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Seungcheol was walking into the kitchen to make himself a snack, when he noticed his gorgeous little chicken nugget pouring himself a bowl of cereal.
"Hey, Hoonie," he greeted especially perky as he walked over to the fridge.
"What do you want?" Jihoon snapped in reply, as he shut the silverware drawer harshly.
Taken back, Seungcheol looked over and stared at Jihoon with a shocked expression. "I-I was just saying hi," he stuttered in reply.
"Okay," the younger said as he took his bowl of cereal and walked out of the room. Seungcheol just silently stared after the younger as he remained glued to his spot in front of the fridge.
---
After that less-than-affable conversation Seungcheol had with Jihoon earlier, he decided it best to give the younger as much as space as he could for the day. Seungcheol knew Jihoon was probably just stressed trying to finish their up-and-coming album before his self-appointed deadline approached, and therefore would be in a slightly sour mood for the time being. Seungcheol also made a mental note to give Jihoon extra cuddles when this was all done.
As the leader was walking towards the kitchen to grab himself a bottle of water, he heard the sound of yelling coming from inside the living room. Peaking around the corner, he saw Jihoon standing with his back to Seungcheol as he yelled at Seungkwan for who-knows-what-reason. The diva himself doesn't even seem to know what Jihoon is going on about as he knelt in front of the screaming producer, trying to get him to calm down at least a little.
"Okay, hyung, it won't happen again. I'm sorry," Seungkwan said as tears threatened to spill from his eyes. He looked to Seungcheol for some sort of assistance, as Jihoon continued swearing about this-that-or-another-thing, not even on the same matter he was yelling at Seungkwan before.
"Jihoonie--" Seungcheol called, causing the younger boy to turn around with an unnerving glare on his face. The vein on Jihoon's forehead looked ready to burst as it noticeably pulsated above the youngers right brow. "I... uh..." the leader said, looking anywhere but the squirming artery which seemed to be getting bigger the longer Seungcheol was there.
"Hey, hyung," Minghao greeted as he walked past Seungcheol and into the living room. As he stood in front of Jihoon, the Chinese boy tilted his head as he stared at Jihoon. "Hyung, your forehead looks funny."
Seungcheol quickly grabbed Minghao by the waist and pulled him out of the room before Jihoon had a chance to yell at him too.
---
All that was heard in the living room as the 13 members ate their dinner was the soft clink of chopsticks hitting the ceramic bowls. After word got around of Jihoon's outbursts earlier, things had been extremely uncomfortable in the dorm. What normally would be a time filled with jokes and laughter was now filled with silence.
Most of the member's ate slowly, either casually scrolling through their phones or not-so-subtly casting glances towards the irritable member. Jihoon didn't seem to notice as he silently ate his own food as he bobbed his head to the invisible beats inside his head.
As Jihoon stuck his chopsticks back into his bowl to get another bite of noodles, a loud noise distracted him causing him to drop his chopsticks back into his bowl.
*SLURP*
All 12 pairs of eyes shot over to the producer of the lewd sound, their very own Mingyu, as he nonchalantly slurped on his noodles.
The members all thought this was the end of their giant puppy dog, as they thought up what they would inevitably write on the poor boys tombstone. Probably something along the lines of "Here Lies Mingyu. If Only He Had Slurped Another Day."
Surprisingly to the members however, Jihoon hadn't gone over to murder Mingyu. In fact, the small boy merely closed his eyes, readjusted his shoulders, and let out a deep breath. As he brought his chopsticks back up to his mouth to take another bite however;
*SLURP*
"GOD DAMN IT!" Jihoon yelled as he pushed his bowl away from him, before standing and stomping out of the room. Everyone was silent as they stared after him.
Once sure he was out of the room, Seokmin crossed his arms in front of his chest, and gave the members a pointed look. "Alright, someone's gotta do something."
The leader sighed. "Look, Jihoon is just under a lot of stress lately--"
"And we're not?!" the other replied haughtily.
Soonyoung and Seungcheol shared a look with each other, as Soonyoung continued; "Yeah, but Hoonie is--"
"Yeah, yeah. Your precious little Hoonie," Seokmin replied in a mocking tone
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. Just the fact that you will take any chance you get to fucking defend his ass."
"Language," Jisoo reprimanded.
