-Project Friendship: Sunggyu-

Level 10

            Yeri was furious.

            Early this morning she received a tense phone call from her mother tasking her of locating her brother who had disappeared sometime yesterday afternoon and then stayed out the whole night, and of course it had to have been without their parents’ permission. It wasn’t the first time something like this has happened but what made it different this time was that they called her and Yeri failed to see why they involved her, sure she was close to him (to an extent) but even she can’t do miracles if her brother did not want to pick up his phone. So she spent most of her morning and the early afternoon scouring downtown, searching all the places she knew as Yehun’s usual spots and just generally searching anywhere someone his age could be.

            She was exhausted by the time she circled back to the area where she first started searching from near her home, she had left with a single slice of thin toast this morning and skipped lunch in favour of waiting to ambush Yehun at his favourite noodles restaurant only that he never turned up. She tried calling him again and when it didn’t go through she checked if he had read her messages, she was beginning to lose hope and god forbid if anything happened to him because for whatever reason her parents seemed to be pinning the responsibility onto her… and how could it be? Who knows where Yehun and his friends were and getting up to what kinds of nonsense.

            It was not her fault so why was Myungsoo messaging her about seeing her brother with some of their trainees at the Woollim building? Yeri didn’t believe it at first but she messaged him back, keen on the first piece of news she’s gotten about her brother since he vanished, after a few short messages Yeri told him that she was on her way and to keep him there…

[He ran away]

            So now she was furious and skeptical about the situation, she was glad she got some lead but what were the chances that it would lead her to Sunggyu’s workplace, she would also really like to know what her brother was doing bothering the kids training at Woollim but she had a hunch it has something to do with Yehun meeting Daeyeol a few weeks back. So now not only was he slacking off by himself but he was troubling others as well… she really had to give him a stern talking to when she finds him.

            Yeri paused once she reached outside the building, it was only a short walk over but it was still shocking how much difference there was on this street compared to the next one over, there seemed to be quite a crowd today filling not just the café but on the street as well; seeing the girls on standby with their phones out she figured it must have been because Myungsoo was inside. But even though there was a small crowd, the fans kept a decent distance from the building and the whole experience wasn’t unpleasant at all which still surprised Yeri. Before she entered she noticed that something was a little different about the building’s exterior, it was all as she remembered except the ‘Reality’ poster had been replaced to one for ‘Infinite Effect’, Yeri felt a little awkward staring up at the large portraits of the members, they were all so huge and in ridiculously high definition, it was especially uncomfortable to look at Sunggyu’s large mug smirking back at her haughtily.

            It was busy inside for once, all the other times Yeri visited in the past the staff have just gotten off work but this time there were people running about and heading in and out of the restricted area, it actually seemed like a proper work environment… but perhaps it was a little too hectic? The receptionist recognised Yeri and let her head on up with another member of staff after explaining who she was, ‘Kim Sunggyu’s friend’ was apparently a title that held high importance in their company. When she asked he kindly explained that there were some setbacks with the concert preparations that was why everyone seemed to be losing their minds. He gave her directions to the smaller practice area reserved for the trainees but when she arrived she found it empty.

            Yeri messaged Myungsoo again and while she waited for a reply she switched the light on and entered the room, her eyes darted around as she walked into the middle of the mirror-walled room, it should be a normal thing but she found it strange how this room was part of the same building but significantly smaller than the practice room she watched INFINITE in. She wondered if Sunggyu once had to practice in a small room like this one, he probably did at one point and it only showed how far he has come.

            Her phone caught her attention when it buzzed in her hand and she headed back to the door, turning off the light as she walked through the door but as she turned around the corner she ran straight into someone. “Ah sorry! … What are you doing here?”

            “Huh? What-,” Howon took a moment to recover and when he realised it was her he stepped past her and the light. “I have a session here with some trainees… why are you here? And where is everyone?”

            “That’s what I’d like to know…” Yeri followed him back inside, for the first time she noticed a short trash bin next to the door and in it were semi empty cups, she could tell they were freshly disposed with the condensation still on the plastic of the iced drinks. She went from skeptical to plain annoyed by her brother’s childish antics and she was going to beat him up when she got her hands on him. “What time are you supposed to meet them?”

             “About nowish,” Howon paid her little attention as he took his jacket off and began stretching near the front of the room, and she noticed he looked exhausted again and she didn’t really blame him for not trying to keep her entertained. He only looked up and turned his attention to her when she opened the door. “Are you going? Didn’t you just arrive?”

