eleven

͙⁺˚*･༓☾

"let's gaurrrrr!" jake hollers, high-fiving jay, as their first dance rehearsal for the new comeback finally comes to an end.

"i'm tired as hell," jay complains, massaging a hand to his sore back.

"let's eat ramyeon!" heeseung pipes up, suggestively. his stomach may or may not have just growled hungrily two seconds prior.

the boys agree on their lunch to eat for once they get back to the apartment, but they're quickly stopped in their tracks by the boss and his assistant.

"boys, you're free to wait in the van. i just need a word with sunghoon for a moment. won't take long."

jungwon shoots sunghoon a worried look. but sunghoon dismisses him, sure that nothing the boss can say will get to him.

he places his hands to his hips and lightly taps his foot, signifying his impatience.

the boss begins. "i see you and the others have warmed up to sunoo, him being the newest addition and all."

oh, great. here we go, sunghoon internally groans. he has to bite his tongue. he's not an idiot and knows this discussion is going somewhere directed towards him and something his boss would deem he did "wrong". sunghoon wishes he would stop beating around the bush because if he isn't mistaken, he's probably the one being targeted for one reason and one reason alone: he's the openly (not to the world yet, though) gay guy in the group.

"yeah, we are. he's very talented and easy to get along with," the blonde vaguely replies. the words, are we done here? are practically begging to roll off the tip of his tongue.

the boss sends his assistant a message with his eyes, as if they spoke some secret language. the assistant nodded before exiting the room.

a bewildered expression now shadowed sunghoon's previously calmed one. if the assistant has to leave, is this talk more serious than he anticipated? subconsciously, sunghoon tenses, his hands sliding down into jacket pockets.

the boss clears his throat. "look, we've reviewed the livestream from the other day and your behavior..."

his words drift off a bit and sunghoon raises an eyebrow. "my behavior...?" he eggs on.

"...it was inappropriate, to say the least. you couldn't take your eyes off of sunoo and the staff and i agreed it was much too suspicious. we don't want to cause any rumors after just having him join the group. your actions only increased today during the dance rehearsal, with the amount of physical contact you two shared–"

"woah, woah, woah. first of all, it was only apart of the dance routine. and when was looking at someone fondly a crime?" sunghoon snaps back, interrupting his boss's feigned speech. let's just say, sunghoon was never one to respect those who can't respect him back.

though most people would be taken aback by sunghoon's outbursts, the boss remains stone-faced. he continues on. "nobody said it was a crime. however, it is an issue. there was a hashtag on social media spreading around according to our socials manager called 'sunsun', and if that gets any bigger, we're going to have problems, park."

the boss keeps a firm and assertive tone as he speaks. sunghoon wants to scream. so what if he was admiring sunoo during the livestream? he has a right to admire his crush!...not that the boss needs to know that's how he feels towards sunoo.

unsure if it has stuck into his head yet, the boss throws one final curveball.

"and if you keep this up, both of your contracts are at risk."

sunghoon's heart plummets. his worst fear is coming true. no matter how subtle he thought he was being, his crush on sunoo proves it will only hurt the two of them rather than help them. all the confidence he had mere seconds ago completely drains. the blonde deflates, realizing that he has officially put both him and sunoo's careers at risk.

the boss smirks, seeing as his words have finally gotten to the boy. "go to the van. your group is waiting for you."

as he begins to leave the room, the boss mutters over sunghoon's shoulder, "remember the consequences if you ever pull this stunt again. i won't hesitate to take action."

and with that, he's gone.

sunghoon practically drags himself out of the practice room, feeling battered and bruised after their conversation. he eventually arrives to the van waiting outside.

now, he doesn't have a choice. he has to end his feelings for sunoo. for both their sakes.

͙⁺˚*･༓☾

"there you are, hoon!" jake exclaims. "get in already, we're starving!"

jake sits up front in the passenger seat, his head poking out the window. the back row of the van consists of ni-ki, jungwon, and jay, while the middle consists of heeseung, sunoo...and the empty spot next to him.

sunghoon swallows the lump in his throat. his eyes happen to lock onto the fox-like ones belonging to the boy he's grown so fond of, fireworks shooting out of them to match the smile painted on his face. sunghoon has to force himself to peel his gaze away.

"jake, switch seats with me. i have a headache, i'll get carsick in the back."

jake instantly pouts, but obliges anyway. hey, if he was prone to car sickness, he'd want someone to do the same for him.

the smile is wiped off of sunoo's lips. partly because sunghoon won't be sitting next to him, but also because of his unexpected mood change. the thought makes him worried for the older and he hopes he didn't overwork himself during rehearsal or something.

meanwhile, as the van starts its journey home, jungwon murmurs quietly, yet anxiously, to jay in the back row. "what's up with sunghoon? what did the boss say to him? is he okay? should i do something?"

jay presses a hand to jungwon's shoulder to stop him. "calm down, man. he's just being grumpy, no big deal."

jungwon pouts, slumping into his seat. he instantly recognizes sunghoon's attitude, for it's the one he's been having on-and-off ever since sunoo's arrival. he needs to talk to him once they're home.

a chuckle sounds from beside him out of nowhere, and jungwon turns to his right to find the new choreographer of the group as the culprit. jungwon furrows his eyebrows. "what are you laughing at?"

