Minho jolts awake when his phone buzzes in his hand, mildly and sits up. He flips his phone open to find a new text from Donghae.

outside in 5 mins.
-donghae

It seems like the buzz from his phone also wakes Jinki and Suzy up, so the three of them grab their jackets and head outside.

“Donghae! I need you to come back,” Minho says, approaching Donghae with a big smile on his face.

“Well, check this out,” Donghae rolls his eyes. “I got a message, from Yuri.”

“What are you talking about?” Minho raises an eyebrow, looking at Donghae dumbfoundedly. 

“I’ve been training with The Rangers, alright.”

“What?”

“They wanna offer you a deal.” Suzy narrows his eyes at a person beside Donghae, who goes by the name Henry. Henry looks like he’s taken a back, mouthing what, i don’t know anything! at her. 

“Is this a joke?” He asks. Donghae snorts.

“You want the house back? You can have it back, free and clear.”

“What’s the catch?” He asks again, clicking his tongue.

“Throw the battle.” Donghae says simply. 

“Throw the battle, huh,” Minho seriously wants to punch Donghae in the gut and the face, wants to see him rolling on the floor in pain.

“Can’t you see? I’m trying to help you here! This is real life, Minho. When are you going to wake up and see that? It’s time to grow up. The Rangers will win Battle of The Best at any cost, no doubt.” 

“You really need to leave now before I lose my patience,” Jinki grips his arm keenly, silently telling him to cool down.

“Fine, just so you know the deal is still on. Or you can take your little chance at the battle,” Donghae laughs mockingly, walking away in an arrogant manner and whistling.






The day everyone is waiting for is finally here. Minho isn’t actually that optimist that they’re going to win today, but they work hard for this and they will be very disappointed if they don’t win. They’re trying for something new for today’s Battle of The Best, and he’s pretty sure that they’re not breaking any rules. There are no rules. 

In the venue for Battle of The Best is full of excited people, jumping up and down to the beat and cheering for the people on the stage who are dancing for fun. Anxiety boils up in Minho’s body, running through his veins, their dance routine whirling in his head. (The only thing that missing is the butterflies).

“Coming up next! Something that everyone wants to see, Battle of The Best championship match up, The Rangers versus The House of Ninjas! And this battle, is the battle that you, won’t, forget!” Both of the teams walk up to the stage, standing and staring in front of each other. Of course, Yuri is standing in front of Minho, an ugly smirk plastering on her used to be beautiful face. Minho sees the way Yuri tilts her head up and eyeing him from head to toe, as if she’s completely confident that her team will win. 

They walk down the stage for some warm-ups and last minute preparation, tidying their uniform and take deep breaths. Just as Minho is about to climb up the stairs, he feels a gentle tug on his wrist. 

“Minho,” It’s Taemin, looking like he hasn’t sleep for a really long time, big gray eye bags under his eyes. He looks like a panda. “I’m really sorry,” Taemin his dry lower lip, a movement he does when he’s nervous. “I know I lied to you. But, but everything we had was real. I’m leaving to New York tonight, by plane. I know this is almost impossible and crazy, but can you come with me? I’m not actually going to do something there, but I want to spend more time with you and this is one of my way to say sorry to you, I still have more ways. That’s if you want to do it,”

“What makes you think I will trust you again?” Minho asks, glaring at Taemin.

“Because that person who was with you this whole time, that’s who I really am. That was the real me,” Minho wants to say something back, but the host is already calling The House of Ninjas to come up to the stage. In the end he just look at Taemin for the last time and not saying anything, following his friends up. 

“Minho! Wait!” Minho turns around in annoyance to face Taemin again. “Good luck. I’m sure you guys will win this.” He nods briefly at Taemin. 

Their uniforms are all about red, green and gray, same as their flag. They start dancing as the beat drop, gliding on the stage and doing their moves. Not going to lie, their opponent’s moves are bolder and sharper, but they have their secret weapons for later. 

Minho is determined to show Yuri what he got, bringing out all of his energy for today, canalizing it to his dance moves. Their shoes squeak against the material of the stage, beads of sweat running down their face and they’re getting sweaty every seconds.

By the end of the third round, The Rangers is leading. Not by far, but The House of Ninjas can’t show their secret weapons, yet. It’s for the final round. If they show it now, The Rangers will have more dances to show them and Minho is sure that The Rangers will take them down.

“Hey, hey, we can take ‘em down,” All of sudden Taemin grabs his arm, and he can see the same determination he sees in his own eyes. 

“What, how can we do that?” Minho asks disbelievingly.

