Once again

"Dialogue that is bolded is in English"

"Dialogue that is underlined is in Chinese"

~

A couple of months after Minki's dramatic “meeting the parents”, as all of Nu'est called that night although only he and Dongho knew all the details, Minki and Tao were on a date in Myeongdong on one of their few free afternoons that they had together.

Tao had a cap pulled low over his eyes and a mask obscuring the rest of his face. Minki was in a cute dress he had found the week before and had wanted an excuse to wear.

Jonghyun had cornered the boy after he had snuck into the dorm that night and informed him that while he understood his reasons for sneaking out and would keep his cross-dressing secret from Minhyun and Aaron and their manager, he shouldn't sneak out without letting his leader know first.

Minki had agreed, of course, and thanked him for keeping it from the others.

Smiling brightly, Minki threaded his fingers through Tao's, “Oppa has such nice hands~” he teased.

Tao looked amusedly at the younger boy, “you say things like that way too easily.”

“Minki yah?” a sharp voice cut through their flirting and the couple whirled around to see Aaron standing behind them, staring at his favourite member, “why are you wearing a dress?”

“Oppa!” Minki said loudly and brightly, fixing a pointed smile on his face, “so nice to see you, lets go catch up over here!”

Before the elder boy could react, Minki had grabbed one of his arms and dragged him into a nearby alley way, Tao trailing behind shooting worried looks over his shoulders to check if anyone was staring. No one was.

“Hyung,” said Minki in the alley way, “meet my girlfriend, Choi Jeonghwa,” he spread out his arms and twirled a little, “aren't I pretty Oppa?” he cooed, batting his lashes at the confused boy.

“Minki,” Aaron began, staring suspiciously at Tao, “What. The. Actual. .” He said in English, punctuating each word with a step forward.

Blinking rapidly as he thought, Minki swallowed and dropped the cute act. “Hyung,” he began, “I don't really have a girlfriend. I only said that so that we could get more publicity through the scandal and everything. Only I – I've never had a girlfriend before. Never dated any one before. And Tao hyung's company wanted him to have a scandal too, a fake one, so I applied and got the job but they don't know I'm me, or even that I'm really a boy and please don't tell anyone! Especially Jonghyun, he's been acting so strange lately...”

Minki trailed off as Aaron raised a hand. Tao could do nothing but look on helplessly.

“What are you going to do if someone does find out?” the American asked harshly, “you would be ruined, both of you. And not just you. The rest of us, your members would be dragged down with you. This is Korea Minki, you know that better than I do. You're from Busan, what do you think your family and friends back home would think?”

“I-I don't..”

“I gave up NYU to come here and debut,” Aaron reminded him, “You know how much that cost me. Are you really willing to throw away all my effort, all our effort for some publicity?”

Minki was almost in tears now, “I-I'm sorry,” he whimpered, “I didn't think, I'm so sorry.”

“And you,” Aaron ignored the younger boy in favour of levelling his “boyfriend” with a glare, “you knew from the beginning didn't you? And yet you still went through with it. You should know better. I'm sure there are some of your members who have given up so much to debut. I heard you were only a trainee for a short time though so maybe you don't really understand. Training is hell. Your members went through hell to debut and you're throwing it all away on this stupid scandal. Oh, I know, your company put you up to it. But you should have told them you couldn't do it with Minki. I don't care what reason you gave them. Tell them he's a boy for all I care! But you shouldn't risk everything we've all worked so hard for on this stupid gay scandal. Because they will find out. I just hope for all our sakes you do the smart thing and end this before it gets to that point. It's a miracle that you two have lasted so long without getting caught so I suppose you are careful. But that's not going to be enough. So end this. Now. Before everyone involved gets hurt beyond repair.”

“Please Hyung,” Minki sobbed, grabbing Aaron's arm and staring him in the face even as his tears began to fall, “please don't do this. We'll be careful! I promise! And we'll end it soon but...Not right now. Please?”

Aaron looked seriously at the boy, trying to not let the tears affect him even as he knew it was a hopeless cause, “I won't make you end it now, but it should be soon.” He sighed, shooting a glare at Tao before glancing back at Minki and pulling him into a hug, “does anyone else know?” he asked softly.

“Dongho yah. I told him straight away. He's been helping me sneak out and stuff.” Minki whispered, “Hyung...thank you.”

“Don't thank me just yet,” Aaron said drily, “chances are we're all going to regret this day and wish we'd just done what I suggested in the first place.”

“Never,” Minki swore, squeezing Aaron tightly, “never ever ever.”

“Never say never,” Aaron whispered too quietly to be heard over Minki's still ragged breathing.