"a pouty baby sitting beside me," he answers, teasingly. for someone jungwon has pretty much just met, ni-ki is sure making himself comfortable around him. for some reason, jungwon doesn't hate that, though...

the leader huffs at his remark. "i am not a pouty baby. i'm a concerned friend!"

ni-ki stifles a laugh again, shaking his head fondly. "whatever you say, baby."

jungwon quickly turns his head away, the car suddenly becoming a lot hotter of a temperature than before. he's just gonna assume the nickname was referring to a literal baby rather than the pet-name...

"we're here!" heeseung announces, grabbing everyone's scattered attention.

the boys are in the kitchen cooking up some ramyeon in the blink of an eye, having practically bolted out of the van the second they could.

as sunghoon serves himself a dish, sunoo approaches his side. "hey, are you feeling okay? do you still have a headache?" he gently reaches the back side of his hand up to sunghoon's forehead, ready to feel his temperature, but sunghoon flinches away.

shyly, sunoo brings his hand back down to his side. "s-sorry, just got worried you weren't feeling well."

sunghoon's heart flutters at the idea of sunoo worrying and caring about him, but he has to hold it in...for both their sakes.

the older grabs a pair of chopsticks from a drawer. "i'm fine," he dryly replies, his eyes never looking up from the task he's busied himself with.

sunoo feels a slight pang of hurt, his mood dwindling as he's reminded of the coldness sunghoon had shown him up until a couple days ago. did he do something wrong? what is with the sudden change?

all seven boys sit around a table, beginning to devour their meals.

"so, ni-ki, do you live nearby?" heeseung asks, starting conversation.

at this, ni-ki simpers. "actually, the company has decided to give me a temporary space to live here as we rehearse for the comeback. so, now i get a room here to myself up until the comeback release!"

sunoo chirps in delight. "oh my gosh, really?! you didn't tell me!"

ni-ki shrugs, his eyes locating jungwon's from across the table. "i wanted it to be a surprise," he says silkily, jungwon breaking the eye contact and darting his eyes toward the floor instead.

the seven continue to converse about this and that as they eat, all getting to know ni-ki a little better as a choreographer and a new friend. ni-ki is in the middle of reciting an embarrassing story about sunoo to everyone.

"he pretty much broke the guitar right in front of the costumer, it was so hilarious," ni-ki explains through fits of laughter.

sunoo is beet red. "yah!! it's not my fault the guitar was older than i expected. stop making fun of me!"

the other group members were laughing along by now, too. all except sunghoon, who remained quiet. he observed as jake, who currently sat to sunoo's right, threw an arm over the latter's shoulder in heaps of giggles. sunoo burrows his head in his hands, now stifling chuckles as well, and jake uses the arm he has wrapped around him to rub his shoulder comfortingly.

abruptly, sunghoon stands from the table.

everyone goes silent, startled from the sudden action. "i'm finished," is all sunghoon says before he lazily sticks his dishes in the sink and storms out of the complex, the door slamming behind him.

"uhm, i'll go talk to him," jungwon begins, slowly slipping out of his seat.

but sunoo quickly stops him. "can i actually talk to you first, jungwon?"

͙⁺˚*･༓☾

the two boys are in sunoo's bedroom, since sunoo had requested some privacy. they huddle close to the door as jungwon speaks up first. "what's the matter?"

sunoo sighs, unsure of how to approach his question. he doesn't even know if talking to jungwon will even be helpful. he decides to just go for it, determined to unravel the root of this problem. "does sunghoon hate me?"

sooner or later, jungwon expected this to come. it was only a matter of time before sunghoon's immature behavior would be picked up by sunoo and jungwon knows the newest member of the group isn't easily oblivious to things.

jungwon knows it isn't his place to tell sunghoon's side of this story. in fact, there's probably bits and pieces to it he still doesn't know. but as a friend, he doesn't want to leave sunoo in the dark. he knows how enamored sunghoon is, and he can't let sunoo think those feelings have suddenly dissipated.

"he couldn't hate you."

sunoo wants to believe him, but in the moment, they sound like empty words of encouragement rather than a fact. "what makes you so sure? one second he's sweet and friendly, but the next he's cold and distant. to be honest, he seemed a little flirty the first time i met him. i just don't get how our dynamic could have changed so drastically."

sunoo's posture weakens and he crosses his arms over his chest to repress his sadness, even though it's clearly prevalent in his voice.

"i can't speak for sunghoon, but i can tell you this," jungwon begins, grabbing sunoo's attention. "hoon was the one who insisted on you being chosen as our new member. in fact, he's the reason you landed the audition in the first place. so, that's why i believe sunghoon doesn't hate you. i think there's more to the story we don't know."

well, jungwon fabricated a bit of his reasoning, since he's actually fully aware that sunghoon is afraid of risking his and sunoo's careers. but that's because he has a crush on the latter... and that's not something jungwon would ever expose without sunghoon's consent.

jungwon's words are so compelling, sunoo can't help but widen his eyes in shock. so his hunch isn't just a hunch. sunghoon did like him at first. earlier at rehearsal, sunghoon's effervescent personality wasn't an act. it was real.

suddenly, sunoo remembers their boss. he had pulled sunghoon aside after practice. when he returned, that's when his mood did a three-sixty. now, sunoo only had one thing on his mind.

what did the boss talk to him about?