One last thought passed through Shinki’s mind as the doors opened, Please let me help him even if it’s just a little bit…

Chase soon walked into the living room, looking as if he wanted to cry. The third oldest didn’t notice the oldest sitting there and walked towards the door that went towards his room, however he stopped and decided to turn around he looked at the couch and jumped, shocked to see that Shinki was up and staring right at him.

“Hyung…you scared me,” said Chase, scratching the back of his neck, and forcing a smile on his face.

Shinki’s facial expression stayed blank, ignoring the younger males words, he spoke out, “You like A don’t you?”

Chase’s face fell emotionless again, Shinki moved over a bit on the couch, making room for Chase to sit down as he handed the younger male a cup of herbal tea, the younger simply sighed and sat down, knowing that there was no way to avoid it…there was nowhere he could run away to, to hide from it.

He felt a heavy feeling in his chest.

I don’t want to disappoint anyone else today…

“What if I said I did?” whispered Chase, looking at Shinki, tears in the younger male’s eyes.

“I wouldn’t have anything against it…” said Shinki, smiling, “Chase, I’m like you.”

Chase looked at him a little shocked, “Really? You’re not just making it up are you?”

“Why would I?”

“I don’t know…maybe to mock me,” muttered Chase.

“That does sound like something I’d do, but I really wouldn’t do that in a time as serious as this…” said Shinki, smiling at the younger, ruffling his hair, letting his hand go to the younger’s forehead where he pressed his wrist against the heated skin to see that the younger’s fever had gotten a little worse than before, the older boy grabbed the blanket Kyu was using earlier and gave it to Chase who happily took it and wrapped it around his shoulders as he sighed, leaning back against the back of the couch, “Anyway, back to what I was saying earlier, do you like A?”

Chase sighed, “I don’t know…I feel like I do, but I…I just don’t know…because is it possible to fall for someone in just two weeks?”

Shinki shrugged, “I don’t know, but I suppose that if you live with him and sleep in the same room every night, I’m positive you could.”

“How positive are you?” asked Chase.

“Very positive.” Said Shinki, smiling.

The two jumped as a second voice came into both of their hearing; they looked up and saw Jin standing in the door way, his arms crossed over his chest as he said, “If you’re in love with him, why are you pushing him away?”

“I-I…” said Chase, looking at Jin, “Are you okay with it?”

Jin nodded, “I might not be like you two but I’m fine with it, after all I’m friends with Key after all, aren’t I?”

Chase nodded laughing; Jin sat on the coffee table so that he could face the two who were sitting on the couch. Shinki smiled at Jin, silently thanking him for making the third oldest laugh, he then spoke up, “So, do you want to talk about earlier?”

“What about earlier?” asked Chase, “Earlier as in what happened with my father? Or earlier as in me yelling at A?”

“Both.” Said Shinki and Jin at the same time, making Chase shake his head in amusement in his hyungs who were merely months older than him.

“Which do I start with?” asked Chase, changing the blanket around so that it sat on his lap.

“Which ever you feel like talking about first.” Said Shinki, “Which ever you want to talk about first…”

“Seeing how you both seem to know the story about my father and I, I’ll tell you why I was so ‘distressed’ earlier…I told him I was gay and he started blaming himself for it, saying that it was his fault that, that was my way of rebelling, that it was because he remarried such a short time after my mother passed away.”

“You’re mother passed away?” said Jin and Shinki, shocked.

“That doesn’t matter right now…” muttered Chase looking at the two, “He started blaming himself for me being gay, saying that he was the reason I turned out this way…the disappointment in his eyes…the hurt…it just killed me…I had finally repaired my relation with him…I finally made me proud but then with in just a second I became a disappointment and embarrassment for him again…”

Shinki looked at Chase.

“He knows that my thoughts and decisions influence my sister’s…my sisters look up to me and he thought that if I choose to like the same they would too…” muttered Chase.

The older two in the room stayed silent and Chase glanced at the two in the corner of his eye, Shinki sighed, “I understand why he’d be worried, but if anything, I’d think that this would tell the two to date boys…”

Chase smiled at bit and nodded his head, “It might, but I know my sisters aren’t the way he’s probably thinking they are…”

“Chase, I think that it’s best if you don’t worry about it too much.” Said Jin, “Be glad that you told him, that way you wouldn’t have to lie to him…I’m positive that it would’ve hurt him worse to find out later and from some on else than if you told him, plus since you’ve told him it’ll make it easier for him to get over it and easier for him to start supporting you again…just give it a little time, and I’m sure he’ll support you…After all he is your father, and from the sound of things he wants to repair the relationship between you two again.”

