(THE NEXT MORNING)

Seungho groaned and rolled over when angry knocking echoed throughout the dorm, the darkened room, and his ears. He knew that just had to be their manager—because everyone else in the world knew better than to go to MBLAQ and try to wake them before eleven—so he knew he didn't really have a choice over whether to ignore the annoying disturbance and go back to sleep, or just it up and go greet him.

His feet slowly led him to the other side of the bedroom, past Mir and his near-destroyed bed, to the door, which he threw open in annoyance before trudging the remainder of the way to the giant hunk of wood that hid their guest from them. "Bear-hyung," he grumbled, when he finally pulled open the door to face the older man, who merely smiled at him and stepped inside… followed by two young, and quite energetic girls.

"Good morning, Yang-Leader," Hyung Sub greeted him, before their four sets of eyes wandered around the room to take in the awful sight of the grimy, unsanitary dorm; and Seungho gulped guiltily when he realized that he'd just let Mir sleep in amongst all of that trash, despite his vulnerable condition.

"U-uh, yeah, good morning," he said back, though his reaction was delayed a moment by the fact that his mind was now on nothing but the baby he was endangering by keeping his maknae in their dorm while in its current state.

"I got your message late last night, so I decided to come first thing this morning to talk," Hyung Sub took a careful step further into the living room, then turned back to face Seungho. "Oh, and these two are Nikki and Nara," he motioned to the girls. "They're going to be my temporary aides while I look for a second manager to help me."

Seungho gave a polite greeting to the both of them, to which they giggled and whispered amongst themselves over how handsome their leader-oppa was, especially after he'd just woken up from his sleep. "Please excuse the mess too," he added a moment later, when the four of them made a path towards the couch. "We haven't been around that much lately, so the cleaning has been… neglected a little."

"We don't mind, ne," Nara answered to him in Japanese, before she turned to her friend and giggled some more. Seungho just laughed—somewhat nervously though—and looked back to Hyung Sub, who was busy trying to pick up a rotten banana with what appeared to be one of Mir's old socks. "Sugoi—this place is nice," he then heard Nara comment, once again in Japanese, before she and Nikki moved off to go have a look at the kitchen.

Thunder decided to make his presence known then, and came out from his bedroom rubbing his eyes, yawning, and , before he trudged over to the couch and sat down, his right foot tucked underneath his thigh. "Good morning, Bear-hyung," he smiled at Hyung Sub like he always did, and only narrowly avoided Seungho's hard gaze as he the television to start watching the morning show 2NE1 was guest starring on. "Ohayo, Nikki-chan, Nara-chan," he then called in Japanese, and the two girls squealed back their own greeting in the same language.

Seungho just shook his head in confusion and turned back to Hyung Sub, who had suddenly moved on from the banana in favor of shooing the girls out of the nasty-smelling, and looking, kitchen. "Since when do we speak everything in Japanese?" he asked, and Hyung Sub chuckled, once again motioning to the girls.

"Nikki and Nara grew up in Japan with their mother," he explained, "so their grasp on the language there is more advanced than their Korean is."

"Did they know Doongie and I speak Japanese though?" Seungho nodded over to his visual maknae, who was far too wrapped up in his sister and her group to pay them any further attention.

Hyung Sub shrugged. "I would have to assume so, considering they spoke to you that way without even asking whether you do or not. Then again, when they met Cheondoong the other day, he might have said something about what other languages you five speak… and how well too," he suddenly clapped his hands together, and motioned to his leader. "Now, you said you needed me here for something important, and considering we all have schedules to attend to, you should probably make this fast, okay? So go on—tell me what's happening."

Seungho exhaled and ran his hands down the sides of his legs, until they were stretched as far as they could go without him bending over. "Cheolyong came back home yesterday…" he began, noticing the small wince Thunder made in response to their maknae's name being said, "and he… well, I never thought I'd have to say this, hyung... Cheolyong is pregnant…"

Hyung Sub seemed to freeze, his eyebrows raised unnaturally high, and his stance kept as stiff as a board. Even the girls, who'd been rummaging through Joon's clothes' basket only a few moments before, sprung up at the sound of Seungho's announcement, and just stood there with their hands over their mouths in shock, waiting for their boss' reaction to such unexpected news.

"Cheolyong," Hyung Sub repeated slowly, carefully, testing the way the words sounded in his mouth, because he sure as hell couldn't believe he was saying them, "is pregnant…" his face suddenly scrunched up, and his hands fell on his hips. "Are you sure about that, Seungho? He's your maknae, your youngest and most innocent member—he just couldn't be… like that."

