Chapter 12: Let Me Buy You Ice Cream.

Youngjae and Jaebum had been officially 'dating' for about a week now. But it's been a bit hard as the rest of Got7 didn't have the slightest idea about the relationship, which meant the two of them couldn't just freely do 'couple-y' things while the others were around. On top of that, Youngjae and Jaebum weren't sharing a room anymore, because their room was too hot even in the freezing 3 winter months. So they didn't have some privacy even in the night time. Youngjae, as usual, slept in the living room and Jaebum loosely slept wherever he could. They did try sleeping in the living room together  once and it did feel nice at the time, until Bambam found them the next morning and told everyone about it, which later became a reason to tease Youngjae and Jaebum. Especially Yugyeom wouldn't shut up about them being all gross and weird. So since then, Jaebum had been sleeping in their manager's room, and sometimes in the two maknae's room.

So the only alone time they ever received, were the very precious 30 minutes in the practice room, as Youngjae and Jaebum were always the ones to arrive a little earlier than the others. Or if they were lucky, they spent some time with only the two of them, while Jaebum was using one of the many recording rooms in the JYP building to compose or produce new songs. But even then, they couldn't do much, because Jaebum had to concentrate on writing the lyrics and didn't have time for Youngjae. Youngjae would even sometimes got bored and fall asleep.

Today was one of those days. Youngjae was sitting comfortably on the couch inside a random studio, while Jaebum was working on a new song. They both were worn out and ready to pass out as they both had a hard day. Jaebum's day was especially hard. He got yelled at by the choreographer, as Got7 kept messing up the dance moves, he also got yelled at by Got7's stylist, because Mark didn't want to wear the very revealing clothes that the stylists prepared for him to wear to one of the music shows and kept whining about it. JYP also said a few harsh words to him yesterday, as a few members of Got7 didn't seem to adapt to the remixed version of "If You Do" and kept messing up. So to say Jaebum was tired was an understatement.

"Jae, come here." - Jaebum ordered. Youngjae without complaints did as he was told.

"Here, can you sing this?" - Jaebum asked, handing him a sheet of paper with really messy written lyrics on it. Youngjae sighed and sang the part, remembering the melody from the day before, when Jaebum played and sang the song himself.

"Wait, you sang the wrong lyrics." - Jaebum stated irately at Youngjae for messing up. He quickly taught his boyfriend what the words should actually be and then ordered him to sing the song again.

"Stop messing up!" - Jaebum yelled angrily. Although Youngjae was irritated and a bit scared of Jaebum's loud voice, he decided not to argue with him and just let to slide this time. Youngjae started again, trying not to mess up again.

"Choi Young Jae, can't you do one thing I ask you right? Why do you keep messing up? What's wrong with your voice?" - Jaebum scolded Youngjae, as if some angry music producer was scolding a new singer. Youngjae was growing mad by the second, but decided to keep everything to himself again this time. Youngjae understood very clearly that Jaebum was also really exhausted, plus this new song was really getting on his nerves.

"Again!" - Jaebum demanded angrily, starting the song all over again. But as soon as Youngjae started to sing, Jaebum stopped the song.

"You're off-key." - Jaebum stated, glaring at the younger member. Youngjae tried to keep calm and not to lose his temper. But Jaebum was making everything a bit too hard as he took the piece of paper from Youngjae's hands and ripped it. Jaebum then proceeded to sigh heavily and went over to punch a wall.

"Hyung, stop." - Youngjae softly said, trying to prevent Jaebum from hurting himself.

"It's Jae. Have you already forgotten? Did that promise mean nothing to you? Does our relationship mean nothing to you?" - Jaebum started to attack Youngjae all of a sudden.

"I'm sorry, hyung. I..." - Youngjae started to explain.

"I'm ing telling you it's ing Jae!" - Jaebum shouted so loud, the whole building could hear him. Heck, the JYP himself would've heard him if he wasn't already home.

