"What?" asked Youngjun hyung in disbelief. "No, give me the broom if you can't hit him anymore."

I almost opened my mouth to stop him, but the manager hyung shook his head. "No, he's at his limit," he said.

"He said he could take more. Give it to me," said Youngjun hyung, holding out his hand.

"Sunbae, all of our boys are hard-headed and stubborn. That's how they came this far in their careers. As far as this is true, part of our job is to understand the boys' limits and keep them from getting hurt when they think they can go further than they really can," said the manager hyung, then he put the broom down completely.

Youngjun hyung stopped and sighed. "But it's not possible. That makes it too hard for us to organize their schedules."

"All of your boys will have to move to the same place," said the manager hyung.

"There's nowhere for them to move to!" said Youngjun hyung, shaking his head.

"Our officetel," said the manager hyung with a sigh. "You can stay in it with your boys, and Minsung and I will move in here to make room in the officetel for them."

"Seunghwan, I think you've lost your mind," said Youngjun hyung, taking the manager hyung by his arms. The manager hyung shook his head.

"I haven't. It's hard for the boys as it is. We shouldn't make it harder than it has to be," said the manager hyung. Then he turned to Heechul. "I hope this isn't a spur-of-the-moment decision."

Heechul finally took his hands off the wall and faced the manager hyung, his face still a mess from the crying. "I've wanted to move out ever since our comeback," he confirmed. The manager hyung nodded.

"Hankyung and Kibum, you're going to have to move with him as well."

The two of them were dumbfounded and just stared at the manager hyung. The manager hyung sighed and looked at Heechul. "You can spend the night at our officetel. Hankyung and Kibum, you two can stay here for the night, and the three of you can move out tomorrow."

The manager hyung then took Heechul's arm and put it around his shoulders to help him to the door.

The next morning, the manager hyung came to our dorm so early that I hadn't had a chance to sleep; I was still studying. He gathered us in the living room with a grim face. "We had to canceled all of your schedules for the next three days. The backlash from the performance was too big." We all looked at him in dismay. "But that means that Heechul, Kibum and Hankyung will be able to move out today, and the rest of you can spend all day at the office, practicing the new SM Town song. And I'm sorry to tell you, but you all just got a pay cut, as well."

I sighed. I had received my second monthly paycheck since I joined the team the week before, but not having many appearances anywhere besides the performances, it hadn't amounted to very much. I was counting on the music program win to count for something for the next paycheck, but indeed, the bad seemed to count for much more than the good. There were protests, but the manager hyung shook his head. "The pay cut's not my decision. It's the company's. They assured me that the pay cut is temporary, until your credits are back with the public. Depending on how hard you work, the cut could last two weeks, or it could be six months. So work hard."

I muttered, "Yes, sir," along with everyone else, then we all returned to our rooms, sullen-faced and disappointed, to get ready for the long day of practice.

We reached the office at around 7:30am, tired and distressed. "Usual practice room. Heechul, Hankyung and Kibum will be joining you in about three hours," said the manager hyung. "All of you are going to be punished again if even one of you steps out of the building the entire time, including for meals. I'll be checking up on you throughout the day, and all of you had better be practicing when I'm there."

I sighed. Another day without study time.

We all got off the bus, and as usual, I was the last person to get off. Before I got off, though, I tapped the manager hyung's arm.

"Hyung," I said quietly. The manager hyung turned his head to look at me.

"Are you sore?" he asked. I almost started shaking my head, but I couldn't lie to him anymore.

"Yeah," I admitted. The manager hyung lifted his hand and gave an apologetic pat on my shoulder. "But I'm not as sore as Heechul hyung probably is," I said.

A look of frustration crossed the manager hyung's face, but it passed within a second. "I had to do it to assess the gravity of the problem."

I paused a bit, then I nodded. "But hyung, I wanted to talk about something else."

The manager hyung nodded. "What is it?" he asked.

"Hyung, the three of them are moving out of the dorm and the two of you are moving in, right?" I looked at the manager hyung, who neither confirmed nor contradicted it. There was a brief hesitation, as I was thinking that this might not be the best time to ask, but this was an issue that had been nagging me since I joined the team. "But that means that there will be one extra space for a bed, right? If it's possible - " I stopped myself for a minute, reconsidering my request, then went on. "Could you - could you possibly get me a bed?"

I expected the manager hyung to laugh at me or get angry at me for asking for something so huge at a time when I should be scolded, but the manager hyung did neither; he looked at me seriously and spoke. "Actually, you guys are getting a new manager. The three of us are being overworked, so we asked for a fourth. And it seems that the new manager will be moving into the dorm as well. I was actually going to announce it later today."

I was so surprised that I was struck with silence for a few seconds. "Oh, re - really?" I asked, then regaining my grip, I blushed. "Okay. I guess - it doesn't - okay. Sorry for - I know now wasn't the right time to ask for - "

"If you want, I could sleep on the floor and you can sleep on a bed, though," he offered. I quickly shook my head.

"You know that's not what I meant. I'm sorry, hyung," I said, then giving him a hurried bow, I rushed off the bus and followed the rest of the team into the building.

We received the lyrics and the part division to Dancing Out, but not before we were scolded by the vocal director, vocal instructor, choreographers, and dance instructors in turn, each of them expressing their disdain over our performance last night. We got the blank track from the vocal director, who left us alone to practice our vocal parts. We were still practicing the vocals to Dancing Out when Kibum and Hankyung joined us about four hours later. There was a silence, then Leeteuk spoke.

"Heechul?" he asked carefully.

"The vocal instructor wanted a talk with him," said Kibum, then he scanned through the sheet of paper with the part division and lyrics on it.

There was another silence, then Leeteuk spoke. "Are you guys okay having to move?"

Hankyung nodded. "Heechul is a good friend, and I want him around."

Kibum nodded as well. "Same here. He takes good care of me, so..."

"As long as you're okay with it," said Leeteuk, then he turned his eyes to his page. I had millions of thoughts in my head; how could he let this happen? He didn't even try to talk to Heechul. How was our teamwork supposed to be good when we weren't even trying to solve any problems? How are we ever going to fix this when we let Heechul and two of his best friends move out from the dorm?

If I were not the youngest, if I had even been older than Ryeowook, I probably would have expressed it. However, being in the position that I was, all I could do was bite my tongue and go back to vocal practice.