Choi Minho sat motionless as he stared at the blank wall of his hyung’s room. It’s been his only view for the past three days- it would have only been one had the vicious claws of emptiness not taken him hostage.

He could not return to the apartment, not now when he still did not understand why everything had gone downhill so quickly.

Taemin, his wonderful, graceful, dancing legend of a boyfriend, did not want to date him in the first place. He was nothing more than an obligation to the younger. Minho felt disgusted in himself as he looked back at the memories between him and the maknae, but he could not recreate any of the positive emotions that were attached to the wisps of joy and desire. Desire has melded into disgust and shame- shame for assuming that Taemin had enjoyed their time together. He truly was a fool.

“A fool for you, Lee Taemin,” Minho whispered out towards no one in particular. A choked sob sounded through the room as he pushed his hands up to his face to veil himself from the cruel reality of his falsified love life.

Why would Taemin want to be with him anyway? What was so special about him that made him think that he could be happy with the young shining star?

“Minho, it’s Junmyeon hyung, can I come in?” A pleasant voice tinged the room with a tone of worry as the leader of EXO stood outside the room, having heard the sob as he was returning from Yixing’s room.

“It’s your room hyung, no one’s stopping you,” he answered, not moving from his position.

The door opened silently, and Junmyeon entered the room gently. As his form stilled, he looked at the pitiful state of his dongsaeng, a pang of pity running through him. Sure Taemin and Minho had the occasional argument, but never to the point where Minho refused to move from his position in days.

The elder man eased his body onto the bed, letting out a sigh.

Tensioned silence rang throughout the chilly room, the air thick and cloudy.

“Do you love Lay hyung?”

The question shocked Suho, and he turned to look at Shinee’s rapper, who had yet to move from his hunched over state.

“What do you mean?”

“Even though you two were forced to be together, do you still love hyung like you loved Kris?”

Kim Junmyeon inhaled, turning his head to the wall of his room; the question made his heartache, but he knew he couldn’t answer it truthfully- what would he and Yixing even call themselves at this point?

“Minho-ah….” the grey-haired man began, ending in a sigh as he looked down at his hands. “Lay and I are not a good example of a relationship. We’re complicated.”

“Not that complicated,” Lay spoke from the door, a frown on his face as he entered the room slowly, sitting down next to the younger.

“What could Taemin have said that’s made you completely break down?” Yixing asked gently, placing a hand on Minho’s thigh in comfort.

“Hyung, you guys didn’t get together of your own will right?”

The question made the elders in the room still with shock- that was the one unspoken rule in the industry, to not tell anyone that your relationship was essentially fan service. The companies that allowed alphas and omegas in the same group needed to make sure both stayed in check- imagine the backlash from one of the idols being with someone else. Hence, the idea of inner group dating began, and with it, all that became involved with his scheme made sure to fake their love, to prove to the public that they were the most in love couple on the planet when in fact they could very well hate each other.

“You know we’re not supposed to ask that, Minho,” Junmyeon sighed, looking down at his hands with an unreadable expression. Lay was a wonderful person and anyone that fell in love with him couldn’t fall out of it, but that was the problem; he and Yixing didn’t love each other.

“I know.”

The Chinese male stared at his supposed Korean counterpart with a clenched jaw, the disappointment clear in his eyes.

“Does that have anything to do with Taemin and you?”

“Yixing, you know he’s not allowed to answer that truthfully, we’re all under contract,” Suho pointed out, not raising his head from his hands as if they had become the most interesting item in his entire life.

Ah yes, the contract. That damned contract they all signed when they joined the company and again when they debuted. Everyone in the idol world knew what the contract was- it basically told them that, if their companies wanted, they needed to maintain an unfulfilling relationship with a person that the company had picked in their own group for as long as the person was under the company.

“The managers aren’t here, and Minho’s not in the best state of mind. I would rather cheer him up instead of worrying about a problem that isn’t present, don’t you agree?”

Junmyeon pursed his lips in frustration- the man was a stickler for rules, especially the ones that kept his career afloat and after waiting seven years to debut, he wasn’t going to start playing around with that idea. He gave Lay a look, locking his jaw to signify that they were going to talk about this later.

“Taemin didn’t even want to date me in the first place,” Minho confessed, forgoing the warning bells in the back of his mind- these were his hyungs, people he had known for years, they weren’t going to be whistleblowers.

A sharp intake sounded from Suho’s side of the room as he whipped his head over to Minho’s direction.

“Minho…” He trailed off, his voice beginning to get the starting signs of pity. Minho felt his eyes begin to tear up again as he heard the tone of Junmyeon’s voice.

“Taemin said that he didn’t want to date me in the first place, Hyung,” Minho restated. “It’s been seven years, but he brought this up now, when I’ve fully fallen in love with him and it hurts hyung.” His voice broke as he started to succumb to his tears.

“It hurts so much.”

Lay sighed, looking away from the pitiful sight in front of him.

“Minho, maybe you should go talk to him,Taemin is still somewhat young, he probably didn't mean what he was saying,” Suho said, his voice soft and sad as if he could understand Minho perfectly.

He could though because the same happened with Wu Yifan all those years ago- an unrequited love story that ended explosively and harmed both of them when they parted ways.

“Taemin is more than old enough to understand what he was saying, Junmyeon,” Lay replied, his jaw clenching- that was Junmyeon’s response to everything the youngster trainees did.

“Taemin is also hot-headed, in case you had forgotten, Yixing.”

Yixing refused to look over at the elder, instead, he rose from the bed, sighing.

“I think you should go back to the dorm. If you stay here longer, your relationship will suffer.” With that, the Chinese male left the room, leaving a disappointed leader behind.

Minho watched as the door closed gently before he too got up from the bed. He ran a hand through his tangled hair and then stilled, waiting for Junmyeon to get up as well.

“Hyung, can you drive me back to the dorm?”

Suho began to protest, but Minho cut him off with a soft, “Please.”

“Let’s go.”