-SceneBreak-

That night when EXO-M returned to their dorm after training, Kris didn't join in the fight for the shower, choosing instead to pull Tao aside into the younger's bedroom.

Kris's mind was in turmoil. He didn't know what to think or feel. He had thought that his younger brother would break it off with that girl a week after they came out as dating. But then Han had invited her over for dinner and Kris had failed to scare her off. The two had continued to text each other and go on dates when they had free time and then all of a sudden a month had gone by and Kris had had enough. This had all gone on far too long and needed to be ended. He had been willing to wait for it to naturally draw to a close so as not to upset his younger brother, but he couldn't wait any more. Their comeback was quickly approaching and Kris didn't want Tao to be distracted with thoughts of his long separation from his girlfriend.

...At least, that's what Kris told himself to justify the cold hard knot of anger that formed in his chest whenever he thought of the pretty girl.

“You need to break up with Jeonghwa.” The leader sad as soon as the door was closed behind them. “Our comeback is next month and we can't afford to have you distracted. It was nice while it lasted but it's time to let it go now.” Looking into Tao's eyes, Kris could see the hurt that he'd thought he'd steeled himself against. 'It's necessary' he silently admonished himself, 'it's for the good of the group. As the leader you need to think about everyone, not just Tao.'

“We're not really dating,” Tao said, so quietly that Kris, lost in his thoughts, almost missed it and had to ask the younger boy to repeat himself. “The company set it up. They wanted a scandal. Why else would I be allowed to date? We do have a dating ban.”

Kris had nothing to say to that so he just gaped, slack jawed at Tao.

“Jeonghwa knows. She knows that it's not real, that it can't be real. But she wanted to do it anyway. I think she just wanted practice for dating someone because she just moved here from Busan and never dated back there and everyone here is really intimidating.” Tao paused, glanced away from his leader to take a deep breath and then looked him back in the eyes as he continued, “we actually had this conversation with her Oppa who surprised us in Myeongdong today. It took some time and he's still opposed to it but he's going to let us end it in our own time. I hope you will do the same.”

Kris looked into Tao's eyes and saw how serious he was. Taking a deep breath, to steel himself, not calm himself down to refrain from jumping in joy, he told the younger boy, his baby brother: “Fine. But I still don't like it.”

-SceneBreak-

A week before EXO-M were scheduled to leave for China, Jeonghwa went over to their dorm to say goodbye to her oppas, especially her boyfriend.

She and said boyfriend were currently in Tao's room, talking.

Minki had dropped the girl act as soon as the door was closed behind them and Tao had shot him a grin. He kept the wig on, just in case someone decided to check in on them, but spoke in his normal voice, just quietly enough that no one outside the room could hear a male voice rather than pretty Jeonghwa's.

Minki was currently sitting primly in the chair at Tao's desk while the latter sprawled over his bed. The younger boy was recounting how Jonghyun had poured boiling water all over his hand rather than into his mug as he attempted to make himself a cup of tea the night before.

“Manager hyung took him to the hospital of course, but the doctors said that it wasn't that bad and just told him to run it under lots of cold water and gave him a cream to put on it. So of course Dongho yah insisted on calling him princess all day even though Minhyunnie kept saying that I was the princess. Aaron hyung just doesn't get involved when we start talking really fast like that,” Minki grinned, “his Korean still needs a lot of work. Although it is better than yours,” he teased.

“Shut up,” Tao said and threw a pillow at Minki's head, grinning the whole time. “I don't know why I thought it was just SM artists who were insane. Obviously it's a Korean thing.”

“What about Luhan and Yixing hyungs?” Minki demanded, “they're just as crazy as we are!”

“It's the water,” Tao said seriously, “Lu and Xingxing have been here so long and have been drinking the water for so long that it's corrupted their minds.”

Minki bit down on the pillow Tao had thrown at him to stifle his laughter, his whole body shaking from the effort.

“Yah Choi Minki-” Tao began but was cut off by the sharp crack of the door closing loudly.

Minki's laughter subsided immediately as he looked up to see Kris glaring at him even as the older boy addressed Tao.

“Isn't Minki a boys name?”

Tao gulped and glanced at Minki who had stood up and placed the pillow on his chair.

“You don't know what you're talking about,” Minki said seriously, staring Kris straight in the eye.

“Ah, Minki ah, I already told him about the company,” Tao said appologetically, “can't we just tell him the rest? He's the Gege I'm closest to and...”

“It's okay,” Minki sighed, looking fondly at his fake boyfriend, “I told Dongho didn't I? You could have told him earlier.”

