Joona’s POV

It’s been two days since my last encounter with Taemin. I have been getting messages from him at night before I sleep and in the morning when I wake up ever since that “bad dream” I had. He kept asking me if I was okay or if I was in pain, and truthfully, I don’t want him to be worried like this. 

*RING*

"Yeoboseyo?” I answered. “Kibummie?”

“Joona?” Kibummie spoke. “Please come over. We need you two."

“Mwo? What’s wrong? Unnie and I are in the gym right now.”

“OH MY GOD,” he quaked.

“What? What?! What’s going on??” I begged. 

“You two, come over right now. It’s emergency. PLEASE," Kibummie urgently ordered and the line went off. 

‘Oh GAWD. What the hell is going on??’ I thought. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Joonhae sauntered over with beats of sweat around her and earphone clinging on her ear. “Who was that? Taemin?”

“Ani. It was Kibummie. He said it was urgent and we need to go to SM right away,” I explained. 

“What are we still doing here?? We better get there now!” Joonhae unnie hustled to pack her things and I followed behind. As we exit the gym, she asked, “Do you think we’re in trouble? You know, like getting into a scandal with one of them?”

“Mwo? If we were, I think we would’ve known,” I stated. 

“Most of my theories are always right,” Unnie argued. “I think it’s you that’s caught up in a scandal with Taemin. I mean, you’re with him almost everywhere.”

“Correction: HE’S with me everywhere I go,” I remarked. 

“Yeah, yeah,” she ignored. “Oh thank god, we’re here.”

As we enter the building, it wasn’t as chaotic as we thought it would be. 

“…Okay. Something is weird,” I stated. 

“Very weird….” Joonhae unnie agreed. We made our way to the front desk, and unnie asked, “Excuse me, is there something…. problematic going on around here?”

“Problematic? There is none of that. Are you two some fan?” the lady carefully asked.

‘, I know what you’re thinking. We’re not sasaeng fan!’ I thought. 

“Oh! You two are here again?” another lady pops up and smiled at us.  

“Ooh! It’s the usual lady!” Unnie quietly rejoiced. 

“Just call me Hyesun,” she spoke. “You need your pass?”

“Ne, Hyesun-ssi,” I replied. She handed each of our pass and informed us, “A few other idols are with them, so go to the big practice room instead of the normal one.”

“Ne. Kamsahabnida,” thanked unnie, and then we left to find the big practice room. 

No One’s POV

Joona and Joonhae slowly entered the practice room and saw a few members of SNSD and F(x) scattered around and SHINee members are lumped in one corner. The twins marched through and towered over SHINee. 

“So… does anybody want to tell us what in the is going on??” Joona interrogated. 

“Oh? You guys are here!” Jonghyun cheered. 

“Thank goodness you’re here,” Key rejoiced. “We’re dead if you weren’t.”

“Uh… mind telling us why it’s so urgent?” asked Joonhae.

“You’ll see. Sit,” Minho ordered and tap the spot next to him. Joonhae obediently seated herself down, and before Joona could settle down, someone hauled her over to the side. 

“Joona,” he stammered and cupped her face, “gwaenchanha? Manhi apa?”

“Taeminnie… I told you many times that I’m okay,” Joona stated. 

“It’s not your waist, is it?” quaked Taemin. “It’s healed, right?”

“What are you talking about? Of course it’s healed,” Joona nervously smiled. “See, I’m moving just… fine.” 

She twisted and stretched her waist to show her condition. “I guess I worried for nothing,” Taemin huffed. 

“Yep. For… nothing,” she agreed. ‘. . . That hurts like hell. How many years of my life have I lost for lying?’

“Yaedeul-ah!” shouted SNSD manager. Everyone quiet down and paid attention to the center. By now, the room is filled with EXO, SNSD, F(x), and SHINee members plus Joona and Joonhae leaning on the mirror. 

“The battle will start in twenty minutes, and you know each battle has different categories,” he continued. “You have been informed that your dance is based on a cover dance, so you can’t dance to your own song, and the other one is freestyle. There will be five judges who will evaluate you: me, SHINee’s Manager Choi, F(x)’s manager, and two more manager from EXO.”

“Today’s participating teams are EXO, SNSD, F(x), and last but not least, SHINee with Yoon Joona and Joonhae,” announced F(x) manager. 

Almost everyone in the room turned their focus towards the twins, and Joona and Joonhae could only smile sheepishly at them. 

“That’s all. All of you have fifteen minutes to get ready,” he added, and then everyone left to stretch or get change. 

“WHAT.IN.THE.WORLD.DID.YOU.DO?!?!?!” Joona yelled at SHINee. 

“THIS is what you call EMERGENCY?!” Joonhae added. “You want us to have some sort of dance battle?!”

“Of course! Why else would we make you dance with us? Everything we did is for today,” Kibum explained. 

