A couple of days had passed since Younghun’s return and they all were kept busy with both their individual practices and their group practices, the only one who wasn’t around all day was Xue, who was being kept busy with school. When the boys finally got a day off to rest – mainly because their teachers were busy with something else– the boys all remained at the dorms, sleeping in and lazing around because they could. Shin actually stayed in with them, shocking the other members when he had informed them that his little “secret” project for the company had finally been completed.

Younghun smirked in amusement as Sora went on and on about something involving the fact that Shin was also being thrown into solo classes – he was joining not only Sora, Xue, Minhyun, and Younghun for individual vocal lessons, but also joining Woo Jung and Younghun in their torturous individual dancing lessons.

“I don’t understand why you all say that the dance classes are hell, I enjoy them,” stated Younghun from where he was reading a script for the historical drama he had recently been casted for in one of the armchairs. His words earned a scoff from Minhyun – which went ignored, a groan of protest from Woo Jung, and a cute growl from Sora who stared at the leader as if he had grown a second head.

“That’s because you’re weird hyung,” muttered Woojung, causing the leader to look at the younger in shock because the boy hardly ever spoke that way to him - he hardly ever spoke to him, “its hell to those of us who aren’t that good in dance.”

“Last I checked, Shin’s only a level behind Sora and I,” retorted Younghun, “The only reason he’s being put through the individual dance practices is because he doesn’t seem like he’s used to the style of dance they have us practicing and performing for promotions.”

“I’m a level higher than you both,” muttered Minhyun, “I still find them difficult and hellish.”

The other three members tensed up, as the tension between the duo made itself apparent yet again.

Sora then butted in, trying to get the oldest to ignore Minhyun’s words as he stated, “Hyung, you’re a little weird when it come to this stuff though – I might be the same level as you but I don’t like them too much.”

“It’s nothing to fight about,” stated Shin, also trying to get the attention away from Minhyun’s words, “I may find them as difficult as the group practices or I may find them easy – we just don’t know until I go through one.”

Younghun hummed, “That is true, we all are…very different.”

“Are you seriously ignoring me Younghun-sshi?” muttered Minhyun in disbelief, liking lips prior to continuing, “That’s childish.”

“Sorry, Minhyun-sshi,” retorted Younghun in the same manner, causing the others to freeze in shock at how different the oldest’s voice sounded, they had never heard the tone before, “We all can’t be as perfect as you.”

“Damn right,” muttered Minhyun, intentionally trying to get under the leader’s skin, “I don’t understand how you can be a leader if you’re this immature.”

However, the elder kept an emotionless expression as he stood up and stated, “Listen Minhyun-sshi, I’ll stop being childish when you stop being a coward.”

Minhyun stared at the elder in shock while Woojung and Sora tried hard to contain thier laughter, anger surged through Minhyun as he felt threatened – the elder had stated something he didn’t think anyone knew about him, aside from Woojung.

“What?” stated Younghun, raining an eyebrow, “Did I hit the ice prince's nerve?”

“You’re being an ,” muttered Minhyun.

“I put up with you all the time, so surely it was bound to rub off on me some time,” replied Younghun nonchalantly, he wanted to take the words back as soon as he saw the hurt flash in the younger’s eyes, but he had decided after a week of thinking maybe it was for the best that he forgot about his feeling about Minhyun – which Sora had finally got him to admit to having.  

Sora grabbed ahold of Woo Jung’s forearm out of fear from the leader’s expression and aura, he had never seen the leader like this. He hoped that Woojung would stop them; however the other male was just as shocked as him – just as powerless as him. Even Shin sat in silence, too consumed by shock to stop the argument before it got even worse, before they hurt each other anymore.

Minhyun was at a loss of words as he stared into the leader’s cold eyes – upon closer observation, he could see the exhaustion shining in them. He could see the bags that were under the leader’s eyes. He saw through the older male’s attempt of hiding the bags with makeup.

“What the hell is your problem?” growled Minhyun, finally getting the words to come out of his mouth, flinching as his words did not come out as strong as he wanted them to.

“You,” retorted Younghun, “Why does it bother you if I ignore you? Minhyun-sshi, you ignored me since I got out of the hospital weeks ago, hell, you avoided me…” Minhyun opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by the leader speaking again, “You know what, don’t answer that I have a better questioned – if you don’t like me, then why do you keep doing skinship with me? Why does it bother you if I ignore you?”

Minhyun stood in shocked silence at the elder’s words, completely understanding where the elder was coming from.

