“I love you so much more, jju-ya ♥”

Ong narrowed his eyes as he stared at the message sent to Jonghyun from his phone. Wow, they were affectionate, thought Seongwoo. Way more affectionate through text than they had ever been in front of him.

He kept rereading that message, and he came up with a couple of possible conclusions: one, there was some inside joke happening in those text messages that he was unaware of; two, they’re just nauseatingly affectionate when they text one another; three, they’re actually in love.

A part of him wished it were the third option because Seongwoo liked the thought of Minhyun being open to relationships with the same gender. But at the same time, he was deathly afraid that it was the third option.

Jonghyun? How could he possibly compete with the Nation’s Leader???

Seongwoo shook the thought away. It seemed highly unlikely that they were in love. He thought back to the time he was with them in Sorry Sorry Team 2 and Never Team. He spent a lot of time with the two of them, and they could not possibly be anything more than friends. There was no chemistry between them, at least not that kind of chemistry.

Seongwoo had an eye for these things; he really did. He knew that if they had actually been a couple, there would have been a special spark between them. Usually lovers have to be alone sometimes, but Minhyun and Jonghyun never excluded themselves from the group to be alone. Lovers usually can’t keep their hands off of one another, but Minhyun and Jonghyun’s skinship never really amounted to anything more than what they did with everyone else.

They were just friends, he concluded after making all the necessary calculations.

But there was something else that he gleaned from the conversation between Minhyun and Jonghyun; it was that Kang Dongho was guilty. Or at least partly so. It was dead obvious from the way that Jonghyun dodged Minhyun’s question about it because it was on “someone else’s phone.”

If Kang Dongho was actually innocent, then Jonghyun would have answered Minhyun’s question (“he didn’t actually do it, right?”) with a resounding “of course not.”

Ong did not really know what to do with that information, but he kept it in mind. Maybe it would be useful later.

-

From the moment they first decided to appear on Produce 101 and during the first few weeks of the show, JR had seen a side of Baekho that he had never seen before in the whole seven years that he had known him. Baekho had been stressed, anxious and all-out depressed, and it was so unlike him. Baekho was characteristically cheerful, and he usually didn’t care about what people thought of him, but that changed completely during Produce 101.

It was because Baekho was forced into a position where he had to throw away years of hard work and start from the very beginning. He had to degrade himself to the status of a trainee and that was hard on his pride. The fact he was in D class dragged him down even harder, and he couldn’t even concentrate on doing choreography. He was in a very vulnerable position, and it really took a toll on him.

JR remembered feeling awful after seeing Baekho struggle in the first few weeks. He had felt responsible for Baekho’s slump; it was his leadership that had put him in that position, his leadership that couldn’t unleash Baekho’s potential to the public.

JR cried a lot those first few days, especially for Baekho, because it was Baekho that was most affected by this show. It really hurt his friend in so many ways.

But thankfully, the show progressed and Baekho regained his confidence again. His smile came back. The cheers for him grew louder than ever before, and it rejuvenated him out of his slump and back to the cheerful, happy-go-lucky teddy bear that JR knew.

But now, with the scandal, Baekho was back in that slump. Baekho was stressed and anxious about the entire thing, and so very uneasy.

JR was with him when Baekho read the post that the girl had written about him. JR saw the happiness fade from Baekho’s face and the life get out of him.

JR was also with him when Baekho met with the CEO to explain the truth.

“Did you do it?” the CEO asked, arms crossed and frowning.

Baekho hesitated, but eventually answered, embarrassed and ashamed: “Not how she explained it. She made it much worse than how it actually was.”

Baekho had to explain what happened– he did not go near the sensitive areas that she claimed he had touched, but he did touch her chest, meaning it as a joke. He explained that he was scolded by his parents and hers, but after he apologized, their families remained friends, and the issue was long over.

Why she had brought it up now, he did not know.

After hearing Baekho’s side of the story, the CEO concluded that her story was exaggerated and clearly meant as defamation, and so decided to deny it completely and sue her. They would win the case, because her story was obviously skewed and untrue, even if Baekho was slightly guilty.

But Baekho was unsure about the company’s decision– he was unsure that it was right to make it seem like the company was denying the accusation completely. He was also afraid for his family and how this would affect their relationship within the community. The girl that was accusing him was from a poor family, so even winning the lawsuit would drag the family through the mud and put them in so much debt, and Baekho didn’t want that. But the company didn’t care about that dimension. They only cared about Baekho’s image as an idol and their reputation as a company.

He had to remain silent. He couldn’t do or say anything to the public. Couldn’t apologize or make a statement. The company made all of the decisions for him, and Baekho silently stood behind them, uncertain and stressed for his family and hers. He was also very stressed for the future of NU’EST.

Just when they had started to gain momentum, just when their eight years of hard work was finally amounting to something– this breaks loose and ruins everything. Their songs were already falling off the charts. Their fancafe numbers were decreasing. Fansites were closing down. They were being pushed back towards nugudom after having progressed so far. And Baekho felt like it was all on his shoulders.

