Chapter Six

‘Well this is sufficiently awkward’ Taemin thought as he walked into the dance studio. All eyes had turned to him. Whispers had broken out right away. Taemin sighed.

“Taemin is that your boyfriend?!” a voice rang out from the backup dancers.

“No, a school friend Jongh…”

“We know who he is”

“See I am famous” Jonghyun smiled and nudged Taemin. Taemin laughed,

“This is just fueling your big ego of yours.”

“Yup, and I am enjoying it”

“Go sit over there you dino” Taemin pointed at the bench at the edge of the room.

“Where is he?” Jonghyun looked around looking for Minho.

“Sorry Taemin,” Minho’s manager said “Minho is late, he is on his way” Taemin nodded.

“He was always late” Jonghyun whispered. Taemin laughed.

“Remember we used to tell him to come 15 minutes before whatever it was started so he would be on time?”

“Or how much Key would scream at him when he was still late?” Jonghyun laughed with Taemin. Taemin didn’t hear the door open or close but it must of because he heard Minho’s voice.

“Who are you?”
 

Minho had a rough morning. He didn’t know what he should wear and that made him late, then he kept changing his mind if he should bring Taemin coffee. But who weird would that be? Bringing someone you supposedly don’t know coffee and what if Taemin rejected it? All of this had made him late even though he had set his alarm an hour earlier than usual.

Minho rushed into the dance studio to see Taemin’s form next to another one. They were laughing and almost everyone in the room was staring at the two.

“Who are you?” Minho was frustrated some stranger was in his dance practice and taking Taemin’s attention.

Taemin and the other turned and Minho could feel the color form his face drain.

“Hello, my name is Kim Jonghyun, I don’t think we have worked together before” Jonghyun gave him a little bow.

“We haven’t worked together, why are you here?” Minho heard his manager hiss at him to be more polite. He didn’t care. He knew why Jonghyun was here.

“Well, “ Jonghyun laughed a little bit “Taemin’s Umma was very worried about his new job. His Umma is so busy and hot tempered that it was suggested that I went to check it out instead, seeing I am a good friend.” Minho looked around to his crew nodding their heads believing this Dino’s lie, well half lie. Minho glared at him and saw that Jonghyun could barely contain his laughter. 

“Well you saw, you can go now.”

“I promised his Umma that I would stay the whole time and you wouldn’t want Taemin’s Umma to come down tomorrow because his Umma couldn’t get a full report on his job?” Jonghyun answered innocently. Minho shuddered at the thought.

“Don’t worry, he will just sit in the corner” Taemin’s voice cut in. “He won’t bother you, I swear” Minho just nodded before briskly walking away.

Taemin sighed. That was tense. He hated it. “Jonghyun go sit down so we can start? Please?” Taemin watched at the Dino passed Minho and sat down. “Okay guys let’s see how much you remember from yesterday”

Throughout the whole practice Taemin saw Jonghyun watching Minho and Minho looking back at Jonghyun. Some masculine who is bigger battle was going on. After a couple of hours Taemin called a break.  Taemin walked over to sit by Jonghyun.

“You looked great! I never knew how you would come up with these moved and do it”

“Thanks, but it was hard to come up with new moves, Kai…Kai was better at that.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, you are amazing” Taemin saw that Minho was coming towards them and hushed Jonghyun.

“Hello Minho, please sit down and join us.” Taemin offered

“Thank you,” Minho sat down. “How long have you two known each other?”

“A while,” Jonghyun looked at Taemin, “Taemin’s best friend actually introduced us a while back.”

“That’s nice,” Minho’s manager came over and sat next to Minho.

“Do all of you guys live together?” the manager asked

“No, I haven’t hung out with my best friend since my last year of high school.” Taemin answered slowly. “I live with Jonghyun, my Umma, and our mutual friend”

“That must be weird, living with your umma and friends” Taemin laughed at the manager’s statement

“Actually Umma gets along with Jonghyun the best!” Jonghyun then turned to Minho,

“Minho, do you still see your school friends?” Taemin elbowed him in the ribs. “What? I’m just interested in Minho, we were talking about school friends”

“Isn’t that a little personal Jonghyun to be asking someone you just met?”

“I want to know too, Minho doesn’t talk about his life before SM that much” Minho’s manager cut in. Taemin watched Minho carefully.

“Most of my friends from school are super busy. I don’t connect with them much”

“Much?” Jonghyun provoked again. Taemin saw in Minho’s eyes that he had snapped.

“Yeah my good friends were my teammates on the football team (soccer). Unfortunately I broke up with my bestfriend, who was also my girlfriend,” Taemin inhale quickly. “Sulli, but we still talk.” Taemin knew he was saying this to hurt Jonghyun and maybe him, and it had worked.

“Friends get busy and drift apart,” Taemin said weakly.

“The strong friendships that are meant to last stay together. Let’s get back to dancing” Minho stood up. Taemin grabbed the edge of his shirt out of reflex. When he realized what he did he let go and tried to brush it off.

“Sorry you stay here and rest some more, while I get the guys back together” Taemin walked off cursing himself.

Jonghyun whispered to Minho “I am going to tell UMMA everything, you frog. If you hurt him again, I swear I will mess you up so bad even your fans won’t recognize you. Taemin has gone through too much heart break for his age. So these snide comments meant to hurt us, is unacceptable. Throw your words at me all you want, I could care less. Unfortunately your words still hold weight for Taemin. So watch what the you say, you overgrown frog.”

“Minho come dance” Taemin called. He saw Jonghyun and Minho talking. He sighed. “Hurry, please?” When Minho was in front of him Taemin started to teach the group the next part of the dance. “No Minho you are doing it wrong, here” Taemin put his hands on Minho’s hips and slowly moved them. “See, roll them instead of just moving them side to side.” Taemin never thought that he would be dancing with Mr. I-Don’t-Dance, but here they were. “There you got it.” Taemin quickly let go of his hips and moved on.