Chase nodded and Shinki then brought up the subject Chase wanted to avoid, “What about A?”

Chase sighed, setting his now empty cup on the coffee table beside Jin, he sighed and buried his head in his hands, “I don’t know…”

“You know you hurt him a lot, don’t you?” asked Shinki.

“I know…” said Chase, “I know I did. I know I touched a rather sensitive subject to him too.”

Shinki sighed, “What are you going to do?”

“I think it’d be best to keep it this way right now…” muttered Chase, not looking up since he already knew the looks that Jin and Shinki were giving him.

“Why?” asked Shinki, “Don’t you think it’ll be hurting A?”

“Shinki, I have to keep him away from me right now…” said Chase.

“Why?” asked Shinki, looking at the third youngest, who had stayed silent, “Why?”

“I’m afraid of hurting him ok?” hissed Chase, feeling tears prick his eyes again as he remembered his break up with Krystal, yeah, sure the two were extremely close friends again and were like brother and sister, but the pain and scars from their break up were still there. He remembered how much he hurt her.

He remembered the tears streaming out of her eyes, he remembered how she had slapped him, and he remembered how hurt she had looked. He had broke up with her not because he wanted to, he would’ve stayed with her, but she was scheduled to debut the next year and he felt as if he was holding her back so he had of course dumped her and due the pain from that on top of being rejected from SHINee due to his ACL surgery, he had quit SME and moved to the recently opened GFE where he happily trained, only to get hit again by a crying Krystal who hated him for changing companies, because it had made her realize that there really was no chance for them to get back together. However that was his problem with Krystal years ago, as for his problem with A, he knew that if they did end up dating and they did break up and did end up hurting the younger male a lot, he would be stuck with being with A. They’d be stuck with seeing each other daily despite the pain the felt, and it wouldn’t give them time to get over each other, and they’d be stuck with wounds on their hearts that would constantly reopen. He knew that the break up wouldn’t just affect the two of them but the whole group in general and who knows just how bad that could be.

Chase kept his hands over his face as his body trembled; he cursed himself for crying, he cursed himself for being so weak. He jumped slightly as he felt Shinki hug him rubbing the younger male’s back while Jin looked at him. Once he finally held back his tears he spoke, “If I hurt him more than I already did I’d hate myself because it wouldn’t just affect him but the whole group and I can’t allow it to happen…”

Shinki sighed in understanding, “If that’s how you feel then I’m not going to make you change that…”

Jin sighed as well, “Chase, seeing that you’re still ill, you should probably go to bed.”

Chase nodded, looking at the two after he wiped away his tears the two looked at him, “Do you really think I should keep him away?”

Shinki shook his head, “I’m against it…”

Jin agreed with Shinki, “You really shouldn’t avoid it forever, you should confront him sometime…you need to confront your feelings as well, because nothing ever comes from hesitation and you can be afraid to take risks…”

Chase sighed and nodded, “Alright…For the time being I’m leaving things between A and I the way they are…at least until after my solo debut and until I have time to think about this alone.”

“Alright,” Said Jin, smiling at the younger male who was clearly exhausted and ill from his cheeks that were tinted pink.

Once Chase was gone, Jin looked at Shinki, “Should he really leave it the way he is now? What if he keeps pushing A away?”

“I don’t think he’s going to keep pushing him away, I think he’s simply going to keep him away by avoiding him and not talking to him…” said Shinki, “We’ll just have to wait and see because we’ll see what he plans to do tomorrow.”

Jin nodded, “As for now, let’s sleep.”

“Agreed.” Said Shinki, the two then headed off to bed where they quickly fell asleep.

Chase stood up and left the room feeling a lot better than before since he was able to let some of the things that he had bottled up out, he sighed and walked to the sitting room that was just outside his bed room, he turned the knob into the room and saw a note on the door, that read:

A locked the door since he obviously didn’t want you to go in, but seeing how you have to get into there to change I’ve unlocked the door for you…I suggest sleeping on the couch for the night, since A, doesn’t seem to want anyone in the room, anyways, happy sleeping.

Jeongmin

P.S. Tell how your talk with Shinki went in the morning during your solo practice, which will only happen if your fever goes away…

Chase smiled a bit at Jeongmin’s concern and opened the door to the room silently, he looked at the camera that sat in the corner of the room, the red light was off which meant that the camera was off, much to his relief as he walked to the closet carefully, simply to grab a blanket from there as well as another jacket and his beanie. He took all those things from the room and set them in the sitting room before slipping back into the room and looking at the bed to see A laying with his head at the foot of the bed without a blanket on despite the cold air in the room, Chase sighed as her took his pillow of the bed, and heading back towards the door, only to stop at the door frame and toss the pillow out into the room before turning back around and heading back towards the bed, picking A up and laying him properly into the bed before laying the magnae’s pillow back under the boy’s head and covering him up in the blankets. 

