"Seriously? This is what I have to work with?" asked the makeup coordinator to the manager hyung, irritated. I felt guiltier than ever, so I felt the obligation to speak.

"I'm very sorry. I'm still immature and I didn't take care of myself like I should have. I really have no right to even lift my head," I said, blushing, looking at the floor. "Thank you so much for your help." And with this, I gave a very long bow.

The makeup coordinator gave a disapproving look, but pulled up a stool for me to sit on.

"Thank you," I said, still not meeting her eyes and my gaze fixed on my feet.

"Tilt your head to the side," she said, and when I did so, she got a closer look at the cut.

"It looks clean, but I'm hesitant about putting makeup on it directly since it's so fresh," she said. I felt my mouth drying out of nervousness. What if I can't go on stage on Saturday because they weren't able to hide it?

However, I didn't need to worry; in a few minutes, a strip of tape-like material had been used to cover the cut, and the makeup was applied over it. When I looked in the mirror after about half an hour of hard work by the makeup coordinator, the cut had completely disappeared.

"Wow," I said. I looked at the manager hyung, who also looked pleased. "Thank you so much," I said, turning to the makeup coordinators.

"It's not perfect," she said, "but your hair covers it pretty well."

I bowed. "I don't know what to say," I said apologetically.

"Just be more careful from now on," she said. "And make sure that the cut doesn't keep covered for too long."

"Okay, thank you," I said, and with happy faces, we left the makeup studio to make our way to SM.

After the first practice session with the whole group, Kibum and Heechul had to leave to shoot dramas while the rest of us took the opportunity for a dinner break. I had promised Jonghyun dinner the day before, and before I even realized, I was thinking about where he might be.

"Do you want dinner?"

I turned around, and Ryeowook was standing there. I looked at him uncertainly. This was the first time that anyone on the team had asked me to dinner, and I was grateful; however, I wasn't sure that I would feel as comfortable as if I were eating with Jonghyun.

"Ryeowook, I actually promised one of my juniors to dinner today," I said apologetically. "But you can join us, if you like."

Ryeowook looked at me. "It's okay," he said jokingly. "I didn't really want to go with you anyway."

"You jerk," I said, pushing him away slightly with a smile. "I'll be back in an hour."

"See you," he said, and he turned around and walked towards the rest of the team.

I opened the practice room door, expecting to go on a hunt to find Jonghyun, but as soon as I opened the door, I saw him standing there, waiting for me.

"Hyung!" he said as soon as he saw me. He smiled widely.

"Hey," I said, smiling back. "How are you?"

"You got me into trouble at school today," he said with a laugh.

"How?" I said, confused.

"The text you sent me in the middle of class," he said. I sighed.

"Why didn't you have your phone turned off?" I demanded.

"Because I was waiting for your text," he said. "It would have been okay, but then the teacher got angry when I tried to text back."

"Ugh, you idiot," I said in exasperation. "How many times did you get hit?"

"Five," he said, making it sound like it was the worst experience of his life.

"Well, but that's not too bad," I said, puzzled. "What's wrong?"

"It would have been okay, except... I have a... a meeting with Minhyun sunbae in the basement today. You asked me to tell you if he was giving me a hard time, hyung, so..." he said, glancing at me. I was lost for words. I had assured him that I would take care of it, but now that it was actually here, I wasn't sure how to deal with it.

"When is this meeting?" I asked, nervous.

"Hyung, it's actually now," he said apologetically. "I just told you because you told me to, but I'm not expecting you to do anything."

"No," I said. "I said I'd take care of it. Is it in the basement?"

"Hyung, you really don't have to," he said, looking into my eyes.

"I'm going to," I said, biting my bottom lip. I was tired of the seniors abusing their position to terrorize the juniors, and if there was anything I could do now that I was a senior, especially for Jonghyun, I was going to do it.

I followed Jonghyun to the basement, where Minhyun was already waiting. When he saw me, he looked surprised for a second, then laughed.

"Really?" he asked. "What are you planning on doing, Cho Kyuhyun?"

"Hyung, I asked you to stop giving him a hard time," I said, but there was something bizarre about demanding something in honorifics while the other person was speaking informally. And although I was technically the senior, there was no doubt that Minhyun still was the higher power.

Minhyun scoffed. "But I'll still need to vent if a kid does something wrong. So unless you have a solution, I suggest you stay out of it."

I didn't say anything for a second, but I looked into his eyes. I had just made an incredibly difficult decision in my mind, and I hoped that it would work.

"Then let's do it this way," I said. Minhyun looked back at me. "I think it's no secret that you hate me more than any other junior here."

