♦Curiosity Killed the Rapper♦

.02

The pale blue throw rug slid closer to the edge of the black leather as the feet beneath wiggled, the owner of said limbs stretching out further across the lounge with a low groan, long arms reaching up into the air and back arching before eventually flopping again.

Minho exhaled heavily as his head met the armrest, neck becoming stiff from staring down at the silver laptop warming his stomach for so long. Dark eyes trailed away from the bright backlight of the screen to seek out the wall clock in the dimly lit living room, barely making out where the hands were pointing to, only to remember there was a clock on his laptop he could check.

It was nearing midnight, three hours had passed since the rapper first decided it was bedtime. Yet here he was, still nice and snug under the warmth of his makeshift blanket with no intentions of stepping out onto the cold tiles to make the miserable trek to his freezing bed.

He knew getting as much sleep as possible was important since SHINee had dance practice first thing in the morning, but Minho was finding it hard to pull himself away from the endless void that was Tumblr.

The rapper should've heeded Onew's warning. Minho didn't think it possible to be into something that seemed so confusing to navigate. But he was wrong, you apparently didn't need to know your way around in order to be completely immersed in this internet life.

Minho never understood all the chaos of Tumblr that everyone went on and on about, had never been interested in the contents of such a website. That was of course until he stumbled across some interesting tags that related to SHINee.

He'd heard of the infamous shipping tags used to pair certain members of their group together from fans plenty of times before, but Minho never actually considered researching any of them.

He stumbled upon it completely by accident, he hadn't meant to delve into something so...weird. But his eyes caught the words 'SHINee fanfictions' and '2min' and before he could stop himself he was already clicking the link and waiting with curiosity – and caution – burning through him as the page loaded in a new tab.

Feeling self-conscious, Minho snuck fleeting glances over his shoulder every now and then, eyes drifting towards the closed door of the bedroom before darting straight back to the screen as words suddenly flittered across it in bold, eye-catching black.

Minho glanced over the story, suddenly remembering that the ship '2min' represented himself and Taemin. Despite the frantic pace of his fluttering heart and the ghosting thoughts of being caught looking at such things by his hyungs – or heaven forbid, Taemin himself – the idol clicked on the first chapter and scrolled down to the beginning sentence.

Halfway through the story Minho had somehow ended up rolling over to lie on his stomach, the lower half of his legs dangling in the air over the edge of the armrest as he'd scooted across the leather to make room for the laptop to rest in front of him.

One hand cupped his chin, supporting his head as his free fingers lazily trailed further down the page, his thoughts and attention completely focused on the fanfiction.

He'd made it as far as the fifth chapter, and in his haste he eagerly clicked to the next one. Minho remembered hearing from many people, his hyungs included, that stories written by fans were scary. Things that you could never unsee once you've read it.

But the one opened in front of him seemed far from what everyone had warned him against. It was light-hearted, humorous and admittedly very well written. Some of the scenes had even stirred a surprised bout of laughter from the idol, which he'd quickly had to swallow for fear of waking the other members up.

Though there were some things that were questionable, and others that seemed a little far-fetched, like that one scene written where 'he'd' tied a bib around Taemin's neck because of his supposedly messy eating habits...but for the most part everything more or less lined up with things that would generally happen in their day-to-day life, or antics that the members would actually pull.

So after being wrapped up in so much of the fluff for the last few chapters, it came as quite a shock when Minho was suddenly thrown into the deep end. There was no warning, no subtle hints or code words strewn throughout the paragraph.

The text just took a complete one-eighty without so much as a 'hey, this is where you should probably stop reading now!'. One moment 'him' and Taemin had been in the kitchen, his maknae leaning over a bowl of cake batter and whisking vigorously while 'he' set to preheating the oven.

In the story it was Jonghyun's birthday and the two had planned to set up a surprise party whilst Onew and Key took the lead singer out for some well deserved shopping.

The scene seemed perfectly normal, even like something they would most likely attempt together in real life, except their combined lack of cooking knowledge definitely wouldn't produce food as splendid as the writer was currently describing.

Then the next paragraph is where it takes a turn. Minho's eyes fly across the words at the speed of light, skimming the text as if lingering on one word for too long word would permanently burn it into his brain.

