no regrets 。taekai 。

i

"eh.. lee taemin?" jongin asked, rubbing the back of his head as he watched the small man with a bright smile hold a bright red pair of boxers (that he was pretty sure belonged to chanyeol) in between his thumb and pointer finger.

taemin suddenly snapped his head to the sound of jongin's voice, squeaking as he let go of the underpants to put his hands up in surrender.

"i... i... i didn't-" he pauses to gulp, "i was just picking it up! it was on the floor, i was just going to fold it and put it on the desk over there!" surely, he points to the desk that situated at least a few meters from him.

it did look like taemin didn't have any other intentions, his face looked flushed, but his body language did tell jongin that he was utterly mortified from being caught red-handed.

now, jongin had always been an observative person. it started in middle school, he developed a strong character and was always quiet.

he had many friends, girls and boys, he was basically the main character of a drama because of his 'sm trainee status', but it didn't look that way to him.

with various incidents in the past regarding his long hair and deep voice since young, jongin had learned that the less attached you got to people, the easier school would get.

that did work out for him, straight a's student, never got in trouble, a student record to die for- but he didn't get to make the most out of it.

when he debuted, he didn't regret anything. he told himself that same thing he believed in high school, but as time passed, he loosened up.

people who really cared about him, who shared their dreams with him, that was exo.

exo was his family, his friends and everything in between.

someone who smiles at other and cries for others, someone that works hard until his muscles ached, someone who chose his friends, his family, over everything else. that was exo's kai

and he would never change anything about it.

so deep in thought, jongin seemed to have forgotten the reason he had gone into the changing room on the first place.

ah, my phone, he thought.

"don't worry, taemin. i won't tell anyone you're a massive fan of chanyeol's" he pointed at straps that clearly read 'P.C.Y (≧∀≦)' with his nose and brought a finger up to cover his mouth, as if to say 'it's a secret'.

"i mean," he continued, "unless you want me to tell chanyeol. im sure he'd appreciate it, he's a good guy." he winked and grabbed his phone from that same desk taemin was heading to before jongin barged in.

he took a last glance at the boy whos face only got redder as words spat out of jongin's mouth. taemin was wearing same clothes as he wore when performing earlier that day. his make up seemed a little worn out, probably from the sweat, and if he was wearing any blush, it was impossible to notice since his face was already red all over.

"um, yeah, no." taemin cleared his throat, "um, good luck on your performance later."

taemin took the chance to sprint as jongin opened the door of the changing room, with the intent of going back to his group before taemin left, his plans clearly ruined by the small boy.

jongin watched amusedly as taemin fastly ran all the way across the hall and almost stumbled on his own feet until he disappeared in a corner.

he just couldn't help but chuckle at how awkward the older boy was.

。。。

the night passed by quite rapidly.

when exo had finished their performance, the venue was quick to clear out. fans who got the chance to see their idols up close were crying and screaming as they exited through a single door, while the idols who'd performed or hosted the event were tiredly making their way to the first available exit.

jongin couldn't judge them. looking around at this bandmates and himself, they all wanted to go home and rest for at least two consecutive weeks, but as lee soo man always said to them: 'rest always comes after a party'.

so that's why they were on their van, heading back to sm entertainment to go to the after party that was tradition in the sm entertainment family. every night after an event, a party would be held and then they could all have three days of rest (if no schedule was appointed before the event).

luckily for jongin and the rest of the members, the traffic in seoul was just as bad after a major event.

"hey guys, get some rest, it's gonna be a while until we get there" and they all didn't need to be told twice.

all of the now seven members were already laying their heads on the window to sleep or leaning against other members.

chanyeol, junmyeon, kyungsoo and yixing were talking at the back of the van while minseok and jongdae splet soundly on the front.

jongin was just listening to the conversation since he was sitting next to yixing and in front of junmyeon.

they were all talking about their performance and everyone elses that were pretty amazing.

"i liked sunmi's gashina performance, she was so powerful up there" yixing started humming the song and doing a hand gun to match with it- typical yixing behaviour.

"yeah, she was pretty powerful up there. but what about winner? they never fail me" junmyeon said.

"what about shinee? whaa, they were pretty strong too." kyungsoo nodded to himself, reflecting on today's performance.

"yeah, i agree, shinee was pretty good out there" jongin's mouth formed into a small smile as he hid his face into the blanket that their manager had offered.

"real good."

。。。