Two quick notes, One; Yes I did change the name of the story. I honestly didn't like it very much, and this one is slightly more relevant to later on. Second; This story is going to be chaptered, but at this point I have no idea how long... most likely beyond 20 chapters though. It depends on if I can actually stay motivated to finish it, since often times I'm not unfortunately.

Monday, April 16^th, 9:40AM

Sandeul had been hoping he would be the first done going through near two hours of makeup, hairstyling, and outfitting, but he wasn’t.

The only thing he looked forward to during those times was the short naps he was able get in while his hair or makeup was being tended to. Though having to change into clothes for the stage required more effort on his part.

He was wearing the same black and orange suit as in their Baby I’m Sorry music video, with only the minor change of black shoes instead of white.

While halting in front of the door to the lounge, he noticed that Jinyoung was wearing the same suit, but instead of orange it was yellow. He didn’t appear to have noticed his entrance; he was busy looking at his phone to know that he was no longer alone in the room.

So far Sandeul had done a good job of avoiding him without making it obvious, even though he said that he wouldn’t, it was something that couldn’t be helped. Whenever he saw Jinyoung, he felt unreasonably nervous. He was sure it was because what had happened this morning, and that they hadn’t spoken since. There was no way to tell how the singer felt towards him, and if he was angry then trying to talk to him wouldn’t lead anywhere.

As soon as they’d all gotten into the car, he’d made sure to sit in the back. Nearly having to beg Sunwoo to sit next to him just so Jinyoung wouldn’t, but all throughout the ride he’d acted as if nothing were wrong. Being the loud obnoxious person he was. All the while, their leader never turning back to look at him, not even once, and that worried him.

Often when they were in the car traveling somewhere, Jinyoung would always glance back to talk to him or tell him to be quiet. Sometimes he’d even laugh or get the honor of having a smile directed towards him.

This time he’d been completely silent, only staring out the window the entire way. It wasn’t like him, and Sandeul had to keep himself from leaning forward to poke him in the shoulder and ask him if he was ok the whole ride.

When they’d arrived, it had been easy enough to stay away from the burgundy haired male. Most of the time they were led around backstage to have their hair and makeup done, making the only time where they were all together besides when heading to the stage, was just before the show. Normally they had between ten and fifteen minutes to get ready mentally, most of the time there was light conversation with each other and fun jests of encouragement.

There was nowhere else for him to go; in fact he was tempted to mess up his hair so that he’d have to fix it once more. But that would only take a few minutes, and doing it on purpose to the already busy stylists would be selfish.

Maybe Jinyoung wouldn’t notice him, or if he did, he wouldn’t say anything. If he didn’t say anything though, than he’d assume the singer was upset and Sandeul would feel even worse.

He wasn’t very good in situations like this; he never knew what he was supposed to do. The only thing his mind was telling him was to act indifferent, like nothing had happened earlier. Naturally, that was how he always thought, but it wasn’t necessarily the correct solution to his current predicament.

Then again, he could be overdramatizing, and their relationship could be unchanged like he was trying to assume. It was difficult to convince his mind that it was stressing over nothing. He didn’t want to walk up to Jinyoung and act like he normally did if in fact, he was offended by his behavior from prior.

The only thing he could do was take a seat on one of the couches near him to test the water. He didn’t want to scare him by being loud, even if it was in his nature to be as such.

Sandeul about started towards him until he heard low murmurs. At first he wasn’t sure what it was, but as the voice grew louder he realized that Jinyoung had begun quietly singing his first part of Baby I’m Sorry. The song he had composed, it was amazing how he was able to do such a thing. He couldn’t imagine trying to write a song, but for their leader it seemed so easy; like the lyrics came to him naturally.

Each word that fell from his mouth was like a single light strum, his voice unstressed as he pronounced his lines with a fair bit of emotion. He loved the way he sounded, untouched by auto tuning or under the cover of four others. Jinyoung was a naturally gifted singer, no matter what he was singing, his vocal cords never failed.

The echoes of his voice made his heart beat just a little bit faster while his palms begin sweating. But that could be possibly since he was clenching his hands together so tightly.

