Taking a deep breath, Yunho walked over to the stereo and cranked it up even further, causing the remaining people in the room to wince.

“One last time!” Yunho’s voice rang over the music and they resigned themselves to repeat the steps until he was satisfied. They knew where he was coming from, of course. But to be worked until they were down to the bone, it could feel really tiring at times.

“Yeah, come on guys, let’s do this!” It seemed like Junsu was the only one who was fully supportive of Yunho. Jaejoong groaned internally. To have not one, but two perfectionists in the group would be hell - today marked their first descent into it. He sighed and steeled himself, willing his body to move in the correct directions. To end this last practice perfectly would be a good start, he told himself. And although all his joints, he was sure theirs were too, were creaking, he somehow managed to execute his part flawlessly, albeit a bit lacking in vigour.

“Okay, we’re done for today then! How about a break?” Jaejoong took it upon himself to suggest it, seeing as the American boy and new trainee, whose names were Yoochun and Changmin respectively, were determined not to say anything even though they were literally bathed in sweat.

“Sure, does anyone want a drink? I think I’ll go to the convenience store opposite,” Oh. The American finally spoke, Jaejoong thought.

“I’ll go with you then,” Jaejoong volunteered, giving what he thought was a reassuring smile to the boy. “Yoochun-sshi.”

Getting up from the floor, he studied the American closely and decided that this would be a good time to get to know s. After all, wouldn’t they be (conceivably) together for the rest of their idol life?

“Let’s go then,” Jaejoong gave a winning smile to the boy.

To his surprise, the trip was not awkward at all. He had found it easy to talk to the younger boy and found himself pouring out anecdotes about his life, sharing smiles with him. The younger boy too, reciprocated in kind.

“You know, Yoochun-ah, you’re really easy to talk to,” Jaejoong muttered thoughtfully.

“Ah, but I really envy the closeness between you and Yunho-hyung. I mean, you two are practically inseparable.” Yoochun gave a nod, satisfied with his observation.

“Ah, Yunho? I guess so. But we’ve been put together for almost everything, what do you expect?” Jaejoong gave a rueful smile. “I hope that it’ll be the same for the five of us too, then.”

★★★★★

Back, in the practice room, Changmin was awkwardly lounging in a corner of a room, trying to be insignificant. Now, even though he was a growing kid and had not yet grown to his final height of 184cm, he was still pretty tall, and it was hard for him to just melt into the walls.

“Hey, maknae, come over and sit!” Yunho waved him over with a friendly demeanour, with Junsu nodding by his side.

Changmin gave a small smile and sidled to Yunho’s side. Yunho and Junsu then resumed their conversation. Changmin smiled to himself. Yes, he was a kid and as such, no one took him seriously. But being shy did not mean he did not see things. The group dynamic was obviously setting itself well, he thought to himself wryly. Yunho would of course be the father and Jaejoong the mother. The rest of them were like kids to the older two, even Junsu, who was the most charismatic onstage, turned into a bubbling mess of aegyo once the performance was over, as evidenced by his pouting face currently.

“Come oooooooon, Yunho hyung, this will be fun!” Junsu said in his best puppy voice,  opening up his eyes as big as possible.

“Okay okay fine,” Yunho seemed to reluctantly agree before grimacing. “Ugh, this again.” Curling up himself, he pressed on his abdomen with his hands, clenching his fists.

“Hyung, hyung, are you okay?” Changmin finally realised Yunho was in pain. “Junsu hyung what  do we do?” His panicked eyes set upon an equally panicked Junsu.

“I don’t know! What happened?” Junsu flapped around. “I know, I’ll call Jaejoong hyung! He’ll know what to do!”

As he picked up the phone, Jaejoong rushed into the room.

“Is there something wrong? I heard your screams - Oh Yunho!” Jaejoong noticed him on the floor. Dropping the plastic bag containing the drinks, he whipped around, frantically looking for something. Spotting what he was looking for, he ran towards Yunho’s bag and rummaged through it.

“Aha!” Jaejoong pulled out a bottle that seemed to contain pills. Going over to Yunho, he took out one of the pills and gave it to him. Yunho swallowed the pill after Junsu tossed a bottle of water to Jaejoong, taking a big gulp.

“It’s okay now, it’s okay,” Jaejoong soothed Yunho, adjusting Yunho so that his head lay on the older’s lap. Yunho clung to Jaejoong like he was a safety buoy in the vast ocean while Jaejoong soothed him by patting his head and whispering words of comfort to him.

“Hyung, what’s wrong with Yunho?” Changmin timidly pulled on Junsu’s sleeve, wanting to know what had just happened.

“I’m not sure too, but I think we should leave first,” Junsu whispered back, closing the door to the practice room gently.

Definitely Umma and Appa, Changmin thought.

★★★★★

A/N: Has anyone noticed that I have a humongous slight bias towards Changmin too haha. But mostly it was just to depict their relationship in an eyes of an outsider I swear! (and plus chami is so introspective that’s ma boy) Plus I just started work and my sales target is really.... not going well istg i'm gonna get screamed at on Friday but at least my co-workers are nice! Ok so hope y'all enjoyed this chapter too! ^^

. Junsu and Yunho described themselves as competitive and perfectionists in several interviews.

. Jaejoong was the first one to make friends with Yoochun.

. Jaejoong and Yunho were born before the Lunar New Year and Yoochun and Junsu were born after that. Hence they call them hyung as technically going by the LNY, they are a year older, despite all of them being born in 1986.

. I dock 2-3cm off from idols’ profile height, so I guess Changmin would be 184cm now. There is no conceivable way that he is even 190cm, especially not after I watched Ep1 of EXO Showtime.

. Yunho had(has?) some kind of stomach problems because he didn’t eat regularly.