Chapter 30

When Niel entered the room Ricky jumped up right away, turning quickly, a look of sheer relief on his cute baby face. His friend, his hyung, his savior had finally arrived! Of course that’s short lived, as right behind Niel came their former manager Dongwook. Ricky’s face fell flat at the sight of him.

“Daniel!” Ricky ran forward and hugging Niel around the waist. “Finally you’re here!”

He looked over Niel’s shoulder at Dongwook and beyond, hoping to catch a glimpse of their own manager, but he wasn’t spotted.

“Where’s Siho hyung?” Ricky asked, letting go, and lacing his hand with Niel’s.

Niel shrugged and detached himself from Ricky and going to the table to greet SECRET. Ricky watched with a frown before turning back to Dongwook who started to speak.

“Don’t worry. Siho’s still around here, likely talking to some staff. My boys are all free right now so I got tasked to Daniel from his vocal lesson today,” he explained.

“Oh…” Ricky said.

“You take care. I have to head back now. Have fun filming,” Dongwook smiled. “Bye, girls. Bye, Daniel.”

With a final wave at the SECRET members and Niel, Dongwook exited the room and Ricky returned to his seat beside Niel.

He looked over at Niel who was already chatting animatedly with SECRET’s members, trying to decide which he’d say as his ideal type on the show. He looked happy, not at all disturbed in the way Ricky thought he would be.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” Niel asked, voice a bit low as he turned to Ricky after the SECRET girls returned to chatting amongst themselves.

“No, reason,” Ricky lied.

Niel rolled his eyes and Ricky knew right away he had annoyed him

“It’s not a big deal ok, stop thinking about it,” Niel said.

“Thinking about what? I’m not thinking about anything,” Ricky tried to assure Niel, but the other wasn’t buying it.

“Yes, you are. If I knew you were going to act this way around Dongwook hyung I wouldn’t even have told you,” Niel put his elbow on the table and turned away from Ricky, signaling the conversation was over and focusing instead on the day’s script.

Ricky pouted. Ricky didn’t know how Niel felt, neither did he want to tell the other how he should feel. But Ricky just felt it strange really, that Niel was so calm after being with the former manager. Their relationship was strange and tense, Ricky could feel it now. But it wasn’t in the way that Ricky would have expected. What really went on between them back then?

---

Rehearsal and filming went by without a single problem. It was a fun program and Ricky was grateful for the chance to be on variety again. Chunji and Niel had a lot of opportunities to do things like this, and Ricky always wanted a time to shine. He just hoped most of his footage wouldn’t be edited out.

When they were leaving the studio it was already dark outside. They had stayed at MNET for over 10 hours for just 45 minute broadcast. Sometimes the inner workings of the industry made little sense to little Ricky but he didn’t want to waste time thinking about that. Not when he hadn’t eaten since breakfast and all he had then was just a banana. He was hungry to the point of passing out.

“Hyung,” whined Ricky as they got into their manager’s car. “I’m hungry.”

“We’ll be home in 30 minutes,” manager replied.

Ricky pouted and slumped against the window.

“I’m going to die if I don’t eat now!” he cried.

“Changhyun, you can wait,” was their manager’s reply.

“I’m hungry too, hyung,” Niel said, taking Ricky’s side. “Can we stop at KFC? Can we get some chicken?”

Siho sighed, but it was the sigh that let Ricky and Niel both know they were going to get what they wanted.

“Fine. but you have to use your own money,” the manager said.

“Yay!” Niel and Ricky cheered.

Siho drove to the nearest restaurant and dropped them off on the curb.

“I have to make some work related calls so I’m going to park over there. Come over when you’re finished,” he instructed.

“Ok!” the two young ones beamed.

Ricky followed Niel into the KFC, mind only on the chicken he would soon to be feasting his pretty little face on. They ordered and sat down in a booth near the back of the restaurant with their food.

“Yes! Finally!” Ricky said, drooling at the spread before them.

“Less talking, more eating!” Niel scolded.

