Fillupmyheart
Pairing: Zhoumi/Sungming (MiMin)
Summary: Zhou Mi strives so hard to be perfect, it's not fair that Sungmin is so perfect just being Sungmin.
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He can sing, he can dance, he can act, he can act in both musicals and dramas, he can host radio shows and he has so many variety skills to wow the crowd with.
Zhou Mi didn't understand why Sungmin didn't have more fans as it is, but he knew that if he didn't do anything about it, he was going to become one of the many that adored Lee Sungmin.
And that angered him. He worked so hard to get where he wanted to be, hours and hours of vocal practice, of dance practice where he had to make his legs and body to move the way he wanted them too, instead of flailing around the place. Zhou Mi thought of the number of hours he spent preparing for each variety show he went on, to make sure he had material to work with so that he would get his portion of screen time. Sungmin had it so easy.
He wondered if there was any part of Sungmin that wasn't perfectly put together and he shrugged sourly, there probably wasn't. Maybe he could find an imperfection one day and then Zhou Mi would then feel a sense of satisfaction that he wasn't the only one who had to work as hard as he did for the attention that he garnered nowadays. Maybe he would stop feeling so inferior then.
Somehow, deep inside a small part of Zhou Mi whispered that perhaps he didn't want to find that flaw in Sungmin.
-
He threw himself on Siwon's bed after a meeting about SJM's upcoming album, whining about how Sungmin was going to be in the album with them now.
Siwon hummed and turned a page in the papers that were given to them about the training schedule. 'Why don't you like Sungmin hyung? He's nice to everybody. Has he done something to you?'
'He didn't do anything,' Zhou Mi mumbled into Siwon's pillow.
Siwon smacked the back of Zhou Mi's legs. 'You better not be drooling onto my pillow or I'll never forgive you. And if he didn't do anything to you, what's the problem?'
Zhou Mi sat up rather abruptly. 'That's the problem. He didn't do anything and he's just this perfect human being floating through life while we are slogging our way through.'
'I can hear you pouting,' Siwon said with his nose still in his papers. 'Are you jealous? He worked really hard during debut you know? He didn't get here based on pure luck and it wasn't all easy for him. He's still working just as hard every day.'
'I know I know, the whole debuting fiasco with Junsu sunbae and everything. But still it feels like everything after that is smooth sailing for him. Sungmin hyung makes everything look too easy. You have no right to speak either you have like this perfect body shape. But it's okay because you know like you have the derpiest face ever.'
'I hate you,' Siwon sighed, debating with himself if he should chuck the papers at Zhou Mi. 'Are you sure you're not in denial or something?'
Zhou Mi snorted.
'Back when you were crushing on Kyuhyun during your training, remember how you used to run to me everyday telling me about how you wanted to kick his face in because of his perfect perfect voice and his perfect perfect face?
'Th - that was different! That was a crush. Anyway, I'm over Kyuhyun already and I don't do that anymore,' Zhou Mi stammered, kicking out at Siwon when the latter let out a condescending uh huh. 'I don't! I just want to know if he has like a flaw, to make us mere mortals feel better about ourselves as we go about our insignificant lives.'
'Bet you just want to see if he has a flaw so you can decide if your lowliness can consider pursuing his highness,' Siwon muttered under his breath.
Zhou Mi put pink hair dye in his shampoo after that, which resulted in Siwon having pink hair for three days. Heechul had beamed at him and embraced him oh so proudly.
Of course there was something to be said that the first colour that came to his mind was pink.
Thank you Zhou Mi's subconscious
-
Zhou Mi spluttered as the manager told him that he would be the stand in tutor for Sungmin in the months leading up to the SJM comeback.
'Sungmin hyung? Can't I teach Eunhyuk instead?'
'No Siwon will be in charge of Eunhyuk. Anyway the two guys will have their own tutor. You guys are just going to be around them making sure they practise and to offer them any help with their revision if they need it,' the manager frowned at him.
'But but why Sungmin hyung?'