“Please just trust me, this time.” He sighs and nods, lightly pushing Taemin’s back towards the center of the stage. Taemin nods back, smiling and instantly runs to the stage, and dance. Yuri’s eyes widen, gripping Taemin’s upper arm hardly and yanks him up, screaming what the hell do you think you are you doing?

“Get off me!” Taemin screams back, pushing Yuri away. 

“No, if you want to dance, dance here with my team, not his!” Yuri tries to pull Taemin but Minho holds him, hugging Taemin’s shoulder from the back firmly.

“Stop it, I don’t want to be in your team!”

“Why are you doing this to yourself? What happened to our family?”

“This is my family, Yuri, and I love them!” Taemin shouts fiercely. For a second Minho is stunned, processing what Taemin had just said. That is the breaking point. Minho hugs Taemin’s shoulder tighter, pressing a subtle kiss on Taemin’s temple, whispering i can’t do this anymore, i love you i love you i love you into Taemin’s neck, and he ignores the sound of the wall around his heart crumble and dissolves.

Taemin laughs, turning around to give him a quick hug. They smile at each other before making their way to the center of the stage. They both still remember their couple dance steps, going through it at ease. The Rangers looks merely surprised, seeing their accurate and in-sync moves. 

That is only a beginning. Now this is the main attraction.

They purposely turn the lights off, disappearing behind their shadows and shows back up as the lights go on again, in new uniforms, all black. Minho and Jonghyun also have new uniforms, but different from the others—black leather jacket, sunglasses, black ripped skinny jeans—arms crossed over their chest, smirks playing on their lips, standing proudly behind their customized DJ table. 

Now The Rangers are very surprised, backing away. They start dancing again to the songs Jonghyun and Minho are remixing after Jonghyun happily shouts 1 2 3 4, show them who we really are, let’s go!, dancing their hearts out and letting themselves get lost in the music. Their moves aren’t messy but not too neat as well, just—just right. 

Unexpectedly, The Rangers doesn’t fight back as they show their last move, rooted in their places. 

“It seems like it’s over now, so let the judges decide who’s going home and who’s going to win! Judges, are you ready? What flag will you guys raise, green and red for The House of Ninjas, or black and gold for The Rangers?” Minho feels nervousness creeping up again, tickling his insides. Then a warm hand takes a hold of his calloused one, making him glance to his side.

“We are going to win,” Taemin says, no hesitation.

“How can you be so sure?” He asks, ruffling Taemin’s hair with his free hand.

“I’m not sure,” Taemin shrugs his shoulder. His eyebrows furrowed. “But I know it. I know that we are going to win.” 

“Optimistic little kid,” Minho retorts, chuckling. 

“And the winner is…” Minho’s heart pounds heavily inside his ribcage, his breath erratic and uneven. Taemin squeezes his hand, closing his eyes and praying.

“Green and red flag, The House of Ninjas wins!” The host shouts enthusiastically, randomly grabbing a The House of Ninjas flag and swinging it. Minho smiles widely, subconsciously hugging Taemin and spinning him around, laughing against Taemin’s shoulder. 

“We did it! We did it! We did it!” Taemin screams, hugging him back and wrapping his long legs around Minho’s waist. After a while, Minho pulls away, brushing past some people to hug the other team members, not realizing Taemin had threw a small smile to him and went away. 

It’s when he sees his jacket lying on the floor on the corner of the stage with an envelope on top of it, he realizes that Taemin isn’t here. He crouches down and takes up the envelope, examining it. There are a neatly folded letter and one plane ticket inside the envelope, which Minho guesses is from Taemin. 

to: foxy

there’s a plane ticket along with this letter, for you. 
like i said, i’m going to new york, tonight. midnight, to be exact.


i still want you to sit beside me in the plane. 

sincerely yours,
taemin

“You already did so many things for us, and I guess this is the time for you to do something for yourself. I’ll take care of everything until you get back. I know it’s not for a very long time, but you really need times for yourself. And Taemin.” Jinki says, throwing an arm over Minho’s shoulders, despite their heights. 





Taemin sighs, fidgeting with his sling bag on his shoulder, a plane ticket to New York in his right hand. He stands up, taking a last look at the airport entrance. The flight staffs will announce the pre-boarding announcement soon. He should’ve not keep his hope up too high, expecting Minho to run through the door in any minute. What was I thinking, he was just probably not sober when he said he loves you, are you stup—

“Mister, I think you forgot something.” Someone taps him on his shoulder.

“I don't think I for—Jinki?” His jaw drops, eyes going wider.

