It was just another day for the 6 boys; wake up, eat, hit the studio, shower, eat, sleep, repeat. Today, moreso than recent days, was exceptionally stressful as today was the final day to practice until their comeback stage. They’d run through the choreography at least a thousand times already, but Barom still was especially unsatisfied.

“It needs to be /sharp/ tomorrow,” he said between pants, “absolutely zero mistakes. This needs to be better and stronger than our debut stage because this is a comeback. We’re expected to have improved by now.”

The members all nodded in unison, trying to fight the fatigue that threatened to take them all at any moment.

“From the top.” Barom hit replay on the stereo and everyone assumed starting positions.

Everything was running smoothly; Kangjun was on top of his cues, Hyunil’s movements weren’t as sloppy, everything was going exactly how Barom wanted it to. He knew his part was coming up soon and he was ready to treat it like the real thing. He visualized the screaming fans in the audience, the big stage, the cameras; he was prepared and it was go time.

Again, everyone was perfectly on cue. Barom felt exceptionally proud of everyone so far, it was undoubtedly their best run yet. That was until Barom lost his footing prior to Minwoo roughly placing his hand on Barom’s shoulder which only threw Barom off balance even more, causing him to slide into Hyunil, knock him over, pin him down, and somehow their faces smacked together in a way Barom wished never, /ever/ happened.

/Oh my God. I’m kissing Ray. I am ing kissing Hyunil./

The music kept playing, but the boys had stopped moving. They were all staring right at the lip-locked pair on the floor. Barom was paralyzed in shock and utter embarrassment. He couldn’t move. And Hyunil couldn’t move because Barom couldn’t move. /No one/ could move. This was bad. Really, really bad.

“Uh…” Kangjun broke the silence with an awkward chuckle. “You gonna get up, hyung?”

Somehow, that returned all of Barom’s senses and he shot up immediately, rubbing the back of his neck. “Ah, —” he cleared his throat. “Sorry.”

Hyunil stood up, face comparable to that of a deer caught about to be struck by an eighteen wheeler. He blinked a few times before nodding at Barom. “You slipped, it’s whatever.” He chuckled softly, shrugging.

Barom bit his lip. “Uh, let’s take a ten minute br-” The door slammed. Barom glanced around. Minwoo wasn’t anywhere in sight. “Where’d TK go?”

“He said he needed some fresh air, he should be back soon!” Jaejoon reported, wiping sweat off his brow and taking a seat next to Taemin.

“Oh, okay.” Barom scratched the back of his head. He knew in a couple of days they’d all look back and laugh about this moment, and Barom most likely wouldn’t live it down. Hell, Kangjun would probably bring it up backstage and let the whole world know what happened. It was an accident though and accidents happen and there’s nothing you can do about it but laugh, Barom decided. Now, Barom’s worries were set on Minwoo. The younger had some pretty serious health problems in the past, so Barom could only hope those same problems weren’t acting up again and Minwoo just needed a couple minutes to cool off. They had been practicing all day, after all, and it was nearly 10 o’clock at night.

“How much longer do we need to practice, hyung?” Kangjun whined from the corner. He was sprawled face down across the floor in a position Barom couldn’t understand how it was more comfortable than just sitting normally.

“Until we have a few consecutive run throughs without any mistakes. I think we need to do a sped-up run through to get our spirits up, though. We’ll do that when Minwoo gets back.”

“I’m not sure if he’ll be back for a while,” Taemin piped up thoughtfully, almost inaudibly. “He seemed really… Distressed about something.”

“Did he say where he was going?” Barom was already at the door, hand on the knob. “I’ll go make sure he’s all right. You guys should stand up and get your blood flowing again, we’ll be back soon.” Barom threw open the door and jogged down the hall to the exit, hoping he’d find Minwoo in good condition. The last thing he wanted was a sick Minwoo because he knew the boy would beat himself up for it until time stopped. As it was November, it was getting chillier outside which wasn’t good for Minwoo’s health, especially since he was only in practice clothes. “TK?” Barom called. “Minwoo-yah?”

After at least seven minutes of searching around for the boy outside the building, Barom finally found him sitting against the back wall, face buried in a mess of sweatpants and goosebumpy bare arms. Barom instantly pulled the boy to his feet, brushing up and down his arms to produce at least some heat through friction. “TK, it’s freezing out here, let’s go back in-“

“Leave me alone,” he rasped, smacking Barom’s hands away.

