“Woodong-ah, move a little,” Minjun said as he tapped Wooyoung’s right shin.

They had just finished recording their Waiting Room Live session. Wooyoung had thrown his tired body on the sofa before the recording had even ended, too tired to care at that point. Besides, their fans would understand. They like it more when their oppas act naturally, and right then natural equated to exhaustion.

“Mmmm,” Wooyoung grunted, folding his legs at the knees so as to give space for his hyung to sit.

If he’s this tired, his Minjun-hyung must be feeling worse, Wooyoung mused. After all, before he could even rest after his solo promotions he had to join the promotions for their group, 2PM, straight away. People may have not seen it but his hyung had practically been living in the company's recording room for months now. Sometimes he wondered if Minjun-hyung was trying to make up for the time he’d lost when he joins the service. With that thought, Wooyoung swung his legs off the couch and saddled up to his hyung.

“Hyuuuuuung~” he drawled as he buried his cheeks into his hyung’s shoulder/chest.

“What is it?” Minjun asked while taking his right ear piece off to better hear his dongsaeng’s complains. He just assumed Wooyoung’s going to complain. That’s what he always does if he starts off his sentence with a cute “Hyuuuuuuung~”.

“Aniya~ Just tired. I wanna sleep.” He answered, closing his eyes. Though in his heart was a different answer, “I just want to be close to you hyung. Please don’t stress too much...”

“Aigoo uri Woodong-ah~” Minjun cooed teasingly while rustling his dongsaeng’s hair.

Unseen, Wooyoung’s lips curved into a smile.

“Since uri Woodong wants to sleep, let me sing you a lullaby,” Minjun continued.

“Don’t hyung. I just want to sleep,” he stopped him while nuzzling deeper into Minjun’s neck.

“Yah! Are you saying my voice is so bad that you cannot sleep?” Minjun asked the bed of hairs underneath his chin, preparing to knock said head.

Wooyoung gave a deep sigh, “everyone knows how beautiful your voice is, hyung. Just want you to rest it before the performance. You’ve been using it to much these days…” Wooyoung mumbled, his voice getting softer with every word until he really fell asleep.

Minjun smiled, his heart lifting a little at his dongsaeng’s concern. He lifted his eyes to see Changsung still struggling with the pringles bottle in front of the make-up mirror. Poor kid was hungry. They should have more food. Where did he see it just now? He accidentally moved his shoulder slightly while looking around and was met with a grumble from Wooyoung. He sighed and was about to call out to Chansung when the door opened. In came Junho and Nickhun. They had gone to the toilet right after the recording ended. Junho went straight to the mirror. Didn’t they have mirrors in the toilet? Maybe his hair got messed up during the very short journey from the toilet to the waiting room. Who knows? Minjun chuckled to himself.

“Hyung,” a hand shot in front of his face.

On instinct, he grasped it before looking at the owner.

“Nervous?” he asked, looking up.

Without separating his hand from Minjun's, Nickhun nodded wordlessly before dragging a chair from in front of the mirror to sit in between Minjun’s knees. He then rested his forehead on their grasped hands and closed his eyes as if in prayer. Minjun uttered no complains towards his friend's actions because he understood - no matter how many stages they had performed on before, the jitters still attack them. Instead, hoping to give him a little comfort, Minjun placed his other hand, the one not occupied, on Nickhun’s head and caressed it gently, careful not to get the hairs too ruffled for fear of make-up noonas. It wasn't long before he heard Nickhun's soft sigh amidst Wooyoung’s quiet snores and saw his tensed shoulders gradually relax.

An “ach!” followed by grumblings suddenly filled the room, breaking the silence. Minjun looked up from Nickhun’s head to see Chansung on his fingers.

“Yah! You are the strongest among us but you get defeated by a bottle of pringles,” Junho remarked, sarcasm heavy in his voice. “Give that to me,” he took the bottle, not too kindly, from Chansung. “That’s what you get for having giant fingers.”

“Junho-ah…”

“What?!” Junho almost shouted, his face contorted in irritation as he turned sharply towards the voice, his fingers halting from its attempts to open the pringle’s seal.

“Calm down. We’ve practiced enough.”

As if catching himself, Junho's facial expression visibly relaxed.

