"Again!" Hakyeon winced at the harsh tone that belonged to their dance instructor before dragging himself back to the starting point of the current dance combination they were practicing. He was spent, his breath came in ragged pants and he had been sweating so much that every bit of his loose clothing to stuck to his body.

On most days Hakyeon could finish their dance practice block strong and feeling good about their progress, but this whole week had been off. Their instructor was pushing them more and more each day and Hakyeon was nearing his limit fast. The leader knew that if he was feeling this bad then the others must have been feeling ten times worse, if not more.

His suspicion was confirmed when he met Jaehwan's defeated gaze in the mirror. It was no secret that the young main vocal was the slowest when it came to picking up choreography, but it didn't stop him from giving his all in each and every practice. But he looks absolutely pitiful right now, Hakyeon thought to himself. He quickly glanced around to gauge the other four members and felt a pang in his chest at the sight. Not one of them was looking up; Hongbin was bent over at the waist trying to catch his breath before they were put through another round. Taekwoon, Wonshik, and Sanghyuk were expressionless but breathing heavily nonetheless.

The six of them had all been curious about the sudden change in the instructor's attitude all week but none of them questioned him. They had always been taught to respect their elders without question, but this wasn't respect, it was fear. Fear that anything they said or asked would make the situation worse. The younger members didn't blame Hakyeon for not stepping up when it came to this, either. He was just as afraid as the others, but he was tired of staying quiet.

The instructor yelled suddenly, counting off their combination along with loud claps, "Five, six.. five, six, seven, eight..!" Hakyeon didn't miss the panic that flashed across Jaehwan's features during the count off, and it's what had Hakyeon deciding that he'd had enough of this unnecessary drilling repetition. About six counts into the combination Hakyeon, maybe a bit too dramatically, tripped over himself and fell to the ground without a single ounce of grace. The rest of the group stood frozen in place, unsure of whether or not their leader would get up and brush off the fall so that they could continue practice.

"That's enough." He huffed between breaths, pulling himself up off the floor to face their instructor. The room was silent save for the heavy breathing coming from all six spent members. Jaehwan kept his gaze on the ground as the rest of the members stared at Hakyeon in disbelief.

"Excuse me?" The instructor fumed, shooting daggers at the leader with his eyes.

"I said that's enough." Hakyeon kept his voice low and leveled, not once breaking eye contact with the adult across the room. "We're done with dance practice for today. Besides, it's already five minutes past and we're all exhausted." He explained calmly, gesturing around the room. A futile gesture seeing as the instructor's eyes never left his.

"Practice is over when I say it's over, Hakyeon. You guys are nowhere near perfect, especially Jaehwan! He can't even get three combinations down within the practice block. I'm being paid to help you and in return you should be giving me your best effort, not giving up like this!" Hakyeon could see the outline of a vein protruding from the elder's neck and knew he had to choose his next words carefully. There was definitely something going on in the instructor's personal life that they didn't know about. Hakyeon had no doubt in his mind that he was just projecting all his pent up stress and anger on the group but he would not stand still any longer. No one was allowed to treat s like this.

"Exactly," Hakyeon started, causing the others to cast him a curious glance. "We are paying you. When you agreed to coach us you agreed to go at our pace and help us improve along the way. Working us until we feel like passing out is not part of your job description last I checked, sir." 

"Fine, you all want to be failures?" He finally broke his gaze away from Hakyeon to look at the younger members. They all remained silent and refused to meet his gaze. "Go ahead, I don't care!" The elder yelled before storming out of the practice studio.

Hakyeon felt like his legs were about to give out from under him but kept himself upright and headed to the mini fridge in the corner of the studio. He took out six water bottles before closing it and walked back to where the other five were still standing.

"You all worked hard and did well today. Thank you for not giving up." He said, meeting each member's eyes and smiling before handing out the water. They all accepted the bottles with small reciprocating smiles, waiting to be formally dismissed by the leader. "Take an hour and a half break to eat and rest before individual practices, alright? I'll treat you guys later tonight when we go back to the dorm. You may leave."

"Thank you." The others responded in unison with a small bow before going their separate ways.

Hakyeon collapsed in the center of the studio with a sigh and gulped down the cold water like it was the only thing keeping him alive. When the bottle was empty he cast it aside and shifted his eyes from one end of the room to the other making sure that all three hidden Go-Pro cameras still had the recording light on. He felt bad for going behind everyone's back by recording them unknowingly, but he'd done it with good intentions. He had no idea what the instructor was capable of but Hakyeon was not about to take any chances of s getting hurt.

"H-hyung?" Hakyeon sat up quickly, startled at the voice calling out to him from the couch near the studio's exit. He'd thought everyone had gone to eat but was proven wrong when he spotted Jaehwan sitting with his knees to his chest, the younger staring at him with a worried expression. Hakyeon got to his feet, wincing at a stinging pain in his ankle. It wasn't unbearable so he figured it was just sore from when he tripped himself earlier on.

"What's up, Jaehwan-ah?" He asked the younger softly, smiling despite how utterly exhausted he felt in the moment. Jaehwan stayed quiet for a few moments, biting his lip out of concentration trying to find the right words. 

