Deciding to embark on the route of the ‘clueless, innocent boyfriend’, Onew finally blinked uncomprehendingly at Minho, “Why? I am quite comfortable here.” He continued, using his hands to gently loosened Minho’s iron grip on Taemin, “And you are holding him too tight, Minho. Taemin says it hurts.”

Taemin flashed a bright triumphant grin at Minho. Minho could feel the tendons surfacing.

“Come over, Onew,” Minho said with an all-too-bright smile as he attempted to keep his anger under control, “I will be jealous of your brother, if you don’t.”

“Oh, Minho,” Onew admonished slightly, pink dusting his cheeks, “We are in front of my brother!”

“All the more the reason for us to flaunt our love and affection for each other,” Minho directed a brilliant grin at Taemin, “You will be happy for us, won’t you, Taemin?”

“Oh, quiet now, Minho. You are making me embarrassed,” Onew made a shushing motion even as he stood up to make his bashful way to the opposite of the table. He slid in easily and busied himself with the menu, all the while doggedly avoiding looking at Minho.

See who’s the final winner? Minho smirked at Taemin.

Taemin shot him a baleful glare. It’s not over yet.

You can’t win, brat. Minho slid in after Onew.

Blood flows thicker than water. Taemin jabbed an angry finger at the menu as he told his brother what he wanted for dinner.

Importing your Chinese values over to America? Won’t work, boy. Minho taunted.

What do you know? Taemin leaned back and folded his arms.

Love conquers all, Minho stole a quick kiss as Onew turned to ask him what he felt like having, Chinese boy.

Onew spluttered wordlessly as the pink dusting is now replaced by a full-fledged blush. Taemin immediately stood up and slammed his hands onto the diner’s table, pale anger colouring his face, “Keep your hands to yourself, Choi Minho! I haven’t said I approved of you yet!”

Heads turned at Taemin’s outburst and Onew is left wanting to dig a hole for himself and disappear from the face of the earth (Jinki, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to have an intimate discussion with his precocious subordinates, who were doing a fantastically awful job of supporting him). Minho remained unperturbed and stood his ground as he engaged Taemin in a staring match.

Taemin’s anger ratcheted up a notch as Minho gave no hint of backing down. Did he really think Taemin would allow that slimy steal his brother away just like that? Did he think he would really succeed? Not only was this a man a bastard, but it appeared he was also dumb too!

Onew was never going to date someone whom, Taemin, his precious darling half-brother, hated!

-

Jonghyun fiddled with the dials as the view he was getting was far from ideal now. He needed to get a better shot of this, and get a screenshot too while he was at it. Jonghyun was determined. He had no idea why, but he felt that it would be a good blackmail material.

After all, look at the way Minho’s eyes were bulging! (Never mind the fact Minho was a target, and Jonghyun an undercover agent, hence, making any interaction against the rules.)

However, it appeared that the lacking visuals was not due to any mistakes in the screen’s configurations, but rather the camera’s positions.

There was nothing Jonghyun could do.

Other than wishing Taemin to angle his body slightly upwards, of course.

“Hey, Taemin,” Jonghyun whispered into the speaker, “Can you push your chest upwards a bit?”

Jonghyun was rewarded by the screens moving from showcasing Minho’s buttoned-down to his trousers.

Damn that boy.

-

Finally deciding that this stand-off had gone on far longer than necessary (what stubborn people), Onew tugged at Minho’s sleeves and looked across to capture Taemin’s eyes, “I think this is enough, Minho, Taemin. People are looking.”

Reluctantly turning his head to look at Onew, Taemin said begrudgingly, “He was the one who started this, Onew.”

“Now, that’s a blatant lie if I have ever heard one,” Minho replied heatedly, loudly claiming his innocence, “He was the one who hit the table that loudly, Onew.”

“He stole a kiss from you!”

“I am his boyfriend!”

“And I told you,” Taemin empahsised vehemently, “I haven’t agreed to it, you money-grabbing cun—corporate !”

“Taemin!” Onew cut in, looking utterly scandalized, “Don’t speak to Minho like that!”

Minho leaned back as he watched Taemin get the talking-to he so richly deserved. Onew was giving his brother a dressing down as he lectured him on how he should show more respect to the man he loves—hah, hear that, brat?—and where in the world did he learn such vulgarity? No, wait, Onew didn’t care where did he learn them because it didn’t really matter, but he should never ever use them, especially to his boyfriend—you hear that again, brat?—because that would just be embarrassingly Onew. And did he, or did he not promise to behave yesterday? There would be no vacation for him if he continued behaving like that, Onew declared.

That was one hell of a misstep, Minho gloated at Taemin’s demise. The one who loses the cool first loses the battle.

you, the battle is not the war. Taemin appeared properly chastised as he begged his brother to forgive him.

Continue deluding yourself, Minho called the waitress over as he gave her their orders.

Boyfriends come and go, Taemin clung to his brother’s arms, Brothers stay.

Lovers stay, partners stay, Minho entered the fray, championing peace (while trying to get himself a few brownie points from Onew) as he disentangled Taemin from Onew. Husbands stay.

Over my dead body, Taemin adopted watery doe-eyes at his half-brother as physical contact was no longer possible, what with Minho using his body as a shield.

And for the first time in this entire (ing ridiculous) mind-to-mind conversation, Minho looked directly at Taemin, his eyes taking on a dangerous quality. Be that way. His brown orbs were unflinching, and the dark pools gave no hint as to what laid in their depths.

A cold shiver ran down Taemin’s spine and he resisted the urge to cower. There he was, the criminal had finally unveiled himself. Choi Minho, the wanted.

-

Oh, oh, this was starting to get good. Jonghyun sat at the edge of his seat, eyes unmoving from the screens.

When I do updates to multiple stories on a single day, I always wonder at the vastly differing feel to my stories. This series, in particular, is different from all my other stories in the sense that it is meant ot deliver something like a quick adrenaline rush to the system. It's dumb, mindless fun. You get to laugh, but you don't really have to use your brains. There's no message that is being driven across (unlike It's a Big Country We're Running), and there's no much meaning to it.

Hence, making this series much easier to type.

But I still update pretty slow, oops.