DBSK/SHINee, Growing Pains

Title: Growing Pains [Changmin/DBSK]
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 for how Jaesu talk about the dongsaeng.
Summary: Changmin’s grumpy, and it has something to do with SHINee.
AN: I was fairly displeased with the entire process of this fic, and I don’t even really want to repost it on the Nuna comm. Fail, mousie.

Growing Pains

Changmin’s been in a sour mood for a few days, but nobody pays much attention to him. After all, mood swings are common during growth spurts. Nobody used to bat an eye when Yoochun burst into tears if someone squashed a spider, Jaejoong got up at 3 am to bake bread, or Junsu threw whoever was least dressed up against the nearest horizontal or vertical surface. Changmin’s had a rougher growth spurt than most, and if he’s cranky (as well as exhausted and starving), that’s to be expected.

Likewise, nobody thinks much of it on this particular day when Changmin delivers a scathing commentary about the state of each of their fashion senses, then sticks Yoochun’s earbuds in his ears and sulks in his chair, refusing to talk to anybody else while they have their makeup done.

“Changmin’s been easy to style since his growth spurt ended, hasn’t he?” one of the stylists casually remarks to another, and Jaejoong and Yunho exchange looks.

“It’s been a good six months,” the other stylist agrees.

“Fuck,” says Jaejoong, and the stylist thwaps him on the head with her comb, used to Jaejoong’s foul-mouthed ways, but both stylists startle a little when Yunho repeats it on the other side.

“Hey,” Jaejoong asks Yoochun in their room that night, the first time he’s had a moment to either think or talk to his roommate all day. “Have you noticed Changmin’s been in a bad mood lately?”

Yoochun, who is lying on his stomach and reading a magazine, looks up with a raised eyebrow. Jaejoong’s fingers twitch with the desire to find out whether it’s a copy of Seventeen so he can call Yoochun an insufferable girl. “You only just noticed?”

“Changmin has lots of moods!” Jaejoong protests dramatically, then flops on his bed when Yoochun turns back to his magazine, unimpressed. “Do you know what it’s about?”

“Yup,” Yoochun answers.

After a few seconds, Jaejoong turns to glare at Yoochun. “And?”

“Since you’re so smart,” Yoochun flips another page, “I’m sure you can figure it out.”

******

“Hey,” Jaejoong corners Yunho in the hallway, “Changmin hates SHINee.”

“What?” Yunho frowns. “Did he tell you that?”

“Yoochun did.” Jaejoong thumbs behind him, to where a disheveled Yoochun is straggling down the hall behind Jaejoong, trying to smooth the puff of his hair back down.

“Did Changmin tell you that?” Yunho wants to know, and Yoochun rolls his eyes.

“How can you two not know?” Yoochun demands, then looks down and snorts with disgust as he realizes his shirt is buttoned two buttons off.

“That can’t be it,” Yunho says as Jaejoong undoes all of Yoochun’s buttons and begins straightening him all out. “Why would he…”

“Feel free to ask him,” Yoochun says, looking over Yunho’s shoulder and seeing Changmin looming towards them like a thundercloud.

“Minnie-ah,” Jaejoong calls, ignoring Yunho’s pointed look, “do you really hate SHINee?”

Changmin’s eyes narrow. “Who told you that?”

“Yoochun did,” Jaejoong and Yunho say in chorus, and Yoochun darts behind Jaejoong’s shoulder as Changmin’s sharp gaze rakes his way.

Changmin is just opening his mouth to reply when Junsu dashes up the hallway from the living room, clutching a violently lime green cd case. He skids to a halt in front of them all, oblivious to the situation.

“Have you guys listened to this yet?” Junsu demands, eyes bright with excitement. “Minho’s amazing, and Taemin is soooo cute and…”

“Excuse me,” Changmin growls, shoving through the knot of everybody in the hallway and stomping down to one of the bedrooms. The other four blink at each other as the door slams.

“See?” Yoochun pokes his head out from around Jaejoong. “I told you he hated SHINee.”

Junsu gasps and clutches his cd most tightly to his chest, as though shielding the ears of the adorable dongsaeng on the cover.

“But,” Yunho’s brow furrows even deeper, “why? I thought Changmin got along with them when we met. And you’d think he’d like being the hyung for once.”

“And they’re such cute dongsaeng too,” Jaejoong puts in, a touch of purr in his voice as he reaches over to tug the cd free from Junsu’s hands and examines the cover. “So young and impressionable…”

“I think that might be the problem right there,” Yoochun suggests dryly. “Maybe if you didn’t talk about them like that…”

“Like what?” Junsu and Jaejoong both tilt their heads.