"Believe me, he is," Seungho assured, nodding his head towards Thunder. "Just ask Doongie and G.O. They saw him too, when we got back from lunch yesterday," he held his hands out from his stomach, and measured about how big he assumed his young rapper was. "He was literally out to here, and the baby was kicking our hands the whole time he let us feel," he paused, and drew out a long puff of air. "Now I know my Cheolyongie—we all do—and we know he can be a real troublemaker, a prankster, a babo, and a million others things… But he's not a liar, and he wouldn't go this far just to play a trick on us… Besides, I saw the look in his eyes when he was explaining everything to us yesterday. He's scared… probably of anything and everything going wrong, so we really just need him to put his trust in us, and know that we're going to be here to help him, no matter what happens…"

Hyung Sub's expression softened when the speech was done, and his hands dropped back to his sides. "You're really telling the truth," he said, more as a statement than a question. "Cheolyong is having a baby…"

"I wouldn't have called for you if I didn't think he was," Seungho explained. "But I do, and I—we need your help to figure out what we're going to do for him and his career while he's like this. We can't just let him suffer through all the bad publicity and hateful comments while we continue on with our normal lives. So please, hyung, say that you're going to help us."

There was a momentary lapse in sound (save for the television) as Seungho and the girls stood there waiting for Hyung Sub to speak. And Thunder, the leader noticed, as his eyes began to wander, had even turned to curiously hear what the older man had to say; Mir was carrying his child after all, so he wanted to make sure no harm came upon them.

"Yeah, okay," Hyung Sub suddenly nodded, turning his gaze back to the nervous-feeling Seungho. "But this is going to require a lot of work and effort, you know, on all of our parts—Cheolyong included. We have to make calls to the television stations you're scheduled for and ask them whether they're okay with his condition, and then request that he only be shot a certain way on camera; we have to talk to my superiors about the status of his contract, and let them know about him; we have to decide where he's going to live; we have to find a way to announce the news without causing too much negativity from the fans—"

"Why do they have to know?" Seungho asked, his tone sounding less-than-pleased at the idea of someone forcing his Bang Cheolyong to go on TV and announce to the whole world that he was knocked-up. He could already visualize just how frightened and nervous the poor boy would be, having to hear the audience of the show gasp, scream, and berate him for being so impure. No, he wouldn't let that happen—not while he was still the group's leader, and not while he was still Mir's friend.

"He can't hide this forever, Seungho," Hyung Sub explained, looking just as distraught over the thought of their maknae being hated on as Seungho did. "And unfortunately, having Cheolyong tell the fans outright, having him confess to them that he's done something so scandalous, will have far less backlash than making him duck about and hide until he gets caught by some big-mouth who wants nothing more than to see people like him suffer."

A hand touched at his forearm then, interrupting his next string of words, and he looked back over his shoulder to see Nikki staring up at him anxiously; when he cocked his head to the side in a questioning manner though, she smiled. "We want to know the baby's gender, ne," she said, and Seungho nearly slapped his own forehead in anger. Why hadn't he thought to ask Mir that last night when they'd been talking, because knowing the baby's gender was, in all actuality, a crucial piece to their circumstance; they couldn't very well have a young girl growing up with them in their dorm of five men. Sure, they'd had Lauren and Dayoung staying in the same place as them when they'd done Hello Baby, but there'd been women there as well, behind the scenes, to care for them and dress them whenever the five group members couldn't do so themselves.

And maybe Mir and Thunder would be okay with taking care of her on their own—since they'd be her parents—but what about him, G.O., and Joon? They couldn't just walk around the dorm and act as they usually did when there was a girl staying there too. She couldn't see them strut themselves in their underwear, or hear them curse and belch and fart (which Mir did more of than anyone else), and they certainly couldn't be near her when she needed to change, or use the bathroom, or do other "girl things".

"Can we please ask him, Yang-san?" Nara asked Seungho, her hands clasped together in a pleading gesture. "We want to know what kinds of stuff to buy him before he gives birth."

Hyung Sub glanced up to his leader, who only huffed and avoided his gaze. He really didn't want anyone disrupting his maknae's precious sleep, but at the same time he didn't want the girls getting all whiny and upset with him… Besides, he was kind of curious himself as to whether he was getting a "niece" or a "nephew". "Fine, go ahead," he nodded towards the door that Mir was behind. "But be careful about waking him up—he doesn't like when his sleep is ruined."

"Hai," both girls bowed to him, before running off to wake Mir from his deep slumber. Seungho decided to follow them a moment later though—as did Hyung Sub—and he was sure glad he did when he saw Thunder rock forward in his seat to get up and join them.

"No, you stay," he ordered, shaking his head. Thunder immediately paused in his forward movement and dropped his head, letting his body lean back until he was sitting like he'd been before.

