"Everyone! Let's talk about the performance! What did you guys think?"

A few voices filled the minivan at the question prompt from VIXX's charismatic leader, Cha Hakyeon. In his hands, he held a modest camera, the lens and viewscreen currently aimed at his own face as he absentmindedly adjusted some strands of his hair. The band was in the middle of their daily ritual of recording some of their travel and homelife antics. He realised his peers were beginning to respond, so he pointed the camera towards the seats in the back.

With enthusiasm, Han Sanghyuk, sitting in the middle rear seat, called out, "Hakyeon hyung, I want to go first!" He leaned forward and waved at the camera. "VIXX Diary!" he called out with a wink and a big smile. "I think tonight was great! The fans showed a lot of love and excitement and that always keeps us going up there! We saw the big group of international fans with their flags, thank you so much!"

Hakyeon cooed from behind the camera. "Yeah, those were really nice! Hongbin-ah, want to add anything?"

Lee Hongbin had been sitting to the right of Sanghyuk, who was now leaned back in his seat, making really quiet smalltalk with their other groupmate, Kim Wonshik, on the other side of him. At hearing his name, his eyes temporarily looked away from outside the window-- where the light falling rain and bright streetlights zoomed by-- and toward the camcorder. He did not, however, say anything. He immediately looked away and resumed watching the street, a neutral and unimpressed expression on his face.

At the moment of awkwardness, Hakyeon filled in the silence. "Yah, say something!"

The face of Lee Jaehwan, occupant of the seat directly in front of Hongbin, appeared in the camera's viewfinder, exclaiming in a mildly cutesy voice, "I liked that we got fed backstage afterwards!" He nodded enthusiastically, closing his eyes and pouting his lips as if remembering something wonderful. Sounds of agreement came forth from others in the car. "I don't know who made the grilled gopchang, but it was perfect and I want it again!"

"Oh, that was delicious," Hakyeon responded, quickly moving the camera lens back pointing towards himself. "We even got to have gamjatang, it had been a really long time for us! I don't want to eat healthy anymore!" He made a dramatic frowning face, then moved the camera so it faced Jung Taekwoon, who was lounging languidly in the seat in front of Wonshik. "Jung Leo, what was your favourite part?"

Taekwoon, moving just his eyes when he glanced at the camera, had a blank expression that was seemingly less awkward than Hongbin's. After staring for a moment, he quietly said, "The love from the fans."

"Ohhh!" some of the members vigorously shouted, smiling and laughing a bit at Taekwoon's kind-hearted response, just as they always did when he decided to actually speak up on camera. Nobody even blinked an eye when Taekwoon resumed looking at his phone without another word, though.

"Ravi~ Ravi!" Hakyeon's sing-song voice rang out after the shouts died down. "Your turn!"

Wonshik had been mumbling something to Sanghyuk at his right, wherein he quit mid-sentence to lean forward and flash a V sign at the camera. "Yo, VIXX Diary! We loved the passion from the fans, as usual!" he called, as if he was about to begin a list of announcements. "The gifts and the kind words and the energy, we can't get enough of it, so thank you! Please keep supporting us!" He winked and huskily said in English, "Let's go, yeah yeah!"

"Oh, let's go!" emcee Hakyeon repeated his English words, smiling. The camcorder pointed back at the silent resident in the rear of the vehicle. "Hongbin-ah! How come the cat's got your tongue? Say your favourite part of tonight!"

"No, thank you," Hongbin's quiet voice came from the hard-to-see corner, mumbled from behind the hand that was against his face, elbow leaned against part of the van's door. Again, he didn't move his face or head at all, but his eyes glanced toward the camera. "I don't have anything to say."

Stiffness in the air, Hakyeon didn't say anything for a long moment, letting the silence sit for a second. Nobody, in fact, said anything at all as the minivan rumbled along the busy street, but instead just exchanged hushed, curious glances amongst each other. "Hongbin must be feeling exhausted, I suppose," he said rigidly, pursing his lips and tossing a bit of a miffed demeanor in his groupmate's direction. "No worries, we saw him on stage, he was having a lot of fun!" Turning the lens back toward himself after a beat or two, he added, "Anyway, it was an amazing experience, as always, and we thank you for coming out to see us!" He glanced towards the rest of the crew and asked, "Anyone have anything else to add?"

"Let's get fed again next time!!" Jaehwan's mock-whining voice came from somewhere.

"Yes, yes," Hakyeon nodded solemnly, "I'm okay with that. Shall we bring today's video to close?"

