When they arrived at the dorm, everyone was asleep, and so they both immediately went to bed. Minhyun didn’t even change his clothes. Despite the fact he was aggressively against wearing dirty travel clothes to bed, he was just far too tired to change. Within seconds of collapsing in his bed, Minhyun was fast asleep.

Minhyun was awoken the next morning by JR. JR shook him a little too gently for what he had done, Minhyun thought.

“Minhyun, the CEO wants to see you. Get dressed quickly.”

Minhyun sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, “I’m sorry,” he immediately apologized to the leader.

“How’s your mom?” JR asked.

“Better.”

“I’m glad,” JR said, “now get up before the CEO gets angrier.”

Minhyun hastily got up. He took a five-minute shower and got dressed. He then remembered that he had forgotten to text his mother to let her know that he’d arrived safely.

He searched around his room for his phone, but couldn’t find it. He went outside to see if he left it in the car, only to be met with a distressed manager. Minhyun guessed that he saw that the car was hit.

Minhyun put his arms around the manager and apologized incessantly.

“I promise, hyung, I promise I’ll pay whatever it takes to repair it. Even if it costs me a month’s salary…”

That manger patted Minhyun’s back and said, “you have bigger worries now.”

At this point, Aron appeared and he also apologized, “I take full responsibility for the damage done to your car and I…”

“We’ll talk about this later guys,” the manager said, “now I have to get you guys to meet the CEO.”

On the way the office, Minhyun was starting to feel extremely nervous. He had never done something so disobedient before. He had never been yelled at by the CEO before. He had never gotten in trouble before. Aron noticed Minyun’s anxiety and took Minhyun’s hand and squeezed it.

“Don’t worry,” Aron told him, “I’m here for you. We’ll go through this together, Min. And it can’t be all that bad. We only missed a day.”

When they arrived, both of them bowed to the CEO and apologized.

The CEO did not seem pleased. He was frowning and tense, seeming like a bomb just waiting to explode. He didn’t seem to care about Aron. His focus was on Minhyun.

“You deliberately disobeyed me,” the CEO uttered.

“Yes sir, and I am very sorry. It’s just my mother is…”

This time he exploded. He began to scream: “Your mother is sick. I get it! But just because she’s sick doesn’t give you the ing right to shirk your duties as an idol. You know how easy it is for me to just kick you out? I will…”

As the CEO continued yelling Minhyun, Minhyun recoiled more and more, looking at the floor in dejection. He felt Aron hold his hand again, and he relaxed slightly.

“I’m going to ask you to stop yelling, sir,” Aron told the CEO, interrupting his loud castigation.

“Excuse me,” the CEO said, turning his head towards the older boy. Aron had just interrupted the CEO, which no one in NU’EST had ever done ever.

“I was the one that pressured him into going. He wasn’t about to, but I pushed him into it. It’s my fau…”

“Hyung, stop it,” Minhyun interrupted softly,

“I’m just saying the truth,” Aron claimed.

“No, you’re not. Stop taking the heat for me, hyung. I deserve this.”

“Minhyun, stop interrupting,” the CEO ordered, “Aron, what’s this about?”

“Minhyun looked very disappointed the night you refused to let him go,” Aron started, “and so I wanted to make it better for him, whatever it takes. I told him I would take him to Busan and back. At first he was reluctant, but I pressured him. I take full responsibility for this. Please don’t punish Minhyun for something I made him do,” and Aron bowed.

“It’s not true,” Minhyun claimed quietly.

“I have proof,” Aron announced, and then took out his phone. He navigated for a second and then handed the phone to the CEO. The CEO looked at the screen for a few seconds and then handed it back to Aron.

“Very well,” the CEO said, “you will suffer remuneration damage for disobedience this week, Aron. And for both of you, the next time your members get a day off, both of you will be here working for me. Now get to practice. You wasted enough time.”

“What?” Minhyun asked, curious as to what fake “proof” Aron showed the CEO. “But...”

“Enough Minhyun,” the CEO said, “never do it again or you’ll suffer far worse. Both of you. You two are dismissed.”

Minhyun was about to rebut, but he felt Aron’s hand tighten around his and pull him out of the office.

“Why did you do that?” Minhyun asked Aron as soon as they were out.

“Minhyun, I had this planned since the very beginning,” Aron said, “since the moment you asked me to take you to Busan.”

“What? Why?”

“Taking the fall for you so that you might fall for me,” Aron shrugged, “plus, I’m your boyfriend. It’s my duty to be selfless when it comes to you.”

“Hyung…” Minhyun felt guilty.

“It’s okay Min. It’s only one week’s pay. That’s definitely worth what happened during our trip. Plus, better one of us then both of us, right?”

Minhyun put his arms around Aron and hugged him tightly, thanking him sincerely for what he had done.

“Hyung,” Minhyun asked when he pulled away, “what ‘proof’ did you show him?”

“Ah that,” Aron said and took out Minhyun’s phone from his pocket, “I took this from you last night to create the fake evidence.” He then opened his phone and showed him.

It was a fake Kakao conversation between the two of them, with Aron pressuring Minhyun into going to Busan, and Minhyun being reluctant to do so.

“Before I slept last night, I basically texted myself using your phone.”

“You ,” Minhyun laughed as he read through the fake conversation, “I hate you.”

“You love me,” Aron claimed with a grin.

Minhyun smiled and returned Aron’s phone. He was so thankful to Aron for doing this for him, and was thus overwhelmed with this general sentiment of being glad to have known him.

They walked to the practice room together smiling, which the other members found surprising given that the two of them had just came back from a scolding.

“What are you two so happy about?” Ren asked them both, crossing his arms.

“My mom’s better,” Minhyun answered immediately. “Our trip to Busan was a success!”

As they all got into formation for practice, Minhyun began to think that the trip to Busan was indeed a big success, and not only because of his mother. He somehow felt that the trip to Busan had landed him something very precious. His eyes flickered to Aron, who was stretching in front of him and realized that he really wanted his hyung to kiss him.