The older male then moved to the door once again, looking back at the bed, whispering an apology before flicking off the light and shutting the door once again, he then put his beanie. He put his pillow on the couch and laid down, pulling the comforter up over his curled up body that laid scrunched up on the small couch, where his more peaceful mind slipped into a peaceful, dreamless sleep which he really needed.

The following day, A was woken up by Shinki at seven in the morning, since their group practice was at nine and their breakfast was ready. A smiled happily at the thought of food, quickly slipping out of the bed, however he stopped and looked at the bed, realizing that he was in a different position than he remembered falling asleep in also that the blanket had been on him. He also noticed that Chase’s pillow was gone, he looked towards the door and thought about how Shinki could’ve gotten in and it was pretty obvious when he thought about it. He sighed and shook his head as he walked out into the sitting room and saw that there was a blanket folded up and set on the couch with Chase’s pillow on top. He sighed and walked into the dining room where the others were sitting happily talking about their meal, A looked around and couldn’t help but let the question come out, “Where’s Chase?”

“He’s at practice.” Said Jihawn, smiling at the boy, trying to avoid the subject about what happened earlier that day, “He just left with his breakfast…His fever is gone so he decided to throw in some extra practice before his dry rehearsal tomorrow.”

A nodded, silently sitting down in his place, and eating his food silently, listening to the conversations in the room, Shinki and Jin had sat beside each other, whispering to each other whispering to each other about something while Hamin sat there emotionlessly since the older male who he was originally trying to talk tried to talk to ignored him, Jae sat there still half asleep. Jihawn and Takashi were talking about how Chase already had a good amount of fans who were mainly Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald’s fans who were just supporting their favorite group’s company mates, because the whole close to bankruptcy slipped to the press somehow spread around, plus they all enjoyed the three songs that were on the boy’s mini album. As for Jae and Dae, they sat there talking about Chase’s odd personality change.

“Chase hyung is back to his regular, cheerful self, I wonder what happened…” said Dae.

Kyu shrugged, “I don’t know, but I’m glad what ever happened did because he isn’t moody anymore and from what I heard his fever is going away too.”

“How is your fever?” asked Dae.

“Oh, it’s gone.” Said Kyu, smiling.

“You’re less moody as well, so I guessed that you were feeling better.”

“However, it seems as though Jin didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

“Why, he’s being moody?”

Hamin nodded, “He’s been really moody around me, however when he talked to Chase and Shinki earlier he seemed perfectly fine.”

“Did you guys notice that Chase-hyung was practically attached to Shinki by the hip earlier?” asked Jae, which made A twitch a bit, Chase never seemed to get along with Shinki, the only thing the two usually said to each other were sarcastic and rather mean remarks.

“It seems as though they were up last night having a meeting with each other.” Whispered Kyu, “Shinki didn’t come into the room to sleep until midnight…Also, when he did come to bed, Chase slipped into the room and whispered something to Shinki, but he whispered it so quietly that I couldn’t hear him even in the silence of the room.”

“Jin-hyung woke me up at midnight as well when he slipped into bed…” whispered Hamin, “They most of had some sort of secret meeting that made them all in better moods and closer with each other…”

“Could they have done something erted?” whispered Dae, earning a smack in the head from Kyu, while Hamin shook his head, while Jae sat there confused as to what the older three were talking about, not fully understanding their conversation.

“That was my line you brat,” Said Kyu, making Dae laugh.

“You two are both erts…” said Hamin, only Jae and A could hear him.

“We know,” Said the two at the same time, once again making the two laugh.

“Do you really think that they did something like that?” asked Hamin, “I mean come on they’ve been friends for three weeks, so it’s only natural that they become close.”

“Hamin, do you realize how close they came over night?” asked Kyu, raising an eyebrow.

Hamin shook his head, “I don’t want to…”

“Hey, kid, we were just joking,” Said Dae.

“I’m not a kid, I’m only three years younger than you,” Said Hamin, glaring at him.

“Are you a minor still?” asked Kyu.

“What does that have to do with anything?” asked Hamin, Jae nodded in agreement, what did it have to do with anything.

“Just answer the question.”

