Elbow on the table, Jonghyun rested his chin in his hand as he watched Minho and Taemin go over a plan of their performance. A blueprint had been laid out on the table, showing all trapezes and their positions. It was covered in lines and arrows the two of them had drawn in an attempt to create a routine they both liked. Jonghyun watched dully, the terms they used unfamiliar and weird. When the mess of the arrows and notes on the blueprint became too much to handle, he let out a quiet sigh and looked out the window at the darkening sky.

Kibum had needed to go and do something, which was why he was now sitting with Minho and Taemin, trying to tune out their bickering. A few hours into Kibum’s practice, the same distant tingling sound Jonghyun had heard the first time he met Kibum sounded again. Kibum’s routine had come to an abrupt stop and he had glanced at the door nervously. He swiftly balanced over to the closest platform and slid down the ladder to pull Jonghyun out of the practice room. He had led him back down the corridors, across the entrance hall, and to a large dining area, where he had sat him down at Minho and Taemin’s table. After an apologetic smile and a wave, he had sprinted back out.

Jonghyun frowned. Something suspicious was going on, which as of now left him with two questions.

One; what was that tingling sound? The two times he had heard it, it seemed as if it was a summon for Kibum to do something or another. Something he didn’t particularly enjoy, judging by how his eyes lost their sparkle and how his smiles turned forced.

This led to his second question; what exactly did Kibum have to do?

He sincerely hoped he wasn’t some sort of modern Cinderella, doomed to forever slave away under the commands of an evil stepparent and their children.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” a gentle voice interrupted his musings and he looked up at a man. He had light brown hair, which fell into a friendly face adorned by a wide smile.

He was holding a tray of food, nothing special, and looked quite plain, but suddenly an inexplicable wave of calm washed over Jonghyun. The man seemed faintly familiar, which could only mean he was a performer as well.

“Nothing much,” Minho replied without looking up from his and Taemin’s notes.

“Going over our performance and babysitting Kibum’s boyfriend,” Taemin waved absentmindedly in Jonghyun’s direction, not looking up either.

“Babysitting?” Jonghyun said indignantly before the rest registered and he spluttered: “B-boyfriend?!”

The new guy laughed and sat down beside Taemin, opposite Jonghyun

“I think the correct term would be keeping company, wouldn’t it?” he said and smiled good-naturedly at Jonghyun. He reached a hand over the table. “Hello, I’m Jinki, otherwise known as Onew.”

Jonghyun took his hand and offered a smile back.

“I’m Jonghyun,” he said and Jinki looked at him curiously.

“So, you’re Kibum’s boyfriend?” he asked and Jonghyun’s face burned.

He wasn’t sure what they were exactly. They hadn’t said anything about it. Sure, they had been on a maybe-date and Kibum had kissed his cheek twice, but other than that he had no idea. He swallowed and his mouth opened and closed a few times, unsure of what to say.

“I–,” his voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “Well, I’d like to be.”

He scowled at Minho and Taemin, who snickered. Jinki threw them a glance, amused.

“That’s nice,” Jinki said mildly and took a bite of his food.

“Are you a performer?” Jonghyun inquired curiously.

Jinki beamed at him.

“Yeah, I am actually.”

“It’s an amazing feat, really,” Taemin interjected, tapping his chin with a red pen thoughtfully before determinedly drawing an arrow from one trapeze to the other. He scribbled something down along it.

“Judging by his two left feet off stage,” Minho supplied without missing a beat, frowning at Taemin’s addition.

Jinki shot them both a fake glare, but otherwise ignored them.

“I’m the animal handler.”

Jonghyun gawked at him and eagerly leaned forward.

“So, you’re like an animal whisperer?”

There was a beat of silence in which they all looked at him blankly. Then they burst out laughing as if he had told them the funniest joke they had ever heard and Jonghyun blushed, feeling silly. But there really wasn’t any other way he could have described what he had seen Jinki do during his performance. If his memory served him right, it had been as if he truly had talked to the animals.

“Sure he is!” Minho chortled and turned back to the plan in front of him, drawing a blue line in the opposite direction of Taemin’s red one.

“The best!” Taemin huffed out through laughs as he added stars to where each of their lines separated.