I waited a bit, and Minhyun didn't say anything to contradict that, so I continued. "And I'm fairly sure that you'd rather hit me once than to hit another junior five times." I waited again, and he didn't dispute this either. I opened my mouth to go on, but then I was interrupted by Jonghyun.

"Hyung," said Jonghyun uneasily. "What are you -"

I held up a hand and glared at Jonghyun, and he stopped.

"So... I'll cut you a deal," I said. "For every incident that you don't hit Jonghyun when he does something wrong, I'll take one hit."

"HYUNG!" shouted Jonghyun, looking at me with wide eyes. "What are you doing?"

Minhyun looked at me. "Well, that seems hardly fair," he said. My chest tightened in fear that he would refuse. "If I were to hit you once for every five that I were to hit him..."

"Okay," I said, looking at him. "Then I'll take three."

I watched as Minhyun contemplated a bit. "Five, and we have a deal," said Minhyun. He held out his hand. I hesitated for a brief second, but then took his hand to shake it. Jonghyun was just staring at us in shock and horror, and had frozen in place. On the other hand, Minhyun and I acted a lot more calmly.

I walked over to the wall to put my hands against it, while Minhyun walked to the cleaning closet. As I shuffled my feet to stabilize myself, Jonghyun seemed to have broken out of his state of shock.

"Hyung, stop it," he said angrily, forcing one of my hands off the wall. "This is crazy. This wasn't what either of us meant."

I looked at him. "Be quiet or get out of here," I said, not wanting it to be harder than it already was.

"Hyung, don't do this," he pleaded. He turned to Minhyun. "Sunbaenim, please. I'm so sorry."

"I said, get out!" I shouted. Jonghyun looked at me, clearly shocked that I had shouted at him. It was the first time I'd shouted at him, and although I felt terrible, I was afraid that I would cave into his pleas if he stayed in the room.

"No, hyung," he said, and he made another move to grab my arm. "It's my fault, I don't want you do this again!"

"Kim Jonghyun, you -" I said angrily, and then I grabbed him by his arm and pulled him to the door. I opened it, and pushed him out of the room.

"HYUNG!" He shouted in frustration. Ignoring him, I closed the door and locked it. I heard him tugging on the door handle on the other side, and heard him yell "hyung!" again.

I looked at Minhyun. "You're giving me your word to leave him alone about this incident now, if I do this."

"Of course," he said, the broom now in his hand.

I put my hands against the wall again, and looked at the floor. However, Minhyun didn't seem to do anything.

"How do I know you're not cheating?" he asked. I was momentarily confused, but then I realized what he was saying.

"I don't have padding," I assured him.

"So you wouldn't mind if I checked?" he said. Oh god. Minhyun was serious about this.

I shook my head, and I felt him touch the seat of my pants briefly. After he confirmed that I hadn't padded, he stepped into place. He barely even aimed; he just focused on making it as hard as he could. It was comparable to Eunhyuk's punishment, and I was momentarily glad that I'd had that experience. After Minhyun was finished, I stayed in the position for a few moments with my eyes squeezed shut, waiting it out for the pain to subside. A few seconds later, I lifted my head and pushed myself back up. I breathed out, and faced Minhyun, but he was already walking out of the room. The door didn't even close, and a clearly angry Jonghyun entered the room. I evaded his gaze.

"This is your way of taking care of it?" said Jonghyun angrily, and I looked at him. "Hyung, we both know this wasn't what you meant. Now this is no different from when we first started out."

"Jonghyun, there's a huge difference, between then and now," I explained. "This was voluntary."

"That doesn't mean anything," said Jonghyun, looking at me in clear disappointment. I sighed.

"You'll understand if you're ever in my position," I said.

"I'll never get it," said Jonghyun, shaking his head.

"Look, I'm sorry this wasn't what you expected," I said. "But tell me you wouldn't have done the same for me."

Jonghyun just looked at the floor. "You know I would," he said.

"Exactly," I said. "So do you think you can think of it like that for me?"

"Hyung," he said, and he gave me a hug, and I hugged him back.

"Okay," I said, patting him on the back.  "Dinner?"

"Thanks," said Jonghyun with a smile, and we made our way to the cafeteria together.

*Author's note: You've been asking who Minhyun is and whether he's fictional. Baek Minhyun is not fictional - he was an SM trainee and was rumoured to be the 13th member of Super Junior before Kyuhyun joined, and a short while after, there was a tiny rumour that he would be added as the 14th member. He has since left SM and is presently active as an actor. However, there's no indication anywhere that he's got a hot temper or anything of the sort - I just needed an antagonist character. So please don't hate on him in real life! I realized too late that I chose 3 characters, all with "hyun" as the second part of the name (and if I'd realized this earlier, I probably would have chosen different characters), but hopefully it doesn't affect the quality of the story too much. :)