“Seolma…?!” Joonhae gasped. 

FLASHBACK

“Can you suggest us a group song we can do a dance cover on?” Onew asked.

“Sure,” Joonhae agreed. “What kind of dance are you looking for?”

“Whatever you like,” he replied. 

“I like this dance,” Joonhae opened YouTube and click on the video. “What do you think?”

“How about this one? That one is my favorite,” Joona pitched in and pointed at another video.

“Both are great. So maybe we can do both,” Onew nodded.

“You don’t have enough people to cover this dance, though,” Joona stated.

“We have a perfect number. There are already seven of us,” Key spoke. 

“Seven? But there’s only five of you,” Joonhae remarked. 

“What are you talking about? You two are included,” Jonghyun pointed at Joona and Joonhae. 

“Mwo? Us dancing? No, thanks,” Joonhae declined. 

“Come on! It’s just for fun~” Taemin whined. “Pleaaaasse~ For the sake of our bond?”

“Arasseo! But it’s gonna take a long time to learn two songs at the same time,” Joona warned.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,” Minho laughed. “Chulbal!”

END OF FLASHBACK

“I thought we did it for fun,” Joonhae pouted.

“What about our bond?” Joona added. 

“What are you two worrying about?” Minho questioned.

“Relax, okay? We will be fine. Our dance is perfect,” Taemin added. “Go get ready.” 

After changing, Joonhae scanned left and right before drinking her pills. However, she wasn’t careful enough as somebody sneaked behind her. “So, what d’you got there?” Taemin asked. 

“Holy , you scared me!” Joonhae exclaimed. She shoved her bottle of pills inside her bag pocket. She exhaled and inhaled slowly before turning around to Taemin. “Anything I could help you with?” she asked.

“You drank some unidentified pills,” he stated. “Are you…doing drugs?!”

“Mwo?!?!” she screamed. “Ya! Where is your brain?” She knocked his head many times until he pushed her hand away. 

“That hurts!” he complained. He rubbed his head and pouted. 

“I just drank some vitamins,” Joonhae lied. 

“Jinjja? Just vitamins?” he questioned.

“Eoh! What? You think I’m gonna kill myself?” she suggested.

“Ani,” Taemin replied solemnly. “Mian.”

“Nature’s calling,” Joonhae announced. 

She stood up and left the dance practice room to go to the bathroom. Taemin watched her leave and waited until the door closed for his plan to concede. He checked left and right, to make sure no one is watching him, and proceed to the target next to him. He scooted to Joonhae’s bag and dig his hand to the inside pocket and feel the little plastic cylinder bottle. He took it out gently out of her bag and read the labeling on it.  ‘Cancer?!?!?!?!’ 

The door to the practice room banged open and came in Joonhae humming to a song. Taemin panicked and did not know what to do. So he shoved the plastic bottle inside his pocket and pretended that nothing happened. He grabbed his phone and pretended he was chatting with someone. 

“Taemin,” Joonhae called. “Maybe you should go find Joona.”

“Now that you mentioned it, I haven’t seen her in a while,” Taemin agreed and left the room.

Meanwhile, Joona stared at the two pills lying on her palm. “Is this enough to last for the whole dance?” Joona mumbled. “Should I add one more??”

“Joona?” called Taemin. Shock from being called suddenly, Joona threw the pills inside and gulped it down hurriedly.

UHUK! UHUK! 

“Mian… I startled you, didn’t I?” Taemin apologized. “What were you drinking? Vitamins?”

“…Y-Yeah. Vitamins,” lied Joona. 

“Don’t lie. Are you really okay?” he questioned. “Please, don’t tell me you have cancer, too?” 

“Mwo? What are you—“ Joona paused after Taemin shoved the pills in front of her face. She dragged Taemin to a secluded place and asked, “Where the hell did you get that?”

“Her bag, of course. I was gonna put it back, but I didn’t have time,” he explained. “You took pills, too so I figured you might also have cancer.” He shoved the bottle of pills back in his pocket and looked at Joona sincerely.

“Taeminnie, look at me,” Joona cupped his face and stares deeply into his eyes, then whispered pleadingly, “About unnie having cancer… it’s… true, and this stays only between us three. Don’t ever, ever tell anyone about this. Unnie doesn’t want anyone to pity her. Please.”

As Joona let go her hands, Taemin snatched them and grasped it tightly, from time to time caressing it gently. “But, Joona… You don’t have cancer, right? Please tell me you don’t. Because if you do, I-I don’t… I d-don’t know what I- I—” he quaked with crestfallen face. 

“Shhh. Of course not, Taemin. I’m fine,” Joona smiled reassuringly. 

“Thank God,” he sighed and circled his arms around her. 

“Why don’t we head back to the practice room? We don’t wanna miss the dance battle, right?” Joona asked. 