“You forgot to say goodbye to us.” Jinki grins, spreading his arms for a hug. Some of the members are also there, wanting to send him off. Taemin laughs, running up to Jinki for a brief hug and to the others for hugs too. 

“I’m going to miss you,” Suzy pipes up, pouting and faking a cry. 

“Aww, come here my favorite little sister, brother will be back soon!” Taemin chuckles, pulling Suzy for a hug and pats her hair. Suzy has been a really good friend to him when he was still living in The Underground, listening to his stories and making him a cup hot milk when he couldn’t sleep and Minho is already asleep. 

“And I think you forgot another thing,” Jinki smiles mischievously, looking ahead past Taemin’s shoulder. Taemin turns his head around, to find Minho looking around like a lost puppy and carrying a big traveling bag. 

Their eyes locked, and Taemin freezes under Minho’s gaze. Taemin this Minho looks finer than ever, even if he’s only wrapped in a baseball jacket and dark blue jeans. Minho takes long strides to him, his favorite beige backpack bouncing up and down behind him. 

Minho stops in front of him and drops his bag onto the cold tile floor, staring down at him. And then Minho leans in, capturing his lips in a kiss, a little desperate, but no more anger, no more sadness. Oh, how he misses that lips. The butterflies are back, swimming in his stomach, clapping their wings happily, and he’s also happy that he can feel it again. Taemin smiles into the kiss, their friends whistle behind him as he breaks the kiss and hugs Minho’s waist, his head resting on Minho’s chest.

“You guys are just jealous,” Taemin says playfully.

“No, we don’t but there are kids in here, keep it PG, please!” Suzy chuckles.

“Whatever,” Minho rolls his eyes, pushing Taemin’s chin up with his index finger and thumb, “And I’d love to sit beside you on the plane,” Minho says and kisses him again, gently brushing his cheek with his thumb. Taemin giggles, wrapping his arms around Minho’s long neck and moves closer, ignoring all of the whispers people around him.

“Hey, we better get going, or else we’ll miss the plane, Captain Choi,” Tamin mutters, pulling away and picking up Minho’s bag, handing it to him. Minho smiles, taking his bag, murmuring a small thank you and kisses the top of Taemin’s head.

“Yeah, okay, let’s go,” He snakes an arm around Taemin’s waist as they say goodbye to their friends and proceeding to go to the immigration.

“Wait!” Minho stops suddenly, turning back to his friends. He moves his backpack to the front and ped it, taking out a box. “Here’s for you, Jonghyun,” He throws the box to Jonghyun, and thankfully Jonghyun catches it in time. 

“Go on, open it,” Kibum urges, nudging his elbow. Jonghyun carefully opens the box, gasping in surprise when he sees the thing inside it and accidentally slaps Kibum on the face with the cover. Jonghyun panics, apologizing to Kibum and kisses his cheek, before taking the thing inside the box and leaves the box on the floor. 

“It’s the limited edition Adidas jacket! Minho, thank you very much!” Jonghyun jumps and down like a puppy.

“Welcome, I have a new one from Taemin, anyway,” Minho smiles. “Now me and Taemin really need to go. See you guys soon!” Taemin and Minho wave goodbye again, turning on their heels and head inside.

Minho thinks that Taemin could do better, he could find a good girl to be in a relationship with, who could always give him what he needs and not being in a relationship with a stubborn, thick-headed guy like him as he examines Taemin checking their passports and tickets inside the gate. Not that he is complaining, he’s just thinking about possibilities. He’s very thankful, indeed, that Taemin chose him, not Suzy or Jinki or Chansung, him. 

But to him, Taemin is like a dream, a dream that he has to achieve and a dream that he wants to live in, a dream that he has to win, a beautiful, good, dream.

If he’s sleeping right now, he doesn’t want to wake up, he just want to keep sleeping until in his dream Taemin and him aren’t breathing anymore, until they aren’t humans anymore, until they’re just a pair of dead bodies. Taemin is his energy, something that can remind him to stop him from falling and crumbling into pieces, keeping him up on his feet and live his life to the fullest. 

He realizes that he doesn’t want to give Taemin up ever again, wanting to always make him feel safe and protecting him the best he could. It’s enough that he lost his parents in an accident 3 years ago, and he promises to himself to never let Taemin go. 





Yes, Taemin is his dream. 

It's done! Wheeew. I just realized that all chapters were very long. And yes, it's almost the same story as Step Up 3. Hahaha. Thank you so much for reading, comments are highly appreciated! :D