           “Yeah… but I’m looking for someone so I should go,” she remembered Myungsoo’s messages and she quickly glanced at her phone screen, to her delight he informed her that he missed the trainees but they should be on their way back to the practice room now. Yeri relayed the same message to Howon seeing as he was waiting for the same group, Howon gave her a look and asked her how she knew. “Myungsoo told me.”

            “Myungsoo’s awake?”

            “… Yeah?”

            “I just didn’t think he would be, we had individual practice last night and then group practice later tonight… I thought he’d still be sleeping like everyone else,” Howon shrugged back as he briefly glanced at her through the mirror’s reflection and looked away when Yeri didn’t reply, she was again in awe with how hardworking they were and she smiled to herself at the thought of Sunggyu still sleeping in at 2pm – typical. “You’re coming to the concert right?”

            “Hm? Oh yeah, for sure,” she met his eyes again. “When do the tickets go on sale?”

            “Just ask Sunggyu,” he scoffed with a small chuckle.

            “I don’t want to~,” she almost stuck her tongue out. “I want to buy a ticket and experience it with all the other fans… I want to get into the standing area.”

            “… Yeri have you even been to a concert before?”

            “No?”

            “Prepare for death,” he snorted. “I bet you won’t even get a ticket.”

            Yeri was about to protest but a group of young boys showed up at the door, she waved a quick goodbye to Howon as she moved out of the way to let them in. There was no sign of her brother and the boys seemed to avoid her like they knew exactly who she was and, she has seen a couple of them at the party she attended with Sunggyu so there was that but also…

            “Ah!” she called out when she noticed Daeyeol creeping by behind two boys and she was about to make a run for him when she felt a tap on her shoulder.  She turned around and actually groaned out loud when she saw it was only Myungsoo, he looked mildly offended at her reaction to him but she didn’t give him a chance to complain as she glanced back around to confirm she had missed her chance to interrogate Daeyeol. “You! Where you are guys hiding him?”

            “Ow! Yeri!” Myungsoo pouted when she grabbed his sweatshirt menacingly. “Stop it, you’re crumpling my shirt~!”

            Myungsoo got her to let go when he explained that he had caught up to them but Yehun still managed to slip away, he actually sounded a lot more frustrated about the whole ordeal than Yeri was. “But you two are both so violent… I had him in a headlock you know but he overpowered me.”

            Yeri offered him an apology for messing up his shirt and while she pulled out her phone to message Yehun she casually mentioned that her brother did taekwondo, she did not notice it but Myungsoo gave her a sarcastic look and replied so did he and vowed to get back at him almost childishly.

            “Well don’t worry about it for now… I’ll deal with it myself when I find him,” she shook her head with a sigh when no reply came, she decided that she would just leave it for now hoping her brother would have some sense to go home after having such a close incident with her. “… So why are you up? Howon said the lot of you should still be sleeping.”

            “Oh, I haven’t gone to bed yet.”

            “What?” she stared back at him as if he just spoke in a different language but on closer inspection she could see signs of weariness, his posture was slack and his eyelids were heavier than usual making him look hollow under the shadows of his military-style cap. “What are you doing standing around trying to help me? Go home! Oh my god, Myungsoo, why haven’t you slept yet?”

            “I was practicing-.”

            “You guys really work too hard!” she lamented as she pushed him through the corridor. “You need to get to bed right now.”

            Myungsoo’s movements were sluggish and he simply let her push him up the stairs, in fact he seemed quite amused with the whole situation and laughed when she called him out for leaning backwards on purpose to make it more difficult for her. “Yah, stand up Kim Myungsoo. I’m older than you, you know?”

            “Wow, you sounded like Sunggyu-hyung there,” he snorted but stood up straighter and walked ahead first knowing that the chances of her grabbing him again were high, he figured she was a little more animated than usual but it must be because of her own agitation from not being able to find her brother. He glanced back and saw her staring back at him with an unclear look on her face, something mixed between horror and displeasure. “You mad?”

            Yeri stayed standing there staring at him beadily, her idea of making him feel guilty for even suggesting such a thing but it was not easy to keep a straight face when it was Kim Myungsoo you were supposed to be upset with. She panicked a little when he walked back over and stopped right in front of her, bringing his face as close as his cap would allow it to be without poking her in the forehead.

            “Would it help if I started calling you noona?”

            “No!” her eyes shot wide open as he laughed at her reaction rather cutely, she launched herself fo