It’s supposed to seem wrong, this positioning of Taemin sprawled out on Kai’s lap, their right hands side by side and barely touching, and Kai’s arm thrown lazily over Taemin’s left shoulder. Taemin supposes he’s being punished and that’s the reason he’s the one forced to sit half up, neck taut, while Kai gets to relax into the cushion of the lounge chair. The arrangement isn’t particularly comfortable, especially when the photographer makes him hold himself still like that for far too long, and Taemin assumes the viewers are meant to notice this discomfort—and feel it for themselves, too. The whole point of this particular scene in the W Korea spread is to make people squirm, after all.

Taemin’s told to tilt his head a little more to the right. “To strain the shot,” the photographer says. Like that means anything when the whole studio is already thick with tension that overflows into the feel of each picture and pose.

Taemin resists an eye roll and shifts just enough to relieve a little of the pressure on his lower back. He feels Kai tremble just slightly against him, and Taemin can’t resist grinning wickedly at the camera when he realizes that his seat on Kai’s lap has made the EXO dancer hard.

Krystal, standing off to the side with her arms crossed, glowers. “Stop looking so pleased with yourself,” she tells Taemin. The grin disappears but Taemin’s feeling quite smug now that he knows how much power he still holds over Kai—and how much it bothers Krystal.

He shifts again, with purpose this time. Kai’s breathing catches and he’s instantly scolded by the photographer for looking too tense.

“You heard the man,” Taemin teases, his words barely audible over the EDM the photographer’s got blasting as mood music. “Relax.”

 But Kai’s too stimulated and on edge to relax now, and Taemin knows this. With the arm he’s got hidden behind his back, Taemin slips his cold fingers up under the lip of Kai’s shirt to graze against the skin of Kai’s lower abdomen. Kai tenses even more and the photographer, exasperated, calls for a break. Taemin springs up immediately but Kai stays where he is with the pillow they’d been using as a prop resting like a shield over his crotch. Taemin’s immensely amused because he remembers a similar reaction when he and Kai kissed for the cover shoot of Press It. Yet there’s a small measure of disdain in this amusement because someone as tightly controlled as Taemin would never allow his body to betray him like Kai’s had.

He turns away from the ice in Krystal’s glare as she rushes onto the set to fuss over Kai’s flushed cheeks and the lip he’s pulling between his teeth. Her anger is also vaguely amusing, but Taemin has no patience for her judgement. is power, and it’s not Taemin’s fault if Kai is weak to it. He is not to blame for the fact that Kai wants him; he has done nothing wrong here. But the gaze Krystal pins him with, even as she continues to coo at Kai and pet his hair like a good girlfriend would, suggests otherwise.

She thinks he’s careless and arrogant, Taemin decides. She is not charmed by his façade like the rest of the world, and she’s smart enough to recognize the self-absorption that Taemin’s equally smart enough to hide. Perhaps they have more in common than Taemin gives her credit for, but he knows any amount of similarity between them would disgust her, might possibly even bring her pain. Taemin resolves to play nice with f(x)’s cold little queen, if only to show her that she’s not as different from him as she would like to be.

Anticipation keeps Taemin’s smile sharp as he and Kai finish their current scene and the studio gets rearranged for Taemin and Krystal’s shots together. Kai, still clutching the pillow, excuses himself to the restroom. Krystal looks puzzled but Taemin’s grin spreads even wider and doesn’t disappear completely until Kai returns some minutes later, his face flushed, his eyes downcast, and the pillow nowhere to be seen.

Krystal’s still confused and that emotion comes across a little as she gazes up at Taemin from her position across from him on the bed. He’s got her face cupped between his palms and he’s looking down at her intently, seriously, but she can see the glee in his eyes and Taemin loves that it only strengthens the distrust in hers.

He brushes a thumb along her cheekbone and bends slightly closer. Krystal’s breath catches, just like Kai’s did when Taemin shifted on his lap. Taemin thinks that this will be fun, tainting her. It’s been far too long since he’s had someone new to play with.