chair, twiddling his thumbs.

“Hey you did real well today.”

“You too, mr. please-keep-my-aegyo-a-secret-bbuing-bbuing.” Tao says, his face in his hands now.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Kris says, trying to pull Tao’s hands away from his face.

“I messed up…” Tao mutters after a minute of silence. He sniffs, lifting his head from his hands and looking into the big brown eyes of the duizhang. “I messed up big time.” He whines.

Kris tsks and shakes his head. “We can only be human Tao. C’mon, you weren’t the only one who looked stupid up on that stage.”

Tao choked out a laugh, recalling the duizhang’s half-assed attempt at aegyo. “That’s true!” he said through his peals of laughter. Kris half smiled at Tao, who was now doubled over on the floor laughing so hard he was crying.

“Okay then…” he said, retreating from the room, his bag in hand.

 

After Tao had calmed down he looked around, surprised that no one was in there. His phone buzzed in his pocket.

Duizhang Gege ^.^:
Hurry up Huang Zitao, or we’re leaving without you!

 

Tao smiled down at the text message before composing himself and exiting the room, finding the manager and the group standing at the end of the hall waiting for him. Tao smiled sheepishly at them.

 

“Are you having a good time?” Kris shouted, the rest of the group chuckling at the remark. Tao smiled to hide his embarrassment.

 

“Only if you’ll do that ‘secret’ aegyo again.” He retorted, earning a few laughs from the other members, and a scowl from the tallest member in the group. Kris reached down and pinched his cheek.

“One time only kind of deal, sorry Taozi. Let’s go!”