"I ing told you again and again to call me Jaebum, god ing damn it! It's Jaebum. Stop calling me with your annoying voice 'hyung'. It's annoying!" - Jaebum continued, while punching the nearest wall. Jaebum's comments left Youngjae speechless. Youngjae felt small and helpless. Was his sweet and adorable boyfriend really yelling at him and calling him annoying? Youngjae knew very well that Jaebum was sometimes very ill-tempered, but he has never seen Jaebum like this.

"And what the is wrong with you today? Did you keep messing up on purpose? Son of a ing . What the are you doing, I'm asking you!" - Jaebum continued to shout. Youngjae have never even imagined Jaebum's voice so loud and him being so angry. He has heard some stories from Jinyoung about Jaebum's temper, but Jinyoung never told him stories like this.

"Can't you for once in your ing life even just try not to mess ing up every single damn thing?" - Jaebum continuously punched the wall, making his knuckles bleed in the end.

Youngjae stood there frozen, hearing Jaebum's every single word. There wasn't exactly a choice, though, as Jaebum was speaking very loudly and clearly. Youngjae heard Jaebum's small mean comments, which felt like getting stabbed in the chest several thousand times.

"Seriously, even though you're bad at dancing, rapping and lack even basic ing variety skills, you have to be good at singing, don't you? Isn't singing the reason you were lucky enough to join this ing band? But it looks like you're bad at carrying a simple tune as well." - Jaebum yelled as loud as his lungs let him.

"Hyung.. I mean Jae, stop. Why are you being like this?" - Youngjae tried to calm Jaebum down, getting closer to him and hugging him. But Jaebum thew Youngjae away from himself in annoyance, and in the process Youngjae ended up hitting the solid table that was made of some expensive stone. While Youngjae was on his knees in agony, Jaebum kept punching the wall and destroying the studio. Although Youngjae's ribs still hurt from the hit, he had to stop his hyung from hurting himself any further and also from trashing JYP's studio. Youngjae again tried to embrace Jaebum in order to calm him down. But Jaebum kept resisting. Ignoring Jaebum's strong fight to free himself, Youngjae kept on holding his boyfriend, hoping that he'd calm down at any given second. But Jaebum was too furious to cool off just like that. So without even thinking Jaebum swung his arms left and right, hitting Youngjae's face a couple of times. Youngjae was surprised. At first, he didn't exactly understand that he actually got hit by Jaebum. But as time passed, things got clearer and the pain from Jaebum's strong punch kicked in.

"Huyng, did you just?" - Youngjae murmured, touching his throbbing left cheek. Jaebum stopped trashing the studio for a while to look at Youngjae. Red marks from the punch were already covering Youngjae's soft cheek. As if just realizing what he did, Jaebum's eyes softened and regret was now vivid on his face instead of anger and stress.

Before Jaebum could say anything to defend himself and maybe apologize, Youngjae just grabbed his jacket and exited the recording room.

Youngjae quickly made his way to the cafeteria to grab a bag of ice or even frozen pees to put on his injured face. Luckily, the were some ice left in the ice machine. Youngjae grabbed a hand full and started to ice his pulsing from the hit cheek. While doing so, the realization hit him. Jaebum, his kind and loving boyfriend, actually just hit him. Sure, it was because of anger, but hitting him was something else. Youngjae could stand the yelling, but this was out of reach. Grabbing another handful of ice, Youngjae went to the fridge to look for frozen pees that he could ice his face with on the way home.

Entering Got7's dorm, Youngjae straight went to the bathroom to check out the wound. He was doomed if it was visible, as Got7 had 2 special Christmas performances left to do this week. On top of that, Youngjae would probably get murdered by their manager if he finds out about the fight. And the fans would freak out if they saw the mark on Youngjae's face. Luckily, because Youngjae treated it on time, there were no visible marks left from the punch, but it still hurt like hell.

"Youngjae, are you okay?" - Jinyoung asked, when Youngjae got out of the bathroom looking gloomy and weird.

"Yeah, I'm fine, hyung." - Youngjae said, making his way to his usual sleeping place - the living room, he then stopped, turning around and going to Jackson and Mark's room instead. He knocked and opened their door. As usual Jackson wasn't in the room. He's been spending the night in Bambam and Yugyeom's room because of the trauma he got from the bugs that were dominating his room for quite a while.