"Are we seriously just gonna sit here doing nothing while Jihoon screams at us for every little thing?" Seungkwan asked.
"What? You wanna yell at him? Be my guest," Soonyoung replied as he took another bite of noodles.
"I'm not his hyung!"
"Are you guys seriously not at all concerned?" Seokmin asked.
"He's kind of scaring me..." Chan said, looking directly at the performance leader.
Seokmin groaned. "See? I'm scared. Chan's scared. Fuck, even you're scared of him right now, Seungcheol."
Seungcheol didn't comment as he averted his eyes and continued to wolf down his noodles.
"Now, I wanna know why that asshole can treat everyone like shit and still gets fucking preferential treatment!"
Soonyoung angrily pointed his finger at Seokmin. "Hey! That "asshole" is your hyung and our friend, so show him some god damn respect."
Wonwoo sighed. "Maybe he has a point, Soon?"
Soonyoung looked to Seungcheol with an annoyed look on his face. "Are you not going to say anything? It's your fucking boyfriend here!"
Seungcheol blushed.
"Boyfriend?" someone inquired.
Seungkwan looked offended as he stared at the leader. "And just when were you two planning on telling us, huh?"
Wonwoo laughed. "Well it was pretty obvious. Even Mingyu figured it out."
Mingyu nodded. "Yeah… HEY!"
Seungcheol sighed. "Look, I know none of us are happy with Jihoon right now--"
"That's an understatement." Seokmin said as he rolled his eyes.
"--All I'm saying is that maybe we should give him some space?"
Seungkwan looked at Seungcheol questioningly. "Well that's a little hard, dontcha think? There's 13 of us under one roof, how the hell are we going to give him space?"
"Hyung, maybe you should just talk to him?" Wonwoo suggested.
"And say what? Grow the fuck up and quit being such a selfish, little prick?"
"Selfish, huh?"
Everyone turned to the doorway and froze. Jihoon was standing against the door frame with his arms crossed in front of his chest, as he chuckled to himself. "Yeah, I've been so selfish. Fuck me, right?" the younger said as he pushed himself off the door frame. "Here I've just been working on our album. Trying to get us ready for our comeback. Getting 4 hours of sleep in the last week and a half. How selfish of me."
"Jihoon--" Seungcheol tried to say but Jihoon held up a hand for him to stop.
"No. You're right, Seungcheol. I am selfish. Here I am working my ass off, so we can fucking have our comeback sooner, so our fans don't have to wait, so our music actually sounds good and not like the cheap garbage other groups are selling, and thinking you guys would actually be thankful for it."
"Hoonie, of course we're thankful--"
"No, yeah. Of course. Of course. How fucking silly of me to think after that whole conversation I just heard you guys weren't being thankful."
"Yah!" Hansol yelled. "You're acting like we don't do anything for this group! We all help make the songs!"
Jihoon rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh. So tell me, Hansol. How many songs have you composed? You think writing raps is hard? Try coming up with a brand new song starting from nothing."
Seokmin scoffed. "Then quit if you're so unhappy about it!"
"You think I haven't thought about it!?"
The tension in the room became much thicker. No one was able to breathe as they stared at Jihoon.
"Ji--" Soonyoung tried to say but the younger raised an arm for him to stop as well.
"But I won't. Because whether you appreciate it or not, this is what I have to do," Jihoon turned and locked eyes with Seungcheol before continuing, "and I made a promise." With that he turned away, leaving the group as he walked towards the entrance door. Seungcheol stood from his seat on the ground and raced to the door, closing it before Jihoon could open it.
"Get out of my way," Jihoon glared.
"No. Not until you talk to me," the older replied.
"What? So you can call me a selfish prick some more? Or maybe there's another insult you'd like to use."
Seungcheol reached out and wrapped his arms around the younger. Jihoon didn't respond as he stood there. A few moments later the leader let go and Jihoon left the dorm without another word.
---
For the rest of the night Seungcheol waited up, but Jihoon never returned. Figuring the younger just wanted some space, he decided not to push his luck and just allowed the younger boy to cool down on his own.
The next day however when Jihoon still wouldn't emerge from his studio, Seungcheol began to grow worried. The door remained locked and there was no answer no matter how many times he pounded on the door.
He didn't come out for group practices, nor unit practices; the entire vocal unit stood around unsurely as their leader was nowhere to be seen.
