This Request is for Taemins_LittleNoona so I hope you enjoy it Laura! You, the reader, have finally achieved your big break in the dancing world, but it just happens that someone has picked you out already…

***

You stopped dancing and tried to control your breathing, your head spun a little so you decided to sit down and put your head between your legs until the sounds of the other dancers and the loud music were no longer muffled. Maybe you had pushed yourself too far this time, you didn’t have to send an extra hour practicing like some of the other dancers but you thought you could take it. Apparently not. Heart kicking against your ribs in a feeble attempt to lower the pressure, you cursed at it under your breath, not that it cared very much. Just as you thought you had your breathing under control, you felt a gentle hand on your shoulder, causing you to jump back a little in shock.

“Y/n?” The voice was quiet but familiar, your eyes finally focussed in to show Taemin standing before you,” You okay?” just before you could breathe in to answer him, you suddenly felt a familiar arm around your shoulder, belonging to Kibum,” Tae, does she look okay? She is literally DYING in front of you and you feel like you need to ask such a stupid question.” Taemin just scowled at his hyung,

“I was just trying to be nice okay!”

“Well stop, it makes you say dumb stuff like that,”

“Well you won’t have to worry about seeming stupid because of how mean you are.”

“Biatch say that again and I’ll show you how frickin mean I can be- “

You had been forgotten but you didn’t really mind, instead you breathlessly chuckled at the both of them as they carried on their little argument. You and Key had gotten pretty close with each other throughout the rehearsal period after complimenting each other’s outfits at the start, and soon the both of you became good friends. This was actually the same for the rest of the Shinee members too: Minho would always offer you piggy-back rides whenever you got tired, it didn’t matter when or where you guys were, Jinki would sometimes solemnly offer some chicken if you forgot to pack lunch and Jonghyun would come over and sometimes complain about the others or challenge you to a high note contest (which you always lose).

Well… all except Taemin.

You and he holding a decent conversation seemed alien to you both, chatting to you meant that you kind of held awkward eye contact before muttering random excuses before moving off in opposite directions.

Apparently, though, the youngest had noticed how you had been forgotten and stopped arguing with his elder, “Sorry...” You heard him mumble before going to leave but you managed to grab his attention by grabbing his retreating jacket, “It’s fine, seriously. Thanks for asking before, I’m better now.”

He turned back to face you quickly causing his bangs to fall a little over his eyes and (because you have done it so many times with other guy-friends who care waaaay too much about their appearance *cough cough* Key *cough cough*) you reached up to push the stray hairs away again, revealing a shocked pink-tinted idol’s face that stared at you for a second before he muttered a hasty “Goodbye.” and vacated the area.

“CUTE” you thought to yourself and you didn’t even see Key in the corner of your eye as he stared at you flabbergasted before bursting into manic laughter, “I ship it sooooo hard! OMG Y/n tell me you see it,” you just squinted at him confused,” See what?” the dumbfounded look was back,” So naïve…I’m gonna tell Jonghyun, brb hun.” Still confused you muttered out a small,” Ok, you go do that,” before he left to gossip to the other members. You decided against even giving what Key said a moment of your time, you didn’t understand him in the best times anyway, plus, you had a dance to re-learn. Determined to try your hardest, you got up and went back onto the dance floor.

You were all working on the routine for Saviour for the next show, this time in LA; and, although you all could probably perform the dance in your sleep, the group had to go over it again because the stage was shaped differently to the last one, meaning the formation had to be altered completely and it added a risk to everyone on the stage if you didn’t focus. You worked hard and, even though there was the occasional mistake, the group had finally learnt the new coordinates…. Throughout the rehearsal process, though, you couldn’t shake the feeling that you were being watched.

***

In the dressing rooms, the atmosphere was buzzing, makeup artists were scrambling arounds trying to fix perfect makeup (or perfect faces according to the biggest diva the world has ever seen) and everyone was freaking out about something or the other. You decided against getting stressed out unlike the other dancers and settled on doing stretches in the corner, creating a perfect time for you to just think and give some extra time to yourself before the real madness began.

When you were doing your floor stretches, reaching as far forward as you could, you felt a pair of hands on your back, helping the stretch even more, “another one of the dancers” you thought to yourself before tapping the floor to signify that you couldn’t go any further, the pressure stopped suddenly as if they didn’t want to hurt you. To be honest, other dancer friends of yours would put more weight on for a few more seconds to annoy you and you would do the same but this time, it wasn’t the case. You stretched up to loosen your spin and leant to one side to touch one of your feet, again a soft hand pressed down on your side and upper arm to add to the stretch; this happened until all of your floor stretches were complete and you stood up to face your helpful friend only to be greeted with Taemin who offered a small smile before leaving you to get his hair done.

“Thanks….” You muttered under your breath, slightly annoyed at the guy’s disappearing acts lately,” I was even going to offer to help him stretch as a repayment.” you mumbled with a slight pout. Taemin had been confusing you recently, doing small acts of kindness at random times, offering you his water after you ran out and even giving you his umbrella once because you forgot. Every time though, he left without another word and this really confused you; not that he wasn’t nice, he was lovely. It was just that he was fine to talk to anyone else in depth, challenge them to arguments and debates and yet- he’d hardly put three words together when he spoke to you.