By the time he had finished his part; Sandeul couldn’t resist beginning to sing his lines right after, making sure to keep his voice more hushed than the song called for.

As soon as he had begun singing, Jinyoung looked up from his phone; surprise written clearly over his face. Sandeul didn’t falter his words even as the other watched him, suddenly feeling over conscious of his voice with an audience of one.

He didn’t understand why he felt this way, he was never nervous singing. But all of a sudden, at this very moment, he was.

With Jinyoung’s eyes staring into his own, the room was becoming a much warmer place to be in at a much too quickening rate. He felt the need to fix his eyes upon something else, anything else, but he didn’t. Their gaze didn’t waver from each other. Not even after Sandeul had closed his mouth once his lines had ceased.

Their expressions were nearly matching, both filled with uncertainty and mild surprise. Sandeul’s was slightly more flushed, but it made no difference.

For the first time in a long time, he was at a loss for words. There was literally nothing he could think of to say to break the silence that was wrapping around their still forms, it was almost awkward.

Sandeul was like a deer that had run out in front of a car in the middle of the night. Maybe he should had kept his mouth shut and gone with his first plan of sitting down without saying anything. But what would be the difference between that scenario and the one he was in now? Either one it would have been uncomfortable, there was no alteration.

Soon the insecurity faded from Jinyoung’s face to be replaced with a gentle smile, one that melted away any negative feelings the brunette felt up to this point.

He knew he had been worrying over nothing.

But now he was flustered by such a beautiful smile being aimed towards him. He had to glance away to remember not to stare. “I like the song; I don’t know how you’re able to do It.” he found the words slipping out of his mouth before completely thinking them through. He was more focused on trying to calm his ever erratic heart.

When he took the chance to look back at Jinyoung, he no longer had to worry about meeting his gaze. The singer had turned to look towards the floor in front of him, the corners of his mouth still up turned. “It’s not always easy, but I get a lot of inspiration from different things I’ve experienced.”

For some odd reason, Sandeul felt a wrenched sinking in his chest because he knew what he was talking about. It was as if he suddenly wanted to throw up. Uneasiness showed its face, followed by a slight pang of possible resentfulness. But why would he be jealous? He knew that Jinyoung had dated in the past, and even had a girlfriend or two. It wasn’t anything new to him.

“From past girlfriends?” even saying the words made his stomach churn uncomfortably. He didn’t understand these feelings; maybe he was getting sick; that would explain everything. For now, he chose to ignore all of the unwanted feelings his body was creating.

Waiting for Jinyoung’s response, he found his eyes falling to the carpet underneath his feet. He began mentally beating himself up for sounding so upset by the leader’s word choice. That may have not even been what he’d meant, but he completely jumped to conclusions.

Neither was it simple to shake the unwavering jealousy that had crept over his shoulders unexpectedly.

He wasn’t sure why all of these feelings were clashing through him, but it was a horrible sensation. It was like chaos was erupting inside his mind and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Yeah.” Jinyoung’s single word response was dull and unmoved, it surprised him. He’d expected him to sound more solemn about it, but instead he was uncaring.

When he heard the sound of fabric rustling and light steps being taken, he brought his head up to be met with the sight of the burgundy haired male. Slightly startled by his sudden appearance before him, but didn’t let it show.

He looked on worried, Sandeul could see it clearly. But soon his facial expression softened, using his hand, he gently reached out to barely touch the pads of his fingers over his cheek.

The tiny action sent alarms off in his head, his body to freezing and blood flowing to where the fingers were barely caressing. He stared on with a face of wide eyed confusion, but Jinyoung barely seemed to acknowledge it. In fact he wasn’t even looking in his eyes anymore; he could tell they were watching his fingers lightly skimming over the skin of his cheek.

He didn’t understand why the singer was doing this, or if he even realized what he was doing; but he didn’t stop him.

“You’re much cuter than any of them.” Jinyoung spoke serenely, but the words seemed far off; as if he was in his own mindset. Either way, Sandeul had not been expecting them, what was he even supposed to say to words like that? And from Jinyoung of all people!