"I want to know though," he murmured a beat later, and Seungho had to stop to make sure he'd heard properly. Thunder drew in a deep breath and looked up to him, appearing much more confident than he'd been only a few seconds before. "Please, hyung, if anyone should be asking about the baby's gender—"

"I understand that, Cheondoong," Seungho snapped, interrupting him, "but don't you remember what I told you before? You and Cheolyong only brought this upon yourselves, so now you have to pay the consequences."

He gave his visual maknae one last, cold stare, then proceeded to go into Joon and Mir's bedroom like the other three had. But when he got inside, he immediately regretted his decision, because the girls were jumping all over the mattress space Mir wasn't taking up (which wasn't much, considering he liked to sleep spread out), whining and pouting to him to just tell them what they wanted to know. He groaned and rolled over to face the doorway, his hand rubbing over his face lazily until his eyes popped open and the girls cheered.

"Please, please tell us," Nikki pulled on his arm, forcing him to fall over onto his back. "We want to know what the baby is."

"Come on, oppa," Nara pleaded from beside his head; she was kneeled on the mattress, next to the wall, keeping him from hiding from them like he so wished to do. "Just tell us whether the MBLAQ group gets a new son or daughter. Please?"

Mir shifted in his position, swinging his legs over the side of the bed before sitting up and pushing the blankets back. The girls watched his every move carefully, even staring at the , enlarged stomach he was showing off as he pushed up from the bed, stretched, and walked away.

The three dorm guests trailed behind him, watching closely as he trudged across the living room to the bathroom, and closed the door in order to do his business… that, and to escape their awful nagging. He just really wanted to get some rest, especially since he hadn't gotten all that much back in his hometown, where his mother had had him planning everything he'd need—and everything he'd have to do—for when he had the baby. So when Seungho had told him to go get some proper sleep for the first time in nearly a month, he hadn't expected to be woken up by two overexcited girls who wanted to know his private business; and by waking him up in such a rude manner, no less. He groaned and finished relieving himself, before washing his hands and stepping back out into the living room.

Everyone was looking at him when he did, even Thunder, but he ignored them and made to move forward, back to his bedroom. That was when Nara jumped in front of him, her arms widespread to keep him from passing, and asked him yet again to tell them the baby's gender. Silence fell for a few moments, and his eyes moved from one person to the next to gauge their interest, until they fell on Thunder, who was smiling at him in just the slightest. His breath hitched at the sight, because he'd been just about to give in and say something… but that wouldn't be fair. What he'd done was already worthy of being hated on, but for his visual hyung to still look so eager and curious about him and the baby made him change his mind. No, he wasn't going to tell anyone what he was having—not until he told Thunder first.

He sidestepped Nara and padded back to his room, sending Thunder one last apologetic look before he slammed the door shut and crawled back into his bed. The blankets fell over him as they'd been previously, wrapping him up in a cocoon of comfort and warmth.

He knew he was terrible—he really was—for doing what he'd done to Thunder, and at the time his plan had seemed like such a good idea… But now, seeing that hurt look on the visual's face whenever they made eye contact had him wishing he'd done otherwise. He should have called him up the second he found out, and let him know; he should have told him just how far along he was, what gender the baby was; they should have spoken about their plans, their careers, and had everything ready for them to handle by the time he got back home. But no, he'd been too stupid to think of that beforehand; he'd just hurt his friend instead.

He shouted out in frustration and punched the wall next to him, sending one of his many posters fluttering to the floor in a folded heap. He was such a babo—no wonder none of the girls liked him… or even the guys.

His hand quickly rummaged around in his sweatshirt pocket for his phone, and he held the device to his face once he had a nice, secure hold. He typed out a message to the one person he needed to speak to the most, before clicking "send" and dropping the phone onto the bed beside him; he anxiously awaited an answer.

Meanwhile, out in the living room, Seungho was busy discussing their situation with Hyung Sub, who was trying to talk to him and hold the girls back from attacking Mir a third time. He'd told them to just give up after the maknae had gone back to bed, but they were adamant about knowing. Nikki whined and told him to let go of her arm, and Nara weakly punched his shoulder in the hopes of getting him to relent; he stayed firm in his decision though, and told them "no" again.

Thunder watched the whole thing from the couch, an amused grin on his face… at least, until he heard a strange buzzing sound from somewhere behind him. His head immediately whipped around to see where the noise had originated from, because he'd realized from the pattern of the buzzing that that was his cell phone vibrating with a message. He tossed a few throw pillows aside in his search, and touched along the couch cushions to see if he could feel anything—he did, and he peeled back a corner to see his cell phone laying on the hard part of the couch, jumping whenever the vibrating started up again.

He quickly reached out and silenced the thing, before his eyes glanced over his shoulder cautiously to make sure Seungho hadn't noticed him. When he deemed that the coast was clear, he turned the screen on and saw who'd just messaged him.

From Mireu.

