seventeen

͙⁺˚*･༓☾

it should have been a typical morning. one last rehearsal before the show the next day. everyone simply perfecting the little details of their choreographies and facial expressions. all the altercations for stage outfits being fixed. just a typical day.

but let's be honest, nothing about sunoo's debut in enhypen so far has been typical.

and to start off this beautiful thursday morning, sunoo is awakened by jungwon and informed that the boss wants to meet with him.

him and sunghoon.

sunoo finds his thoughts racing the whole time he's getting dressed. what could it possibly be about? it's probably just a strange coincidence, right?

just as he's about to make his way to the kitchen and grab a snack for the ride to the boss's office, sunghoon enters the doorway of his room.

"hi," he mumbles, his body a bit stiff and his face laced with worry and uncertainty.

sunoo is hit with the urge to embrace the older in reassurance, but he's just as terrified as sunghoon is. the blonde holds out a hand in which sunoo graciously accepts. the two advance toward the van outside, remembering to dis-envelope their hand hold once they stepped outside the building.

eventually, the two find themselves standing in front of the office door they only wished they didn't have to enter. why did it seem as if they were being busted for something? sunoo but his lip, mentally reminding himself to stay optimistic.

"sit down, boys," the boss demanded once they both begrudgingly stepped foot into the room. they did as told and the boss continued. "do you know why you're both here today?"

meagerly, they shook their heads. the boss scoffed, a smug look on his face. "you two think you're so clever, huh?"

sunghoon's gonna be sick. his body goes numb and his brain can only pray this isn't what he thinks it is.

"you really thought nobody would find out about your dirty little secret?"

no. this can't be happening. sunghoon almost forgets how to breathe.

"last night. right outside my fucking window. how long did you think you could keep this shit up? next thing you know the cover in the tabloids is two enhypen members in a gay relationship. is that the kind of fool you take me for? some idiot who let his own employees get away with this shit under his nose?"

sunoo had never seen someone so fueled with rage and hatred and disgust. he's instantly brought back to the day his own family disowned him for his sexuality. yet, their reactions were the complete opposite. he was met with the cold shoulder, and right now, sunoo couldn't decide if pure silence was better or not.

he wishes so badly he could see sunghoon's face. he yearns to lace sunghoon's hand with his own trembling one.

sunghoon's fists are clenched and his heartbeat is so loud, it could almost drown out whatever bullshit his boss is saying. the boss yelling at him for being gay was one thing, but having sunoo dragged into this is something so much more, and sunghoon swore he would never let it come to this.

but he did. he dragged sunoo into this and it's all his fault.

both sunoo and sunghoon sat there in complete stillness and silence.

"this could've been so much worse. and you're debut show as a seven member group is tomorrow. tomorrow!" he heaves, pounding a fist down onto the desk in front of him. sunoo flinches from the sound.

the boss sucks in a breath. "if you don't give me the best damn show in the world tomorrow, not only with the both of you be announced on a hiatus, but your whole fucking careers are at risk. understood?"

sunghoon wanted to scream. he wanted to yell and he wanted to fight back. but he was powerless. i'm this situation, there was nothing he could do, but nod.

the two boys were escorted back to the apartment complex. the drive home was dead silent. sunoo glared longingly out the window, but sunghoon glanced longingly at the boy beside him. he felt guilty that he let his feelings get them to this point. he wanted to say something to sunoo, to apologize, but he just didn't know what to say.

once they reached the apartments, everyone was already gathered in heeseung and sunoo's shared one. the door swung opened, but sunoo walked in alone.

"where's sunghoon?" heeseung questions.

ni-ki immediately reads sunoo's facial expression like a book. he shuffles out of the dining chair he sat in and hurries over to his best friend, grasping him by the shoulders. "sunoo? what happened? where's sunghoon? what's going on?"

"he knows," is what sunoo croaks in response, his eyes unfocused and toward the floor as he recalls the office chair he had just been sitting in. "the boss knows about us."

all the other members hold their breaths, entirely shocked and confounded.

"how is that possible?" jungwon asks, suddenly by ni-ki's side.

sunoo wipes a sudden tear from his cheek. "we...we kissed outside the building last night. it was stupid and we didn't think it through. the boss saw us. now we're at risk of a hiatus if we don't do well tomorrow."

there's so much to process all at once and everyone as a group is appalled, to say the least. "i'm gonna find hoon," jungwon then says, exiting the complex to go to his own.

"sun, look at me," ni-ki begins, tilting sunoo's chin up with the pad of his fingers, just enough to see his eyes. "you're going to do amazing tomorrow. both you and sunghoon wouldn't just be kicked out of the group, that's insane. engenes would never allow that."

jake approaches the two, throwing an arm over sunoo's shoulder. "i would never allow that, either. for all we know, the boss could be making empty threats to scare you two. you know how peevish that guy gets."

"hey, don't underestimate the powers of satan, bro," jay states from the dining table.

"i'll never forgive myself if something happens to this group because of me," sunoo sniffles, maintaining his best to contain his tears. "i can't do that to you guys. you've all worked so hard to be here."

"so have you, sunoo. nothing is your fault," heeseung explains, both him and jay now standing with them as well.