After a round of agreement and the camera being pulled away from Hakyeon's body to show everyone in the car clearer, "V-I-double-X, VIXX!" was called out with various, "Goodbye!" and "Until next time!" statements being thrown in. Everyone-- well, almost everyone-- waved cheerfully and the camcorder was finally closed and put away.

A saturated moment of tension sat in the air of the car as the minivan took a turn to the right, everyone bouncing slightly with the movement of the car over any blemishes in the road. Their staff driver, feeling how palpable the rigidity amongst the members was, turned the radio on very quietly to fill in the silence. Finally, a low voice from the rear corner of the car spoke up.

"What the hell was that?!" Wonshik exclaimed. The others present, aside from driver and Taekwoon, all turned to look at him-- his expression, on the other hand, was firmly set on Hongbin in the opposite corner. Sanghyuk in the middle pressed himself motionlessly against the back of the seat in an effort to not be caught in between them as an obvious exchange was about to begin. "What's crawled up your and died?"

Hongbin, having been alerted from his scenery-staring by Wonshik's outburst, evenly stared back at him, no registration over being snipped at on his face. "What are you talking about?"

Scoffing incredulously, Wonshik shook his head in disbelief and blinked at him. "What am I talking about? 'I don't have anything to say'-- that was cold and rude! What are you going to do when that video broadcasts?"

"Nothing," his bandmate replied, turning his face back towards the window in an effort to brush off the conversation. "PD-nim will be able to edit it before it airs."

"That's not really the point ...," Sanghyuk quietly added helpfully, trailing off. He didn't really want to get in the middle of the altercation, but he wasn't thrilled with how Hongbin had responded to the brief recording, either.

"Yeah, the viewers are going to be able to tell something's up when that goes out, editted or not," Wonshik continued, pointedly staring at the side of Hongbin's face. "There will be plenty of shots of you sulking in the background. We're not expecting you to vomit rainbows, man, but you could have at least put in some kinda effort." He looked up toward Hakyeon for some kind of aid, who was peering over his shoulder steadily at the bickering men. "We've let the bad attitudes on camera slide in the past, but I don't want us to have to hear it from manager hyung again. Quit that ."

"Bad attitude?" Hongbin suddenly questioned, turning his entire body for once as he glared back at Wonshik. "I didn't attack anybody, I just didn't feel like being filmed. Or talking." He looked at Hakyeon, to whom his previously annoyed expression softened. "Please just have them edit me out, I'll talk to manager hyung if he says anything.” Glimpsing back at Wonshik before continuing, “But get off my case tonight, I'm not in the mood to deal with it." With that, he resumed staring out the glass with his chin in his hand.

"Okay," Hakyeon chimed in, donning his gentle but stern leader tone, cutting Wonshik off from what was going to be a raised voice. He lifted one hand palm-forward to invoke quietness. "Hongbin, please at least contribute a bit of a smile next time, we do this for the viewers and they expect a certain something from each of us, as, uh, according to our image." At the last part of the sentence, he looked over for a second at Taekwoon, who was seemingly ignoring the entire conversation-- although Hakyeon knew him well enough to be aware he was hearing every word. "Your fans in particular are going to notice you're off and we can't have that. Wonshik," he started, turning to look at the other, who was now leaned back into his own corner with a steely expression on his face, "let's not worry about it for now, we'll have another talk about video behaviour at our next meeting."

"There's been a lot of these kinds of things lately," Wonshik replied in a low intonation, not bothering to really look at anyone this time. "When I say 'bad attitude', I'm not just talking about now, but he's been constantl--"

"Okay!" Hakyeon interrupted, a little more strength behind his voice. "We'll talk about it later. It's been a long day, we're all stressed from the tech and mic problems we were having at tonight's show, now's not the time." He shot a quick sympathetic furrowing of his brows to Wonshik, attempting to communicate that he understood why this was a bit of a sensitive issue.

He had been correct: Hongbin had been a bit of a ticking time bomb lately. Most of the time, he was his pleasant, warm happy self, but there had been a few awkward instances-- quite similar to the one that had just happened-- where his mood just plummetted and the cold aura couldn't be cracked. He was usually still at least polite about it, but tonight he seemed particularly frigid. At the same time, though, every single time that Hongbin's condition seemed to sour, Wonshik was right there, metaphorically nipping at his ankles about it and confronting him. Which was strange in itself. Despite not usually being a man afraid to say what was on his mind, Wonshik did also not possess a necessarily combative personality. He approached many topics with sensitivity and compassion-- why he was being notably hard on Hongbin was anyone's guess. Sensing there was something going on at a deeper level, Hakyeon had decided the car full of people was not the place to have this kind of conversation.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Finally having arrived and hoofed their way up to their dorm, the entire band seemed weary all the way to their bones. The six of them plus two staff ended their professional evening with a quick meeting about the performance, politely wishing everyone a good night and a restful sleep. With the pleasantries out the way, the bandmates began their nightly end routines.

