CHAPTER TWO:Scream

 

 

As he stood in front of the mirror, SungGyu dried his hair with a white towel before he threw it on the closed toilet. Both of his hands were resting on the either side of the sink, supporting his body, while he regarded his reflection with an intense stare. He widened his eyes, taking the opportunity to finally pay attention to every single detail, the lines and curves of his visage. His clean, imperfect face. He noticed the small signs that proved he was no longer the twenty-one year old rookie. Taking a deep breath, he tried to smile at his reflection, but it proved to be difficult.

 

After the short talk DongWoo had with their manager in the van, SungGyu felt his insides twisted with despair and hatred. He had never felt like this before, especially at the beginning when he followed their CEO’s orders without  question, just like their managers. At the time, it seemed the right thing to do. Now that he had seen his dongsaengs' reactions and the situation from another perspective, he thought it actually wasn’t fair. Unlike the younger members, he knew perfectly well what was going on. He had been the one that had received SungYeol's call. The one that found the shocked Idol broken in the middle of the street looking like a lost kid and still he wasn’t able to tell s a thing about it. He hated himself for being that way towards his dongsaengs who trusted him. On one side he had to follow and respect the rules imposed. On the other, SungGyu was Infinite’s leader. He was the voice of the group and the bridge that communicated their ideas to management. He was the boys’ voice and he had to look out for their best interests. He really needed to talk with the CEO and ask him to change his mind, at least give him the chance to try and make things better for the group. SungGyu knew things would be a bit easier if the members knew what was going on with SungYeol. They had a right to know.

 

Satisfied with his train of thought, SungGyu managed to smile gently at his reflection before getting dressed. He looked on the shelf where they kept  their products - WooHyun's mainly - but found nothing. His black pants were gone.

 

“Where are they?”

 

He murmured to himself, his hand unconsciously travelling down to the long white towel that covered his lower body, just to check he actually had something on.

 

“Hey, who took my pants? I left them here this morning,” SungGyu exclaimed from the bathroom. As he opened the door, he found his  members in the same positions they had before his shower. Each of them in their own world. A gloomy atmosphere surrounding them.

 

He couldn't let the guys remain like this, it was getting tiring.

 

“Yah,” he shouted, managing to catch some gazes. “Don’t stay in the living room doing nothing. DongWoo the shower is free now. Move!”

 

“Yeh,” came the calm response from the rapper who was face down on the wooden floor. “I’m on my way.”

 

DongWoo was the first one to move from his spot before pulling his towel from under Hoya. No sound of protest came from the younger.

 

“You guys should get ready to get some sleep. Tomorrow we’re gonna practice early in the morning and I don’t want anyone dozing off, got it?”

 

All this was said at WooHyun’s direction who was slouching on the couch next to MyungSoo. The latter named simply nodded as he stretched his arms before standing up and directing himself to the kitchen. SungGyu was expecting for the other guys to move too but it seemed impossible. The maknae hadn't even paid attention to him since he walked out of the bathroom; he was simply looking at the turned off TV. A soulless expression haunting his face.

 

“Yah, Lee SungJong go dry your hair, you’ll get sick if you sleep with it all wet,” SungGyu ordered but the boy simply shrugged, his eyes still on the apparatus.

 

“I can’t."

 

Came the answer after a while, this time looking at SungGyu.

 

“The hair-dryer's in SungYeol-hyung's bathroom.”

 

The maknae was right, that was the reason why they were using only one of their bathrooms.  After SungYeol ate some of the porridge their manager gave him, he went back to sleep. Since then the tall boy hadn’t woken up so now that they were back, the six males tried not to get close to that side of the apartment in fear they could wake SungYeol up, therefore no blow-dryer.

With a sigh SungGyu sat on the other side of the sofa and signalled for SungJong to sit on the carpet between his legs. At other times SungJong would've ignored his leader's order saying he needed no help and that he was an adult, but since things weren't actually fine, the maknae smiled nostalgically before crawling to the sofa, doing exactly what his hyung asked.

 

“Gimme that," SungGyu said, taking a small white towel from WooHyun’s neck to dry SungJong’s hair. The oldest male couldn't remember when had been the last time he did that to the maknae. “And stop eating that stuff. It’s already nine o’clock.”

 

“This? Hyung, I won’t gain not even a kilo from it,” WooHyun stated matter of fact as he shook a dry squid in front of his leader’s face before placing it inside his mouth. “And you should be the one worrying about yourself, look at this,” after saying that he pinched the older man’s hip just to trap some of his skin.

 

“Yah!” SungGyu yelped before pushing away WooHyun’s hand. Hoya grinned at their leader’s reaction before taking off one of his earphones. “That’s pure flesh. You want me to go walk with just my bones?”

 

“Didn’t you gain three kilos last week, Hyung?”

 

WooHyun kept bothering SungGyu who this time couldn’t answer back so he just kept drying their maknae’s hair with a sour expression. His movements were slightly stronger thanks to the reminder.

 

“Hyung?” SungJong called his leader as he played lazily with a small rubber band. A hum was given as a response. “About your pants. I put them in the wash machine this morning, I thought they were dirty.”

 

“What? Who told you to do that?!”

 

SungGyu’s expression got darker before he started to shake the towel harshly in SungJong’s head messing up his straight hair. The youngest male tried to release himself but couldn’t, ending up with a pretty interesting hairstyle.

 

“Hyung! Now it’s all tangled!”

