Jaebum frowns at the boy in front of him. Jaebum frowns at the big smile and oversized shirt. Jaebum frowns at the trusting eyes and lively humming.

“What are you doing here again, Youngjae?” Jaebum asks, rubbing his face resignedly. He almost took it back when the boy’s expression fell but he’s got some pride.

“I… just thought you could use some company?” Youngjae replies, “I guess not, though. I’ll go now.”

Jaebum glares at his reflection on the mirror covering the whole wall as he watched Youngjae get out of the practice room. He could feel guilty later. Right now, what he need is to perfect their choreography. He’s the leader. He needs to set the standard. He knows that because of this attitude, he’s perceived as an , not that he’s not, but Jinyoung keeps pointing it out. Jinyoung doesn’t push it, though, when he knows that Jaebum’s on the edge. He had been the first to witness his outrage. Jaebum knows he had scared Jinyoung that time.

Jaebum doesn’t know why but that’s just how he is and he hates it.

~

It happened in an instant.

Youngjae was too sleepy to function at 5:00 in the morning when he went to bed at 3:30 a.m. He asked Yugyeom to slap him in the face just so he could wake up, but to no avail, he still feels like a zombie. Everyone was dead tired and Youngjae can see that their leader takes the cake. Youngjae makes some mistakes in the choreo and so does everyone else so he doesn’t understand why he’s the only one who receives the disapproving looks from Jaebum.

They had a water break after an hour or so. Youngjae approached Jaebum with an offer of a bottle of water in hopes of redeeming himself.

“What’s wrong with you?” Jaebum asks with so much venom that everyone else in the room froze.

“I was just…” Youngjae starts but he flinched when Jaebum started talking.

“You’re not working too hard, are you? You’ve had it all handed to you. Might as well do well, yeah?” Jaebum hisses.

“Jaebum!” Jinyoung calls, glaring at his best friend. “That was uncalled for.”

“No… he’s right. Sorry.” Youngjae says with a watery smile. “I’ll do better. I’ll do my best, hyung.”

Jinyoung frowns at the scene. Yugyeom and Bambam exchanged worried glances. Mark and Jackson are unsure of what to do. Jaebum glares at them all before exiting and slamming the door of the practice room behind him.

“I’m s-sorry…” Youngjae whispers quietly, tears finally falling down his puffy cheeks. Jinyoung’s eyes widen and he quickly wrapped Youngjae into a hug.

“It’s not your fault, okay? He’s just stressed. He always is.” Jinyoung reassures the boy and the rest of them.

~

Youngjae’s eyes are swollen and tired from all the crying and endless practice he had earlier. He wonders where his roommate was because it was 2 a.m. and he hadn’t seen Jaebum since their encounter earlier that day. Th