Zitao was sitting at the table, softly sipping the rather horrible tasting the wine that was on offer because that’s all there was to drink. There was also no open bar, that fact alone made Zitao sigh inside of his head, making sure to keep up his façade as people passed him, nodding their heads in greeting as he did the same. It was boring. The party itself was classy and organised, meaning there was no loud rock band, and certainly no head banging in the middle of the hall.

It was not fun. Crossing his leg over his other one, he began swirling the wine glass in his right hand as he looked upon all the other guests at the party. No one was interesting. No one was doing anything interesting. All they were doing was mingling and filling up their glasses with more terrible wine.

“Bored are we?”

A soft voice interrupted his thoughts and soft lips appeared at his ear. Zitao just smiled as the voice was incredibly familiar. Closing his eyes, he decided to just let the other speak to him – and if he wanted to continue breathing into his ear that was okay too.

“The party is pretty horrible, isn’t it?” His deep voice was sending shivers down Zitao’s spine, his hold on the wine glass was slightly breaking. “Do you want me to free you from it?”

“Yes.” Zitao finally spoke, his eyes still closed and he simply didn’t care if anyone else saw.

“That’s what I like to hear.”

Almost immediately after the conversation was finished, the idol felt himself getting picked up from the old chair he was sitting on, and instantly turned around so he faced the other. They both stared into each other’s eyes and Zitao could feel his heart beat beating rapidly, his cheeks heating up and his body going out of control.

The man in front of him was basically the definition of perfect. His hair was styled perfectly with a fringe, the colour as black as midnight which defined his incredible hazel eyes even more. His manly features collided together wonderfully, and Zitao could hardly keep his eyes off of them. That is until he noticed something way better. When he moved his eyes down past the other’s neck, he noticed that the man in front of him was shirtless.

“Oh…” He whimpered, his attraction rising almost off the scales.

Smirking, the man in front of Zitao moved forward, placing his large manly hands on the idol’s waist and pulling him closer, forcing their chests to bump off each other.

Moving forward, he pressed his lips against the other’s ear.

“Dance with me.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s go.”

“Okay—…”

“Wake the up!”

…

“H-Huh?!”

Zitao shot up from the bed and looked around to see what had woken him up from one of the best dreams he had in a while. Squinting his eyes, his mouth fell open quickly as he noticed who was standing at the foot of his bed. With a mean expression on their face. But the idol couldn’t handle this, so he decided to allow his head to fall back onto the pillow behind him and he pulled the duvet up to his neck to keep him warm.

Apparently, this was the wrong thing to do. Almost instantly, the duvet was pulled rather hard away from him and soon, he was simply lying on his bed – freezing.

The idol groaned really loudly before sitting up and glaring over at Sehun.

“What if I was sleeping ?!” He shouted, luckily, he actually just wore a large t-shirt and boxers to bed, but if he didn’t, that would be a huge invasion of his privacy. Sehun just stared at him before pointing over at the clock in Zitao’s room. “…Oh.” It was now half past four.

“I told you to be ready to open the door for me at exactly four o’clock.” Sehun said, his eyes looking dead and cold. “You were not there.”

Biting his lip, Zitao could sense how angry the other was. What a great start to the day.

But then he thought of something.

“…How did you get in here?” He asked. Zitao was pretty much a man of safety, meaning, he locked his door even if he himself was inside. It was pure instinct of course – with fan girls and all, he had to be extra careful – which meant he absolutely knew he had locked his front door last night. And the only ones with the keys to the apartment was himself and Jongin. “The door was locked.”

All that was given in reply was a small and throaty laugh coming from his new PA. Glaring at him, he folded his arms and stayed in bed, until a proper reply was given.

Sehun sighed before he shrugged his shoulders.

“I’ve always been rather good at picking locks.”

Zitao’s eyes widened immediately as those words left the others mouth. What he was expecting was that maybe his dad has somehow managed to get a key to his apartment and had given it to them just in case. Not that Sehun broke into his place.

Now that was a thought that made him freeze up. That just meant that if Sehun could easily break in then someone else could.

“Zitao?” Nudging himself out of the mind-set he was in, he glared up at Sehun. “It’s time to go.”

“Ugh. Fine. But I am showering first you mongrel.”

…

Kris was standing in front of the double door which led into Zitao’s own private dance room (even Kris and Sehun had to admit that that was pretty impressive, usually the idols would all practice together) and he began tapping his foot, his expression staying stale as he continued to wait on the other two to show up. Maybe he wrong. Maybe he didn’t say practice began at exactly five o’clock, but no, that’s what it said in the itinerary so he was positive he did.

