"Splitting up with us... as in, they're leaving the group?"

Jihoon closed his eyes, trying to distract himself by starting on a new track in his studio, but flashbacks of the conversation with the members from earlier refused to leave him alone.

"Why else would they be having these private practices, schedules, and going to places we've never even gone as a group before?"

"It does make sense..." Jeonghan mused when Jihoon didn't give a reaction to Seungcheol's explanation.

"From the looks of it, they've probably already informed the company and they're totally behind it."

"Yeah, but, don't you think there's a possibility that the company was the one who suggested this split-up?" Jisoo suggested, looking towards his experience with reading suspense manga for aid.

The group fell into silence as each member pondered over each possibility.

With an uncharacteristically cracked voice, Seokmin voiced the question all of them were no doubt wondering but none had the heart to ask out loud, "Do you think... they're leaving because they don't feel valued by us?"

This brought on a flurry of different reactions, some yelled out words of denial, some stared in shock, others looked away but nodded in silent agreement. The topic soon shifted to how they were supposed to react when the Performance Unit returns; some wanted to confront them immediately, while others weren't so sure. They wouldn't have intentionally kept it so secretively for no reason, right?

It was then that Jihoon decided to excuse himself from the conversation and retire to his room of solitude. Unfortunately, he wasn't making any progress at all, the possibility of Junhui being compliant to leaving the group, leaving him, haunted Jihoon to no end. He was so absorbed in these worrisome thoughts that he failed to hear the light knocks on his door, which was eventually opened, and someone entered the room, sliding Jihoon's headphones off so that they could have a proper conversation.

"Hey, the others are worried about you skipping lunch." Well, if it wasn't the source of all his worries, Wen Junhui.

"...The others? You talked to them?" Jihoon was surprised at how calm his voice sounded, but nonetheless couldn't bring himself to look the taller male directly in the eyes, pretending to be focused on the sound waves printed across his screen which currently made no sense whatsoever.

"Well, yeah?" Junhui quirked an eyebrow at Jihoon's odd behavior. This was new, it was usually the other way around.

Without actually noticing the action itself, Jihoon held a breath in. Looks like they went with the pacifist route.

"You're acting kind of strange, is there anything wrong?"

Suddenly, Jihoon felt heat rushing up to his head, he felt dizzy, enraged. This wasn't like when he got picked on for being short at school or when people insisted on a cute image for him despite it clearly going against his real nature and comfort zone. He felt... frustrated, yet he couldn't place a finger on what was to blame, causing his irritation to grow. Before he could process what was happening, by the time he gained controlled over his senses again, he found himself on the floor of the studio, a very shocked Junhui trapped underneath him, probably thankful that the floor was carpeted.

"Woozi-"

"How can you ask that so easily?"

"Come again?"

Jihoon let out a long sigh, an attempt to calm himself down so that he could get his thoughts straight, "Truthfully, don't you think you're being kind of obvious? You, Soonyoung, Minghao, and even Chan. Did you hyungs bully the poor maknae into agreeing to it?"

"Agreeing to what?" A hint of irritation was starting to show in Junhui's tone as well now that he's being accused of forcing something on a beloved dongsaeng and team member, his dark eyes roamed themselves along Jihoon's face, trying and failing to find the source of his rage.

"It's been days, no, weeks. All of us already know that you guys have been sneaking around behind our backs having recording sessions, photo shoots, and even shows in foreign places. I should be asking if there's anything wrong with you, but I won't. You know why?" Jihoon his face aggressively into Junhui's, their foreheads crashed, but Jihoon had somehow numbed the pain already.

Junhui's gaze was frozen from shock once more, for a moment wondering if Jihoon was actually expecting an answer, but before he could give a reaction the other continued his ramble.

