"A kiss is a secret which takes the lips for the ear." -Edmond Rostand

"You're insane," Leo declared. The words left his mouth in a white vaporous cloud that hung before him like an impotent ghost. He walked through it without care and looked at N, who walked beside him. The sidewalk outside the mall was crowded with weekend traffic, people laughing and talking, the clatter of feet and the rustle of plastic and paper shopping bags, the hum of half-drowned Christmas carols. He stopped in front of a bank of glass doors that spilled golden light onto the sidewalk and glittering snow and pulled one open.

N walked through before him, casting a glance back casually over their shoulders. The unobtrusive figure of their manager hovered a few yards behind them, giving them the feeling of being alone but close enough to swoop in if there was trouble. "No, I'm bored," he said to Leo. They stopped at a high pillar with the mall directory back-lit on it, and N ran his finger down the list of stores. He located one, tapped its location code, and looked at the map to find it. "We can't do anything without first considering whether or not it'll embarrass the company. Just once, I want to do something unconventional because I can."

"You mean you want me to," Leo pointed out. He touched the small of N's back to signal that the manager had made it back to them. N flicked his eyes over his shoulder and made a sound like air whistling through a small crack. Together, the two men turned up the crowded hallway toward the store they needed.

N grinned, his narrow eyes turning up like inverted moons. "Well, yeah," he said without guile. He looked at his friend. "C'mon, Taekwoon," he wheedled. "It's just a kiss. You've kissed a girl before, right?" He poked Leo's side, making him jump a little.

"Not like this," Leo replied indignantly.

"Just walk up to a pretty girl in an uncrowded store and kiss her," N said with an expansive gesture with one hand that almost smacked Leo in the chest. "We only have a few more hours left before we have to buckle down and practice. I'll do it if you will." That grin appeared again, and he lightly pushed Leo toward a brightly-lit store that was empty but for a short brunette dressed in black who was polishing the items on display. "She's cute."

Leo looked at the girl. She was white and had her hair wrapped into a bun at the base of her neck. A few strands hung loose and swayed as she lifted the boxes on display, swiped a cloth over the glass shelf, and set the boxes back down. The heels of her boots lifted off the floor as she stretched up, reaching for the panel over the display bay. She glanced out into the hall toward Leo, and he saw gray-blue eyes that reminded him of a child. N was right; she was cute, and even though he didn't want to, he thought kissing her wouldn't be as awkward as it could have been.

N grinned at him and gave him a gentle push toward the store that shone with polished glass and shiny metal. "Go on," he teased. "You know you want to. It's just a kiss, and what are the odds you'll see her again anyway?"

A chime rang through the store as Leo stepped across the threshold and onto the flat carpet. The brunette looked at him, setting the cloth with which she was dusting down on the glass shelf. As her lips parted in a smile, he drew level with her, one hand reaching out. His fingers brushed aside a strand on her hair - light as fine silk - and wrapped around the back of her skull. Her eyes widened slightly, and she moved as it to pull away. Then he saw something like recognition flicker there. He heard the faint buzz of music from the back of the store by the register. It was "Hyde". When she didn't push him away, Leo tilted her head back and kissed her lips. His free arm wrapped around the slim waist and pulled her gently against his torso.

The door chime sounded again, signaling N's entrance, and Leo was dimly aware of a door somewhere in the back bumping closed against an ill-insulated door jam. The self-consciousness of kissing a stranger, however, was absent. The girl's eyes had closed a second after their lips made contact, and while his were still open, his brain wasn't processing their input. He felt a hand pressed to his chest through his jacket, and he realized that the other one was resting on his at the small of her waist. He felt cold fingers and the brush of her sleeve.

"And you don't know why, but you're dying to try. You wanna kiss the girl."

"Rachel!" The brunette pulled back from Leo sharply and spun to face the back of the store, though her hand somehow stayed on his. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she demanded with flaming cheeks.

Rachel - a woman of the brunette's age with dyed purple hair - was leaning on the counter at the back of the store with a grin that threatened to split her head in half. "What?" she asked innocently. "He obviously wanted to."

The brown-haired girl groaned and turned back to Leo. Her cheeks were still a bright, splotchy pink, and she looked as embarrassed and suddenly shy as Leo felt. "I'm sorry," she said in accented Korean. "Rachel has a terrible sense of humor, and telling her to shut up never works."

Leo blinked at her, thrown off by the sound of his own language coming from a girl in Chicago, more especially since it was correct. He looked over her shoulder at the counter where Rachel leaned with that same Cheshire Cat grin on her face. "Hakyeon-hyung is the same way," he said softly to the girl. "If her name is Rachel, what is yours?"

The girl smiled, some of the blush fading. "My name is Natalie," she said, brushing her bangs aside with long fingers with bare nails. "And what shall I call you? Leo?"

Self-consciousness ripped into Leo, and he looked away from her toward the wall of glittering glass. "S-So it was your music I heard playing," he mumbled, stuffing his hands nervously into his pockets.

Natalie looked down at her feet, a blush once more coloring her cheeks. "I'm sorry," she said quietly and took a step back away from him. "That was…" She searched her vocabulary. "…tactless. I should let you-"

His hand flashed out, grabbing her wrist before she got too far away. Her eyes flew up to his face and found themselves trapped in his. They stood in tableau for a moment before he closed the distance between them and kissed her again. Back at the counter, N made a choked sound like a half-strangled laugh, and Rachel giggled. Leo ignored them in favor of releasing Natalie's wrist and cupping her face in both his hands. He felt the wisps of silk-soft hair his fingers at the back of her head, and he smelled the rose perfume she was wearing.

"Taekwoon," he said to her quietly, barely pulling away from the kiss. "My name is Taekwoon."

N cleared his throat, breaking the spell. "We have to go," he said to Leo and nodded toward the door. "The bloodhound is back."

Their manager was standing outside the door with a disapproving look leveled at Leo.

Quickly, the younger man dug into his pocket and pressed three cards into Natalie's hands. "Tomorrow's show," he mumbled quickly. "Come backstage. Please."

Natalie barely had time to nod and accept the passes before N had Leo by the elbow and was dragging him out of the store.