Chapter 9

"Hey, Minwoo, Haruka! Get up." Jeongmin yelled for the hundredth time as he desperately tried to pull the two out on bed. They were both sleeping soundly with smiles plastered on their faces. Haruka was holding Minwoo's hand up, counting his fingers, while Minwoo was poking his side. Donghyun came in.

"They are still asleep?" he asked the crouching Jeongmin. 

"Yes." the shorter replied. "They don't seem to listen to me."

"Minwoo, wake up or I'm gonna do something you wouldn't like." Donghyun warned. Sleepy Minwoo opened his eyes to see his hyung staring right into his eyes, mere inches away from his face. 

"H-h-hyung...?!" he blushed. If it wasn't for a sudden clicking sound, no one actually knew what would have happened. Two heads turned to the side where Haruka was, sitting up a little, holding a camera and smirking sleepily.

"Payback for yesterday..." he mumbled, blinking sleepily. Jeongmin snickered as he walked out of the room, while Donghyun shook his head at Haruka.

"Why you..." he chuckled. Haruka smiled like a child as a small photo came out of the camera. He held it up.

"I wonder what your fans would think..." he snickered. Donghyun reached out to grab the photo, but the space wasn't that big, and Haruka was swift. Somehow, he managed to slip by like a cat, leaving Donghyun and Minwoo entangled on the bed. "See ya." after taking a few more pictures, he grabbed his clothes, he went into the bathroom for a super quick morning shower. After getting dressed in his casual clothes, we applied a bit of hair gel to his black hair and walked out to face a blushing Minwoo.

"How could you do that?" he whined.

"Do what?"

"Leave me in such a position alone! It was embarrassing!" Minwoo folded his arms. "Do you have any idea what he said to me?"

"No. What?" Haruka asked blankly. Minwoo paused and blushed.

"N-never mind... Just l-let me get changed." Haruka shoved on hand in his pocket and ruffled the younger's hair with the other.

'Your cute, you know. See ya." he smiled as he walked out of the room. Donghyun and Jeongmin were conversing about something related to their training, Hyunseong was making something for breakfast, Kwangmin was reading some manga. Youngmin was not there yet, and Minwoo was still changing. Haruka casually walked into the kitchen and greeted Hyunseong.

"Oh, Haruka. Good morning." He smiled. Haruka smiled back at him. "Hey, I heard Donghyun and Jeongmin talking about you this morning. Minwoo really had you open up, ne?"

"Yeah... I like him..." Haruka nodded. "Strange... I feel so used to this..." he chuckled, his long, delicate fingers tracing the countertop. "...I can see my cousin there, reading some book, Makoto and me talking about music, Kaitou cooking us breakfast... it feels so.. right... Just like the old days..."

"I heard you talking the other day... About us resembling our friends..." Hyunseong said, getting out some plates. "Who do I resemble, huh?"

"Hm... Kaitou... Definitely..." The older idol hummed in thought.

"Oh, you mean the one with white hair? The comedian?" Haruka nodded with a chuckle.

"Yeah, that's him."

"I met him once... He mistook me for San E..." Hyunseong sighed. "Do I really look like him?"

"He has thought you were his brother, actually." Haruka said with a light laugh.

Hyunseong chuckled and turned to Haruka. "Say, why do I remind you of him, ne?" Haruka blinked then he averted his gaze away. "Haruka..."

"I-it's...uh..." Haruka stuttered. Hyunseong laughed and ruffled Haruka's hair.

"Never mind. Let's have breakfast first, but tell me later, okay?" Haruka nodded faintly. A sigh left his lips as he walked back to the siting room, just as Minwoo came in too. Then started a long conversation between the two, with the main topic being the dispose of the blackmail material Haruka had taken fresh that morning. After breakfast, the seven idols were on their way to the agency.

"Say, Haruka," Donghyun spoke. "Will you be joining us today?"

"No." he replied. "I'm going to be busy."

"Doing what?" 

"Composing music."

"Eh?"

"That's right." their manager spoke. "Misashi will be performing on stage in two days." Minwoo and Hyunseong beamed.

"You'll be there with us! Cool!"

"So that's why you said you were busy..." Jeongmin mused. Haruka nodded a little.

"I still have a lot to do... " he said. "I still have to write lyrics... And the music is still not finished."

"Wow... That will be really hard... You will have only two days to work on your song." Youngmin, who was sitting next to Haruka, commented. "Will you be okay with that?"

"Hopefully..." Haruka sighed. Only one problem faced him. It has been a while since he last wrote any songs. He honestly never thought he would be stuck in such a situation. After arriving at the agency, Haruka retreated to the recording room. It was quiet there, and that was just what he wanted. He closed his eyes and gripped on his pencil, waiting for the words to flow. Unfortunately, nothing came to his mind. 

