Orange peels strewn everywhere, an overly-enthusiastic presence staring right at him, TV blaring some crude comedy show… yep, Junjin is in his house.

“What are you doing here?” Hyesung asks not-so-nicely, throwing down his bag. “Who told you the passcode? I’m going to murder Eric.”

Junjin swallows his last bite of orange and scrambles up. “Actually, it was Minwoo-hyung, but” - he hastily continues, as Hyesung’s face darkens further - “to be fair, I harassed him. Anyway, we’re all pretty worried about you.” He grabs Hyesung’s arm and forces him to sit down on the couch. “You’ve been acting really weird lately.”

“How weird?” Hyesung refuses to meet his eyes, pouring himself a cup of water. “Life’s stressful, Choongjae. It’s not like you don’t know.”

Junjin doesn’t say anything, and the comedy shows blasts canned laughter. Hyesung reaches for the remote and turns the TV off. The following silence is oppressive, and Hyesung hopes that - knowing his dongsaeng - Junjin will break under the pressure.

Sure enough, Junjin keeps fidgeting, peeking at Hyesung from time to time, playing with his discarded orange peels. Finally, he clears his throat awkwardly. “Um, hyung…”

“Yes?” Hyesung doesn’t have the energy to be nice today. “What is it, Choongjae? Do you need to tell me something?”

Junjin fidgets some more, tearing apart his orange peels, and the smell of citrus invades Hyesung’s senses. He doesn’t like it, not right now. “What’s going on between you and Sunho?” Junjin finally blurts out. “I-I mean, it’s not like we, uh, suspect anything, but like, Dongwan-hyung, he told me that…”

Hyesung throws the remote down, hard. The batteries pop out of the back, clattering on the floor, and Junjin jumps. “H-hyung…”

“I shouldn’t have gone to that guy!” Hyesung explodes, arms tensing up as he struggles to control himself. “I ing knew it, should have seen it coming!”

“Hyung!” Junjin grabs Hyesung again. “Calm down, Dongwan-hyung just wanted to help. Apparently, Andy told him something and he wanted to talk to you, but he didn’t have time because his drama, you know, so I came for him, except he didn’t tell me what was wrong, and--”

“Jin. Jin.” Hyesung’s head hurts, and he faceplants into the couch. “Choongjae. Shut the up.”

Junjin shuts up. Hyesung hears shuffling, and then, a familiar tune reverberates within the living room. He lets out a frustrated growl. It’s Hurts, and Junjin is obviously trying to guilt-trip him into talking.

“We fought, okay?” he snarls, punching the couch cushion. “We fought, and I got mad at him, and now we’re not talking anymore.” He whips around to face Junjin. “Happy now?”

Junjin hums, eyebrows knitted together. “No.” Seeing Hyesung’s expression darken, he presses on. “You really need to talk it out, you know. It hurts everyone, not just you two, and it’s just… really worrying.”

An inhuman noise rips itself out of Hyesung’s throat, and Junjin jumps again. “No, I mean it,” he reassures, carefully patting Hyesung’s back. “We can all be there, or we can set it up, or something.”

“He won’t even ing look at me.” Hyesung sighs, suddenly tired. “I’ve lost my baby bird, just like that…”

“Well, hey, you still have me!” Kudos to Choongjae for not knowing the situation. Hyesung can only glare at him. Sure, it’s not his fault, but he’s really not helping right now. “I mean, I’m sure he’ll forgive you. We’re Shinhwa, after all.”

Shinhwa or not, Hyesung doesn’t want to confront his dongsaeng - either of them - today. He roughly drags Junjin up and pushes him out of his house, throws Junjin’s shoes out, and locks the damn door.

Not today, Satan. Not to-ing-day.

really short chapter ;;;; i'm sorry ;;;; but hey, they're getting somewhere! ish... not really LOL