201216

CHAPTER 2

From the moment Junmyeon had raised his voice, Jongdae had been keeping a close but silent eye on the two singers huddled together. Junmyeon and Kyungsoo liked to believe they were discreet, but when two usually quiet members behaved in such a suspicious manner, it was often difficult to think they were being anything but that. While Junmyeon tended to only confide with the other older members and Kyungsoo, Jongdae, with his sharp hearing and tendency to unintentionally eavesdrop, realised that somebody had managed to infuriate him. Jongdae hadn’t noticed any particularly terrible rifts between members in the group so his curiosity got the better of him and he found himself focusing more and more on the exchange between the two. A name hadn’t been dropped yet - perhaps he had missed it - but it wasn’t helping that Jongin was snoring against Jongdae’s shoulder at the same time that Chanyeol was animatedly describing a scene from a movie to him since Baekhyun had disappeared off. And then Jongdae began to wonder where on earth Baekhyun had disappeared off to.  

“- he just goes around doing the bare minimum and gets everything while the rest of us have to put in thrice the effort!” 

Junmyeon had been a little bit too loud that and judging by he way Kyungsoo flinched a little, he hadn’t been prepared for the slight outburst either. Still, it had given Jongdae a chance to add a little context to their conversation. Judging by what Junmyeon had just said he was definitely talking about one of the members. Jongdae frowned. He didn’t tolerate this sort of childishness and the accusation that there was someone slacking but still reaping more benefits that everyone else made him both annoyed and curious. Not one of the members did the ‘bare minimum’ - everyone did their absolute best after all! 

Junmyeon seemed to have realised that he’d been a bit too loud and had returned to his aggressive whispering once more and Jongdae internally groaned in frustration. He peeled himself away from Jongin who groaned at being disturbed. Jongdae manoeuvred he younger so that he was left to rest with his head on Chanyeol’s thigh instead. Thankfully, Chanyeol seemed to have finished his segment and was sitting on the floor with a bottle of water between his lips. The surprise that was Jongin’s head had given Chanyeol such a shock that he spilt some of his beverage on the younger’s face, causing him to wake up and throw the guilty party an annoyed pout before resuming his nap. Jongdae, too preoccupied with finding out who Junmyeon and Kyungsoo were talking about, had been too distracted to apologise, and smoothly made his way closer to the duo. When he got close enough he started to fiddle with any item he could get is hands on from the nearby table to look less obvious, but the two didn’t seem phased. In fact, Kyungsoo and Junmyeon seemed not to have noticed that someone had invaded their space at all and were still talking in the same manner.

‘Arrogant’ and ‘obnoxious’, were the two words that Jongdae managed to decipher from Kyungsoo’s mumbles, but it wasn’t until Junmyeon mentioned something about an MC role that made Jongdae’s eyes widen. ‘Byun’ was what he heard next. Byun, as in Byun Baekhyun? Jongdae shook his head in disbelief. Junmyeon couldn’t possibly be saying that their Baekhyun was the member he was talking so awfully about. He decided that he couldn’t have possibly heard correctly, but when Sehun arrived and the name ‘Baekhyun’ was once again brought up and Junmyeon’s expression screamed ‘yes, that’s right’, Jongdae couldn’t doubt it any longer. 

The last straw had been when the words “Look me in the eyes and tell me you think that he works harder than all of us and that he deserves the everything he has now!”, spilled from Junmyeon’s lips.

Sehun was looking around the room, wondering who else shared the same thoughts they did of Baekhyun. He couldn’t help it. As much as he found Baekhyun funny and relatively fine, he couldn’t help but feel envious that it was Baekhyun who seemed to be better off than the rest of them. Luhan often got many offers, but since he had also been a trainee for many years and he was immensely popular in China, Sehun didn’t mind that. Baekhyun, on the other hand hadn’t even trained for a year and was neither handsome nor an amazing dancer like Jongin or Yixing. It did feel a bit awkward, a bit childish, to be thinking in the way that he was, but he couldn’t help it. He had been feeling wronged for so long, especially since he got barely a line in their songs while Baekyun seemed to take at least thirty percent for himself. Yes, it was the company who decided on allocation, but he wanted someone to blame, and it just happened that the easiest to blame was Baekhyun.

He could sense something prickling at his side. An energy of sorts, and he turned to see Jongdae striding directly towards them. He took a step back in surprise, not expecting to see such a disgusted and angered expression on Jongdae’s usually smiley face. How he wished in that very moment that he was not given into his curiosity.

“What was that about Baekhyun?” Jongdae had asked in a dangerous tone. Jongdae could feel the fire making its way from the pit of his stomach. His eyes focused on Junmyeon, but the other, instead of flinching from the intensity, held his ground and looked at Jongdae with an equally piercing glare.

