Throughout the night, it was clear that the five that I received from Minhyun took a bigger toll on my body than I had expected. At the time, they felt almost identical to Eunhyuk's, but the pain was lasting for much longer than Eunhyuk's ever had. Although it didn't affect practice, I stayed on my feet even during the breaks, much to the confusion of the other members. On our way back to the dorm, I hesitated before sitting down in the seat next to Ryeowook.

"What's wrong?" asked Ryeowook, watching me wince as I sat down.

"I'll tell you later," I said as I shifted in my seat, although I had no intention of ever telling him, or anyone on the team, what happened. I didn't want them to know that I was beaten by anyone other than the members or the manager hyung, especially a trainee.

"Okay," he said, and I had nodded back, but I was focusing on putting as little pressure on my hips as physically possible for the entire ride.

The stinging and soreness didn't go away even as I lied down to sleep. I turned over on my stomach because I didn't think that I could handle lying on my back, especially since I was still sleeping on the floor. I had planned on raiding the freezer for ice cubes as soon as everyone was asleep, but for whatever reason, the members seemed to want to socialize tonight, and Sungmin and Donghae didn't go to sleep for another three hours after we arrived at the dorm.

Once I was assured that both were finally sleeping, I creaked open the door, in the darkness, and made my way to the kitchen. I felt around for the light switch, and flicked it on. I took out the two ice cube trays from the freezer, which were thankfully filled with ice cubes, and emptied both into a plastic bag. Then, after taking care to refill the trays, I carried the plastic bag back to Sungmin and Donghae's room.

As I opened the door, I remembered. "Towel," I whispered to myself. The last thing I wanted to do was make an inadvertent mess as the ice cubes melted. I tiptoed to the bathroom to retrieve one. My hands now full, I turned the doorknob carefully into the room, and the door opened. As I felt around in the dark to close the door again, I felt the plastic bag slip out through my fingers.

The plastic bag and the many ice cubes made an almighty crash as it fell on the ground. I froze with my eyes squeezed shut.

I then heard Sungmin turn in his bed. "What was that?" he asked groggily.

"Nothing. Go back to sleep, hyung," I whispered.

"Are you sure?" he slurred.

"Yeah. Sorry, hyung," I said, and Sungmin grunted and turned over in his bed again. Breathing a sigh of relief, I picked up the bag again. Fortunately, it had stayed intact. Wrapping up the bag carefully in the towel, I laid down on my stomach again on the floor, and placed the home-made ice pack on my hips, and breathed a sigh of relief. I then put a blanket over myself and went to sleep.

The next morning, Ryeowook awoke me and everyone else like every other day. When I finally came around and woke up, the first thing I noticed was the persistent pain on my hips; I was lying on my back. I instinctively turned myself over to minimize contact of the floor on my hips. A few more seconds later, I noticed that my pajama bottoms were totally wet and stuck to my skin. It was only then that I remembered: ice cubes.

Still not fully awake, and I got up on my knees and started looking for the plastic bag. I found it buried within two of the blankets, still wrapped in the towel. I lifted it up, but it was clear that I had somehow burst the plastic bag in the middle of the night after it had melted.

"No!" I shouted. In a state of panic, I quickly separated the blankets from one another, and got to my feet. Donghae, who was just waking up, noticed me doing this and his eyed widened.

"Did you wet your bed?" he asked, looking at my wet pajamas. I gave Donghae an exasperated look.

"It's just water, sunbaenim," I said. "It's not like I have a bed to wet anyway," I added under my breath.

"What happened?" Sungmin asked. "Why are all of your blankets wet? And can you put some pants on, please?" he said, looking at my pajamas and saw that they had become more or less see-through due to being wet.

"Ugh," I said. I opened my suitcase and brought out my jeans while looking at the clock. 7:28am. I ran through the day's schedule in my head, then I realized that the manager hyung was supposed to be picking me up at 7:30am to allow me to check in at school.

In a state of desperation, I upturned my backpack to extract my uniform from it, and I almost started stripping my pajamas off, then I remembered that Sungmin and Donghae would be able to see the bruises if I did so. I collected my change of clothes, and got up to leave the room.

"Hey, whatever, we're all guys," said Sungmin, clearly amused. I ignored this comment.

"Sunbaenim, I'm really sorry about the mess I made," I said, looking at both Donghae and Sungmin. "But I don't think I can clean it right now. I'll do it as soon as I'm back from school."

