Chapter 25

All C.A.P had to do was take a step back and Ricky sprang into action, sending a glare towards his leader and wrapping his arm around Niel’s shoulder. He could feel the way the other tensed and shook as he sat crouched on the floor. Ricky gave the other a light squeeze before Niel outright burst into tears.

Ricky gently pushed away the stray hairs that were now sticking to Niel’s cheeks, pointedly ignoring the sound of the door slamming as their leader left in favor of focusing on Niel and only Niel. He didn’t want to acknowledge or think about C.A.P, afraid that if he did he’d come to hate him. He just wanted to help Niel only.

Changjo was beside him, rubbing circles on Niel’s back and soon L.Joe came, kneeling down in front of Niel and forcing his head up by the chin. Niel protested, snatching his face back and leaning more towards Ricky. L.Joe’s flexed in obvious irritation, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Hyung stop,” Changjo said but L.Joe wasn’t listening. He was past that point, instead trying his best to pull Niel’s face back up.

“Daniel… Daniel,” L.Joe prodded, but Niel was unresponsive. L.Joe’s voice grew more authoritative, “Daniel ah, look at me.”

Niel swallowed as L.Joe’s slender fingers tilted his head back up. Niel’s eyes slid shut as two lines of tears trickled down his red cheeks.

Ricky sent Changjo a weary glance before tightening his hold on Niel’s waist. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust L.Joe but he knew that that hyung also had a mean streak. He wasn’t called Gangjoe for nothing.

“You know what I’m going to tell you, right?” L.Joe’s voice was soft but the authoritative tone hadn’t left.

Niel let out a shaky breathe and shook his head.

“Daniel—“

“I won’t…” Niel hastily spat, desperation in his voice, and quickly amended, “I can’t.”

Ricky was surprised by the conversation, surprised by the fact that Niel and L.Joe seemed to have already had this conversation before, but somewhere knew that he really shouldn’t have been.

“You know I’m right.”

L.Joe’s fingers had slid from Niel’s jaw to the back of his neck, curling there slightly.

“It’s not going to work…” L.Joe’s voice was a whisper. “Sometimes these things just don’t work.”

Ricky’s brows shot up in surprise. Was L.Joe advising Niel that he and C.A.P should break up?

“It’s better for the band if you do,” L.Joe said, frankly. There was no emotion in his voice, it didn’t come consolingly, but rather like a diagnoses. As if Niel were his patient who needed some sort of medical advice. “I know that you love him, you’ll still be close to him.”

Niel didn’t answer but he had stopped crying, his fist were clenched tightly on top of his thighs.

L.Joe repeated it again, “It’s just better for the band if you do.”

L.Joe reached down to squeeze the hand but Niel snatched it away.

“Byunghun,” Chunji said, speaking finally from where he still stood a full meter away from the others crouched upon the floor.

“Yes, dear,” L.Joe said, not looking away from Niel who was doing his best to keep his eyes glued to the tiled floor.

“Don’t ‘yes, dear’ me,” Chunji said, finally walking forward and pulling L.Joe up by the back of his collar. “And stop telling Daniel what he should do.”

L.Joe turned suddenly at that, as did Changjo and Ricky, all looking surprised by what their 2^nd oldest hyung had said because even if neither of them said anything, both maknaes were learning towards what L.Joe was suggesting.

“Are you really telling me you didn’t just see what we did?” L.Joe asked, an incredulous laugh breaking through his lips.

“I saw it,” Chunji said.

“And you still support them?” L.Joe asked. “I’ve seen enough. We’ve been sitting here for months on edge, is he or isn’t he? Will they or won’t they? I’m tired of it.”

“So what? Is this so you can have peace of mind then?” Chunji asked. “As far as I’m concerned there are three sides to every story. This one isn’t any different.”

“Yeah?” L.Joe said, rolling his eyes at his same age friend. “Enlighten me.”

“”Daniel’s,” informed Chunji, counting on his fingers. “Minsoo’s… and the truth.”

-------

The stylist clicked her tongue in annoyance as soon as the maknaes walked in: Niel in the middle with Changjo and Ricky flanking both sides. He looked a mess what with the dark lines of eyeliner and mascara smeared and subsequently dried across both cheeks.

“Sorry noona,” Ricky said, helping Niel into the chair.

“What happened!?” she squeaked and then glanced at her watch quickly noting the time she had before the group had to be on stage. “Well don’t expect anything as good as what you had. I can’t work miracles in this amount of time you know.”

“It’s ok, we understand,” Changjo said.

He and Ricky went to sit on two make up chairs beside Niel to watch and wait alongside their friend. Neither spoke much since the incident, afraid that doing so would offset Niel’s already strange mood, but the stylist didn’t seem to be having any of that. Not even a minute end and she seemed to have enough of the mood.

“Ok, so what happened? You all are acting way too strange for comfort,” she said as she wiped at Niel’s face. “And I’m guessing it has something with you, Daniel. Trouble in paradise?”

“Why do people call it paradise?” Changjo cut in and Ricky elbowed him.

“Noona,” Ricky began but Niel interrupted.

“Everyone wants Minsoo and I to break up.”

Ricky squirmed uncomfortable in his seat unsure whether to object or not. It wasn’t like Niel was wrong but Ricky also didn’t want Niel to feel no one was on his side.

“W,we’re not saying you should break up,” Ricky stuttered.

“You all think he’s a bad guy, don’t you?” Niel asked.

