Tic Tac Toe (1/1)

AN: I had an hour and a bit of spare time today, so I decided to update! Hope you enjoy…and sorry for the infrequent posts…And, thank you to RJLoro and raebinnie, you guys made my day yesterday!And this one shot randomly popped into my head…I think it’s a bit out of character, but I’ve seen some friends of mine go completely crazy when they’re in their honeymoon phase…Tic Tac ToeTaemin and Naeun were still clearly in their honeymoon phase of their marriage, and whenever they had met up with their friends, a large portion of the talking was directed into teasing them. To make things worse, Taemin and Naeun relied on each other to get themselves out of embarrassing situations, but since the both of them were targeted, their habit of clinging onto each other (Taemin would grab her hand and she would bury her face in his shoulder), got them cemented into the spotlight at friendly gatherings. Naeun was tired of being teased, but she knew that she and Taemin couldn’t go without skinship because they both enjoyed it way too much. However, she was determined to show a different side of them, and thought of an idea that would enable them to practice life without skinship, in preparation for another upcoming dinner with the APINK and SHINee members. She also knew that her husband would not like it, but with a little bit of her aegyo, she could definitely convince him.That night, she prepared a very special dinner. Taemin was coming back from a schedule, and so she recreated their first date at the pension, after becoming a couple, in their living room. She laid out a few blankets, put the pillows around and set up a makeshift tent. It wasn’t raining, but she dimmed the lights and half pulled down the blinds to give off the effect that it was dark outside. At five minutes to seven, she sat herself down on the mat, facing the door way, with a glass of wine in her hand, and lips lightly pressed to the glass as if she were taking a sip. When Taemin opened the door, his jaw dropped, and he immediately joined her on the floor of the living room. He grabbed the wine glass from her hand and set it down, then interlaced their fingers as he leaned in and gave her a kiss on the lips.“Welcome home, Oppa…”“Mmmm…can you welcome me home like this every day?” Naeun didn’t reply, and so, Taemin became curious. Naeun leaned in to give him another kiss but he pulled back slightly.“Wae?”“You want something, don’t you?”“No. I’m just trying to be romantic. I’m just welcoming my husband, who has been working hard all day, home. Is that wrong?”“Yes! It is! Because, you know that a simple dinner is romantic enough for me…you want something…”“Fine! You know me too well…and then next time, when I do want to surprise you, I won’t put in the effort then…”“Andwae! You can still be romantic…but you know…setting up our first date…it means something…”Naeun sighed and then used her shoulder to shove Taemin a bit. Then, she proceeded to serve some food onto their plates and then started eating.“Malhaebwa!”“Later! Let’s just enjoy dinner first.”They ate dinner, and Taemin commented on how nice the food was. Everything went so well that Naeun almost forgot why she was doing this in the first place. In the midst of Taemin spoon feeding her some ice cream, and then kissing her on the lips to playfully remove the cream that was left over, she sharply pulled back and then placed a hand to his chest.“Jamkaman!”“Eyyy…”“I need to ask you something!”“You said, after we eat dinner!”“We did finish dinner…half an hour ago! You just wanted some dessert and I agreed. Besides, you’re not eating the ice cream that you said you wanted! You’re feeding it to me and then licking it off my lips! See! This is why we always get teased! You can’t keep your hands off of me!”“Hey! It’s not like you’re refusing the ice cream! And I didn’t hear you protesting when I was kissing you! Admit it…you love it…”“I love it…but I don’t like getting teased the whole time we’re at a party…I want to be the one teasing other people…”“Fine! Fine! I’ll try and restrain myself! So, what did you want to tell me?”“Okay…you know how the dinner is in two days? Well, how about we practice having no skinship?”“Okay. When?”“Tomorrow. The whole day. 24 hours. No skinship.”Taemin shook his head violently.“No! I can’t do that!”“Yes! We can! I made it into a game so that we’ll be competitive enough to not even think about doing skinship.”Naeun pouted her lips and looked into his eyes, and Taemin melted and gave in.“What’s the game?”“Tic Tac Toe. You will be the X and I will be the O. Say, you do skinship with me…I get to put down an O. If I do skinship with you, you get to put down a X. The first person to make a line will get a reward.”“What reward?”“Whatever reward they want.”“Deal!”“Deal!”“When do we start?”“7 in the morning.”“Call!”----XOXOXO----The next morning, Naeun woke up first, but she decided to stay in bed. She looked toward the alarm clock, and as it struck seven, she felt Taemin pull her tighter towards him. She smiled and then bolted out of bed and placed the first ‘O’, on the grid. Taemin, whose brain was still high in the clouds of dream land, rubbed his tired eyes and sat up straight like a zombie in bed. Naeun jumped back in but was careful to put a safe distance between them.“What are you doing?”“Oppa…I got my first ‘O’ on the board!”“How?”“Just then…it’s 7am. You hugged me, therefore, I get an ‘O’.”“That’s unfair! You know it’s a habit for me to hug you in the morning…”“Still…I told you it started at 7. It’s fair.”“You woke up earlier than me…I was still asleep when I did that!”“It’s not my fault you’re a sleep head…”Taemin tried to make a grab for her but was able to restrain himself, as Naeun laughed and then walked off to go into the kitchen. Taemin continued to stay in bed, as he thought about how hard the next 24 hours would be.