That night, you had just finished wrapping all the new presents that you had bought earlier and was preparing for bed when you heard a light knock on your door.

“Come in.” You called out softly, since Minhyuk was already asleep.

You bedroom door cracked opened just wide enough for Jinki to stick his head in. “I need to talk to you about something. Is not a good time?” He said seriously.

You immediately put your finger to your lips and pointed to Minhyuk. Jinki nodded his understanding so you waved him to come in. “Sure, oppa.” You said as you sat down on your bed, patting the space beside you.

Jinki entered your room and quietly shut the door behind him before sitting down beside you. He seemed rather uptight and you looked at him curiously, wondering what it was that he wanted to talk to you about that made him have such a serious expression on his face. You didn’t know what to expect, since you’ve never seen him like this before, so you just waited for him to speak.

He struggled with himself for a while before he seemed to have steeled himself up. But when he looked up at you, his resolve broke and he let out a huge sigh. “I can’t do this. I just can’t.” He bowed his head.

“What is it that you can’t do, oppa?” You asked, slightly worried at his behaviour even though you didn’t fully understand.

He looked up at you again and sighed. “Ok, there’s something that I have to talk to you but let me just make something clear first. I’m doing this against my wishes, ok? I was ordered to tell you this.”

He waited until you nodded before continuing. “Manager hyung wants me to tell you to stop bothering Kibum. He said that ever since Kibum met you, he’s been really distracted and keeps falling behind on his practices. He said that if you really care for him and want him to debut, that you should stay away from him.”

It was hard to hear such harsh words but you knew that it was only because their manager really cared about Kibum. “Has he really fallen behind? But he practices so hard! He wakes up early everyday just to go to school extra early to practice. How is it possible that he’s falling behind?” You asked.

Jinki gave you a puzzled look. “How did you find out about that?!” He asked but it seemed like the question was directed to himself because he didn’t wait for your reply. “Our debut date got pushed forward. That’s why he’s having trouble trying to keep up with our practices now. Even Taemin is struggling a little now and he’s not even attending school anymore, so I’m not surprised that Kibum is lagging behind.”

He paused for a bit to assess your reaction and continued again when he was sure that you were fine. “I know Kibum didn’t tell you a lot of things because he didn’t want you to worry. But manager hyung is really worried this time and now that Kibum has said that he wants to extend his stay here for a month, hyung is practically going insane back in Korea. He’s actually a really nice person, so don’t hold what he said against him and also, don’t be too hurt by what he said, ok? I’m sure he just said those words out of anger and has nothing against you.”

You nodded. You were actually rather shocked to find out that Kibum hadn’t told you that he had decided to stay for a month longer but you knew you couldn’t let it show. “Don’t worry, oppa. I don’t blame him at all and I understand why he said those things. He is supposed to take care of the five of you after all.” You added a small smile after to reassure him.

Jinki nodded and continued to sit beside you even though he had already finished saying what he wanted to. Now that he was done being all serious, you could see that the adorable but awkward person you knew was coming back. He rubbed the back of his neck and turned back to you. “Umm, it’s late. I’ll just let you sleep now. Good night, --------ah.”

With that, he stood up and walked towards the door, managing to stumble over his own feet only once on the way there. When you were finally “alone” once more, you let yourself fall back against your bed with a soft plop and let out a breath. You had known all along that this would eventually cause a problem. Now, you had no choice but to fix it and you were going to have to do it on your own. You didn’t know what you were going to do but you knew that you had to do something. Anything. You knew that you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if Kibum had lost his chance to debut all because of you.

You laid there for a few minutes, thinking about what Jinki had just told you and how you could fix everything when a soft whimper from Minhyuk brought you back to reality. You pushed yourself off the bed and went to his cot. He was still asleep but he had a small frown on his face, like he was having a bad dream. You placed you hand, palm down, on Minhyuk’s small chest and very gently patted his chest to soothe him.

It was only after the frown disappeared and Minhyuk appeared to be sleeping peacefully that you slipped under the covers and fell asleep.