"Youngjae!" - Mark exclaimed, looking up from his laptop.

"Hyung, would you mind if I slept here today?" - Youngjae asked, closing the door behind him. The last thing Youngjae wanted tonight was to face Jaebum again.

"Sure, if Jackson doesn't mind, then I'm okay." - Mark replied, smiling. it was good that Mark and him had gotten close these past few months. But it also was kind of a miracle, as Youngjae and Mark both were shy and bad at making friends. No one expected them to become as close as they were at the moment. Youngjae smiled and went to ask for Jackson's permission. Jackson of course allowed Youngjae to sleep on his bed, as he was a generous and friendly soul. Seriously, everyone was Jackson's friend, even the JYP that Jackson was so 'scared' of.

"Jackson hyung is fine with it." - Youngjae announced happily entering Mark's room once again.

"Cool! Feel at home." - Mark said, laughing hard at himself. Youngjae just smirked and laid down comfortably on Jackson's unused bed. Soon enough, Mark turned off the lights and went to sleep himself.

Youngjae's been laying on the bed with his eyes closed for a ton of time, it seemed like. But he couldn't sleep no matter what, plus Jackson really wasn't kidding when he said Mark snored like crazy. But Mark's loud snoring was just an excuse. The real reason was Jaebum. There were about a billion thoughts on Youngjae's mind and 99.9% of them had something to do with Jaebum. And the thoughts weren't even filled with hatred or anger, they were rather filled with worry and anxiety about Jaebum. Did he get home safe? What if he was involved in a fight with street gangsters? Was he hurt a lot from punching random walls left and right? Was he sleeping alright? Has he eaten anything? And a million more. Youngjae couldn't even for a split second rest without worrying.

So Youngjae got up and headed to the living room. As he was about to enter the living room, he noticed someone sleeping on the couch noisily. Calming down a little, Youngjae turned towards the direction of the kitchen to grab some more ice to put on his face just in case.

Youngjae laid down on Jackson's bed, trying not make a sound.

"Did you and Jaebum fight?" - Mark whispered.

"Oh hyung, you scared me." - Youngjae whispered back, laughing quietly at himself.

"Did you?" - Mark asked again.

"Sort of." - Youngjae replied shortly, not wanting to talk about the event that took place only a few hours ago.

"Does it hurt?" - Mark asked, getting up from his bed and turning on the lights.

"What?" - Youngjae was surprised that Mark knew that Jaebum and him fought, and not just argue.

"I know that Jaebum punched you." - Mark calmly responded, bringing Youngjae's face closer to him to look at it from a better angle.

"But how?" - Youngjae asked, obeying Mark. Mark laughed a little, sitting down next to Youngjae.

"I once got hit, too." - Mark replied, laughing harder. - "It was my fault, though."

Youngjae was truly surprised. The very calm Mark and the very responsible leader have fought before? It seemed pretty impossible as Mark wasn't the one to annoy people and Jaebum wasn't the one to get angry at Mark. In fact, Mark and Jaebum as the oldest members of the group were the most 'normal' and peaceful ones.

It was not too long since the members of the new boyband that was going to debut soon were announced. The new group consisted of two foreign members - Mark and Jackson, plus the previous members of the JJ Project were also in the band. A few other members were still being decided, but these four were for sure in the band. While Jackson and Jinyoung were freaking out about finally debuting, Jaebum seemed to be displeased about something. Mark instantly thought it was about him. It had to be about him, as he heard earlier yesterday Jaebum's talk with the PD.

"Jaebum." - Mark called out, pointing at Jaebum. Jaebum turned around, frowning at him.

"What are you so upset about?" - Mark asked, keeping his calm.

"None of your business." - Jaebum bitterly replied, turning right away.

"I think it is my business, if it's about me. Don't you think so?" - Mark hissed, forcing Jaebum to pay attention to him by grabbing his shoulders. Jaebum didn't seem to like Mark's attitude towards him, as he harshly removed Mark's hands from his shoulders.

"Dude, what's your problem?" - Jaebum hissed right back, pushing Mark.