So why was it already half past five and no one had yet shown up? The dance instructor had been here a while, but there was no sign of Sehun or Zitao. And here Kris thought he had actually intimidated the idol yesterday.

Apparently not.

Otherwise he would’ve been here before the alleged time. Just as he was about to sigh loudly one more time, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming around the corner.

And there they were.

“Sorry Kris.” Sehun said, bowing his head slightly as the other stared at him. Kris was quite baffled, Sehun had never apologised before, but something must’ve happened to force the other to come up late with Zitao. Sehun stared at the idol and sighed. “Zitao insisted that he showered – which I thought was quite reasonable – but then he also insisted in eating breakfast, I said no, but then he gave me the hypothesis that if he doesn’t eat then he’d faint and the rest of the day would fail too. So I let him eat. Then it took him ages to get ready – even though I said that he was practicing – but he mentioned that if he went out in his practicing clothes, people might take pictures of him that would hurt his pride.”

Taking a deep breath after his rather long speech, Sehun sighed as he realised how stupid it all sounded. And he knew why Kris was looking at him in such confusion. With all of the other idols they had taken care of, Sehun would’ve just grabbed their arm and thrown them into the car instantly – no matter what they looked like.

But for some reason, Sehun didn’t do it with Zitao. He just let the boy do whatever he wanted as long as it was backed up with a very good reason. There was a moment of silence before Kris cleared his throat and spoke.

“Zitao, go get changed and practice.” He said, the idol rolling his eyes but doing what he was told rather quickly. “Sehun, come with me.”

Zitao moved slowly into the practice room, turning around to see Kris pull Sehun along.

Oh, it looked like there was trouble in paradise.

When he moved into the practice hall, the instructor there sighed before he himself pointed at the clock to force Zitao to realise the time. Not like it was his fault. Shrugging his shoulders, he moved over to the bench and placed his bag down.

Taking out a pair of black sweats and a long short sleeved t-shirt, he instantly began getting changed there and then. That was one of the perks of his own private dance room. No one else – besides the instructor of course, but he always seemed to get embarrassed and turn away when Zitao instantaneously began to change. Pushing off his boots and then his black jeans, he was half way putting on his sweats before the doors were pushed open.

Twisting his head instantly, he stopped and stared at the two tall men that entered. This was rather awkward. Pursing his lips, he pushed the sweats up to his waist and threw the t-shirt on over his head.

“You know, there is such a concept as knocking.” He said, glaring at his two new employees. But the other two just laughed to themselves and leaned against the wall.

Zitao sighed but commenced his training.

And god, it was the most infuriating training session he has ever had to endure. His dance teacher was the same as ever – applauding the other and giving him tips when he slightly messed up – but it was Kris and Sehun. Both of them, would not shut up. And Zitao didn’t know what kind of messed up thoughts they had in their head which allowed them to think that they were qualified enough to give him dancing tips.

When Sehun once again shouted out at a minor mistake that Tao had made during a chorus of one of his songs, the idol instantly moved over to the music player and pressed the pause button, forcing the other three in the room to stop too.

Turning around, he glared at Sehun before shouting at him rather loudly, and angrily.

“If you speak to me, one more ing time when I’m trying to concentrate, I will ing hurt you!”

There was silence following the idol’s voice. Sehun stared at the boy and glanced over at Kris before going to look back at the idol. The dance instructor in the room was simply gaping at Zitao, never having seen the boy lash out like that before.

Taking a deep breath, Zitao closed his eyes and tried to calm down. There was no way he was going to be able to continue practicing if he was as angry as he was now. Moving over to his bag, he grabbed the bottle of water out of it and chugged it down, letting the water roll down his neck as he didn’t care. Finally, he felt calmed down. Putting the water down, he turned to Sehun and stared.

Just stared. Sehun cleared his throat a little before he smiled at the instructor, moving closer to the idol to talk to him more privately. When he reached the boy, he took a seat on the bench, crossing his legs before speaking softly, hoping that he’d calmed down by now.

“Zitao, what was that about?” he said, tilting his head rather innocently as he stared at the boy who just stared at him in disbelief.

Surely they were both in the same practice?

Scoffing loudly, Zitao his heel but didn’t walk away just yet. Sehun just sat in silence, waiting for the other to talk to him. It was quite an outburst and he rather wanted to know why he was targeted.

“You are messing me up.” Zitao finally spoke. “It is incredibly infuriating when you, not my dance instructor, keep calling me out on my mistakes.” Groaning loudly, he turned to face Sehun before he spoke again. “Especially when you are only my PA. You have nothing to do with my dancing.” Actually, Zitao felt a bit better after that.