“Yes, I’m still a minor,” Said Hamin, “I’ll only be a minor for one more year though, so it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Well, Haminnie,” said Kyu, smirking at how the boy was glaring at the new nickname, “You are still a minor, which means that you’re still a kid…”

“You’re still a kid,” Said Hamin, looking at the 93er, “Yeah, you might be erted and a jerk, but you’re still a kid, you’re far more immature than Chase and Jin.”

While Dae and Kyu gasped in mock horror, Jae said, “Do you realize just how much of an insult that is? I’m pretty sure Jin and Chase are more immature than all of us sitting over here.”

“Could you guys stop talking about Chase?” snapped A, the four looked at him.

“What you go from being worried and liking him to hating him in one night?” said Kyu.

A nodded.

Jae looked at A, “You know hyung didn’t mean to say those words…”

“As if…if he didn’t mean to say them, why hasn’t he told me so himself?” asked A, looking at the others.

“Maybe it’s because he is busy.” Said Jae, “You know that Jeongmin-hyung has known Chase far longer than we’ve known him, so you should believe him, after all, he probably knows all the stress that Chase is under right now. Plus he know WHY Chase exploded last night and he even said that Chase was breaking under the stress that was eating him up.”

“If he was breaking under so much stress why didn’t he snap at any of you guys?” asked A, the anger and hurt appearing in his chest again as he glared at the male who was a mere few months older than himself.

“Maybe it was because we were nowhere near you,” Said Hamin, getting angry because of the things A was saying.

To be honest, Shinki and Jin, with the permission of Chase, had told and explained everything that was going on with Chase to him, the reason they told him was that he had walked in on the three of them talking earlier that day, hearing their conversation which caused him to demand an explanation which he got and was completely shocked by, however he recovered from it and joined the conversation, adding his own opinion into the discussion which Chase seemed to appreciate.

“And A, if you didn’t know his father said something to him again, ok? So yester just wasn’t his day or do you not remember that?” asked Hamin, looking at the magnae with a glare.

“Hey, you two break it up.” Hissed Kyu, the two glared at him, but Hamin’s glare vanished as he looked towards the oldest two who were sitting there looking at him and he knew he had nearly spilled the thing that Chase didn’t want A to know about. He apologized with his eyes and looked back at the two males sitting across from him, ignoring A.

“Are you guys excited for tomorrow?” asked Jae suddenly, bring the argument to an end, since Kyu, Dae, and Hamin’s attention were back on Jae who was sitting between A and Hamin, however A kept his glare on Hamin.

As Jae’s words processed in his mind, his glare vanished and he was emotionless again, “What about tomorrow?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? We’re going to go watch Chase’s dry rehearsal, well, some of us are,” Said Jae innocently.

“What do you mean some of us?” asked A, looking at the boy.

“Well, Chase said that he can only take the amount of a people who are able fit in the van, which is only five of us.”

“Which means two of us being left out,” said A.

Jae nodded, “From what I heard, the car is pretty much already full. Shinki and Jin are going for sure and Jin’s dragging Hamin along, from what I know Kyu is going, so there is space for either you or Jae left because I’m going to go visit my umma and dongseang.”

“Chase asked me to go, so I’m going too,” Said Dae, “I don’t know if you heard that Jae.”

“Oh, well then it seems like the van is full…” said Jae, “Sorry A…”

A shook his head, “It’s not like I wanted to go anyways…plus Chase hyung is just another jerk I’m trapped in the same company as…”

“He’s not a jerk…I already told you, as did Jeongmin, that Chase is just under a lot of stress right now!” hissed Hamin.

“Well, I’m not believing anything you’ve said because you pull pranks on me and for all I know this is a prank that you’ve made to mock me,” said A.

“Why are you so moody today?” hissed Hamin.

“Why are you so annoying all the time!?” hissed A.

“BOTH OF YOU SIT DOWN AND STOP FIGHTING.” Said Shinki, the two looked at him, A was glaring, “Both of you stop being so childish. If you don’t want to be treated like children start acting more mature.”

The two nodded silently and the breakfast became quiet again, Hamin moved seats, going to Chase’s so he could be a part of Jin and Shinki’s conversation. Jihawn and Takashi resumed their conversation about how the presales were going and about how much support the male was getting from CEC (Emerald’s fans), Valentines (Ruby’s fans), and RSS (Sapphire’s fans), which were all mainly male fans plus him gathering his own fans who were all female.  Dae and Kyu went to a different conversation, including Jae in it. What was this conversation about? The importance of skin ship, the conversation came about because Kyu realized that in the past two weeks that both he and Jae loved doing it for some reason.