"I heard you talking to JYP." - Mark said, pushing Jaebum. Jaebum fell on the floor in front of Jackson and Jinyoung and a few other trainees, who were much younger than him, which really upset Jaebum.

"What the did you hear then?" - Jaebum asked, swinging his arms at Mark. Unfortunately, Mark couldn't move out of the way in time and was hit by Jaebum's strong fist. Jackson rushed to Jaebum to stop him from doing any other harm and Jinyoung ran over to Mark to make sure he was okay. But Mark was on fire at the moment and couldn't think clearly, the only thing he was concerned was his hurt pride.

"You son of a.." - Mark said, getting up and starting to throw a punch. But luckily, their dance couch entered the studio right on time to stop the fight.

"But we got much closer after it, though." - Mark said, laughing at his younger self for being too foolish and thoughtless.

"Also it turned out that they were originally going to cut off Yugyeom from the band, and Jaebum was upset about that and not about me being in the band." - Mark explained, laughing some more.

"I bet he was just too stressed out from all the practices and his song writing sessions, plus I think being a leader is not an easy job, let alone our leader. And I think he took it all on you. Give him some time, he'll come to you himself and apologize." - Mark calmed his donsaeng down, rubbing his back.

"Thank you hyung." - Youngjae said, still rubbing some ice on his injury.

Lucky for Youngjae, there were no bruises left on his left cheek and his manager didn't have the slightest idea about the fight. And for some miraculous reason, Jaebum's hands were also pretty much fine, apart from the redness. But even the redness would be gone in a few hours, so both Youngjae and Jaebum were fine and the only one who seemed to know about the event that happened between them was Mark, and maybe Jinyoung. Other than them, no one seemed to suspect anything.

Got7 was currently on their way to the arena that the annual KBS award show was being held at. The usually loud members were deceived by the early hours of the morning and were fast asleep, which why the van was so quiet and peaceful. Youngjae was sitting next to the two maknaes in the back of the van, as Jaebum took the seat next to the driver's one.

Starting from the morning, they kept avoiding each other as much as possible. Jaebum even cleaned up Coco's mess himself, just so that he won't have to talk to Youngjae. As for Youngjae, he sacrificed his breakfast just to ignore Jaebum, as Jaebum was the one who prepared breakfast this morning.

When they finally arrived to their destination, Jackson excitedly got out of the van, not being able to wait to meet his friends from the very famous band Bangtan Boys. Them and Got7 plus another Korean band were collaborating together on stage tonight and they had to perfect a few moves together for the performance to be flawless. Entering the stadium, Jackson saw Namjoon right away and went on to hug the living light out of him. The rest slowly joined in, greeting each other and having a small banter with each other, expect Youngjae that is. Youngjae wasn't the one to befriend someone that easily, it took him about 4 months to actually become more or less comfortable with his band mates. So being close to the BTS members after spending a day or two together was impossible for Youngjae. Youngjae knew the boys and could have a small conversation with them, but he wasn't exactly confident and comfortable while doing so. Nonetheless, there were some members he got along with pretty well.

"Youngjae!" - Jin, who was the oldest in the group of 14 boys, shouted excitedly coming up to him.

"Oh hyung, hello!" - Youngjae smiled and hugged the older boy, who in reality didn't seem to be much older than him.

"It's really nice to see you again." - Jin said, patting Youngjae's back and smiling warmly at him.

"Hyung, we have to go to the stage." - Yoongi informed the two, while the rest were already on their way to the main stage to rehearse the dance moves.

"Oh hey, Youngjae." - Yoongi smiled as soon as he saw the main vocalist of Got7. Youngjae smiled back politely bowing to his senior.

"Okay, let's go!" - Jin exclaimed, pushing both Youngjae and Yoongi towards the main stage.

All three group spent the first half of the day dancing together in order not to mess anything up at the real show. The fact that they were the opening act was even more nerve-wrecking. But everything seemed to be fine, as none of the members of the three groups messed up during the rehearsal and everybody seemed to be in sync. During lunch break Youngjae hung out with Yugyeom and Bambam, as well as with the maknae line from BTS, as all of them had pretty similar tastes and had enough stuff to talk about.