Ricky’s mouth gaped, “B.but—“

“Well don’t,” Niel said. “I provoked him and he snapped.”

“Daniel,” Ricky frowned unsure of what to say.

Changjo beside him didn’t seem to be so uneasy.

“Well could you please stop doing that?” Changjo asked.

Niel looked surprised and Changjo continued.

“You always say you provoked him and he snapped or that you were arguing and something happened. Well then don’t argue and don’t start it. It’s annoying. Byunghun hyung is right, if you two are acting like this you may as well break up. It does affect the band whether you like it or not. It’s not just about you because you involved each and every one of us when you decided to make some kind of broadcast play out of it!”

“Choi Jonghyun!” the stylist called.

“What, noona? I’m right! I’m tired of it. Every time they argued I gave it the benefit of the doubt and said it’s not my business. I did. You can ask Changhyun. Didn’t I?”

Ricky nodded numbly.

“You two get out of here. I’ll handle Daniel alone. He’ll meet you all when he’s ready,” Noona said chasing them out.

Ricky and Changjo exited the room and as soon as Changjo closed the door behind him Ricky punched his shoulder.

“Ow!” Changjo protested.

“You idiot! Why would you say that to Daniel! He obviously was really hurt today!” Ricky protested.

Changjo rubbed his shoulder.

“I know but he pissed me off when he said he provoked hyung into snapping. Back in the waiting room he was absolutely torn apart and then now he’s just trying to brush it off. I can’t feel sorry for that,” Changjo said.

Ricky frowned, crossing his arms.

“Daniel’s really sensitive, ok. He’s been through a lot so you should try to sympathize with him,” Ricky countered.

“As if Minsoo hyung isn’t either? Changhyun stop acting like you haven’t known these two for just as long as I have. Minsoo is sensitive too and he’s a big baby so it’s affecting him too, alright. Not just Daniel.”

Ricky didn’t say anything to that He knew on some level it was true. The Minsoo he was around for so many years may have looked tough and scary, but that’s just the face he was born with. That leader of theirs was also a remarkably soft person; the 3 maknaes were able to run over him often. It took Chunji and L.Joe to help reel them back in for him.

Changjo turned to go down the hall to head back to the waiting room L.Joe should still be in. Ricky followed right on his heels unsure of what to say. He knew that what Changjo was saying was reasonable when placed against what the maknae knew, but Ricky couldn’t just leave it at that.

He didn’t want to see Niel as a victim, but he couldn’t help it. He knew things about Niel, extremely personal things, and that weighed on Ricky to the point where he just wanted to support Niel and for everything to be right for him. Niel had to be protected, right? Wasn’t it C.A.P himself who vowed to do that? Niel had been through a lot, why couldn’t C.A.P just treat him better, not just because of that but because he loved him? That’s how it should be, shouldn’t it?

“I don’t think I’m wrong,” Ricky said, walking side by side with his boyfriend.

Changjo stopped and Ricky did as well, the pair faced each other.

“You agree they should break up, right?” Ricky said. “And why they should break up.”

“I don’t want to agree that they should break up. It shouldn’t be my decision,” Changjo said. “But yeah, for me it would be easier if they broke up but in the end we shouldn’t be choosing sides!”

“I don’t think it’s wrong to choose sides, though. Why should it be? Daniel’s my best friend so of course I worry about him, you know. There’s more to him than what you may think.”

Changjo chuckled and shook his head, “So nothing Chanhee hyung said even registered with you then? There’s three sides to every story. Three. Not two. And whatever secrets he may have told you I’m sure it’s not every single thing. You only got one side of it. That’s it.

Changhyun, think about the fight that happened today. Byunghun ran to Niel of course. He really loves him like a kid brother, and we ran to him because he’s our maknae line friend. We all took sides by instinct. But after it all died down and we were sitting there and I got to think about it, I mean really think about it, Minsoo hyung was doing everything he could do to try to get out of that situation but Daniel didn’t let him. And then the argument in general… what was it? Daniel was looking in hyung’s phone. He shouldn’t have been doing that in the first place.”

Ricky scoffed at Changjo, “Really? Are you seriously saying that because Daniel looked at Minsoo’s phone he deserved to be attacked like that?”

“Like what? Minsoo didn’t do anything. You freaking punched me a minute ago when we left the make-up room and I’m not crying. We’re all guys, right? Daniel reacted in a way to get reactions.”

Ricky’s mouth fell open.

“I’m sorry,” Changjo apologized. “I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t mean that he was malicious or anything…just they were both upset. We’re all upset but in the end it’s not up to us to decide as much as right now I wish it would just stop. It’s on them.”

Ricky sighed, shoulders deflating and Changjo draped his arm around him, bringing his head down slightly to nuzzle and pretend to bite Ricky’s ear. Ricky laughed and pulled away.

“Are you mad at me?” Changjo asked with a pout.

Ricky shook his head and went to hug Changjo around the waist.

“No, not at all,” he smiled.

-to be continued-

AN- so what do you think? is changjo harsh? is ljoe harsh? is chunji harsh? is ricky naive? what do you think about everynoe's reactions? anyway they have a performance soon so the show must go on regardless of their feelings kekeke *evil* Also sorry about the OOC going on in ths fic like woah! hahaha but my next teen top fic after this (that i already kinda have plot in my head for) i will try to do better

everyone I went away for a vacation. uhm i was debating if i should because this acct is supposed to be anonymous but now i will i invite people to add me on this twitter. not only can you know my whereabouts ("why ain't this stupid *censored* updating") but we could be friends.