“10 MINUTES! DANCERS TO THEIR PLACES!”

This announcement REALLY didn’t help the room’s stress levels so you just waited until the craziness had calmed down and you were the only one left in the dressing room, reminiscing in the silence for a moment before the craziness began again you finally came out of your haze with a sigh and made your way out into the vast expanse of white walled corridors. You walked down a few before abruptly stopping. Smart move Y/n you daydreamed for too long! Now what ya gonna do??? You tried not to panic but the voice inside your head helped as much as telling someone having an asthma attack to simply breathe. Sprinting down a dizzying array of hallways led you nowhere and before you were about to throw in the towel and call it quits, surrender your soul to the never ending labyrinth, an awfully familiar hand grabbed your upper arm and pulled you through the door that led you backstage. FINALLY!

You looked up and smiled thankfully (almost tearfully to be fair) at the young singer that your eyes had now become so accustomed to, he smiled back at you and his eyes turned into crescents in amusement,” Wouldn’t want to miss the show, would we?” he said, just loud enough to hear over the thousands of girls screams on the other side of the black gauze. You found yourself counting the words, wow, he actually broke the three-word record,” Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” you laughed back and just before you were out of ear-shot from each other you shouted,” Break a leg!” before your dance mates grabbed you and you got in the right line to go on stage.

The lights were too bright, the crowd too loud and the air too hot but you were enjoying every second of the dance. The movements of your team were sharp and precise, the boys killing it and it was all nearly over, well, this song anyway. Just as you were reaching the end, you noticed Taemin in front of you, you admired his movements from behind, enjoying it all even more until you noticed a strip of wire that hadn’t been checked properly by the technicians doing their risk assessments. You took a step forward, out of the formation, out of the group and into no man’s land, the area between the backing dancers and the idols. You tried to warn him but the girls were louder, chanting to every word, drowning out the words you made as you tried desperately to grab his attention.

Taemin took one step back smoothly and his foot caught in the wire, sending him backwards into you. Bracing yourself for the impact, you held your hands out as if you were doing some kind of trust exercise and he fell, you pushed him back up before he could properly register the fall but he turned around anyway with wide eyes, thanking you silently. You winked at him and went back into the safety of the still moving (and a little shaken) group to finish the dance.

Backstage he found you drinking the last of your water in the same corner of the room you had been previously stretching in; you hadn’t noticed his presence until you ran out of the liquid in your bottle and a new, full one was handed to you. You looked up,” You know, when I said ‘break a leg’ to you earlier, I didn’t mean it” You tried to stay serious, it was serious, he could have been badly hurt and you even stepped out of the routine, it could have ruined the show. Nevertheless, you both burst into peals of laughter, bending over with tears in your eyes; when you had stopped, Taemin said,” Maybe I should have asked you to help me stretch like how I helped you earlier.” You scowled and hit him lightly on the arm,” I was going to offer but you ran away again.”

He was quiet for a while but eventually said,” Sorry about that...I’m not...I wasn’t t-trying to be rude…o-or anything I just…” he didn’t meet your eyes and his hair fell in front of his face again, the sweat from the last performance leaving it limp. You went to brush it away again but he grabbed your wrist, halting its progress,” Thank you.” He muttered, just quiet enough for you to hear,” You probably saved my ankle and the concert.” You went to say that it’s fine but he cut you off, finally lifting his head to look into your eyes,” And please don’t say it’s fine because it isn’t, I was stupid and didn’t care about my surroundings, like before, I keep leaving you behind and I promise that it isn’t anything personal, I kind of… I was scared because I didn’t know what to do...” You looked at him confused, all he had to do was stay or tell you,

” I don’t know how to deal with liking you.”

“W-what?”

“I know I’m such a coward and I’m sorry Y/n! I-I’ll g-go now.”

He went to move away again, the hand on your arm loosening but you weren’t going to let that happen again,

” Mr Lee Taemin don’t you DARE walk away without letting me say anything again.”

He stopped and turned slowly, hair falling over his eyes in the process. You took a step forward and moved the hair out of the way again until you were confronted with the blushing idol’s face,

“You have to stop doing that ok?”

“Sorr-“

You silenced him by closing the gap between your faces, you didn’t know that the two of you were that close together to start off with but you didn’t mind at all. You were both sweaty and tired but it didn’t matter, your heart was racing at the speed of sound but it didn’t hurt in the slightest. Taemin’s hold released from your wrist and travelled to cup your face, causing you to blush even harder and he smiled into the kiss before breaking it and resting his chin on the top of your head.

“Don’t worry Y/n, I promise you that I’m not going anywhere.”

In the background Jinki placed 30,000 won into Key’s waiting palm, ignoring his friend’s smug smile that he would be stuck with for the rest of the foreseeable future.

***

AHHH the end is here! This is actually my first Shinee fic, so I hope it was good enough for all of your tastes. Did you enjoy? I hope you did! Thank you for reading xxxx

Shamelessboyshipper x