Younghun smirked a bit, exhausted by his own words. He stayed silent as it finally dawned on him what he had said to the younger. The tension drained from his muscles as he looked towards the three on the couch that looked at him in utter shock and back to Minhyun to see a mixture of hurt and anger in the younger's eyes.

Younghun’s expression became darker and he quickly moved towards the front door, slipping into his shoes but leaving his jacket as he spoke in a slightly cracking voice, “I...I need to go...”

With that he left quickly with a slight slam of the door and yet again the room was plunged into silence as Shin whispered, “I think our leader finally snapped.”

Sora nodded wordlessly, his eyes going from where Younghun had once been standing to the frozen Minhyun – who still seemed to be processing what had just happened, “Should we go after him?”

Shin shook his head, “Let him cool off on his own…you know he doesn’t like talking about his own troubles.”

Woojung stood up and grabbed ahold of Minhyun’s wrist quickly stating, “Please excuse us.”

With his words, Woojung pulled Minhyun into the six’s bedroom, probably to talk about what just happened and maybe calm the older male down. Sora looked towards Shin and the elder just stood up and patted Sora’s shoulder in a comforting manner before moving to pick up the leader’s abandoned script from the floor and moving into the kitchen.

“What is happening?” whispered Sora, the corners of his lips pulling downward into a frown. After a couple minutes in silence he murmured, running an hand through his hair exasperatedly, “I guess we really don’t know each other as well as we thought we did…I guess we’ve really been deceiving ourselves with the act of knowing each other well…I hope it’s a good thing that the illusion we had finally crumbled…hopefully we can recover from this.”

 Sora’s frown deepened as he looked towards the door to see a shaken and upset Xue entering the dorms dressed in his gym uniform rather than his school uniform and was hugging a plastic bag close to himself as he moved into the dorm with his head down. From what Sora could see, the meek smile that was usually on the magnae’s face was gone and that caused worry to spring up within the 94er.

“Shin-hyung!” called Sora, knowing that Shin and Jhun were the two closest to the magnae, “Shin-hyung, hurry!”

Shin ran out of the kitchen looking towards Sora to ask what was wrong, only to have his eyes fall onto Xue who stood by the door, trembling. Shin automatically moved towards the younger, pulling him into the dorms and forcing the younger male to drop his bags – upon turning to pick up the plastic bag, shock fell over Shin as he stared at the tattered uniform lying on the floor before him. Xue went to pick it up, but Shin pulled him away, causing the younger to lose his balance and bump into the elder’s chest.

“L-Let me go hyung,” whispered Xue, trying to pull away from Shin’s embrace, trying hard to hide his glossy eyes especially as more tears threatened to fall.

“No,” whispered Shin, his voice calm and his attention turning towards Sora, “I changed my mind Sora, go find Younghun – check the roof, the practice room, or the park – tell him to get his back here.”

Xue shook his head, “Don’t bother h-him, h-hyung.”

“Why?” questioned Shin.

“He’ll get upset over it again,” whispered Xue, “You heard what he said last time…I don’t want him going into the school like he said, I don’t want him to talk to the managers about it either.”

“This has happened before?” muttered Sora in shock, however his words went ignored.

“Don’t worry about it Sora and find Younghun, alright?” stated Shin, ignoring the youngest's words before stating, "I kept the last time from him, Xue. I know you don't want these sorts of measures being taken, but this can't go on any longer. It's obvious that it's hit the point you are unable to control it anymore."

Sora nodded and grabbed his jacket and slipped into his shoes again as Shin gently led Xue into one of the manager’s rooms - not going into thier own due to Minhyun and Woojung holding a secret meeting - and forcing him into the bathroom, running a gentle hand through the magnae’s hair and whispering, “Get cleaned off. We’ll talk more once you get out. I’ll get you a set of clothes for you.”

Xue nodded hesitantly as the elder male left him alone in the restroom.

As soon as the door was shut, Xue stripped off the black gym uniform that smelled strongly of rotting tomatoes, feeling guilty about probably making the elder male’s clothes smell just as bad. He quickly started up the shower and tried hard to avoid looking at his reflection in the mirror, not wanting to see the blues and purples that surely painted his pale skin. 

Double update! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed. This is probably the fastest I updated in a while, huh?

I hope you all enjoyed yet again - despite the fact Xue is being bullied and Younghun and Minhyun have fought once again. Don't worry there will be developement between all three couples here in a couple of chapters.