 

The maknae groaned as he tried to fix his hair with his fingers but wasn’t able to. WooHyun and SungGyu kept laughing at the new hairstyle SungJong had. Hoya simply snorted at the look. Being his roommate, he had seen worst.

 

After another round of incoherent cries SungJong went to the unused bathroom to get the hair-dryer not before stomping his first steps.

 

“He better not wake SungYeol up,” Hoya said knowing it had been a long while since SungYeol had a decent sleep. They all knew about the member's sleepless nights.

 

“He’s not clumsy like L so don’t worry about that,” SungGyu said throwing the towel back at WooHyun’s head who got startled by the sudden act.

 

With a smirk, he stood up and went to his bedroom. He had to put some clothes on since walking around the apartment with just one towel covering his private parts wasn’t really comfortable for him, plus they had the air conditioner on and he knew his body was weak, always ready to catch a cold.

 

SungGyu knew he had to push the guys like that to make them feel better and a bit less stressed. Day by day, he had to work hard to help them keep strong. That was what leaders were supposed to do. It was hard for him since he felt just like the other guys, SungGyu was a member too, he too formed part of Infinite  but he had faith things were going to get fixed real soon.

 

 

SungGyu was already wearing some gray pants and was about to put a white tee on when a loud scream was heard in the dorms.

 

“SungYeol!”  

 

Running as fast as he could and trying not to slip in the process, SungGyu reached the bedroom on the other side of the dorms where SungYeol was.  Using both arms, he made his way through WooHyun and HoWon who were looking perplexed at the bunk beds behind the door. None of them had dared to enter.

 

Although he was seeing it, it took SungGyu a while to understand what was going on. SungJong was kneeling on the floor next to the bottom bed where SungYeol was. He was  holding him with a confused expression while the older male shouted at L.

 

“GET OUT!”

 

Over and over again, SungYeol repeated that phrase with an angered look on his eyes. His face was smudged with tears.

 

“I told you to get out! Leave MyungSoo! LEAVE!”

 

“SungYeol—”

 

“LEAVE!”

 

Even if SungYeol kept shouting at him, L didn’t move from his spot, instead of following the  persistent demand, he tried to get closer to the bed yet SungGyu, who was now holding his shoulder with a firm grip, stopped him. The leader’s eyes met with the fierce ones of MyungSoo. Now that was a fearful scene for the group.

 

“Make them go, SungJong. Tell them to get out,” SungYeol pulled their maknae’s shirt. His voice sounded so desperate.

 

“Gyu-hyung,” SungJong said in a pleading whisper.

 

With a nod the oldest boy pulled L’s shoulder yet he got nothing. MyungSoo’s eyes kept set on SungYeol’s broken state. Like the other night, SungGyu saw the care and worry on their visual’s unreadable face. He kind of understood what was going thru L’s mind but he couldn’t let him stay right then. It took him some force to actually make him and everyone else get out of the room, finally leaving SungJong and SungYeol alone.

 

They were silent for a moment in front of the bedroom's closed door - SungYeol’s faint cries could be heard - everyone trying to understand what just happened inside.

 

“How did this happen?” SungGyu asked after a moment, his hand still holding L’s shoulder. If he let go, he wasn’t sure MyungSoo was going to stay still.

 

“We don’t really know. SungYeol suddenly screamed so we ran to see what was happening. When we got there he was already being held by SungJong as he shouted,”  WooHyun explained.

 

"At L to be more precise," Hoya murmured.

 

“Did you do something to him, MyungSoo?” SungGyu asked getting a negative answer.

 

“I just went in to check on him...”

 

“Did he have a nightmare?” DongWoo's voice suddenly sounded scaring the three older members.

 

 

 

A few minutes later, and with a shirt on, SungGyu and the other four members were reunited in his and WooHyun’s bedroom.

The five of them had plenty of questions and worries. It was obvious they weren’t going to fall asleep anytime soon.

 

“Why was he like that?” WooHyun said looking at the other members. “It’s not like MyungSoo was going to hurt him. Did you scare him in his sleep?”

 

“Why would he do that?” SungGyu asked.

 

WooHyun shrugged. “He bothers him a lot. Maybe payback?”

 

“He’s not you, WooHyun,” Hoya remarked before eyeing the youngest male in the room. “Though it’s weird he didn’t shout at us when we got there. Not even at SungJong.”

 

“Maybe SungYeol doesn’t want to see L anymore...” DongWoo wondered.

 

“Yeah right, he doesn’t want to see L but us,” WooHyun rolled his eyes at his own sarcasm before plopping on the bed next to the silent MyungSoo. The thought was simply impossible.

 

“I don't think it's like that, DongWoo,” SungGyu said looking calmly at his dongsaengs. For him it was pretty obvious. “He just doesn’t want to show us that side of him, specially to you MyungSoo. You know how much he cares about what you think. Don’t take his actions to heart.”

 

“Yeah…” L responded after a while with a  faint whisper.

 

The youngest of them didn't raise his gaze from the carpet. As expected, his mind was starting to go somewhere else, out of the dorm. The other members couldn't say anything to bring him back, it was inevitable. What surprised them all, was the unusual hurt look that started to invade L’s features. It was so unlike him, a crack in his perfect façade that let them see inside.

 

 

 

Why wouldn't MyungSoo feel hurt by those words when he took everything SungYeol did to him to heart?

 

 

 

 

edited by xxidpeace