Minwoo’s body was already ice cold; his lips were turning a frightening shade of blue and his hands were losing colour. ”It’s not good for you to be out in the cold. Let’s go inside and wrap up practice.” Barom held his hand out once more.

“Leave me alone,” he repeated, more venomously this time which caught Barom off guard.

“Minwoo… What’s gotten into you? Oh God, you’re shivering! Come on, you really should come back-“

“Leave me alone!” Minwoo gave Barom a shove strong enough to knock him onto his rear and stare up at the younger in sheer bewilderment. This was not like Minwoo at all. He could always go to Barom if something bothered him, and he probably showed Barom more respect than the other members, not to discredit any of the others, Minwoo was just better at showing it at all times than the rest. Which Barom greatly appreciated, of course. Even when Minwoo overdid it, Barom found it adorable in a totally platonic and completely heteroual way.

“You’re gonna get really sick if you stay out here any longer.”

“I’ll be fine. Just go.”

Barom had to admit, he was really hurt. He was really hurt that Minwoo was being so cold to him and he wasn’t used to it at all. This was the first time Minwoo had ever snapped at him; Kangjun had snapped at him several times, Hyunil had as well. Even Taemin and Jaejoon did once or twice, but Minwoo? Never. He didn’t want to leave the younger alone, but Barom felt staying out here and pressuring the boy would only make things—such as Minwoo’s health—worse. “We’ll be waiting inside for you, then. Please don’t stay out here for too long, okay?” 

“He pushed you?” Taemin’s eyes widened. “Something really must be wrong.”

“He just kept telling me to leave him alone, no matter what I said. I don’t even know if he’ll come back inside, I’m so worried-“

The door swung open and the atmosphere abruptly changed. A runny nosed, tired looking Minwoo stood in the door frame, arms at his sides. Jaejoon approached the boy, but after Minwoo shot the maknae a deathly intimidating scowl, he stepped back and looked nervously at Barom.

“Ah, good, TK’s back. Let’s finish up practice early! Just a few more run-throughs, let’s make them count.”

Minwoo never touched Barom. Through all five run throughs they did after Minwoo had returned, he never laid his hand on Barom’s shoulder like he was supposed to. Instead, his hand hovered briefly before spinning around into the next part of the choreography. Barom felt it was best not to say anything until tomorrow, and if the others had seen Minwoo’s action (or lack thereof) they must have agreed with keeping quiet.

Barom was certainly more nervous today than he was debut day. He wasn’t worried about how the other members would perform, he wasn’t even worried about the performance at all. He was worried about Minwoo and Minwoo alone. Minwoo hadn’t spoken a word to Barom all morning; though he’d greeted good mornings to the others, albeit not as cheerfully as perusual, but it was like Barom didn’t even exist anymore in Minwoo’s world, and the pain in Barom’s chest only worsened. He didn’t understand why Minwoo was acting this way and he didn’t have any idea what possibly could have triggered it. He also didn’t understand why he felt this hurt; it was a stressful time and stress affects everyone differently and sometimes people take it out on the ones they care about. Barom should understand that, but for some reason, he couldn’t shake the lonely feeling from his heart.

“Was I being too harsh last night?” He collapsed into the seat next to Taemin who was in the middle of having his hair fixed for the rehearsal.

“No, you were pretty calm given how frustrated we all were,” he answered simply.

“Then why is Minwoo acting like this? Why is he ignoring me?”

“I don’t know, hyung.” He flicked a piece of lint from his pants.

“Siwoo! If you know something and you’re not telling me—”

“Have you tried talking to TK about it?”

“Were you not there last night?” Barom deadpanned. “I was out there for fifteen minutes trying to get him back in! He wouldn’t say a word and he still won’t.”

“Hmm.”

Barom had a feeling Taemin knew something that he wasn’t sharing and it pissed Barom off almost as much as Minwoo ignoring him did. Grumbling, Barom stood up from the chair and made his way across the room to where Minwoo and Jaejoon were sitting. The conversation looked pretty one-sided; Minwoo stared at the wall in front of him while Jaejoon laughed on about a funny video he watched before he went to bed last night.

