Kai let out another frustrated grunt as he once again failed to complete the difficult maneuver he had been trying to learn. He snatched his water bottle in frustration, gulping it down before tossing the empty plastic away. The music was still playing a drumming beat in the background, keeping him from noticing someone watching him from the doorway.

Kai started to move gracefully, using his body to weave and create something beautiful, until he once again tried the move.

Just a flick of the hip and the rest of his body was to follow, but for some reason the reflection of the sweaty, white haired boy in the mirror didn’t look right.

He stopped again and cursed under his breath, making a few smaller movements as he tried to figure it out.

The music stopped abruptly.

“You need to use your legs more, less than your arms.”

Kai spun around, startled by the intruder.

“Oh! Taemin! I thought I was alone.” Kai said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. He was embarrassed for having the other watching him. Even though they had been childhood friends, Taemin was still much more experienced than him, Kai even looked up to Taemin for his dancing.

“Don’t worry Joninnie, it was just me.” Taemin said with a smile as he seated himself on the floor. “I just thought you might like some company.”

Kai smiled a bit and nodded, still shy with the other in the room, they hadn’t spoken a whole lot in a while since they were always off on their own schedules. Kai had forgotten how much he liked to see the other.

“I guess I couldn’t complain.” Kai said with a shrug and took a seat next to Taemin, leaning back on his hands.

“How have you been? EXO is getting a lot of attention lately.”

“It’s been crazy, but Im doing alright.” Kai said with a small shrug, but Taemin knew better than that, he could see the look in Kai’s eyes. He was tired.

“Oh come on Jongin, you can’t keep secrets from me. How are you really?” Taemin bumped Kai’s shoulder in an attempt to lighten the mood. Kai just sighed and leaned forward, crossing his feet in front of him.

“I’m just a little tired I guess.” Taemin stayed quiet, waiting for Kai to break open and tell him everything like they used to do. The expectant look on Taemin’s face slowly turned into a frown as Kai still didn’t speak.

“Jongin.” Taemin said more sternly, leaning in to catch the other’s gaze. “You knew from the start that being an idol isn’t all fun and games. It is work, just like any other job.” Kai looked up to meet Taemin’s eyes, locking there for a moment.

All of the memories of the two of them during trainee days flashed through his mind. Taemin always chasing the girls before chickening out and hiding behind Kai who some of the girls mistook for Taemin. The times that the two of them could simply go on walks together when they had an afternoon off, they would go to the park and just lay in the grass, happy to be outside even for a couple hours. Then their time together got less and less, Taemin was going to debut and leave Kai behind.

All the moments flashed by and Kai’s eyebrows knotted together, tears stinging behind his eyes. He didn’t even have time to look away before Taemin caught on and tugged the lanky boy into a hug.

“Yah. Don’t be sad Jonginnie. What’s wrong? You know you can tell me anything.” Taemin said softly, pulling the other closer into his lap. Kai hid his face in Taemin’s shirt, staining it with tears as he sobbed softly.

“It’s just so overwhelming. Sometimes I don’t think I can do this. Everyone is watching, just waiting for me to make a mistake. Waiting for me to slip up and do something wrong” Kai whispered, unable to keep from choking on his sobs a few times.

“What do you mean? They are your fans, they will support you. That is why you are where you are Jongin. You wouldn’t be here without them.” Taemin said, trying to reassure his friend.

What Taemin didn’t know, what nobody knew, was the amount of hate Jongin had been getting lately. It seemed that a sasaeng had gotten his cell number and had been bothering him since. He knew it didn’t matter what the one fan thought, or that the person should even be considered a fan at all, but it still hurt deep down.

“Jongin you have to talk to me if you want this to get better. If anything is wrong you know you can bring it to your manager, or even Lee Soo Man. They will all listen to you.” Taemin lifted Kai’s chin to look at him. “So tell me what is wrong alright?”

Kai met Taemin’s eyes again, finding comfort there he didn’t pull away. To be honest he wanted to tell Tamein about the hate fan, or about the recent fighting going on within EXO, or how he thought he couldn’t stand being an idol if he had to be this depressed all the time, but he didn’t know how to tell him.

“I- There is just a lot of stuff happening lately.” He said, looking down. But Taemin wouldn’t give up that easy.

“Spit it out, you are making this difficult Jongin.” Taemin said with a huff of mock exhasperation.

“Well…I just don’t know if I can do this. Every day it’s like a battle to get from one place to another with the members bickering all the time. Something happened between a couple of them that I don’t think we can fix right now. They act fine on camera, but they still avoid each other, some of them even avoid me. I don’t even know what happened. To add to it, for the past month I have been getting hat messages on my phone. It was pretty normal until they started to give me threats. I know they are either a stalker or inside the company because of the things they know.”

Kai shivered a little, hating the thought of the person behind it all. How could someone put their whole life towards something like stalking, how could a normal human being do something like this.

Taemin nodded slowly, taking in all of the information.

“You should talk to your manager about the hate fan, if they have started to threaten you, then it is serious and needs to stop. Promise me you will do that?” Kai gave a small nod and Taemin took it as an answer. “As for EXO fighting, they will get over it. For a while Onew hyung and Key hyung wouldn’t even look at each other. Sadly, the fans will notice and you will have to fix it quickly. Even if it isn’t your place to say something, maybe talk to Joonmyun, as your leader he should be able to work things out, right?”

Taemin asked, getting a minimal response from Kai who had leaned his head back onto Taemin’s chest.

“Plus you can’t give up now. You are in one of the quickest rising groups in Asia. There are way more fans that will catch you and make sure you are okay than fans who will tear you down. I know those are the ones you feel the impact of, but when you stand on the stage in front of thousands of them it can really hit you. Trust me Jongin, you belong on that stage. You earned it.”

Kai could feel more hot tears slipping down his cheeks as he listened to his friend. It was like talking about it had lifted a large weight from his shoulders, he just hoped that Taemin wasn’t carrying it now.

“Thank you, really it means a lot.” Kai said through a sniffle. “Even if you are just a derpy kid on the inside.” He said with a chuckle, hitting Tamein’s arm softly.

“Yah! You’re the kid here!” Tamein said, shoving Kai playfully off of him, making him roll onto the floor.

The mood was lightened a bit, making Tamein feel like he did a pretty good job of cheering up his friend. Kai on the other hand was still a bit bothered by something.

“You know, there is one more thing.” Kai said, looking over to Taemin again with an almost apologetic look.

“Of course! Anything you need.” Taemin was curious, tilting his head and waiting for another sad moment to occur.

“I still need help with that dance move.”

A/N

Random fluff

Taemin and Kai are two of my favorite Idols to write about and rp as even though they aren't my main biases.

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