“Hyung!” Joonmyeon whines when the music ends, flopping down on the floor of the practice room. “These heels are killing me. And the dress is just—ugh.”

Minseok smiles sympathetically. “Isn’t this enough? We should have been back at the dorm a couple of hours ago.”

“I want to try it at least once more,” he says. “I still make too many mistakes with the choreography. I have to be decent enough when we do the final rehearsal with the hyungs tomorrow…”

“As you wish,” Minseok sighs, “but have a break now.”

“I won’t be able to listen to Something without the urge to cover my ears ever again,” Joonmyeon says after a while, laying down and closing his eyes. He feels Minseok sitting next to him, the sound of him uncapping his plastic bottle and gulping down some water.

“Want some?” Minseok nudges him delicately when he’s done. Joonmyeon tiredly sits up and grabs the bottle, deliberately letting his fingers brush with Minseok’s, who glances up at him with a grin while laying down next to him.

“I’m sorry for making you help me,” Joonmyeon apologises before putting the bottle to his lips. “I feel like I’m forcing you,” he adds after taking a sip.

“Don’t be,” the other shakes his head, grabbing Joonmyeon’s free hand. “You know that-”

“Wait!” Joonmyeon pulls back his hand. Minseok stares up at him, looking a bit hurt. “You’re crushing the feather of the ring,” Joonmyeon hastily explains.

“I’ll just have to slip that ring off, then,” Minseok chuckles, relieved. When the ring is finally off, they lace their fingers together. Minseok slowly brushes the back of Jongdae’s hand with his thumb.

“This is going to be so embarrassing,” Joonmyeon says, sprawling again next to Minseok. “As if the dance wasn’t embarrassing enough with all that leg flashing, the idea of people seeing me dressed like this just makes me cringe.”

“…”

“You were supposed to comfort me now, hyung,” he frowns.

Minseok giggles, turning slightly to his side and patting Joonmyeon’s head. “Nice hair,” he snickers, ruffling the other’s wig. “It looks well on you.”

“Hyung!” Joonmyeon whines, slapping his hand.

“You can take the dress off and practice the dance with normal clothes, and just keep the heels on to get used to them,” Minseok says. “If you’re so embarrassed by that dress, you don’t have to wear it now, no?” After a couple of seconds, he adds, wiggling his eyebrows, “Maybe I can help you out of it.”

Joonmyeon lets out a laugh, but it soon dies out as he feels a bit breathless—Minseok is looking at him square in the eye, and whenever he does so, Joonmyeon feels light-headed. At first, when Exo-M was in China most of the time to promote and the two of them weren’t together, he thought that it was just because he wasn’t used to have Minseok around. However, that tingling sensation he has when Minseok is with him hasn’t gone away at all, even now that they are together and spend most of the day with each other.

“Another time, maybe,” Joonmyeon finally breathes out, getting up and trying to drag up Minseok as well, but he trips up on his heels and manages to fall on him.

He quickly tries to stand up again, but Minseok holds him down, pulling him in for a peck on the lips. “Let’s try this once again and then stop, okay?” Minseok whispers, holding Joonmyeon’s face close. He can feel the other’s breath on his skin. “Tomorrow you’ll perfect the performance with the hyungs, but now you need to sleep. Your dark circles are even worse than Zitao’s, and I bet you’ll be whining tomorrow because your skin isn’t in good condition again.”

“Your eye bags are no joke too, hyung,” Joonmyeon replies, touching lightly Minseok’s face with one hand. “We both need some sleep.” Then, Minseok lets him go, and Joonmyeon walks back to his phone to make the music start again for the last time.

“This one was okay,” Minseok comments when Joonmyeon finishes dancing. “Let’s go back to the dorm now,” he urges.

Joonmyeon nods, proceeding to slip out of the shoes and shedding his wig as well. “Uh…” he mutters in pain.

“Are you okay?” Minseok walks to him, looking worried.

“It’s just my back. I’m not used to heels,” Joonmyeon laughs weakly.

“You wear shoe lifts all the time, though,” Minseok teases him, but when Joonmyeon fails to make a rebuttal, his mischievous expression completely disappears from his face, replaced by a concerned one. He puts a hand on the small of Joonmyeon’s back, the other on his stomach. “Do you need a massage?”

Joonmyeon smiles sweetly. “It’s okay, don’t worry. I’m just tired.”

“Are you sure?” Minseok insists.

“I’m fine, really,” Joonmyeon replies.

When they arrive at Exo’s dorm, everyone seems to be asleep already. After whispering each other good night, they tiptoe to their respective rooms, since they have already showered at the company’s building. Minseok is almost asleep, when he suddenly feels the bed dipping, as if someone just laid down next to him. He slowly opens his eyes, and he recognises Joonmyeon’s face few centimetres apart from his, in the dim light filtering from the window.

“You won’t kick me out of your bed, right?” Joonmyeon whispers, keeping his voice as low as possible not to wake up the other members in the room. “I’m just a poor man with a backache that needs some company.”

“As I tried to say before, you know that I can’t refuse anything you ask me,” Minseok giggles softly, resting his forehead against Joonmyeon’s, while the other clutches lightly Minseok’s pyjama shirt. “Sleep well,” Minseok murmurs before closing his eyes again. “Don’t worry about tomorrow, just have fun. If it makes you feel any better, I’m going to be a traffic light.”

Joonmyeon smiles. “Sweet deams.”

They fall asleep like that, their legs tangled.