All of the members watched as their twitter accounts blew up with notifications. They had just released their “Eternity” music video, and the positive response was overwhelming. Everyone was so happy, and there were hugs galore. Two specifically happy people were Ken and Hongbin. They had been the most excited for this era and couldn’t believe that it had begun.

“This is my favorite song by far!” exclaimed Hongbin, collapsing onto his futon.

 “I have so many lines this time! I’m so excited to sing live.”

Ken just laughed and sat down on his futon next to the younger, “I’m excited for you too. This is exactly what you’ve been training for.”

Hongbin looked up at the older and moved so his head rested in the other’s lap, sighing contently as Ken started to play with his hair.

“I’m probably more excited about Hyuk getting lines though,” Hongbin said in a fatherly tone. “Did you see his face when he read all the tweets from his fans? The last time I saw him that happy was when he was chosen for debut.”

Ken smiled remembering the maknae’s face from earlier. “Yeah I guess he was pretty happy.”

Hongbin could’ve sworn he heard Ken say something else but he wasn’t quite certain so he let it go.

“You got a lot of positive response too, hyung.” Hongbin picked up his phone, filtering through the tweets to get to the ones he was looking for.

Sitting up so he could show Ken the screen, he pointed to certain ones as he read them aloud.

“Ken oppa looks so y… Ken oppa you sounded amazing… Jaehwan is amazing this comeback… Jaehwan oppa is so attractive…” Hongbin filtered through tweet after tweet reading out what seemed like infinite positive comments about the elder.

“See I told you,” said Hongbin as he rested his head on the elder’s shoulder. “Ken hyung, I’m tired.”

“Sleep then. I’m not stopping you.”

Ken looked down to see Hongbin pouting cutely and cooed at him. “Aw, Hongbinnie~”

The elder lay down, bringing the visual with him, smiling as he settled into the vocal’s arms like he belonged there.

They both lay there for 5 minutes, until 5 minutes turned into 15 minutes, then into an hour. Both not caring about time as long as they had each other.

“Jaehwan, I’m glad I got to debut with you,” said the younger sleepily. “I don’t know what I would do without having you here.”

“I don’t know either Binnie. It would definitely be a lot harder without each other.” Ken smiles a bit as he says this, feeling Hongbin snuggle closer to him, almost as if he’s afraid he’ll lose the other if he lets go.

“Remember that one day during our trainee days, when I had to spend an entire day away from you?”

Ken laughed. “Yes I remember. I got a call in the middle of my lunch telling me that you were crying and wouldn’t practice until you got to talk to me.”

Hongbin blushed slightly remembering that day. “Yeah, I was so tired and stressed… I couldn’t stand going more than an hour without seeing you or hugging you.”

They both sighed, knowing that their friendship was the only thing that had kept them training through the difficult days. They both knew that if one gave up, then eventually they both gave up.

Ken started playing with the younger’s hair again, finding it comforting. “It’s because I am your rock, as you are mine. We started this together, so we planned to finish it together, no matter what it took.”

Hongbin sighed again, this time a sigh filled with underlying meaning that only Ken understood. “I know. Even through that time when I didn’t show up for practice and N-hyung had to come get me, I just sat down crying knowing deep down that if I wasn’t there then I wouldn’t be able to see you.”

“I know Binnie, I know. But it’s okay now. I’m here for you.”