Hyungwon pressed the red circle on his phone, ending the conversation… Well, him speaking to be exact. The other didn’t say a word. He only could hear Changkyun making small sounds and static, probably the rain in the background. Which meant that he was still outside. Damn it. He knew the younger one and his insecurities. And that’s what made him worry even more.

 

“Did he say anything?” Hoseok inquired. His hyung was looking very worried, biting his lower lip. He had been since they found out about their maknae not wearing any shoes. Not that he wasn’t worried before that, Hyungwon knew, but him running around the living room, trying to find something to do, did increase the last hour or so.

 

“No.” Hyungwon shook his head. He put away his phone in his pocket after turning the volume up. Usually, he kept it on mute, but not now. What if their youngest member called back and he didn’t hear? Hyungwon knew that Changkyun wouldn’t call back, probably too confused and stressed at this time. But he wasn’t a hundred percent sure.

“I could hear some sounds, his breathing, the rain and such. But that was it… he-“ he paused.

“it sounded like he was crying” Hyungwon added.

 

The statement made Hoseok look at Kihyun, who just joined them after cooking, still wearing an apron. Both sighed simultaneously, silently confirming that they already suspected this would be the case, even though they didn’t like it. Jooheon, sitting back on the same chair where everything went wrong earlier, groaned, face hidden in his hands. Hyungwon felt for the guy. Sure, he’d been the cause of all this. But it was clear how the other one really felt.

 

At that moment the door opened, showing Minhyuk and their leader. If they didn’t know Changkyun wasn’t found yet, they would’ve known now. Minhyuk’s expression had more in common with the dark clouds outside than the usual ray of sunshine he spread around. Even Hyunwoo was clearly feeling anxious.

 

“Nothing huh?” The leader spoke. It was a question he obviously already knew the answer of but asked anyway.

 

“No.” Kihyun answered this time.

“Hyungwon got a hold of him, but he had to do all the talking…” Hyungwon nodded in affirmation. He might as well keep them updated.

 

“I only heard him making a few sounds now and then… he was clearly upset.” He added.

“Apart from that, there was the sound of rain in the background. Pretty sure he’s still outside.” That last part made Minhyuk speak up.

 

“Great, it’s still pouring, accompanied by an occasional lightning bold. The temperature is way too low for this time of the year, hours have passed and he’s still outside, wearing a dress shirt. Did I forget anything?” the blond ranted in despair.

“Oh yeah, he’s NOT WEARING ANY SHOES!” Hyungwon could see the red-haired rapper flinch at that last part.

“Now what?” Minhyuk ended. Looking at the rest of them, in search for ideas. His head turned to look at Hyunwoo when the leader cleared his throat.

 

“I think it’s time to call the managers.” There was that actual leader-esk, acting-authority-thing again. Hyunwoo never acted like that, ever. Yet today, he managed to do it twice. It made all of them agree in seconds. Well, all but Hyungwon. Getting the managers would mean even more trouble.

 

“Wait.” Hyungwon began. Gears turning inside his head. Instead of looking at Hyunwoo, they were now all looking at him. Confusion clearly visible on their faces.

“That’s not going to be necessary. He’s going to come back soon.” He started to think about how to explain himself, the ‘going to call the managers’ made him realize something. Even Jooheon was looking up now. Hoseok tried to speak, but Hyungwon didn’t let him, holding his hand up.

 

“Let me explain. I heard the rain on the phone, he was outside no doubt,… but it wasn’t like he was standing in the rain… It sounded more like he’d found a shelter, like under a bridge or something. His phone isn’t waterproof; his screen is cracked. The phone would be dead by now otherwise… He doesn’t have a place to stay, so he needs to come back eventually. Besides, he knows we need to tell the managers if he doesn’t return. So, he’ll return.” There was a silence when he stopped talking. They still looked confused.

“Guys, Changkyun already thinks he’s in trouble, he wouldn’t want us to call them. Believe me.” He tried.

 

“Okay true, but how are you so sure he’ll come back on his own? We’re here and he hasn’t.” Hoseok asked.

 

“Exactly, that’s the reason why he didn’t. Because, we’re still here, hyung! He’s shy, insecure and most likely thinks we’re angry at him.” Kihyun nodded in understanding.

 

“I get what you’re saying, Hyungwon-ah. But you can’t expect us to just leave until he’s back.” As soon as the words left short brunet’s mouth, realization dawned upon him.

“We don’t need to leave; he just needs to think that we did.”

 

And with that, the rest of the members got the idea as well. Hyunwoo came up with the plan to turn off all the lights and fake sleeping, since it was already quite late, only to wait in the dark until their maknae stepped through the front door. It wasn’t the best plan, but given their youngest’s weird mind twists, it might actually work. The light from inside the building was very visible on the outside. He would notice it being turned off.

Kihyun demanded a plan for handling the distressed maknae as well and pointed out that Hyungwon would be the best candidate to talk to him.

