Stress Relief
The Days of Caffeine and Candy Kisses
“What’s wrong with you today, Yoseob?” Kikwang asked as the four of them sank down to the floor in the practice room. He frowned, using a towel to wipe the worst of the sweat from his forehead and neck. “You stepped on my foot six times.”
Yoseob scowled at him. “And I suppose you’re the fairy Twinkletoes, huh?”
“Don’t start, guys…” Doojoon stretched his legs out in front of him and rotated his feet, giving his ankles a thorough stretch. The choreography they’d been told to learn was insane, even with the level the four of them were on already. He was going to be sore later.
“He started it,” Yoseob muttered childishly, then stuck his tongue out when his friend looked offended and ready to argue.
“Cut it out,” Doojoon repeated, giving both of them a look. “If all you two are capable of doing is laying the blame on someone else, then you shouldn’t be here.”
That seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately it also turned both boys’ attention onto Doojoon, and it was not a pleasant turn. In a matter of seconds he felt as if he should have melted into an indistinguishable goo on the floor.
“Are you out of sweets, Yoseob?” Junhyung asked, taking the attention away from Doojoon.
“Huh?”
“Are you out of sweets,” Junhyung repeated. “You know, ers, chocolate…”
“I know what you meant. I’m just not sure why you’re…asking…” Yoseob said hesitantly.
Junhyung shrugged, leaning forward to reach for the tip of his shoe and trying very hard not to bend his knee. “You’re distracted today. I figured either you’re still thinking about your dad or you’re out of sugar.”
“Both,” Kikwang chirped pleasantly. He ignored the swat to his shoulder from Yoseob and settled into stretches of his own. “He was checking his phone the whole way here from school. I already told you he’s fine, Seobie.”
“He could fall again,” Yoseob mumbled.
“Yeah, I’m sure he’d be dumb enough to climb up and reach for something in the store room with a sprain like that.”
“I’m serious, Kwanggie.”
“Seriously cracked up, you mean. Stop worrying so much!”
Yoseob just scowled and did his stretches, but Doojoon could tell that wasn’t the end of it. Practice was going to be very long and very frustrating if Yoseob didn’t start focusing properly. The rotten thing about it all was that he learned choreography as quickly as Kikwang did, and was usually the first to master it. Well, so Doojoon had heard, anyway.
“Call home and check,” He muttered with a sigh.
Yoseob looked over at him and frowned. “What?”
“Call home. You’re not going to learn anything so long as your mind isn‘t here,” Doojoon stated, then laid down on his back. They weren’t supposed to be using their phones while they were practicing, but in Doojoon’s opinion it was necessary.
Yoseob stared at him blankly, clearly trying to figure out what was going through his head. Normally Doojoon seemed to treat him with a sort of resignation thinly veiled with annoyance. While Yoseob always playfully chalked it up to his favorite excuse of caffeine withdrawal, he knew it was probably more along the lines of the frustration all trainees experienced at one point or another. On a deeper, rarely listened-to level, he’d decided Doojoon didn’t like him because of how hyper he was.
“Seobie, what are you waiting for? Go call!” Kikwang said impatiently, frowning at him in both concern and exasperation. As his friend jumped up to get his phone, Kikwang shook his head and sighed. Some days he really did worry about Yoseob. Maybe cutting him off from sugar was a bad thing after all…
---
“So then my mom starts fussing at him, and he just laughs at her! I spent five minutes being completely ignored on the phone while she tried not to laugh at him,” Yoseob concluded as he zipped up his bag and pulled his jacket on.
Kikwang grinned. “Sounds like he’s feeling fine. No wonder you were able to focus when you got off the phone.”
“You know, I don’t think your hyperactivity is entirely sugar-induced,” Junhyung mused, leaning against the doorframe as he watched them get ready to go home. He smirked at Kikwang’s alarmed expression before looking back at Yoseob. “It clearly runs in your family.”
Yoseob cracked up, but Kikwang didn’t find it nearly as funny. He frowned at Junhyung disapprovingly. “Just when I get him to stop sticking things in his mouth all the time, you go and tell him it’s in his blood.”
Junhyung grinned and bowed slightly. “Glad I could be of service. Should I tell him the tooth fairy isn’t real while I’m at it?”
Even Doojoon snorted at the look of pure exasperation on Kikwang’s face, and the four left the practice room with Yoseob all but staggering from how hard he was laughing. They attracted quite a bit of attention as they made their way through the building, but each one seemed oblivious to it. Kikwang was too annoyed with Junhyung, who was amused by Kikwang and Yoseob. Yoseob was too busy trying to walk straight and breathe through his laughter, and Doojoon was torn between amusement at the entire situation and relief that Yoseob was in such a good mood.
“Doojoonie! Look!” Yoseob’s laughing was slowly being punctuated by hiccups, and he tugged on Doojoon’s sleeve as they passed a group of trainees, pointing at the two boys in front of them. “I’ve n-never seen him look so irritated! He’s… His eye is.. twitching!”
“Shut up, Seobie!”
Doojoon and Junhyung both watched, grinning, as Yoseob collapsed in the middle of the hallway.
“It’s not funny, Yoseob!”
The laughter turned hysterical, and Doojoon had to cover his mouth with a hand, looking between the two friends.
Kikwang’s eye was really twitching now. He put his hands on his hips and stomped his foot, then gaped as Doojoon finally caved and sat down with Yoseob, laughing until he cried.
“YAH!”
Caffeine & Candy Kisses is essentially the prequel to WIB, but about Dooseob instead of Junseung. I've gotten a lot of questions about that..
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