Jinyoung was acting as if he were in a trace. The brunette wasn’t sure what to think; did he actually mean them? Or was he lost in some sort of memory and using him as an outlet?

Eventually, unable to take the soft caressing and glazed over expression Jinyoung had stuck to his face, he chose to take it as a joke. That had to be what he was doing, trying to lighten the mood after this morning. That was the only logical explanation.

“Stop it!” Sandeul shouted playfully so that he didn’t seem bothered, swatting his hand away from his face which he knew was burning by this point. Jinyoung recoiled, shocked from the abruptness of his voice. “If you’re going to joke, do it in front of the cameras so at least the fan girls can see. They love that stuff, right?” he spoke absentmindedly, turning before he could spot the singers reaction; he practically threw himself on the couch.

A few seconds of silence followed before he heard Jinyoung chuckle, but it was weak. “Yeah, sorry.” he said while taking a seat on the couch he’d been perched on before. Sandeul had his eyes boring holes into the carpet, not wanting to look at Jinyoung when he knew his face was reddened. He was frustrated with himself for acting this way; the two had always played and teased each other like this, so why would it feel any different? Why was he suddenly blushing?

Why did his heart feel like it was going to stop when Jinyoung reached out to him? Saying those words softly like he really meant them, it was all messing with his head.

He was letting it mess with his head, which made no sense since he knew that the other had been joking.

Choosing to stop thinking on it, he brought his head up for his eyes not to be met with anyone else’s, which was a small relief. Jinyoung had gone back to his phone, which now Sandeul was curious as to what he was doing on it.

Part of him wanted to still apologize for earlier, but he felt like it would be inappropriate. It appeared like the leader had never been angry at all, so what was the point in bringing it up when he didn’t need to?

 Getting up, he moved to the couch in front of him and sat down next to the burgundy haired man. Leaning close so that their shoulders were pressed together, he peered curiously over his phone. “What are you doing?” he wondered in an innocent voice that could easily rival Chanshik’s.

“Reading comments from our fans on Twitter.” he replied, moving the device in hands so that the brunette could see it better. “They’re wishing us luck on our stage today.” he could tell he was smiling through his words.

Sandeul glanced at each as they were scrolled through. He was surprised to see so much support, honestly he never thought that they would ever get popular; but it seemed as though their fan base was slowly starting to grow. It made him cheerful to think so many people were enjoying their music, that he could make other people happy with his voice.

“Why don’t we take a picture for them?” Sandeul suggested while scooting away to glance at the other.

Jinyoung responded with small nod. Going back to his phone, he exited out of the program to get his phone’s camera ready.

Leaning closer to the leader once again, he watched as he positioned the phone at an angle to the left. Unconsciously huddling close to the other, he gave the camera a bright smile.

A moment later, there was a loud snap throughout the room and Jinyoung pulled his phone back so that they could look at phones screen.

“How’s this?” he asked while showing him the picture.

Sandeul glanced between the two of them, taking notice of how Jinyoung’s smile looked so genuine and unforced. It made him happy to see. “It looks great, but you could have smiled more.” He stated teasingly, pointing at Jinyoung in the picture. “Does that even count as a smile?”

Swatting his hand away, Jinyoung pulled the phone up and turned to face the brunette. “Then show me how you’re supposed to smile.” he challenged, not lowering the phone an inch.

“Like this!” with his fingers, he pressed them near the corners of his mouth while giving the phone and Jinyoung one of the biggest smiles he could manage.

There was an instant snap and Sandeul’s face fell slightly. “You’re not going to post that, are you?”

Bringing the phone down near his lap, the leader shook his head. “I’m going to save if for reference.”

“Reference for what?” he questioned unknowingly as he brought his hands down to rest in his lap.

Jinyoung gave him a soft smile, the corners of his mouth barely moving up at all. “How to smile like an idiot.”

Gasping from shock at such an honest reply, he smacked him mildly hard on the shoulder following it with a frown.

His smiles didn’t really make him look like an idiot, did they?