A once sweet, tender moment of Taemin accidentally flicking chocolate batter onto his nose in his stirring haste quickly turned to 'Minho' stalking across the kitchen and pulling the shorter boy to him, their chests pressed together tightly and looped arms squeezing out what little space was left between them. 'Minho's' head craned forward, 'his' large thumb and index finger taking hold of Taemin's milky white chin and tilting the boy's head at just the right angle, their lips-

“Minho ah?”

Minho's already large eyes widened even further, rapidly beating heart suddenly freezing in his chest and hands haphazardly flying out to slam the laptop shut. He kept his fingers clenched painfully around the edges of the thin silver lid, blinded gaze darting up to search out the intruder in the dark.

Key stumbled forward in his sleepy state, mouth opening wide in a silent yawn as he rubbed at his heavy lidded eyes. The idol suddenly perked up though, gaining some sense of awareness at the startled expression of Minho. The other member looked like a deer caught in headlights.

The fashionista leaned forward, hands clutching the lounge's arm as he rocked forward on his toes, also noticing the furious blush and bobbing adams apple as his friend swallowed. Despite the darkness, the flaming red of the other rapper's face was beyond obvious, leaving Key's curious mind to ponder.

Though he didn't stay silent for long, despite how much Minho wanted him to.

“Min, what's on your laptop?”

“N-nothing,” Minho squeaked in a tone way too high to belong to the male with the lowest octaves of their group. He blinked away his own surprise and raised a fist to his mouth, clearing his throat behind it. “There's nothing on it.”

Judging by Key's half-lidded glare and tightly pursed lips, his hyung wasn't buying his pathetic attempt at brushing it off.

Before Minho knew what was happening a sudden weight crashed into him, sending him flying back to meet with the other end of the lounge. Key was quick to scrambled over and drop himself down on the taller male, effectively pinning him.

“Time to see what shady business you're getting into~”

Minho panicked, mind racing a thousand miles a minute as he writhed and wriggled beneath the heavy lump of his hyung. His arms were stuck in an awkward position beneath him, elbows bent uncomfortably and making it near impossible for him to attempt to pull them out without it hurting.

“Key no! Don't-!”

“Too late!” The diva cried, fingertips wedging themselves into the grooves before pulling up the lid. Key wiggled his hips as he further sunk himself into the other rappers stomach, getting comfortable while pulling the laptop onto his knees.

Minho went still with fear as the backlight of his laptop washed over them, eyes stinging at the sudden brightness, and he tore his gaze away to gauge the reaction of his friend. There was nothing he could do to stop Key from seeing it now.

The living room was eerily silent, the even hum of the electronic device the only thing keeping Minho sane in this situation. He could feel the blood rushing in his ears, the fire dancing across his face and the rapid, painful beating of his startled heart bashing against his ribcage.

He was done for. There's no way Key would keep this to himself, he'd for sure tell the others...and what would they think of him then? What would Taemin think?

The idol's heart stuttered and almost completely stopped at the loud outburst from his hyung, hurriedly shushing and pleading for him to keep quiet in fear of waking the other members up.

That's the last thing he needed.

Key's mouth flapped in an attempt to speak, but his words were garbled by his hysteric laughing. Minho could only watch in silent horror as the diva curled forward over the laptop, slapping a hand to his knee while he clasped the edge of the device with the other so it wouldn't slip.

Finally, once he'd regulated his breathing again, Key leaned back against the lounge, earning a pained grunt from Minho beneath. “What are you doing looking at such things?” He accused the younger idol after finding his voice.

Minho shrank further into the leather, large shoulders bunched against the armrest. He could practically feel the waves of heat radiating from his face and warming up the air around him as he stuttered out his defense, “There was a link and I was curious, I didn't know it would be this.” He gestured awkwardly with his chin to the story open for all to see.

“And yet you're five chapters in,” Key observed, scrolling to the top of the page. When Minho had no words to counter him the diva clicked his tongue with a shake of his head. “You ert, preying on our little maknae like this!”

Minho's eyes squeezed closed as one of the decorative pillows suddenly flew at him, hitting him square in the face with a loud 'fwomp' and causing his cheeks to sting.