“Maru, what have I told you about staying up to watch videos on the internet?” Barom reprimanded. “You haven’t been watching , have you?”

“Rome-hyung!” Jaejoon whined, playfully swatting at the leader. “It was a baby pig! A pig! Jumping down stairs! That’s not !”

“You’d be surprised,” Barom joked, glaring at the maknae. “Ah! Maru, you messed up your hair, go back and get it fixed.” Barom gestured behind him to the stylists. Jaejoon instinctively obeyed, jumping out of the seat and dashing over to where Taemin was still having his hair styled. Barom took this opportunity to sit next to Minwoo and have a chat.

“Are you ready to tell me what’s going on?”

Minwoo stayed silent.

“Is something bothering you?”

Silent.

“Did I do something?”

“Go away.”

Barom grabbed Minwoo’s wrist. “I’m getting really sick of your attitude. Why are you ignoring me? What the did I do?”

Minwoo wriggled his arm free and turned away from the older. Barom was fed up now.

“We have rehearsal in five minutes. You better clear your head and get the choreography right.” Barom stood up and joined Hyunil and Kangjun who were warming their voices up near the stage entrance, leaving Minwoo to stare daggers into the back of his leader’s head.

Rehearsal ran smoothly for the most part, all except when Minwoo touched—more like grabbed—Barom’s shoulder a lot harder than he should have which threw Barom off guard, though he tried not to let it phase him. After rehearsal, Barom dragged Minwoo into the bathroom to have a more private talk. The second maknae had plucked the final straw and Barom’s tolerance was running incredibly thin.

“TK I swear to ing God you better tell me what’s wrong /right/ now,” he warned.

“No,” the boy replied, reaching for the door. But Barom was quicker and stopped his hand in time, pulling Minwoo so close their noses brushed and they could taste the other’s hot breath.

“Show me some ing respect,” he ordered. “I haven’t done anything to deserve the way you’re treating me. I won’t tolerate it any longer, Minwoo. You better open up or I’ll have our comeback stage cancelled.”

Minwoo snorted. “You wouldn’t do that.”

“Try me.”

His lips curled into a challenging smirk. “You have pride. Too much of it. You’re not gonna go out there and have our performance cancelled all because there’s nothing wrong and there’s nothing for me to say on the non-existent matter.”

Barom snatched Minwoo up by the collar of his shirt. “Wipe that smirk off your face and show me some /god damn respect/ right now, Minwoo!” Barom was sure his head was about to explode; he was the type that could keep his cool and laugh things off despite the situation. He was the type that kept the members in check and ensured spirits were high and problems were resolved quickly. Exploding like this was not something he’d often do; in fact, it had only happened maybe one other time prior to debut. But since then, the leader had been cool as a cucumber. “Nothing wrong? Nothing to say? Are you ing kidding me?!”

Minwoo looked away. “I have nothing to say right now.”

Barom huffed and released the boy. He took one deep breath and sneered, “You know what, you’re right. I’m not gonna have our performance cancelled. Because I’m not /selfish/ and I care about the others. I wouldn’t want to let them down all because I wasn’t able to properly communicate my feelings.” Barom kicked the door open, momentum gained from the pent up rage, and stormed out of the bathroom and into the green room, taking deep breaths and pinching his brow to calm his expression. The members swarmed around him, and so as not to concern them, he flashed a grin. “Everything’s a-okay and TK should be back shortly. Let’s have a good comeback stage!”

The stage was phenomenal, anyone with functional eyes could admit that. Maybe it was because Barom had channeled his anger into every step, every word, but it didn’t matter because they collectively rocked the performance and were relieved to go home and rest before practicing it all over again. Or at least, that’s what they’d anticipated doing.

“Alright, let’s rest up for a few hours, and then we’ll head off to the practice room and have a few run throughs. Excellent work out there tonight, boys!” Barom was the first to grab a bottle of water from the fridge and down the whole thing in one swig. The other members congratulated each other and tiredly shuffled into their respective beds. All but Minwoo. He was perched neatly on the couch, his face expressionless. He was staring at the TV screen although it wasn’t . It didn’t matter how pissed off Barom was with the taller boy, he still cared about him to the end of the earth so naturally, he swaggered over to the boy, looked down at him with eyes full of concern and asked, “Minwoo, is everything alright?”

