It had taken four days for their company to decide who was going to be the temporary leader while Jungkyun completed his mandatory enlistment. Four long, anxious days full of tense silences and nervous twitching every time the phone rang. But finally, Friday morning came and the members were called in to have a meeting with their manager where they were told that Jaewook would be the temporary leader.

Everyone had been happy with the decision, even the older members seemed fine with the fact that one of the youngest members would be the one bossing them around. Byunghwa made the point that Jaewook already bossed them around when it came to learning choreography so it wouldn’t be that weird for him to boss them around about other stuff as well, which earned him a laugh from their manager. They were told that it would be announced the following Monday and so they had the weekend to get ready for their last performance as six members. The tension that had seemed to physically hang around them had suddenly disappeared with the announcement and now everyone was laughing and joking again as they made their way back to their dorm.

Everyone except Jaewook.

He’d managed to put on a smile when the news was announced and had thanked the manager and promised that he would work hard to fill in as the temporary leader. However, as soon as they made it back to their dorm, he slipped away from the rest of the members and made his way to the bedroom.

Once inside, he closed the door with a sigh and leaned back against it for a moment before making his way over to his bed and sitting on the edge of it. He leaned his elbows on his knees and ran both hands through his hair before letting his head hang down so that he was staring at the floor with his hands resting on his neck.

It’s not that he’s worried that the other members won’t listen to him or anything, after all Byunghwa’s comment about him bossing them around during dance practice had been the truth. It was everything else that was worrying him.

What if the fans aren’t happy with the decision? What if he screws up and ends up bringing hate onto Bigflo? What if the other members start to hate him? What if he screws up so bad that someone leaves? What if he-

He hadn’t realised he’d been crying until he saw tears falling to the floor through blurry vision. He also hadn’t realised he’d been digging his nails into the skin of his neck until he moved them to wipe the tears away. Hissing at the stinging marks on his neck, he tried to stop himself from crying only to find that his tears wouldn’t stop falling.

“I’m such a cry-baby ugh.” Jaewook mumbled to himself, “How the hell am I going to be the leader if I start sobbing at the thought of screwing up?”

“You’re not a cry-baby.”

Jaewook’s head shot up at the sound of the voice to find Jungkyun stood in the doorway.

Quickly wiping his eyes, Jaewook cleared his throat before stuttering out, “H-hyung, I didn’t r-realise you’d c-come in. W-what’s up?”

Jungkyun let out a sigh before fully entering to room and closing the door behind him. He quickly made his way over to where Jaewook was, sitting next to him and putting an arm around his shoulder.

“You don’t have to pretend you weren’t crying you know.” Jungkyun told him, giving his arm a comforting squeeze.

“C-crying? I wasn’t c-crying.” Jaewook mumbled out, face turning red in embarrassment at his stuttered lie.

“I can tell you know. You’re eyes are all red and puffy and you’ve still got tears running down your face.” Jungkyun pointed out to the now extremely embarrassed rapper.

Jaewook sighed and hid his face in his hands. Feeling the younger start to shake from trying not to sob, Jungkyun pulled him tighter into his side and started running his free hand through Jaewook’s hair in a soothing manner.

“What’s the matter Jaewookie?” He asked quietly.

Jaewook curled into Jungkyun and buried his face in his shirt, bringing one hand up to hold tightly onto Jungkyun’s arm as he murmured out what was wrong.

Once he had finished explaining his worries at being picked as Jungkyun’s replacement, there was a long moment of silence that made Jaewook start to shake and quickly trip over himself to try and tell Jungkyun to just forget about it while he started to move away from the older.

However, Jungkyun recovered from his shock at Jaewook’s confession quickly and pulled him in for an even tighter hug that stopped Jaewook from stuttering out apologies.

“Jaewookie,” He began, gently rocking the younger back and forth while hugging him tightly to his chest, “you don’t need to worry about things like that! You’re going to be a great leader!”

“B-but I’m not g-gonna be anywhere near as g-good a leader as y-you hyung. H-how am I gonna b-be able to cope?” Jaewook stuttered out, body beginning to shake with quiet sobs again.

In response, Jungkyun once again pulled him closer, pressing light kisses to the top of his head as he rocked him and shushed his sobs,

“You are going to be a great leader.” He repeated, continuing with, “While I’ve had more experience being a leader, you’ve got the natural born qualities of a leader.”

“I-I do?” Jaewook asked, tilting his head up to look up at Jungkyun with wide eyes.

Smiling at him, Jungkyun moved a hand to cup the side of Jaewook’s face and nodded.

“You naturally lead all of us as soon as we enter the practice room, even though you’re younger than nearly all of us. You’re in your element when you’re running through the steps to our choreo or showing us the lyrics you’ve written. Trust me, you’re going to do a great job looking after the rest of my boys while I’m gone.” Jungkyun told the younger, smiling at him encouragingly.

Jaewook stared at him for a moment with wide, still teary, eyes before he seemed to accept what Jungkyun was telling him with a slight nod and a small smile. Mentally Jungkyun congratulated himself as Jaewook flung his arms around him in a tight hug and thanked him profusely.

Chuckling, Jungkyun wrapped his arms around the younger and kissed the top of his head again. He heard Jaewook mumble something and the arms around him tightened.

