Junho wasn’t stupid, he could sense the tension in the room no matter how much others might try to bury it. Minjun had his eyes focused on a small book, though he hadn’t turned a page in five minutes and Taecyeon's hand was clenched so tightly around his phone that his knuckles were turning white. Chansung and Wooyoung had entered only about a minute ago, after their argument had taken a pause and both had sent a curious look to Junho about why no one was talking. Junho had signalled back for them to be patient, he feared if he said anything it would set off another chain reaction, but then again, they would have to solve this sooner or later. He hated that he had been there to witness this small crack in the glass wall that was their band, he also hated that he hadn’t done anything except saying ‘calm down’ until they both quieted and angrily breathed with their eyes fixed away from each other. 

“Did you guys know we have a temporary manager?” Nichkhun burst into the room, his polite composure now looked a little frazzled. He quickly paused though as he observed everyone in the room, sitting rigidly. “Uh,” his voice trailed off. 

“Um,” Wooyoung started cautiously, eyes darting around the room. “Didn’t JYP mention it in the last meeting? He said it was some foreigner,”

“Yeah, the guy calls himself TT,” Nichkhun snorted, Junho raised an eyebrow and his lips twitched. It wasn’t often that you got to see Nichkhun get so passionately disrupted by something or someone in this case. “He’s an american, I think, and he was asking me all these questions about who you guys are,”

“Isn’t that normal though? Managers usually do that,” Chansung, like Wooyoung, talked slowly and carefully. He looked towards Junho as he spoke, looking for any sign to stop. 

Junho loved his band, in fact, he put a lot of trust into this band. It had taken him a long while to get comfortable and accept the band as family, longer than Wooyoung and longer than Nichkhun. He wasn’t proud of it but, it wasn’t like he could control his own thoughts even if he might try to. Nichkhun nodded in response to Chansung, “There was something odd about him, though,”. Then it came to another silent pause as everyone looked at Taecyeon and Minjun, who hadn’t moved from their previous positions and now seemed to be extra into whatever the both were doing, which was trying to keep themselves under check by what Junho was seeing.

Nichkhun shifted from where he was standing and warily opened his mouth. “Hey guys, what happened?” 

Junho saw the storm coming as both Minjun and Taecyeon’s heads snapped up, they both glared at each other before turning towards Nichkhun and speaking at the same time. “Do you remember what tomorrow is?” This wasn’t going to go well. 

“Death day right?” Nichkhun’s eyebrows drew together. Junho winced at the mention of the nickname they had given to the interview and filming filled day that left practically no break for any of the boys. The topic of the two eldest koreans’ argument was just getting fuel now. Minjun whipped his head towards Taecyeon in a pointed look which the latter only chose to ignore. Wooyoung and Chansung seemed just as confused as the Thai, and again they looked towards Junho for information which he couldn’t provide them with as of the moment in fear of setting off an even larger bomb. 

“We call it ‘death day’, that’s all the proof that it’s too much and we need a break!” Minjun said aloud, though his gaze was fixed on Taecyeon. 

“It’s just one day! Once we get all our work done tomorrow we’ll have longer rest times and more publicity too,” Taecyeon snapped back. The realization of the argument dawned on the three members who hadn’t been in the room before when the first instance had happened. Junho’s hands curl into a fist as Taecyeon and Minjun’s fighting gets louder and louder, he needs to get away from this room. His heart feels like it’s hanging off a cliff and everyone is too preoccupied to save him, and when he falls, he falls into a deep ocean without anyone there.

“Cut it out, guys,” Nichkhun notices Junho’s distress, and the former can’t think of any time he’s ever loved the Thai more. “We can talk about this without getting on each other’s throats,”

“Yeah, I personally think it would be better if we went through with death day, then we have more days to recover,” Chansung piped in. 

“Really?” Nichkhun turned to face the youngest with raised eyebrows. “You can’t work out for four hours in one day and take a month break, it would be better to have a consistent schedule.” Chansung frowned but Minjun quickly voiced his agreement. Oh no. This was going to get worse. 

“This is a different situation,” Taecyeon growled, eyes small and ferocious. It seems like Nichkhun’s attempt at getting them to calm down had not worked for him and that in turn only aggravated Minjun further. Junho tried to take a deep breath, they were falling apart, he could see the cracks in the band, he had been for a while now. Would this be their breaking point? A pointless argument that was somehow causing them all to yell at each other, it seemed like too small of a thing to end them. If they were to end, they deserved to go out with something far larger than this stupid thing. Junho forced himself to stand up and open his mouth, but what would he say? What can he do to keep them altogether?

“We’re making this worse,” Wooyoung’s voice cut through the noise of the other members, all of their necks snapped towards him. Junho could see the man waver but nonetheless, he spoke on. And for a moment, Junho could feel that he was overthinking this band breakup, they’d had worse fights and it was only the ticking time bomb of Junho’s past that brought up these feelings. “We can talk about both of these ideas to our mana-”

“ You’re talking,” Taecyeon scoffed. The second youngest of the band could feel the animosity crackling.

“You can’t even keep track of your own schedule, you’re the last one who gets to talk,” and this had to be the time that Minjun took Taecyeon’s side. Junho could feel anger bubbling inside of him, but he was restrained by the image of his family breaking once again. 

“I only wan-” Wooyoung tried to speak again, gulping and losing some of that composure he had previously held. 

“Keep it to yourself,” Minjun said sharply, overtaken by the fury the argument had caused. Chansung took a step towards Wooyoung, though he didn’t say anything, perhaps he was frozen like Junho was. 

“You can say it whenever you actually get your together,” Taecyeon barked. 

“Stop!” Junho’s hoarse voice finally spilled out, and the members all seemed to snap out of a trance as the fuzzy cloud of anger dissipated from their eyes. But Junho was too late, the crack had created a large gap and he had been too late to try and fix it. Wooyoung blinked, his mouth a straight line. Junho could see the immediate regret of Taecyeon and Minjun’s words on both of their faces, but as they opened their mouths, they were rendered quiet just like Junho himself had been.

Then, smoothly, Wooyoung got up and left the room without a word or any harsh look, neutrally, he closed the door seemingly unnoticing Minjun’s soft cry of ‘wait!”. The room was quiet then, Taecyeon buried his head into his hands and Minjun and Chansung both got on their feet. But Nichkhun sent them a look to be patient not unlike the one Junho had sent Woo and Chansung when they had questioned him about the tensity of the room, which only seemed to increase now. Junho looked at his tightly clenched fist, though somehow he couldn’t force them to unloosen. Finally, Chansung was the next one out the door, presumably rushing after Wooyoung. Then a while after, Nichkhun left. Sensing the talk that was about to take place between the oldest Koreans, Junho hastily got up. 

Then he left too.