“Yep. Let’s go,” he smiled and positioned his hands on her shoulders from the back, and pushed her all the way to the practice room like a choo-choo train. He gasped when his hands made contact to her skin, and they stopped walking.

“Joona! You need to cover your body more,” Taemin yelled.

“Mwo? I’m just wearing a tank top,” she replied.

“Exactly! Wear a shirt or something,” he demanded. “It’s too exposing!”

“Taemin, trust me, I sweat a lot when I dance and a shirt isn’t going to help me in any way,” she reasoned.

“But, Joona~” he pouted. 

“No, Taemin. No. You know yourself that being cute is not going to make me do what you want,” she tapped his nose, “And it’s only dancing!”

“Fi— wait. You just admit that I’m cute!” Taemin smiled triumphantly. 

“What? Pffft. I did no such thing!” Joona remarked.

“You definitely did! Don’t lie!” he laughed.

“Oh really? Prove it.”

“You said, ‘Taemin you’re so cute, maybe I’ll—” Taemin’s sentence was cut when Joona pushed him, but he just kept laughing. 

“When did I said such bull?! Huh?” 

“Then, what did you say?” he smiled amusingly, folding his arms across his chest.

“I said, ‘You know yourself that being cute is—”

Taemin cut her off and said, “Hah! You just said I was being cute!”

“What?? How does that work?!” Joona questioned. 

“Technically, you said that what I was doing was cu—”

“Shut up,” Joona pouted and stomped her way to the practice room.

“Just admit that I’m cute!” Taemin chased after her and ruffled her hair. 

“My hair!” Joona whined. “It’s messy now~”

In turn, Joona ruffled Taemin’s hair twice as much as he did. “Joona! What the hell?!”

“Pay back! Mehrong!” she chuckled.

“Oh it’s on!” Taemin announced and ruffled her hair some more. Both of them kept ruffling each other’s hair until they stopped in front of the door. 

“T-Ti-Time!” Joona panted.

“Y-Yeah! I think we need to fix ourselves first,” Taemin wheezed.  Suddenly, the door opened and someone stepped out. 

“Woah! What happened??” Kai yelled. “Your hair are messy, your shirts are wrinkled. And both of you are sweating a little. What in the world did you guys—” 

Kai suddenly gasped and thought, ‘Seolma?? They made out?!?!’

“NO!” Taemin and Joona chorused and smack Kai’s arms. 

‘Wait, they heard that?’ Kai thought.

“YES!” Joona and Taemin chorused again. 

‘Wait, wait. They heard that, too??’ 

“No , man,” Taemin groaned. “You are so bad at keeping your thoughts in your head.”

“Dang it! I’ve got to stop thinking out loud,” Kai huffed. 

“The point is that we did NOT make out. Understand?” Joona reported. 

“So, you two didn’t have a ‘hot session’ together?” Kai smirked, looking up a down at their attire, amused by their disheveled appearance. “Like you know… getting ‘all over’ each other’s… space?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what we’re saying, so don’t misunderstand,” Taemin pointed out. 

“Okay, now help us fix our appearance,” Joona instructed. 

As Joona and Taemin fix themselves, Kai would point out some out of place hair strands or wrinkles on their clothes. “We done?” Taemin asked.

“Uhmmm just one more thing,” Kai stated. He stepped forward and leaned his head to Taemin and sniffed him. Then, he did the same thing to Joona. 

“Are you sure you two didn’t make out?” Kai grinned while rubbing his chin.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Joona asked.

“You smell like hyung,” he remarked and waltzed around her and sniffed her once more. “You smelled just like him.”

“How can you tell she smells like me?” Taemin probed. 

“Dude, we’ve been friends for so long. Do you think I don’t know what you smell like?” Kai asked Taemin. 

“Why do you have to sound so gay?” appalled Taemin. 

“Why do you have to be so childish?!” Kai countered. 

“Guys!” Joona yelled to get their attention, but to no avail, they ignored her and kept arguing. So she left to enter the room by herself. When the door closed, the boys’ attention shifted to it.

“I’m pretty sure there’s something going on between you two,” Kai stated. “And I’m starting to doubt about this whole ordeal.”

“We told you we didn’t do anything,” Taemin argued. 

“Yes… but I can tell that you want it to happen,” Kai smirked.

“…” Taemin’s cheeks turned red, and he stuttered, “I-I don’t care anymore; say w-whatever you w-want.”

“Oh geez! You’re blushing!” Kai chuckled, “So you’re not denying it??”

“Whatever,” Taemin pushed the door opened and entered the room followed by Kai.

“Hyung! I was only kidding~”

Updated!

New short update today! This was supposed to be posted like two weeks ago, but I didn't have that much internet access. Mianhae OTL 

I don't know when the next update will be up, but I'll try to post more chapters as soon as possible. 

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