With the events of the car ride still fresh in his mind, Hakyeon made a point of standing at the edge of the kitchen, knowing he would pass almost every member at some point in time. Nodding silently toward Jaehwan, Taekwoon, and Sanghyuk to indicate it wasn't them that he was waiting up for, he steadied his expression to one of even patience. When the two he was waiting upon emerged from their respective locations, he made a motion asking for them to briefly join him there in the brightly-lit room.

"I just want to say something before we go to sleep," Hakyeon offered quietly after Wonshik and Hongbin shuffled over sluggishly. Neither man responded, but instead kept their eyes studiously anywhere except anyone's faces. With a small sigh, he continued, "I don't need any kind of reply, I just want you guys to stew on this tonight: things have been kind of tense between you two, and I don't know why, but we really need to sort this out and soon. As far as I can tell, it hasn't affected your onstage lives, but if it keeps up, it will, so let's get our straight." He glanced kindly between the two of them. "Someone somewhere is going through a tough time, and we're all here for you, so let's talk or at least have a fight or something, just no more of this extra strain, okay?"

Hongbin was the first to react, politely bowing his head just slightly and then nodding. "I'm sorry, leader hyung," he said, his soft expression a much different one than to what he had on in the car. Speaking a bit stiffly and professionally, perhaps with a mite bit of embarrassment, he added, "I haven't been feeling myself lately. I will make a point of improving and trying to better myself."

Wonshik merely nodded, acknowledging Hakyeon's short speech. His eyes stayed trained on Hongbin, though.

"Thank you both," their leader said with a worn, tired smile. "Now get some sleep, we have practice early tomorrow since the studio wasn’t available tonight."

As the energy in the apartment wound down, a couple of calls of "Goodnight!" came from the main bedroom. Hakyeon, though, having delayed getting ready for sleep to speak with his bandmates, made his way to the restroom to begin washing up.

Before he even got the chance to grab a towel from underneath the sink, Jaehwan poked his head into the open doorway. "Hakyeon hyung," he stage whispered, dramatically raising his hand up next to his mouth as if he was desperately trying to get the other's attention-- from all of two feet away. "Yaahhh. I have a really good idea and you should listen to it."

Hakyeon stood there for a moment, weighing his options. He put on his best mildly annoyed face, despite really being too tired to feel it. "Can it possibly wait until tomorrow?"

"Absolutely not," Jaehwan insisted, widening his eyes for effect. "I'm a genius and I won't sleep until I release this fantastic plan out of my head."

Rolling his head back to stare at the ceiling and sigh, Hakyeon agreed to listen and motioned to lead the way back into the kitchen. An idea from the ever-persistent Jaehwan would either be really brilliant or really evil, there was no in-between, and was most likely to be both. He was a little bit concerned as to what he was getting himself involved in now.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = =

“I think you’re just a little bit Satan.”

Jaehwan shrugged lightly at Sanghyuk’s giggly comment, nodding in seeming agreement. “Maybe a little bit, but you have to admit I’m the only one who’s been able to come up with some kind of plan. They've been pretty bad lately.” He sat with his legs crossed at the end of the muddy brown couch in their dormitory, not staring into Sanghyuk’s face when he responded, but instead the lens of the ever-present camera. He leaned in a bit closer, an easy move since the younger boy was sitting on the floor in front of him, one elbow leaned up on the coffee table for support. “Let me see the screen.”

Sanghyuk flipped the viewscreen so Jaehwan could make sure his face was just as cute as always. He kind of scrunched his nose in response, but didn’t protest at what he saw. Sanghyuk, on the other hand, decided he didn’t want to film that particular bandmate anymore, so he turned the recorder toward Hakyeon, who was sitting at the other end of the couch, mouth set in a very straight line. “N hyung, how do you feel about all this?”

Hakyeon shrugged with one shoulder, his eyes showing a bit more mirth than his expression was. “I was originally against playing games, especially since something’s emotionally going on with one or both of them, but-- frankly-- they’re both too stubborn to let it all out in the open without some prompting, so I say let’s make the best of it.” He met the gaze of the camera and smiled a touch. “They’ve both been in good spirits today, so I’m hoping this ends with more amusement and less punching.”