"What?" asked Sungmin. "You want us to just leave that mess lying around?"

"Um... just for half an hour or so, hyung," I said apologetically. "I'll get the mess as soon as I can. So, can I be excused? The manager hyung's going to be here in two minutes to pick me up."

Donghae chuckled at my state of panic, and nodded. Without really processing anything, I rushed to the bathroom to change, without even having dried myself off. As I was pulling on the sweater vest over my head, I heard the front door open. I rushed out of the bathroom. The manager hyung opened his mouth to say something to me, but I didn't pause to listen.

"Hyung, one second," I said to the manager hyung, and I rushed back into my room to retrieve my bag. Unfortunately, this involved putting everything I had just upturned back into the bag.

Within a minute or so, I was ready, and I greeted the manager hyung properly.

"Sorry, hyung," I said, gasping. "I'm ready."

"Uh... I'm actually here to tell you that I sorted things out with administration at your school. You don't have to do check-ins anymore," he said.

"Really?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah, given that you attend at least 5 hours of class a week," said the manager hyung. As I beamed at the news, he squinted and looked at my uniform pants.

"What?" I asked, perplexed.

"Why are your pants wet?" he asked, clearly confused.

"Oh, um..." I wasn't sure how to explain without letting him know what really happened. "It's a long story," I concluded.

"Fine," he said, shaking his head. He then walked into the living room, where everyone was eating breakfast that Ryeowook had cooked.

"None of you except Heechul has any schedules today, so you can focus on the live stage tomorrow. I want you guys to do just five sing-throughs today, so space them out evenly throughout the day. I don't want you losing your voices for tomorrow. Focus on crisp dance and absolute synchronicity. Don't forget the final costume fitting later today."

Everyone nodded to show their understanding. As he went off to drive Heechul to his drama shoot, Sungmin looked at me. "Kyuhyun, can you take care of the mess in the room now?"

"Oh, yes, hyung," I said, remembering. "Sorry." I turned around and walked back into the bedroom.

I had been drying the floor with towels when Sungmin entered the room. "So where did this water come from?" he asked.

"I tried making an ice pack last night," I said, embarrassed. "I guess I burst the bag while I was sleeping."

"Why did you need an ice pack? Did you injure something?" he asked, looking concerned. I wasn't sure how to respond.

"No, it's nothing like that," I said, feeling like I had been pushed into a corner. "It was just... really hot last night."

"Right," said Sungmin, suspicious. I nodded and made to get up for another dry towel. At this moment, Sungmin's expression changed from confusion to epiphany. He gave me a meaningful look.

"I think I can put two and two together," he said with a smile. "You stayed on your feet the whole night yesterday, and you slept on your stomach for the first time. And, I thought I saw black and blue through your wet pajamas this morning."

I frowned; I was wearing dark boxers, the bruises shouldn't have been visible. I quickly focused on where it hurt, then realized that Minhyun's aim was so poor that day that he'd caught a good portion of my legs with the beating; that must have been what Sungmin saw.

"I don't know what you're talking about, hyung," I said, trying to stay calm. God, why couldn't Minhyun have aimed properly?

Sungmin smiled slyly.

"Of course you don't," he said.

And when I walked past, he smacked the seat of my pants with his hand.

"Ahh!" I yelled. Although it was fairly light, the heightening of the pre-existing pain and surprise was enough to make me lose my balance. As I fell backwards and my hips hit the ground, I inhaled sharply in pain. I quickly got on my knees to get my hips off the ground and squeezed my eyes shut to clear the pain.

"That's what I thought," said Sungmin, with a satisfied smile. "Who was it? Manager hyung?"

"Hyung, that was so unnecessary," I complained, finally getting back on my feet. "It's not affecting work, right? So no one else needs to get involved."

"Sure, whatever suits you," said Sungmin, smiling arrogantly.

"I meant, don't tell anyone else... please," I said, my face flushing with embarrassment.

"Fine," he said. "But you owe me a detailed explanation of what happened." My breath got caught in my throat.

"I never said I'd -"

"If you don't want anyone else to know, I suggest you tell me," he said.

"Since when did you ever care?" I asked in frustration.

"I just want to know what happened," he said innocently.

"Okay, hyung, I'll tell you later," I said with a sigh.

"Okay," said Sungmin. I smiled in relief that he agreed. We had a hectic day in front of us; I was sure that he wouldn't remember by the end of the day.