----XOXOXO----Taemin followed Naeun into the kitchen as he thought of a plan in his head. She was already getting ingredients out to make pancakes, when he volunteered to make them breakfast. She just nodded and then sat on one of the kitchen stools as he fiddled around the kitchen to get a pan out, and the other breakfast utensils and plates. When he opened the pancake mix, he purposely ripped it greater than it should have been, as some of the contents spilled onto the floor. Naeun jumped from her seat as Taemin bent down to clean up the mess on the floor. As he was doing so, he hit his head on the edge of the counter top, and Naeun immediately reached out to try and ease the pain from his head. Once she laid her hand on him, he shot up and ran into their bedroom, proudly declaring that he had gotten his first ‘X’ of the day.When he came out of the bedroom, with a victorious smile on his face, Naeun folded her arms and scoffed.“We’re even now…Naeun-ah…”“You cheated! I thought you were hurt!”“Still! You touched me first!”“Hmph!”----XOXOXO----After eating their breakfast, Naeun suggested that they have a mini dance party in their living room. Taemin wordlessly led them into the lounge and plugged his phone into the dock as the music started. At first, he was trying to choose songs that would have a greater chance of her touching him, but she made sure to keep away from him. Whenever a song would start, however, he would follow her around, and swing his body from side to side, hoping that she would “accidentally” touch him first. They did this for a whole hour, and were starting to get tired. They decided to quit after one more song, but as luck, or fate, or whatever, would have it, this song, would be the deciding factor on who gets to put another mark on the grid.“Naeun-ah…himdeulro…let’s stop after the next song.”“Okay…”Gangnam Style started playing, and Taemin and Naeun started to do the familiar horse dance, as they reminisced on how popular this song had been a long time ago. Their talk about all the good memories acted like a magnet that drew them from the opposite side of the room into the centre. As the last chorus was starting, Taemin raised his arm to imitate the lasso move, and it made contact with Naeun’s arm. His eyes widened in shock, and Naeun mirrored this, but then seconds later, after it had registered in her brain, she ran into the room and drew another ‘O’ on the board.“Oppa! You know I only need one more and then I win, right?”Taemin just bowed his head in defeat and then suggested they move on to the next phase.----XOXOXO----They decided to rest while watching a movie. Taemin ended up picking a horror movie as it raised the chances for Naeun to move into his arms. He knew that she loved scary movies because of the thrill of them, but he also knew that she loved scary movies, especially after they started dating, because she had him to hug her and cover her eyes for her, and then have his arms around her when they slept to prevent her from having nightmares.“Eyyy…Oppa! You’re just doing this so I would run into your arms!”“If you picked the movie, you would pick a romantic comedy so that I couldn’t resist kissing you!”“Ahrasso…”Once again, Naeun moved to the opposite end of the couch to avoid touching Taemin. She knew that they were starting to get childish by purposely suggesting activities that would normally involve them touching, but she had reason to do this. If they could resist now, they could resist tomorrow, right?Towards the end of the movie, she was feeling proud of herself for not jumping into his arms. However, she hadn’t anticipated how scary the actual film was, and was getting more relaxed when she knew it was about to end. But then, one of the ghost children popped up into the screen, and Naeun, like a reflex, moved into Taemin’s arms, almost like Scooby jumping into Shaggy’s arms.The end credits rolled as Taemin whispered into her ear.“That’s another ‘X’ for me.”She got off from his lap as he moved into the bedroom and marked the grid. There would be only one more round after this.----XOXOXO----Somehow, Taemin and Naeun made it all the way to bed without any more incidences of skinship. But, as Naeun went to turn off the lights, Taemin re-evaluated why they were doing this in the first place, and found he had no reason to comply with the game any longer. As Naeun crawled back into bed, Taemin pulled her towards him and gave her a kiss on the cheek.“Oppa…you know that by doing that you’ve lost, right?”He nodded against her cheek.“Ahra…I don’t mind losing…it’s bed time…I definitely have to kiss my wife before going to bed. It’s one of life’s pleasures…”Naeun looked into his eyes and then Taemin got up from the bed and marked Naeun’s final ‘O’ on the board, and drew her winning line.“Congratulations, baby…”“We’re both winners…”“Really?”“Yep.”“We managed to go a day, more or less, without skinship. I think we’ll be good tomorrow.”“Yeah…who cares what they think…they’re just jealous of us…”“Eung…promise me something, though…”“What?”“Promise me…that when we get to the restaurant tomorrow we tell everyone that we saw Key and Eunji Unnie, kissing in the toilets back stage at the concert last week…”“We didn’t see that…”“Yeah…but they don’t have to know that…”“You’re right…they probably were kissing in the bathroom anyway…”“I love you…”“I love you too…my playful and mischievous wife…”Naeun closed her eyes and moved into his embrace. He kissed her on the forehead, before he whispered something.“Promise me that we won’t ever play this again…”“Ahrasso…”“And promise me that we won’t just say that they were kissing in the toilet…let’s say that Key also tried to keep touching her on stage too…”Naeun smiled and nodded.“Deal.”“Taemin and Naeun, 1, Key and Eunji, 0”