The three of them had just finished discussing their plan for the open evening. Taekwoon wanted not a single part of their scheme, so he had left them with a, “If a door gets kicked apart, I’m not cleaning it up,” and vacated the living room to to go to the office with his music. Sanghyuk had been contentedly filming the meeting and idea explanation, knowing full well that if it did end in blows or even a loud argument, there was no way they could air it. Instead, he mused it could be good for their own records, in the end. Something to look back on and either cringe at or laugh about.

The air in the apartment as they awaited the arrival of their final two bandmates was a little heavy as no one was entirely sure if this was a really great prank or a really cruel thing to do to their friends. They were, regardless, all on board, knowing full well this could be a quick road to Hell in the end.

Just as Hakyeon was beginning to second guess, torn between the responsible path as leader and the fun he liked to have with his brothers, Wonshik returned from the nearby convenience store. Black beanie covering his hair and sunglasses still over his eyes, despite having been in an enclosed private elevator the entire way up, he entered with a polite greeting and a raise of his hand, displaying the bag carrying his goods. “You all will be pleased to know we are no longer out of protein powder, there are more peas in this place than we’ll know what to do with, and we now have plenty of cheese-- sorry, Hyukie.”

Sanghyuk wrinkled his nose and made a mimicking choking sound, swiveling the camera towards the dorm’s entrance.

“Oh, did I almost miss a Diary?” Wonshik questioned with a charming grin, removing his shoes and sunglasses and making his way toward the kitchen. He threw up a passing V as he walked past with the groceries.

The three of them looked at each other and nodded silently, Sanghyuk standing up with the camera still pointed toward the kitchen. He spoke up, pulling the viewscreen back toward him and watching Wonshik’s form in the video, “We were thinking of what to do tonight, maybe you have some input.” He made his way to where his hyung was unloading the armful of foodstuffs into their rightful spots.

As Wonshik started to reply, never able to resist a good camera scene, Hakyeon scooted closer to Jaehwan on the couch. In a whisper they themselves could barely hear, he asked, “Have you heard from Hongbinie at all? He should have come back first, the track isn’t that far away.”

Jaehwan plucked his phone from up off the coffee table and glanced at it, brows furrowed at the lack of message. “He’d be pretty much on his way back now if he started his run right when he got there. I told him we may have a group meeting soon, so he shouldn’t get too distracted.” His eyes quickly glimpsed towards the kitchen to make sure Sanghyuk and Wonshik were still engaged in their Diary entry. “I say we execute plan ‘Oh My God Are We Going to Get Hit?’ right now.”

Hakyeon made a bit of a face, but started to grin nonetheless. “We are going to get hit,” he stated matter-of-factly, and shook his head a little to put on a more serious face. He looked across the room toward the armchair that usually sat near the couch, but was now suspiciously placed near the door of the bedroom. Attempting to pay it no mind and hope that a certain Kim Ravi never noticed it either, he stood up and cleared his throat.

Having grabbed the attention of both Sanghyuk and Wonshik, Hakyeon put on his best leadership face. “Wonshik-ah, got a moment?” he announced, keeping his voice steady. Inside, though, he was a giggling maniac.

The humour from his conversation with Sanghyuk draining from his face a bit, and recognising the patient look of Hakyeon’s, Wonshik nodded solemnly. “Yeah, of course.”

Swallowing back his desire to burst into laughter, Hakyeon motioned toward the bedroom. “I just need a second.” As they walked closer to one another, making their way to the other room, he added, “I just want to be away from the camera, but didn’t want to make Hyukie put it down; he’s been attached to it all evening.” He gave the other a small smile to relieve the tension in his expression.

“Yeah, no worries,” Wonshik replied quietly after they entered, pulling the bedroom door behind himself so it sat ajar. “So, what’s up? Everything okay?” He adjusted the beanie on his head, and glanced around the room, obviously concerned at the sudden need for a private meeting.

“Oh yeah, for sure.” Hakyeon’s eyes travelled to the door for a second, hoping beyond hope that Jaehwan’s half of the plan was going to come together quickly-- he didn’t have a lot prepared at the moment. “I mostly wanted to make sure everything was good between us after I had that chat with you and Hongbin last night.”

Wonshik’s eyebrows raised a bit in surprise, then lowered as he thought back to the previous evening's discussions after they'd returned from the show. “Definitely good,” he responded after a moment, leaning his back against the blank wall adjacent to the doorway and crossing his arms. “I understood, loud and clear. Sorry if I had been pushing the issue a bit lately.”

