"Oh my god!"

"He’s doing it! He’s actually doing it!"

"Go for it!"

Lee Taemin’s eyebrows rose as he incredulously watched Choi Minho twist in his cross-legged position next to him on the floor to face him. Their friends sitting around them were snickering, clapping their hands, making catcalls or just generally making a racket in astonished glee.

No one had expected Minho to actually, well, do it, after all, and Taemin was no exception.

Sending Kim Jonghyun – his best friend since way back – a look over Minho’s shoulder asking him to save him, or at least do something to stop Minho from going through with it, because Taemin was becoming more and more uncomfortable by the second.

Jonghyun only laughed harder at Taemin’s pleading expression.

As Minho put his hand on his shoulder and leaned forward, Taemin slowly attempted to edge away from the taller male who were, at that point, pretty much all up in his face.

Not cool, man.

But the breach of Taemin’s personal bubble didn’t seem to bother Minho at all, though, so Taemin didn’t want to be the one to make it into a big deal. If Minho didn’t give a about whether they were close enough to count each other’s’ eyelashes, then Taemin didn’t care either.

Or well, that’s what he tried to tell himself as he – like the champ that he was – forced his lips to quirk into a stiff smile to pretend that he was all calm and cool with this whole thing.

“Taemin,” Minho began without any further delay, face still only about three inches away from Taemin’s and eyes resolutely staring into his eyes. Taemin felt the strained smile on his lips begin to waver.

The noise from before had been replaced by a deathly silence, and everyone in the room held their breath as they waited for Minho to continue his sentence.

"You are by far the most beautiful person that I have ever seen, and I would never wish to see you with anyone else but me. I love you." The soft smile that had spread on Minho’s lips during the short speech lingered even after he’d finished speaking, and Taemin wished he’d had half of the acting skills Minho apparently had up his sleeve, because damn, Taemin almost believed him.

He quickly forgot about that wish though, because a more pressing matter had been brought to his attention; why in the world weren’t Minho backing off?

One second passed. One of Taemin’s raised eyebrows twitched.

What the hell.

Two seconds passed. Minho didn’t even blink.

And then the moment ended and the large group of friends simultaneously began laughing their asses off, hollering things like ‘Minho, you Romeo!’, ‘That was sooo precious!’ and ‘Taemin, what’s your reply?’ as Minho finally let Taemin go and sat back in his original position, chuckling amusedly.

Taemin slowly let out the breath he hadn’t noticed he’d held.

Well, that had been… awkward and kind of bizarre.

But eh, whatever. It had only been a dare. It’s not as if it actually meant anything (thank god for small miracles, because how awkward wouldn’t that have been).

The next second a blur of blonde and dark hair shot forward, straight for Taemin, and before the young male was able to react a pair of strong, toned arms trapped him in a headlock.

Wonderful. This again.

"Aw , man!" the blur, who happened to be none other than Jonghyun the Traitor, exclaimed. Taemin didn’t need to see Jonghyun’s face to know he was grinning like a maniac. "I’m gonna be the best man at your wedding, right?"

Taemin didn’t even deign that with an answer as he started trying to struggle his way out of the other male’s grip.

The others had already moved on to other things such as spinning the bottle and talking loudly with each other, like they’d all been doing before Amber had dared Minho to ‘confess his undying adoration towards Taemin’. Taemin would have given them all the stink-eye for simply abandoning him to his head-locked fate like that if he hadn’t already been pre-occupied with flailing his limbs while at the same time wriggling his body, all in order to regain his freedom.

It was not very beautiful, nor was it graceful, but it worked; a moment later Taemin was once again a free man.

After he’d moved as far away from Jonghyun as possible – without leaving the circle they were all sitting in, of course – in order to prevent any future head-locks the older man could have planned (you never know), Taemin crossed his legs, leaned his chin on the palms of his hands and watched his friends. A fond smile played on his lips.

Key, short for Kibum, and Jonghyun had begun arguing about some new dare ("No, you cannot make me put on that hideous thing!") while Jinki, or Onew as they usually called him, happily munched away on some left-over chicken from their dinner without a care in the world. Amber, Sulli and Krystal were deeply engrossed in some hush-hush conversation, it seemed, while Luna and Victoria were tossing the Truth or Dare-bottle between each other while snickering mischievously.

Minho was– oh, um, he was watching Taemin.

Stiffening, Taemin raised his eyebrows in a silent question as to why Minho was looking at him.

The weird feeling he’d had during the execution of the dare came rushing back, and Taemin swallowed in an attempt to suppress it.

Upon noticing the look sent his way Minho smiled sheepishly and grimaced slightly.

"Sorry about that dare," he said while brushing away his dark bangs from his eyes. "Didn’t think it’d actually be that awkward to do it."

Taemin slowly relaxed as he mulled over what the other male said, and he grinned, somewhat relieved. So he hadn’t been the only one to feel uncomfortable, then.

Good.

"It’s cool, dude, it was only a dare," Taemin said and raised a clenched hand towards Minho for a fist-bump. "And besides, no homo, right?"

What made him tack on that ‘no homo’ at the end Taemin didn’t know, and it was kinda weird because it wasn’t like he was homophobic or something (he was friends with Onew and Key, after all, and they were like an old, married and disgustingly in love couple with all the sparkles and the flowers that came with the package). It just… slipped out.

A couple of beats passed, and Taemin wondered what the hell was going on in Minho’s head and why he wasn’t replying (and he was regretting saying it), but then Minho’s face split up in a grin and he bumped his fist against Taemin’s waiting one.

"Right. No homo."

~:~

Here it is! The prologue of Winter Landscapes :D

I hope you enjoyed reading it! :) I'd love to hear from whoever did! <3

4/03 2013, Elysionista