“He would have freaked out and made me call it off like your Hyung tried to do,” Tao explained before taking a deep breath and turning to Kris, “Gege. Jeonghwa's really a boy and his name is Minki. He's from Nu'est. The company doesn't know that he's a boy and I would like to keep it that way. Please don't freak out on me.”

“Jeonghwa is actually...No. No this cannot happen. It's off. I'm telling manager hyung that it didn't work out. I'll keep the fact that Jeonghwa is actually....It doesn't matter. Please don't come back here or contact Zitao again.”

“GE!” Tao yelled, “You can't do this. You promised.”

“I know I promised Taozi but what do you want me to say? That it's all okay and nothing bad will happen? That's a lie and if you actually thought about this you would see it too. You know I didn't approve of this, how can you possibly expect me to stick my neck out, to stick out the necks of Han and Yixing and Minseok and Jongdae because you want to play house with another boy?” By the end of his rant Kris was shouting and Tao had shrunk back into himself on the bed as if he wished he could disappear. “Since it's obvious that you're not going to do anything about it I, as your leader and your ge, will take care of it all so put it from your mind and please, focus on our comeback.”

“There's nothing wrong with liking boys Ge,” Tao said quietly, “love is love no matter what it looks like or who it's between.”

Kris flinched back at Tao's words as if he had been struck, “THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS CONVERSATION!” He yelled, “YOU ARE NO LONGER “DATING” THIS AND THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT!”

“DUIZHANG YOU TAKE THAT BACK!” Tao roared, just as enraged as his leader, “MINKI IS NOT A AND I'M NOT BREAKING UP WITH HIM! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DO OR SAY. WHO I DATE IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T AFFECT WORK AND IT'S NOT! ASK ANYONE ELSE! THEY'LL TELL YOU THAT THE ONLY EFFECT MINKI HAS ON MY WORK IS THAT I WORK HARDER TO COMPLETE SCHEDULES AND TRAINING FASTER SO I CAN SEE HIM OR TALK TO HIM AGAIN! THAT I TREASURE THE FACT THAT WHENEVER WE GO ON THE RADIO HE TEXTS ME AFTERWARDS TO SAY I DID A GOOD JOB AND THAT HE'S PROUD OF ME! HOW DARE YOU TRY TO TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME!”

By this time Tao was in tears and Minki, not being able to understand anything that was said except for his name, moved over to hug him gently, telling him that they'd figure it out and “please don't cry Hyung, I don't like it when you cry.”

Kris glared at the couple on the bed, feeling as though he wanted to cry himself. Instead he turned and stormed out of the room and soon after the sound of the front door slamming closed echoed through the dorm.

-SceneBreak-

“Jeonghwa is a boy,” Kris announced loudly by way of greeting.

Joonmyung looked up from where he was checking comments on EXO-K's fan café and blinked up at his co-leader, “Jeonghwa as in Tao's girlfriend?”

“What other Jeonghwa do we know?” Kris snapped, dropping roughly onto the bed next to the younger boy.

“Well there's the stylist noona,” Joonmyung began thoughtfully, “and I think one of the PDs for MNET or something's name is Jeonghwa too...”

“What other Jeonghwa do we actually care about,” Kris growled, “and can you please take this more seriously? EXO is about to go through a gay scandal. There are enough rumours about Han and Sehun and Chanyeol and Baekhyun. Not to mention Kyungsoo. We need to get him to stop this before it blows up in our faces.”

“Is that what Tao wants?” Joonmyung asked seriously, “because it sounds to me like you're making all his decisions for him. I'm sure it was hard enough for him to come out to you like this without you making everything about you.” Joonmyung wasn't looking at Kris while he spoke which was a good thing for the elder man who was gaping, slack jawed, at the Korean man, “We should be supportive of him during this time. You don't control your uality you know. It's just how it is and it's better if you just accept that. Of course it's easier when the people you're around and who you love support you too.” Here Joonmyung turned to give his Chinese counterpart a stern, admonishing look, “besides,” he continued after a long moment of silence, “a gay scandal will be great publicity. And if anything needs to be covered up, the company is more than used to things like that.”

Once again there was the sound of a front door slamming as Kris stormed out.

-SceneBreak-

A couple of minutes after Kris left EXO-M's dorm, Han poked his head in the door, “the walls are really thin,” he said, startling Tao and Minki who hadn't heard the door open, “we heard all the shouting. I agree with Taozi, love is love. I'll support you guys. Don't worry about Duizhang, Xingxing and I will make sure he doesn't try anything but he'll probably come around soon anyway.”

