A little help from my friends

           Sehun is on mile 4 when he notices a lone figure sitting on a bench facing the river. He stops mid-run and puts a halting hand on the arm of the boy running next to him. “Wait, I think that’s Jongin.”

          “Who?”

         “My stupid roommate.” Sehun replies before shoving his hands into the pockets of his track pants and jogging across the grass. Jongin had left the dorm last night and never returned. He did that sometimes, if he was practicing late so Sehun paid it no mind. But he was surprised to find him here, now.

        “Yah, Jongin-ah!” Sehun shouts as he gets closer to the still figure.

        Jongin’s sitting up straight but his head’s cocked to one side and his breathing is even and deep. He’s pretty much dead asleep.

        Sehun sighs at the sight until he feels a hand on his shoulder. “Oh, it’s sleeping beauty?” Tao asks.

        “He’s a sleeping something.” Sehun mumbles. “He’s gonna get sick staying out here all night, and in the rain.” Sehun moves to nudge Jongin awake, but Tao stops him with a conspiring smirk on his face.

        Jongin’s shocked awake by a weight on his shoulders. His eyes pop open and his hands automatically come up to fend off the unwanted attack. But once he gains his bearings, he eyes the two tall males currently snickering in front of him. Jongin frowns while eyeing his roommate and the other male with him. Since when did Sehun and Tao start hanging out?

        “What time is it?” Jongin groggily asks.

        “Why are you here?” Sehun asks back.

       Jongin closes his eyes and runs a hand through his dark hair. “I was looking for someone.”

       Sehun raises an eyebrow while Tao looks on, confused.

       Jongin takes in a deep breath and lets it out. He went looking for Taemin last night, with little to no knowledge on where the other boy was exactly, but it had been raining heavily and something had been wrong. He was sure of it. The biggest problem was that after Jongdae had ended the call, he couldn’t reach Taemin anymore. No matter how many times he called, it went straight to voicemail.

       “Did you guys have a fight or something?”

       Jongin looks up. “Who?”

      “You and the pretty boy.”

      “Who are we talking about?” Tao whispers in Sehun’s ear.

      “You know the long haired guy who works at the coffee shop with Xiumin?”

       Tao nods.

       “Jongin’s got the hots for him. They’re sorta kinda dating . . . I think.”

       “Ohhhh.” Tao drawls. “But he’s so cute! Ah, I’m jealous.”

      Jongin shakes his head and stands. “You’re wrong.” He says and moves to leave but stops suddenly. It seems the weight of his body is leaning forward while his feet are mysteriously stuck in place so he starts to lose his balance and fall to the ground below. Luckily, Jongin’s got fantastic reflexes, so he steadies himself before he can officially face-plant onto the ground below. He quickly deduces the situation; his shoe laces have been tied to the bench leg.

      “Ppftt!” Tao explodes while Sehun covers his mouth.

      Jongin glares as he slips his feet out of his shoes. Once he’s up and standing he’s throwing punches left and right which sparks an intense game of tag . . . or relentless beatings, depending on how you look at it.

      Fifteen minutes later all three boys are panting and lying on the ground with lazy smiles on their faces and only minor bruises. Sehun rolls onto his side and props himself up on one arm. He starts picking at weeds and throwing them at Tao.

     Jongin could ask about their relationship, but he doesn’t really care. He frowns. He’s supposed to care about only one thing.

    Tao giggles lightly to his left.

    Jongin finds himself noticing the difference in inflection and timbre. It’s just not as sweet as Taemin’s laugh. Jongin digs his cell phone out of his pocket at stares at it again.

    His battery’s in the red.

    Like blood.

    No, not warm enough, more like the colors of a flame. And mesmerizing to the eyes. All Lay could see were gorgeous flashes of golden blonde, burnt orange and fiery red every time the boy twirled or popped, the sudden jerking of tiny limbs and swaying fringe. The contrast of such striking hair against pale skin and feminine features. Beautiful, Lay thought.

    Like a dog catching sight of a running squirrel, he couldn’t look away, almost forgot he was competing against said squirrel. Until the sound of a voice. One of the judges; the woman.

      “Number 5.”

      And then the boy stopped. Abruptly. His limbs tensed a bit, like he had been caught. He bit down on his full lips and looked ahead, his chest heaving underneath his tank top.

