Taemin POV

♪ ♫ Ladies and gentlemen, how do you do? ♪ ♫

I toss and turn in my bed.

♪ ♫ I don't know where my dog's at ♪ ♫

It's so nice and warm and cozy.

♪ ♫ Ho, yo, everybody go, no stops brrrrrrrrrr ♪ ♫

Next to me I also hear a tired groan.

"Turn off the alarm." I say half asleep.

♪ ♫ West coast, south side, hey no side ♪ ♫

"On it." Minho murmurs next to me in his dark morning voice.

I close my eyes for a short additional moment but then tear them open in a complete panic. I look into brown, beautiful, big, no less terrified eyes.

At the same time, Minho and I jump up from the bed. Neither of us says a word, nor do we look at each other. But I can literally feel that his cheeks have also turned at least as hot as mine. The cheeks on his face, I might add.

"Did we...?" I frantically reach over my body and am sad relieved to find that I am fully dressed.

"No. No! No." I hear from the man standing on the other side of the bed, a little too sure for my taste.

"Okay..." I nod.

"So..." I try to begin, but immediately fall silent again.

Unfortunately, you can't nod away embarrassment I realize.

"Did you...sleep well?" I ask him, but immediately scold myself in my head.

"I will go now." Minho says in a monotone tone of voice.

He must have spotted something very exciting on the floor and I too find that I particularly like the wallpaper today.

"Yep." Is the only thing I can say.

I press my lips together and try to sort out my thoughts. With my face in my hands, I drop onto the bed as I hear the hotel room door close.

"What the Taemin?" I breathe out deeply.

"Oh no!" I immediately jolt back up.

I don't have time to process everything. In a rush I reach for the tablet and unlock it. But the hectic pace disappears from my limbs at once when I see that there are no more unanswered emails.

"What the...?"

I open the last email sent.

‘Sent to [email protected]’

Subject: E.T Remake(s)

'Dear Mr Spielberg,

I have noticed that many of your timeless classics have been remade.

But I wonder: What about E.T?

My client Choi Jiwoo may not be a little girl anymore, but I am sure she would embody the role of E.T exquisitely as well.

She is the best bicycle rider I know.

If the alien doesn't have to have a girl as his best friend, I can offer you Choi Minho as an alternative. With a little CGI, we can get his very masculine face to look a little younger.

Best regards,

The assistant of the assistant'

The corners of my mouth shoot up. All the embarrassment from a moment ago is replaced by a very warm feeling in my heart.

I drop back onto the bed and clutch the tablet very tightly.

As I close my eyes, I can still clearly detect Minho's scent and my memories of last night come flooding back. 

-- Memories of last night --

"I also think your mother should be paid in a fair way, but maybe we can rephrase this email?" I say to him and delete the words:

'If the numbers of Ms Choi's payment are not to be confused with a phone number, then it's too little!

PS: No wonder you're not married, as cheap as you are!'

"Okay, okay." Says Minho.

"What's the polite form of 'You old miser, pay my mother properly or I'll send her bodyguards over!" he asks me and we both have to laugh.

Minho has a nice laugh. His eyes crease slightly and his white teeth are showing.

I can't stifle a yawn. It's getting late and the only thing I want to do is sleep. But I still have at least twenty emails to answer before I can even think of getting ready for bed.

"Why don't you lie down? I'll do the rest." He says.

"You've helped me so much already." I whisper as I am unable to do more.

"After all, it's my work." I say.

"And I stopped you from doing it." He looks at me a little pityingly. I must look really tired.

"Okay." I give in, still barely able to keep my eyes open.

"But I'm just resting my eyes for five minutes." I say.

I can't tell if it's the weariness that's getting the better of me, whether it's simply because I feel comfortable around Minho. But as if it were a given and the most natural thing in the world, I rest my head against his shoulder as I close my eyes. 

Minho POV

I would have preferred to sink into the ground. My hair is a mess, I still have sleep in my eyes and my clothes are completely wrinkled. With a sight like that, Taemin will never take me seriously as his arch-enemy.

I stop abruptly.

What exactly do I want?

As I close the door to my hotel room behind me, I have to lean against it. For having slept so well, my heart is racing pretty fast. Maybe I should go to the doctor with this. It's definitely not normal, the way this has been happening so often lately.

I take a deep breath and go to the bathroom. With my hair perfectly in place, I take a brand new shirt out of my suitcase. Of course, it's a one-of-a-kind. As I look at the print with the tiger wearing a flower crown, I know it can't be anything but intimidating. 

"You're a man!" I say into the mirror, pointing at myself.

"Now don't show any weakness!" I kiss my tensed biceps.

"Raaaawr!" I growl into the mirror, but startle at the sight of myself.

I am danger!

--

"Good morning." Mother waves me over to her. With her are Aeg and Yo.

I know I should be irritated by their matching outfits. Aeg and Yo in particular look like they're from a KPOP music video from 2010 in the way too tight, colourful jeans, but my eyes are locked on just one person. 

I have to swallow when I see Taemin. Just now my confidence was shining brighter than my bleached teeth in a glow in the dark party, and now my legs feel like I've run a marathon.

Somewhere between the snakes and last night, my plan got lost. Maybe I lost it in the forest with the snakes. Or maybe I just left it at home.

Either way, all I can think about is how cute Taemin looks. How cute he looked when he was sleeping and how cute he looked this morning when I woke up next to him.

How I would love to wake up next to him the next morning too.

I'm no expert on being a superhero, but I don't think Batman feels that way about the Joker.

"...Morning." I greet everyone, though only like a kitten rather than a tiger.

 "Hi." Taemin smiles at me. Okay, as soon as I get back home, I make a doctor's appointment. My heart has been going really crazy lately.

"Hey." I say back, daring to look over at him. It's only a brief moment, but we smil