The first time Jaejoong had been placed in a project group, he was ecstatic. To him, it meant that the long gruelling days of training would be over and he would finally be able to earn a living, not to mention be famous. He had caught on fast though, after the dissolving of his 3rd project group, that project groups were only tentative and did not work out about 80% of the time. That did not, however mean that he was used to it.

Currently, he was in a project group with three other members – Yunho, Heechul and Youngwoon. He silently thanked god for his luck in always being placed in project groups with someone he knew (i.e. Yunho). He liked this group better than other groups that he had been placed in too, because he knew two-thirds of the people and Youngwoon was always friendly. Things seemed to be going well for the group, they already had a name – Four Seasons where a member was supposed to represent one season each, and were even rooming together in an apartment now.

“Yah, Kim Jaejoong! Why are you wearing my shirts again, I have nothing else to wear now!” Heechul’s screech could be heard from Jaejoong’s room.

“Hyung it’s alright,” Yunho could be heard soothing him. “Here, wear one of mine.”

Jaejoong let out a smile, thinking that Yunho was definitely an angel.

Just then, Yunho barged into his room dramatically, seemingly attempting to scare Jaejoong.

“Yah, what is wrong with you?” Jaejoong looked up, feigning anger. “Don’t you know how to knock on the door?” He almost felt sorry when he saw the scared look appear in the younger’s eyes.

“Sorry hyung, it’s just..” Yunho started rambling, words pouring out in incoherent sentences. “YouknowI’vebeenhearingthingsandI’mjustscaredthattheywillcometrueandthenwhatwouldIdo.”

“Wait, wait. You need to slow down. What the hell?” Jaejoong seemed confused at the words that didn’t seem like words.

“I’ve just been hearing some things, that’s all. I wanted to tell Heechul hyung or Youngwoon hyung, but what if they just blow me off?” Yunho looked vulnerable and for a fleeting moment Jaejoong wanted to hug him and protect him from the world.

“Come here,” Jaejoong patted the space beside him. “Tell me what happened, slowly.” He added.

“You know Junsu?” Jaejoong nodded in affirmation. He did not know Junsu personally but he knew that he was a highly-ranked trainee that the other trainees looked up too. “Well he was at training today and he said something about S.M. losing money.” Yunho ventured timidly. “They were counting on Junsu for their big break but then his voice suddenly broke. And now… there are rumors of a new boy group being formed. If that happens, they won’t debut a new boy group for years. What’ll happen to us?”

This was the first time Jaejoong saw Yunho break down in tears. Patting the boy’s head, he did not know what to say, but a sentence came out unbidden.

“Well, we’ll just have to make sure we’re in there then! Look at your amazing dancing skills, they’d be a fool not to pick you.” Jaejoong said earnestly, believing with all his heart that Yunho would make it.

Him?

Maybe not.

But Yunho?

Definitely.

★★★★★★

“Come on, there’s still room for improvement!” Yunho was determined to whip them all into shape, being bossy despite his status as the maknae in the group.

“Aish, Yunho-ya, we need to take a break.” Youngwoon finally gathered his courage to speak up, flanked by Heechul and Jaejoong.

“Look at the time, it’s 11pm already, let’s take a rest.” Jaejoong spoke up meekly.

“Oh alright,” Yunho grumbled, reluctantly flopping down on the polished wood.

“Hey, are any of you hungry?” Heechul spoke up, his grumbling stomach serving as evidence for his hunger. As evidence of Yunho’s influence despite being the maknae, Jaejoong and Youngwoon instinctively turned to Yunho with puppy eyes.

“Fine let’s go get some food. How about Apgujung?” Yunho once again reluctantly agreed, causing cheers to be heard around the room.

As the others gathered their belongings, Jaejoong turned to Yunho, eyes softening.

“Maknae ah, don’t be so hard on yourself, it makes our hearts ache to see it.” He whispered to himself.

★★★★

“Hey here’s a 7-11, maybe we can find cup noodles here!” Youngwoon exclaimed, rushing headfirst into the convenience store.

Looking at the price tags on the noodles, Jaejoong was disappointed to find that most of it were out of their price range. Scouring the shelves, he reluctantly took the cheapest cup noodles available, only costing 85cents.

Sitting down on the sidewalk, they started devouring their cup noodles, ignoring the stares of the rich and famous passing by them. One particular woman though, was walking a dog. The dog seemed to smell their noodles and let out a series of barks.

“Alright alright, let’s go. I’ll buy you that next time.” Giving a condescending look at them, the woman muttered unhappily. Trying his best to ignore the remark, Jaejoong dug into his cup noodles ferociously.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Yunho whispered conspiratorially. “They’re just rich snobs who don’t know anything.”

Jaejoong gave a grateful smile to his dongsaeng, silently thanking god for putting this person in his life.

★★★★

A/N: I ALMOST forgot to post this ugh. But anyway the font looks different but I have no idea what the previous chapters' font were so ohwell. And I'm flying off in about 6 hours yay! Not going to anywhere new but I don't know, the place holds many fond memories for me hehe. And oh, I'm not actually a native english speaker (technically my mother tongue is mandarin chinese) so if you spot any mistakes please feel free to correct me (in a nice way because I get really sad if people are mean to me). Next update will be at least a week later so please wait for me. ^^

(Decided to stop calling them facts, just a random pile of information I gleaned that SHOULD be true but idk.)

. Youngwoon is SJ’s Kangin’s real name.

. Yunho and Jaejoong were (almost) always placed in the same project groups.

. Jaejoong used to steal Heechul’s clothes to wear during the Four Seasons period.

. Junsu was good friends with Yunho pre-debut.

. Junsu was supposed to debut solo, but did not due to his voice breaking.

. Four Seasons comprised Yunho, Jaejoong, Heechul and Kangin, each representing a season where Yunho was Spring and Jaejoong was Summer.

. The trip to Apgujung is real, described by themselves in an interview. You can read the transcript here: http://allriiahtic.tumblr.com/post/5904976984/yunho-jaejoong-heechul-kangins-trainee-past-part

. Yunho used to call Jaejoong ‘hyung’ when they debuted, so I’m assuming this started from their trainee days. (if you’re interested, it went from Jaejoong hyung to Jaejoong sshi and finally Jaejoongie awwwwwww hehehe.)