“Well? What are you going to do about this?”

 Jaehyo wondered whether he would have to repeat the question a second time, after he was met with a weighty, yet very complete silence. Once the initial shock of his voice wore off, the shoulders of Kyung, Minhyuk and Taeil only seemed to slump further and they turned to staring down at the floor. Jaehyo shook his head—it was liked dealing with children. Or kicked puppies, except sadder and less cute. Well, except for Taeil, maybe.

 It was Kyung who eventually broke the heavy silence with a clipped, “what the hell can we do? They don’t want to talk to us.” Out of the three, he looked the angriest. His face had a faint red flush, and he was now pacing slightly, a habit of his that helped him to calm down. Sometimes. Jaehyo knew that Kyung was the most uncooperative of the members when he was upset, so the older singer ignored his tone and took the response as progress.

It was better than the other two, whose voices seemed to be lost to them. Taeil’s brows were knitted in a worried frown, and once he peeled his guilt tinged eyes from the ground, he kept glancing at the shut bedroom door. Minhyuk’s arms were folded, his body ridged. Jaehyo was concerned that was going to chew a hole through his lip at the rate his teeth were going.

“Would it kill you to try? asked Jaehyo as softly as he could manage, and more gently than he felt like being. Kyung muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously of it just might and Taeil sighed, tearing his gaze away from the bedroom door.

“I feel like I’m going to say the wrong thing and make it all worse,” he said, softly and Minhyuk grunted in affirmation, nodding towards the oldest member. The dancer had finally laid off of his lip, but the bottom corner was now red and swollen.

“Well it helps,” began Jaehyo slowly, “if you understand why they’re angry in the first place. Kyung groaned, waving the suggestion away.

“It’s because they can’t take a joke!” Minhyuk glanced over at the rapper.

“Or you don’t know when to let up on one.”

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?” Jaehyo could feel the muscles in his jaw coiling again. He had half a mind to join Jihoon in the bedroom, instead of having to pull apart Kyung and Minhyuk who looked two seconds away from pouncing on each other with bared teeth.

“If you hadn’t just kept that stupid fanfiction site to yourself—“

“How the hell can you blame this all on me? Yukwon didn’t seem to have a problem with it, but he had one withyou—“ Minhyuk growled something unintelligible, and lunged forward to grab at Kyung’s t-shirt. Taeil hurried over towards them, face still lined with worry. He reached for Minhyuk’s hands before Kyung could reach for the riled up dancer, and shook his head.

"Cause fighting each other is gonna help us, right? C’mon guys, it won’t even make you feel better,” he gently chided, looking back and forth between a sneering Kyung and a glowering Minhyuk.

 Jaehyo smiled to himself and secretly thanked the heavens for Taeil. It wasn’t just that he was sensible in so many ways (because Jaehyo was sensible too), but his non-threatening approach worked wonders to soothe fights between members many a time; rarely could anyone stay angry with him for too long. His gentle nature was silently appreciated by them all, and Minhyuk and Kyung stepped away from each other a moment later, shoulders rolling and faces still looking no more the friendlier, but they trained their attention back on Jaehyo.

“Alright. Let’s try this again.” Taeil nodded, and Minhyuk and Kyung grudgingly grunted. “Why are they so angry? Minhyuk, you first,” At the sound of his name, the dancer frowned, jerking his head back as if he had just been insulted. He glanced around to Taeil and Kyung who peered at him expectantly. Minhyuk turned back to Jaehyo, holding up a hand.

“Wait, whoa. Me? Why me?” Jaehyo bit the inside of his cheek, hoping to bite back the first (negative, unhelpful) comment that jumped from his mind to his tongue.

“Because Yukwon is the only one who actually left the dorm, so you better go after him soon, before he thinks you’re not coming.” Minhyuk’s eyes widened.

“You think he wants me to look for him?” Jaehyo fought to keep his eyes fixed on his fellow members rather than rolling to the ceiling.

“Of course he does. Think about it—none of us make a scene unless we want attention,” the other three members nodded slowly with Taeil murmuring that’s…actually a really good point.