"Damn it..." He crumbled another torn page and threw it into a nearby trash bin. His pencil had broken in his hand, and no he was wounded. "Just great..." he muttered under his breath, throwing away the broken pencil. He can rant later, but his wound needed treatment. Luckily, the times he spent with Simon taught him to always carry a first-aid kit in case something like that happened. He hated to say he would have to thank Simon for that later. And so, taking out a small band-aid, he wrapped it around his injured finger and sat with his back against the wall, staring at his empty notebook.

"This is harder than I thought..." he mused, sighing in despair. He didn't know how many hours passed since he had started working on the lyrics, but what he knew was that no one has been into the recording room for all that time. It felt a little strange to him, but did he care? Probably not.

"Misashi-san, I was looking for you." he lifted his head up. None other than BOYFRIEND's manager stood there.

"Ah..hai..." Haruka mumbled.

"I just wanted to inform you, you don't have to perform at that concert." he said. "We have not informed our audience of your arrival, so it will be fine."

"Manager-san..."

'I'm just telling you this, so you wouldn't push yourself too much. I have received strict orders from you manager. He doesn't want us to push you to your limits." At the mere mention of his manager, Haruka's face held a disgusted expression.

"Tch..." The manager left the room, leaving Haruka in that comforting silence again. He closed his eyes and started to drift away from the world around him. He just wanted to stop thinking for a while... Just a little while...

"Yo, Haruka!" he grunted and opened his eyes to see Hyunseong walking in, holding two cans of soda. He sat down next to Haruka and held out a can. "Here, I thought you'd like to have some." Haruka thanked him quietly and accepted the cold can. "So, have was your songwriting?" Did it go well?" Haruka sighed and shook his head.

"No... I couldn't write anything at all...." he replied, opening his soda can and taking a small sip. "I mean I wrote something, but... the words lacked something..."

"Feelings... perhaps?" Hyunseong suggested. "Maybe you focus too much on the choice of words that you forget to focus on conveying your feelings. After all, singing is-"

"...is expressing your feelings with a tune..." Haruka murmured, smiling to himself. "he always said that..."

"He?"

"Kaitou-senpai..." Haruka went on. "Feels were the thing he was best at expressing. Even though I had better vocals, he was still better at singing." then he smiled at Hyunseong. "You sound a little bit like him, but you need to try harder."

"Really now?" the older laughed. "You haven't seen anything yet, Stitch."

"I thought you forgot." Haruka pouted, taking another sip of his soda. Hyunseong chuckled and drank some of his soda as well. "Where are the others?"

"Practicing choreography. The twins made a mistake, and Minwoo has made it his job to help them."

"I see..." then he sighed again.

"You sigh a lot, you know."

"Uh-huh..."

"Like a girl in love." he grinned.

"Shut up.."

"So is it Youngmin?"

"Senpai..." Haruka's eye twitched.

"So it is Youngmin. Don't worry, I won't tell him." he went on, amused by Haruka's facial expressions. Haruka gave him a glare. "What? That's a brother's job."

"To play matchmaker?"

"No, to pester his younger siblings." Hyunseong wrapped on arm around Haruka and crushed him into a bear hug. "Right?" Haruka laughed quietly.

"That's exactly why you and Kaitou are similar..." he said.

"We are both brotherly?"

"And you know how to knock the air out of my lungs..." Hyunseong quickly let go of Haruka.

"Sorry."

"It's okay." Hyunseong finished the last of his soda and threw the can away, while Haruka still sipped on his. 

"Would you like to come and watch us training? Minwoo says he wants you to join us." Haruka nodded and got up, walking alongside the older idol. No sooner had he entered the room, he was almost tackled by Minwoo, but stepped aside just in time as  Donghyun walked in, resulting in the two bumping into each other and falling down. Out of nowhere, Haruka got out his camera.

"Hai, Chiizu..." he said, taking a dozen photos from different angles quickly. Kwangmin and Jeongmin snickered, while Hyunseong was already laughing. Youngmin was just staring with his mouth open wide.

"Haruka..." Minwoo whined. "I thought you were my friend..." 

"I am."

"Then why are you doing this to me?!"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, you are the one on top, so it should be easy for you to get up," then the black-haired idol smirked. "Unless..." Minwoo, in  a second, was sitting in the corner on the room facing the wall with dark aura around him. Donghyun just laughed at the whole situation.

"Relax, Minwoo." he said. 'Haruka was just kidding, right?" Haruka laughed for a little while before his expression turned serious.

"Not a bit..." he said. Donghyun sweatdropped. "Don't you have training to do?"

"Uh, r-right." Donghyun nodded. "Let's get back to practice. that includes you, Minwoo."

"He betrayed me..." Minwoo mumbled, stuck in his little world. Everyone sweatdropped while Haruka just shook his head.

"He's hopeless..." Well, Haruka was responsible for that, right? Not exactly. It wasn't directly his fault. You see, he had this big brother who told him the a big brother's job is to pester his younger siblings. And that was what he did. He smiled. Maybe it wasn't a bad idea after all.