"I'm sorry for dragging everyone down with me. What he said earlier was right, I can't even get three combinations-" The words were all a bunched up in a rush as Jaehwan tried to apologize, but Hakyeon quickly cut him off with a wave.

"You're not dragging anyone down, Jaehwanie. You did amazing earlier, and I know you were trying your best because when I was about to collapse you kept going. Three combinations in just over an hour isn't easy, either. Maybe you should go over it a couple times during individual practice just to clean it, but other than that I think you did just as well as any of us today." Hakyeon spoke without thinking but he meant every word, and he kept the annoyance at their instructor from seeping into his tone while he consoled the younger member. The leader could practically feel the relief that spread through Jaehwan as the words left his mouth.

"Come on," Hakyeon said as he lifted both of them from the couch before embracing the younger member. "Lets go eat something delicious now, and I'll come supervise you in the last ten minutes of individual practice, deal?"

"Yah, yaah! You mean it? Can we get some spicy tteokbokki? And something sweet and chocolate-y?!" Hakyeon felt nothing but joy as he saw the light slowly coming back into Jaehwan's eyes.

"Yes yes, we can. Go clean up and change, I'll meet you in the lobby in ten?" The younger nodded quickly as he gathered up his dance bag before leaving the studio. Hakyeon could slowly feel his energy coming back after the short talk with Jaehwan. The younger members gave him more strength then they realized and it was always just when he needed it. It made everything he did for them all the more worth it.

He kept his small smile as he walked around the studio to switch off each of the cameras and set a reminder on his phone to turn them back on before individual practices started. 

°°°

An hour into his own individual practice Hakyeon left his small studio to make his rounds and check the progress of the other members. They were each working diligently on this and that. He sat with Hongbin for about fifteen minutes to listen to the latter's parts in the new songs they were currently working on and Hakyeon would give him a few tips and critiques along the way before moving on to Taekwoon. The two chatted about nothing in particular for a few minutes before Taekwoon played bits and pieces of a composition he was working on. He found Sanghyuk and Wonshik practicing one of Wonshik's own compositions together and decided to let them continue without bothering and walked towards the room Jaehwan usually claimed during their individual practices.

There was no answer when he knocked on the door, making Hakyeon wonder what the younger member could be doing. He waited a few moments before knocking again and opening the door himself. The room was empty, Jaehwan was no where to be seen. Hakyeon stood in the room for a few seconds wondering where the younger could have disappeared to when he heard the pulse of loud music coming from somewhere down the hall. He followed the noise all the way to the end of the hall coming to a stop in front of the entrance to their dance studio.

He peered through the window and spotted Jaehwan working on one of the combinations from earlier, but he didn't looked the least bit focused. Hakyeon moved closer to the door and was surprised to see another person in the room. He observed them silently for a few more moments before he started hearing a voice yelling over the music and seeing Jaehwan fall to the ground. The music stopped but the yelling continued and Hakyeon's blood was boiling when he saw the face of the other person in the mirror. He was moving before he even thought of what he was going to do once inside the studio.

Hakyeon grabbed the instructors arm from behind before it could come into contact with Jaehwan's side.

"Yah! What the hell is going on?!" The leader practically screamed before harshly shoving the instructor away from Jaehwan. Hakyeon knelt down to make sure his younger member was okay before standing up once more to meet the instructor eye-to-eye.

"I don't know what kind of problems you have going on at home but I'd appreciate it if you didn't take your frustrations out on my members. If you have a problem with any of us, please take it to me first. But for now I think you should just leave." Hakyeon spoke calmly, his fierce demeanor from moments ago no where to be seen.

"You punk! You don't know anything!" The man yelled before practically lunging towards the leader, his fist coming into hard contact with Hakyeon's stomach. Hakyeon winced and brought one arm up to cradle his stomach but made no move toward the older man. He heard Jaehwan gasp loudly from where he was now standing behind him and watched as the instructor's eyes widened with the realization of what he'd just done.

"I didn't- I.. I didn't mean- Ah, hell!" The instructor sputtered before quickly turning on his heel and booking it out of the dance studio, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Ah!" Hakyeon finally expressed his pain, bending over and cradling both arms around his stomach. "Bastard." He muttered through gritted teeth before lowering himself to the floor.

"Hakyeon-hyung! Are you okay? You're just going to let him go like that?!" Jaehwan asked, settling himself beside his leader. Hakyeon didn't say anything, instead he just pointed to three corners of the room and Jaehwan let his eyes follow the directions. Only now did he notice the small cameras placed around the room, each of them with a blinking red dot to indicate that they recorded the whole ordeal.

"I don't know what's going on with him, but I think it's best that he takes a very long vacation starting today. I'll see if I can run the dance practices for a while until we can find a replacement. Don't worry." Hakyeon explained, smiling up at Jaehwan to ease the younger member's worries.

"Why did you do all of," Jaehwan paused to gesture around the room at the cameras, "this? You even got hurt because of me, hyung! I'm so sorry." Hakyeon couldn't help but chuckle at him.

"Don't sweat it, Jaehwan-ah. I'm the leader for a reason." 

ayyyyyyy so that's the first "one shot-ish" kind of thing for this series. I'll have one for each of the other members as well, so let me know what you think!