Monsta x really works hard on every song they make. They always check the sound, lyrics, the rap parts. But also the bigger picture. Does the song make sense? Is there a part that needs to be changed? Will Monbebe like the song? They all wanted it to be perfect.

 

And usually, Jooheon’s able to come up with great lyrics and raps. Usually… Not with this song, however. No, this song got him frustrated beyond believe. He wasn’t too convinced about the music to start with. Not that there was anything wrong with it. It was just, not what it should be. He couldn’t explain what bothered him, but it seemed that the other members had an equal amount of struggle with it as well.

 

Hoseok took a shot at writing most of the lyrics. After 3 days he almost gave up. Luckily Kihyung volunteered to help him. Hyunwoo decided to work on the choreography together with Hyungwon and they got somewhere rather fast. That was until they noticed that the dance worked really well with the melody, but not so much with the freshly written lyrics. Which made Kihyun lose his temper when they started to argue about what had to change, the lyrics or the dance? Anyway, Hyunwoo almost raised his voice (shocking really, but there was a flying plate involved so something had to be done) and that was that. They all decided to change some parts, using Minhyuk as the operator between them. Jooheon worked on his rap part, just as Changkyun worked on his.

 

It didn’t go how he wanted it to go. His flow was off, and words seemed wrong or they didn’t rhyme. After a day he finally managed to produce something that did make some sense and sounded… acceptable. He left it at that, thinking that tomorrow it would go better. But tomorrow turned into today and it didn’t get any better. He just spend his entire day and managed to improve one sentence. So to say he was pissed off would be an understatement.

 

Right now, he was sitting at the table, trying to calm down, giving up on writing his lyrics. Hoseok was chilling next to Minhyuk on the couch, barely watching what was on the TV. They just wanted to rest, forgetting the song, and some weird show seemed like the way to go. They noticed the rapper’s bad mood earlier and decided to leave him be. This week had been hell because of one song anyway, getting into another argument just wasn’t worth it anymore.

 

The others were out. Kihyun felt bad for getting angry and was helping Hyunwoo and Hyungwon with shopping for todays dinner. They got out when the weather was still fairly okay. But by now it seemed like the rain could start pouring any moment. Their youngest member was still in his studio writing his lyrics. He was the only one that didn’t give up today, Hoseok mentioned about half an hour ago. Jooheon huffed but agreed with his hyung.

 

Speaking of the maknae, the door to his studio opened and there he was, papers in his hands and walking towards him. They all noticed that the other rapper was oddly dressed for writing lyrics. A white dress shirt, black jeans and… bare feet? Oh well, Minhyuk thought, at least that’s the only part that’s . They all had at least one encounter with an almost maknae sitting in a gaming chair. This wasn’t so weird.

 

They youngest made his way over to the other rapper, clearly nervous.

“Hyung?”

 

“What?” Jooheon stated rather annoyed. The silver-haired rapper stopped right in front of him, saying nothing as he started to think about what to say. He was biting his bottom lip and wasn’t looking directly at his hyung. Jooheon got even more annoyed at this, just wanting to rest after today’s disaster.

“Now would be a good time to start talking.” This seemed to put Changkyun into action.

 

“Sorry, I just finished writing the lyrics for my part and I was hoping for, you know, giving me your opinion… or something?” the youngest said. It wasn’t a weird request in any way, the maknae asked for the red-haired rapper’s advice and ideas all the time. They were friends that helped each other, brothers, maybe even more. But Hoseok just thought that this would be the worst timing ever, given Jooheon’s foul mood. And they all knew that an annoyed Jooheon could become an angry Jooheon in a matter of seconds. 

 

“Changkyun-ah, I don’t thi-“ but his words got cut off by Jooheon.

 

“Sure.” The older rapper spoke. Voice not betraying his emotions any longer. Hoseok thought that perhaps his mood was improving, though very sudden.

 

Not wanting to annoy his hyung any more than necessary, Changkyun quickly handed over his papers and the other started reading them. The room was quite for a few minutes. Even Minhyuk and Hoseok stopped watching whatever they were watching to look at both rappers. Both of them getting more at ease that Jooheon wasn’t going to get angry. But their thoughts went down the drain when the older rapper started talking.

 

“What’s this?” Jooheon said, leaning back and looking up to his friend. Voice once more devoid of emotion. And with Jooheon that wasn’t a good thing.

It clearly made Changkyun uneasy knowing this as well.

 

“The lyrics for my part.” he paused.

“It… took me a while to get something decent.”