"'Cause you'd just give me that stupid grin of yours and claim nothing's wrong! What exactly do I have to do to make you trust me? If there's something bothering you, just tell me! I'm sick and tired of feeling useless and watching you pretend you're not dying from fatigue, do you underst-"

"So basically... you want me to entrust my issues with you?" Junhui interrupted, his eyes still wide from Jihoon's rant.

Somehow, that brought a little sense back to Jihoon as he felt himself start to panic, finally feeling embarrassed by their current position as he gently eased his face away from the older male, "W-well... we're a team, and when one of us isn't feeling great, the others are obligated to help, right?" He grumbled, a stark difference with his previous sharp tone, feeling himself lose the dominating position in the conversation.

"I guess you're right."

Jihoon wondered if he was just imagining the disappointment in Junhui's curt response...

"I'm sorry, Woozi, but this isn't the right time... I promise we'll clear all of this up soon, as a team." Junhui flashed his signature smile, but its usual power to assure Jihoon that everything would be all right wasn't working this time.

"...Be honest with me, Jun, are you... are you leaving us?" He watched as the latter's eyes widened even more, Jihoon held his breath, waiting for Junhui to put him out of his misery, he felt his heart twist painfully when a response didn't come. Leaning down once more, Jihoon found himself cradling Junhui's head gently in his arms, while his own tucked itself snuggly in the crook of the latter's neck, "You know, I... don't want to be apart from you." He whispered so softly that he doubted Junhui was able to catch it, didn't seem like it mattered either way at this point.

A long time (or at least what seemed like a long time) passed as neither of them attempted to move from their positions, no other words were exchanged either, yet it was the calmest that Jihoon's felt since coming back from the Hip Hop Unit and Vocal Unit's unexpected stalking trip.

Junhui had balled his hands into fists, feeling the need to pat Jihoon on the head, assure him that he was thinking too much, and confess that he felt the same way, but he couldn't. He didn't have the right to.

Suddenly, they both heard a dry cough coming from the direction of the doorway, "Um, you forgot to close the door," Seungcheol said, trying to distract his own focus from the two entangled bodies, "Should I, uh..." he began to close the door.

"No, we're fine." Junhui quickly pushed himself off the floor, his arms around Jihoon's waist so that the smaller male wouldn't get shoved off by the force. Once they were both standing up again, Junhui made his way towards the door with Jihoon tagging behind, still clinging onto a corner of Junhui's shirt.

Even after exiting the room, the latter refused to let go.

"So, uh, how was practice?" Mingyu asked from his spot on the top bunk, trying to look as nonchalant as possible, pretending to be focused on his phone, except it was blatantly frozen at his lockscreen.

"Great, the guys were all very focused." Minghao replied, sliding into his own bed comfortably, he then proceeded to update his personal schedule on his phone.

There was a moment of silence as Mingyu waited for some sort of continuation, maybe an explanation of what exactly the Performance Unit was practicing for, but none came. Chewing his bottom lip, Mingyu ducked down so that he was hanging loosely off the side of his bed, facing Minghao upside-down, "Hao, you know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Where are you going with this, Mingyu?" Minghao's sigh caused a sting in Mingyu's chest that he couldn't fully explain. Even though they slept in the same room, dined in the same room, and even washed off in the same room, it seemed as though he couldn't quite reach the other boy lately, an invisible distance that Minghao had created between them.

"We're dating, right?" Mingyu blurted out.

At this, Minghao put down his phone and finally returned eye contact, "...Do you not want to be?" He asked slowly, his gaze was hard, fixing Mingyu's in place.

"N-no, that' not it! It's just... I kind of miss you," Mingyu hurriedly rushed on as a light scowl formed on Minghao's otherwise pretty and delicate features, "It just feels like... we haven't had much time together, and you're always off with the guys practicing for... something." Mingyu held his breath, awaiting for a reaction. The wait felt literally suffocating given Mingyu's uncomfortable position.

After a moment of silence, Minghao scooted closer to the wall, patting the spot next to him, "Come here."