“Who knew you were so mean.” he huffed out, turning away from Jinyoung just as Dongwoo entered the lounge. His suit was blue patched much like his and Jinyoung’s despite the color change. Seeing him brought him back into reality, that there were other people around. When he’d been talking with Jinyoung, it was as if no one else existed.

The after effects were strange; he’d never experienced it when speaking with anyone else.

“You guys ready?” he asked while standing next to the couch in front of them.

“Yeah!” Sandeul jumped up excitedly while Jinyoung remained seated, going back to his phone.

“After I post this picture.” he mumbled, not paying much mind to either of them anymore.

Dongwoo scoffed, gazing at the leader. “And what gives you the idea they’re going to wait for you to do that?”

Jinyoung shrugged, a sudden smile coming over his face for an unknown reason as he gazed unwaveringly at the device in his hands.

“Don’t be so excited, we still have about seven minutes before we have to head backstage.” he said while leaning more on the couch, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes still lingered on Jinyoung who had yet to look up.

Sandeul scowled, having gotten anxious over nothing. He plopped back down next to the singer, falling to the side to rest his head on Jinyoung’s shoulder. “I feel like we’ve been waiting here forever!” he whined, stretching out his words more than necessary.

Dongwoo shrugged, his eyes barely glimpsing Sandeul before going back to the other. “I’ve never seen you so distracted before a performance, normally you’re the one pulling Baro off his phone.” he began, Sandeul watching the rapper all the while even when Jinyoung finally looked up. “What’s so interesting?” Dongwoo asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“I was posting a picture of Sandeul and me for our fans on Twitter.” he stated than directed his voice towards the one who had yet to move from his shoulder. “Where’s your backpack? I want to put my phone in it.”

Lifting his head, he turned his attention towards the door; having to think a moment where he’d left it. “I think it’s in the dressing room.” he said while still in half thought. Trying to replay back two hours ago wasn’t easy when he still felt tired.

Jinyoung stood, shaking his head. “Smart.” he remarked while beginning to leave the room.

Wanting to make a face for the comment, he decided against it since his back was turned. “Could you bring it with you back here?” the brunette called before the other had completely exited the lounge.

“Sure.” Jinyoung replied without turning. A moment later, the only two left in the room were Sandeul and Dongwoo.

Turning his attention to his fingers in his lap, he felt a sudden wave of tension as soon as the leader had left. Half of him wanted to get up to follow the other, but decided against it. He felt like Dongwoo was still slightly annoyed with him about waking him up last night. But most likely, that wasn’t the case at all, and again he was dramatizing his own thoughts.

Thankfully, as soon as Sandeul looked up to say something, Sunwoo casually strode into the room, taking Jinyoung’s seat. He was dressed similar to the other three, except his suit was jade patched.

“Where’s Gongchan?” Dongwoo asked, still not moving from his standing position next to the couch.

Sunwoo stretched his arms up, purposely hitting Sandeul with his elbow while doing so, causing the other to frown at him. “I guess the makeup was bothering him so he started rubbing at it, they’re trying to redo it as fast as they can before we go on.” he responded with a slight yawn.

“It’s never bothered him before…” the other rapper trailed, reaching up a moment to fix the fake glasses over his eyes.

“I know.” Dropping his arms, he rested them over his knees while leaning forward slightly. His face creased in concern. “So I wonder why it would now.”

Sandeul thought on their conversation, most of the time he completely forgot he was wearing makeup at all. Being so used to it applied nearly every day, it was practically a daily thing for all of them. It made him curious as to why it would suddenly start bugging the younger. Unless they’d used a new brand they hadn’t before.

“He could be allergic to it; his skin might be irritated if that’s the case.” Dongwoo suggested, which Sandeul was beginning to think was the possibility.

“You think?” the words didn’t help to ease the brown haired rappers worries, in fact he looked even more distilled. “What if it is? Will we still preform?”

Dongwoo threw him a knowing look. “Of course, he barely has any lines in the song anyways.” he could tell that he hadn’t meant to sound offensive, but Sunwoo was still clearly put off by his word choice.

