Taemin was lying on his bed like a man on death row. Tonight was the most important party of the year—at least that was what Kibum called it—but Taemin was contemplating if he was even attending. It felt more like a chore than anything. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Halloween, but he just didn’t see the point. Cheap thrills weren’t his thing—it didn’t affect him.

But like every year, he didn’t want to disappoint his friends. To add to that, this year the party was held at Minho’s, his ‘bit more than’ friend—the ‘bit more than’ being their little secret. As the sun was slowly setting, he couldn’t stop thinking about what would likely happen once their other friends would leave, and a grin appeared on his lips. He had just found the right incentive.

He finally gathered the courage to get up and get ready. As always, he left his house in a hurry and he rushed through the streets. Fortunately, Minho was living not too far and his parents had decided to spend the weekend with some friends, leaving the enormous house to them for the night.

Taemin smirked at the scarecrows, carved pumpkins and plastic bats as he walked quickly. People really lacked imagination, he thought. He couldn’t understand why on earth people spent time decorating their front yards that way.

Once he arrived at Minho’s he rang the bell and had to wait several minutes before the door opened before him.

“Taemin, finally!” his friend Jonghyun said excitedly. “We were starting to think you weren’t coming.” His cheap bat costume made him look silly.

“I wasn’t going to leave you to have all the fun without me, Jjong, who do you think I am?” Taemin answered with a smile.

As he entered the house, a shiver went down his spine as he saw the place had been decorated for Halloween. It didn’t look tacky like the other houses did, however. It looked like an old abandoned mansion, and there was something eerie about the place. At that moment, Taemin secretly hoped Minho hadn’t decorated his bedroom.

He glanced at his boyfriend as he arrived in the huge living room, and the man gave him a warm—and loving, he hoped—smile. Taemin let out a breath of relief as he realized Minho hadn’t dressed up. He smiled back at him just as he heard a laugh coming from the kitchen, right behind the counter.

Kibum—who was dressed up as a vampire—was talking loudly with another man. Guilt rose up in him as he realized it was his older brother Jinki, whom he hadn’t seen for way too long.

It wasn’t that he didn’t get along with his brother—he did. The issue was that he never felt completely comfortable when he was around. He knew Minho and him were close, but still he couldn’t understand why Minho had invited him to the party. He hadn’t even known his brother was back in town.

Jinki had left the family home five years prior as he went to university. Since he had never gotten along with their parents, he had only ever come back a few Christmases, and since he had never displayed any particular affection towards Taemin, he had learned to be indifferent in return.

As Kibum and Jinki noticed him, their discussion died and they came into the living room to greet him. When Kibum caught up to him, he jumped him and pretended to bite his neck.

“Ah, stop that,” Taemin said as he rolled his eyes.

“I can’t help it, I’m a vampire!” Kibum answered with wide eyes. “I like to blood!”

I’d rather something else, Taemin refrained himself from saying back, a smirk appearing on his lips nonetheless. He would usually have said it out loud, but Jinki’s presence made him uneasy. He didn’t know how to act around him. Kibum seemed to notice his shift in behavior and gave him a sympathetic smile.

“Hi, Taemin,” Jinki greeted him. “I’m happy to see you—it’s been a while.”

“Hi, yes, it has,” Taemin answered with the most genuine smile he could produce—his heart wasn’t in it.

“Maybe we could watch a movie?” Minho asked as he got up from the couch. As Taemin glanced at him, he realized Minho had felt the tension rising in the room. “I made a list, we just need to choose from it.”

Kibum and Jonghyun ran to the couch and started fighting for the remote. Kibum managed to grab it and started scrolling through Minho’s list while Jonghyun made himself more comfortable and commented on each movie that appeared on the screen.

Minho sat on the couch and Taemin followed him while Jinki walked towards the patio, gesturing at his cigarette pack.

“Why did you invite him?” Taemin asked in a whisper to make sure nobody else could hear him. “I didn’t even know he was in town.”

He tried to keep a straight face, but he knew that Minho could read him well enough to understand he was annoyed.

“He asked me, actually,” his boyfriend answered and Taemin stared wide-eyed. “I swear. He came back two days ago and I ran into him at the store yesterday. I told him what we had planned and he asked to come,” he explained. “I should have asked you, I’m sorry,” he added thoughtfully.

“I’m good, don’t worry,” Taemin said as he shook his head.

“However,” Minho went on as he got closer to Taemin’s ear. “I have something upstairs to make up for it. Just you and me.”

Minho winked and lightly brushed his hand over his thigh. Taemin closed his eyes for a second and breathed out heavily—his boyfriend knew how to drive him crazy. He was now feeling hot and could only think about getting in Minho’s bed.

“Have you chosen the movie?” Jinki asked as he came back into the living room.

“So, you choose,” Kibum started. “Paranormal Activity—”

“It’s tacky,” Taemin interrupted.

“You’re no fun, Taemin,” Jonghyun said, only half-joking.

Taemin grinned at Jonghyun’s remark. They had kind of forced him to come, so he decided to make it his duty to make the task of choosing a movie difficult for them.

“What about The Ring or The Grudge?” Jonghyun asked. “Too tacky too?

Taemin pursed his lips and nodded, happy to make them sigh.

“There’s also The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, I’ve always wanted to watch that one!” Kibum said enthusiastically as he continued scrolling down.

“Well that one is just lame,” Taemin argued.

“You know a lot for someone who doesn’t like horror movies, Taemin,” Jinki said with a laugh as he sat on Minho’s other side.

“Oh, I like horror movies,” Taemin said back defiantly. The fact that his own brother didn’t know that about him annoyed him, and his patronizing tone annoyed him even more. “I just don’t like bad movies.”

“There’s also The Human Centipede that looked nice,” Minho told Kibum and Jonghyun.

“ Nice? Really?” Taemin said as he felt like he was about to throw up. “That one is really just disgusting,” he added, his voice rising.

“What do you mean?” Minho asked innocently.