“The three of them nearly broke down the dorm with those doors—I’m surprised the police didn’t show up. They want you to go after them.” Kyung appeared to brighten slightly for a moment, as he gazed in the direction of the workroom thoughtfully, before shaking his head frowning. Jaehyo didn’t blame him—Jiho’s (pretty bad) temper had a nasty bite when it was ready. But he’d deal with them later.

“Yukwon’s probably gone someplace you can easily find him, Minhyuk, ”continued Jaehyo, “But before you go, I suggest you try and figure out why he's mad. Kyung’s right—you can’t blame it all on him. Yukown was enjoying himself, before everything went to hell. Jihoon too for that matter,” he added, looking pointedly at Taeil, who winced before nodding. Minhyuk groaned, gripping his hands behind his head, and turning to the ceiling

“I know, I know…it’s just…” The lip was back between his gnawing teeth again.

“it’s just…?” Kyung prompted, traces of the fire from their previous almost-altercation snuffed out and smoothed over with genuine curiosity. Minhyuk seemed to having difficulty stringing words together, and eventually ended his attempt with a groan. He looked away from the rest of the members, hands back in the pockets of his sweatpants. Jaehyo nodded. He had been expecting, even counting on this.

“Exactly,” said Jaehyo, softly. Minhyuk looked at him in surprise. Kyung and Taeil glanced at each other.

“Huh?” the both went. Jaehyo ignored them, because it wasn’t his place to say anymore.

Well. Maybe a little bit more.

“If you can’t even say it out loud, how do you expect Yukwon to feel?” Minhyuk’s mouth fell ajar, and Kyung murmured, am I missing something…? as he looked to Taeil for support, who only shrugged in return.

Minhyuk managed to pull an interesting cross between upset and surprised. Well, actually he looked offended—his brows were furrowed, his eyes dark and narrow yet his mouth was still open. But Jaehyo knew that he was fighting with his own emotions at the moment—the truth hurt and it was a truth that Jaehyo wasn’t even supposed to know.

The advising member allowed Minyuk some time to fix himself before he sighed, his face serious. This was something he had been meaning to say for a while to the dancer. “No one’s perfect Minhyuk—I mean, look at what we’ve been dealing with for the past few months. But…Yukwon doesn’t deserve this.”

For a moment, Jaehyo thought the other was about to cry. Behind Kyung, Minhyuk was probably the best at keeping all his feelings bottled, so to see his lips pressed in a thin line and his eyes bright at least assured him that his message had gotten through the dancer’s thick skull. Kyung and Taeil were still glancing back and forth from each other to Minhyuk, to Jaehyo, still confused.

Minhyuk let out a slow breath. He nodded once and headed towards the door grabbing his jacket and baseball cap from the hook. “Later,” he called over his shoulder after he had slipped on his sneakers. He closed the door carefully on his way out.

“Bye…” mumbled Taeil, looking after the dancer and then nearly jumping as he turned around to find Jaehyo staring at him with raised brows.

“…what?” he nearly whispered. Jaehyo couldn’t help but sigh. To be honest, he was extremely fond of Taeil. Jaehyo found his quiet demeanor charming, and his voice was, of course, amazing. Jaehyo enjoyed all the late night practices they had together (not for quite the same reason the fans who wrote stories about them came up with) because he was patient, gentle and best of all encouraging. Jaehyo liked Taeil because he was cautious, more cautious than timid really. He spoke his mind when he was ready, and watched everyone speak theirs—while silently judging/teasing them in his own snarky way, more than likely—when he wasn’t. It didn’t always translate to fan popularity, which may or may not affect the singer on some days, but Jaehyo was definitely a fan of Taeil.

Except when it came to Jihoon. Then he wanted to shake him a bit.

“So why do you think Jihoon is upset?”

“Well, I guess…” Kyung snickered.

“It’s cause you baby him so much! Duh.” Jaehyo rolled his eyes.

“Kyung, I wasn’t talking to you.”

Taeil shot the cheeky rapper a sharp look, before it softened into a defeated, sheepish one a beat later. “Do I really?”

“Of course you do,” continued Kyung with a small smile, completely ignoring Jaehyo’s glower. “But, I didn’t think it’s a bad thing. I mean me and Jiho corrupt him enough at it is—hey don’t look at me like that, man—so it’s probab—ow Jaehyo!“ snapped Kyung, rubbing his thin arm where Jaehyo had just landed what felt like a rather solid punch. The athletic singer snorted and Taeil sighed.

