[CONTENTID1] Broken Pieces [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]

“One, two, three, four…”

Jongdae strained to move his tired body to Jongin’s counting over the beat of the music.  His muscles screamed with pain, but he kept enduring.

“Five, six, seven, eight…”

The song finally ended, and the members collapsed on the ground.  

Jongdae was sweating when he sat down at a wall and grabbed his phone and bottle of cold water.  He held the bottle up to his forehead and started surfing the web, particularly the news page Suho had him subscribe to.  He sighed and scrolled through the endless articles.

The door to the practice room opened, and their manager walked in.  

“I see you’re all working hard,” the manager commented, his voice filled with slight pity for the tired boys.  He looked through a packet he was holding.  “Since Kris-ssi is gone, you have to relearn most of the choreos for your songs…”

“Already learned, hyung,” Jongin confirmed, his hands on his hips as he bent over slightly.

The manager smiled a bit.  “That’s good,” he said.  He sighed.  “I don’t know if you know this, but they just let a trainee go.”

“Oh, who?”  The members buzzed, suddenly filled with more energy.

“It better not be Taeyong…”

“Yeah, I had my bet on him…”

“What about the girl trainees?  I heard some were going to debut soon.”

“Pity…”

The manager shook his head.  “It’s not Taeyong-ssi, but Jang Bora.”

Jongdae looked up from his phone at the mention of the name and raised his eyebrows with interest.

“Apparently she was making no progress, and she got caught snooping around important files in the office,” the manager explained, clucking his tongue.  “If you ask me, it’s good they got rid of her.  We can’t risk any rumors going around.”

Jongdae was relieved, but shuddered as he turned and stared at Baekhyun.  

“I guess it’s just you and me, Jongdae.  Just you and me.”

Baekhyun sent him a smile and a thumbs up, and Jongdae smiled back.  At least I don’t have to worry about her anymore.

Almost as if on cue, Jongdae’s phone buzzed.  He looked down and saw that it was a notification from the news page.  He unlocked his phone and stared at the headline for a couple seconds before slowly rising to his feet in silence.

“Insider Explains Possible Gay-Idol Relationship.”

Holy…

“,” Jongdae breathed inaudibly.  

He scrolled through the article, his thumb shaking as he did so.  His heart beat faster.  

The things that were quoted…

Sounded like…

Jongdae shut his phone off, and it slipped out of his fingers, clanking on the ground.  His world spun a bit.  He could feel the eyes of s and manager on him.

“Chen-ssi…” his manager trailed off.

Before Jongdae could respond, he collapsed onto the ground and surrendered to the dark void that bordered the edge of his vision.

--

“Jongdae-yah…”

“Hey, don’t bother him.  He needs rest.”

“I know, but…”

“Just leave him be.  He’ll be fine.”

--

Jongdae opened his tired eyes and squinted a bit at the bright lights of his hospital room.  He looked down and saw that he was connected to an IV and a heart monitor.  His wire and tube-free arm reached up and felt his slightly throbbing forehead.  He winced as he sat up.

A pair of warm hands rested on his shoulders, and he looked up to see Baekhyun smiling a bit.  “Don’t rush yourself.”

He helped Jongdae sit up.

“How long was I out?” Jongdae dared asking.

“A few hours,” Baekhyun replied.  He sat down in the seat next to the bed before holding the other’s hand.  “You really scared me.”

Jongdae looked away and sighed.  

“What did you…faint about…?”

“Huh?”  Jongdae looked at him and furrowed his eyebrows.  

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter