“We’ve decided that the release will not be postponed whatsoever, but you will not be promoting this song until everything is fully resolved.”

We all were struck by the news, not daring to look at each other.

“Can’t we promote? I don’t think it would hurt,” Joonmyun hyung stated.

The woman shook her head. “Things like these spread fast. Your TV audiences aren’t only fans that support you. There are the elder and people opposing to such things, too. We were considering factors like that.”

“We’ve practiced so hard for this album, Maam. Please. I know we’re giving the best.”

The woman sighed. “Go home and check the news for yourself, then come back to me and decide if you still want it or not.”

I scrunched my eyebrows slightly in dislike. She made it sound so bad and she doesn’t know that we’re not so easy to give up on performing.

“We understand. Thank you.” Joonmyun hyung coldly mumbled then stood and bowed, and we followed suit. Seungwon hyung was left there sitting still half confused but soon followed us out of the room.  I was in the middle of the group walking quick steps down the stairs. “We’ll go home,” Joonmyun hyung announced to everyone behind him.

“Hey!” Seungwon hyung called at about the same time. “Daeyon-nim is right. You should really consider—“

“Let us fix this on our own, hyung. If we’ve come to an agreement, we’ll tell you.”

“Ya, Kim Joonmyun, how old are you to say that to me?” Seungwon hyung warned. We followed Joonmyun hyung inside the skyroom to take our bags and went out turning off the light. We started walking down to the ground floor, but halfway the staircase we stopped and turned to see Joonmyun hyung standing right in front of Seungwon hyung to properly answer him.

“I turned 23 a month ago and you will turn 26 in three. That doesn’t make you my dad.”

Joonmyun hyung stormed away from our manager and ran down the stairs, opened the front door, and rushed on the sidewalk.

It was silent and we only looked at each other, before Chanyeol hyung initiated bowing goodbye slightly to Seungwon hyung and reminded us that we had to go home.

When we were all outside the building, Chanyeol hyung walked fast steps for us not to follow. Baekhyun tailed along to him soon enough.

I sighed and looked down to the concrete sidewalk. Did I really make everyone like this? Was everyone on the internet really that mad? We’re living in a concrete world, why care so much about the virtual?

Sehun slinked an arm around mine but I shrugged it away and walked a few steps further from him.

“We’re home,” we called in mumbles taking our shoes off. Joonmyun hyung was there already on the house PC opening god knows what. I prefer not to know.

I went to the bathroom to wash my face then walked into my old room. Kyungsoo turned to the sound of the door and smiled at me, albeit slightly surprised at first. I slumped at my old bed. It smelled so Joonmyun now.

“What’s happening now, actually?” he asked from his desk. “I just don’t understand.”

“Like I do,” I mumbled on the pillow. “I’ll probably just do more of it next time.”

Kyungsoo snorted. Then the room was silent. “Why aren’t you in your room?”

“I’m in my room,” I joked with a smirk to the pillow. “No, I just don’t feel like being around Sehun for a bit. That kind of solitude, you know. Anyway, I miss this room.” I dunked my face in Joonmyun hyung’s pillow he brought from next door and breathed into the cotton for a bit. “Hey by the way, what’s Joonmyun doing?”

“Necessary stalking I guess, he seems really upset by the officials and Seungwon hyung. It’s as if you go near him you’ll get whipped.” I turned to the side so I could get a better view of Kyungsoo. He slumped on his chair. “You want chocolate pudding?”

This is exactly the reason why the thought of going back to my old room had passed my mind a bajillion times. Kyungsoo is such a chill guy inside his cute panicked outer casing. And being around him helped me make up my mind for many times—he’s just so mature. Had it not been for the age-based system, I would have definitely voted him as the leader.

I stood up from bed and we went to the fridge to take two cups of the pudding we bought at the convenience store a few days ago. No one had really touched it since everyone was so busy. I sneaked glances at Joonmyun hyung who was so serious with the PC on the way back to my old room.

I closed the door.

“Man,” I sighed as I peeled the protective seal off. I was about to throw it out somewhere but—

“Yah! No trash whatsoever in my room!” Kyungsoo shrieked. I looked up to him a bit confused but then realized what I was doing. Alright. I off some of the sweet remains and put the seal label-side-down on my belly. “Happy now?”

“Not quite. But please proceed.”

I scooped a bit of pudding into my mouth. “You know, I think you lead a really happy life.”

He laughed at the sentence that sounded like nonsense to him. “We live the freaking same life, Jongin, why would you think mine is happier than yours?”

“Because that’s how you act around everyone. So chill. So happy, like I mean, blissful kind of happy. And when you’re mad… you’re never mad. You can’t get mad. It’s just so funny. And look at me here being hated by everyone for kissing my boyfriend on a date I almost never get.”

“I don’t know.” Kyungsoo laughed. “I meet different kinds of people throughout my life. Some are like you. Some are asses too, only grateful for nothing and only pushing everyone else around. It’s something you learn over time.”

We continued the light chocolate pudding talk for so long, way after we ate all of the pudding in the cup and stacked the empty cups on Kyungsoo’s desk. My throat felt sour with the excess sugar, but I did not bother going back to the kitchen for some water.

Kyungsoo looked up to the clock nailed to the wall and his eyes almost fell out. “It’s almost supper,” he slurred, walking out the door in a rush. There I was, being left alone on the bed half baffled.

I decided that I’ll just take a shower.

I went to my room to take my clothes. There was Sehun hanging there on his bed, the upper bed. He was just sitting there hugging his knees blankly. I could have mistaken him for a ghost or something. Then he looked at me and I greeted him lightly, then I went to the bathroom.

When I finished washing, I went to the kitchen and sat at the dining table, either accompanying Kyungsoo or waiting for his food. I knew it would be something quick and easy because it was past five when he scurried outside the room and we usually have dinner at half past six.

I helped him put the dish bowl and the rice bowl and everyone’s bowls on the table. Kyungsoo took off and hung his plain apron and washed his hands on the sink.

“Hyungie, dinner,” I announced, although the volume was less than conversational.

Kyungsoo and I also knocked on Baekhyun’s door because they hadn’t came out since they first came in, except for shower I guess, and that I did not see either. “Guys, dinner,” Kyungsoo said to the door after he knocked.

“Guys?” he knocked again.

I tugged on Kyungsoo’s elbow telling that it was enough. He decided that I was right and we retreated to the kitchen. Joonmyun hyung was eating alone on the table, Sehun just settled on the couch. It felt a bad kind of weird seeing Joonmyun hyung eat alone without shepherding us to the table, but as what Kyungsoo whispered to me, I let it be. I took my meal silently and took a seat beside Sehun on the couch with Kyungsoo beside me.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol went out of their room and took their meals as well. They took their seats one seat away from Joonmyun hyung and started eating.

No one said a word during dinner. No one even said ‘digging in’ before eating. We only ate with the sound of chopsticks softly clanking on the bowl, and nothing else. Joonmyun hyung finished first and left the dish on the sink, then he went to his room and closed the door with a soft click.

One by one, everyone finished eating and did the dishes themselves.

Soon, the dining table was empty, and all that’s left was us on the couch. I finished slightly faster, but I waited for the people beside me before I stood to take their dishes to the sink. Tonight, I washed their dishes.

We used this scarce chance of coming home early to recover our lost hours of sleep. I gave Kyungsoo a cheesy silent thank you-goodbye before we entered our own rooms and I asked Sehun to sleep on the bottom bed tonight.

Sehun climbed and took his pillow before plopping it on my bed and lying down. I held him, and kissed him goodnight, and we went to sleep with the sound of passing vehicles outside.