 “I barely touched you. Now shut up, please,” he huffed, ignoring Kyung’s muttered whine ofwhy you so damn mean? Instead he turned back to a frowning Taeil, whose no doubt wringing hands were shoved in the pocket of his hoodie.

“I just want to protect him,” said Taeil, looking down at his socked feet. Jaehyo nodded, feeling his heart warm. It was hard to stay annoyed with the lead vocalist when he knew how much the other cared for the maknae. Whenever Jihoon was upset about something, Taeil was the first person he told. Whenever he was sick, even homesick, it was Taeil he wanted to see, Taeil he wanted to give him his soup or medicine. And Taeil gladly did all of these things, without complaint and with a sort of diligence that Jaehyo admired and was maybe the slightest bit envious of Jihoon for.

“I just…feel like I haven’t been doing a good job lately,” Taeil said so quietly, that Jaehyo had to strain to listen. Kyung, who had moved to the couch to carry out his sentence of silence suddenly frowned, his face growing serious from the slight pout it wore a few moments before.

“Yah. Taeil. Jihoon being in the hospital wasn’t your fault.” Jaehyo nodded, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder, not even wanting to remember the scare that Jihoon had given them all. Taeil had been with him nearly every step of the way, and no one could miss the gratitude on Jihoon’s face around the older singer lately. But this wasn’t the time to sink back into painful memories, not when the wounds were only beginning to heal.

“Jihoon really looks up to you, Taeil. You’ve been nothing but great to him, and he knows it. But he also has a point, he is an adult too. Do you think…” Jaehyo began slowly, trying to tread as lightly as possible. With Minhyuk he could be a bit more direct, because he had been resenting the way the dancer had been treating Yukwon, although he could understand why their relationship was beginning to strain and couldn’t (and didn’t want to, either) blame Minhyuk for the change completely. When it came to Taeil and Jihoon however, neither was necessarily wrong per se, and yet there was still a problem.

“Are you worried,” Jaehyo tried again, “that things may change between the two of you?” Taeil gently bit on his top lip and nodded.

“Then talk to Jihoon about that. By ignoring it, you’re being unfair to him. And to yourself,” he added gently. Taeil glanced up at him, surprised, though not upset as Minhyuk had been. He sighed.

“Yeah. I guess…I guess you’re right,” he murmured. Jaehyo smiled battling with the urge to say I know. With an encouraging thumbs up from Kyung and a nod from Jaehyo, Taeil took a deep breath and headed over to the bedroom door. He knocked once, and Jaehyo was glad to hear that it was nice and firm.

“I’m coming in, Jihoon,” he called out, before opening the door and slipping inside. Jaehyo mentally wished him the best of luck as the door closed behind him and then turned to Kyung, who had was sitting cross-legged on the couch, arms folded and jaw set. Jaehyo fought the urge to groan—he needed to take a nice, long, undisturbed nap after this.

‘Why do you look like that?”

“Like what?” asked Kyung, frowning, arms still crossed.

“So…bratty.”

“What?” He looked down and then quickly uncrossed his arms. And legs. “Look, I’m just being real. Your pep talk may have been good for Minhyuk and Taeil—and that’s cool— but I don’t know what you can say to me. I’m not saying I like having Jiho all pissed off at me,” he sighed, and Jaehyo appreciated the honesty, at least. “I hate it, actually. But I’m mad too. Plus, I walk into that room and he’s probably gonna throw something at me, then I’m gonna hit him and then the manager will kill us both for fighting again.” He shrugged. "This is just how we work—we fight and then we leave each other alone.” Jaehyo inwardly scowled. He was hoping that Kyung wouldn’t fall for Jiho’s evade plan, especially since it was, by now, so much of a front, a knee-jerk reaction that he knew Jiho constantly regretted.

Jaehyo continued his silence for a moment, watching the rapper staring defiantly back at him. He wouldn’t be surprise if a pout broke out on those lips.

“Look, if you want my honest opinion,” the singer finally began, not waiting for Kyung to answer, “I think in some ways, out of the rest of the members, you and Jiho need to talk the most.” And this was saying something, because the rest of the members all needed to sit down for talks that were, by now, a long time coming. Kyung blinked in surprise, the almost-pout disappearing as his expression shifted into a wary side-eye.