“Hyung…” he sighed, before dragging his feet to the sofa. His hands, one still holding the bottle of pringles, dropped to his sides, pringles all but forgotten.

“Sit down. Breathe,” Minjun instructed softly.

He lowered himself down on the unoccupied side of his hyung and rested his head on his hyung’s shoulders. Minjun patted his head a few times before looking at Chansung. The kid looked like a wounded puppy.

“Chansung-ah. Forget the pringles. There’s some food in my bag over at that corner.” Minjun nudged with his chin at the direction of his bag, since his hands (and shoulders) were full. “I think there’s also still some of the bananas left from the car ride here.”

Beaming, Chansung lunged for the bag, took out his bananas, before dragging another chair to sit beside his Khun-hyung and in front of his Jun-hyung.

Normally, off-camera, Minjun is the mood-maker of the group. He is always up to some mischief while dragging the other members along. Often times he would be the center of the uncontrollable ruckus that was 2PM, mostly the one being teased but sometimes the one who initiated the teasing. Even though he is the oldest, he had no qualms about acting goofy, even surpassing a maknae, just so that he could keep up the group's good cheer.

However there are times, times like this, when he acted as the group's salve and a warm blanket that comforts and silently protects s.

________________________________________________________________________________

As Taecyeon placed a hand on the door handle to the waiting room, soft chuckling could be heard coming from the other side of the door. A unique chuckle that Taecyeon would recognise anywhere. It’s also very contagious that, despite himself, he soon found himself smiling. He pushed the handle and opened the door to a familiar sight - all the members were huddled together and at the center, Minjun.

Chansung was making funny faces, and Minjun was laughing while trying not to move to much or be too loud because of the two kids hanging on his shoulders. One was fast asleep and the other, busy on his phone. Nickhun, his hands still grasping Minjun’s left one, was smiling wide. Nervousness was apparent in his eyes, though. Actually, the whole room was heavy with anxiety but they were all trying to hide or ignore it.

It was normal for them to feel nervous before a performance but it wouldn't be this prominent and would be mixed with more than enough excitement. However, the significance of this particular performance weighted heavily on their shoulders. The reason : Their group was making a comeback in Korea after a very long hiatus. For quite awhile, they had been more focused with their activities in Japan than in Korea. In that time, there were many new and emerging idol groups that had debuted in Korea. Moreover, the standards set for idol groups were getting tougher and tougher and fans' expections were higher and higher. All these were obstacles that they had to overcome in order for their comeback to be successful. Hence the importance of the first stage for it would set their pace.

While Taecyeon was lost in his musings, Chansung had stopped making his funny faces. Minjun, as usual, caressed the side of Chansung's face as his laughter dwindled.

Taecyeon smiled at the normal sight before moving to take a seat beside the sleeping Wooyoung.

“You doing okay, man?” he half-whispered, not willing to break the tranquil ambiance.

Nickhun gave a small smile and a nod. From the corner of his eyes, Taecyeon saw the small squeeze Minjun gave to Nickhun’s hand.

“You?” he asked, directing his question to Chansung this time.

“I’m the strongest member,” the maknae answered in confidence. But he had on a teasing smirk and his eyes were squinting at Junho.

Junho looked up, rolled his eyes quite dramatically and reached out to hit Chansung’s arms.

“Get out!” he exclaimed but everyone knew he said it in jest since it was followed by a chuckle.

“Oh stop it you two!” Minjun pretended to be angry, eliciting more chuckles.

Taecyeon laughed warmly at their childish play now that Nickhun had his arms around Chansung to hold him down, encouraging Junho to hit him while Minjun berated them to leave Chansung the hell alone. All the while, Wooyoung grumbled in his sleep since the shoulder he was leaning on was moving too much.

However, his laugh slowly dwindled as a small thought unexpectedly nudged at his mind, confusing him. He watched the scene playing out in front of him more closely, trying to figure out an answer to the question in his head.

“Hey, what’s wrong? You suddenly went quiet,” the question was followed by a little shake to his shoulder.

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How was that? I hope it's not too bad or cringe-worthy 😭
I'll try my best next time
I get my inspirations for this chapter from these photos (below) and if you have not watched their Waiting Room live, watch it to understand the significance of the bottle of pringles 😂😂