He tried calling to him from the other side of the door, but was only ever met with hard silence.
After three days of Jihoon locking himself in his studio, Seungcheol grew frustrated. He had only see the younger once in that time as well, and he didn't look good at all. He had bags under his bags, his skin was sickly pale from the lack of sunlight, and he looked even thinner than usual. Deciding that he had had enough, Seungcheol marched over to the practice room with the intent of bringing Jihoon home.
"Jihoon, please answer the door," Seungcheol begged as he rapped his knuckles on the wooden door. He had been knocking on the door almost constantly for the last hour, but was only ever met by the sound of silence. "Please, Jihoon," he cried. As Seungcheol let his head fall against the door, nearly ready to give up, he heard the click of the door unlocking. Seungcheol hastily jumped to his feet and swung the door open.
As he stepped inside, his eyes went straight to Jihoon who was standing in the middle of his office in an oversized sweatshirt that basically absorbed his frame. He looked like he was going to collapse at any second as his knees wobbled beneath him. "What do you want?" Jihoon asked but there was so bite to his voice only fatigue.
Seungcheol swept Jihoon into his arms and held him against his chest. The youngers legs buckled beneath and he sank willingly into the older's hold. "I'm sorry," Jihoon whispered.
Seungcheol merely shushed the younger and continued rubbing his back, as Jihoon slipped into unconsciousness.
---
A few hours later, Jihoon awoke underneath a mountain of heavy blankets. He slowly sat up and looked around, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Strange he thought. The last thing he remembered was being in his studio with Seungcheol, and now he's back at the dorm. This meant either Seungcheol A: developed teleportation abilities, or B (the more likely option): Seungcheol carried him all the way back to the dorm.
As he was about to kick off the blankets and look for the older, he heard the door knob slowly twist open as Seungcheol walked in with a cup of tea in one hand, as he balanced a bowl of soup in the dip in his arm. "Hey, sleepy butt," Seungcheol greeted as he closed the door and walked over to Jihoon, setting the soup and tea on the nightstand next to the bed.
Jihoon smiled sheepishly at the older as he scooted back to lean against the headboard.
Seungcheol reached over and pressed the back of his hand to Jihoon's head, noting that his temperature was still a little high. "Are you feeling better?" the older asked as he took a seat next to the younger, running a gentle hand up and down Jihoon's leg.
Jihoon nodded slowly as he glanced towards the now partially open door before it was swiftly shut once again.
Jihoon sighed. If Seungcheol brought him here that means the other members know he's here as well. As much as he'd like to keep ignoring everyone, he knew that at some point he had to make amends. "I should go apologize to everyone," he said as he kicked the blankets off of his body. Seungcheol helped him stand up before the two walked out the bedroom into the living room.
The remaining 11 members were sitting in the living room silently eating their dinner's as Jihoon walked in. A cold shiver ran down everyone's spines as they anticipated the yelling that they definitely deserved. As Jihoon stood in the doorway however, he smiled as he made eye contact with Soonyoung.
"It's your turn to be irritable. My job's done till the next comeback."
The room erupted into cheers and hollers as the members high fived each other. Seokmin stood up from his spot on the ground and hugged Jihoon. "I'm so sorry, hyung," he told him as he released the older boy. "I didn't mean what I said."
Jihoon laughed. "Yeah you did. And that's okay. I get it. I was being an ass. Sorry I took it out on all you guys, though."
"Hey, don't sweat it!" Wonwoo said as he popped another dumpling into his mouth. "Thanks for doing all of the work for us, Hoon."
Jihoon frowned. "You know that's not true. You guys do a lot too."
"Yeah, but none of us would be here without you."
Soonyoung stood up and draped an arm around Jihoon's shoulders. "13 members, 3 units, 1 team, remember?"
"AWWW HYUNG IS SMILING!!" Seungkwan yelled as he pointed at Jihoon.
"GROUP HUG!" Soonyoung yelled, and before he knew it, all the members stood and attached themselves to Jihoon.
"Can't. Breathe." Jihoon wheezed, causing everyone to laugh.
"Room for one more?" Seungcheol asked as he took up out the outside, completing the group hug.
A few touching moments later, as they all broke off from the hug, Seungkwan glanced between Seungcheol and Jihoon and smirked. "So when did you two become a thing?"
The two lovebirds made eye contact and blushed.