I could hear the stutter Joonmyun hyung was trying to bravely hide. I was fiddling with my fingers in fear that our manager Seungwon hyung would ask him too many bad questions then blame him. “Not really though, Hyung, that’s not really the word to…”

 “I saw it too, Joonmyun. You don’t lie to me.”

The air grew tense as I could feel Joonmyun hyung losing pleasant words to say. Seungwon hyung managed his tone to avoid his expected yelling—he never did anything like this before if we made him tempered another day. He dragged Chanyeol’s seat for himself. He smelt of a man prim and ready for work, of generic musk perfume. “So now, Kim Joonmyun, please tell me what happened.”

I heard Joonmyun hyung’s seat drag and saw his feet resting on the floor as he sat. Joonmyun hyung told him what he saw on my IE window last night. Everyone at the table was silent listening to Joonmyun hyung, because along with Sehun and I, only he was there seeing what actually happened. I thought I would keep my oath of not putting anyone in trouble, but from Joonmyun hyung’s tone in the way he spoke, I doubted myself even more.

“But I think I should have clicked one of the results and check who the uploader was. It should be a fan because if it were a professional paparazzi, the photo would have been sold directly to the press.” Joonmyun hyung gave his opinion as the final sentence.

Seungwon hyung sighed. “Alright. I—well, first of all thank you for calling me right away, Joonmyun. I appreciate that. But you really should have told me if your boys are going out like that.”

“I thought this wouldn’t happen, hyung,” he silently denied. “I thought they were only going to have some simple, unsuspicious walk around the neighborhood.“

It pained me because it sounded as if Joonmyun hyung was trying to push away the blame hanging around him. It suddenly felt like he was against us, but I tried to remember that it couldn’t possibly happen. I tried to remind myself that was just my prejudice, Joonmyun hyung is a good man. I scrunched tight the fabric of my pants in my fists.

As I kept my view down to my lap, a hand slid across the table and flicked in my face. I looked up to the call and saw Seungwon hyung stretching his hand waiting for me to look up to him.

“Who kissed who?” he asked me, gesturing with his chin.

I looked back down. I raised my right hand slowly and answered him. “I did, hyung.”

“Phew.” He acted a sigh. “I thought you knew about our still-valid dating ban. You know we’re having show recordings in two days.”

“Yes, hyung.” I mumbled softly. On my right, Sehun sounded better although he was still breathing hiccups.  I took his hand and held it tight under the table, looking at him through his bangs. He turned to me and I looked at him intently, hoping that he got my message that we could go through all this. He gave a faint smile and returned his wet eyes back to his lap.

I squeezed his hand when Seungwon hyung continued. I would sometimes squeeze his hand again every time Seungwon hyung said something too mean to us or when I felt so sorry I could not face Sehun in the eyes.

“If the PR or the Board of Directors find out soon enough, and if they find that this garners so much response, they might cancel your album,” Seungwon hyung continued.

Silence seeped. The ticking clock, the whirring fridge, the occasionally chirping birds, the creeping orange sunlight. The morning was silent, but not oblivious of the darkening of our house.

“You did not take good care of your brothers, Joonmyun.” He blamed. I bit my cheek and held Sehun’s hand tighter in dismay.

“You could have stopped them.” He continued. We were all silenced for it was always the rudest thing to talk back. “And you two. I thought the dating ban was clear enough. Don’t you know that cameras—“

“Enough, Hyung. Enough. You’re only making things worse. You don’t need to bring us down.” Everyone turned to Joonmyun hyung for his restrained yell to Seungwon hyung. Everyone either sighed or held their breaths in stress. Joonmyun hyung realized that his temper was off, then he softened his intonations. “What we need to do now is look for a solution for this problem.”

“You find the solution to your problem, Joonmyun. Fix your kids.”

Seungwon hyung opened his phone quitting the forum. Joonmyun hyung sighed heavily.

“I’m sorry for putting everyone in trouble.” Sehun suddenly said, breaking the silence. We all turned to him. “It’s Sehun’s fault. Sehun is entirely sorry.”

“No Sehun, it’s okay,” Joonmyun hyung smiled earnestly.

“What’s so okay?! You’re even putting the agency at risk.” Seungwon hyung snapped. I just wanted to shoot a bullet through his head or make him shut his mouth if he kept on saying bad things to us. Joonmyun hyung dunked his head and the kitchen fell silent. Baekhyun rose and went to his room.

The rest left around the table had nothing to say. All we heard was the ticking clock, the whirring fridge, and the occasionally chirping birds and passing cars. But after a break of silence, we heard yells muted behind a door, one voice deep and the other not so. We could not comprehend the conversation, but from the harsh intonations, it was bad. Then things fell silent again, followed with a thud on the door. It was silent. Then the yelling resumed and Baekhyun came out slamming the door to his room, face stern and resentful to everyone at the table. He glared at us and sat on the couch facing the front door, not giving a damn about the trouble in the kitchen.

Everyone on the table turned their heads to Seungwon hyung for the surprising ring of his phone. He opened the message and slid the phone on the table for anyone to see.

“It’s on Newsen already,” Seungwon hyung announced. We turned our heads and my eyes widened in surprise. Bless South Korea for its world-renowned Information Technology.

“Someone told the marketing head and the marketing head told the PR. The PR wants to see me,” Seungwon hyung ruffled his head. “If anyone is to lose a job from this issue, it’s going to be me.”

I watched Joonmyun, Sehun and Kyungsoo’s expressions carefully and I could see that they were sorry but they knew saying it wouldn’t change a thing.

“Sehun.” Baekhyun called suddenly. Sehun looked up from his seat to the couch. When Baekhyun knew he had the attention, he continued. “I’ve dated for a pretty long time now but I haven’t caused anyone any trouble. You should know where to place yourself. Chanyeol told me he hated you guys so much. You have more dates, you made Joonmyun hyung switch beds. He said he was still okay with that, until suddenly you put me in your deep . Now I don’t know when Chanyeol will come out but he obviously won’t see the two of you.”

“Calm down, Baekhyun,” Joonmyun hyung dragged his chair and stood up to come to him.

“Cut it, hyung.” Baekhyun stood from the couch as well, then made his way back to his room and closed the door.

Everyone was just there frozen in their own positions, never expecting that this morning would turn into such a mess. Joonmyun hyung buried his face in his own hands, feeling like a failure. I wanted to stand and hug him or something but I sat still, only tightening my grip on Sehun’s hand. Seungwon hyung sighed and scratched his head in desperation.

“Leave it alone, Joonmyun. Let’s just go fix this together,” Seungwon hyung called from his seat. Joonmyun hyung stood still, still feeling sorry over himself. He then sighed and wiped his face with his right hand when his left hand dropped limp. He turned his face to Seungwon hyung. He nodded and gave a weak smile.

Joonmyun hyung sat back on his seat and discussed with Seungwon hyung the possible things we could do to try fix things. He even proposed to go online right then and there and go search for the uploader, but Seungwon hyung told him that we had more important things to do. I looked into Seungwon hyung’s eyes which were too busy staring at Joonmyun hyung’s and wondered. Had the star been him, not me, would his skin still be this dim and colorless every time he wakes up? Would he keep this stern fatherly look, the stubbles typical to tired men? Would he also worry about not being able to freely fall in love?

It was then decided that we would practice as usual while Seungwon hyung and Joonmyun hyung search on the internet and talk with the company officers.  I was slightly relieved to see the tension cooling down, but I really needed to fix terms with the house’s other couple, this is bad.