"w-woah... you guys are... s-so good at this..." shotaro stated between pants as he tried calming his erratic heart after an intense game of just dance.

after coming back from the grocery store where they had done some food shopping, a few nct members had dragged shotaro in the living room to play some just dance against him.

inevitably, shotaro was far behind the others. nct were a bunch of hyperactive alphas who were able to dance, sing and rap at the same time for hours straight without getting tired, so of course, they were far better than shotaro at just dance.

"come on, you're doing pretty well too, shotaro!" ten ruffled the boy's hair.

"n-not really..." the omega replied, looking at the screen only to realise that he had barely reached three stars when ten, jungwoo and chenle - with whom he had been playing for around an hour - had reached 5 stars with ease once again.

"don't worry, it's just because it's the beginning. after a while you'll know the dances by heart and it will be easier." jungwoo assured, selecting the next song they would play on.

"oh, we're doing a duo!!" chenle exclaimed, bouncing up and down in excitement. "shotaro, be my partner!" he added, looking at the omega with the best puppy eyes he could.

shotaro blinked in confusion as his cheeks coloured red. chenle had his face close to his, and he was pouting like a baby, making the omega quite shy.

"le, you're making him uncomfortable, move." jungwoo declared, pulling chenle by his collar and making him take a step back from shotaro.

"sorry if i made you uncomfortable." he apologised. "but would you like to be my partner?"

"s-sure..." shotaro smiled shyly, not really knowing what he got himself into as chenle started yelling around that he got to dance with shotaro.

and damn... shotaro should have guessed that it wouldn't be something easy and peaceful.

barely a second after the song started, chenle grabbed shotaro's hand and started spinning him around skilfully, making the omega land in all sorts of positions - against chenle's chest, in his arms, far from chenle but with his hand still in his...

shotaro felt thankful that he had been chosen to be the character danced by the woman on the screen, because he could let himself being dragged around by chenle - who seemed to know the dance moves by heart. god, shotaro couldn't even decipher the moves he had to do, so thank god chenle was here to halo him to dance!

thankfully, shotaro saw the ending of this energetic dance coming after three minutes. however, when he realised what the final position would be, the omega let out a strangled noise, his eyes widening as he wondered if chenle would really go this far.

and he did...

before shotaro could react, chenle wrapped one of his hands around shotaro's back and used his other hand to pull shotaro's thigh up against his own hip before leaning forward on the last beat, making the omega arch his back and pull his head back on the very last music note, thus ending the song with a "perfect" move.

all of the alphas that were around whistled as their eyes stayed glued on chenle and shotaro, the chinese male having his hand gripping on the omega's bare thigh as the position made his shorts ride up his thigh. the omega stayed frozen on his spot, his eyes right into chenle's as the alpha looked back at him with eyes that screamed adoration.

after what felt like hours for chenle and him – but happened to be three seconds for the others – chenle used his hand to pull shotaro up again in order for them to go back to a normal standing position; however, he kept the boy's thigh in hand, causing shotaro to stand on one foot, his pelvis pressed against chenle's and his hands gripping onto the boy's shirt so that he didn't fall/

"t-t-thank you..." shotaro stuttered, his cheeks now flaming red.

"no, thank you, shotaro." chenle smiled sincerely, still not letting go the boy's thigh. "you are the best partner that i can ask for. and you were amazing out there. ask the others, they will tell you that i'm right."

shotaro shyly looked around, his eyes falling on ten and jungwoo who had also danced the duet by chenle and shotaro's side.

"oh god, amazing isn't enough to describe your performance." jungwoo declared, wiggling his brows.

"yeah. you were perfect. absolutely zero flaw." ten nodded, approving with jungwoo and the other members around.

"actually..." shotaro looked back at chenle who had just spoken. "you are always perfect..."

this was the last straw for shotaro who became redder if possible. his heart threatened to stop in his chest because of how quick it was beating, and the smell of alpha pheromones in the air was starting to get prominent as many nct members looked at what was happening.

the omega had no other possibility than running away.

