TAEMIN’s POV

I purse my lip as I watch him stand beside Saeli while she stares at her toes, probably trying to hide the blush creeping up on her cheeks. She blushes for just about anything, I swear. I take a short glance at my partner and smile at the middle aged woman who reminded me a lot of my mother. I asked her if she was alright and she gave me a happy nod before telling me not to worry. I look back at Saeli and unconsciously ball my hands into fists when I see him place his hands on her shoulders.

“I’m Exo’s Kai and this is my partner, Choi Saeli.” They both bow together and the crowd squeals as Kai lifts his head and flashes them a wide grin. This kid could own the world in the palm of his hands every time he’d smile at people like that.

The MC then moves onto Chanyeol who introduces himself to the crowd. Kai slightly angles his head in my direction and catches my eyes. He gives me a small wink making me arch my eyebrows at him. He simply smiles at me then covers his mouth from the crowd, trying to hide what he was about to say.

“She’s pretty.” He mouths and I immediately grimace at his words. He laughs at my reaction then turns to look back at Saeli who has now turned her head up to look at him. Once their eyes lock Kai smiles at her and whispers something that makes Saeli shake her head but smile.

I turn away from them and listen to the MC announce the flow of the show for today. Apparently there were three rounds with different tasks. They’d test us by speed; those who are the lowest get disqualified and have to take their seats and just watch. That meant lesser airtime.  

“So for the first round, we shall be giving each pair a page from a newspaper and you both have to stand on it for about 5-10 seconds. Once you’ve achieved it, you’ll fold the newspaper in half then stand on it again. Then if you succeed once more you’d fold it in half once again and again and again until you can no longer balance yourself on it.”

That’s easy. I turn to look at my partner and smile when I see she would probably be easy to lift up. I give her a short fist pump followed by cheering us on by saying “fighting”.

Once we got the newspaper, I lay it on the floor and wait as the music starts. We both stand on the newspaper and smile as the five seconds are over. I bend down and fold the newspaper in half and stand on it again. After 2 more folds, 3 couples have been disqualified making me smile as I do my best to balance on my tiptoes. Once the seconds are over, I bend down to fold the paper in half and nibble on my lower lip; she’d have to get on my back now. I stand up and immediately see Saeli already wrapped around Kai’s back as she laughs at the MC who says they were too eager to win the game.

“I can’t embarrass my partner; it’s all or nothing now.” Kai says, making the crowd cheer at his hero like response.

“Let’s hear what your sunbaes have to say to that. What do you think Taemin?” The MC turns to me and immediately flash them a smile. I give out a short shrug before turning to look at Kai and Saeli who stare at me expectantly.

“Kid’s like to show off.” I tease, making Kai laugh and shake his head.

“Our years aren’t that far apart, old man.”

“I’m wiser by a great number of years.” I laugh as Kai scoffs teasingly at me. The crowd laughs happily at our playfulness making me turn back to my partner and tell her to climb on my back.

The game starts again and I clap happily when 2 more couples are disqualified, meaning that we can move on to the 2nd round. I turn to look at Jonghyun who laughs as he fakes a tantrum on the floor, saying he was disqualified unfairly. I help him up and tap his back lightly as he sits down and continues joking around with the MC.

The second game is a word guessing game, the top 5 couples with the highest scores will move on to the next round. I volunteered to go first and by great luck, I discovered that my partner works easily with me. She guesses 9 words in just 2 minutes and 30