      The woman sitting behind the white-clothed booth didn’t look up, merely squinted harder at the form in front of her. “I’m having a problem with your paper work.”

       The boy took a visible breath, the bones of chest rising with grace and falling in anticipation. ”Is it not there?”

      The woman glances over the spectacles balancing low on the tip of her nose and sighs. “Lying on the entrance form is cause for disqualification, you know.”

       Taemin swallows. His eyes strain to be able to see the table at the other end of the studio. To see paper upon paper with names and faces and accomplishments. Skills and talents and passion filled pages of young people waiting and wishing and counting on stars and dreams and genies in lamps, but that wouldn’t do them any good. Not without a $300 dollar entry fee. Not when his money still laid inside the tin his father gave him. Not when it was inside the bedside table that belonged to a house he could never return to.  If only he had paid his dues on time. If only he had been there to fill the form out properly.

      Taemin fists his hands at his sides to keep himself from shaking. “What seems to be the problem?”

       “Let’s see. Height: 180 cm tall, Weight: 65 Kilos, Hair: Blue. It says you attend The Seoul School for Performing Arts with a focus in Rap and Hip-Hop. Is this all correct Jae-sshi?”

        Taemin’s eyes go wide. Jae-ssi?

         .

     Let’s backtrack shall we?

       “And . . . I need to borrow your phone.”

       Taemin had said to Key the night before.

         A few rings later, a familiar voice answered with a smirk.

            “Lonely?”

            Taemin sends Key a look before continuing. “Jonghyun! I need you to do me the biggest favor ever!”

            There’s a pause. “T-Taemin-ah? Where are you? I told you the sign-ups were tonight!”

            “I need you to get me one of those forms!”

            Jonghyun sighs. He knows where this is going. “You’re paying me back, right?”

           “Yes! Of course, you know I will.”

           “Sign-ups are over, but.” Jonghyun meets the eyes of a pretty young girl packing up the sign-up booth. He gives her a wink and she blushes. That’s a start.

              “I’ll see what I can do. Just be at the audition spot at 9:00 am tomorrow morning!”

             And at 8:00 am the next morning Taemin’s swiveling around in the salon chair as Key claps with glee. “It’s absolutely perfect!”

             Taemin smiles as he sees the long strands of light brown hair scattered all over the floor. Only to be replaced with harsh angles and multi-toned color. Not just red, because that’s a little too plastic. He wanted something real, something that screamed I'm alive! Or at least unique. He felt lighter already.

                “Ah!” Key squeals in delight, his hands smoothing through Taemin’s hair. “Come on, I’ll buy you a treat before the audition.”

                “Ice cream!” Taemin beams.

                The girl across the counter stares at the two boys in front of her, a dull curious look on her pretty, pale face. Taemin begins to wonder if he looks stupid.

                “Hey don’t you go to my school?”

                Taemin looks up. She did kind of look familiar.

                “Aren’t you the-“

                “Lee Taemin?!” A deep baritone yells.

                Taemin and Key’s eyes go wide. They both turn around.

                “With my brother." Sulli finishes.

                Minho’s eyes looks bigger than ever. “Look at you!” He runs over, ice cream cone (that he got for free) in hand. He ruffles the hair on Taemin’s head. “It’s cute!”

                Key rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. “Is everything cute to you?”

                Minho smiles. “Aww you’re cute too!” He reaches his hand out to muse Key’s hair, but the hand that stops him is quick and strong.

                “Don’t even think about it.” Key glares.

                Taemin giggles in between of mint chocolate chip.

                “So what’s with the drastic change?” Minho asks.

                Key steps forward a little. “He’s got an audition. And he’s gonna show the judges just how basic everyone else is.”

                “Ohh sounds like fun! When’s it at?”

                “Oh, well . . . now actually.” Taemin says.

                “Oh.” Minho says, pouting a bit .

                Taemin glances at Key in question. To which the blonde furiously shakes his head.

                Taemin nudges his cousin and takes a deep breath.  “Do you want to come?”

                 So that’s how Taemin, Key and Minho all wound up together. They went inside a large building with a couple desks labeled “Dancing”, “Acting”, “Singing”, “Rapping”, and “Other”.

              “Other?” Minho asks. “What would that be for?”

               “For the pretty people with no talent.” Key coughs. “Mayb