“That doesn’t mean anything; if he’s not on stage then we might as well not perform at all.” Sunwoo defended. Sandeul could almost see the tension beginning to rise in the conversation.

Before they started arguing, he chose to add in. “He’s probably fine, don’t worry so much about him.”

The two broke their stares on each other; Sunwoo turned his head to focus on the one next to him. Sandeul chose to reassure him with a smile, and eventually Sunwoo copying it.

A moment later the smile on the duck’s face vanished into a scowl. He shoved the unsuspecting Sunwoo multiple times until he fell off of the couch, landing on his side on the thinly carpeted floor. The now irritated Sandeul stood, beginning to stomp on the side of his stomach with his foot.

“What are you doing?!” Sunwoo shouted out of shock, trying but failing to smack his foot away. His hand was angled so that it only swayed in the air much farther from the other’s foot.

“Revenge!” Sandeul growled, unable to help the slight laughter in his voice. “You’re the worst! Making me scream like that last night!” he snapped, not exactly angry but wanting to make sure Sunwoo knew how irritated he had been.

“Are you serious?!” Sunwoo replied breathlessly, still trying to protect himself from the enraged duck. “It was a joke!”

Not ceasing his steps, he glared down on the other brunette. “No one was laughing!”

“I was!” he attempted to defend himself, but it did him no justice. Sunwoo glanced to the other rapper for help, but he was too busy laughing silently over both of them.

“You don’t count!” countered Sandeul, not relinquishing his revenge quite yet. In fact he was beginning to enjoy stepping on him. It gave him a sense of empowerment, and a good laugh. “I’m not going to stop until you apologize at least eighty times and serve me breakfast in bed every morning.” he taunted, smirking lightly. Now that was something he wouldn’t mind.

Before anyone could blink, Sunwoo readjusted his body so that he was able to grab Sandeul’s leg and pull it forward; causing him to turn wide eyed as his balance diminished. The only reason he hadn’t fallen was from his leg being held in place.

“You were saying?” the rapper taunted while sitting up, his facial expression similar to the one Sandeul had been wearing a few seconds earlier.

Sandeul glowered, trying to wiggle his leg out of the grip, but it only caused the other to tug on his leg once more; making him sway but not collapse. In hopes of support, he brought his eyes upon Dongwoo with a pleading demeanor.

“I’m not going to be the middle man! Stop looking at me.” His only movements were to seat himself on the couch across from them. “Pretend I’m not here.” he said humorously with a light smile.

Frowning, he faced Sunwoo once again who had yet to stop smirking; it was starting to annoy him. “If you don’t let me go, I’ll fall on you!” he threatened emptily. Knowing full well he couldn’t fall forward with his foot in the position it was, but maybe the rapper would be dull enough to believe him.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” he suddenly burst into laughter, only irritating to duck further. “Or really as dull witted as you?”

“I’m not!” he barked, feeling his ego take a slight blow. He gave his leg a violent pull, surprisingly, his foot was let go with minimal effort; making the brunette fall backwards with a yelp onto the ground, an audible thump following.

The first thing he felt was a dull soreness traveling through his back, thankfully he’d fallen on carpet or else the pain would have been much worse. About ready to get up, but before he could, Sunwoo sat down on his stomach.

“Ugh!” Sandeul groaned. He let his body fall back onto the carpet since it would be pointless to fight against the other. He closed his eyes with a scowl. “Get off!” he demanded. Not that he minded this; in fact it was much more entertaining to fight with Sunwoo than it was to sit and wait to be called backstage.

“Not until you admit your undying love to me.” His response was filled with exasperation, but it still took Sandeul off guard.

“What?!” Immediately he opened his eyes, finding himself staring up at Sunwoo who was leaning over him with a playful grimace. Struggling once again to get up, he continued to glare. “I don’t love you!”

Sunwoo lowered at this, but before he got a chance to reply, another voice entered the room.

“Are the kids playing again?”

