“I can’t believe you guys are still doing this.” 

Taemin tried to stay still as Key worked on his face with his makeup brush. After one try, it already seemed like the diva had gotten better at the whole thing, and he was finished with Taemin’s feminine touches in half the time it took the day before. 

Taemin blinked a little as he backed up, still under Key’s watchful eye as the older boy put his kit away. It seemed that Key had gotten over the excitement of working with makeup, for he was now scolding the younger boy for going along with the sister’s crazy scheme. 

“You do realize it was Soo’s idea, not mine,” Taemin reminded him.

“Yeah, but you agreed. You agreed Taemin, and now you’re here, and she’s in the middle of a sausage-fest.”

“You could have tried talking her out of it. You are her best friend, after all.”

“And you’re the brother. Twin brother,” he pointed out in retaliation.

There was a brief silence before they sighed in unison. “Yeah, and we both know how stubborn she can be when she wants something,” Taemin said. “I dunno what’s so special bout that Minho guy.”

“She’s been obsessed with him ever since she saw him in a magazine,” Key replied, his eyes flicking upwards as he fixed his own bangs. “He’s also done a few commercials, and probably a bunch of interviews. You know how girls go crazy over idols? It’s kinda like that, except she’s crushing on a local celebrity, so in a way, I guess you can say she stands more of a chance… at, whatever.” Taemin nodded absently as Key checked his watch. “Class. Let’s see how you do as Soomin today, Taemin.”

Key had assured him that the younger boy was going to be fine. There had only been a few ‘close encounters’, and it had been a fairly uneventful morning. No one seemed to have picked up that he wasn’t his sister, much to his surprise. But it seemed that the cold excuse could only work so much. He had been hailed down quite a few times in the hall by several passersby, and Taemin went with a simple hello and ‘got to get to class’ excuse as he could not for the life of him remember all those names, especially since half of them weren’t even from the same homeroom.

Taemin unconsciously put his hand by his hip, searching for a pant pocket only to remember that skirts didn’t have pockets. He silently groaned as he shifted the hold on the notebook he held in his hand.

He was slightly surprised to see the number of students waving at him as he made his way down the hall. The day before had been the same- it seemed that a good percentage of the school population knew him, or knew his sister anyway. He sighed as he turned a corner. He hadn’t known that Soomin was so popular.

It must feel really different pretending to me.

“Soo!”

Taemin turned around to meet Chohee who seemed a lot bubblier than her usual self. When he factored in the fact that so far he had only seen her in a class of mixed gender, it sort of made sense.

“Uh, hi.”

“How you feeling? I heard you weren’t feeling so well yesterday, how are you today?” she asked as she looked up at him.

“Uh, fine. I mean, a little better,” he replied quickly.

“That’s good. Is Key with Nicole again?” she asked, looking around. Taemin nodded, slightly surprised by her lively demeanor- it was completely opposite from how she was earlier in class. “Wanna go outside for lunch? I didn’t see you yesterday, I guess you were with Key again.”

Chohee didn’t wait for Taemin’s answer as she started towards the exit, assuming he would follow. When she reached the door, she turned around to see him still standing in the same place as before.

“Are you coming Soomin?” She pushed the door and held it open. “Unless you had other plans?” she slowly asked as she fidgeted in her spot.

Taemin quickly did a head shake as he walked over, leaning over her to keep the door open with his outstretched arm. Not that he was the gentlemen type, but he was a guy, and guys didn’t walk through doors that girls kept open for them. At least he didn’t anyway.

Chohee briefly narrowed her eyes at the gesture but she seemingly shrugged the thought as she smiled and walked outside. Taemin followed her out as they walked down the path towards a bench just outside the school grounds. It was spring and the air was chilly but the sky was clear, allowing the sunlight to shine through and warm up whomever stood in it.

“Are you hungry?”

“Starving,” he simply replied.

Chohee nodded as she took a seat and pulled out her boxed lunch, and Taemin reluctantly sat down, leaving some space between them. He was paying attention to lessen their face-to-face time, hoping that she wouldn’t pick anything up. He pulled out his own lunch: leftovers from dinner the night before.

“Since when did you do spicy?”

Taemin looked over in surprise, and then quickly looked back down at his lunch where red spices dotted the green vegetables.

“It’s not too… bad.”

“Really? I can smell it from here. I thought you hated spicy food, Soo.”

Taemin pursed his lips in thought as he stared down at his food. Chohee was right, his sister despized spices. It was mostly because their mother didn’t like spicy food, and their father did, which probably accounted for the taste differences between the twins. Taemin almost felt bad for forgetting.

“Yeah, you’re right. I guess I grabbed my brother’s food,” he replied as he closed his container. He tucked the box of food back into his bag with a sigh and shifted in his spot, leaning his head back onto his shoulders to stare at the clear sky up above. It seemed like he’d have to skip lunch today.

A nudge on his arm brought him back down to reality as he turned his head to see Chohee offering her container to him.

“Here, you can share with me. Lucky for you, my mom didn’t add her normal spices this time. My cousins are over and they don’t like spicy food either,” she told him with a smile.

Taemin stared blankly at the food held out in front of him. It was not that it was unusual, but in a sense, it was unusual to him. He’d been going to an all-boys school all his life, and boys didn’t share their lunches with other boys. It was just how it worked. The closest thing he could think of was giving someone else a piece of gum or maybe lending someone money to buy food. So was Taemin surprised? Just a little.

“Umm, thanks, but I’m good.”

Chohee widened her eyes and leaned over to get a better look at him, an action that caused him to back up and turn away, or as much as he could without actually moving from his seat.

“Really? But you just said you were starving,” she pointed out as she waved her box of food in front of his nose. “Come on, you know you want it.”

Taemin glanced back over to see her eyeing him playfully, and he reluctantly nodded to satisfy her. She beamed as she offered him her fork, but he quickly shook his head, shifting his gaze as he fished out his own from his bag. She nodded in understanding as she finally turned her attention back to her food. 

Taemin kept little bites to himself, and Chohee was too busy talking to notice. He only picked up fragments of the conversation even though the conversation itself was directed at him, but she didn’t seem to mind. Music, was the current topic as they walked back to school, something about an idol group that had really nice bodies and their new song, but Taemin never found out the name. The conversation suddenly dropped, and Taemin looked up to see the same male student he had run into the day before approaching them and waving them down.

Brown hair and glasses, the boy had that charming smile once again as he spoke to the both of them, and for the first time during the lunch break, Taemin had to speak up to keep the situation from getting awkward. It seemed that Chohee had gone into that silent mode that Key had mentioned before, and it made him wonder how a simple presence could change her behavior so drastically.

Girls are weird.