“Great work, hyungs! We managed to pull it off!” Sungjong commented excitedly as soon as Hoya stepped out of the room.

“Shhh!” Sungyeol placed a finger on his lips and hissed, “He might hear us.”

Sungjong nodded and covered his mouth.

A few seconds of silence passed in the room before Sunggyu suddenly cried out, “Yah, me treating you guys isn’t part of the plan though!”

The rest chortled, before Woohyun replied, “Ad-lib, hyung, ad-lib. It was a great ad-lib by our Dongwoo hyung here. Nice!” He gave a thumbs up in Dongwoo’s direction, who just laughed even louder.

“Speaking of which, wasn’t my acting superb? I think I’m ready for my next drama.” Woohyun continued with a smug expression.

“Stop being a show off. It was a team effort!” Sunggyu retorted.

“Do you think it’ll work though?” Sungjong asked worriedly.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be getting updates from my number one fan.” Woohyun reassured him and patted his shoulder.

Sunggyu scoffed at the ridiculous statement. “Sorry to break your delusion, but wasn’t she my fan? And also, we will all be getting updates from her, not only you. We are all in the same group chat, remember?”

“Ah how can you shatter my dream like this? But you aren’t totally wrong, I admit. She was your fan. And now, she’s mine.” Woohyun smirked, showing a peace sign to Sunggyu.

“You-”

“Oh, oh! An update on the situation!” Sungyeol shouted, stopping the conversation between them. The members quickly whipped out their phones to check.

“NOOOOO! The operation failed!” Woohyun fake sobbed as he typed out a reply in the chat.

“What do we do now? Hoya hyung must be very upset.” The maknae looked at his hyungs in despair. The members stared at one another, each racking their brains for a solution. Even the happy-go-lucky Dongwoo was being serious for once.

“Firstly, let’s just try to cheer him up subtly. Don’t let him know that we know.” Sunggyu threw out a suggestion, to which the rest nodded at.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

“I’m back…” Hoya said with a tired expression. He placed the drinks on the floor and handed the card back to Sunggyu.

Before Sunggyu could speak, he had already gone to a corner of the room, plugging his ears with his earpiece as he walked. The rest of the members stared at one another for a moment, unsure of how to handle the situation.

Sungjong then decided to sort out the drinks first. He went over to the drinks and passed them out to the rest, before realizing something.

“Hey, how come there’s only six? Hoya hyung, didn’t you buy yours?”

His words fell on deaf ears and he looked over at Hoya to see the man with his eyes closed. Sighing, he glanced at the other members, hoping they would find a way to save the cold atmosphere.

“How are we going to cheer him up when he can’t even hear us?” Sungyeol whispered, his eyes darting to Hoya. The others shrugged and bit their lips.

It was then that Sunggyu stood up and walked over to Hoya with a grim expression. Fearing the worst, Woohyun quickly stood up and followed suit.

Sunggyu reached out to pull out one of Hoya’s earpiece.

“Enough is enough. Can’t you see the members are worried sick about you? Are yo