'Your Chinese is better you have to help him more. Eunhyuk has his variety skills he'll be fine with a slightly lesser grasp of the language but Sungmin should have to speak more on broadcasts so you have to help him more. He picks up languages fast, judging by his grasp on Japanese so you shouldn't have too big a problem, if that's what you're worried about.'
Great, another reason to add to my list about how Lee Sungmin is so perfect, Zhou Mi pouted at the stack of Chinese lesson plans in front of him. He sighed. The faster he could teach Sungmin Chinese, the faster he would be free of him anyway. So that was a small blessing at least.
-
'我们是 Super Junior M!' Other than normal Chinese phrases that Sungmin would have to know, Zhou Mi would also have to teach him phrases that they definitely would have to use on variety shows, to showcase a talent, to introduce yourself etc. (Wo men shi Super Junior M!)
'我们 means "we".'
Sungmin repeated it dutifully after him, mumbling it a couple more times to himself, looking questioningly at Zhou Mi about his pronounciation. Zhou Mi nodded back at him, before writing it slowly on paper, making sure Sungmin could see all the strokes he drew.
Sungmin wrote it all down neatly in his notebook, organised into categories for the different phrases that he would learn, coupled with line strokes and carefully romanised pronounciation. Zhou Mi looked over him as he wrote, making sure that he wouldn't make any mistakes that would hinder his learning, but of course he didn't, Zhou Mi pouted to himself. Sungmin was too perfect to make a mistake like that.
'是 means "are". You can put it with other things to mean the same thing as well. Like 我是, meaning "I am" or 那是, which means "that is".' (Na shi)
No matter how fast he spoke, Sungmin would always catch whatever he said, remembering them carefully and repeated them all countless times under his breath and he recorded Zhou Mi's every single word.
Zhou Mi thought of how long it took him to learn Korean and he slumped his head against the papers on the table.
A gentle touch on his elbow made him look up and Sungmin was biting his lip, looking at him worriedly. 'Are you okay? I know I'm a slow learner, but I'll do my best I promise. I won't trouble you too much.'
'No you're doing fine, I'm just tired,' Zhou Mi shuffled his papers to keep his eyes focused on anywhere else but Sungmin's kind face and he cleared his throat. 'Let's continue.'
Sungmin smiled at his reassurance, and Zhou Mi finally began to gave in to Siwon's suggestion that he might just be in denial about him liking Sungmin.
He was so screwed.
-
The tipping point came for Zhou Mi two weeks later when they were working on perfecting his pronounciation. He knew they would get this point sooner or later, seeing as how Koreans had the trouble with the 'r' sound, changing it instead to more of an 'l' sound.
'人', Zhou Mi stressed the initial r syllable. (Ren)
'Len,' Sungmin tried.
'Again,' Zhou Mi said. 'Curl your tongue inwards before saying it.'
Sungmin wrinkled his nose before trying again. 'Ren.'
'Okay!' Zhou Mi clapped his hands, out of encouragement (and partly because of the fact that Sungmin looked so cute while focusing on his work but no, Zhou Mi was not unprofessional like that)
'人山人海 literally means people in the mountains and people in the sea. It's a metaphor for there being a lot of people around you. The last word is pronounced like Donghae's Chinese name. Repeat please.' (Ren shan ren hai)
Sungmin's eyes lit up at the reference to Donghae and he murmured a small 'Ahh' in comprehension before scribbling furiously in his notebook. Once he was done, he set the pen down and tried, 'Ren shan len hai.'
'No no, both ren have to be pronounced with the r sound hyung. Try again, remember to curl your tongue both times.'
'Len shan len hai.'
'No no now you got both wrong, say ren a few times first and try again.'
Fifteen minutes later, they were still at the same pronounciation problem and Zhou Mi was getting a little tired of repeating the same thing over and over again. He had wanted to move on and try another phrase but Sungmin insisted that they keep at it until he got it perfect. Zhou Mi wasn't sure why he was so fixated on this phrase, it was a phrase that they might not even use, it was just in case Sungmin had to describe his surroundings to people, but even so. Zhou Mi sighed. At his fiftieth 'No that's not right try again,' Sungmin bowed his head and stared at the floor for awhile, fidgeting with the material of his shirt in his hands.
