Taemin is fearless. That is one thing Kibum is absolutely sure of about his boyfriend. He jumps right into anything, without a second thought. Kibum has watched him jump out of airplanes and go bungee jumping and sit on the ledge of a bridge, kicking his feet around without a care in the world. He’s reckless and absentminded, and a huge adrenaline junkie, and Kibum has always been the exact opposite. Taemin has learned not to force Kibum into doing these ridiculous activities after he had to deal with his high-pitched shrieking when they rode a helicopter together.

Kibum likes to think he is a very careful person. While his mouth doesn’t have much of a filter, he likes to think things through thoroughly before he does them. He has a number of fears; height, reptiles, etc. The things that normal people are afraid of. But Taemin is far from normal. Kibum begins to think Taemin doesn’t fear anything. All of their friends had even made “find Taemin’s fear” into a strange little game. And they had all yet to find a single thing Taemin was afraid of.

Until today.

“Kibum! Kibum! Get in here! Please please please- Oh god! KIBUM!”

The energy drink Kibum is holding slips out of his hands, and falls to the floor, and a mess of sticky blue liquid spilling onto their kitchen floor. He feels his heart lurch to his throat at the sound of Taemin’s panicked voice, and he breaks into a run the second he hears it.

Oh god what happened? Was he hurt? Did he-

“Kibum! Kill it! Please! Get rid of it!”

Kibum’s socks almost slip on the wooden floor as he slides to a stop in front of the bathroom, and his eyes go a little wide at the sight in front of him.

Taemin is standing on the edge of the bathtub, his hair still dripping wet and a towel wrapped around his hips. Both of his hands are clutching the curtain rode for dear life, and Kibum thinks he can even see the boy’s legs trembling. He looks up at Kibum, eyes wide with terror, and points to the rug in front of the bathtub.

Kibum wants to strangle the boy for worrying him so much. He almost had a heart attack right in their kitchen, thinking something was seriously wrong or that he was injured-

“Kibum, please!”

But Taemin is looking at him with those puppy-dog eyes, his wet hair clinging to his flushed cheeks, and his expression desperate and fearful, and Kibum can’t be mad at him for more than 2 seconds.

He finally takes notice of where Taemin is pointing, and looks down at the bathroom rug. At first he sees nothing. “Taemin, what the hell are you screaming about? There’s no-“

“It’s right there!” Taemin crouches down a little lower, to point at the edge of the rug, and Kibum finally sees it.

It’s a tiny ladybug, crawling slowly across the rug, it’s red polka-dotted shell standing out against white. Kibum almost thinks he’s looking the wrong thing, but when he looks up again, there is no mistaking where Taemin’s trembling finger is pointing.

A gleeful realization dawns on him, and he can feel the smirk stretching across his lips. “A ladybug? Taemin, really? You’re scared of bugs?”

“Shut up, Kibum! Just kill it, please!” Taemin whines, straightening back up, and clutching the shower curtain rod again. He squeezes his eyes shut and turns his face to hide it in his arms. He looks so pathetically adorable, Kibum can’t resist taking his phone out of his back pocket and snapping a picture.

“Kibum!”

“Oh this is gold.” By this point, he can no longer hold in his laughter, and he breaks into a fit of giggles.

Lee Taemin, self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie and his own little fearless, dare-devil boyfriend, is scared less of bugs.

Through his laughter, he manages to walk in and bend down in front of the rug. He puts his hand in front of the ladybug and lets in crawl onto his fingers, before standing up again. “There. I got it. See?” Taemin turns his head slowly and opens his eyes, his expression still scared and hesitant, and his face still pressed against his raised arms. Taemin watches his every move as he picks up the bug.

As Kibum walks out of the bathroom, ladybug in one hand and his phone in the other, he dials Jonghyun’s number and presses the phone to his ear. “Jonghyun, you won’t believe what just happened.”

He's opening the front door and leting the ladybug go free as he retells the hilarious story, when he hears Taemin scream again all the way from the bathroom.

“Kibum, there’s another one!”

He collapses in front of the door in a fit of laughter, and later Taemin is angry with him for taking so long to come and get the second bug.