A sat there silently, thinking that they all were leaving him out on purpose, he glared at nothing in particular, he just glared to glare as he sat there mentally cursing Chase for making is so that he’d be left alone in the dorm while the others were out enjoying themselves with friends. A stood up angrily at the next thought that entered his mind, why should he care about going to the rehearsal the following day, after all Chase practically called him annoying the previous day. A headed towards his room, glare on his face, his stomach growled a bit, still rather hungry, but he could careless at that moment because he was furious at the others for no apparent reason while he was furious at Chase because the older male had embarrassed him a bit, but most of all he was furious with himself for letting a rude older male who he’s only known for two weeks affect him so much.

“Where are you going?” asked Shinki.

“To my room to shower…” said A, leaving the others, going to his bed room and laid on the bed for a second, laying on the half that used to be Chase’s before the older male took resort in the room outside, he took a deep breath and glared as he recognized Chase’s scent on the sheets, he sat up and walked to the bathroom, not forgetting to lock the bedroom door as he passed it, he didn’t want to be disturbed again.

It was eight thirty when the boys arrived at the GFE building and they headed towards their practice room which was one of the larger ones on the fourth floor as they walked by the practice room 416, Jihawn stopped listening to the laughter coming from within the room, and he guessed that Chase had made a mistake.

“Boys, let’s stop here for a bit,” Said Jihawn.

“Why?” asked the boys.

“I don’t think Chase would mind us watching his practice…” said Jihawn.

“I want to see it…” said Jae, “since I won’t be going tomorrow to watch his rehearsal.”

“Alright, I don’t think he’ll mind the visit.” Said Jihawn, smiling as he knocked on the door before opening it to see Chase and the backup dancers surround the camera they had filmed their practice with, Jeongmin was laughing to as were the vocal coach and choreographer, “May we know what’s going on?”

Chase and Jeongmin looked at him smiling, Jeongmin looked and Jihawn, “One of our friends here made a hilarious face during the song…”

Chase nudged the background dancer who smiled bashfully.

“Why?” asked Jihawn.

“He had to sneeze…” said Chase, “Why are you here?”

“We got here early and I wanted to show them what the practices are going to be like when the group debut comes closer,” Said Jihawn.

 Chase smiled, nodding, “Alright.”

“Well, take a seat.” Said Chase they all nodded and sat on the edge of the room, against the wall as the third oldest in Color and dancers got into position as the camera was put back in place as well, the vocal coach looked at the seven that sat beside Jihawn, Takashi, and Jeongmin. The seven whispering until Jeongmin spoke to them.

“You guys need to be quiet while he’s performing because the vocal coach needs to be able to hear his voice, ok?” said Jeongmin, the boys nodded and sat there silently as the music began.

Twenty minutes later, they watched as Chase went through the songs one final time, however the mirrors were covered with a cloth so it’d be like Chase was performing on stage, Chase worked hard and soon before they knew it the song was over and Chase was beside the choreographer, talking about parts that improved and needed to be improved, the vocal coach listened to the audio as did Chase and the two came up with the same things, spotting out mistakes, Chase even spotted mistakes that the vocal coach didn’t. However, something Chase didn’t notice was the glare A was giving him from where he was sitting by a wall. A wasn’t really just glaring at Chase alone, but the other two men who were standing on both sides of the third oldest, who kept his eyes glued to the screen, as the three pulled away and shut off the camera practice ended.

 “Alrighty then, we’ll end practice here for today,” Said Jeongmin, “Be sure to get plenty of rest and we’ll see you for the dry rehearsal and camera rehearsal tomorrow.”

The background dancers nodded and picked up their things, bidding the yellow haired male good-bye as they left the room. The choreographer smiled and talked to Chase a little bit before leaving to train some of the newer trainees since the eight hours of practice for the group was just eight hours of them learning their songs. While the others warmed up their vocals, the vocal coach was giving Chase pointers for the intro song, which he had Chase sing for him, smiling seeing that the male had finally perfected the song.

They all then stood there, listening to the back track of the songs which were temporarily just instrumentals because no vocals had been recorded for any of the songs yet, and it would be a while until any vocals were recorded. The boys who had just arrived warmed up their vocals while Chase was resting his temporarily and drink water to restore the water content in his body since he had sweat a lot of it out.

The vocal practice had ended at 5PM and the boys all went home, mainly so that Chase could shower and change before they all headed towards their mission location, Chase and A riding in separate cars for the first time since the show had begun two weeks ago. 

Decided to do a double update, so I hope you enjoyed. Also, I changed the color for when Chase is speaking, is it too similar to Jin's? Should I change it back to the brown? Also, if you haven't answered the important thing I asked you about in the previous chapter could you please do so soon?