"e-excuse me, b-but... i n-need to use the bathroom..." he stuttered after coughing a bit.

chenle let go of his thigh, and as soon as he had his two feet on the ground, the omega ran away the fester he could, disappearing in the maze of corridors to look for the bathroom where he knew he would be able to lock himself in and take a breather.

it was only the third day, and he had started getting more comfortable around the boy. he could already see that he wasn't coughing his lungs out anymore whenever the members were around – he only did when they released a lot of pheromones. this meant that he was slowly getting used to the boys' scent, and he was happy about it. but he wasn't sure he would be ablel to survive four more days with the boys being so straightforward with him.

first, hendery and donghyuck that he had heard arguing about him in front of the bathroom... then johnny cooking for him and mark and him complimenting his scent... after that, taeil and xiaojun telling him he's cute... and now, chenle dancing intimately with him in front of the other members, and ten and jungwoo claiming that he was perfect?! he definitely wouldn't survive four more days...

the omega stopped in front of a closed wooden door, hesitating a second before pushing it open. the house was so big and all the doors looked the same, he still hadn't registered which doors were bathrooms...

he looked around, heaving out a sigh before debating whether he should open it or not. deciding against it after long seconds of deep thinking, the omega took a step aside and pushed open the plain wooden door, ready to lock himself in here for a good hour.

however, as soon as he entered, a wave of very odorant pheromones hit him, forcing him to cough in his elbow as he took a step in, only lifting his head when he realsied that the carpeted floor looked nothing like the bathroom's tiled floor.

"o-oh... t-this is n-not the b-bathroom..."

indeed.

in the room, shotaro noticed renjun and sungchan standing a few meters away from him, their clothes messy. but this was nothing next to jeno and jisung who were respectively lying on top of donghyuck and jaemin, and from the look of it, they weren't wearing much clothes.

"oh, shotaro!" sungchan exclaimed, his eyes widening as he stood up directly in front of the boy to hide the sight of the four naked boys riding their highs on the beds behind him.

"s-sorry..." shotaro coughed again, the scent present in the room being really heavy for his cute virgin nose. "i-i though it w-was the b-bathroom."

"oh, no, it's the room just before." he informed, glancing behind him only to notice that renjun was throwing the boys their clothes so that they could get themselves dressed. "huh... i'll bring you there."

before shotaro could argue and say that he knew where the bathroom was – of course, the bathroom door was the door of his first intuition – the taller male wrapped an arm around his shoulders and dragged him out of the room, not forgetting to close the door behind their back to hopefully block the sexual pheromones that filled the room.

"it's right here." sungchan opened the bathroom door with a smile.

shotaro took a step in the tiled room before turning around to face sungchan.

"what were they doing a while ago?" he asked confusedly, his mind blank with any interpretation.

"h-huh... when exactly...?" sungchan stuttered, rubbing his nape in nervousness as namkyu's speech on how innocent shotaro was flashing in his mind.

"w-when i entered." shotaro explained. "jeno, donghyuck, jaemin and jisung were lying on the beds, and the scent was really strong. i kept coughing."

sungchan let out a nervous laugh. "it's nothing... really... they were just... just wrestling!" he exclaimed, proud of himself to have found a plausible excuse.

"wrestling? why would they be wrestling?" shotaro frowned.

"w-well..." he thought for a second. "we're alphas after all, we need our dose of fighting and arguing to be healthy, you know?"

"oh..." shotaro nodded, slowly understanding.

sungchan let out a deep breath, happy that he had found a lie that seemed real enough. he wasn't the best liar out there, and the situation shotaro had walked in was very difficult to cover.

"b-but..." shotaro spoke again, making sungchan tense. "...the smell was very different last time i witnessed you in a fight..."

sungchan gulped, praying the gods above that shotaro wouldn't ask any more questions. "that's because... because it was... a very special fight..."