Ricky nodded, not having to be told twice. He began to dig in and the two, famished from their activities, basically inhaled the meal. In fact, Ricky was so focused on eating his meal that it wasn’t until he was finished, and washing down the remains of his meal with his soda that he remembered that he still had yet to talk to Niel about what L.Joe wanted him to. Ricky didn’t know how to bring it up though without being invasive.

In the end it was Niel who started talking first.

“Today was fun,” he said. “And Sunhwa has a crush on Byunghun. I could tell.”

“You too?” Ricky asked, setting down his cup. “I’m glad I wasn’t the only one not buying it when she said she wanted to know about L.Joe because her ‘friend’ liked him.”

“Yeah, it’s totally her,” Niel sighed and shook his head, shaking his cup. “As if he needed another person chasing him.”

“Between Chanhee and Byunghun there’s really no girls left for us,” agreed Ricky with a laugh.

Niel laughed too and replied, “Yes, but neither of us are really looking anymore are we?”

“Huh?” Ricky said, before registering Niel was referring to his relationship with Changjo and blushed. “Uh, y,yeah about that—“

“Yeah, tell me about that! I need an update,” Niel smirked, leaning forward on his elbows.

“Well, Jonghyun and I are officially dating” announced Ricky.

Niel’s eye lit up and he grabbed Ricky’s hands from across the table.

“My Changhyun! Finally you’re all grown up!” Niel cooed. “Wow! Our babies are grown up and finally getting married.”

“Hyung!” protested Ricky, pulling his hands from Niel’s, face having gone beet red even to his ears. “I’m not your baby!”

“I know you’re not. Jonghyun’s my baby. You’re Chanhee and Byunghun’s baby!”

“That’s weird as heck! I’m gonna pretend you didn’t tell me that,” Ricky pouted.

Niel just chuckled from across him still obviously very much amused by Ricky’s reaction.

“But really, I’m glad for you two. The more honest you are with each other the better it will be. It’s great that you can get together without too many obstacles. I mean that,” Niel said, his smile still pulling on his lips.

Ricky nodded shyly, “Thanks hyung. I’m really happy too. Jonghyun makes me feel…  It’s hard to explain and really weird too considering we’ve been friends for years but I think this new layer to our relationship will be good for us.”

“I’m glad,” was Niel’s reply. “And if you ever need some advice or to rant about him you can come to me about basically anything. Really, I’m here to help.”

“Thanks,” Ricky nodded.

Niel began to gather the trash from his food in order to throw his tray away and Ricky did the same, his mind buzzing with activity. He was looking forward to seeing Changjo that evening. They had only been dating for a short time and on top of that Ricky felt like he basically only had an hour of alone time with his boyfriend since they had made it official. The faster they returned home the faster he could be with him again.

However, Niel’s comment about honesty jogged Ricky’s memory of a promise made to him before their Malaysia trip.

“Hey, hyung,” Ricky began just as Niel was standing up from his seat.

“Huh?” Niel stopped in his tracks.

“Remember what you said before? About how if I fix things with Jonghyun you’d tell me about you and Minsoo?”

Niel hesitated before nodding slowly.

“Hyung, I really want to know,” Ricky said.

“You won’t let this go will you?” Niel asked.

“Well of course not! You’re like the star couple!” Ricky grinned cheekily causing Niel to swipe at his head.

Ricky winced as Niel’s hand made contact but when he looked back up saw Niel was still smiling.

“Well, I guess a deal is a deal. Let’s go home first, ok?”

Ricky nodded, “OK!”

-to be continued-

AN - Ricky is curious about a lot of things. I bet you all are too ^^ Next will reveal the NAP get together. I'm still debating if it'll be revealed through conversation/dailogue between the two or through flashback.

thanks everyone who supports this story and haven't tired of it~! thanks everyone for waiting patiently ;~; i'm back now and working on the story!

TEEN TOP GO GO! Vote at MAMA for Teen Top in "best male group" and "artist of the year" please ^^