He was pacing up and down in the living room, one hand on his hip, the other going up to rub at his creased forehead. He could slowly feel the slight throbbing pain make it's way towards it.

Abruptly his pacing stopped,and he turned his body to the sofa that was aligned against the wall next to the balcony. His eyes met every other pair of those sitting in front of him.

"So." Jinki said. "So."

Key looked at Jonghyun, who was sitting on his right, with a worried expression. The latter smiled reassuringly, squeazing the blonde rapper's shoulder for comfort. But he couldn't hide that he was quite nervous himself.

Their leader stood in front of them, and he looked much more taller than he actually was at that moment.

"You want me. Me, who has nothing to do with any of this -" "Yeah, nothing at all. You're just our leader..." Minho's deep rumble of a voice interrupted him. The oldest sent the tall rapper a glare that made him retreat into the couch. Then he started again. " - who's got nothing, nothing at all, to do with this go and talk to our manager to get you out of the trouble you brought on yourselves?!" His eyes were positively murderous. "Are you mad? Why am I always the one that has to get your asses out of your own mess?!"

The four others twitched with guilt. They knew it wasn't really fair to ask Jinki to do this, but...

"But hyung, you're the one manager-hyung listens to most!" Taemin's voice piped up.

Jinki looked at their maknae seriously. "Honestly, Taemin? This isn't really fair for me, is it?" The youngest squirmed a bit in his seat next to Minho. "I'm either being scolded by our manager cause I get involved, or I get ignored by you guys because I didn't help. Now tell me how that helps my situation with all of this at all!"

Minho put an arm around the dancer, trying to shield him from the oldest's words. "Hyung, no need to be vicious to him." He muttered. But they all knew their leader had a good reason to be this worked up.

A few days before, their manager accidentally walked in on Jonghyun and Key making out on the couch. Needless to say, he wasn't amsued. At all. Fuming he had gone up to Minho's room, only to see him and Taemin cuddled up next to each other watching a movie. He had figured out the rest. So even if he didn't oppose homouality as such, he oposed to it when it was in between the members of his most famous protégés. They were idols for God's sake, he had cried. They were supposed to appeal to their fans, not to the members in the group. What a scandal it would be if the press would hear of it. Homoual dating in an idol group? North Korea would send the bombs over gladly.

The boys had winced when their manager had blown up that way. They knew it wasn't the ideal way to live together, but they also knew that if they didn't have each other, they wouldn't last through the tiring schedules long. So Taemin had had the idea to talk their leader into talking with their manager. Because while he was the dorkiest of them at times, he was also the one their manager listened to when he was talking seriously.

So about half an hour prior, the four members had ganged up on an unsuspecting Jinki, who had only wanted to cook himself breakfast before going out for vocal training, as his original schedule, aswell as those of the other members, had been canceled for two weeks by a pissed off manager who had said he wanted them to 'solve that problem'. Already being not entirely happy about that fact, the brown-haired vocalist found it entirely annoying that he had to take sides in this arguement. For once he had hoped he could live it through without so much as a scratch.

"I'm sorry." Jinki said, sighing heavily. The others knew that meant the end of their conversation.

Deflated and grumbling, they stood up from their seats on the couch, and made their way to their respective rooms slowly, not one failing to give their leader a half-hearted glare.

Jinki was left alone in the living room, looking after their disappearing forms. Once he was sure everyone was in their rooms, he sighed even louder, burrying his face in his hands and let himself fall backwards onto the couch. Laying there, he wondered what he was supposed to do. Had it really been a good idea to turn them down? Would their manager really keep them from their schedules until this was solved? What did he mean by 'solving' anyway? Breaking them up?

As much as the oldest hated to be pulled into this, he felt his stomach clench when he thought about s having to break up. He only wanted the best for his dongsaengs after all, and he knew that if it would come that far, the headache he had now would be nothing compared to the problems they would be facing then. How do you live together with four people that had to stop dating because of their jobs? Wouldn't they quit faster than he could stop them?

Another deep, resigning sigh escaped his lips. Oh screw this.

Before he could change his mind, Jinki got up and put on his shoes. He walked towards the wardrobe, fished his scarf and his jacket out of it and put them on. He popped a little white pill into his mouth, swallowing it dry.

He really hoped the headache tablet would have started its effect by the time he would set a foot into his manager's office.