usually the members were pretty good about giving everyone their own privacy but of course that didn’t stop some members from showering together to save time and water. seungcheol would have hoped he could go to the bathroom and have some privacy of his own but he guessed not when the door opens and jihoon walks in.

“it’s fine, don’t knock or anything. it’s not like i’m in the middle of peeing,” seungcheol says sarcastically.

jihoon scoffed and started to strip, “it’s not like i haven’t seen your before.”

seungcheol finished and flushed the toilet, “some privacy would be nice once in awhile. what are you even doing?”

“what does it look like? i’m going to shower,” he said, struggling to get the button undone from his pants.

seungcheol sighed and dried his hands, going over to jihoon and helping the poor kid his jeans. “at 4 am you’re showering?”

“it’s better than not showering,” jihoon said pulling down his pants and boxers, kicking them to the corner with his shirt.

seungcheol sighed, what could he do with jihoon? his sleep schedule was so messed up that he ate and showered and anything really at weirdest times. he was about to leave and go back to sleep when the younger spoke up.

“uh hyung?” seungcheol hummed, “could you stay while i shower? to uh, just make sure i don’t fall asleep… ya know, in the shower?”

the elder muttered under his breath, “when was the last time you slept, jihoon?”

“tuesday?”

“it’s thursday.”

“my point exactly.” jihoon the shower and stepped into the stall, pretty much at how good the hot water felt against his sleep deprived body. honestly it was good that seungcheol would wait for him because he had no doubts he could fall asleep under the hot stream of water.

seungcheol sat on the closed toilet lid and sighed. he worried for jihoon. he probably worried too much for jihoon if he were to be honest. the other members were probably tired of hearing the phrase “have you seen jihoon?”. it’s just that the younger boy was always cooped up in the studio, producing and recording and writing lyrics. the boy never took a break. he’s pretty sure the short male doesn’t even know what a break is.

the worst part is is that after their debut he’s just gotten worse. his hours in the studio became longer. he became more frustrated and irritable and seungcheol felt like it was his fault as their leader that he couldn’t do anything to console the poor boy. he didn’t know how to produce, or compose, he could only barely write his own lyrics. he wanted to try, he wanted to learn but jihoon was just so much better and seungcheol always had a hard time coming up with good ideas.

but it’s been two days since the kid slept and that is not healthy in the slightest. seungcheol would make sure that tonight he would make sure the younger slept until at least noon and would make sure he’d have a decent meal before he holes himself back up in his studio.

seungcheol was broken from his thoughts when a hand appeared in front of his face, beckoning for a towel. he handed the towel to the boy in the shower and jihoon stepped out with the white cloth around his waist, almost tripping over the side of the tub.

the rapper sighed and pushed jihoon by his shoulders so he was sitting on the toilet lid, his head already nodding forward in his need of sleep. he grabbed a smaller towel and started to dry jihoon’s hair, still soft and fluffy even after so much bleaching and dying to keep it the pastel colors that stylists had him wear.

jihoon started to lean forward until his forehead hit the elders stomach and seungcheol smiled softly. yes, jihoon was 20 years old, had so much weight on his shoulders, and was so very responsible, but it was times like this wear the elder saw that he was still just a little kid wanting to be taken care of.

he tried to dry the boy’s back and arms while his head still rested on his abdomen but he almost positive after about five minutes of trying to help him that jihoon had fallen asleep sitting up.

he hauled jihoon up and dragged him to their room, handing him a pair of his boxers that he slowly and sleepily put on. he was ruffling through his drawers to try and find a shirt for him to wear but when  he turned around jihoon had put on one of seungcheol’s hoodies and climbed into the elder’s bed.

seungcheol sighed and sat on the edge of his bed and nudged jihoon’s shoulder, “jihoon, this isn’t your bed. this isn’t even your room.”

jihoon mumbled something while he snuggled into the pillow and seungcheol couldn’t completely make out what he said but it was something along the lines of “let me sleep here”.

seungcheol wouldn’t argue, especially after the kid hasn’t gotten sleep in two days. he climbs into bed next to him and jihoon lets go of the pillow to wrap his arm around seungcheol and pull him close, nuzzling his face into the elder’s chest. seungcheol chuckles at jihoon’s rare act of cuteness and kissed the top of his head.

seungcheol is close to sleep when he hears a faint and muffled, “i love you,” from the boy in his arms and he can’t help but mutter the words back before falling asleep, jihoon being the last thing on his mind.