His eyes widened, and he unlocked the phone so he could better see just what the message said. His back was still turned away from the others too, forcing him to keep looking back just in case, but the text was there soon enough, and he read the thing three times over before he sent back a reply.

I wanted you to be the first to know, since I was too stupid to let you have that privilege before. I'm sorry…

He sighed and sat up straight again; his head fell back until all he could see was the wall and the ceiling, and he rubbed a finger over his blackened phone screen as he awaited an answer.

Thank you for allowing me this, but… tell me the news in person, okay?

Mir smiled when the text popped up on his screen, and he nodded his head before typing back a reply in the affirmative; he didn't really know why Thunder would want to hold out until they spoke face-to-face again just to hear one little word, but if that's truly what he wanted, then Mir was more than obligated to cater to his wishes.

Okay… and thank you for not hating me.

Thunder looked confused by the new message he received, and nearly got the chance to ask just what his maknae was talking about when the device was ripped out of his hands, and clasped securely in Seungho's. He gulped and turned his head away, noticing then that the other three had gone; that meant then, that no one would be able to save him from Seungho or his temper.

"Didn't I tell you no phones?" he asked angrily, taking a step forward until their legs pressed together.

"Yes, hyung," responded Thunder, squeezing his eyes shut in nervousness.

Seungho held the device tighter in his hand, and made to stomp away; but instead, all he could do was frown (deeper than he already was, anyways) when the thing suddenly slipped out of his grasp. He turned around to find G.O. wiggling it in his own hand, shaking his head like a disappointed parent. "Really, Seungho, you just need to relax," he said, before he tossed the phone back to Thunder and crossed his arms. "He isn't going to hurt anyone by messaging his noona. And he's a big boy now—he should be able to do as he pleases and make some mistakes. That's the only way he's going to learn."

Seungho fumed. How dare one of his dongsaengs override his decisions? He was the oldest out of all of them; he was their leader; he was in charge; and none of them had a right to go against him, whether they openly disagreed with him or not. "Listen here, Jung Byunghee," he began, stepping up to his main singer and grabbing onto the front of his shirt like he usually had to do with Mir; only this time, he was pulling hard enough to get G.O. to trip forward, and almost send them falling to the floor, "I am the hyung here, and the leader, and what I say is final. So when I tell Cheondoong that he can't be using his phone, I expect that order to be followed—and without you overriding me, understand?"

He pushed G.O. back roughly, and watched him teeter on his feet a bit before he balanced out again and fixed his newly-wrinkled shirt. "Yeah, I understand," he responded a moment later, though he didn't sound all that enthusiastic about having to give in. "But I still don't agree with you. Doongie and Cheolyong need to discover these kinds of things for themselves. And yes, we can aide them—we're meant to—but doing everything for them, and keeping them from seeing each other, is only going to make things worse. They're having a baby together, Seungho… you can't just separate them like this."

Seungho scoffed, shooing his singer away with a dismissive wave of his hand, before he turned back to Thunder and held out his hand to get the phone back for a third time; he was quickly obeyed, and he rushed off to his bedroom immediately afterwards to go hide the thing properly, much unlike what he'd done last night. Then he proceeded to get ready for the day; he had a meeting to go to during lunch, so he couldn't just stand around monitoring his maknaes all day long… but that meant he had to rely on G.O. instead, and considering how bold he was being for disrespecting him, he doubted that anything he'd set into place would actually work out in his absence.

He stepped back into the main room once he'd changed, running a hand through his hair to test its willingness to cooperate before he had to go finish things up in the bathroom. "Yah, Cheondoong," he called to Thunder, who was still situated on the couch; the boy looked up slowly, "go get G.O. for me. I need to talk to him again before I leave."

"Okay," Thunder nodded, pushing up into a standing position before running off to fetch his hyung from their bedroom.

Seungho merely stood there waiting, examining his appearance in the window near the kitchen and fussing over the newly-discovered red mark appearing along his jawline. No, he just couldn't let that horrid thing get any bigger or worse; he'd seen the kinds of scars they leave before, and having the image MBLAQ did as a group, he couldn't afford to get one.

But then his eyes caught sight of another reflection in the mirror, and he slowly turned to face G.O. once more; he noticed the singer looked just as angry as he did. "Did you need something else, Seungho?" he asked, sounding far too snarky for someone who was talking to an older man.

"Yeah, I did actually," Seungho snipped, his hand still over the soon-to-be pimple on his face. "I have to go out for work in a while, so I need you to watch over Cheondoong and Cheolyong during that time. Make sure they don't disobey me… and the same goes for you too."

"Have fun then," was all G.O. said, before he went into the kitchen to go get something to eat. Seungho growled in response to the disrespectful action, but knew that his point had gotten across; besides, he didn't have time to fight when he had an ugly blemish to take care of.