“…how come?”

“Because your friendship dynamic is different than the others. I mean, it must be difficult at times when your closest friend is also your biggest rival, right? Didn’t you once say Jiho was like your savior and your enemy?” Kyung stared, and Jaehyo wondered if the twitch in his jaw was his attempt to keep his mouth from falling open.

“Where the hell do you come off asking these deep questions? Why don’t I get a ‘Kyung, why do you think Jiho is upset with you?’ like the others?” he asked, switching into a nasally, condescending tone for Jaehyo’s voice. The older member rolled his eyes.

“Well you already said he can’t take a joke, right?” Kyung shot him another wary look.

“And you think I’m right?”

“No, you think you’re right. I think that’s bull.” Instantly a glare launched itself back onto Kyung’s face as he threw up his hands in frustration.

“Oh my god, why--”

“Here’s what I don’t get about you,” cut in Jaehyo, one brow raised. With Taeil and Jihoon, he had to tread lightly. With Minhyuk and Yukwon he had to tread firmly. With stubborn Jiho and Kyung, he had to practically stomp his way through to them. “You already know what Jiho feels for you, so why would you make a joke out of it?” A low sound escaped the rappers throat, as he sprung up from the couch, finger pointing.

“I’m not making a joke out of any—wait,what did you say?” he halted mid-word, body suddenly stiff, finger frozen. Jaehyo snorted, brushing a lock of hair back in place.

“Don’t try and play dumb.”

“I’m not trying to play anything; I’m trying to figure out how the you found out about that!” Here, Jaehyo felt himself sinking into a hole. He tried to keep the sheepish smile clear off of his face, but from the way Kyung’s eyes narrowed further, he knew he had failed. Well. If this was going to help them, he might as well fess up. The things I do for friendship, man I tell you… he thought.

“So back when we first began practicing for Nalina—Jiho was angry because nothing was coming together, and eventually he just exploded at us. Remember that?” It was hard to forget, since the members had placed it in the top five worst instances of Jiho’s wrath. Cho PD had to come in to calm him down.

“Yeah,” grunted Kyung, eyes still narrowed.

“Well later, I heard you on the phone with your sister I think. You were taking about Jiho and his mood swings, and then you said something like how you couldn’t believe this—Jiho—is the same guy who confessed to you,” Jaehyo ended by looking pointedly at Kyung, whose mouth was moving but with no sound.

“Y-you eavesdropped!” he finally spluttered out.

“No, you were in the bedroom and I was asleep, but your talking woke me up a bit. I half thought I was dreaming—it only really hit me the next day. And I never said anything about it,” Jaehyo added quickly, because Kyung looked ready to strangle him—though he was pretty sure he could take the slim boy on, if worse came to worse.

But that wasn’t to be the case. With a weary groan, Kyung leaned forward, his head sinking down onto his palms. “I don’t believe this…” he muttered, shaking his head. Jaehyo sat down gently next to him, one hand tentatively stretched out so that his fingers brushed against his fellow member’s shoulder. Kyung jerked at the contact, and Jaehyo pulled away.

“Do you really have that much of a problem with me knowing how he feels about you?” asked Jaehyo softly, still choosing to sit by Kyung. The rapper mumbled something under his breath.

“What?”

“Felt. How he felt about me.” Jaehyo stared. Kyung turned to him with a glare. “Maybe if you eavesdropped a little more more—“

“I told you I wasn’t—“

“Whatever. You would have figured out that he…” Kyung paused for a moment, breathing out a low sigh “…confessed to me, or whatever, right before he went to study abroad in Japan and I left for the States. We were like fourteen. That was years ago; we were kids.” Jaehyo frowned.

“And now?”  The other glared at him, but continued after a moment.

 “Nothing. After that, we never spoke about it really. Obviously we stayed friends. I don’t know, maybe it’s because we didn’t see each other for a while, except for when we visited home. It was less awkward that way, communicating online and stuff. Eventually we both started seeing girls, and by the time we became trainees at BNS, I just assumed the whole thing was mostly forgotten.”

“Mostly?” Kyung sighed, now looking too weary to glare.