The only thing that came out of Sehun’s mouth was laughter. And that just fuelled Zitao’s rage right back up again and he couldn’t stand to even look at the PA anymore.

Grabbing his bag, he stormed out of the hall instantly.

Kris stared as he left before turning to his partner with a confused expression etched on his face but Sehun simply shrugged.

“What did you say?” The blond asked, moving towards his partner.

“I honestly have no idea.”

…

Zitao was currently in his dressing room, too annoyed to do anything but sit patiently in his chair and let the hair stylist do whatever they wanted to him. Not even his phone could provide enough entertainment for him. It was that way for the last half an hour. The only good thing to come out of this was the fact that since he had stormed out of the dance hall, he hadn’t had to lay on eyes on Kris or Sehun.

But at least he was back up to schedule now. It was half eight, meaning there was half an hour to go until his radio show. Yes, he didn’t have to look all done up for it but there was seriously nothing else to do.

The hair stylist and make-up artist were baffled at the way the idol just sat there and let them do all their work.

The clock soon turned to 8:55 and Zitao stood up.

Radio show time.

It finished soon enough. Zitao smiled at the radio presenters and bowed politely before walking out of the room and sighing in relief. As he recalled (although Sehun really should be there to tell him his schedule) he had two free hours before a variety show performance. Getting his phone, he instantly called his best friend, hoping that he was free too.

“Hello?” Zitao knew that this wasn’t the voice of his best friend, but he knew exactly who it was and he cursed slightly.

“Does this mean Jongin can’t come out to see me?” he asked, sounding annoyed.

“Zitao, he’s finished a recording just now.”

“Finishing? So that means he’ll be free in the next ten minutes right?” Zitao was getting overly excited to see his new friend. Being around new people (like Kris and Sehun) made him appreciate completely his best friend.

“Fine. I’ll send him over to you soon.”

“Thank you Mr. Manager!”

Ending the phone call with Jongin’s manager, he skipped towards the dressing room so that he could get changed into other clothes. Zitao was a clothes maniac, but he loved it. When he got there, the first sight he was faced with was Kris and Sehun, huddled in a corner whispering to each other.

They both turned their attention on him, of course, as soon as they heard him re-enter the room. It was rather eerie.

“…Sup creepy dudes.” Zitao said, looking at them weirdly before moving over to the closet to pick out his new clothes. Taking out a pair of white jeans and a white V-neck, he moved towards the private bathroom to change. The two newbies weren’t getting a second chance to look at him half .

Kris sighed as he leaned against the wall, tapping his leg as he stared at Sehun who was currently re-checking all of Zitao’s schedule.

“We have to do something about him, Sehun.” Kris whispered.

“Yeah. I know. But it’s only the first day, he’ll get better acquainted with us and he’ll realise what he can and can’t do.” The personal assistant knew that they were off to a rocky start with their new project, but it’ll get better soon. It always did.

Zitao re-entered the room and shoved on a black leather jacket to finally complete his outfit. Well, that and a pair of dark sunglasses.

Looking at the other two men, he sighed.

“Please tell me there isn’t anything I need to do until 12 o’clock?” He said, and Sehun immediately moved to his planner and shook his head.

“Nope.”

“Good! Because Jongin is coming over and I just want to chill with him here. Is that alright with the two of you?” He asked, smiling a little angelically. Kris and Sehun were surprised that the other would even ask them that. When Kris was about to say ‘fine’, Zitao cut him off. “Nah, never mind, I don’t need your approval.” With a large grin, the boy skipped over to the couch and took out his phone, grinning as he saw the message that Jongin was on his way.

The blonde manager sighed before he just stared at the idol. Zitao was different from their other projects in a lot of different ways. He wasn’t intimidated by them. No, he still had that amazing confidence that spewed from his body the first time they met.

And the boy was incredibly attractive. Of course the number one rule that both he and Sehun agreed upon when they went into this business was that neither of them could ever date the idol.

And Kris was never tempted to.

Until this point. But as was agreed, Kris wasn’t going to put that on his list of things to do. That didn’t mean, of course, that he couldn’t admire Zitao from far away. Or even close. As he continued to stare at the idol, the door to the dressing room was opened and another preppy idol appeared with a grin on his face.

Zitao’s eyes widened before he screamed Jongin’s name and jumped off of the couch. Running straight for the other’s arms, he hugged the boy tightly before pulling him over to the couch.

“Sit!” He said, feeling his bubbly personality appear – it only did with Jongin.

