The day of the concert arrived quicker than Taemin was ready for. Come the morning of the concert date, Taemin was wide awake, as he had been since 3 am, pacing across the living  room tensely.

"Aigoo Taemin-ah, you're going to make a hole in the floor of you keep doing that." Onew teased, watching the younger's antics with a small smile on his face.

Taemin paused and turned towards the barista, biting his lip nervously. With a nervous yell, he flung himself onto the couch beside Onew, limbs sprawling everywhere. Onew opened his mouth to ask if he was okay, but before he could, Taemin yelled once more, flinging his arms and legs around like a child.

Onew placed a strong hand on Taemin’s shoulder and squeezed lightly. “Hey, you okay?”

Taemin nodded, still gnawing away at his lip.

“Stop that.” Onew said, kissing Taemin to make him release his lip. “You’ll make your lip bleed if you keep chewing on it like that.” Taemin blushed, but did as Onew said, instead resorting to tapping his fingers on his knees to release some of the nervous energy. This time, Onew placed a hand on top of Taemin’s, winding their fingers together.

“Calm down. You’ll be amazing. There’s no need to be nervous, especially not when you’re perfect.”

“Hyung.” Taemin whined, obviously embarrassed by Onew’s cheesy compliment. Onew smiled, mentally patting himself on the back for distracting Taemin from his fears.

“What? It’s true.” Taemin pouted and turned away, but not before Onew caught a glimpse of a smile pulling at the corners of younger’s lips.

“Come on, I have an idea.” Onew stood up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen, dragging Taemin along with him.

“Ah, hyung! What are you doing?”

“We’re going to make you some celebratory cupcakes. Baking will calm you down, and besides, who doesn’t like a cupcake?”

“But..hyung, I can’t! I can’t eat a cupcake before I perform onstage!”

“Well then, we’ll make them now, and you can just eat it after.” Taemin tried arguing, tried telling Onew he was a terrible baker, but to no avail. Onew’s resolve stood strong as he pulled out flour, sugar, milk, eggs, and all the other ingredients they would need for the cupcakes.

The two worked together easily, Taemin handing Onew ingredients while Onew stirred them together. After the last ingredient was added, Onew stopped mixing and handed the bowl to Taemin.

“Here, you stir.” Taemin nodded and took the bowl from him. He began whisking the mixture together with a deep look of concentration upon his face, and he looked so cute Onew thought he might pass out. His inner fanboy was squealing at the younger’s adorable actions. He loved that when the dancer was in deep concentration, his cute little tongue would stick out, his nose scrunching up and eyebrows furrowing together.

In comparison, whenever he saw Joon try to concentrate,  the blonde would either look constipated or as if his head was about to explode. When Jonghyun was concentrating, he always looked pathetic, like a sad puppy. Taemin was by far the cutest person he’d ever seen concentrating.

Taemin’s stilled hand drew Onew from his thoughts, and he saw a smile grace the younger’s face as he handed back the bowl. Onew took it, an idea suddenly forming in his head he did.

“You’ve got some batter on your face.” Onew pointed out as he set the bowl back onto the counter.

“What? Where?” Taemin asked, reaching for his phone to check.

“Right....there!” Onew smeared some batter across Taemin’s cheek, laughing at the whiny “Hyung!” that followed. Taemin immediately dipped his finger into the bowl and put batter on Onew’s nose while he was distracted. Onew stopped laughing and pouted at the younger.

“Yah!” He yelled.

Taemin stuck his tongue out. “You got me first.” Onew wiped the batter off his nose, it off his finger after, and moaned at the sweet taste.

“Mmm so good.” Looking at Taemin, he smirked. “I bet you taste good too.” He said, quickly pulling Taemin to him and the batter off his cheek before he could run away.

“Hyung!” Taemin whined, blushing red. What was wrong with the barista today? He wasn’t used to him showing so much skinship, although Taemin would be lying if he said he minded the affections.

Outside, a car horn honked, signaling the two that it was time to go. Taemin grabbed his bag and swung it over his shoulder, throwing Onew a nervous smile. Halfway out the door, Onew stopped him.

