The Secrets We Keep - Taekai

the one with the competition

All of the guys had been hyped all day for the press conference which would be their first introduction to the media as SuperM. Everyone was also slightly nervous except for Ten and Mark on how they were expected to at least attempt some English throughout the press conference - they knew there would be a translator there in case, but no one really wanted to admit that they would be fully dependent on the translator.

And to top it off, Jongin wasn't sure when or how Baekhyun had managed it but Baekhyun had managed to rope Mark into his plan to try tormenting Taemin - as Jongin found out by how touchy Mark had suddenly become with him.

And Jongin had noticed the looks that Taemin kept shooting him the entire ride from their house for the week to the Capital Records building. Mark had taken to attempting to help Jongin with some English pronunciation on their drive over while Baekhyun kept grinning at him.

As soon as they got to the building and got out of the van to the sound of a bunch of fans, everyone dispersed from each other and acted as if nothing was going on. Jongin had to withhold from laughing at how absurd the whole thing was.

■

As soon as their press conference was over with and they had gotten the chance to see the music video for Jopping for the first time, surrounded by fans - the way they wanted to do it, they headed back to their rental house.

Taemin had practically shoved Jongin into the van as soon as the door opened before sliding in behind him, causing Jongin to be stuck in the far back corner of the van - with no room for anyone to sit beside him except for Taemin.

Jongin couldn't help the small smirk that formed on his face as Taemin glanced over at him. Taemin shook his head, rolling his eyes slightly.

Jongin had decided that he would give as much as Taemin gave, so he was willing to do whatever seemed comfortable to Taemin depending on the day.

Jongin tilted himself to be more turned toward Taemin and stuck his hand around Taemin's waist, pulling him all the closer into Jongin's side to where there truly was no space between them.

Jongin tried to ignore the look on Baekhyun's face as he slid into the seat in front of them. And really ignoring Baekhyun wasn't all that hard when all he could focus on was how Taemin was looking at him and how Taemin's hand was on his upper thigh.

Jongin was also trying to ignore how his body was reacting to being this close to Taemin again. Because the last thing he wanted to do was make things awkward between them.

They had already been struggling not to have things be awkward between them to start with and now if Taemin knew how much of an affect he had on Jongin - Jongin was scared that that would be too much.

So Jongin forced his eyes away from Taemin after a second, looking out the van's window as they drove off from the Capital Record's building.

He paid as much attention as he could to the conversations around him - listening as Mark went on about English and if there was anything any of them could have improved about their bits of English that they had spoken, which admittedly hadn't been as much as they could have done but they were planning on speaking more English at the showcase.

■

"Can we talk?" The quiet voice behind Jongin almost scared him. He had been sure all the other guys were in the kitchen, celebrating their press conference success.

Jongin cleared his throat, "Right now might not be the best time." He had been planning on going and taking a shower before heading on to bed - try to figure out where everything stood for him.

"Jongin."

Jongin sighed, turning around to face Taemin. "At least let me take a shower real fast."

Taemin nodded, "I'll be in my room."

Jongin headed to his and Baekhyun's room, grabbing a change of clothes before heading to the bathroom for a quick shower.

As soon as Jongin was done, he headed down the hall to Taemin's room. He opened the door and walking in before closing it behind himself - finally Taemin laying on his bed, reading something on his phone.

"Hey." Jongin walked over to the bed, laying down beside Taemin.

"Hi." Taemin replied, setting his phone onto the small table beside the bed - rolling over to look at Jongin.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"Us."

"What about us?"

"What are we doing, Jongin? I mean really. What's been up with you and Baekhyun the past few days? You went from acting like you wanted to get back with me to doing whatever it is that you and Baek have been up to. Is that why you all are rooming together?"

"Taemin - Baekhyun and I are nothing more than friends and bandmates. He's been trying to mess with you this whole time cause I was complaining to him about you flirting with Ten."

"Jackass." Taemin said, leaning over and burying his face into the space beside Jongin's arm.

"Wasn't my idea." Jongin said, moving his arm to up above Taemin's head on the bed.

"You smell good." Taemin mumbled, scooting significantly closer to Jongin.

"You can thank that shower I just had to take - because of you, might I add."

Taemin raised his head up just enough to meet Jongin's eyes - his face turning a shade of red. "You're joking."

Jongin suddenly became aware of how his words had sounded - what he had accidentally implied in the moment - and shook his head. "No, no. Not because of that. I took the shower in order to try and get a few minutes alone to think things over."

"Oh." Taemin said, ducking his head back down against Jongin's side, stretching an arm across Jongin's waist. "I was going to say you could have just told me, I would have taken care of it for you."

Now it was Jongin's turn to blush slightly at the words, "Taemin."

"What? It's the truth. Not like I haven't done that to you before."

"Huh." Jongin said, running his hand through Taemin's hair and tugging slightly. Taemin let out a quiet groan and poked a finger into Jongin's side.

"How do you think the trips been going so far?" Jongin asked after a minute of silence.

"I think it's been going pretty good so far, I think we'll do good enough at the showcase tomorrow."

"I'm sure we'll do great tomorrow night."

They laid there for a while - Jongin wasn't even sure how long - in silence. Just enjoying each others presence. Jongin finally decided to speak up, "I like this."

His voice had came out in almost a whisper - scared if he spoke too loudly, it would ruin whatever trance they were both in that had led to them just laying there holding each other like this again.

Taemin nodded, tightening his grip on Jongin's waist. "It's nice."

But as much as Jongin hated risking ruining the moment they were having - there was a question that was plaguing him. One that he knew he had to ask eventually.

"So you ever gonna tell me why you really left me?"