"yeah, the two of you being together has done no harm for the group whatsoever. the boss is the only one who has a problem with it. don't feel ashamed for having normal feelings," jay adds.

sunoo finds it sweet that his friends are comforting him, but he's drained. all he can think of is curling up in a ball in his duvet covers and crying himself to sleep. any rest he can get before having to go to their final rehearsal is something he desperately needs. "i just need to be alone for a while."

and with that, sunoo takes to his bedroom, leaving his friends behind in worry.

͙⁺˚*･༓☾

"hoon? can i come in?"

"i guess."

jungwon has seen many sides of park sunghoon, every emotion humanly possible. but he's never seen sunghoon in the state he's in now.

the blonde sits at the edge of his bed, head in his hands and hair a mess. once he lifts his head a bit, jungwon can make out just how puffy and irritated his eyes are.

"sunoo told us what happened," jungwon says.

sunghoon instantly shoots up from the bed. "i knew this would happen!" he shouts, angry tears once again forming. "i fucking knew i should have kept my damn feelings to myself. i put both of our careers at risk. i put the group at risk. what am i even supposed to do now?!"

the boy flops limply back onto the bed, his fury having been released from his system. jungwon takes a seat beside his friend. "let's focus on the facts. you and sunoo haven't been kicked out of the group. you haven't been forced into hiatus. we have a show tomorrow and we're finally performance ready." sunghoon turns toward jungwon. "we just need to nail this performance according to the boss, right? then let's put on a show he'll never forget."

sunghoon appreciates jungwon's motivation, but there's one thing at the forefront of his mind worrying him the most. "what about sunoo? what about us? what happens now?"

jungwon places a hand on sunghoon's shoulder. "that's something you need to talk about with him yourself."

before sunghoon can reply, a voice sounds from behind them. "knock, knock."

the two whip around to see ni-ki at the foot of their door. "sorry to interrupt, but we got one last rehearsal? are you guys ready to go?"

sunghoon isn't. but if he's gonna put on the best show of his life, he's gotta be.

͙⁺˚*･༓☾

"sunoo, remember to be on sunghoon's right for that line," ni-ki instructs in the rehearsal room.

sunoo awkwardly adjusts his position, but both him and sunghoon refuse to make eye contact with each other. the tension in the room could be cut with a knife.

"oh my god, they're acting like they have cooties," jay complains under his breath, just loud enough for heeseung standing beside him to hear. it earns him a nudge in the side and glare from the older.

they hadn't gotten through the full song once and it was already they're fifth try. sunghoon and sunoo seemed to be avoiding each other like the plague, both too afraid of addressing the elephant in the room.

sunghoon felt as if one touch from sunoo would respark everything, reminding him of how much he just wants to kiss him or hold his hand and shout out to the world how much he adores kim sunoo.

little does he know, sunoo feels the same, but he mostly feels scared of the whole boss situation. sure, he heard sunghoon's brief story of how he came out to their boss and got a terrible reaction, but everything that has happened is nothing like he ever could have pictured. the feelings he had the day his own family disowned him have resurfaced and they're struggling to go away. sunoo could hardly recall the last time he felt so weak, helpless, and small.

ni-ki could hardly take it, either. the sight of his best friend was tearing him apart. jungwon couldn't bear to see his best friend and roommate be so hard and unfair on himself just for having feelings for someone he likes.

heeseung, jake, and jay all feel it, too. sunoo has been such a positive change for the group, and they already couldn't imagine it without him. plus, he made their moodiest member of the group extremely happy.

the time hits ten o'clock. "we have to go home now," heeseung sighs, glancing at the clock. the rehearsal was set only until ten, meaning they had no more practice up until the show the next day.

defeatedly, the group of seven make their way outside to the van waiting in front of the building for them as always. sunghoon takes shotgun and sunoo sits in the way back, each of them quiet and in their own heads.

the car ride feels long, but they finally make it home. everyone departs to their bedrooms, and even if they aren't saying it, all their minds are filled with worries about the same thing.

ni-ki follows jungwon to his and sunghoon's shared apartment, in which sunghoon had already slammed his bedroom door shut. jungwon takes note of the beanstalk trudging behind him. "are you lost?" he teases.

ni-ki sighs, wrapping his arms around jungwon's waist from behind and plopping his chin onto jungwon's broadened shoulder.

the leader's heart skips a beat from the action. after all that's happened, the way he feels around the younger has had him almost hyper aware. "what are you doing?" he asks, trying his best to cover the waver in his voice.

"i'm sad. i'm sad for sunoo. i'm sad for sunghoon. i'm sad for the group," ni-ki explains, unfurling his embrace to turn jungwon to face him. the leader's eyes are wide and innocent-like. ni-ki glances down at jungwon's hands and gently brings them into his own. "i'm also sad for me. i'm sad because i really like you and i don't want to be forced not to."

if there's one thing jungwon wasn't expecting, it was a confession from nishimura riki, especially after the events of the day. yet not matter what has happened, his heart can't help but flutter from the words of genuineness that sounded from the boy before him.

jungwon gets it now. he gets how sunghoon feels everytime sunoo enters the room. he gets how sunghoon feels when sunoo looks him in the eyes with the brightest smile he's ever seen. he gets how sunghoon feels about wanting to protect the person he cares about from harm's way.

jungwon squeezes the bigger hands holding his. "i think i have an idea."