Youngjae knew he had messed up. Or rather, he was told that he had messed up. “You know, you should go apologize.”

            He turned to Himchan a little angrily. “To whom and for what?”

            Himchan tilted his chin at the still lit iPad. “That.”

            “It was just a joke, you know. If he can’t take it, then that’s his problem. Obviously we’re best friends. I don’t need to announce it to the world for the whole universe to know anyway.”

            “That wasn’t what he saw, and sure as heck not what he’s feeling right now if Daehyun of all people refuse to come out of his room for lunch.”

            Youngjae sighed and stood up, stretching. “Then let him starve. I’m not going to apologize for playing a little prank. He always does things like this to me too. He tells me that I’m ugly-”

            “No he doesn’t. He always touts how popular you are.” This was from Yongguk and feeling both elders gang up on him only made Youngjae more uncomfortable. Yongguk-Hyung never scolded unless it was necessary.

            “I guess but he makes fun of my weight though!”

            “And later goes with you to the gym, force feeds you stuff anyway.”

            Youngjae’s mouth twisted and he sighed. “Stupid sensitive country bumpkin.” He kicked the table when he stood up and stubbed his toe. “Ow!”

            “Karma’s mean, Jae.”

            Youngjae walked to their room and knocked. “Daehyun, come out. You can’t hole yourself away. Other people need to sleep. We all share the room, you know.”

            He heard shuffling and the turn of the doorknob and Youngjae smiled. He knew Daehyun would be over it really quickly. But it was Jongup who showed up. “Hyung, Daehyun’s not here.”

            Youngjae peered inside the room and sure enough, the top bunk where Daehyun normally slept was vacated. “Do you know where he went?”

            Jongup shrugged. “Dunno. He just got up, took his blankets with him and left.”

            Youngjae rolled his neck and sighed. Leave it to Daehyun to make his life so difficult in the morning. “Alright. Well if you see him, let him know that lunch is served and that we’re not waiting.” Jongup nodded and followed him out.

            Lunch without Daehyun was a really quiet affair. There was no one to steal his food, nobody to feed him food, either. Youngjae glanced at the empty seat and then shrugged. It was all for the better. Now he could finally live in peace. “What’s our schedule like?” he asked Yongguk.

            “We’re going to rehearsal soon. Did you find Daehyun?”

            Youngjae shook his head and Himchan sighed. The younger two stared down at their rice bowl and ate without commenting. Even though nobody was looking at him, Youngjae still felt as if he was being judged, as if they were all angry at him for making Daehyun disappear.

            Their manager came in. “Boys, wrap it up. Daehyun’s at the practice room already and is warming up.”

            The warning caused them all to shove food faster and Youngjae tugged on his nail as he thought about facing Daehyun later in the studio. How would that atmosphere be different?

            The practice room was alarmingly subdued. With one half of the troublemaker duo sullen, Himchan could only manage so much mischief. But it seems that even Himchan had a hard time wanting to keep the spirits lively. They depended purely on the maknae line to practice and be their usual cute selves.

            Daehyun was focused, intently singing his parts and dancing almost unnecessarily powerfully to his parts. When they took a break, he walked to the corner and grabbed his water bottle, draining the contents within seconds. Youngjae took the opportunity to follow.

            “Hey, Dae, good job hitting your notes there.”

            His best friend shrugged. “It’s easy when it’s practice.” And then the older boy turned to go.

            Youngjae grabbed his shoulder, fully aware of the other four pairs of watching eyes on them. “Daehyun, can we talk?”

            “No. We need to practice.” And he shrugged off Youngjae’s hand to walk back to the center of the room. Youngjae watched as Daehyun playfully slapped Jongup’s behind and compliment him on the dancing.

            Okay, so maybe he did sort of screw up. Youngjae waited until after practice, after it was later at night and they were all preparing to go sleep. Himchan was fluffing up the sheets and the others were playing video games.

            Youngjae sat on his lower bunk, waiting and Daehyun walked in. He marched over to his side, grabbed his pillow off the bed and was about to leave but Youngjae stopped him. “Daehyun, we really need to talk.”

            Himchan glanced at them and walked out, carefully closing the door.

            “About what?” Daehyun’s response sounded drained and automatic.

            “You know,” and Youngjae awkwardly gestured at the iPad.

            “What? I’m going to go sleep. We’re rehearsing for the concert tomorrow too. Night.”

            “Okay! About the best friend thing on Twitter. You know you’re my best friend, right?”

            Daehyun pursed his lips and glanced at the ceiling. “Actually, no I don’t.”

            “Come on! You can’t be that super sensitive. I did it as a joke. It was supposed to be funny, you know? Ha ha ha?”

            “I wasn’t laughing.” It was the first time Youngjae’s resorting to stupidity didn’t work.

            Youngjae walked to Daehyun and placed his arm around his shoulder. “Look, Dae, you’re my best friend in the whole wide world, okay? I didn’t know when you first walked into practice that this shoddily dressed Busan boy would eventually be the one who understood all my hardships and the one I can lean on when I’m tired. But you are my best friend and I love you, okay? Whatever I say to fans, well that’s my idea of trolling.”

            Youngjae could see him crack and then Daehyun smiled, but just a little bit. “Okay. But I’ll be going now. Night.”

            “Where are you going?”

            “I’m sleeping with Manager Kang tonight.”

            Youngjae sighed and got down on his knees and exaggerated his pleads. “Please don’t leave us! Please sleep in your rightful spot tonight, oh best friend of mine.”

            Daehyun laughed and threw his pillow at him. “You’re so stupid.” But Youngjae knew when Daehyun walked out, that it was only to get his blankets back to where he belonged. 

just a bit of Daejae to make everyone's dae :P 

may or may not be a double update later