After three more hours of non-stop practice, the five of them finally decided to head back to their dorm. On normal circumstances, Thunder would've gone back to their family home seeing that it was also situated in Seoul, but just like Joon who has his own apartment now, the five of them chose to stay together for the comeback. Unfortunately(but not really), the two of them just had to be roommates since there was only one spare room for those of them who are not full-time residents of the dormitory unlike the other three.

Thunder trudged towards said room and plopped himself on his acclaimed bed, closing his eyes. The whole practice was draining at its best and his jumbled thoughts about one hyung of his didn't help his concentration at all. He was so tired he almost had half the mind to skip taking a shower and sleep right then and there on his comfy sheets.

Just then, the subject of his thoughts walked into their shared bedroom and as Thunder opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of the other with only a towel over his head and another around his waist. Needless to say, Thunder tried his very best not to stare but it proved to be challenging when Korea's Adonis was practically right across from him, good thing the other wasn’t looking at him—at least that’s how it seemed.

When Joon crossed the room to his closet, Thunder chose that time to face the other way and shut his eyes, pretending to be asleep.

"Aren't you taking a shower? You're going to get sick if you sleep with sweaty clothes on" Joon said without facing the other boy and continued putting his clothes on.

Thunder almost jumped from his position on the bed when he heard Joon reprimanding him. Next came the blush when he realized the other hadn't bought his sleep-acting.

"Um, I-I'm going now" Thunder hated how his voice cracked but what can he do, he becomes tense whenever Joon was there and it made him feel how distant they've really been in the past year.

Before Joon could respond, Thunder bolted right out the door and into the bathroom, not hearing the deep sigh that escaped the older when he left, as if he's been holding his breath for a while.

X

When Thunder came back from his shower almost an hour later, he was relieved to find his roommate snoring lightly on his bed. Honestly, Thunder was trying to avoid another awkward exchange with the other which is pretty ironic when all he really wanted was to talk the guy. He was a coward, that’s why, and he hated it. He proceeded to put on his pyjamas and climbed on his bed. Unconsciously, he faced the other from his side of the room and sighed.

“…what happened to us hyung?” He whispered softly almost tearing up because he doesn’t want this. He wants his hyung back, his old hyung—the one he can so easily talk to and joke with.

Thunder knows he has to do something about this but he just doesn’t know how. Or really, he’s just scared to know the truth. That his hyung might actually hate him even though he doesn’t know what he did wrong. He’s scared of completely losing the other by knowing and it’s what kept him from confronting the other for this long. The thought had his eyes shedding a lone tear which he couldn’t hold back and he sniffled.

“Stupid tears…Stupid hyung, why does it have to be so hard?” He said to the silent room.

Little does he know, the bane of his frustration was listening.

X

The week passed without any progress on Thunder’s problem with Joon but it’s their comeback day and he chose to put everything aside first and focus on the group and their performance for today.

Everyone was busy either re-touching or practicing their lines half an hour before their actual recording and as Thunder looked around, he found one member was missing. He was sure Joon was just putting make up a while ago but now he wasn’t since he decided to make an effort on not minding him even just for the day.

“Cheolyong, where’s Joonie-hyung?” Thunder asked the youngest who was sitting across from him, practicing his lines.

“Hm? I didn’t really notice him leave hyung” Mir answered, looking up from his lyric sheet.

Thunder nodded and settled for waiting a while since they still have at least twenty-five minutes before they had to go.

Around ten minutes passed and Seungho, who was beside him, looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was almost time and Joon has yet to come back.

“It’s almost time, someone should find him now or else the PDs will reprimand us for being late” the leader stated anxiously.

“Aish this kid, where’d he run off to now?” G.O. sighed.

Thunder was getting worried and so he decided to volunteer himself into finding his hyung.

“I’ll go with you hyung” Cheolyong offered, standing up when he was stopped by the leader.

“We’re better off not having to look for more members so let’s just let Thunder along with Byungki-hyung to go looking for him” Seungho said sternly and then faced Thunder, “Remember to bring your cellphone with you to keep in contact.”

Thunder nodded and proceeded to look for Joon. The manager and he both decided to go on opposite directions to cover more ground with the limited time that they have.

“Where’d you go hyung?” Thunder mumbled under his breath as he goes searching for the older, asking people along the way.

After a while, he checked the time on his phone and saw that they have less than ten minutes left and he broke into a run, checking down hallways and knocking on rooms to ask—the least they need now is to be criticized for being unprofessionally late and on their comeback date too. Thunder, despite a year without proper conversation with his hyung, knows Joon wouldn’t just run off like that if it wasn’t important so there must be something really wrong. He was on the 5^th floor of the building and as he turned a corner he hasn’t yet checked, he heard voices arguing heatedly.

Thunder halted on his spot when he recognized one of the voices as his hyung’s and the other was a girl’s.

“What do you mean you’re breaking up with me? You were the one who said you loved me!” the girl’s voice whom Thunder couldn’t quite pinpoint at the moment cried out.

Thunder stopped breathing as if the wind was knocked right out of him and he almost swore he could hear his heart breaking. The only thing running in his head was how much it hurt to know that his hyung loved someone and was in a relationship the entire time they weren’t talking.

 It took almost all of his strength not to start crying like he loved his hyung that way because he doesn’t…or does he?

xXx

a/n: This is so long overdue and I'm so sorry you had to wait this long. To be honest I almost gave up on this entirely and thought of deleting it but then I felt bad because it has accumulated subscribers and I don't really want to disappoint you further by doing that so I'm offering this chapter as an apology and an assurance that I'll be continuing this, the next chapter being the last. I hope you forgive me for the cliffhanger but it helps build up the story. Feel free to comment! Thanks for reading :)