"Taemin?"

"Yes hyung?" Taemin waited expectantly.

"Fighting." Taemin smiled brightly, some of the nervousness leaving him. Onew looked as if he wanted to say something more, but after a long silence, Taemin sighed and turned to leave.

"Wait, Taemin, one more thing!" Arms encircled Taemin's waist, spinning him around, Onew immediately capturing the younger's lips with his own. It was brief, but still breath taking, Taemin's heart rate skyrocketing.

"Taemin-ah, fighting. I know you'll be brilliant." Onew dropped his arms, freeing the shocked but happy younger.

"Thank you hyung. I won't let you down." One last peck and Taemin was gone, racing towards the car where an impatient Jonghyun was waiting.

At the arena, everything was a crazy mess. People were rushing around left and right, everyone yelling over everyone else. Stage hands were running back and forth getting things set up. The sound and lights crew were checking to make sure all the equipment was in working order, resulting in short screeches of feedback and random flickering multicolored lights. At one point, the whole arena went dark, followed by a sheepish “mianhe!”

Backstage, everyone was in their assigned rooms, getting ready. The dressing room for all the male backup dancers was small and claustrophobic, although with twelve guys in there, it wasn’t much of a surprise. The girls weren’t much better off, being nine of them in their room. Three other dance teams were part of the concert as well, and with all of them in one room, there was barely enough space to breathe. Taemin stood in the corner, holding his clothes in front of him and staring at them, cheeks bright red and one eye twitching.

“What’s wrong hyung?” Jongin asked, strutting over, already dressed in his stage outfit. The younger dancer was dancing back up for G Dragon, Jonghyun, and Yunho, and his clothes consisted of harlem pants and a plain, tight fitted black shirt with a hoodie over top.

“What...is...this?” Taemin mumbled, too shocked to give a real answer. Taemin, on the other hand, was dancing with Jonghyun, Yunho, and Boa. Jonghyun and Yunho were later, so he had yet to see what he was wearing for those, but for Boa...

Jongin turned to look at the clothes in Taemin’s hands and burst out laughing.

“Oh god! That’s great!”

Taemin’s clothes consisted of a pair of tight, black skinny jeans that laced all the way up the front and black leather boots. No shirt. Just pants. and shoes.

“The shirt must have fallen somewhere...” Taemin said, searching desperately for the non existent article of clothing. Jongin clapped a hand on Taemin’s back.

“Give it up hyung. Just accept it.”

“But..why?” Taemin whined. Not that he was embarrassed about his body or anything, but still!

“Just get changed. Jonghyun sent me in here to see what was taking so long. He wants to talk to you.”

Taemin nodded mutely and got changed, struggling for a minute with the jeans. They were just so damn tight! Once he had finished lacing his shoes (he really should have done that before buttoning the jeans), he spared a glance in the mirror and paused.

Sure, Taemin had worn skinny jeans before, especially since he realized their effect on Onew, but never this tight. He was pleasantly surprised by how they hugged his skinny legs, showing off the subtle curves. His chest, over the past few months, had seen an increase in muscle, and although he was still  far from having Jonghyun’s chocolate abs, at least he wasn’t totally flat anymore. Taemin ran a hand down his stomach, admiring the feel of smooth, hard muscle.

“Damn I’m hot.” Taemin said, forgetting Jongin was still there.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a ing god. Now get your skinny over to Jonghyun before I kick it there.”

Taemin glared at Jongin. “Stop treating your hyungs with disrespect.”

“I don’t treat all my hyungs disrespectfully. Just you.” The younger pointed out.

Taemin threw his hands up in annoyance and stomped out of the room, hips swaying sassily. Jongin sniggered when he saw half the dancers turn to stare at Taemin, their eyes glued to the boy’s perky .

“Sorry boys.” Jongin yelled, barely containing his laughter. “He’s taken.”

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Well, I'm back way earlier than I planned, due to the event of even more snow days. Yay!

More chapters coming soon. Drama coming soon as well.

Because, ya know, I can't go more than two chapters without some kind of drama XD