“Of course you’re not going to yell at me, wouldn’t want to look bad in front of the /others/ right?” Minwoo spat and Barom thought he may have detected an underlying meaning to what Minwoo said; like he was trying to hint something without saying it upfront.

“Pardon me?”

Minwoo huffed an angry laugh. “Why don’t you just come out and say it?”

Barom’s time bomb was ticking away and he was sure to lash out any second given Minwoo’s sour attitude proceeded. “Say what?” His teeth were gritted.

Minwoo stood up, practically towering over Barom. He looked him straight in the eyes. “Quit hiding it, you’re not fooling anybody.”

Tick, tock. Tick, tock. “You’re really not making any ing sense, you know!” Barom slammed a pair of sturdy hands onto Minwoo’s shoulders, shoving the boy back all while trying to regain dominance in the situation. “Would you just tell me what’s-“

“Don’t /ing/ touch me!”

Barom couldn’t believe what he saw. He /didn’t/ believe it. Minwoo was not balling his hand into a fist, and he certainly wasn’t winding it back. He definitely did not swing at full force, and he sure as hell did not make contact with Barom’s right cheek bone. Barom absolutely did not topple over and hit his head on the (thankfully not glass) wooden coffee table. He didn’t feel a shooting pain numb his face and everything didn’t go black… Oh wait, it did.

When Barom opened his eyes, Minwoo wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Taemin was at his side, Kangjun was staring in disbelief, Hyunil was handing Barom an ice pack, and Jaejoon was running into one of the rooms shouting “Wait!”

“What happened?!” Taemin prompted.

Barom lifted his hand to his stinging cheek, winced, and chuckled, “I think Minwoo punched me.”

“Why?!” Kangjun quickly asked, his voice cracking slightly. Barom laughed again.

“I still don’t know. I don’t know why he’s pissed off, I don’t know why he hit me. But I think I did something to piss him off, and I wish I knew what I did so I could make things right.” He sighed. “I can’t stand this!” He took the ice from Hyunil and pressed it to his wound, wincing again.

“I think he just needed to get that out of his system, though he definitely overreacted,” Taemin mediated.

“You think?!” Barom clicked his tongue. “Aish, this is gonna look pretty bad, I think it’s bruising already.”

“Nothing makeup can’t fix,” Hyunil assured. “If anyone asks, we had a bit too much fun at practice and somehow someone hit you in the face and this happened.”

“I suppose that’ll work.” Barom gazed toward the room Minwoo and Jaejoon were currently in. “I really should go talk to him. He has to tell me now.” The three exchanged nervous looks among themselves, but Barom lifted his hands and assured, “Don’t worry, I’ll be calm. No more bruises.”

Barom knocked on the door gently. “Hey, Jaejoon. I’ll take over from here.”

The door immediately swung open to reveal a very worried looking Jaejoon. “Are you okay, hyung?” he whispered.

Barom smiled and nodded his head. “Don’t worry about me. I’m gonna talk to him now though, alright?”

Jaejoon nodded and scurried off to join the other members. Barom gulped and took a step inside the room.

The sight of Minwoo was an icy knife in Barom’s heart; he wore a guilty look on his face, his bottom lip jutted out just a tad, and his eyes were red and puffy. Barom frowned and took a seat next to the boy. “I’m sorry,” he began softly.

“I punched you in the face and /you’re/ the one apologizing? Hyung, /I’m/ sorry.”

Barom smiled, tooth and all. It was really great to hear Minwoo call him hyung again. “Hey, no. I did something that seriously upset you. And I understand if you didn’t want to talk about it; maybe you just wanted to forget about it, I don’t know. But whatever it is, I’m sorry. I’d like to fix whatever it is I did.”

“I… I couldn’t even /look/ at you, hyung. I was just…” Minwoo drew his knees to his chest. “I was so mad at you and it was stupid and petty of me. I think above all I was mad at myself, though.” He sniffed. “I shouldn’t have treated you like that, hyung, especially over something so… So silly.” He rubbed his eyes. “I blew it way out of proportion. And I was being selfish, prioritizing my own feelings like that.”

