Beautiful Sin | TaeKai

|Chapter Three|

Taemin worked a stiff muscle out of his neck, "Hyung," he whined, motioning Minho over to help. The older man sighed and went over to him, his hands going straight into kneading mode. Immediately Taemin felt everything become lighter and less tense in his body. "You've got good hands," he sighed, leaning forward to give his friend more room.

Minho laughed softly, "You're only complimenting me because I'm doing something for you. The second we go back to dance practice you'll laugh at me for something."

"That's because sometimes you have two left feet," he yawned.

Minho frowned, "Are you tired already? Haven't you been sleeping?"

Taemin shrugged and covered another yawn, "I've been sleeping fine."

"No, you haven't," Onew glanced over, adding his opinion. "I hear you up at all hours of the night. You're not sleeping much."

Taemin sighed, "Onew, I'm fine!"

Onew stuck a spoon full of ice cream in his mouth and stared intently at him.

"Where did you get the food?" Minho frowned. "We're not allowed food in the practice room."

Onew pointed at himself, "I'm the leader," he mumbled with the spoon still in his mouth.

Taemin rolled his eyes and pushed Minho's hands away, "I'm fine!" he insisted. However, he knew he wasn't. His mind was kept active at nights; his thoughts filled with Kai. Why did it have to be such a secret that they were related? SM Entertainment seemed to think that it might look bad and that they were playing favourites with people's families like Krystal and Jessica, but that wasn't the case. They could both sing and dance and the fans wouldn't care if they were related.

But... his mind went in a different direction. He guessed it was good that no one knew. When he put on his aegyo and played with Kai on stage, it might look strange if people knew they were related.

"Taemin!" Minho broke into the maknae's thoughts. "You should get more sleep!"

"It's fine," he mumbled, moving away from the rest of them.

"It won't be if you embarrass us on stage," Onew pointed out cheerfully. Minho shot him a look and his face fell, "What? It's true!"

"Guys," Taemin sighed, standing up. "I'll be fine! Let's go back to practice."

"No." Minho shook his head and said it firmly. "No more practice for you. Go do something else."

Taemin was about to argue, but he saw the look in Minho's eyes. With a loud, exaggerated sigh, he got his stuff and left the room. He slowly meandered down the hallway, looking at the pictures on the wall. The pictures were of different group members. Each was sighed and framed with a copy of either their own album or their group's album with it. He passed by his and most of his member's, but then he came to EXO's.

Kai.

He gazed up at the youthful face, longing all over his own. Although they looked so similar that it was hard to tell them apart sometimes, Taemin always thought that Kai had softer features. His face seemed to show more of his true personality: gentle and kind. Taemin felt like his own face wasn't anything special. He would act cute and smile, but no one was really interested.

Taemin took a long sigh and began walking again, not wanting to be caught mooning at his brother's face. He went past the recording studio and looked in. He wanted to smack his own face for being so dumb.

Of course Kai would be in there. Just when he wanted to leave, he would be brought back by that man's face. He gazed into the studio and suddenly Kai's eyes met his over the headphones he was playing with.

They stared at each other in silence. Well, almost silence. The word 'pabo' was going over and over in Taemin's head.

Suddenly, Kai motioned him inside. Taemin's eyes went wide and he thought about running. Then he shook his head. Why would he need to run? It's just his brother!

He stepped into the studio and heard the music around him. It was simple, but catchy. So Kai wasn't standing in silence, Taemin thought to himself in an amused tone.

"Hi," Kai said softly, holding out the headphones. "I can't get these to work and you were the only person who's walked past in the past ten minutes."

Taemin's eyes went wide with surprise, and then shone with defeat. Kai only wanted him in here to help him with something. He didn't care that it was Taemin in particular.

He took the headphones, "What's the issue here?"

"They won't play anything out of the left ear."

Taemin looked around it for a few minutes before he cried, "Aha!" He had found a loose cord and had fixed it. "It's a good thing I was able to fix this. If they had broken on your watch you would have had to have paid for them."

Kai took them back with a small smile, "Uh, yeah. They're kind of expensive, aren't they?"

"You're telling me. My first week after I debuted I got over excited and broke a microphone. I had been so happy to get my first pay check and then it was gone."

Kai chuckled softly, "You never told me that one."

"That's because you'd think I was an idiot!" he murmured, looking down at his feet.

They fell silent for a moment before Kai spoke, "Aren't you meant to be at practice?"

"I got kicked out," he said bluntly.

Kai's eyes widened in shock, "How on Earth does someone like you get kicked out of practice?"

Taemin shrugged, not wanting to talk about it for obvious reasons.

"Tae... are you alright?" Kai put the headphones down and touched Taemin's forehead. "Are you coming down with a cold or something?"

Taemin jerked away from the man's hand, his face already going pink from the touch, "I'm fine!" He grabbed his bag quickly and ducked for the exit.

I hope you enjoyed!! Remember to leave a comment :3 ~CY Hawkins