“Like SHINee is a pastry you’ve been dying to try.”

Under Yoochun’s pointed gaze, Yunho looks a bit sheepish; Jaejoong and Junsu just grin.

“Anyway,” Yunho struggles to bring them back on track, “what’s that got to do with Changmin? He’s been complaining for ages that they always treat him like the baby, and now that there’s actual babies…”

There’s a moment’s pause as everybody reaches the same conclusion.

“Ooooh,” they all say.

“Come on,” Yunho sighs, and he turns to head to the recently slammed door, the others trailing behind. Yunho knocks on the door with the back of his knuckles.

“Go away!” Changmin calls, sulk practically oozing under the door.

“Changmin,” Yunho starts, gearing up to be reasonable, but Jaejoong reaches around him to twist the doorknob, and then shoves Yunho through the door as soon as it was open.

“Minnie-ah!” Junsu calls, bouncing onto Changmin’s bed and throwing arms around him in a smothering hug. “You know you’re our favorite dongsaeng, right?”

“Even if SHINee is littler,” Jaejoong gets Changmin from the other side, squeezing until Changmin curses. “And newer.”

“And cuter,” Junsu adds in.

“And way more innocent,” Jaejoong says.

“Get off me, you freaks,” Changmin protests, having no success freeing himself from Junsu and Jaejoong’s clutches.

“What those two are trying to say,” Yunho says, leaning in to push Junsu and Jaejoong back far enough that Changmin can breathe, “is that even if they debut a hundred SHINees, we’ll still be your hyung first, okay? You don’t have to be upset about it.”

“Nobody’s upset,” Changmin grouses, but his scowl isn’t nearly as sharp suddenly.

“We love you, Minnie-ah!” Junsu crows, right in Changmin’s ear.

“You’ll always be DBSK’s baby,” Jaejoong croons, which is about the time that Changmin starts punching first and asking questions later.

“Wow,” Yoochun says idly, making the others turn to find him leafing through the booklet of Junsu’s cd. “Taemin really is pretty sparkly. How come Changmin never—”

Yoochun’s voice cuts off in a squeak as the baby in question reaches over to fist a hand in Yoochun’s still mis-buttoned shirt and yanks him down onto the bed.

*****

When DBSK and SHINee happen to pass in the hallway of SM, polite greetings are had all the way around, and when the two groups continue on in opposite directions, it isn’t just Junsu who comes away with starry eyes.

“Yunho-hyung is so cool,” Jonghyun sighs, And Onew looks like he wants to argue but can’t quite manage to do anything but grudgingly agree. Key keeps darting glances over his shoulder, and thus doesn’t notice when Minho comes to a sudden stop, and they all crash into each other with a series of grunts.

“Where’s Taemin?” Minho asks, and the other three blink at one another before turning around.

Taemin and Changmin are still standing in the middle of the hallway, Changmin eyeing Taemin up and down, Taemin beaming up at Changmin.

“You’re not so sparkly,” Changmin finally announces, with the air of the lion who has decided that the mouse might prove useful at some later juncture, perhaps in a parallel universe.

“I like you too, hyung!” Taemin chirps, giving Changmin the full force of his grin plus head tilt special combo, and then he skips off to join his group.

Changmin is still standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at the spot where Taemin had been standing, when his own group comes to retrieve him.

“I think I’m blind,” Changmin reports seriously.

“Don’t worry, Minnie-ah.” Yunho pats Changmin’s shoulder. “When you’re a hyung, your retinas toughen up sooner or later.”

“Man,” Jaejoong remarks, still staring down the hall, “I could really go for some pastry,” and Junsu opens his mouth to agree before Yoochun slaps him across the back of the head.

• 

  By sora, 2010.01.14 @ 8:32 am

  wow…this is so cute…..
  I want to tell you something, Changmin……
  in cassiopeia heart, forever you are little baby from beloved DSBK
• 

  By artemist, 2010.05.15 @ 10:48 am

  it’s too cute…just adorable
  the changmin and taemin standing in the middle, and the “I think I’m blind” soooo funny
• 

  By Lara, 2010.10.23 @ 1:14 pm

  Bwahahaha Changmin is sooo cute!!! I love the way you write him, it makes me feel all gooey inside 😀 “You’re not so sparkly” is the best line ever! That whole scene with Taemin is perfect. Two Minnie-ahs facing off over who is the cutest dongsaeng…in an extremely cute and innocent way, of course. XD I love the thought of Changmin as a hyung…especially a reluctant one to Taemin… *drool* ^_^ Fabulous story, as per usual!!!

  ~Lara

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