Barom decided it was best to listen. He shifted closer to the younger, wrapped an arm around his shoulder and allowed Minwoo to rest his head on Barom’s shoulder. He gave Minwoo a comforting pat and the boy continued.

“I think what upset me the most was that… You just… You stayed there, hyung! You didn’t move. You didn’t try to end the situation. And I was upset because… Because you kissed Ray and I…”

Barom couldn’t help but say something now. “Minwoo, it was an accident. I fell on him in a really awkward position and I was too shocked and confused to move, but we all laughed after!”

“Yeah, everyone but me.”

Barom wasn’t sure if Minwoo had suddenly become the cutest thing on the planet or if he’d always been that way. He ruffled the boy’s hair and joked, “Aw, were you jealous?”

There was a very stagnant silence. “Yes, hyung.” Minwoo swallowed. “Really jealous.”

The younger’s face had flushed into every shade of red immaginable. His eyes were cast down and his cheeks were slightly puffed out. His hair was a mess and Barom wasn’t sure if these butterflies had suddenly appeared in the pit of his stomach or if they’d always been there, waiting for this moment to send the message out that Minwoo really /was/ the cutest thing ever. Barom flashed a grin. “You should’ve just said so! I’m sure it would’ve saved us all those ill feelings and me a facial bruise.” He chuckled and moved the ice pack away. “It makes me look tough though, right? Like I just wrestled a kangaroo or something?”

Minwoo tried to keep a straight face but was ultimately won over by Barom’s (incredibly dorky) charm and exploded into giggles. “Sure, hyung, you look super tough.”

The giggles ceased when the two made eye contact, and now both their faces were flushed hot. Barom wasn’t sure what to do next, and neither was Minwoo. They gulped simultaneously and Minwoo fiddled with a piece of hair. Barom felt that it would be painful to resist Minwoo’s adorableness for a second longer so, almost instinctively, he cupped the boy’s face in his hand and as gently as he possibly could, pressed his lips to Minwoo’s. Minwoo’s eyes shot wide open at first, but after a few quick moments, he settled in and returned the gesture. Barom could feel a smile creep up on Minwoo’s face and Barom couldn’t help but smile himself.

Barom was the one to break the kiss as he was overcome with round two of the giggles. “Were you really jealous?” The whole idea of Minwoo being jealous that Barom kissed another person, regardless of whether or not it was an accident, made the boy cuter than he already was.

“Hyung!” Minwoo whacked Barom with a pillow and feigned a frown, but judging from the way his eyes squinted, Barom knew the boy was really smiling.

“Oh, you so were!” In one swift movement, Barom tackled Minwoo, pinned him down, and tickled his sides. “You punched me in the face because you were jealous that I kissed Ray instead of you!”

Minwoo tried to protest but he was too occupied with suffocating on his own laughter to even utter a coherent word of complaint. “H-h-hyung!”

The tickle attack was cut short when four wide-eyed boys stepped into the room. Barom made no attempt to get off of Minwoo, though he did show Minwoo some mercy and let him have an oxygen break to hear what the others had to say.

“Is everything okay in here?” Taemin asked slowly, his tone sounding awkward and his eyes flickering from Barom to Minwoo and back again.

“Great, actually,” Barom answered in English, causing Minwoo to inwardly swoon.

“Did we… Interrupt anything?” Hyunil awkwardly folded his arms across his chest. “We can leave you two to finish, uh, whatever it is you were doing.”

“That sounds like a fantastic idea, Ray,” Barom sing-songed, once again in English which once again caused Minwoo to inwardly swoon. “Doesn’t it, TK?” He grinned cheekily at the now confused boy. As much as he loved hearing the leader speak in English, Minwoo didn’t have a clue what he was saying. Still, that Australian accent of his was like music to the ears of his stuttering heart and sounded hundreds of times better than any Korean-American’s English.

“Yes,” Minwoo responded, also in English, praying to God it was a yes or no question he’d just answered.

“Good.” Barom snapped his head back to look at the other four and tried his best to glare, but he felt the corners of his lips curl into a smile. Sternly, before his tough leader gimmick cracked, he ordered, “Go.” Without another word, the four of them had slammed the door and presumably run to the other end of the dorm in a matter of seconds. Barom then turned to face red-faced tongued-tied Minwoo, offering a wink and a playful grin. “So, where were we?”