Just like that, the real award show happened and ended really quickly. Fortunately, everyone was able to perform well and no one messed nothing up. But they couldn't relax yet as they still had one more performance ahead of them.

"Kids, we have to wake up again early tomorrow, remember? So go to sleep now and try not to waste your energy on useless stuff." - Jaebum announced, as soon as Got7 entered their dorm. Everyone nodded their heads, not even having the energy to protest.

"And Youngjae, I have something to say." - Jaebum said, grabbing Youngjae's hand and dragging him to their room.

"What do you want to say, hyung?" - Youngjae asked, trying to end the conversation as soon as possible.

"Youngjae, I told you to stop calling me that when we're alone." - Jaebum calmly said, smirking a little. Youngjae, on the other hand, was starting to glare at Jaebum, getting more and more annoyed.

"Hyung, make it quick. It's really hot in here and I'm tired." - Youngjae rushed him. Jaebum closed his eyes, trying not to lose his temper again.

"I just wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have taken it all on you." - Jaebum said, trying to grab Youngjae hand, but failing, as Youngjae put his hands in his pockets as soon Jaebum's hands touched his.

"Okay. Is that all?" - Youngjae asked, turning away from Jaebum and getting out of the room.

"Wait." - Jaebum angrily shouted, running towards the door and closing it.

"What now?" - Although Youngjae was a little scared of Jaebum's sudden mood change, he didn't let Jaebum see it.

"Did you just say 'okay'? Don't you have anything else to say to me? Don't you have to apologize to me, as well?" - Jaebum roared, glaring at poor Youngjae.

"Why do I have to apologize when you were the one that hit me? The only thing I did was to stop you from hurting yourself." - Youngjae spoke up for himself as his anger topped his fear. Jaebum angrily hit the door, which made Youngjae back away from him, covering his head with his hands. For some reason, Youngjae getting frightened like that made Jaebum even madder, instead of calming him down and making him guilty for his actions.

"Why are you getting scared?" - Jaebum spat, still glaring at Youngjae.

"I'm not." - Youngjae answered, even though his heart was about to explode and he wanted to cry and call his mother. Youngjae sure did feel small in front of angry Jaebum. Not only small, he also felt weak, useless and worthless. Not able to behave calm anymore, Youngjae force opened the door and walked out of the dorm, not even bothering to grab a jacket that would protect him from the chilly winter weather.

After angry Youngjae walked out on him, Jaebum became even angrier, cursing everything back and forth loudly, while vandalizing his room. His loud noises woke up Coco, who was peacefully sleeping in Yugyeom and Bambam's room and she started to bark left and right. Coco's loud voice woke up Yugyeom, who after hearing the noise coming from Youngjae and Jaebum's room woke up Jinyoung. And seconds later, the whole band was up, trying to figure out what exactly was going on in the vocalists' room. The very worried members stood in front of the room for a while, deciding who was going to knock and face angry Jaebum.

"I definitely can't go in there. Jaebum hyung's going to murder me." - Bambam said, backing away quickly.

"Me neither. He will kill me under 10 seconds." - Yugyeom stated, joining Bambam, who was standing as far as possible from the room.

"I think Mark hyung should do it." - Jackson said, patting Mark's back and then also joining the maknaes. Jinyoung smlied at Mark, trying to encourage him and then quickly moved out of Mark's way. Mark sighed, having no choice but to face the devil Jaebum himself. Mark just prayed that Youngjae wasn't in the room getting killed.

Mark bravely knocked on the door and went in. As Mark entered the room, he saw nothing but broken chairs, photo frames that held pictures of Jaebum and Youngjae, the desk in their room was close to being broken as well. But fortunately, there wasn't Youngjae laying on the floor dead and Jaebum himself seemed to be okay.

"Dude, what happened here?" - Mark asked looking at Jaebum.

"Nothing. Just go to sleep." - Jaebum dismissed Mark, trying not hit him at the moment.

"Sure. But the younger ones are worried, so if you're going to trash your room, then at least do it quietly." - Mark answered, unable to handle Jaebum's , just like Youngjae does every single day.