Almost too eagerly, Mingyu unhooked his legs from the side and swung himself down next to his boyfriend, his arms instinctively flew around Minghao's waist as he nuzzled his cheek against his shoulder. Minghao in turn placed a hand on the larger boy's head, caressing it in a soothing manner as he placed gentle kisses along Mingyu's forehead.

"I'm sorry for making you feel lonely, I know you're just a giant puppy."

Mingyu let out a small whine in response.

Minghao continued running his fingers through Mingyu's hair, murmuring words of assurance in the latter's ear until his giant puppy eventually drifted into sleep. Minghao felt slightly guilty about feeling relieved, but it just wasn't the right time to reveal everything. Yet.

Soonyoung hung around alone in the practice room, puddles of sweat were already forming at his feet as he tried to envision new choreography points. Nothing. Absolutely nothing came to him.

"Soon." A gentle voice prompted as Soonyoung felt something rough being pressed against his cheek. Looking up he was met by the blinding smile of Seokmin and felt almost immediately energized.

Soonyoung in turn broke into a grin as he took the towel gratefully from Seokmin's offering hand, "What are you doing here? I mean, not that I don't want you here, I do want you here, I mean-"

Seokmin laughed, pulling up a chair next to Soonyoung, "Actually, your dancers asked me to come check on you." The Performance Unit leader groaned. Even though it was for a good cause, his friends sure liked to meddle with his business.

"Well, thanks, I really needed some company." Soonyoung scooted closer to his friend, slinging an arm affectionately around the lead vocalist's shoulders, all the while making sure that the sweat clinging to his hair didn't drench Seokmin as well.

Seokmin nodded understandingly, but at the same time wondering if he should confirm the group's suspicion regarding the Performance Unit's intentions. He figured there may not be a better time than this given their schedule may become busier as the year progresses, so he opened his mouth to speak but-

"I like you."

His jaw clamped itself closed once more. He probably heard him wrong. "...What was that?"

"No, I don't like you... I think... I think I love you." Soonyoung stuttered shyly, his beautiful thinly shaped eyes fluttered nervously, "It's different from how I feel with Jihoon and everyone else, I mean, I love them, but... I don't know, I don't find myself wanting to hold them all the time, things like hugging, chatting until it's late and our roommates start yelling at us to get off each other like we do to Chan and Hansol..."

"Y-you want to do that with me?" Seokmin choked out, momentarily forgetting his previous inquiry.

"...Yeah... I guess I do." Soonyoung flashed another shy smile at Seokmin, leaning over so that their foreheads were touching, "I really do."

Seokmin sighed, bringing one hand over to lock fingers with Soonyoung's free hand, "...You're kind of a dork."

"I'm you're dork. If you'd let me, that is."

That was it, one cheeky wink and Seokmin was completely in. No, he was sure that he had already been in since a long time ago, he wondered why it took so long for them to come out with their feelings about each other. Maybe it was because they were already so close that they figured it'd hurt even more if it didn't work out.

But why now...?

"Hansol. Hansol, you're kind of hurting me." Chan winced as Hansol's grip around him tightened. The older boy was currently working on his laptop with one hand, the other was holding onto Chan's hand as it usually did when they worked on writing rap lyrics together. However, today Hansol was being particularly "violent", and Chan couldn't quite figure out why, "Hansol, we need to talk."

Almost immediately, Hansol slammed his laptop shut and shoved it to the side, swiveling around in his seat so that they were facing each other upfront, "Is this it? You're leaving so you're breaking up with me? We can work this out, a lot of idols have relationships outside their groups-"

"Hansol, what are you going on about?" Chan shook his head, lightly flicking Hansol's forehead to make him calm down, "Who's leaving?"

The Hip Hop Unit member blinked dumbly, his free hand coming up to rub the slightly throbbing spot on his forehead, "We thought... I thought..."