“Stay out of this, Kim”, the older retorted coldly, “This is none of your business”.

“My friend’s are my business, so kindly tell me what exactly your problem is” Jongdae challenged with even more grit in his voice.

He could see Sehun trying to back away from the upcoming cold war, but was stopped when he collided with Chanyeol who had come over after noticing the stand-off. Chanyeol looked like he was asking Sehun what was happening, but Sehun just grimaced and squeezed his lips together, not even looking Chanyeol in the eye.

“What’s going on?” Chanyeol asked cautiously as he stepped forward to stand across Junmyeon and Jongdae.

“Again, none of your business.” Junmyeon spat out. Chanyeol looked surprised for a moment and looked at Kyungsoo who seemed to be taking on a similar stance to the older by not giving him any context either. He stood by Junmyeon with a bored expression while Junmyeon and Jongdae continued with their silent battle. A few tense seconds went by until Jongdae finally acknowledged Chanyeol’s presence, breaking his glare.

“I heard them bad-mouthing Baekhyun,” he growled, giving Junmyeon and Kyungsoo a quick once over, “something about him being arrogant getting everything by doing the bare minimum”. Chanyeol’s mouth dropped open and his eyes bulged in complete confusion, as if mystified at the very thought.

“These guys were saying that Baekhyun doesn’t deserve anything he has.”

Sehun could feel the flicker of Chanyeol’s large eyes from amongst them. He had the decency to look ashamed and made no input to defend himself or deflect the accusations being thrown his way. 

“Our Baekhyun?” Chanyeol asked again after a few moments of gathering himself and looked at Jongdae hoping that he had been joking, “but Baekhyun works just as hard as we do, maybe even more along with Jongdae”. 

Jongdae’s heart swelled at that comment. He and Baekhyun had had the same concerns and had often taken time out together to uplift the others spirits. Yes, they were a noisy duo and tended to act confident and extraverted, but the reality was that the two of them were introverted and were simply happy souls with enough happiness to share around. The two of them always spoke about doing better since they lacked in comparison to everyone else and that had always remained an insecurity at the back of their minds. Chanyeol’s recognition of both Jongdae’s and Baekhyun’s efforts and his genuine confusion that the members before them thought otherwise brought him some comfort. And then he remembered why they were having this conversation. He didn’t know how Baekhyun would take it if he heard them talking about him. Baekhyun was a tough character, but he was also a deep thinker too. He was thankful that at least, Baekhyun wasn’t present.

Junmyeon scoffed unpleasantly and rolled his eyes, an unfamiliar action that Jongdae and even Chanyeol, based on the latter’s surprised expression, had never witnessed from Junmyeon. 

“Don’t even act like it hasn’t crossed your mind,” Junmyeon accused.

Jongdae was about to retort, but was cut off by Chanyeol who seemed to have finally snapped out of daze of disbelief and now seemed to only be able to feel immense anger. 

“What the are you saying, Hyung!?” He shouted, and by this point all of the other members had become aware of a potential fight breaking out and were listening quietly,”What the hell do you mean by that!? You’ve seen him practice and you’ve seen how he lives!”

It was rare to see Chanyeol so angry, but Jongdae was feeling the same way in that moment. 

“From my perspective that’s what it looks like” Junmyeon emphasised cooly, his face blank and cold. “I get that he’s your friend, but to me he’s a colleague, and an undeserving one at that”. Junmyeon gave both Chanyeol and Jongdae one final condescending look before swaggering away with Kyungsoo by his side.

Chanyeol hadn’t noticed that it was time to get going until Jongdae pulled him away from where he stood starstruck. He was mumbling under his breathe and Jongdae patted his back as if to reassure him that he felt the same.

“Where even is Baekhyun?” Chanyeol asked after his breathing had evened out and he took a deep gulp of water from a bottle Jongdae had placed into his shaking hands. 

“I have no idea,” Jongdae answered as he hoisted his bag onto his shoulders and rummaged for his phone. Jongdae called the Baekhyun’s phone, but the call immediately diverted to voice mail, indicating that said phone had either been turned off or had run out of battery. Baekhyun’s bag was still where he had left it, so Baekhyun had to still be in the building at least.

The two beagles peaked outside the door but all they were greeted with was a dark and empty hallway, and the bathroom had been vacant when they checked for him there too. Puzzled, the two shared a look and Chanyeol picked up his phone to make a call.

“Ahh, Chanyeol, is everyone else ready yet?” Youngmin asked as soon as he picked up, “Me and Baekhyun have been waiting for a bit now.”

“Baekhyun’s with you?” Chanyeol asked in relief, “he’s left his bag up here.” Jongdae made a sudden dash for the practice room, startling the tall rapper.

“His bag?” Youngmin seemed deep in thought, and Chanyeol would have replied if Jongdae hadn’t reappeared so suddenl