Taemin has always been rather unconvinced about phobias. Heights. Deep water. The dark. Spiders. Dogs. He knows people are scared of those things – but it’s never quite been real to him. He can’t understand how those things can actually, legitimately terrify people. They’re just - well, not scary.

Maybe he was born without the fear gene. There’s very little that scares Lee Taemin, and if he’s honest with himself, he’s a little proud of that. As the baby of SHINee and one of the youngest debuting K-pop stars in history, he sometimes wonders if he’ll ever manage to shed his image of Korea’s eternal baby brother. Even now that he’s 22 and really should be considered a veteran given his eight long years of experience, everyone in the industry still treats him like a little kid, and fans “aww” over him like he’s a remarkably clever puppy.

He doesn’t really mind, at least not usually. It’s his image, he’s used to it, and there’s nothing he can do about it. But it doesn’t exactly give him much to be proud of. He’s a man now, after all. He doesn’t want to be treated like a baby forever. Sometimes he wonders if it’s this constantly being treated like a cute, precocious child that makes him want to prove something. Prove that he’s an adult now; he’s tough, he's savvy, he’s not afraid of anything. He doesn’t need looking after any more. Unfortunately, his attempts at proving this usually somehow seem to backfire.

There was that time in Switzerland a couple of years ago when he’d jumped onto the top railing of the observation deck on the Jungfrau. He’d only wanted to get a better look at the view, but the entire staff had freaked out – even the cameramen had forgotten their jobs and lunged towards him to pull him down. They’d basically dragged him off the mountain after that, begging him to never do such a dangerous thing again. He still doesn’t quite understand the staff’s dramatic reaction. It was high, sure, but he’s a dancer. He’s in perfect control of his body. He wasn’t going to lose his balance and topple off the railing and down the vast chasm below it towards certain death. Why did they freak out so much?

He remembers that Kibum went white when he saw the footage back at the dorm. Taemin had never seen anyone actually lose all the colour in their face like that – he’d thought it only happened in books. He’d expected Kibum to scold him, but it had been Jonghyun who scolded instead, while Minho held Kibum’s shoulders and Jinki ran for water, because he looked like he was about to faint. Taemin felt bad about that, he did really, but he’d never intended to scare anyone, least of all Kibum. It was only a high place. What was so scary about that?

He tries to be considerate when people get scared of things like heights, but it’s really hard when he just doesn’t understand. So when he finds himself in Paris for a concert, he doesn’t hesitate. There’s one thing you simply have to do when you’re in Paris, at least according to Taemin, so when Minho, Jonghyun and Jinki all decide they’d rather sleep all morning than explore the city, he grabs the tired but always willing Kibum and tows him along to do some “sightseeing”.

“Taemin,” Kibum says. He sounds nervous. Taemin bounces along the walkway ahead of his hyung. He knows Kibum isn’t going to want to do what he wants to do. That’s the entire reason why Taemin hadn’t mentioned the words “Eiffel Tower” when he’d convinced Kibum to come out with him.

“Yes, hyung?” He spins around and gives the other idol his best innocent smile. Kibum looks as chic as they come in his black jeans, chunky boots and brimmed hat, but his face has taken on the expression of someone who has just begun to realise that they’ve been conned.

“Why,” Taemin fights back a giggle as Kibum’s voice comes out half an octave higher than usual. “Why are we walking towards a sign that says “Eiffel Tower Entry”?”

“Because we are going to see the sights from the best place possible!” Taemin skips back towards Kibum when he stops dead in his tracks and grabs his elbow enthusiastically. “Come on, it’ll be awesome! You can see the whole city skyline from up there.”

“I don’t want to see the whole city skyline,” Kibum says. “Not even slightly. It’s like, so overdone. Why pay to get a photo you can just get off the internet anyway? It’s such a tourist trap. Let’s find some back alley thrift stores instead. I heard you can find some real vintage stuff around here.”

“Shopping?” Taemin wrinkles his nose. “That’s boring. Come on, hyung, it’s the Eiffel Tower! How many opportunities are we gonna get to climb this thing? It’s a chance of a lifetime!”

“I don’t care,” Kibum’s voice takes on a familiar whining tone. “It’s not fair. You said we were going sightseeing. You never said anything about climbing.”

“This is Paris,” Taemin argues. “When you think Paris, you think Eiffel Tower.”

“I don’t. I think...Chanel.”