"You thought...?" Chan prompted, leaning down slightly so that he could see Hansol's eyes from under the cap he was wearing.

"No, it doesn't matter anymore." Hansol got out of his chair and tackled the shorter boy to the floor, before the younger could scold him for lightly bumping his head against the side of the desk, Hansol had already silenced all words with a surprise kiss. It wasn't anything deep, but it wasn't as innocent as a peck either, just enough to knock some air out of Chan though.

"...That's cheating." Chan muttered, but a smile stretched across his face.

"Your entire existence is cheating." Hansol countered, he leaned in for another kiss but the younger ducked away, causing his lips to form a pout instead.

Chan rolled his eyes, "That doesn't even make any sense." Sometimes he wondered who the real maknae was in the group. He grinned at his boyfriend's pout, taking his cap off and throwing it to the side before pulling Hansol in again for a proper kiss.

"Whoa, whoa, okay, oh my god, I did not need to see that." Seungcheol waved his hands in front of his face as he entered the work space, making his way towards the laptop on the desk, "Did you guys get your verses done? I'm bringing it up to Jihoon." He asked, all the while shielding his eyes as the two younger members continued their power struggle on the floor.

Hansol mumbled a "Yes" in-between a kiss, causing Chan to let out a low growl of displeasure, hooking a leg around Hansol's waist in an effort to have more of the older's attention.

"Uh, right, you kids play safe now." Seungcheol hurriedly grabbed the laptop and rushed out the door.

Do locks not mean anything to people?

"Whoa, flushed before we've even begun?" Minghao arched an eyebrow at the rest of his unit. After tucking Mingyu in for his afternoon nap, Minghao had sneaked back into the practice room for some extra practice alone, only to find Soonyoung still there, face red, it wasn't hard for Minghao to guess what had happened remembering how he, Junhui, and Chan had practically begged Seokmin to come down and stop Soonyoung from destroying himself. He guessed it kind of worked, since now Soonyoung was just frozen in place. It almost made Minghao want to ask if he got rejected, but that didn't seem possible either.

A little later, Junhui joined them, it was harder to tell due to his darker skin tone, but the older boy was definitely blushing. He didn't explain much aside from the fact that he came down as an excuse to get away from Jihoon. Get away from him? Usually you can't keep your eyes off him.Minghao wanted to scoff, but managed to hold himself back at the slightly distressed look on Junhui.

The last one to come was Chan, his eyes were still slightly clouded over from whatever previous activity he was having, face flushed and already sweaty. Minghao didn't feel like guessing what their maknae was doing.

"Well, since we're all here, we should practice?" Minghao suggested, looking around.

Junhui immediately agreed, eager to get a distraction from the earlier occurrence with Jihoon. Chan and Soonyoung weren't as keen, but got into position anyway.

"Speaking of which, I don't love seeing the others worried." Minghao continued as they did warm-ups, "Don't you think we should tell them soon?"

"It'll just make them more worried. I'm sure they'll just stress themselves out worrying about how they can't help us despite knowing our situation." Junhui groaned, reminding himself of Jihoon's outburst in the studio.

"It's better than having them wildly guessing and getting worried over nothing."

"You're calling the truth nothing?"

"Guys, guys, calm down," Soonyoung came between the two Chinese members before a punch could be thrown, "Fighting among ourselves is not going to work."

"It's not my fault that he's a coward who can't confess his obvious feelings towards Jihoon and proceeds to take his frustration out on the rest of us." Minghao refused to let go.

"Don't you bring Woozi into this-" Junhui hissed, trying to break free of Soonyoung's grasp.

"See? He can't even call him by his real name."

Before it could turn into an all-out fight, the dance studio's room was opened, "All right, children, let's all calm down," a stern voice floated over from the doorway, "and I want a full explanation this time." Jeonghan pulled up a chair and sat down in the middle of the room, crossing his arms, motioning for the Performance Unit to gather around in a circle for a family meeting.