I

The light of the window hit him squarely in the eyes.

                The rest of the room was pristinely dark. Chance would have it that the minute opening between the blackout shades and the window would angle so perfectly onto Seunghyun’s pillow.

                The sun. Hundreds of millions of miles away. Impeccable aim.

                A glance at the clock told the crusty-eyed idol that he had at least twenty more minutes before everyone’s alarms would go off and wake the rest of his group. As much as he just wanted to curl up and go back to sleep, he stood up. Seunghyun ran a hand through his stiff teal hair, slinking from his bed to the hallway.
                A small jumble of incoherent phrases came from Jiyong’s room a few steps from the bathroom, where his door was slightly ajar. Seunghyun smirked at his dongsaeng’s odd habit, remembering times he’d been woken up by Jiyong’s sleep-babbling. Times where he had sleep to spare.

                 The entire group must have remained asleep, as the washroom was empty for Seunghyun to step into. The tile would have been cold on his bare feet, so he stepped directly from carpet to the rug in front of the shower, a habit he’d learned from never wearing socks.

                He set the shower dial to the exact position he’d used since figuring out the perfect temperature, and stood idle until it heated up. A minute later he was behind the glass, preparing for a day he wasn’t looking forward to.

                The shower was usually a place for TOP to consider new concepts to propose to his band members or seniors. A place to reconsider a verse of a title track. To worry about minuscule details.

                But that morning and the last few preceding it had been different. His mind ran a constant blank, his only regards going toward that days’ schedule.

                So even if it wasn’t all that meaningful, he still had a lot to think about.

                That day the list was shorter than usual. Breakfast. Report to some studio. Get shaped, molded, airbrushed, before taking endless amounts of pictures until one was deemed perfect. Youngbae had to go to some dance class, Jiyong to his own, and then to a voice lesson accompanied by Daesung.

                But what else was on the table for TOP? Instead of a lesson to help his abandoned hope of dancing, he had a never-ending recording session. Where he’d be told when to start, stop, repeat, and improve. He could smell the stuffy interior of the booth behind the trick mirror already.

                The shower seemed to get overly hot, and the tiles around him started closing in. Seunghyun finished in a rush, hardly wiping the last of the suds off his skin.

                He dried himself off quickly, switching on the fan to make the condensation on the mirror dissipate. He ran his towel raggedly over his hair, causing it to stick out in all directions. With the towel wrapped securely around his waist, Seunghyun began prepping for the day – as much as he could by himself, at least. As his reflection became less foggy, Seunghyun ducked his head into his cabinet to take out his things.

                Being bleached and dyed so many times in a short few weeks made his hair brittle and stiff. He’d been instructed to use a deep conditioner and a gel that turned his fingers a faint grey before he washed them. He didn’t dare to make eye contact with the reflection looming in front of him, not wanting to know if his eyes were reddened from lack of sleep.

                He ran through the rest of the motions of his routine, scrubbing his face roughly and brushing his teeth, before there was a hurried knock on the door.

                “Hyung!” Jiyong shouted from the hallway. “I’m calling the bathroom after you!” He sounded every bit as tired as Seunghyun felt.

                “Alright,” he called back. “I’ll be out soon.” For all the sound he’d made walking away, Seunghyun could have assumed that GDragon was still standing on the other side of the door. He pulled on a simple sweatshirt and jeans, not taking time to sculpt his hair. It would be done for him soon enough.

                He unlocked the door and pulled it open, revealing Jiyong and Youngbae waiting impatiently at the end of the hallway by Daesung’s door.

                “Hyunnie, tell him I was here first,” Jiyong’s lip trembled convincingly.

                Seunghyun grinned and shrugged. “Sorry, Bae. He called it.”

                With that, Jiyong did a little victory jig backwards into the bathroom, shutting the door on a disgruntled Youngbae.

                “Up early again, hyung?” The shortest member asked the tallest, starting to move to the kitchen since bathing was temporarily out of the question.

                “Yeah…” Seunghyun replied, twisting chunks of his hair to hopefully coax it into standing up a bit. “If it means getting the shower before Jiyong, getting up first is easy.” He said, grinning. He rounded the granite counter of the kitchen’s island, opening the fridge. He pulled out the nearly-empty milk carton and poured himself a glass, making it go foggy almost instantly against his warm skin. He offered the carton to Youngbae, who swigged the last of it with a mischievous smirk.

                “You’re right. I don’t understand why he doesn’t wait for the actual make-up artists to make him look pretty. He spends so much time in there.”  Youngbae mused, taking a seat on one of the barstools. “It just seems like you’ve been up before everyone almost every day this week.” He dismissed his thoughts. “Hey, you’re in the studio today, right?” He asked after a pregnant pause.

                Seunghyun nodded, poking around in the refrigerator before giving up the search for leftovers. He leaned against the counter. “Teddy needed me for some harmonies and stuff, I don’t know. Why?”

                “I left my shades in there the other day.” He pulled a face. “Do you think you could find them for me?”

                “I’d probably have trouble getting Teddy to part with them, but no problem.” Seunghyun agreed, swinging back around. He opened a few cabinets before finding the sole box of Cheerios, pouring himself a full bowl before pausing and cursing softly. “No milk,” he stuck his tongue in his cheek, groaning. Disregarding the lack of milk, he maneuvered back around the island and sat on the armchair in the TV room slowly, so as to not displace any of the cereal. He began eating the little O’s a few at a time with his fingers, having forgotten his spoon on the counter.