 

And so, they were sitting in the living room, facing the front door, in the dark. The only light source came from underneath the front door. The lights in the hallway were bright and there was a small opening under the door. The curtains let through some lights, but it was barely there.

 

After half an hour of total darkness, Hyungwon could make out a few silhouettes, but other than that there was nothing. It was mostly silent, safe for some breathing, someone adjusting their position and stuff like that. The silence and the wait made him question their plan. They could be out here all night, waiting for Changkyun to come back. But what if he didn’t return? What then? It was still raining and freezing. What if he stays outside the entire night? That would be very bad.

 

His train of thoughts was interrupted by Minhyuk’s decision to talk. It startled him, but not as much as it did Hoseok, who was sitting next to him and nearly jumped at the sound.

 

“This isn’t working.” He stated.

“We’ve been here how long?”

 

“Not that long, give it some time.” The mom of the group added. Minhyuk snorted at that.

 

“Alright. But I still don’t see what the plan is here.”

 

“Jeez.” Kihyun responded.

“Changkyun comes in, we tell him we’re happy he’s back, we give him time to change his clothes and get dry, then Hyungwon is going to talk to him. And hopefully he’ll want to talk to Jooheon later, solving everything and voila.”

 

“Why Hyungwon?” Minhyuk demanded in a slightly louder voice, which made Kihyun even more annoyed.

 

“Who else? Hyunwoo hyung is not good with the emotional speech thing, Hoseok hyung is too good at it and probably starts crying, Jooheon… well, it’s obvious why not him and you are… you are you!”

 

“What?! What’s that supposed to m-“ But Minhyuk’s reply got cut off by Hoseok whispering.

 

“Shh, someone’s at the door.” And sure thing, there was a shadow blocking out the light that came from outside. The distant beeps from the security code being entered could be heard. Could it be?

 

The door opened slowly. The bright light made Hyungwon wince but it didn’t matter because he could make out the black shape of their maknae standing there. His hair and height were normally a dead giveaway, but it was the lack of shoes that did it this time. That and the fact that he was drenched.

 

He seemed completely drained; shoulders slumped. Changkyun didn’t seem to notice them sitting there because he entered the room trying to be extremely silent. He turned around and closed the door so slowly to make sure no one would hear. It was obvious that he didn’t want to talk to them.

So they just had to wait until their maknae the light so they could welcome him back in a positive way, so he’d want to talk. Yeah… Hyungwon liked that idea.

 

Only, the light was suddenly by somebody else. Changkyun was still standing there, back towards them, shoulders tense now. There goes the happy welcome back. Now he’d turn around to find six interrogators sitting there. Or so he would probably think. Great.

 

Even greater, Changkyun did turn around after a moment. Looking at the floor in embarrassment. And that’s when Jooheon made the decision to cross the room and hug the maknae out of nowhere. So much for the plan.

 

--

 

The look on their maknaes face could only be described as shocked when he did look up. If the circumstanced were better, it would’ve been funny, Hyungwon thought. Cuddle monster Jooheon and Changkyun just hanging there, being hugged. Until the latter decided to hug back.

 

But that wasn’t going to be the case. As soon as the silver-haired rapper looked around at his hyungs, his expression shifted from shock to anger. He’d probably figured out who was hugging him after seeing his other hyungs in front of him. He could do the math. Hyungwon realized then that he didn’t know how the maknae would react. He practically never got past an annoyed state, let alone anger.

 

He could see the maknaes shoulders starting to tremble with rage. Jooheon probably read the movement wrong because he just hugged the other even tighter, not being able to see his face. And that’s when the younger one snapped and shoved the older rapper off of him and just glared in the direction of his red-haired hyung.

 

Jooheon, definitely surprised by this action, tried to hug him again. Hyungwon was convinced that the older rapper just didn’t know what else to do. But Changkyun pushed him back even harder before he could even touch him.

 

Just then, when pausing to really take a look at the other, Jooheon seemed to notice Changkyun’s mood. His shoulders were heaving, hands balled to fists and mouth switching between being partially open and teeth clenching while trying to contain his anger. Anger wasn’t the correct word, Hyungwon deduced, their maknae was livid.

 

“Changkyun-ah” Jooheon tried with a soft voice while taking a step forward, trying to reach out. But the younger rapper just took a step back, not looking into the other one’s eyes.

 

“Don’t.” the other spoke for the first time, voice barely above a whisper but deeper than they’ve ever heard. It was also the first time the youngest member looked up directly at the other rapper, glaring from underneath his wet bangs, eyes slightly red and a thin line of liquid at the bottom. Hyungwon realized rage wasn’t the only thing Changkyun felt, the maknae looked deeply hurt as well.

 

The silver-haired rapper broke eye contact soon after, staring at the floor while swiping the moisture from his eyes. He exhaled loudly through his nose, calming himself down, and walk away with a fast pace toward the bedrooms.

 

Hyungwon noticed that Minhyuk tried to stop him, but he was able to catch him by his arm before he could. Minhyuk turned around, but before he could say anything, a bedroom door closed with a soft click. That’s when Jooheon broke down crying.