As soon as the younger male was on the couch, Zitao immediately sat on Jongin’s lap, hugging his neck tightly as he squealed in excitement. Jongin could only laugh at his friend’s attention. But that’s when his eyes moved over to where Kris and Sehun were standing, or really, were they were staring.

Jongin glanced back at his friend who was currently nuzzling into his neck. Those two really must’ve been hard on him if he was acting like this.

Zitao only acted like this if he was severely stressed or annoyed.

“So babe, what’s going on?” Jongin asked, forcing the other to look at him finally.

“Hmm… take a wild guess.” The boy replied, motioning over to the new men in the room who were still staring at them. “Look how creepy they are being. Imagine having to stay here.” With that comment all Jongin could do was laugh, and hug his friend a little tighter. Leaning their heads together, within ten minutes Zitao had dosed off.

Jongin was currently his hair before he felt the couch move a little as someone sat beside him. Looking at the new manager, he smiled and introduced himself – very quietly of course.

“Hey, you’re Tao’s new manager right? I’m Jongin.” With a smile he spoke.

“Nice to meet you.” Kris replied, leaning backwards before glancing at the sleeping idol. “I have to say that you are a lot more polite than your friend there.”

The other laughed before shrugging his shoulders, continuing to Zitao’s hair.

“Well… He’s a lot nice when you get to know him.” The boy explained. “It’s just… he’s been famous since the day he was born, he was generally born for entertainment and he has just developed a rather big ego.” Jongin said, smiling over at Kris a little. “But as I said, as soon as you know him better you’ll realise that he’s just as self-conscious as everyone else.”

“Oh really?” Kris asked, finding that desperately hard to believe. That’s when Jongin laughed a little before retracting his statement.

“Okay, maybe not that self-conscious but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t worry about what other’s think about him.”

Kris just nodded along.

“Are you two together?” He suddenly asked, not knowing why he did ask the question, but the way the two acted together showed clear signs of a relationship. Besides, Jongin was currently the boy’s hair very affectionately.

“Zitao and me?” Jongin questioned, and when he received a nod he chuckled, shaking his head. “No, we aren’t.”

“Oh. It just seems like you are.”

“I know, we’re very close. But, I think of him as a long lost step brother. Although I say step brother and not brother because I can’t deny that we haven’t been together.” Jongin said, not understanding why he felt the need to tell Kris. Although there was a sense of pride there. Zitao was the hottest idol in South Korea, it was a rather amazing achievement. When he saw the questionable look Kris shot in his direction he decided to be a bit more brief. “I mean we’ve had , Kris.”

The manager’s eyes widened and he felt a little stupid that he didn’t understand what Jongin was trying to say. So there was definitely a relationship there.

Jongin chuckled before shrugging his shoulders.

“Dating in the industry is hard, it’s even harder to find someone you’d want to risk it for.” Jongin explained, sighing a little.

Kris knew that, of course, which was also another reason why he and Sehun forbid the dating thing. Although being their manager would be an amazing excuse for being around them all the time. Nodding to Jongin’s statement, the other continued.

“So, whenever Zitao and I feel frustrated we go to each other.”

“And that doesn’t hinder your relationship at all?” The blonde wondered, feeling that it is rather a dangerous situation for two friends to be in. When he received a shake of the head, he nodded, feeling that they must have a pretty strong relationship.

When a couple of minutes of silence passed, there was a sudden interruption of their conversation by an annoyed voice.

Zitao had awoken.

“Can you please stop talking about our life Jongin? Kris certainly does not need to know.”

Jongin jumped a little and stared down at his friend with a sheepish smile. And all he did was shrug his shoulders. As Zitao was awake, Kris took this time to stand up and go over to Sehun before watching the two on the couch interact. Sehun sighed before he looked up at the blonde with a smirk falling on his lips.

Nudging his friend, he shot him a very knowing expression. Kris glared at the boy before motioning for Sehun to say whatever was on his mind.

He hated the other being quiet and annoying anyway.

“It’s day one Kris, stop it.” Sehun said, keeping his voice low so that no one else in the room could hear him.

“Stop what exactly?”

“Stop staring at him like you want to throw him on a bed.” The younger whispered, grinning like a mad man. Kris just scoffed in reply. “Oh come on. I can see the way you’re staring at him. Even the jealousy man.”

Kris continued to stare over at the two on the couch before shaking his head. There was nothing to be jealous of.

Sehun sighed.

“Don’t be the first to fall.”

A/N: Ta-dah! A new chapter for you! And a bit longer too. :) Hope you like ~