Jinki nudged him in the ribs with his elbow and sent Minho a twinkling eye cast, biting his lip to stop himself from laughing.

“You’ve seen the show?” he asked as he turned his attention back to Jonghyun, who was feeling sillier by the minute and couldn’t understand why they were laughing so much.

“Yeah,” he said, ignoring his embarrassment for a moment. “I don’t understand how you all managed to do that. It was amazing! Like magic!”

The other three chuckled again, giving each other mischievously secretive looks.

“Well, yeah,” Jinki said. “We have our ways.”

Jonghyun glanced between them curiously, sensing something, an underlying meaning, in his words. He was about to ask when Kibum reappeared out of nowhere and plopped down in the seat beside him, a little ruffled and breathless, as if he had been running. The grin spreading across Jonghyun’s face was inevitable and he received a dimpled smile back. For a moment he forgot about the others around the table as he and Kibum locked eyes.

“They haven’t put any stupid ideas in your head, have they?” Kibum asked, looking away to scrutinise the other three.

He discreetly intertwined his fingers with Jonghyun’s under the table and Jonghyun could only smile stupidly. He caught the pink colour rising to Kibum’s cheeks, silly smile on his face too, as he turned to look at the other three.

“We are offended!” Minho and Taemin said in unison, looking up from their blueprint again to feign affronted expressions.

Jinki chuckled and Kibum narrowed his eyes at them playfully. They answered with sweet smiles.

“We were just asking if he had seen the show,” Jinki explained.

Kibum beamed.

“He saw the very first one,” he told him and glanced out the windows. He turned to Jonghyun with an excited glint in his eyes. “Do you still have time?”

Jonghyun tried to answer but couldn’t quite find the words, distracted by Kibum’s eagerness and how it made his eyes twinkle. Instead he managed a nod, willfully ignoring the muffled snickers behind him.

“Great!” Kibum stood and pulled Jonghyun up by their connected hands. “I want to show you something!”

“O-okay,” Jonghyun said and Kibum squeezed his hand.

“I think you’ll really like it.”

He said a hasty goodbye to the other three, barely sparing them a glance, and pulled Jonghyun with him. Jonghyun turned to wave awkwardly and they all smirked back at him.

“It was nice meeting you!” he called over his shoulder and they waved.

As he was dragged through the dining hall they passed another table which had previously been unoccupied – the only ones present when he arrived had been himself, Minho and Taemin. Now it was used by a group of five young men clad in black from head to toe. All of them watched Kibum and him move across the room with creepy leers, eating their dinner calmly. A shiver rushed down Jonghyun’s spine and he tightened his grip on Kibum’s hand.

“Who are those guys?” he whispered when they had passed the table, though he had a pretty good hunch.

Kibum looked over his shoulder and let out an amused snort.

“The Fire Harmony, as they call themselves. I would introduce you, but they’ve been practising all day and are in a weird mood right now, so let’s save that for later.”

Jonghyun made an uneasy sound and Kibum held his hand tighter.

“They get like that after a long day of practice, it’s nothing to worry about. Their heads work funnily but they’re okay, I guess.” He shrugged, clearly unbothered. It didn’t make Jonghyun feel any less uneasy. “We’re all freaks so we can’t really point any fingers around here.”

Jonghyun blinked and looked closer at Kibum. He definitely didn’t seem like a freak. The only words Jonghyun could think to use to describe him were beautiful, stunning, amazing, gorgeous, amiable, pretty, wonderful– he decided he should stop before his mind ran away from him and he blurted any of this out.

“Freaks?” he questioned instead, not entirely sure he wanted to know.

An embarrassed laugh tumbled out of Kibum, a blush blooming on his cheeks and making him look absolutely lovely.

“I’ll tell you once we arrive at our destination. I don’t want you to feel like I’ve tricked you somehow.”

The answer left Jonghyun wondering what the hell he had gotten himself involved with.

A/N: This chapter took some time, huh? And I'm not really satisfied with it either, but I guess it'll have to do for now :/

I'm sorry I didn't update for two weeks but yeah... stuff happened :(

Anyhoo, I hope you liked this chapter despite me not being satisfied! xP

LOVE!<3

Bye~!