 

“Oh god, h-he hates me!” Hoseok was already hugging the rapper when Minhyuk walked away from him, towards the other and hugged him as well.

“I-I desssserved this… I k-know” the others tried to calm him down, telling him the maknae was just mad.

 

At first, when Hyungwon saw how angry their youngest member was, he thought he’d lied to Jooheon earlier today when he told him that Changkyun was forgiving and didn’t hate him. But then, when that resentment left the maknae as soon as it entered him, he was at ease again. He must’ve felt like they were toying with his feelings. He had every right to be angry with them.

Hyungwon was a bit surprised when a hand suddenly touched his shoulder. Kihyung.

 

“You’re not gonna talk to him?” the short member asked. Hyungwon just smiled reassuringly in return.

 

“No, I’m going in a bit. Figured it’d be a good thing to give him some time to cool down and change clothes.” Kihyung nodded at the explanation.

 

--

 

And so there he was, thirty minutes later, standing in front of the bedroom door where he knew Changkyun was. The others managed to calm Jooheon down and now he was sitting, curled up in a ball, next to Minhyuk on the couch. Al least one of the rappers was calm. He wasn’t sure in which state he was going to find the other one, if he even wanted to talk to him in the first place.

 

Hyungwon gathered all his courage and knocked softly on the door. Nothing. He tried again after a few seconds.

 

“Kyunnie?” he knew the door wasn’t locked. Changkyun never locked the door. Which occasionally led to some… interesting sights. He could just open it. Though he didn’t want to stress the maknae even further. Enough was enough.

“Kyunnie?” He tried again. He knew the maknae was in there and not in the bathroom because he could hear a noise behind the door, like someone stumbling.

Hyungwon was ready to knock again, when the door finally opened, revealing the youngest member. He changed into a black sweater with comfy looking sweatpants. His hair seemed damp, but definitely drier than before. His eyes were downcast, partially hidden behind his bangs and Hyungwon was happy that they were dry as well. The maknae wasn’t showing any emotions, he was just standing there.

 

“Hey” Hyungwon tried, voice soft with a small smile.

“Can I come in?” The younger one didn’t answer. But he left the door open, turned around, and sat on the edge of the bed. Hyungwon entered and sat down next to him. He looked fine, physically anyway. But he needed to make sure.

“You okay? You were out in that awful storm for quite a while. Do you feel ill, feverish?” the maknae didn’t say anything or looked at him, but he did shake his head slowly. Right, he could work with that.

 

“That’s good. Can I check your feet?” Hyungwon didn’t see him limping, but that might be the adrenaline. The other shifted a bit until the older one could see the flat of his feet. Hyungwon was happy that Changkyun decided to cooperate with him, and slightly horrified at the state of the other’s feet. They were covered in dirt and dried blood.

“Okay, we need to clean them and see what going on, be right back.” He got up to grab a clean washing cloth, a towel and the first aid kit.

 

When Hyungwon returned a few moments later the maknae was still sitting in the same position on the bed. He sat back down and started to clean the other’s feet gently.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like there was a lot of damage. Some nasty scratches and cuts. And he was definitely going to bruise, no doubt about it. But nothing worth going to a hospital for.

“Well, nothing too bad, but I need to disinfect these. This might sting.”

 

The lack of response he got from the other worried him a bit. The silver-haired rapper was mostly silent, safe for some hissing when Hyungwon was treating one of the deeper cuts. And sure, he was always a rather silent type, but not like this. Perhaps some small talk would help.

 

“These are going to be sore for a while, but I’m surprised it isn’t worse. With the rain and all.” He started, looking at the task at hand.

“Speaking of rain, we got our groceries wet earlier. Kihyun hyung almost scared Hyunwoo hyung with drowned mushrooms, it was quite funny.” He smiled at the memory.

“Apart from that he was very leader like today. Not even once, but twice. Probably worried about you.” Hyungwon paused for a second. Perhaps Changkyun was still scared they were angry at him. Maybe that’s why he wasn’t moving a muscle.

 

“You know, we were all worried right?” He looked up to see the maknae clenching his jaw. At least some reaction. He focused his gaze back on disinfecting the wounds.

“None of us are angry at you, okay. Not even Jooheon... He was just angry with himself and didn’t notice and worked it out on you… now he’s worried you hate him. He worried the entire evening, Kyunnie. We all did.”

 

Hyungwon stopped explaining when he felt the other one tremble. He looked up to find the other one biting his bottom lip and tears threatening to fall.

 

“I’m s-sorry” the maknae stuttered. Hyungwon now understood that the lack of response was to keep his emotions in check. But what good would that do? So he decided the smaller one needed a hug and embraced him and pulling him forward, making sure the rapper’s head was resting against his chest.

 

“Hey, it’s okay.” And that was enough to make the younger one burst out into tears while gripping the front of Hyungwon’s shirt. All the pent-up emotions just left the maknaes body as he wailed against him. And all Hyungwon could do was his hair and pat his back in comfort.