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"Oh, please please please can we go?"
"Taem, be realistic," Minho sighs and glances down at the tiny Taemin sprawled out on his textbook, preventing him from reading.
"No one will even be able to see me," Taemin insists.
"It's dangerous." Minho picks up his pen, and is just about to resume working when Taemin flutters over and wraps his arms around the pen.
"You're being so melodramatic. It's trick-or-treating, not a battlefield." Taemin digs his leaf slippers into Minho's desk, gripping tight onto the pen that is nearly twice his size.
"Taemin," Minho easily pulls the tiny sprite from his pen, "You're like four inches tall."
"Yeah, four inches of pure muscle ." Taemin flies up to Minho's head and tugs a strand of his hair to prove that nothing but raw strength courses through his diminutive body.
Minho gently, but firmly, swats him away.
"The answer is no."
"Oh my god, Minho. I just want candy . Do you know how cruel you're being, barring me from plastic buckets of candy that would be like swimming pools to you? Do you know how much pain and suffering I endure because of you? Do you know what it’s like being a small, fragile sprite in a world of giants? Do you? " Taemin weeps pathetically, hiding his face behind his acorn cap.
" I'm melodramatic?"
Taemin doesn’t respond, but instead collapses onto Minho’s textbook, pretending to faint out of sheer shock for the tragedy that’s taking place.
Minho groans.
“Ta-dah!” Taemin zips out of his bedroom (a birdhouse that Minho decorated with Taemin’s favorite flowers and doll furniture), and lands in Minho’s palm to show off his Halloween costume. He’s wearing an entirely maple leaf ensemble, complete with a twig crown set on top of his long auburn hair. Minho also notices that his skin and wings are dusted with orange glitter.
“I thought you said you were wearing a costume?”
“I am ,” Taemin scoffs, “You can’t even tell the difference between a sprite and a fairy? God , brush up on your woodland creatures.”
“Sorry, geez,” Minho replies, grabbing the plastic jack-o-lantern bucket off the counter.
“Plus, I look way better than you .” Taemin gestures to Minho’s light blue scrubs.
“I’m a doctor ,” Minho says, clearly a little offended.
“Laaaaaame,” Taemin sings, flying around Minho’s head.
“Can we go now?”
“ Yes! ” Minho gingerly places Taemin in his front shirt pocket, and the two set off for crowded neighborhoods.
“Look! At! That!” Taemin bounces excitedly in Minho’s pocket, pointing at an enormous inflated ghost. Minho grins.
“Look at that .” Minho points to a house that’s been completely covered in decorations. Skeletons hang from their trees, dark figures lurk in their windows, and spiderwebs cover the front door. There’s even some guy dressed as a stately vampire, jumping out at people as they walk past.
“ Wow! ” Taemin gasps and grips the edge of the scrub pocket, “Let’s go over there!” Minho follows his line of sight to a house whose front lawn is speckled with gravestones, and the owners are seated at a cannibalistic dinner table passing out candy.
Once they reach the front of the line, Taemin sharply pokes Minho’s chest. He’s been insisting that Minho say “trick-or-treat” at every single house.
“Trick-or-treat!” Minho smiles, hiding a grimace for the weird look he’s been getting for, presumably, being a grown man trick-or-treating all by himself.
“Happy Halloween!” Instead of scowling, the witch costumed lady just dumps a handful of candy into Minho’s nearly overflowing bucket.
“Thank you!” Minho steps aside to allow three ghost toddlers to greet the witch lady. He switches the bucket to his left hand; it’s getting heavier by the second.
“Can we go to that house with all the pumpkins next?” Taemin beams up at Minho, his eyes glimmering with both the reflection of string lights, and Halloween joy. Minho smiles, all his tiredness suddenly fading away. It is the sprite’s first trick-or-treating.
“Sure.”