Sunwoo stopped his teasing to glance back at the doorway, allowing Sandeul to sit up on his elbows. Tilting his head to the side so that he could see past the rapper even though he’d recognized the voice almost instantly. Jinyoung was standing in the doorway with Sandeul’s backpack in one hand. Chanshik was also behind him clad in a pink suit, his face solemn and unreadable.

Jinyoung’s eyes traveled between the two on the ground, Sandeul felt their eyes met more often and longer than he did with the one still sitting on top of him.

“They were trying to get me involved, but I figured they’d eventually get bored and leave each other alone.” Dongwoo stated following Jinyoung’s question.

Sunwoo finally got up off of Sandeul, making his way towards Chanshik as if the other two hadn’t been talking about him.

“Are you alright? Is the makeup still bothering you?” he asked to the blonde haired younger. Sandeul took notice of how cautious his words had sounded; it was almost strange to hear.

Jinyoung gave a bewildered glance to the rapper than faced the one in question. “It was bothering you? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Sandeul brought himself off of the ground, his eyes barely falling from the scene in front of him. The worry that was crossing Jinyoung’s face, and how clearly concerned he was, made a strange sort of feeling turn up inside him, it almost felt like envy.

Chanshik shook his head, flashing a reassuring smile between the two who were currently fretting over him. “I’m fine! Don’t worry, it was just a different brand they used and it started making my face itch.”

For a moment, the two continued to watch him as if waiting for his smile to waver, but it never did. Instead, they smiled back, if not carefully.

The three returned to the lounge, Jinyoung tossed the backpack on the couch than threw a quick glance towards Sandeul who shrunk away. He didn’t need to be told what the leader was implying; he’d have to remember to keep his things in check before wandering off next time.

None of them got the chance to sit again when a group of staff members rushed into the room, telling them they needed to head to the stage.

They grouped together and followed the staff through the long hallway. The walls were faded beige with a single stripe of green running along the side. Grey tiles made up the floor, but one could easily see a few scuff marks upon it every once in a while. The metal doors that lead backstage were up ahead, without leaving the hall he could hear the cheers and chants of people from the audience. It filled him with excitement, his steps becoming more energized as a smile slipped onto his mouth.

He glanced to his friends who all appeared to be in the same spirits as him. Although, now that he was closer to Chanshik, he could see that his eyes were still irritated. He felt a small pinch of compassion for him. The fact that he was able to pull himself together after the makeup disaster said clearly how he didn’t want to miss going out on stage. It was reliving to know that despite being the youngest of all of them, he still held his responsibility to the band in check.

Catching onto his staring, Chanshik glanced back at him with questioning eyes. Sandeul simply smiled, showing his bright teeth to the other in hopes the same reaction would come from him, or that at least some of his cheerfulness would spread to him. The blonde returned the expression, even if it wasn’t as joyous as his own, it still made him feel accomplished.

Wanting to wish the younger luck before going on stage, he opened his mouth to say so but at that instant they passed through the doors to behind the stage. Immediately their attention was brought to a staff member who came up to each of them, fitting headset microphones over their ear and adjusting it in front of their mouths.

Sandeul wasn’t a huge fan of them and much rather hold a microphone than worry about one being on his face, but their performance called for free hands.

There was suddenly a cameraman coming up to the five, obviously filming. Sandeul waved happily to the camera before it turned to face Sunwoo and Chanshik who had engaged in a friendly game of reaching out to poke the other in a “too cute to not be on camera” way.

Once their microphones were fitted, they walked in a line to the edge of the stage. A bundle of nerves suddenly forming when he glanced out to see how many people were in the audience, there had to be hundreds. But at the same time it made him enthralled and eager none the less. He wasn’t shy when it came to being on stage, but the moment before was always tense. Sometimes ideas of things that could go wrong often played through his mind, making him way too over conscious of his presence on stage.

Closing his eyes, he stood up straight and took a deep breath. When releasing it, he opened his eyes and instantly beamed at the five who wore similar expressions. They were gathered around to do their usual before performance cheer which never got old.

How could anything possibly go wrong with his friends there on stage with him?

Thank you for reading!

TBC...