                Youngbae plopped on the couch next to Seunghyun with the cereal box in hand, digging through it and making the plastic rustle noisily. He shoved a fistful of Cheerios into his mouth and reached forward for the remote.

                “Hey! You can’t just eat from the box,” Seunghyun scolded, disgusted. “I just opened that yesterday.”

                Youngbae hesitated, his arm buried back into the box up to his elbow. He shrugged and extracted it, a few of the O’s clinging to his forearm and dropping onto the couch. “I’ll make sure Daesung finishes it,” He said impishly.
                Seunghyun watched each O roll off of Youngbae’s skin and followed where they fell into the pristinely white cushions with his eyes. “You’re not going to find those until next year,” he said, peering under the couch where a few grains were in danger of being crushed by Youngbae’s feet. A few of his own pieces of cereal stuck to his lips as he ate, but just dropped harmlessly back into his bowl.

                “I’ll pick them up later, alright?” Youngbae rolled his eyes and snatched the remote from the table and flipped to MTV.
                Neither of the two paid any real attention to what was playing. Youngbae got up to take the cereal back to the kitchen before Daesung stumbled in, doing the same as Seunghyun and settling for a bowl of dry cereal.
                Seungri came out of his room, fully dressed, before Jiyong was finished with most of his prepping. Youngbae took the bathroom next.
                “Why is there nothing to eat?” Jiyong shouted at the sight of the empty fridge, slamming it shut once he’d been sure there was nothing he could instantly heat up and eat. He crossed the distance between the kitchen and TV room in an instant, even with his short legs. “Hyung, what’d you get for breakfast?” He said, leaning on the back of Seunghyun’s chair.
                Seunghyun simply gave a half-glance to the empty bowl on the coffee table in response.
                “Was there any left?” Jiyong asked, having observed both Daesung and Seungri snacking on bowls of their own.

                They shook their heads cautiously. “Sorry, Ji…”

                Jiyong hung his head. “Vitamin water it is,” he sighed, pulling himself back up to full height and grumbling back to the kitchen.

                “We’re going to the voice class right after the shoot, right?” Daesung asked Jiyong, scratching his head.

                “No,” Jiyong said in gentle exasperation. “I have my dance practice first. I’m going to that right after. Then I’ll go with you to the voice lesson.”

                “Oh, okay. I wasn’t sure. Will you be able to get any lunch then? Will you have time?”
                “Probably not. I might be able to get an intern to get me some fried rice or something though…” Jiyong yawned, scratching his stomach.

                Once Youngbae was dried off and fully clothed, the group piled into their van and was chauffeured to the studio where their pictures would be taken. Seungri and Daesung had agreed to take showers the night before so everyone could get more sleep.

                Each of the members went to his own section in the green room, had their own chair and mirror, and their own pack of hair and make-up artists to prep them for the shoot. Seunghyun followed their directions instinctively, tilting his head one way to curl his hair that way, closing his eye to get foundation on just so, and trying to maintain a casual conversation with those doting on him.
                “Your eyes are so dark,” one of the women clucked, applying perfectly measured amounts of blush. “Were you working late last night? You look tired.”

                “Ah… Yes,” he lied, avoiding making eye contact with his reflection or the three women circling him. “Practicing.” He said vaguely, hoping he wouldn’t have to expand on his thoughts.

                “You idols work so hard! Fighting!” She tutted, then set back to work on making the bags under his eyes less prominent.

                Seunghyun nodded fractionally before spacing out again.
                When it was his turn in front of the camera, TOP didn’t have to work very hard. He just had to put on the solemn expression he’d perfected years ago and it would be sufficient for the directors. He was able to get the feel of the shoot from GDragon, who had taken his pictures before him and was now standing behind the camera crew.

                Though he wasn’t wearing his signature tuxedo but rather a black shirt with short sleeves, Seunghyun was still quite comfortable. This may have been due to the fact that he was relieved that he didn’t have to be shirtless like Taeyang and Seungri, whom he respected for being able to face the camera without being fully covered.

                Jiyong was quite fond of his outfit, so he continued wearing it while overseeing Seunghyun’s shoot. He didn’t exactly have time to change into something more comfortable or take off his make-up, anyhow.
                TOP’s large hat was balanced on a sharp angle on his head, and the mask he held over his face had to be positioned just so. He had to have his full attention on what he was doing. While he was completely focused, Jiyong tried to break his concentration by dancing around or doing gags with Daesung.

                What Seunghyun actually found the funniest was the mock ice that was left over on Jiyong’s face. He kept picking at it absentmindedly while giving TOP ideas, or peering over the shoulders of those working on the computers. The mask being used that day helped cover the smirk Seunghyun had over the majority of the shoot, despite his efforts to remain impassive.

                As soon as the session ended and the group dispersed, however, the feeling looming over Seunghyun was much different. His make-up seemed to come off much too slowly, and when it did, he was only reminded at how tired he really felt. He didn’t say much as he climbed back into the car.

                The chauffeur dropped off each of the members at their respective destinations, Seunghyun being the second stop. “Annyeong,” he waved, closing his jacket tighter around himself as he stepped out of the car.

                As upset as he had become over the course of his silence, he couldn’t help the smile breaking across his lips once he’d come into the studio. Teddy was casually leaning across the loveseat in the waiting area before the studio, wearing Youngbae’s glasses. “Seunghyun. Don’t these make me look handsome?”

A/N: So, What do you think? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to leave author notes at the end but I'm going to.
I'm really excited to see where this goes! Thank you so much for reading and I really hope you stick with me! ^_^