“I guess I never forgot completely.”

“…and you think Jiho did?”

“I don’t know! I told you, we never talked about it.” Jaehyo shook his head. In some ways he really admired the closeness that Jiho and Kyung shared, how they stuck things out with each other through the hardest of times, linked together by some sort of invisible, unbreakable chain. When they were getting along, they were great together and when they weren’t….well, they really weren’t. But with something like this hanging between the two for what was apparently years now, it’s no wonder they could fight so intensely, even if it was clear to everyone that they were close.

“Kyung, how did you react when he told you?” Jaehyo asked gently. Kyung looked away and fell silent.

“Don’t want to talk about it,” he muttered finally. Jaehyo nodded. Fair enough, though the curiosity was gnawing away at him, he couldn’t lie. He would think Kyung would have accepted Jiho for whoever he was, but maybe…things went a bit differently, back then.

“Fine, don’t talk to me. But at least talk to him. If I remember correctly you did say something like ‘screw Jiho and Kyung, screw whatever the hell they had,’ right? Feelings or not, how is he supposed to take that?”

“I was pissed, okay? I….I didn’t mean it.”

“I’m sure he knows that too, deep down somewhere. Doesn’t stop it from hurting like hell. You know how Jiho is—he hates getting emotional, and he has a tough outer shell. I think you have to have one to lead a group. But there’s still three things he’s sensitive about, three things that can actually affect him, even if he sometimes hides it,” said Jaehyo, holding up three fingers and ticking them off, “Block B’s successes, Block B’s failures and you.” Kyung groaned once more, his head back in his hands.

“Are you trying to make me feel guilty?”

“No.” Yes. Jaehyo had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep the glee of success from glowing on his face. He could see Kyung slowly start to become undone by the straight up truth. The troubled rapper rubbed his hands together, resting his nose on the tip of his thumbs, looking torn between telling the singer to screw off or allowing him to continue. Jaehyo was now more determined and made the decision for him.

“Remember the fight you guys had a long while back? The one you guys got in serious trouble for?” Jaehyo sighed. If anyone was listening in, they would think all Block B did was fight, which wasn’t the case at all. But clearly, sometimes emotions just ran high with them—they had faced a lot of ups and downs to date and there was a constant stress present. Plus more than half the group was stubborn as all hell.

The fight between Kyung and Jiho had been over something small, a mistake in a dance step or something—Jaehyo forgot who kept making the mistake; probably Jiho—but the anger that fueled the fight it had been brewing for about a week between the two friends. Kyung rolled his eyes, now leaning back in the couch with folded arms.

“You mean when he freakin punched me? How the hell am I gonna forget that? I got over it, if that’s what you mean. Real talk. And it’s not like I hit him back,” he added, holding up a finger.

Jaehyo held back a scoff, remembering how it took three of them—Minhyuk, Jihoon and himself—to hold down (by practically jumping on) Kyung, to keep his fists from connecting with Jiho, who was being dragged to the corner of the dance studio by Yukwon and Taeil. Kung then proceeded to turn off his phone and stalk off into the night for five hours or so. All the members frantically scoured the neighborhood  (and the surrounding ones) with pounding hearts for him, before they found him in the 24 hour Chinese food store down the street, eating his troubles away as he sometimes did. No one knew whether to strangle him or hug him.

Either way, Jaehyo and Jiho didn’t  join the search, for a particular reason. “When you ran off, Jiho…” Jaehyo trailed off, remembering the leader making him swear to never utter a word of what happened. Well since I’ve meddled so far today, might as well keep going. Hopefully Jiho will thank me for this later, he thought grimly.

“Jiho….?” pressed Kyung, blinking at the frowning singer.

“He completely broke down,” Jaehyo said quickly, feeling a twinge of guilt. For all the times Jiho constantly played him in front of the camera, this moment was one that had brought them closer together off-screen. “He wanted to go and look for you on his own, but...I couldn’t let him—and he almost fought me too, actually.” Kyung’s eyes widened, and he leaned forward slightly. When he trudged back into the dorm with the search-party members, Jiho had apologized with a very calm, but serious face, and Kyung had forgiven him, because he hated staying mad at his best friend, and they had gotten into worse scuffs as kids. They had embraced for a few moments, the next day got chewed out by their management, and then were good as new the day afterwards.

