Kyungsoo sat on the mono bloc chair, biting her lip and fiddling with the ends of her blouse as she waited for her cue on stage. Taemin smiled at her from across the stage, the both of them still hidden behind the maroon curtains.  He made her more nervous than she already was, and she looked away quickly, hoping he hadn’t noticed her cheeks blush red, which he probably hadn’t done, since she had cheek tint on her face.

‘’, she cursed silently to herself, then suddenly, Sunye the stage manager popped her head into the curtains, telling her to standby. Kyungsoo nodded, and stood up, watching Taemin come on stage and do his scene before she could walk into the scene and dance with him.

She heard her cue and she strode towards Taemin, kissing his cheek as the scene indicated in their scripts. Kyungsoo wore the fake-st smile she could show the crowd, because she wasn’t at all happy at that moment, in fact, she was kind of sad.

This whole thing--this play-- was just acting. Taemin was just acting, pretending, to enjoy her presence, to smile at her jokes, to squeeze her hand as they glided across the stage, to support her waist. Her already red cheeks turned redder as Taemin said his sweet lines; complimenting her clothes, saying how pretty she was, how lucky he was to have her. All just acting.

‘Here comes the kiss’, she sighed mentally before Taemin could lean in to kiss her, just like in the script, pull away, then they would smile at each other until the curtains closed. Kyungsoo counted the seconds his lips were pressed against hers. The 10 seconds seemed like forever.  Butterflies fluttered in her stomach, but she stopped herself. ‘THIS ISN’T REAL NOT REAL’ she chanted to herself.

As soon as the curtains closed, she pulled away from Taemin’s arms, walking briskly to her dressing room.

“Hey--” Taemin had said, but Kyungsoo had already turned the knob, and slammed the door to his face. The next 8 scenes became extremely awkward because of it, but nonetheless, the play was successful, receiving standing ovations from the audience.

And to celebrate this success, Sunye proposed they go to a nearby karaoke place. She winked at Kyungsoo.

It was already 11 pm, and everyone except Kyungsoo and Taemin were still belting out on the karaoke machine. Half the staff and actors were already drunk, talking nonsense into the microphone. It was unbearable.

Kyungsoo glanced at Taemin, who  had been staring at her, and he gestured her to come outside with him, and escape the chaos that was the private karaoke room.

It was cold outside, Kyungsoo had come out of the karaoke place first, slumping against the brick wall and breathing into her bright yellow muffler. Taemin slumped against the wall as well.

“So why are you ignoring me?” he breathed, turning to her.

“You... kiss... not real...”, she muttered incoherently, shaking her head.

“You’re ignoring me... because I kissed you?” he asked in disbelief. “Shouldn’t you be happy?”

Kyungsoo was shaking now, and not because of the cold, but because of anger and fear and all sorts of emotions mixing in her fragile little heart, ready to burst.

“Happy?” she croaked. “I’m not happy, Taemin! HOW THE CAN I BE HAPPY? SO WHAT IF YOU KISSED ME? YOU WERE ACTING, PRETENDING! IT WAS A PLAY! Why would I be happy when that kiss... means nothing...” She was crying now, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

Taemin sighed, taking her hand and pulling her towards him, holding her tight. Her tears seeped into his jacket, and he didn’t mind. He kissed the tod of her head and pulled away, holding on to her shoulders.

“Kyungsoo, that kiss wasn’t meaningless at all,” he whispered, looking straight into her eyes. “I didn’t kiss you just because I had to, just because the script said so...”, he said, wiping her tears, and tucking stray strands of hair behind her ear. “I kissed you because I wanted to, Kyungsoo,” he said, and quickly leaned in to kiss her once more. “I love you, Kyungsoo.”

Kyungsoo  smiled softly and got on her tippy toes to kiss him, because of all things, there was nothing she wanted more than this. This kiss.

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Sooooo. Did you guys like it? Wrote this in between updating my fics, I got inspired by our play this morning, which was a Midsummer Night's Dream. I was Hippolyta and I had a crush on my Theseus for a short period of time last year. So yeah, comment, bbs!