Zhou Mi was then struck by the fact that he was witnessing one of the moments of hard practise that Sungmin put into all his work, that Siwon had mentioned to him. All this practise, this fifteen minutes of practise on a single syllable of a Chinese word, one that came so easily to him he might add, would culminate in a single perfect pronounciation of the word '人' in a broadcast. One that would probably go unnoticed by the general public because it was such a common word and such a given in the Chinese speaking world that one would be able to pronounce it.
'So this was what Siwon meant,' Zhou Mi murmured under his breath in Chinese.
Sungmin's head snapped up. 'What did you say?'
'Nothing nothing,' Zhou Mi reverted back to Korean. 'Let's continue shall we?'
'Are you cursing me in Chinese? I'm really sorry I will try harder.'
'No no it's not your fault,' Zhou Mi's heart broke a little at the semi-defeated expression on Sungmin's face. He stretched out a tentative hand and patted Sungmin's shoulder comfortingly. 'You're doing well hyung.'
Sungmin flushed a nice shade of raspberry before looking up shyly, 'Thank you.'
'Now try again.'
'Len shan ren hai.'
Zhou Mi sighed and rested his chin on a hand, wondering if there was any way he could teach Sungmin to curl his tongue properly. Then he looked at Sungmin and Sungmin looked so forlorn at not being able to get it right and he realised that he didn't care if Sungmin was perfect or was making a simple mistake that Chinese children would be horrified to make. He just wanted to be there when he did.
He inched closer slowly, making it almost all across the space between them before Sungmin looked up. Those doe eyes blinked rapidly as he backed away slightly from Zhou Mi's face so close to him.
'What are you doing?' Sungmin breathed out.
'Here hyung, let me teach you,' Zhou Mi whispered.
He closed the gap between them and captured Sungmin's lips, slowly, carefully, sweetly. Sungmin froze and then melted against him with a soft sigh and his hands raised before dropping again, before raising again to rest them hesitantly on Zhou Mi's shoulders. Zhou Mi kissed him once, twice, three times, a small voice registering at the back of his head that wow Sungmin's lips really were perfect and he wasn't even jealous of them before nipping gently at the full bottom lip.
When Sungmin readily opened his mouth, Zhou Mi brought his hands to the back of Sungmin's neck, pressing him closer as he slipped his tongue into Sungmin's mouth, exploring and mapping it out. Curling his tongue around Sungmin's, he reveled in the low noise that emerged from the back of Sungmin's throat before remembering what he was supposed to be doing. He curled his tongue tighter around Sungmin's and pushed it just a little bit up, the way you'd roll your tongue when you'd pronounce your 'r's before releasing him, pressing a soft kiss to his lips and pulling back.
'And that is how you curl your tongue when you pronounce the r sound.'
There was no response from Sungmin. Zhou Mi waited anxiously, eyes scanning his face as he wondered if he did something wrong. Maybe he went too fast and Sungmin didn't feel the same way about him. Hell he didn't even know he felt like this until ten minutes ago and maybe he was wrong too. Or maybe his kissing just sucked.
Then Sungmin's eyes crinkled up into a smile and Zhou Mi swore his heart skipped a beat.
'You know, I don't think I got the whole thing,' Sungmin whispered softly, gently, beguiling. 'Show me again?'
Zhou Mi stared and laughed, his laugh mixing in with Sungmin's as he brought their lips together again, waiting for no permission before delving into Sungmin's mouth again. Sungmin smiled, throwing his arms around Zhou Mi before pushing his precious notebook away from him.
Chinese could wait.
-
Zhou Mi thought that the title of their new Chinese song was mocking him. But then Sungmin would be laughing and calling to him, his lips ghosting over Zhou Mi's shoulders, enticing him back to bed. Zhou Mi looked down at Sungmin, all perfect lines and curves and wrapped an arm contentedly around his waist, nuzzling affectionately at his neck.
He was right from the very beginning, Sungmin was perfect.
What he didn't know at the beginning was that it was okay, because Sungmin thought he was perfect too.