Tao threw himself on Han, sobbing into his chest as his ge petted his hair soothingly and told him it would all be okay while Tao just repeated “Xiexie Gege” over and over, like some kind of mantra and Minki surreptitiously, wiped his own eyes clear of tears, being careful not to smudge his make up and informed the elder Chinese boy that “you're my new favourite Hyung. After Tao hyung of course.”

“Luhan's right,” Jongdae spoke up suddenly from behind Han, “Duizhang's being an idiot which is normal, but he's being a too which I'm never going to let him forget once he comes to his senses.”

“Do you want to stay the night?” EXO's manager asked Minki awkwardly, “you can sleep in here with Tao, I think that would be best...”

“Thank you but I don't think that's a good idea, what if Kris comes back? He won't be very happy to see me here and things are bad enough I think...” Minki said.

“Well then you should at least stay for dinner,” Minseok insisted, “we made enough for seven people anyway and I don't feel like feeding Duizhang at the moment.”

Minki laughed and nodded, “I'd like that. Thank you hyung duel.”

-SceneBreak-

Kris stood in front of Nu'est's dorm, shivering slightly in the cold as he waited for someone to answer the doorbell and thanked ever god he'd ever heard of, and some he was pretty sure he'd just made up, for Amber and her endless list of contacts in the entertainment industry.

“Hello?” a voice finally crackled through the speaker, “who is it?”

“It's Kris, I'm the leader of EXO-M,” Kris said, trying to control his emotions so he could remember how to speak Korean. Being quad-lingual was hard.

“Oh. … Did you want to come in?” the voice asked, sounding rather confused.

“Yes please,” Kris said. Or hoped he said. Korean was hard....

Soon enough he was sitting in the living room of Nu'est's dorm surrounded by the four members who weren't currently back in EXO's dorm.

“I'm here because your member, Minji, is trying to date my little brother Tao,” Kris said. Or tried to say.

In reality it was nothing but nonsense that only Dongho, who had suspected the reason for the visit since Minhyun had found out the identity of their mysterious visitor, could guess the meaning of.

“Jonghyun,” he cut in, “I think he's got us confused with another group. You know how many rookie groups there are these days. I think he's after A-JAX or C-Clown. Hyung, you come help me translate.”

Without leaving any time for Jonghyun or Aaron to respond, he grabbed Kris' and Aaron's arms and dragged them into his and Minki's room.

“Hyung, you know about Minki and Tao right? I think he's here to try and get us to break them up. Tell him we're not interested please?” he said after shoving both the men he had dragged in onto his bed (which was further from the door) while he sat on Minki's.

“Wait a second.” Aaron said, “who said we're not interested? I'm interested. And I don't think Jonghyun and Minhyun even know. Do they? So really. It's just you who's not interested.”

“But Hyung!” Dongho said, scandalised, “how can you say that? Can't you see how happy Minki is these days? You don't honestly believe that's from you hugging him more do you? It's obvious that dating Tao makes him really happy. Like a normal teenager. He, we, are only 16 after all. What were you like when you were 16? I bet you could date whoever you wanted without there being this big fuss. Can't we let Minki do the same for as long as possible?”

Aaron thought about the life he'd left behind in America. About high school and Amanda, the cute girl who was in almost all of his classes who smiled and flirted with him before class and who he'd kissed one day at her locker. Who he'd dated and taken to prom and then broken up with because he was going to New York for university while she was going to UCLA.

“Are you really going to take that away from him?” Dongho's voice cut in quietly. And Aaron imagined what it would have been like if his friends, Amanda's friends, their families and everyone at their school had been against their relationship. If he was forced to give up the sweet kisses and soft skin. The shy smile beneath eyes that dances wickedly in the moonlight after she'd snuck out of her house to meet him at 3am because they couldn't get enough of each other.

“We already know about Minki and Tao and we approve of their relationship,” he said at last to the leader of EXO-M sitting beside him.

-tbc-

Suzette: Another chapter! Yay! And now for months of nothing because I'm horrible like that!! (Just kidding, my parents are dragging me on another church camp soon so I should be able to get at least the next chapter out of that and then since there will only be one chapter left I should be able to write that quickly)

Hello to all my new subscribers~ Don't get used to this fast updates. Chapters are uploaded as they're written and I don't write as often as I should.

I forgot to mention in the last chapter but this is, as always, dedicated to the lovely Amanda who puts up with all my nonsense.

If you think these past couple of updates have had drama, just wait til you see what the last two have in store! They're really exciting. And we finally get to see more of Minhyun!! And EXO-K!!! Who else is excited?! (you probably shouldn't be because it's probably going to be ages for me to update but I'm excited at the moment which is good news for you because it means I might actaully write more of this before June :P)