“And it had to be this story of all the ones you could've chosen.”

The rapper's gaze suddenly locked onto his friend again, eyes wide in speculation. “Wait...you've read it?”

“Of course,” Key said with a dramatic roll of his eyes, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Minho squirmed again and the other idol finally shimmied off of him. He quickly sat up and swung his arms forward, rubbing absent-mindedly at the aching joints. “Remember when I lost that dare to Jjong?”

Minho reeled, lower back pressing against the side of the lounge as he stared incredulously at his hyung. “But why read something about Taemin and I?!”

“Well I wasn't going to read Jongkey!” Key threw back, re-adjusting the laptop as he made to cross his legs. “And Onew and chicken is...”

The two shared distasteful looks, not needing the sentence to be finished. The fashionista immediately turned the attention back to where Minho was hoping it wouldn't go.

“But I had a legitimate reason for reading it, you searched it up of your own free will. What a dirty old man you've become.”

“I did not search it up!” Minho protested, shooting up so he was at eye-level with his hyung. “And you're older than I am, so what does that make you?”

“Mine was a dare,” Key defended, refusing to budge from that excuse. The idol suddenly held out the laptop to Minho, making the younger hesitate. “But I won't tell anyone of your erted ways. If you read the next chapter.”

Minho gulped at the mischievous gleam hidden behind ruffled bangs, fingers twitching as he gingerly took the laptop into his own lap. “Why..?” He couldn't help asking, though he had a sneaking suspicion he already knew what was waiting for him.

“You'll see~” The idol sang, getting up from the lounge to stretch out his arms, a very loud, very faked yawn bellowing from his lungs and causing Minho to hiss at him to be quiet.

Key didn't bother hiding the smirk plastered to his face as he trailed back down the hallway, giving a lazy wave good night. Minho held his breath until he heard the click of the door shutting.

Suddenly a lot more reluctant to continue, the rapper slowly nestled back down under the throw rug – which had been tossed to the floor in the chaos – and turn his hesitant gaze to the screen, the bold black letters not as appealing as they had been a few minutes ago.

The fifth chapter ended with Taemin and 'Minho' breaking apart, Taemin somehow ended up sitting on the bench top with 'him' situated between the maknae's legs.

Minho paused when the cursor trailed over the button that would take him to chapter six. His stomach knotted uncomfortably, heart beating irregularly. The flames returned to his cheeks as he slowly, ever so slowly, moved onto the next page.

The large, bold 'M' listed in the rating of the story suddenly stuck out like a sore thumb and he wondered how he hadn't noticed it until now.

This chapter started off with the two idols suddenly in the bedroom that all the members shared, 'Minho' locking the door behind them despite being the only ones in the dorm right now.

Biting his bottom lip, Minho's toes curled unpleasantly within his woolly socks as he tried his hardest to push through what he knew was coming next. The two climbed up to 'his' bunk, shirts and jackets flying haphazardly across the room, hands roaming and faces flushed in rosy hues.

Minho raised a hand to his head, peeking between his fingers. He was sure his face was just as red as in the story, but for an entirely different reason.

Unable to help himself, the rapper's wavering eyes flicked down the next few paragraphs, almost choking on the sharp inhale of air when he skimmed across it. Seeing the word 'entering' was all it took for him to suddenly lurch forward, fingers flying as he closed the page, deleted his search history and turned off his laptop all in the span of a few seconds.

Minho leapt to his feet, abandoning the laptop and scrambling to the other end of the living room despite the chill of the tiled floor, using the throw rug as a barrier between him and the deceivingly innocent device.

“Fans are terrifying...” He whispered into the darkness, combing quivering fingers through his dishevelled locks.

Bed. Bed was a good idea. It was way past midnight and he had a busy schedule in the morning. Bed was exactly what he needed right now.

Without wasting a second Minho was already taking large, brisk strides towards his room, roughly tossing the throw to the lounge without looking back.

Definitely terrifying...

AN: So this is the reult of my curiosity, which I channeled into Minho for the sake of this story (sorry Minho!). Surely I'm not the only one who's ever wanted to know whether or not SHINee have read some of their fanfictions before? I bet a few of them have been curious at some point or another, so this is my take on what their reactions could possibly be!