"Also, where is Youngjae?" - Mark asked, before exiting and leaving Jaebum alone.

"He's not in the dorm?" - Jaebum questioned, suddenly worried about his boyfriend.

"No." - Mark was worried too. - "What happened between you two?"

"Nothing serious. We just had a small fight." - Jaebum replied, hundreds of negative thoughts about Youngjae and his safety captivating his mind.

"If it wasn't serious, I don't think you'd be here trashing your own room." - Mark raised his voice at Jaebum, acting like the hyung he was.

"What if something happened to Youngjae? It's really late, aren't you worried?" - Mark scolded Jaebum a bit more, while Jaebum was standing there dumbfounded.

"You should see a therapist or something to control your temper. Youngjae's not going to just let it slide and keep getting hit every time you lose your temper. Heck, if it was someone else, he probably would've already hit you back, or even worse." - Mark said finally and exited the room, leaving Jaebum in his room alone to think everything over.

"Everything's fine. Now go to sleep." - Mark said to the younger members who were attentively listening to their conversation from the outside. They obeyed their hyung, each going to their rooms and falling asleep shortly after.

Jaebum just stood there, thinking about everything all at once. After a while his head started to hurt from thinking too much. Only after a few minutes Mark's frank words started to get clearer and Jaebum started to understand them, thinking them over and over again. Jaebum took a seat on his bed, holding his head and praying that Youngjae would come back after a while, that Youngjae was okay and not hurt. 

Meanwhile, Youngjae was inside a local convenience​ store, trying not to freeze to death, while holding a cup of hot chocolate, which wasn't exactly much of a help. Youngjae vowed to himself as he exited the dorm to spend the night outside, so he was trying to do that at the moment. His pride and stubborn nature didn't even allow him to call Yugyeom or Bambam to tell them to bring him a jacket. Youngjae could spend the night at a hotel, but it could inspire the noisy paparazzi people to talk bad about him and Got7. So without much of a choice, Youngjae sat still, while listening to music, on the very uncomfortable for the convenience store chair.

Youngjae closed his eyes, trying not to think about how cold it was and how much his hurt from sitting still for about 2 hours straight. Then suddenly a large hand gripped his shoulders, almost sending to the land of angels.

"Hyung!" - Youngjae shouted, getting up to face the tall and broad shouldered person standing in front of him.

"Jae." - Jaebum calmly said, covering Youngjae's bare top with a huge jacket and then wrapping him with an equally large scarf.

"Have you been here the whole time?" - Jaebum asked, as if nothing happened between them a day ago or even a few hours ago. Youngjae wanted to give in and hug Jaebum, but his pride wouldn't let him.

"Hyung, thank you for the jacket and the scarf, but you can't just ignore the fight and try to move on." - Youngjae stated, wearing the jacket that was sloppily put on his shoulders.

"I know. I'm sorry. I should control my temper." - Jaebum sighed, rubbing his face.

"Yeah." - Youngjae replied, continuing to stand in front of Jaebum, while readjusting the scarf.

"So you forgive me?" - Jaebum smiled, trying to hug Youngjae. But Youngjae rejected Jaebum right away, backing away from him.

"I don't know, hyung." - Youngjae hesitated, remembering the pain from Jaebum's punch yesterday.

"Youngjae, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I would never hurt you intentionally. You're one of the most important people in my life. I can't imagine a world without your bright smile, resonant laugh and sweet like honey voice. I love you, Youngjae. Please, please forgive just this one time." - Jaebum begged, holding Youngjae's hand, tears visible in his eyes. Youngjae couldn't stand seeing Jaebum weak and helpless like this. He wanted the usual sassy and bossy leader, who deep down cared a bit too much about everything.

"Then, buy me ice-cream, Jae." - Youngjae said as demanding as possible. Jaebum smiled, hugging his boyfriendly tightly and whispering a thank you to the stars for letting Youngjae give him one more chance.

"I love you." - Youngjae whispered, smiling and hugging Jaebum back.

"I love you, too. Too damn much." - Jaebum whispered back. - "Now let me buy you that ice-cream."