He drank a lot. Bumzu brought soju to their dorm and Baekho drowned his sorrows and drank right from the bottle. JR tried to comfort him, but JR was not the best at doing that.

Minhyun had always been the best at comforting him, but sadly, Minhyun was not around.

Baekho left his phone with the company in case the girl tried to call again, so he didn’t even have a phone through which he can talk to his friends and get some kind of emotional support. For now, his support system consisted of Bumzu and his incomplete members.

He used Ren’s phone to talk to his mother and his father, both of whom were also distressed about the whole thing. They were asked by the company not to speak to the other family at all, and not to talk about the scandal to anyone. The stress made his father’s health condition even worse, which made Baekho feel worse.

Not only was his father getting sicker, but his mother was very much influenced by the ordeal. She suddenly had a reputation in the community as the mother of a ual predator, whose evil son was using a powerful company to sue a poor, reputable family in the community. She told Baekho that she wouldn’t answer any phone calls from anyone or even open the door if someone knocked, because she was afraid of what they would say about him.

“My dear son, I can handle people insulting me, but my heart would break seeing people insult you,” she told him. Needless to say, she was not reading any of the online comments.

His father became more ill because of him. His mother was heartbroken because of him. And s…

Seeing Ren, Aron and JR’s faces really brought him down. Compared to the previous day, when they were smiling happily, excited about their upcoming comeback and their songs still charting very high– now, the smiles were gone and replaced with fear and apprehension for their career.

And it was all his fault. His stupid, hormonal, 12-year-old self that ruined everything.

-

It was a very busy day for Wanna One. From photoshoots to recordings to advertorials, their schedule that day was never-ending.

It was torture for Minhyun, who was still anxious about Baekho.

Of course, Seongwoo noticed this.

Seongwoo lied and told the manager that he needed to use the step-counter app on his phone to tell his doctor how many average steps per day he was walking, and the manager fell for it. Seongwoo therefore got to keep his phone, and he let Minhyun use it secretly in the back of the van as they were going to their next schedule.

Sadly for Minhyun, though, Jonghyun was not texting back.

“You’ll see them tomorrow. We have the rehearsal for the concert,” Ong reminded him when he saw how upset Minhyun looked when JR didn’t reply to his messages.

Minhyun nodded. If there was one thing that got him through that hellish day, it’s the fact that he would be reunited with his most of s tomorrow.

“You’re right,” Minhyun said with a nod.

“You should sleep,” Ong told him. “I know you didn’t sleep very well last night.”

“How did you know that?” Minhyun asked him, genuinely curious.

“I just guessed,” Ong replied.

“Guessed?”

“I understood how Dongho’s situation would make you feel, so I guessed you wouldn’t be able to sleep properly because of it.”

“You guessed right,” Minhyun said with a slight nod, which was followed by a yawn.

“We still have half an hour until we get to our next venue. You should rest. My shoulder is yours,” Seongwoo offered, making Minhyun smile. He accepted the offer and nestled against Seongwoo’s shoulder.

“I’m happy I got to debut with you, Seongwoo,” Minhyun hummed tiredly. “I’m happy I met you.”

Seongwoo smiled.

Within minutes, Minhyun was asleep.

Seongwoo took his phone and checked the messages that Minhyun had sent to Jonghyun.

Jonghyunnie? Are you there?

Guess not.

I miss you.

I love you.

Seongwoo read those messages with a pout on his face. They were really affectionate, he thought. And it bothered him. A lot.

“Minhyun, are you still here?” Jonghyun replied suddenly.

Ong felt the devil whisper in his ear, telling him to reply pretending to be Minhyun and try to get some answers, but he decided against it when he considered that he wouldn’t know how to explain that to Minhyun later.

Instead, he went for the truth. “nah, it’s Ong now. Minhyun’s asleep, sorry.”

“I see.”

“you two are very affectionate with each other aren’t you lol.”

Jonghyun replied with a nervous emoji and, “yeah I guess you can say that haha.”

“it’s cute. Anyways im gonna stop texting now. Minhyun’s on my shoulder asleep and I’m afraid I’ll wake him.”

“okay. See you tomorrow J”

There was something strange here, thought Seongwoo as he pondered on the text exchange for a long time. Why is there something so special about Jonghyun compared to the rest of s? Why isn’t Minhyun texting them? Why isn’t Minhyun telling them that he loved them? Why just Jonghyun?

The uncertainty drove him mad, and so Ong Seongwoo decided to pay extra attention to two of them tomorrow during the concert practice.

A/N: my onghwang feels have been very wild lately especially with the comeback wow so much onghwang im in loveeeee

also, important disclaimer: baekho's case is still unresolved and everything that i wrote in this chapter is mere assumptions that are purely fictitious and based on my own imagination