“Well we all know you’re not normal,” and Taemin ducks with the ease of long practice the swipe Kibum takes at him. He bobs back up and smirks at Kibum's frustrated face. He knows his hyung is afraid of heights. It kind of amuses him that Kibum won’t admit it, even when he knows Taemin knows.

“Are you scared?” He prods.

“No!” Kibum says forcefully. He looks up at the towering structure above them and swallows visibly. “I just can’t be bothered with all that stuff.”

“Come on,” it’s Taemin’s turn to whine now. “I’ve always wanted to do this.” He pulls out his trump card. “If you don’t want to, you can go to the thrift shops and I’ll go around on my own. I won’t get lost.” He watches Kibum’s face expectantly. He knows only too well that Kibum would let Taemin, nicknamed the “international lost child” for his total lack of any sense of direction, wander alone in a foreign city only over his dead body.

I’m so manipulative, he thinks to himself with just a little glee as he watches dismay and alarm cross Kibum’s face.

“No, let’s stay together,” Kibum says quickly. He takes a deep breath and gives Taemin a forced smile. “If you really want to go up that much...”

“Yes!” Taemin cheers. He grabs Kibum’s hand and tows the reluctant singer towards the entrance. “You’ll love it once you’re up there.”

He ignores Kibum’s mutter of “I highly doubt that”. It’s not that he wants Kibum to be scared or unhappy, not at all. In fact, he is sure that Kibum’s fear of heights will be easily allayed once he sees the fantastic view. After all, it’s only a high place. It's not even slightly dangerous, not like the Jungfrau. It can’t really be all that scary. It must be all in Kibum’s mind. He thinks that if he forces Kibum to go up there, he might even be cured of his phobia when he sees how cool it is to be up high. Then he’ll be grateful to Taemin for making him go up there. Yes, Taemin is sure he’s doing the right thing.

They stop outside the kiosk where Kibum hands him his phone and makes Taemin take a photo of him for his Instagram account. “Get as much of the tower in the picture as you can,” Kibum instructs, and Taemin enthusiastically lies down flat on the metal walkway to take a shot of his hyung from below. He grins at the result – Kibum has got a rather blank expression on his face as he stares down at the camera, but his hyung appears satisfied with the photograph even with the odd angle. Taemin has the brief thought that Kibum is probably the only person in the world who can pull off looking so good in a photograph taken from almost directly below.

Taemin greets the girl selling tickets in excited and incomprehensible French - then it is his turn to stare blankly when she actually responds. Kibum is forced to do the communicating. It’s useful having Kibum around, Taemin thinks as his hyung easily purchases the tickets. He's so good at languages.

“Here,” Kibum says and shoves the ticket at Taemin. Taemin looks at it excitedly and then his face falls.

“Hyung,” he wails. “You got me a child’s ticket?” He inspects the large words ENFANT/CHILD printed in obvious black words in the centre of the ticket.

Kibum smirks at him. “You are an enfant, though,” he shrugs. “I didn’t even ask her for the child’s rate. She did it on her own.”

“This is so unfair,” Taemin pouts. He continues to sulk for at least the next thirty seconds, but has to give up after that because he’s so excited about the inside of the Eiffel Tower.

“Look at that! Wow, look at THAT!” He rushes from side to side. Kibum trails along behind him, still obviously rather less than enthusiastic about the prospect of climbing the structure.

“Hey, there’s an elevator. We don’t have to climb. We’ll be up there much quicker! Great!” Taemin discovers.

“Great,” Kibum’s echo sounds more than a little sarcastic. They cram themselves into the elevator alongside what seems like a hundred other tourists but in reality can’t be more than ten.

“Isn’t this fun? We could never get away with doing this in Korea,” Taemin chatters. “Can you imagine trying to get up the 63 building like this?”

“No,” Kibum says drily, “because I would never want to get up the 63 building. Ever.”

The elevator begins to move. Kibum is uncharacteristically silent as it rises. Taemin eyes him, a little unnerved – Kibum is usually impossible to shut up. He’s not worried, not exactly – but he doesn’t like the way Kibum's eyes have gone tight at the edges, and his shoulders are tense and slightly hunched. The first hint of guilt takes root in his chest, but he pushes it down forcefully. He’s doing all this for Kibum’s own good! And his hyung agreed, too. It’s not like Taemin physically dragged him up here. Kibum will thank him when his fear of heights is cured.

The elevator opens and they crowd out among the other tourists. They’re on an observation deck, open to the air as the city of Paris stretches out belo