“But... but…” Minhyun stammered.

“Minhyun, it’s final,” the CEO said impatiently after Minhyun had been complaining in his office for over ten minutes. “I can’t give you the days off, I’m sorry.”

“Please…”

“Minhyun!” the CEO finally yelled. “No means no. Now get back to practice, you’ve wasted enough time.”

Minhyun felt like he was about to burst into tears when he left the CEO’s office. He couldn’t believe that he was not allowed to visit his sick mother back in Busan, who was weak and fragile. Her physical health had been deteriorating for a long time now. Her lungs had been infected, and her immune system was not responding. The Doctors had said that if her body does not respond, they would have to operate on her.

She wanted to see him so badly. She called him and begged him to come. She wanted to see her little boy just one last time in case the Angel of Death decided to take her. She vowed that she would get better upon seeing him. A strange avowal, but it put tremendous pressure on Minhyun to succeed in getting to Busan as quickly as possible.

He got back into the dance studio, agitated, wanting nothing more but to bawl his eyes out and scream. How is he going to break it to his mother that he was not allowed to see her? What if she passed away? What if she had only a few days left? The thought brought tears to Minhyun’s eyes.

In the dance room, there were the other four members practicing the choreography, the choreographer leading them through it, and the manager sitting against the wall on his phone.

Minhyun did not join the other four members. He slid down against the wall and slumped there next to the manager sniffling and wiping his eyes as he cried.

“Minhyun,” the manager put his arms on Minhyun’s shoulder sympathetically. He knew what was wrong with Minhyun. He knew about his mother’s condition, and about how the CEO is adamant to not let Minhyun go see her. He really didn’t know what to say to the poor boy. He had no way to comfort him, no way to change the CEO’s mind.

“I hate being an idol,” Minhyun sputtered and then buried his face in the manager’s shoulder.

“Hey Minhyun,” the manager whispered, “can’t you just go?” The manager was always on the boys’ side, and this was no exception. The fact that the CEO is not allowing Minhyun to see his dying mother is just cruel, and the manager opposed this decision 100%.

“How?”

“Sneak out and take a bus there. A bus to Busan leaves every six hours from Kyerri Drive. Just go. Run away for a week. What can the CEO do? Fire you? He can’t fire you. You might suffer some remuneration damage or something, but then you can just threaten to file a lawsuit. You have the fans, not him. You have more power than he does, believe it or not.”

“I would, but he has our ID Cards and I can’t go on a bus to Busan without an ID.”

“I see,” the manager said regretfully.

“Hwang Minhyun!” the choreographer beamed at the top of his voice. “Get off your lazy and start practicing with the rest!”

“Yes sir,” Minhyun said, wiping his eyes of his tears and joining the rest of the members. They all looked at him sympathetically, exchanging hugs, pats on the back and slight smiles of encouragement.

A/N: To early subscribers, sorry it took so long to finally update this! I just wanted to finish my other story before getting to this one so that I could focus on one story at a time. So from now on expect frequent updates! :)