 

“Decent?” The other’s voice got a bit higher. He shook his head and smiled, but in a very fake way. The youngest already casting his eyes towards the floor.

“Okay, let’s go over this then. The first sentence doesn’t rhyme with anything. The second one is not making any sense. The third one… there’s a spelling mistake there, but I can overlook that… If the rest of the lyrics would be good.” He was still smiling, but by now everyone knew it was to keep himself from getting angrier. Changkyun started stammering slightly.

 

“Hyung, I-“ But Jooheon didn’t give him the time to say anything.

 

“Jeez, I’ve seen 12-year old kids creating better stuff.” Jooheon himself knew that that comment was way out of line. It wasn’t really that bad. Better than his work if he was being honest. He’d never admit that, however. His pride wouldn’t let him. It’s just that every one of them already delivered a mediocre part and they were going to get scolded for sure. Their maknae struggled just as much as all of them and managed to produce something that was okay, only Jooheon had hoped he’d bring forward something better to save them all. Pretty pathetic as a hyung, yes. But being tired of failing to deliver something good made him… prickly… and Changkyun just happened to have bad timing.

“You can do better… You NEED to do better.” He added, voice still calm, while he threw the papers on the table, getting up from his chair. His silver haired dongsaeng stepped back at the sudden movement while looking up, face slightly red and eyes wide open.

 

“Hyung, that’s why I came to you, I need your help and advice on ho-“ he tried to explain, but he once again got cut off.

 

“Help? Advice?! We’ve been doing this for how long now?” the red-haired rapper’s voice got louder now. The younger one was taken aback by the statement and both Minhyuk and Hoseok could see defensive Changkyun taking the wheel instead of the shy boy that stood there moments ago. This wasn’t going to end well.

 

“What’s wrong with that? It’s clearly not even near finished!” he retorted with a slightly louder voice.

 

“Wow, you spend 2 days working on this, have the guts to show it to us, then claim it isn’t finished.” Jooheon countered in an eerie voice.

 

“… Okay, hyung” The maknae threw his hands up, laughing with no humor in his voice. He was done with this game.

“What’s your problem?” he demanded. And that was the last droop for Jooheon’s patience.

 

“my problem is that YOU'RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!” Jooheon yelled.

 

“Yah, Jooheon-ah!” Minhyuk got up, uncharacteristically angry while Hoseok just sat there, frozen from surprise, eyes going back and forth between the two youngest members.

 

The silence that followed combined with the devastated expression the maknae was showing, made Jooheon realize that that last part didn’t come out how he had in mind at all. Hell, his last sentence could only be misinterpreted by the maknae, who was standing there, eyes downcast and sad. He fumbled with his fingers, obviously trying to hide any emotion, and failing. The red-haired rapper felt instant shame. He was so frustrated with himself that he took it out on the most insecure member of their group. Somebody that didn’t deserve this. Saying stuff that wasn’t true, yelling at him. What has he done? He should apologies right away. But the opportunity was lost when Changkyun cleared his voice, looked up to almost look Jooheon in the eye while walking backwards.

 

“Guess you guys don’t need me then.” He spoke, voice barely louder than a whisper. He turned around and walked towards the front door when Hoseok stood up.

 

“Wait, Changkyun-ah” he tried. The maknae stopped and turned his head his way. Tears threatening to fall while he muttered something among the line of “sorry hyung” before disappearing through the front door.

There was a silence for about ten seconds before Hoseok turned to Jooheon.

“Dude, seriously?” He sighed.

 

Jooheon immediately turned around, cursed and threw everything off the table, safe for some of the maknaes lyrics. The other two just watched him pace around, before sitting in the chair he sat in before. All the rage drained out of him as he hunched over and put his hands in his hair.

 

“… I just screwed that up, didn’t I?” the rapper admitted quietly, shoulders slumped.

 

“Understatement” Minhyuk agreed. Another silence passed before Jooheon stood up and walk over towards where the others stood.

 

“Hyung, can I borrow your phone?” Which made Minhyuk frown.

 

“Can’t you use yours, why do you need mine?” the blond demanded.

 

“Because, when he sees it’s me, he’s not gonna pick up.” The rapper explained with a sigh. It made sense. But just as he wanted to hand Jooheon his phone, a lightning bold lit up the room, making them all jump a little. Not a second later, they can see the rain pouring down outside.

 

“…”

 

 

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A/N: Hi all
Thanks for reading and sorry for the mistakes, not a native speaker. 
Will this fic get a happy ending? *dum DUM DAAAAH*
Also, the rating might go up, not sure just yet!