Hakyeon felt a moment of guilt as he heard the sincerity in his bandmate’s words. He was aware he was using the other’s earnestness as fuel for their trick, and he had a moment of reconsideration. As he started to acknowledge, though, he heard the door of the apartment close, indicating Hongbin’s return from his cardio run. The rest was in Jaehwan’s hands. Attempting to ignore the chatty voices in the living room, he nodded with, “No, you’re fine, you’re honestly both fine, I was just kind of concerned it all went deeper than surface-level. Everyone seemed in strong spirits today, though, so I’ve decided not to worry about it.” He added in a smile to try to lighten the mood and said, “I think today’s practice was some of our best, anyway.”

Wonshik grinned, his eyes glancing upward as he thought back to their time at the studio earlier that day. “Yeah, we were killin’ it. I think the next time we do th--”

His concern was cut off by the creak of the bedroom door opening and Jaehwan stepping through. “He’s right here, Bin,” the newcomer was saying, staring pointedly at Hakyeon and stopping just before the threshold with the edge of the door still in his hands. “And, oh, he said it was kind of urgent, just so you know.” Going a little wide-eyed with momentary panic, he scuddled back out into the living room to make room for Hongbin’s entrance.

“Oh-- ah!” Hakyeon exclaimed, not prepared for whatever the next step was. He looked back toward Wonshik, who just stood with a blank, mildly confused expression, then faced Hongbin, who was now looking about the room with curiosity, and added, “Yeah, I was, uh-- I have to talk to the both of you, actually, yeah, but I need to grab someth-- I left a note I wrote myself in the other room-- so, just give me a quick second, I’ll be right back.”

“Wait, I jus--” Hongbin started, his eyes looking between the two men with complete confusion.

“One second!” their leader repeated, inching past and ducking his way out the door. “Give me just one second!”

Wonshik spoke next. “What just-- where are you going?”

Upon his quick and messy exit, Hakyeon spotted Jaehwan standing with his hands on the side of the armchair. “Oh my god,” he blurted, sloppily reaching back and grabbing the doorknob behind him, pushing the bedroom door shut with a slam. “We are really, really going to get hit for this!” At that, he immediately rushed forward and grabbed the other side of the armchair, aiding his groupmate in sliding the heavy piece of furniture in front of said door.

Jaehwan barked out a laugh as it settled into place, checking beneath it to make sure they didn’t scrape up the ground of the apartment at all. “Mission: success!” he declared loudly in English, grinning like he’d just won the world’s most exciting contest.

“Yes, for now,” Hakyeon breathed, smiling at their victory. They high-fived over the chair and stepped away from the room altogether. “We better not go to sleep in the next few days, though, one of them is going to absolutely destroy us.”

Sanghyuk, somehow quiet as a mouse nearly the entire time, stood near the sofa with the camera pointed directly on the bedroom’s door. He, too, had a face-splitting grin of an expression, and was humming his little tune with dramatic flair. He stopped and stage whispered, “Wonshik hyung is going to be out for blood.”

“I think I’m more afraid of Hongbinie, he’s too nice to not have some wrath hidden deep down inside,” Jaehwan mused, putting a hand up to his mouth. He turned back to Hakyeon, who was facing the scene of the crime still. “Do you hear anything? Have they said anything?”

As if summoned, a low growl came from the other side of the door as the doorknob rattled but moved unsuccessfully. Loud knocks rang out through the dormintory. “What’s going on?!” the voice of Wonshik emerged loudly. “What is-- what the hell just happened?!”

Stifling a giggle, Sanghyuk spoke to the camera without turning it toward himself, “This is where it’s either going to get really good or really bad.”

Hakyeon grinned back at Sanghyuk and the camcorder, then faced the door and the two protesting voices coming forth. “Hey! HEY!” he shouted over the forming ruckus, trying not to let a laughing fit bubble to the surface. “Look, HEY! Look, you guys have been really weird for the past few weeks and it’s getting really annoying!” The outcries died down just a bit as he continued, “As far as I’m concerned, we’re doing this for your own good! Plus … it wasn’t my idea!” He flicked an apologetic ‘I just threw you under the bus’ face at Jaehwan. “You are absolutely not allowed to come out of there until you’ve either-- I don’t know-- made up or made out, I don’t care! Either way, let it out of your systems and get over it!!”

The quiet that took over the apartment was a little disconcerting, and the three remaining in the living room exchanged mildly concerned glances when no response came from behind the door. Sanghyuk started to say something when he was interrupted by Taekwoon’s quiet voice coming from the office hallway:

“I’m going to take bets as to which one of you gets killed first.”