 “He was a total mess. Tears…snot...wasn’t pretty,” Jaehyo shook his head, remembering how he stared at his leader—who hated shedding even a few tears—in total disbelief from the far end of the studio, watching him list through all the different ways Kyung was probably getting beat up, mugged, killed or all three  and how it was all his fault, between choked sobs.

 “He would have gotten himself killed, run down by a car or something wandering madly in the street, if I let him go. When he finally started to calm down and speak without hiccupping, he kept saying how much he depended on you to anchor him and how he felt like couldn’t lead our team properly without you. You are a huge part of his support Kyung, and he really cares about you. And appreciates the hell out of you.”

Kyung’s face became a brighter red than ever. “W-well how was I supposed to know that, he never told me about—“

“Of course he didn’t tell you about it. That’s the kind of thing you keep to yourself until you’re damn well good and ready, if ever. The only reason I  know is because I stayed behind, and he was going crazy with worry; probably needed to get all his thoughts out. I just happened to be there. He wasn’t even looking at me then, he was just talking. By the time we got ready to look for you—at four in the morning, by the way—you came in like 10 minutes later. He had calm down by then, but…anyway. Go and talk to him, Kyung. It really won’t kill you,” Jaehyo shrugged. He had (reluctantly) laid all his cards out on the table, now it was up to Kyung.

The rapper in question was very still, staring down at the ground as he slightly bit on his lower lip. A moment later, after a long sigh and a low wow, he stood up frowning down at Jaehyo.

“When did you become the damn fountain of wisdom? I mean not just with me, but Taeil and Minhyuk too? Jeez, man…” Jaehyo shrugged again, reclining back in the chair, his eyes fluttering closed.

“It’s a hobby of mine.” Kyung shook his head and left the living room, heading down the short hallway towards the workroom.

 A few seconds later, Jaehyo heard two short knocks and Kyung’s: “Yah. Jiho. Let me in for a minute.” Then silence. Jaehyo opened one eye, wondering what the holdup was.

“What?” called out Kyung by the door. It was then followed by a “Huh?”

Suddenly, the door swung open and Jaehyo caught Jiho’s annoyed tone. “I said it was unlocked, Kyung. Damn. Come in,” he added hastily, the annoyance now slightly muted. The door closed, cutting of Kyung’s alright, alright, alright…and Jaehyo smiled to himself, lying back in the couch, feeling the stress of the last hour seep away from his muscles. All he needed now was the others to make things right between themselves…and not bother him for another good hour.

He chucked, as he felt himself drifting off. He had faith in his friends.

- - - - -

Ahhhh~! New subscribers :D Hello there!

Thank you everyone who has read my fic so far! I hope you enjoyed part two--it's kind of long, but hopefully worth it. I really had a fun time trying to figure out how a simple fanfiction website, could spark so many problems with the boys which is what I tried to do in part two. Some are kind of still left shrouded in mystery (like Yukwon and Minhyuk--Minhyuk, what are you hiding sir?) and others, I went a little more in depth with, like with Jiho and Kyung.

Confession time!: My bias is Taeil (there are nearly 1000 fanfics with the "Zico" tag, and only about "100" with the "Taeil" tag, T-T ), however my OTP is...ZIKYUNG (I do like Zico and Kyung too!) :D Also, fun fact, I don't curse in real life so this is my first time ever writing the word "" in a story XD Darn Kyung (and Jiho too, from what I heard of his mixtapes) for having such potty mouths!

Author Responses:

(aaah my font/color changed!)

@ newbie23: Thank you! Haha, yes I think Jaehyo is probably very sensible and above all this madness hehe. Glad you like the couples...U-Bomb makes sense to me, so I had to add them in :D Hope I didn't keep you daydreaming too long~

@that-sclassy: Thanks for the really nice compliment! i've written fanfiction/stories before, but this is my first time writing a K-Pop fanfic :P Glad you like it though, I was pretty nervous!

@ Halil16: Yay! Glad you like it! Hope i updated soon enough :D

Thanks for the reviews! See you next time for the (possibly?) final chapter! (Who knows? my writing gets away from me a lot) I hope the boys are able to work some things out, tsk!