“Hm? What was that Jaewookie?” Jungkyun asked as he pulled back slightly from the hug to look Jaewook in the eyes.

Blushing, the younger stared down at the floor and mumbled again.

“You’ll have to speak up. I think I’m going a bit deaf in my old age.” Jungkyun joked.

“You’re not getting old hyung.” Jaewook told him before blushing again and saying, clearly this time, “I’ll miss you hyung.”

“I’ll miss you too Jaewookie.” He said, pressing another kiss to the top of Jaewook’s head as he stood up and pulled the younger to his feet along with him.

“Come on. Let’s go order a whole lot of food and celebrate Bigflo’s new leader!” Jungkyun said with a grin.

At the mention of food, an excited ‘yes!’ could be heard outside the door and then a hardly muffled ‘ow Yuseong hyung that hurt!’ followed right after. ‘Be quiet Hyuntae or they’ll hear us!’ came the slightly more muffled response from what sounded like Kichun. Then what sounded like Byunghwa said ‘Wait they’ve gone quiet.’

Jungkyun and Jaewook exchanged glances before they moved towards the door as quietly as they could. When they were within reach of the handle, Jungkyun ripped the door open and had to jump back as the four other members came stumbling in. Hyuntae, who had obviously been leaning against the door, fell flat on his face while the other three managed to stay on their feet.

Everyone burst out laughing as Hyuntae whined, sitting up and rubbing his forehead.

“You guys were eavesdropping the whole time weren’t you?” Jungkyun asked, already knowing the answer from the sheepish smiles on their faces.

After a moment of silence where no one was sure exactly what to say, Jaewook took a deep breath and broke the silence.

“Well come on let’s go and order food then. Bigflo’s new leader is hungry.” Jaewook said, smiling at the other members as they all cheered and made their way towards the living room.

“You’re gonna be an awesome leader hyung!” Hyuntae told him as they waited for their food to arrive, putting both thumbs up and grinning at him like an idiot.

“You really are Jaewookie.” Yuseong agreed from where he was sat, glancing up from his phone to offer him a smile before going back to looking at whatever he was looking at (probably cute dog pictures).

Jaewook couldn’t stop smiling as Kichun and Byunghwa also reassured him that he would be a great leader from where they sat sorting through the huge pile of DVD’s to try and find a film to watch.

The rest of the day was spent eating as much food as they could while watching movies, all heaped up in one big pile of limbs as they all tried to cuddle with Jaewook and Jungkyun at the same time.

That night, instead of moving out of the living room and into their beds, they decided to all sleep on the floor of the living room. Blankets and pillows were dragged out of the bedroom and dumped in the centre of the room and all six members immediately set to arguing over who would be sleeping next to who and shouts of ‘hey that’s my pillow!’ and ‘get your hands off my blanket!’ could be heard as the argued for a solid fifteen minutes.

Eventually everyone settled down and managed to find comfortable positions to lay in. Kichun had lost a game of rock paper scissors with Yuseong and was now being used as a pillow, Byunghwa had flopped down next to Kichun and Yuseong and flung his arm over Yuseong, and Jaewook and Jungkyun had laid down next to each other only to have an eager Hyuntae wriggle his way between them to cuddle.

A peaceful silence had settled over the group as they all started to fall asleep. Well, all except Hyuntae who broke the silence with a not-so-quiet whisper to Jaewook.

“Hyung.” Hyuntae whispered, nudging Jaewook with his foot, “Hyuuuung.”

Jaewook made a sleepy noise to let Hyuntae know he was listening.

“I think that’s only like the second time I’ve seen you cry hyung.” Hyuntae said.

“I don’t really cry much that’s why.” Jaewook replied, keeping his voice quiet to try not to disturb the other members.

“That’s probably a good thing though.” Hyuntae told him, trying not to smirk as Jaewook opened an eye to look at him in confusion.

“Yeah?” Jaewook said as he waited to see what Hyuntae meant by that.

“Yeah. You look ugly when you cry.” Hyuntae stated, giggling to himself as Jaewook let out an indignant noise and kicked the younger’s leg where it was resting next to his.

“What are you squawking at Jaewook? Go to sleep.” Jungkyun mumbled out, clearly annoyed at being woken up.

“Hyuntae just called me ugly.” Jaewook told him sulkily, glaring at the still giggling Hyuntae through the darkness.

There was a thumping noise before Byunghwa whined out “Hey! What was that for?”

“Oops! Sorry hyung I was trying to kick Hyuntae to tell him to shut the hell up and go to sleep already.” Yuseong apologised.

“Hey don’t try and kick me. This is maknae abuse right here.” Hyuntae complained as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Jaewook kicked him again in leg before rolling on to his side facing away from him, smile on his face as the maknae whined again.

Quiet settled over the members again as everyone started to fall asleep. Jaewook had almost fallen asleep when he suddenly felt arms creep around his waist and legs tangle with his own.

He felt Hyuntae snuggle into his back and mumble, “You’re gonna do great hyung. I believe in you.”

So while Jaewook started the day anxious, he ended the day much more relaxed and, while he was still worried about being a good leader, he was more than ready to take on the challenge set before him.