Since they met, Taemin had hung out with After Midnite everyday for over a week. After they had all gone to dinner that night, an instant friendship had clicked between them. 

Taemin adored them. They were fun and exciting, and had such a handle on their lives as internet celebrities, having been internet celebrities for five years already.

They would even give Taemin advice. They showed him how to be a person in the spotlight, how to always be ready to greet fans, how to get noticed less, where to shop for more stylish brands; the list goes on. It was a great time for Taemin, hanging with these awesome people and learning to adjust into this stardom type of role. 

Conversely, Ravi and Sungwoon loved hanging out with Taemin as much as he loved hanging out with them. His personality fit meshed really well with theirs so their dynamic as a group was great.

He wasn’t gonna say it out loud, but Taemin was relieved to have made friends who were also in the spotlight. Over these past few weeks, major changes had been happening in his life and he kinda felt like he’d been going through them alone. Of course he always had support from his friends at the college, but they sometimes couldn’t really relate to his experiences. It wasn’t easy being so known.

His phone was still always flooding with tags and DMs. He had family calling him to send them money, random students at college pretending to be his friend, people following him around in public, and he still had to keep up his studies. Taemin was an excellent student at the beginning of the semester but with all these distractions, it was hard to keep it all up. Something had to give.

Taemin could admit that perhaps he had been giving less attention to his friends, in turn for getting to be around Ravi and Sungwoon more. He didn’t exactly mean to blow them off, but this was After Midnite, y’know? They had 10 million subscribers. It was a big deal. They could literally hang out with anyone, and they chose Taemin. He wasn’t wrong for wanting to be around them. In fact, Taemin would make the bet that if his friends had the chance to spend all their time with their favorite artists, they probably would as well.

Speaking of friends, here they were at the cafe, waiting on Taemin again. 

”Has Taemin been picking up anybody’s calls?” Jongin asked the table. 

“Did you try his new YouTube clique? Maybe they can patch you through to him.” Kibum snapped aggressively. He couldn’t help it, he was pissed. Taemin had missed another two of the fashion show rehearsals during the past week. Needless to say, it was stressing Kibum out. The final rehearsal was tomorrow and the actual show, the day after that. 

”Is he even gonna show up? We’re gonna miss the movie! Yah! Do something about your flaky boyfriend!” Jongin complained.

”He’s your best friend. You do something.” Minho grumbled. He hadn’t been too happy being ignored lately either. He was happy for Taemin but the latter had been getting a little distant. He didn’t know if Taemin was doing it on purpose or subconsciously but either way, it didn’t feel good.

Speak of the devil.

“Sorry I’m late!” Taemin appeared, scooting into the booth next to Minho, giving him a quick peck on the lips before setting his bags down beside him. “We got spotted at the mall. A bunch of teenagers wanted pictures.” He unlocked his phone, checking a text.

Everyone quieted down when Taemin arrived at the table. No one responded to his excuse, just looking at the table or each other.

”What?” Taemin questioned the silence, looking between them. “Are you guys seriously mad at me for being a little late?”

”Almost two hours late.” Kibum corrected.

”And it’s the third time this week.” Jongin added.

”Oh, come on. It’s not that big of a deal. Right?” he asked, turning to Minho for backup.

”... A call would have been nice. We’ve been waiting for you so we can go to the premiere.” Minho explained.

”Uh, what premiere?”

”I told you he forgot about it.” Kibum rolled his eyes.

Jongin looked at Taemin like he was crazy. ”Avengers? The one we’ve been planning for a month?” They were all pretty serious Avengers fans.

Taemin’s mouth dropped. ”That’s tonight?? I can’t go tonight. Ravi, Sungwoon, and I are shooting our video tonight, we already rented the location!” He face palmed.

Taemin, Sungwoon, and Ravi had decided to collaborate on a project. After Midnite had the idea to include online sensation Dancing Machine into their newest video. Since a few weeks had passed since Taemin’s breakout, the hype around him started to die down (as trends usually do). They were able to kill two birds with one stone. Taemin would pop back out onto the scene again and Rav